Noble Ventures, Part Ten

Rin stood before the adventurer with her arms crossed. Others around them slowly approached. Some had been wounded, some were unscathed but horrified to have watched people die in front of them. All of them were hoping the girl could clear this whole thing up.

"Look... It's not like we know everything that's going on," the girl said, with her hands raised defensively.

"Well, you clearly know something!" One of the construction workers, an old man with many spots of blood staining his white shirt, said. Others gathered around as well, equally as frustrated and equally as curious.

Miri took a deep breath. She pushed herself to speak and said:

"We heard from a friend that there could be a fight here," the adventurer stated. Everyone went quiet as they listened intently. "She said that some people were caught talking about attacking the train like a month ago, but that nothing had come of it. That's all."

The others there didn't quite know what to make of that information. What she just heard got Rin's mind rolling, though.

[A month ago?] She thought, keeping her face as stern and furious as it had been in hopes of keeping her thoughts hidden. [It must have been right after what happened in Alera! Was this whole thing a response to that, somehow?]

"I swear, I don't know anything else," Miri declared in front of the crowd. "That's all we heard. And it's why we came here, just in case. So we could help." Miri pointed at Sara, who still had her sword out despite the fact that the fighting had stopped a while ago. "Isn't that why a lot of us came here?"

Up ahead, Elisa looked back and forth between Miri and Rin. She was aware, probably due to how Rin was acting, that there had been something she'd been trying to glean from this conversation. Rin gave her a subtle nod to let her know she'd found it and the noblewoman stepped forward.

"Okay, everyone. I get that we all have questions, but we need to focus! There's a pretty high chance those psycho bastards are going to come back. We need to think of a plan."

Her words drew the attention of everyone there. While that was going on, Rin walked up, grabbed Miri by her arm, and dragged her away.

"Uwah!? H-Hey!" Miri cried out as Rin pulled probably just a bit too hard, but she couldn't help it. She was feeling some adrenaline right now.

"Leave them," she heard Elisa say. "If that adventurer somehow gets her ass beat by one of my friends, well, that would just be sad. We have our own problems to consider."

Once it felt like they were far enough away from the others, Rin let out a deep sigh, dropping the act and turning toward Miri with some genuine concern.

"Can you tell me more about this friend of yours? The one who said there could be an attack?"

Miri pulled back, clutching her biceps, where Rin had been holding onto her.

"What? Why? What does it matter? It's not like she knew those guys. She's not with whoever these freaks are if that's what you're asking."

"No," Rin said. "But, maybe she could lead me to them."

"How do you know? And, why the hell would you want to look for them? Hell, how do I know you're not with them?"

Raising a brow, Rin gave her an extremely offended look as she said:

"First of all, I came here with Elisa D'Ana. You accusing me is basically the same as accusing her, the heir to the family that owns the damn train, that she just launched an attack on it. Are you sure that's something you want to do?" Rin paused for a couple of seconds, letting her words hang in the air. "And, second, I'm looking for them because this isn't my first time running into them," Rin replied. "And, I'd like it if I could help do something about them. So, I'm thinking I might want to go talk to this friend of yours and see what I can find out. Are you not okay with that?"

"... If that's all you want to do, then no, I'm not."

"Okay, then tell me. Where can I find this girl?"

Miri paused for a moment.

"..." She glanced up and met Rin's eyes briefly before looking away. "Cradle," she finally said. "She's a member of the Adventurer's Guild. A staff member. Just started working there a little while ago, actually. You can probably find her there."

[Hm. Alright then. A lead. Nice.]

"Thank you," Rin responded. "If you want, let her know that someone's going to be coming to ask her some questions in a few days."

"U-Um," Miri said, "can you just promise me something, though?"

"What?"

"Just... Be gentle with her," Miri said, deflating. It looked like all of this had taken a lot out of her. "She's been through a lot. The last thing she needs is some angry nob- person yelling at her."

Muttering that, Miri didn't say anything else and instead, began walking back to the camp.

Rin considered stopping her.

Setting aside all of this business with the Scorned, this was someone who knew her brother. A part of her, the little girl who missed her sibling, wanted to reach out and ask if, maybe, just maybe, he was still out there somewhere.

[... Stop that,] Rin told herself. [It's been years. Either he's dead, which is the most likely option, or he doesn't want to be found. Either way, he's just not a part of your life anymore.]

Deciding on that, Rin began to follow Miri back to the camp.

And, just as she did, the attack resumed.

"Guards, guards!" Someone yelled.

Chaos descended upon the camp in an instant.

Rin welcomed it, though. With her mind as foggy as it was, maybe getting a few punches in was exactly what she needed.

[Okay. Round 2. Bring it.]