13 Just full of surprises

"Thanks."

At first, Julian thought he heard wrong, "What?"

"Thank you!" Leonel raised his voice, shouting as though he were really deaf, "Thank you for helping me out and all! I vow that I will repay you one day, even if it shall be with my life."

He said it so seriously that Julian feared that it wasn't a joke. It had to be a joke right? Leonel was probably being sarcastic. He was about to snap back with something witty but the Inquisitor just continued, "Also I'm sorry as well. For being passive-aggressive. Just agitated, after today and all. Always been told that I've a bad personality. Sorry about that too."

Julian blinked dumbly and for some reason all he could say was a dry, "You're just full of surprises aren't you?"

Leonel shrugged, "I'm just me." The Inquisitor strode around as if he owned the place, flopping down in Julian's hammock.

Which reminded him.

The older of the two narrowed his eyes, glaring, "You know, that's mine. Go sleep on the cot! You think you can just say a few pretty words and get away with this awful behavior?"

The copy of Glendrilla and the Beast Vol. 3 was still lying on the counter next to the hammock. Leonel reached over to pick it up, flipping through the pages at the dog-eared page. "Yeah. I'm still mad at you so I'm taking your spot in retaliation."

Flabbergasted, Julian said, "You're a shameless brat."

"And you're a shameless old man. Not like you can do anything about it."

Julian wanted to pull his hair out, angered that the man was right.

The Doctor fell asleep on the cot that night, exhausted and exasperated. But a private part of his heart conceded that he had fun as well. It'd been a long time since he'd had fun.

…

The next morning, Julian was awoken by the scent of burning. He jolted from his spot at once, in fear of fire.

He coughed, eyes burning from smoke. Though it was only a thin trail of smoke, Julian had a hard time telling, his vision blurred without his glasses. "Fuck!" He yelled, groping around for his glasses. Where did he put them again? Did Dog have at them?

"Stop flailing. You look absurd." A calm, rumbling voice replied, reminding Julian in his sleep-addled state that he was sharing his tiny shack of a home with another person. How could this guy be so calm?

"The fire! Where's there fire? Did you put it out?" But when he looked around, Julian was coming to realize that aside from the glare of morning sunlight, there were no bright licks of light that assaulted his sight. No heavy smog to coat his lungs either. Just a small hint of smoke that was creeping up his nostrils.

"Calm down. There's no fire. I just…" A heavy sigh came from the Inquisitor, along with a grunt of annoyance, "I don't know how to make it stop doing this."

His eyeglasses turned out to be sitting on his desk, where he usually has them placed. Julian could not find reason with how he didn't look there first, aside from being so rudely removed from his usual sleeping place.

Once they were on his nose, sharpening his eyesight, he was able to see the block of metal in Leonel's hand.

It wasn't just an ordinary block of metal.

"What are you doing?!" Julian shrilled and leaped out to grab the thing out of Leonel's hands. It was a mistake, because when he grabbed the Blueiron Hearth it burned his fingertips and palms, causing him to drop it to the ground.

There was smoke rising from the edge, where a Blue Stone was pulsing in the socket. A Blueiron Hearth was designed to act as a simple portable heated plate that could emit the same degree of heat as a cooking fire. It was a very popular household item, despite being technically banned by the Divine Light, as all Blueiron was.

Not only was the stovetop slowly heating up, but the stone wedged inside the socket was overreacting with the device, causing a string of smoke to rise. Julian paled, fearing that it might explode at any second.

He could cast a spell to counteract it but he really didn't want to expose his magic to this strange guy so soon! With some quick thinking and catching sight of Leonel's Witch Slayer leaning against his stuffed bear. Julian pointed to the sword. "Quick! Take your sword and smash it. You need to smash the Blue Stone to bits."

The Inquisitor nodded. Without protest, he swiftly retrieved his sword and raised it to smash the device-

"No, you have to aim at the Blue Stone!"

Too late. The Witch Slayer came down. There was a small boom in Julian's home. Bits of the Blueiron Hearth shot out and made a mess of Julian's arms that he had raised to protect himself and also his surrounding belongings.

The day hadn't even begun yet and he wanted to scream.

"You!" He pointed at the Inquisitor, parts of his sleeves hung in bits, blood dripping. "What in the world were you doing!?"

If it wasn't for the small huff that came out of Leonel's lips, Julian wouldn't have thought that he looked like he was pouting. But Leonel really did look like he was pouting, just a bit. "What do people normally use those Hearths for? Obviously I wanted to make breakfast."

"If you don't know how something works, you could have just asked! Or would that have hurt your big boy's pride?" Pain needled through his arms along with swelling heat. Julian wouldn't be surprised if bits of metal were caught under his skin. He'd have to go and dig them out.

"You were asleep." Leonel's voice was a slight softer than usual, eyes gazing downward at the mess. "I'll clean it up."

"You better clean it up. I can't believe I have to deal with this!" Julian growled in anger as he went to fold up the cot he'd slept on and bring it outside, along with his basic medical tools.

With a string of curses he set himself down outside, and fetched some water so that he could clean and dress his own wounds. It'd be bad if he just left shards of metal and Blue Stone under his skin so he might as well bite back the pain and get it over with.

Though his irritation and sleep-induced grumpiness, Julian wanted to curse that ungrateful brat. Who did that kid even think he was? Coming along and taking up Julian's space and messing with his things like he owned the damned place. Didn't even know how to receive hospitality. He deserved a good spanking!

More importantly, what was an Inquisitor doing with a Blueiron Hearth in the first place? Inquisitors had the ability to cancel out effects of mana and Blue Stones. That was probably why the device was going haywire, or so Julian assumed. There was no way of knowing for sure, now that the machine was blown into bits by Leonel's carelessness.

While Julian hadn't met many Inquisitors in his life, making it a pointed affair to avoid them for the majority of the time, he knew that it wasn't normal for them to willingly use anything made with Blueiron.

Compared to mages, Blueiron devices are more tolerated by the Divine Light however they are by no means for the spread of this technology. It seemed strange that an Inquisitor would not only look the other way when seeing an illegal device, but actually go out his way in attempts to use it.

Strange. Perhaps this guy didn't care about Blueirons and just really hates mages. He didn't strike Julian as a devotee. Those tended to be the two main reasons why anyone bothered to join the Inquisition, either they're extremely devout or they just really want to kill some mages. It was not a very loved or sought-after career choice among the general public.

The more he thought about it, the more Julian became curious about this strange Inquisitor. And the more he thought, the calmer his anger became. He sighed, not so willing to forgive Leonel so easily and decided it best to start plotting on ways of reprimanding the brat.

Revenge will be had.