Chương 78: I Just Shoot People

I woke up feeling remarkably refreshed, so much so that I wondered if the sacred dancing circle had something to do with it. I turned around, expecting to see Kasia, but instead I was greeted by Jelka lying next to me, staring at me with a big smile.

"By Her Pale Grace!" I exclaimed, startled by the unexpected viwa.

"By Her Pale Grace!" Jelka said.

"I'm over here," Kasia called from just outside the circle. She'd dug a hole in the ground with a small fire burning inside it, and was roasting a rabbit that she'd apparently caught while I was asleep. There was a second hole near the first one, and the fire barely gave off any smoke. It would be hard to spot unless you were right on top of it.

"When did you do that? How did you do that?" I asked.

"What?"

"How'd you get the fire to not smoke? And the rabbit—how'd you catch it?"

"If you dig a hole, it makes it harder to spot the flames. If you dig a second one connected to the first, it will make the fire burn hotter, which reduces the smoke." She pulled out a small spool of string.

"And this? It's not just useful for mending clothes. It's good for making traps as well." So that was how she'd been trapping them. That girl sure was good with a bit of thread. And with fire. What could I do with some thread? Nothing. Come to think of it, I couldn't do much with anything. All I could do was shoot things. Should I ask her to teach me? Maybe not, if Kasia could already do it, it wouldn't make much sense for me to do it as well, plus it took time away from improving my marksmanship.

Practice makes perfect, after all. Maybe I should think about picking up some other useful skill, though. Something Kasia couldn't do. Maybe Vasil could teach me something so I'd feel a bit more useful.

"Your father taught you that, right?" I asked. Her expression turned wistful.

"Yes. And my mother taught me how to make and mend clothes, among other things."

"You don't talk about them much."

"You don't talk about your parents much either." Touché. I leaned back in the grass.

"I suppose I don't. What were your parents like?" Kasia took the rabbit out of the fire and walked over. She held it out and offered it to me. I tore off a piece. It was still hot, but thanks to my fire resistance it didn't bother me at all. She sat down next to me.

"They were simple people. Kind, with big hearts. They really loved us. My father was a [Carpenter], which was the reason why Kuba also became one. My mother was a [Seamstress]. Not heroes or warriors like your parents, but they were good people."

"Heroes come in different shapes and sizes," Vasil commented.

"Just because they were not out fighting beasts does not make them lesser. They raised two kind and intelligent children, that is more than most can say in this day and age. That makes them quite heroic in my eyes."

"I agree," I said.

"You really stand out in this place. No offense, but most people here seem kind of shitty. Your parents must have been amazing people. Killing doesn't make you a hero, doing good does." Vasil smiled at me. Kasia looked down at the ground, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"I should be thanking you," I said.

"And your parents. Without you I'd probably be dead already."

"What?" she asked.

"When that inquisitor tried to see under my mask. When that drunk guy bumped into you. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn't interfered? You're kind of a hero yourself." Stolen novel; please report. She perked up a bit.

"Huh."

"You're smart, Kasia. And you're pretty cool. I probably would have gone insane if you weren't around. Can you imagine having to talk to a frog all day?" She snorted and wiped the tears from her eyes. Vasil didn't say anything, but I did see the side of his lip twitch slightly, hiding another smile.

"What about your parents?" Kasia asked.

"What are they like?"

"Well, my father is a huge, huge man, with hands bigger than my head!" I put my hand over my face, fingers outstretched.

"He's a [Weaponsmith], the best in all of Graecia. Maybe even the world. I suppose he looks pretty intimidating, but he's really a big softie. He'll do anything my mother asks, sometimes I wonder if he loves her that much, or if he's also a little scared of her." I sighed.

"A lot of people are scared of her. She's High Priestess for the Order of Mēnē, and a [Katarologa], that means she specializes in curses. They say she's killed a lot of people. Bad guys, of course. She killed two guys with a single word, just for grabbing me, that was intense. She's intense. And strict. Pretty much the opposite of my father."

"Woah," Kasia said.

"With a single word?" I nodded.

"It was crazy. Right in front of Archon Menekrates too, the leader of our city. After that he just walked away." I paused.

"He still exiled me, though."

"Why were you exiled?"

"Because… The Archon's son was going to kill my friend. So I shot him in the head. I mean, he literally asked me to. He didn't think it would pierce his Barrier. Obviously it did. That it was self defense didn't matter. The Archon executed my friend and exiled me because of it."

"That's not fair," Kasia said.

"Yeah. It really isn't, but then again not many things are, are they? It's also not fair that your parents are gone, while assholes like Bartek get to live and do whatever they want. Well, I guess Bartek isn't doing anything anymore, because I shot his head off, but still. If it wasn't for me he'd probably still be out there terrorizing people." Kasia smiled faintly.

"You're pretty heroic yourself." I blew some air out of my nose.

"Hardly. I'm not that nice, or brave, or kind. I just shoot people."

"You shoot bad people," Kasia said.

"And the way you stepped in without hesitation when those inquisitors were about to take me, that was brave. The way you took Kuba and myself in, that was very nice of you. You've been nothing but kind and generous to us. You're a hero to me, and I'm sure Kuba would say the same. I think your friend would also agree." That gave me some pause. The way she said it actually made me sound pretty heroic. Maybe I was a tiny bit heroic, and nicer than I gave myself credit for. Not too sure about the brave part, though.

I definitely didn't feel brave. I just did what was right, and I was sure plenty of people disagreed with my definition of right. Still, Kasia's words felt good to hear. They made me feel a bit more confident that I was doing the right thing. I took a bite of rabbit, and I could feel Jelka was staring at me with her head in her hands. Had she been staring this whole time?

"What?" I asked.

"A real hero!" she said. Right. Maybe I should ask her if she wants to tag along? We could use more people, plus she can turn into a horse. True, she was a bit odd, but all of us were a little odd in our own way. Maybe that meant she'd fit right in. She did warn us about the guys, so she must be good people.

"We're about to save a cat from a tree," I said to Jelka.

"That's nice of you," she said.

"Want to come along?" She shook her head, smiling.

"Not really."

"We have a cool place in the swamp. We could always use more people."

"I'm good," she said.

"I appreciate the offer, but I like it here. And the swamp has a lot of ugly monsters."

"Fair enough. It does have a lot of ugly monsters. It's not so bad around our place, though… I think." We just looked at each other for a couple of seconds.

"Alright," I said.

"Guess we're heading out then."

"Don't be a stranger!" Jelka said, waving. Were we ever going to come back here? Unlikely. Why would we?

"Yeah," I said and waved back. When we got back to the main road I tried to focus on what [Mēnē's Watchful Eye] was showing me. It was a lot easier to handle when there weren't a million blades of grass, bugs and trees everywhere. This would allow me some time to get used to all the new sensations assaulting my senses in a slightly more manageable way. It was already a lot better than it had been yesterday, but it was still a lot. At least it didn't hurt anymore.

After some time we arrived at the town that supposedly had a cat stuck in a tree somewhere. It reminded me of Lipova, but bigger, and the houses were less clustered together, more spread out. There were a couple of people around, but not too many. The people who spotted us said friendly hellos or waved. It looked to be a pretty peaceful place. The quest still seemed a bit silly to me, and it was very likely someone had already managed to get the cat down in the time it had taken us to get here.

Maybe it had gone down of its own accord.

"Let's find an inn," I said.

"I'll ask if the cat is still in the tree so we don't waste any time if it isn't." Kasia nodded and pointed.

"Over there." The place had no windows, but it did have a sign with a mug. For some reason that mug had a barbed tail.

"I wonder what they call this place." I said. Someone had probably thought of something clever like The Lemon Fiddler again.

"Let's find out."