Chương 283: (278) 4.57. Still in One Piece

Thankfully, the town was free of flames, and Vin and Lumel were able to walk out of the dungeon and join the people heading in and out of Terra on their many duties. With Lumel at his side, and having recently gone through a rather rough time with the capillans, Vin was even more aware than normal of the many different eyes following his every move, but he tried not to let it bother him. Seeing as Lumel hadn't already warped directly to their apartment, she seemed okay at the moment.

Shortly after they entered town, Vin spotted a disheveled, well-dressed man in a suit and tie of all things come stumbling out of an alleyway and make a beeline right for him with wild panic in his eyes. But before he could even get into whatever spiel he had prepared this time, Vin stopped him with a raised hand.

"Okay but actually, how do you always know when I'm coming back to town? Is it a passive? Does Scule tell you? This is getting kinda ridiculous at this point."

"You're no fun," the well-dressed man frowned, before twirling around and suddenly being replaced by Theodore instead.

"And besides, isn't it more fun not knowing how the magic trick is done?"

"I think I'll leave the two of you to your Foreign Branch stuff," Lumel said, giving Theodore a nod in greeting. Squeezing Vin's hand one last time, she vanished in a flash of purple that made a handful of nearby people jump.

"Is she alright? She seemed a bit down," Theodore said, peering at the space she'd just been inhabiting.

"What happened?"

"Nothing new, unfortunately," Vin sighed, deciding he didn't want to get into it. Lumel had asked him to let her worry about her own problems for now, and he trusted her enough to know she'd come and ask for his help if she truly wanted it.

"How goes town? Anything I need to know about?"

"Well, you were only gone for two days," Theodore shrugged.

"Nothing much to report this time around, to be honest. Now that we're coming up on three weeks since the battle for wave four, Spur has begun running the town through more drills in preparation for the fifth wave. We have no way of knowing how early the fifth wave is going to arrive, but seeing as there was an issue with some people vanishing in the fourth wave, rumor going around is that there might be something wrong with the transportation ritual altogether.

Spur wants to be more than prepared in the event that the next wave comes far earlier this time around."

"I guess that makes sense… Though that means he's going to ask me to wait around in town even longer than the last time," Vin realized with a groan, putting his face in his hands. He'd spent nearly an entire week sitting around in town as they waited for the battle for wave four. He didn't even want to think about how long he was going to have to wait for the next one.

"Chin up, that gives you more time to practice your fancy magic, right?" Theodore asked, trying to cheer him up.

"It's not all bad."

"I know," Vin sighed, glancing at their resident Spy.

"Anything else of note?"

"Well, the Farmers we had visiting Sakis have finally returned, and they even brought a few Stone Mages with them. Witherson is working with them to create an underground farm, which has been the most recent talk of the town."

"I know at least one person who will be quite happy to hear that," Vin said, chuckling at the thought of Becca tackling Weston the moment he showed back up.

"How goes the Scouts you've taken under your wing? Everything working out alright with them?"

"They've been great! I think we're just about ready to try tackling one of the dungeons, once Lumel can spare some time to make more of those artifacts," Theodore said, lowering his voice.

"No rush of course, we can just move across Edregon proper for now."

"That's good, I think Lumel might be busy with a personal project for a while," Vin admitted.

"Also, I can't believe I'm saying this, but seeing as I'm already getting these regular updates from you whenever I come back, I think I'm officially making you the vice-leader of the Foreign Branch, or however the hell that works. Are you comfortable being the one to help direct Kelly and the others?"

"That's sort of already been happening," Theodore chuckled.

"Kelly is a fantastic Diplomat when it comes to the elves, but quite frankly, she doesn't really care about anything else. I've been calling the meetings and directing Tom and Vanessa and everything."

"Oh… Well great! Might as well make it official! I'll swing by town hall and let Linda know for her records, or however they handle this sort of thing." With that, the two of them parted ways. Theodore vanished amongst the crowd, as he tended to do so unnervingly well, and Vin made his way over to town hall as promised. After a quick chat with Linda and getting an update on how the Bands were doing, he went over to the next item on his to-do list.

Wanda and Ronald seemed to both be rather set in their ways, as he found the two of them in the exact same locations he'd found them the previous two times. While they'd each gotten close, neither of them had actually managed to learn the spells he'd left them before heading into the arctic fragment, so he drew the respective runic formations in the air for each of them one more time, excited to see them finally conquer the tier 1 spells and prepare for the next step.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. He had no idea how Landon was doing over in the necromancer compound, but seeing as the strange, tiny skull he'd been given by Groth hadn't uttered a word since he'd dropped Landon off, he could only assume things were alright. After grabbing a quick bite to eat at the mess hall, Vin's curiosity got the better of him, and he wandered over to where the underground farm was being constructed.

They were still in the early phases and were working on simply excavating a large cavern and supporting the ground so that the town located immediately above wouldn't cave in unexpectedly, but that wasn't what was most surprising. There was a familiar face waiting for him among the workers.

"Peter!" Vin laughed, walking forward and pressing his fists together in the standard Sakis greeting.

"They managed to get you of all people to come help Terra out?" The handful of Earthers who had been giving Peter curious looks jumped back when Vin suddenly appeared, and if Peter noticed he was under heavy scrutiny as he handed out directions with Tom the Diplomat at his side acting as an interpreter, he didn't seem to mind.

"Vin! It's good to see you again," Peter said, offering him a warm smile and returning the greeting.

"Do you mind if I take a break, Tom? It's been quite some time since Vin and I last spoke."

"Of course," Tom said, giving the man his own fist-pressed greeting and nodding toward Vin before excusing himself.

"I have to say, your town is something else," Peter began, motioning toward the lip of the cavern they were digging.

"I'd expected something a tad smaller, based on what you told me."

"We've certainly come a long way in only a few months," Vin admitted, unable to wipe the smile off his face. Peter was one of the head Farmers from Sakis, and a remarkably warm man. He'd been more than happy to share some of their vegetables with Vin during his occasional visit, and it was nice to get the chance to see him again. He also had something of a crush on Shia, mainly due to the fact that she was a Druid and capable of making their plants grow like never before.

"Thank you for helping us with this," Vin added.

"An actual farm right here in town will be a massive boon to everyone's diets and spirits."

"Think nothing of it! It's only fair that we try and do right by our neighbors," Peter said, waving away his thanks.

"In fact, once we are done here, the Stone Mages and I are planning to head over to the infernals' fragment and work with them to set up their own underground farm as well. I've heard their fragment is far more dangerous than either of ours, so I'm sure the ability to grow food right in town would be appreciated."

"That's a fantastic idea! And the elder seriously didn't ask for anything in return?"

"She simply bade me to ask you to remember this in the event we ever need your assistance," Peter said, shrugging as he delivered the message.

"Between you and me, I think she's a little concerned about some sort of calamity befalling our small village that will end up being more than we can handle. We used to have others we could rely on in times of need, and the Great Rock for knowledge. Without that, I think she worries for the future."

"Well you can let her know Terra is more than happy to do whatever it takes to maintain good relations with Sakis," Vin said, glancing over Peter's shoulder and making eye contact with Tom as he spoke. The Diplomat, who had been listening in to their conversation, nodded in understanding. While Sakis was far smaller in number, nearly their entire town was comprised of people who had hit their first prestige.

And combat potential aside, they owned the artifact capable of helping people without any prior magical experience learn to control their mana flows. Without that, Terra wouldn't be churning out any new mages for at least a couple of months. There was also the far more important matter that Vin simply liked their people and wanted to make sure nothing happened to them, but he was pretty sure the elder already knew that from their earlier chats.

"Seeing as you're her friend, I thought you should know," Peter began, clearing his throat and blushing a tad as he changed the subject.

"I officially propositioned Shia to enter a relationship with me the other day."

"Oh? How did that go?" Vin asked, seriously having no idea what Shia would have said in response. He didn't think she was interested in that sort of thing, but he had no way to know for sure.

"She turned me down," Peter admitted, looking a bit crestfallen.

"She was very polite about it, however, which I appreciated. She told me I should find a lovely lady who shares the same love of farming as I have."

"I'm sure you'll find someone sooner or later," Vin said, giving him an encouraging smile.

"Even if it is someone who can't make plants grow with a single glance."

"If I'm being honest, it wasn't just that," Peter said, his face growing a bit flushed as he leaned in and lowered his voice.

"From one man to another, I was a big fan of her jagged teeth. Something about how dangerous and feral it made her look called to me, if you know what I mean."

"Ah…" Vin said, discovering right then and there that Peter was a bit of an oversharer.

"I'm sure you'll find someone else… who also looks like they could rip your throat out without any problems?"

"We can only hope, right?" Peter said, giving him a wink.

"Anyway, I should get back to work. The goal is to have the farm up and running within the next few days. That's not going to happen if I spend all day chatting!"

"Good luck with everything, and thanks again for all your help," Vin said, silently thanking the Gods that conversation was over and done with. While Peter turned back to the crafters and began using Tom to explain what they had to do next, Vin could only shake his head and leave the farm-in-progress behind him. He met all kinds exploring Edregon.