Cal had a wide smile on his lips. He didn’t think he had been so concerned about Seris’s whereabouts until he felt this much relief.
“Woah! Boss, you look weird when you fake smile… but why are you fake smiling?”
The smile on Cal’s face died a quick death. Seris brutally popped the little bubble of happiness, calling his concern ‘fake.’
I suppose it’s good that she’s fine… at least I get to play the mean boss without guilt for skipping on her work.
“I was wondering if you decided to quit, Seris,” Cal drawled with a sarcastic smile. “You took a two-day vacation without letting me know.”
Seris’s eyes grew wide as she shuddered for reasons he couldn’t figure out. It was almost like she felt a little bit of fear at the moment.
“It was her!” Seris exclaimed dramatically, pointing at her head.
Cal would never admit it, but he thought she was disassociating as she blamed herself until Nibbles poked her face out of the hood that covered Seris’s head.
“Did she insist on sniffing people again?”
Cal had honestly assumed that Seris forgot to visit the field because she was having too much fun. At least, that was the thought at the start before worry set in. It looked like there was a reason he felt that worry. Nibbles might look harmless, but she was strong and had a surprisingly high sense of responsibility.
“Nibbles,” Cal hid the smile when she stood to attention on Seris’s head, comically stretching the hood. “Did you pull Seris back yesterday because you sensed danger?”
Nibbles nodded immediately before hopping to the ground. She got on all fours and attempted to make a snarling expression. She failed, but he recognized what she was trying to communicate since she had done the exact same thing before.
“A Silvermane Wolf,” Cal stated in a dangerous tone. Nibbles nodded rapidly and looked like she was waiting for a treat for her actions. She did deserve it, but he had other things on his mind at the moment. “A single wolf?”
Again, Nibbles nodded.
She was wary of the entire pack, but not to the point of fearing for her health, given that she was willing to defend my house when the pack attacked. A single wolf caused such an action? Curious.
“Did you escape to keep Seris out of danger, or was the wolf too strong?” Cal continued the questions under Seris’s confused gaze.
Nibble hesitated before awkwardly shrugging in reply. He took that to mean it was a bit of both, which was a problem.
The wolf pack just became a much larger problem.
“Stay here and guard the house,” Cal ordered Nibbles before offering an incentive. “I’ll give you a few tubs when I return for your hard work.” Nibbles ran to his front door and puffed her body up, looking serious about her task. Cal turned to Seris. “Take me to the place where Nibbles was separated from you.”
Seris gained a wary look before asking, “Are we walking?”
“Well, I’ll be walking. You, not so much.” A familiar green tint started to appear on Seris’s skin. Cal added, “I won’t be going nearly as fast as I did from Lumina.”
Cal slowly jogged to Mariner’s Rest a few seconds later with Seris on his back. Of course, in Seris’s view, it was still faster than she could ever hope to run.
Nibbles needs to hold back her curiosity and avoid searching for the gem. She had always been strangely attracted to it.
“So, did Nibbles really save me?” Seris asked with an odd tone when they were several minutes into the jog.
Cal nodded. “If she felt the need to make you turn back, she definitely did.”
“… I think I owe her an apology. I was angry with her after she delayed me again.”
“It definitely wouldn’t hurt,” Cal agreed, wanting the two to have a good relationship. He passed the midway mark to the town. “Tell me when we get to the point Nibbles ran from you.”
Seris nodded as she looked over his shoulder. A few more minutes passed when she said, “Here!”
Cal came to a slow stop and let Seris hop down from the piggyback. He couldn’t see anything unique about this stretch of the dirt path besides a small mark on a nearby tree. It looked like something had glanced off the bark.
“I’m guessing Nibbles ran off that way?” Cal pointed at the marked tree to the side.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Yeah… Now that I think about it, she pushed me down when I tried to chase her. It must be to keep me away from the trouble.” Seris sounded even more regretful about being angry at Nibbles.
“Hm,” Cal nodded distractedly as he eyed the surroundings. “Go back to Mariner’s Rest. I’ll meet you at Orrin’s after I’m done here.”
“You’re going after the wolf? Will you be safe? Well, never mind. That’s a stupid question. Of course, you’ll be safe.” Seris spat out the sentences in quick succession.
Cal raised an eyebrow at her confidence in him. It could just be her belief of his status as an Initiate, but for some reason, he suspected that wasn’t the reason. He set it aside for now.
“Don’t worry about me,” Cal said as he started to walk into the woods.
“I wasn’t!” Seris called out as she lost sight of him.
Cal followed the slight depressions that Nibbles created as she ran toward the wolf. Without Seris slowing him down, it didn’t take more than a few seconds for him to reach a clearing with some interesting markings.
A small scar on the ground led to a surprising amount of damage to a tree in its path. He couldn’t imagine the wolf being the cause of this scar, so it must have been Nibbles.
There’s no sign of a counterattack. The wolf wasn’t aggressive.
Cal could feel something off near the origin of the scar. He got down on one knee and placed his palm flat on the ground. This was as good of a time as any to experiment with the earth element.
He released his mana in a steady flow into the ground and spread it thinly across the entire clearing. It was the basic step required for [Earth Barrier], but instead of just learning the composition and structure of the ground, he was trying to detect any abnormalities.
Cal found it immediately. It was hard to miss the intense—yet fading—residue of mana right where he was kneeling. He wasn’t quite sure what could have caused it, but the most likely possibility was the wolf using some sort of defensive technique against the attack from Nibbles.
He stood up and followed the mana residue trail to the edge of the clearing before stopping. It continued on, but it became hard to sense since the intensity quickly reduced to near nothing.
I might be able to track it if I was more practiced in this new ‘spell.’ I can only sense the obvious at the moment.
Cal followed the residue until the trail vanished but decided to continue on for some distance. Just in case the wolf had gotten sloppy enough to leave physical marks. Not that he had much hope for that.
He stopped a few minutes later and knew there was little hope to find the wolf. There was no point in wasting more time and trying to find a beast that probably possessed intelligence close to Nibbles. It wouldn’t have stayed long after it was discovered if it had any reasoning abilities at all.
Cal looked around with a frown. The massacre by the wolf pack would happen sometime soon, and finding this wolf felt like it would be key to dealing with it.
He might not be a fan of the Celestial Order, but that had nothing to do with the civilians just living their lives. Especially since Seris and Orrin would have been affected by the massacre. He wouldn’t allow something so horrific to happen to people he was fond of.
Cal turned back and made his way to Mariner’s Rest. He had given up on the wolf now, but it was still a priority, just below his farming. He had a smarter way to find it instead of wasting his time chasing after it.
Nibbles will be happy with all the treats she’s going to get.
“—don’t want you to do it. If Initiate Cal gave you the booklet, then keep it. What if he gets insulted when you tell him you want to sell it?”
Cal stood at the entrance to the backyard, where Orrin had his smithy. Neither Seris nor Orrin had noticed his presence. They were far too busy arguing about the booklet Seris was waving around.
“You should have seen how little he cared about giving it to me. I bet Cal already forgot he gave me the spell booklet!” Seris was animated in defending her view, and with Orrin’s blank expression, it was common for him to see.
“You know him better than I do, that’s true,” Orrin ignored the smug look sent his way, “but that doesn’t change I don’t need you to sell it. I have plenty of money right now, and with Initiate Cal’s commissions, I bet that won’t stop anytime soon.”
“That’s not the point! If I sell—”
Cal ignored the conversation from that point since it was just going in circles. He wasn’t giving Orrin nearly enough money for what was needed for his craft. It was likely Orrin claimed that he was simply to ward off Seris.
He had a simple solution to this. And he wanted Seris to sell it in the first place so Orrin could take the extra money without it coming directly from him.
“What’s there to argue about?” Cal’s voice startled both the kids, making them stare at him wide-eyed. “I gave Seris that booklet so she can do what she wants with it. If selling it is what she wants, I’m not going to be angry.”
“Er, boss. I mean, Cal, I wasn’t really being serious,” Seris laughed nervously.
He realized that his little speech might have been taken as him being defensive. He pulled out the booklet for [Rainfall] and tossed it to Seris. “You can have that as a replacement for the one you sell. It’s not nearly as expensive, so it would be best to keep that one.”
Seris looked even more unconvinced.
“I know you were serious, Seris,” Cal’s lips twitched when he realized that was a paronym. “I’m also serious about not caring about what you do with them.”
Seris eyed him carefully before nodding. “Then I’ll go try to sell this?”
“Are you asking me or telling me?” Cal laughed, putting her more at ease before waving her off, “Go ahead.”
A few seconds later, Orrin and Cal were left alone.
“… Are you here for the shovel, Initiate Cal?”
Cal rolled his eyes discreetly at these kids thinking the worst of him today. “I did say I’d leave them with you for a week, and that still stands.” Orrin’s shoulders relaxed at those words. “I’m here to commission more tools.”
“Oh! Of course, Initiate Cal. How can I help?”
“I need pickaxes. A lot of them,” Cal said bluntly. “And shovels. Plus some buckets would be of help. Also, give me a batch all the tools you made for me, but they have to be half the size.”
Orrin stared at him in confusion at the last request but didn’t ask questions to sate his curiosity. Seris would have abandoned everything while peppering him with questions.
The two are far too different.
“I’ll have them ready by tomorrow. Seris will deliver them,” Orrin said with a nod.
“That’s not necessary. I’ll come by and pick it up myself. And tell Seris that she should stay in town for the next few days,” Cal immediately realized that this sounded like he was punishing her. “There might be some danger on the way to my field. Until that’s gone, it’s better to avoid it altogether.”
“Yes, Initiate Cal,” Orrin said thankfully with a small nod of his head.
“I’ll see you soon,” Cal glanced at the failed tools that were mixed with voidiron before leaving the house. Those tools might be a failure, but they were exponentially better compared to what he had seen a short while before.
Time to be proactive with the wolf issue.