From an outsider’s perspective, we would have sounded insane. Personally, though, I kind of liked the sound of our rags-to-riches revenge story.
And, in any case, it wasn’t a matter of if we could make it happen; we had to.
“Well, there we have it,” I said. “I know we kind of fit your goals into mine, but it sounds like we’re all aligned. Our ultimate goal is to surpass the sword god Claus. Any objections?”
“Nope!”
“Me neither!”
It was a strange thread that tied us together, but that was the beginning of our party—the world’s weakest one.
“Hey, I know I just said I didn’t have any objections, but Hester and I are still just rookies. You sure this is gonna be okay?”
“It doesn’t matter where you’re at now, as long as we surpass Claus in the end. Besides, everyone starts off as a rookie, right?”
“That’s true. And with you in our party, we’ll probably graduate from the rookie rank in no time,” said Hester.
“Actually, sorry to disappoint, but I’m not interested in helping you on your quests,” I said.
“Wait... Huh?”
“I’ve said this several times already, but I’ve got a lot of stuff I need to take care of. You two just focus on grinding those goblin-hunting quests and reaching bronze rank, okay?”
Seeing their fight with the goblin today had really driven home for me just how far away they were from being able to handle bronze-rank quests.
If I hadn’t been able to handle them yet either, then maybe it would have made sense for all of us to work together on our quests, but...that just wasn’t the reality.
I could complete bronze-rank quests pretty comfortably, and it seemed like a better use of my time right now to focus on finding a way to heal Ralph’s leg.
“Then what the hell was the point of forming a party?!” cried Ralph.
“It wasn’t pointless. But we have to start by figuring out how to heal your leg and getting Hester an education in magic, or this isn’t going to go anywhere. I intend to do everything I can to make that happen.”
“So, you want us to do our own thing until then?” Hester asked.
“That’s what I’m thinking, yeah. But before we split up, I want to visit a clinic in the Healers’ Guild with Ralph tomorrow to get him examined. I think we need to start by determining whether it’s actually possible to heal his injury or not.”
“I don’t have the money for a Healers’ Guild appointment,” Ralph said.
“I’ll pay for it. So, I don’t want to hear any complaints. You two just make what money you can, all right?”
At this, Ralph started tearing up.
Sheesh, you sure are an emotional guy, I thought. Always yelling and blowing your lid...and now here you are, getting blubbery on me.
“Chris... I can’t believe you’d do that for me. Thank you,” Ralph said.
“Don’t worry about it. Like we said, our goals are aligned, so I’m technically also doing this for me. And stop crying—you’re weirding me out.”
“Don’t be a jerk! I’m trying to show my gratitude here!” Ralph yelled, doing his best to hold back his tears.
I snorted.
“Um... What should I do tomorrow, then?” Hester asked.
“Good question. I don’t think it’s the best idea to send you out goblin hunting alone, so... Oh, I know. How about you do some research into what exactly a ‘stray cowbird’ is for me? It’d be a huge help if you could find out where it shows up, any distinguishing features, and any weaknesses. I’ll pay you generously for the information, depending on how much you find.”
“Sure. I’ll look into this ‘stray cowbird’ tomorrow, then. I don’t need any money for it, though. It’s more than enough that you’re paying for a healer to check Ralph’s leg!”
“No, I don’t want to change our financial arrangement, so let me pay you. The three of us will keep taking on work and paying exactly one-third each for our share of room and board. I’m happy to treat you two to a meal every once in a while, though.”
I felt kind of bad about demanding we continue to split the bills equally three ways, but if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t have the money to spend on my ability assessments.
It seemed stupid to fight about money, so I felt I had to make sure we were all on the same page before any tension started brewing.
“All right. I’ll accept your payment, then. Thank you.”
“Right. I’ll leave the research to you, Hester.”
“Hey, so what about me tomorrow?” Ralph asked.
“I’m planning for us to stop by the Healers’ Guild in the morning, so you just need to get your things ready. And by ‘morning,’ I mean morning—not the break of dawn, okay?”
“I know, jeez! You don’t have to remind me. So all I have to do is be ready? I can do that.”
Once we’d finalized our plans for tomorrow, we finished up our celebration and went to bed.
I figured that we probably wouldn’t start questing together like an actual party until I’d reached silver rank, but I was still privately kind of excited.
I knew that I might struggle to keep up with Hester and Ralph one day, once they’d overcome their current obstacles, so I wanted to keep researching the performance-enhancing poisonous plants. I was considering heading out again to Patia Forest for another expedition the day after tomorrow.
As I thought about where to go next, I found myself falling into a deep sleep.