Chương 27: Small Family Vacation To The Gateworld

His jaw drew a hard line as he swished his tongue in his mouth, "Ten thousand and not a zip about my niece to anyone."

"Deal," Grim said as she put the money on the counter. A second later it disappeared as he grabbed it and ran it through his register with a steady ease from doing it many times before. After he was finished, he packaged up the blade into a sheath and slid it over while the broken pieces were put into a cloth satchel.

"Normally for any D-rank weapons we'd have to write up paperwork to register it in your name, but since this one's broken, we're gonna skip that step. The less record of you being here, the better."

"Works for me," Grim said as she went to grab the knives, but the older man had a firm grasp and didn't let them move.

"Are we done here?" The aura was back in the room, the promise of violence as she made eye contact with the shopkeeper. He didn't blink as energy filled the room.

"Don't ever threaten my niece again." Grim met his stare, the aura took her breath away just as it had earlier but she had gotten used to it. He wanted to threaten her? It filled her with an anger that made her want to grab onto him and shatter his boons. She might've if [CEDE] wasn't still down, which was most likely a blessing. The consequences of that action were not something she wanted to face. She shoved that anger down, a small part of her aware of how unnatural it was.

It seemed to grow the more she soaked in his aura, as if fighting back against it. Grim's jaw tightened as she squeezed out, "Have a nice day." He nodded and released the daggers into her possession, and she didn't waste any time in turning around and leaving the backroom. She was worried that if she stayed any longer; she was going to make the situation worse. She'd already done a horrible job. As she came out into the main area of the shop, she saw Hazel didn't seem to be doing any better herself.

"Get out! Get out, you're running off all my customers!" A middle-aged man with a potbelly was yelling at Hazel, who was frozen, her eyes darting all around.

"I wasn't doing anything, I was just trying to save them money," Hazel raised her arms. The man hissed in frustration as several other customers stared at the argument brewing in the store; they seemed to be on Hazel's side, but not enough to say anything in her defence. They'd benefited from her and just as easily cast her aside. He got up in her face, "That's the problem! You're costing me money, how are you going to pay for that?"

Grim had been amused before, but she wasn't going to let anyone get in Hazel's face. Not to mention she was still feeling the lingering aftereffects from her anger only moments before.

"Why don't you try not ripping people off in the first place?" Grim shouted as she stormed towards them.

"Oh, you must be her sister. Great, just in time. Your sister, by my count, owes me," The man mentally tallied out several items before spitting out a number.

"Four hundred Ora for the identification fee." Grim grabbed Hazel and turned to leave, but not before giving him the finger, "Go shove your identification fee up your—" —She bumped into a much bigger man who was blocking the exit. He was barrel-chested and felt like solid rock. He was sporting a bald head with a goatee and a face only a mother could love. Grim recoiled but kept Hazel behind her, blocking the man from getting to her if he tried, "Gah, fuck. Where'd you come from?"

"You can't leave until you pay the man what you owe him," he said, glaring down at her. He really was big. Grim looked around the store, looking for any way out of this. She didn't see much. The rest of the customers didn't seem to care or be on their side and there was only one exit unless she really wanted to make a scene, but that would only get her into bigger trouble.

"What are we gonna do?" Hazel asked from behind her. Grim sighed, "We don't have much choice." She pulled out her wallet and threw a handful of bills at the shopkeeper; they didn't fly very far as they sank to the ground. She turned back to the security guard, "There's your fucking money, get out of my way." Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

The guard moved in front of her again as she tried to walk around him, he looked over her to the shopkeeper as he bent down to collect the money. After counting it he nodded at the guard, "It's all here." Only then did he move away so she could leave, which she did with impressive speed. The air outside was brisk, but she was warm enough in her hoodie to be comfortable, not that she would've felt the cold much anyways.

Grim wasn't in the mood for conversation, and Hazel didn't try speaking to her until they were on the bus headed back home. Her head was resting on the window which wasn't very comfortable but was better than nothing. Just as she was about to drift off for a nap, she jolted awake as Hazel poked her in the ribs.

"Hey Grim?" Hazel asked. Grim shot her a glare and went back to closing her eyes, "What?"

"Did you want a chocolate chip?"

"Huh?" She turned to look at Hazel, who true to her word, was holding a single chocolate chip. Grim's eye twitched, there was no way she did what she was thinking.

"Where'd you get that?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"I uhh," Hazel looked everywhere but at Grim.

"Don't remember."

"Did you copy the chocolate chip Boon, Hazel?"

"I don't think that's something I would do," She said, her neck almost fully recessed into her collarbone. She looked like a turtle with how many double chins she was giving herself.

"Are you lying to me, my dear shadow who's supposed to be entirely truthful and nice to me? Which lying isn't a very nice thing to do, especially after I just had to pay four hundred to a scummy scam artist?" Hazel didn't reply, preferring instead to stay as still as possible, like a mouse in the eyes of a predator. They held that position until some imperceptible twitch occured and both of them moved like springs wound up.

Hazel tried to shove the chocolate chip into her mouth and Grim tried to rip it from her hands.

"Give me that!" Grim shouted.

"No! You're not even going to eat it." Hazel held it firmly in her hand until Grim managed to wrench it open enough to reveal the contents, a now smushed smear of chocolate. Hazel kept her eyes downwards, her hair covering her face.

"You're a little rat, you know that?" Grim said.

"Yeah," Hazel sighed.

"I know." A moment of silence passed between them before Hazel spoke again, "Did you... want one too?"

"... Yeah." * It was the middle of the night by the time Grim and Jeremy reached the park where the entrance to the GateWorld was. It was too far to walk so Jeremy had tried to call them a cab, but she made them take the subway instead. He hadn't quite believed her when she said it made them less traceable, but she didn't care. She wasn't getting into any more cabs unless she had to.

The park was the same as the last time she had been there; a single solitary booth was watching the entranceway, manned by a single person. She wasn't worried too much about sneaking in, they were really just there in case something managed to come out versus someone coming in. Still, she wasn't going to take any chances. Her shadow slithered across the ground before partially reforming inside the office. After a moment, she felt a tug and Hazel came back to her. It's clear, he's asleep.

"Come on," she nodded her head at Jeremy.

"Let's go." Jeremy was wearing sweatpants and a black sweater, big enough so he could hide the fact he was wearing his gear underneath. The spear was going to be a problem to transport until Jeremy revealed he had a storage ring that could hold it. The boon inside was quite small and was sold with an assortment of survival goods packaged within, and to get the spear to fit they'd had to empty everything out. He'd complained, but it was necessary. She didn't plan on spending more than a few hours inside.

He got over the fence with some help from Grim, his armour weighed him down, and he wasn't very heavy in the first place. When it came time for Grim to climb over, she brought out the new knife she got and cut a big enough hole in the fence so she could climb through. She put the cut piece back in place just enough so unless it was really inspected, nobody would see it out of place.

"Really? You couldn't have done that before I climbed over?" Jeremy asked.

"You need the exercise, besides, I would've had to cut the hole a lot larger and I don't want anyone noticing," Grim said as she led Jeremy closer to the Gate.

"Just a bit further now." They crossed the rest of the distance without incident, and she stopped before they entered, "You ready?" She asked Jeremy. He took a long look behind him, surveying the grounds. There was no sign of alarm from the Gate Guard, but they both knew that he was just stalling, looking for a reason to call this off. He was already sweating, and the short amount of exercise they'd done to get here wasn't the cause.

He was nervous, she could tell, but she really wasn't sure how to comfort him or if she should. They'd reached a sort of agreement between them but that didn't mean there wasn't still the awkward tension between two people trying to interact when they didn't really know each other.

"Are you sure we have everything we need? We aren't forgetting anything? What about the person we're supposed to meet?" he asked.

"You can leave if you want; I won't force you to come," Grim said, trying to offer him an out. He shook his head, "No, no. It's okay. I'm okay. Let's go." A small amount of tension she didn't realize she was carrying left her, she'd didn't realize it until now, but she'd been expecting the rejection this whole time, and to see it not happen gave her a small amount of joy.

The two of them walked through the Gate with Grim leading the way, the vertigo hit her hard as her body's internal functions were thrown out of wack from the incredibly different biome they'd just walked into. The two suns were lit up in the air and as before they were in darkness, it was now midday, although she doubted if that ever changed. The both of them shucked off their extra layers and left them by the entrance. They'd come back for it once they were ready to leave.

Jeremy appeared mesmerized as he stared up at the sky and the world around them, and for a moment, both of them didn't move. It was kind of amazing, and she'd give him a moment to enjoy it. Unfortunately, a shrill cry far off in the distance ruined it Jeremy turned to her, his spear drawn from his storage ring and held in his hand, "Where's your friend?" Without her prompting, her shadow stretched across the ground and materialized behind him before tapping him on his shoulder, "Hi! I'm Hazel."