A round around town, Part 1

Fasnilthar

Hello again! I'm back! So, the way to the park! Mostly it was spent with normal conversation. If anything of special interest was spoken about in it, it was the fact at that point Senshin explained his task to the other two, and the general reaction Nalfimiria had to it. Unlike the rest of us, she seemed to understand and accept the situation without much of a surprise. It didn't seem like it was something common to the sisterhoods, but still something normal enough that a sister herself didn't find anything unusual to the situation. It did seem like she had a clue as to the motivation as well, though just as you might expect, she didn't give a straight answer, nor offered any promise her understanding of things already was perfect. Made sense. Sisters tend to avoid giving clear answers to many things, and the fact he was in that country meant her colleagues already had refused him an explanation. What she did say in particular to make him more hopeful was the following however. 

—As of now, I wouldn't say your ties are severed from us in the first place, though. Otherwise, you wouldn't be allowed to carry our weapons, or benefit from some of our perks. You're being treated differently from the norm, but from what little I heard from the situation, it looks like that difference comes down to a form of helping, in a way. Having our uniform and all of our usual treatment might make it harder for you to finish your vows as of now. So you've been stripped of the normal treatment of a path seeker to make it easier for you to understand your way, most likely. — The comment seemed to comfort him. 

We also talked some more about Nalfimiria's and Sowanar's time in waiting. Apparently, since arriving and arranging for the unit wait, they more or less had spent most of their days inside that dwarven bar. Nalfimiria sometimes would need to leave to do work as a sister, but for the most part they spent their time sitting, reading and waiting, with the occasional adventure to the surrounding districts. Sowanar more or less followed along with that pattern, occasionally taking the time to talk to her between reading and simply sticking close by. During the time in that place, the sister grew to be a small attraction to the bar for some time, as a result. In parts because she occasionally would perform for its customers for entertainment sake, in parts because dwarves like their challenges, and trying to get an elf drunk was a challenge they loved taking part in. She also made a lot of use of the backrooms¹ of the bar as part of the challenges as well, but the rest of us decided to reject any attempts at explaining that further from her part. We instead asked about the work she was doing, as I was sure listening to her adventures likely wouldn't be pleasant for our still recovering "silver boy", struggling to stay focused as he was. 

Which is all to say, that was also the point Nalfimiria first brought up her specializations. For the most part, she initially just brought up her side job at the temple being that of an assistant therapist. She was specialized and deepened in her studies of elven psychotherapy, and she also had plenty of study done towards psychiatry, mostly of her own kind but also to an extent to other species as well. It seemed she had already written some dissertations on the topic as well, and took part in research on it for some decades. She worked for over a decade as an assistant to the soul soother¹ of the temple. And though she couldn't use it yet, part of her goals for magic at the moment was to pick up soul reading and some of the less aggressive forms of direct illusionism. If a sister effectively had two jobs, one on field and one outside of it, it looked like therapy was her idea of the job to do inside the temples. But wait, there's more! 

You know how elves typically have at least 3 or 4 specializations? Over a 100 years of studying, go figure. I imagined that might be the case for her as well, especially since she actually seemed to have an interest in academics. At the very least, I knew she needed to have at least one degree for history*, not to mention the fact that elves tend to know far more languages than most other social kinds. With that said, the list this one presented was a little longer than I had been expecting. I guess she chose to put those 100 years for full use, from the looks of it. 

Excluding the fact her fluent languages were almost reaching the mark of thirty, the second biggest focus of her curriculum was the study of tactics, and other things connected to fighting, especially so if they could affect a fight between mages. She also had 4 history specializations, making 3 extra to the mandatory one, and went further into depth for the main topics she studied, gathering an adept scholar certificate for one of them. Her other specializations concerned sociology, linguistics (Just the general stuff, not a degree focused in any of the over thirty she was fluent at), geopolitics, magical and physical engineering (including multiple fields of both), physics, architecture, some areas of natural medicine and base chemistry. Some of those were pushed more in-depth, others just at the depth of a specialization. She claimed plenty of what she studied was meant to be applied to construct spells. 

(*Elves had as a mandatory field that every elven student needed to specialize themselves in at least one aspect of history, regardless of the time frame or subject of focus chosen. From what I heard, the reasoning more or less could be summarized through this fitting quote here: —As long standing witnesses of history, it is important for elves to understand its inner workings as soon as possible, so that they may better prepare themselves to live out their long lives. — From what I heard, this practice came as a result of the following suggestion coming from Lady Telphilicallys.) 

What the pattern or goal was, I had no idea, as all she said is these things could all be applied through strategy. That, and something about having too much free time over her long childhood. And if you think those are already a lot of studying hours, she also finished a load of specific classes in fields so varied a part of me began thinking she was selecting them at random past a certain point. From varying fields of biology, to cooking, to physical geography, then musical composition, only to then reach international diplomacy. Like, instead of listing it all, she just produced a few parts of her working resume that served just to list her completed and partial specializations. Too many things for me to properly list, seeing as I wasn't even familiar with every area she had written down. As curious as I was, I couldn't help but ask. 

—Why? — Overkill doesn't properly explain the situation. Elves don't typically have a rush for most things, yet she probably took up four times the minimal ammount of classes they are required to have, based on that list. She didn't simply blow the norm by an extra specialization or two. I think most short lived people would study less than she had in her childhood over their entire life, and I'm not even including humans in this measure. 

Elven childhood was often organized around studying, just as most others, yet their pacing at it was extremely chill, as it wasn't strange for them to only frequent a single class in some years. Their minimal requirements were outstanding by the standards of others, however the time they had just made the task very easy, ultimately. Being forced to study from 10 to 110, just by doing 2 or 3 hours a day they would likely graduate with more specializations then they would ever need. And it's not like reaching 110 meant they no longer had access to their academies either. Based on that list though, it kinda looked like Nalfimiria had consistently been filling more hours than most people with short lives. That didn't sound like a normal practice, based on what I heard, so I doubted it was a practice that came about normally. 

—Battles are won on knowledge. There is no saying what kind of knowledge will win at any given day. All that I know is that I'm following a being called the Victory Star, someone who knows not the meaning of defeat. If my goal is to reach out for that light, there is no such thing as an advantage that can be ignored. Besides, look. — As she pointed a hand towards us, walking slightly ahead, her magic activated in one of her hands. It was a conjuration spell, and from it was formed a pocket watch, the kind of which worked using gears. She somehow got the timing its hands were created on down almost exactly to the time of the day it was then. 

"Wow. How many parts must that thing be made out of?" The more complex the construct, the harder it gets to shape and concentrate on it. Things split into hundreds of little parts were also much harder to assimilate, so it wasn't common for people to waste their time trying it, even for an elf. Never took one apart, though I didn't need to to be aware that clocks were composed of hundreds of different moving parts, most of which were incredibly small. 

—Understanding some of these topics assists in my skill at creating complex constructs. Applying complex mechanisms greatly boosts the effectiveness of construct magic, else there wouldn't be a whole Major Style centered on their training. This way, my time used was worth double what it could have been otherwise. — She said, before crushing the clock in her hands, causing the energy condensed into it to blow into a small puff of dust before vanishing. 

"Why is an elf worried about their usage of time, though?" She was 116. Based on the averages for her kind's life, that meant she probably still had 800 years to go, at least. The typical elf was more worried with learning how to waste their time than they were in making more effective usage of it. It was no wonder they typically described it as their burden, not a resource. What exactly was pushing her away from her kind's normal choice in this matter, I had no idea, though I decided not to prod further. Be it for potential uncalled for meddling or simply because our goal was already in sight. 

Other than being in a convenient spot for our goal - in other words passing the halfway point between the bar picked and the guild, when we needed to return to it - the park was selected for two reasons. Comfort and space! Comfort because despite not being anywhere near as green a sight as a certain natural park/training facility we'll mention later, it was very green, so there were many shades to be shared. That, and the resting spots there were nice, be it on the paved parts of the place or the tables and benches set up atop the grass, or on the parts of the garden there that were open. Just a chill place to spend time in, whatever you were doing. In this case, chatting about secrets and conspiracy, but let's ignore that detail. Finding an isolated and welcoming corner of it wouldn't be that hard. 

Which brings to the second reason, size! As far as public parks go, I would give that one a medium to big size. Not as big as ones inside a city can get, as it wasn't the most important one in Zainlastris. But still large enough to easily avoid any potential eavesdropping. Other than the squares inside it, mostly showing monuments and fountains, the place was big enough to also get a few sport courts as well as some of the workout basics typically placed in parks. There were even multiple routes for sprinting, as well as a few closed off free zones¹. In fact, we even chose one as the locale for our conversation, which normally might alarm me, but felt like the perfect disguise in this case. Just put up the violet sign in both entrances and any chance of being followed by a silent onlooker were extinguished. That, and the green curtain around us would make it easier for either of our lookouts* to spot someone trying to sneak nearby through any way other than the main entrances. 

(*Chiaisei and Nalfimiria were chosen for that role. Nalfimiria, because using magic to draw closer to someone so sensitive to it likely would only end up making them easier to spot for her. And Chiaisei, as her ability with life detection and her control over sound, it was already next to impossible for a social creature to sneak up on her based solely on skill, meaning magic was the only real method, and it was already being covered. The combination of Life Sense and Magic Sense were pretty difficult to sneak through, add Movement Sense and sound amplification to that and the team Lookouts wins by default.) 

So, after making sure we had the place for ourselves and putting the necessary precautions around it to make sure we wouldn't be heard, we each took our seats there. Seeing that they would be the core of the topic, Nalfimiria and Sowanar were closer to the center. Though the sister also made sure to choose a spot in which her magical detection would be in full force to the terrain separating us from the outside of that zone. Senshin also offered to stay closer to one of the entrances, to keep track of things outside of it. He wasn't that interested in the topic, and he had a better hearing than most others with us. That, and he knew that park pretty well, seeing as it was one of his choices for working out during his stay at the headquarters. With that out of the way, they started. 

—Now that preparations are done, may you tell us what both of you know about the situation? — Chiaisei asked, as soon as we were all seated. Nalfimiria listened casually, seemingly unbothered by being the center of the discussion, and shortly after her explanation began. 

—The short of it is, I'm the daughter of some pretty powerful and influential people. Not that they're directly involved in this, but even if just by connection, my name has enough weight to make me look like a priority in the eyes of many powerful locals. From the looks of it though, a lot of people in power around this region are in a bit of a panic as to how to handle me, especially those in the country itself. Any incident involving me probably could cause a scandal, as far as this sect of human society is concerned. So, in order to make sure my stay here is as comfortable and safe as possible, they've been meddling with some things behind the scenes. Or rather, a specialist of theirs has been handling most of that part. The boy's job in following me is a reflection of that specialist's actions, alongside the maneuvers the association went through to put the four of us in the same unit. — The whole summary seemed really relevant, but the thing that stuck out the most to me was the mention of this specialist. 

"A specialist in what, though? I'm guessing in negotiation and political maneuvering? They're probably a veteran of this field." It was all I could conclude based on the context offered. 

—That explains a bit in itself, but it raises plenty of questions. Who exactly are your parents? Why were we chosen for this unit? And who is this specialist you mentioned? How have they gone about setting up this situation, to begin with? Are they manipulating the association through pressure or just paying them to act like this? If so, under what backing are they acting? I assume they wouldn't be using illicit means to do so considering their end goal is connected to a sister. — Chiaisei had a lot more questions than I did, though. Guess my girl must have been keeping a lot quiet until we got there. 

—Those are a ton of questions, dear. Can't say I can answer all of them either. Still, let me go through them in order. My parents are better defined by their positions than names, as far as all of you are concerned. I'll also include grandma on this equation, since it can be said her fame is pretty notorious as well. Dad is the Main Speaker for International Relationships of our High Council, as well as the Second Voice for Economical Matters. He is one of the supervisors on the High Forge of Cravlirnir as well, so their main motivation seems to be avoiding any issues with him. Not that I blame them entirely, as stupid as the premise is. — Hearing her, I couldn't help thinking the panic was slightly understandable. If I understood the gist of those titles, her dad basically was second only to the Material Twins in his influence over the international economy, which might be expected considering he was the underling of one of them. 

"By the High Queen, I never thought I would hear this many titles I could recognize for a single politician. No wonder some lordlings might be scared of her. Guy could probably banish someone from this board on his own." In some ways, the High Counselors of Althnalmir were considered the agents of Lady Melynaris' power as the Divine Arbiter, acting as the vehicles of her political influence. It just so happened that a lot of this lended power towards the international community was trusted to this particular man. It was no wonder the local lordlings treated him with caution. 

—Truly so? To earn so much trust from Lady Melynaris, he must be an exceptional man. — The information even got a reaction out of Senshin. I was honestly surprised he knew what all those titles meant in the first place. But it being an Althnalmirian matter I guess learning about it could come as a result of interest in the Light of Triumph herself. 

—Probably, yeah. Dad barely takes the few hours of sleep he needs, if he couldn't get anything done that would be a disappointment. Grandma likes saying he wanted to accelerate his way through magical training simply so that he could handle less sleep when he was younger. Either way, continuing, mom. She is a Saint. Pretty young for an elven one too. Do the specifics matter, really? — She dropped the news very casually. Sounded like a common thing already, from her point of view. 

—Preferably so, yes. It can't have been easy to have been nominated as such. — Chiaisei was the first to respond, but the reaction was shared between the rest of us. Saints, Heroes and Sages aren't exactly the type of people you expect to be brought up this casually. 

—That so? Well, the ceremony itself seemed pretty casual, from what I recall, but I wasn't even 40 by that point, so maybe my memories are failing me. Mom was a noteworthy field director of the Crisis Response* crew for a long stretch of time, and took part in expanding their operations. When it was decided someone in the admin would be getting a Sainthood, the others voted on her for the naming. — Hearing these bits about both of her parents made me feel like I heard that same story before, but in a different context. I couldn't quite piece it together yet, though. 

(*The title explains itself, but basically they are sort of like a specialized branch of the association. They're more closely tied to their sisterhood bonds as well, and operate as rescue and assistance for magical or standard disasters on a larger scale happening on the Wild World for the most part. They tend to require higher levels than normal Pact Warden units as well.)

—Is that how you viewed it? I heard that same story before, but I suppose you can't expect the daughter of the figure to perceive it the same as history itself. Perhaps the tale grew bigger than you recall over the past 70 years. — Chiaisei said, still paying close attention to the talk. 

—Probably. People really don't need a whole lot of time before the narrative grows bigger than the events. Besides, if these titles were so serious as people sometimes make it sound like they are, grandma would never have the name of Hero as well. How the Lady of Will convinced her to work at an office for the prior decades will always be a source of amazement to me. — And it was in the mention of the word Hero that made my head connect the dots.

"Oh, that's it! It's that crazy granny modern story tellers love!" As much as ancient stories were easier to hype up, modern Heroes did get a lot of love from literature and song as well, and the situation was sort of reminding me of a well known one in particular. A bat shit insane elven geezer who had a terrifying battle record and raised a lot of notorious kids as well. It was said she came from a Althnalmirian family with respected history, only to go on to become one of the most infamous aces of the sisterhood from almost as far as 500 years ago up until our time. The stories made her seem like the complete stereotype for the battle loving Hero. 

It was also said many of her children grew up to be the model leadership type as well, almost as if to overcompensate for any rough expectations that might have been lobbed at them due to their lunatic of a mother. One of her sons in particular grew up to be a massive big shot, and eventually married and had 4 daughters with a known Saintess of his time. In an ironic twist of fate as well, this crazed legend became her son's coworker when Lady Melynaris for some reason decided she would do well as the Sisterhood's representative within the High Council of Althnalmir. And the elven girl in front of me had some similarities to the mad Heroine in that story, and should be at the same age range as the third granddaughter of the woman in question. "Who would have thought I would be meeting her granddaughter today… Hopefully she is less of a combat nut, though." 

—Hold up, I wanted to check something. That grandma, she wouldn't be the Frenzied Hydra*, would it? — As I said, it looked as if I had been the first to connect the dots. Chiaisei and Senshin both seemed to recognize the name as well, as you might expect. That was to be expected, given the notoriety of the person in question and the fact we were all trained warriors. Talks concerning modern Heroes are far more frequent to those walking that same path, just as I'm sure Chiaisei and Nalfimiria would have an easier time listing living Sages than the rest of us, due to their longer presence in academics. 

(*Just a side note in case the choice of creature mentioned in the title didn't tell you enough. It isn't an easy feat for mage warriors to be compared to mythical creatures, much less for a title like that to stick for centuries.)

—Yep. And don't go asking about the real thing if you have high expectations. Any personal stories I have to tell will only lower your opinion of grandma. My parents have some siblings of note as well, but that was mostly it. Some of my own siblings want to follow up this crazy act as well, yet by then you all will probably be buried, so let's leave it at that. 

—That doesn't cover all of it though, my lord. Your name has carried a certain legacy even before your grandmother's birth. 

—Yes yes, thousands of years of excellence or whatever. The past doesn't matter in this case. If my predecessors produced consistent results, that's only because they were given the tools to excel in the first place. From there, it's just a matter of keeping the streak going. What were the other questions, again? — She said so while pulling up a list. It looked like she had used a construct to put the questions on paper. 

—Why were you guys chosen to accompany me, right? For Chiaisei's case, it was also the result of preference. I think it had something to do with priority or something akin to it, right boy? 

—Yes, my lord. Both you and miss Chiaisei have been marked as guests of priority by the region of Galecirnan. 

—What does that even mean? And why am I placed in the same group as her? 

—It means they're handling you with care, for similar but different reasons to mine. I don't really know why, in this case. Just that the boy warned me they would look for other priority guests to throw my way. Ask him. He isn't your adjutant, but if my reading is correct he should be able to answer this much. — After hearing this from the sister, Chiaisei turned to Sowanar. Before she could say anything, he bowed his head and offered to continue. 

—I believe the goal was to place multiple priority guests in the same group as to make keeping track of them easier. Though not quite on the same level as lord Nalfimiria, your order of priority is significantly high as well. — As he said, I couldn't help but match this with other stuff I knew about the case. 

"I guess in her case the priority was given through contact to her mom? That's unexpected. Oh well, this level of ceremony likely has a lot of respect even here. Maybe it has to do with that role's connection to the Emperor. I wonder how high Clars and Sieg would score under this number?" It didn't sound to me like Chiaisei's case was simply a matter of direct power based on what I knew, though not like I knew a lot about this in the first place. 

—And the others? You seemed to imply they each have value as well. 

—Fasnilthar's value is as bait. Big fish tend to like her, based on my sources. You're living proof of that, aren't you Chiaisei? — Nalfimiria said while teasingly smiling. Chiaisei didn't answer, but she did seem a little annoyed by the suggestion. I didn't get what these two were trying to say to each other, though I decided my classification was more interesting than analyzing that. 

—Bait? How am I supposed to be bait? 

—Don't think about it, that's one of your best traits. You've already been bitten enough times to work fine, either way. 

—What are you on about? And how do you know that?! — She was implying she already knew a bit of stuff about my past. And most annoyingly, she was being cryptic as hell about what she meant. Instead of explaining herself, she pointed to her wrist. A thought communication device briefly appeared in it, before vanishing again. Whether she had been hiding it in conjured space or if it was invisible normally, I wouldn't know.

"Ah, figures. A sister has met you, all of them have." Sisters and brothers have the habit of sharing a lot of information between each other, even about the people they know. Not so when it concerns things too private for those around them, but general stuff, like backstory, and other things the target probably wouldn't mind sharing. They have the habit of exchanging that sort of info as soon as they get the chance, when meeting someone new. And two of my unit mates belonged to the path. Based on the gesture, it looked like she had been receiving information about us through thought while we had been heading to this park. "When did she contact other Path Tracers, though? We aren't being followed by another Liberty member, are we?" All that talk about preparing ourselves for being listened to, and most likely candidate to having us being followed was Nalfimiria herself. "Their intelligence teams must be really, really bored." 

—Say, about my fellow fish. Have all of them been caught in a similar kind of bait? 

—Hold up, don't continue the talk without explaining! Why am I being called bait? — The fact the two of them seemed intent on continuing the talk without explaining that was getting me worried. 

—I would say 5, though two of them were caught by a different sort of technique. Not all of them are of equal interest in the situation, though. 

—Curious. I'm interested in meeting the remaining ones eventually. That means she has a history for this kind of fishing, then. — I continued trying to protest while those two ignored me and kept talking. Seeing that, I looked around to the other two present to see if one of them had understood the comparison. 

—Hey, Sowanar! They're ignoring me. Can you fill me in? — I asked our friendly knight, seeing as Senshin was probably a bad bet in this case. 

—I'm not quite sure if I can. I haven't been told enough about my master's intentions to know what this "fishing" might be about. 

—Don't worry, though. Personally, I believe being bait in this case is pretty high praise. I'm happy to have taken part in this sort of fishing. — Chiaisei said, without giving any hint at what the fishing meant. Her smile was pretty evident as she said so though, and it did seem like the compliment was sincere. It looked like the talk had been entertaining her a lot. 

—Hey, if it's praise, why are you two being so indirect about it?! — The two of them just laughed shortly at my frantic response, before Chiaisei turned to Senshin, who had been listening in from a different part of the free zone we were in. 

—Anyways, is Senshinzako with us for a similar reason? 

—Not as far as I'm aware. My sources on Senshin say there should be no reason to give him any sort of priority treatment. And both of his parents are Path Tracers, so the account the sisterhood has of him is likely way more accurate than for the rest of you. It's possible his situation just fit with ours by random chance, in this case. Any clues on your end, boy? 

—Not quite, my lord. I believe I know what my patreon's intent might have been but no source for confirmations. I can promise to you each that it should be no cause for concern, though. 

—Good to hear, but I'm still concerned about being compared to fishing bait. 

—Good enough, then. The next question is…? — Chiaisei ignored my complaint. I decided it was about time to drop it too. 

—About the one pulling the strings. I know her identity. From the looks of it, she is giving orders to the knight boy directly as well. I'm also pretty sure she just asked for this situation as a normal request through the association, and paid for it as a usual procedure. 

—They take this kind of request, then? 

—Not normally. Still, the analysts there can be asked to look over matters disconnected to the association in their spare time, if they're being offered enough. The person likely used those channels. Directing units to form like this isn't exactly unprecedented for the union. They can't force you all to accept the situation, but there is nothing stopping them from trying to direct an associate's action during a unit search. The girl pulling the strings has the backing of the whole region's states in this case as well, so she likely is offering one hell of a paycheck for them, as a result, the likes of which would make my wallet's contents seem like spare change. The association isn't likely to complain about goodwill coming from higher up as well, so I see no reason why they wouldn't at least try this. Especially if a little theory of mine proves to be true. — Chiaisei prodded on that theory, but Nalfimiria refused to elaborate it further, just saying that it was a very complicated topic. 

—Alright then. Can you tell us anything about this master of his, at least? You said you knew her identity. 

—I do, but I don't plan on saying it. Just know that she has no bad intentions towards this situation. Even if she did, she would have no way of acting on them. 

—Hm? Why can't you talk? 

—A debt of sorts. Considering it, I don't believe it would be fair to tell you her identity before she wishes to do so herself. Also, telling you all that at the start without at least confirming we're a unit could lead to some trouble. 

—I can see that, but a debt? Why? Has she helped you before? — Chiaisei asked, looking a bit more curious. I was interested in hearing the motivation as well, and that seemed to catch Senshin's interest in a way. I guess the talk about debts and such was something more intriguing for him. 

—Not personally, at least, but the girl has worked a lot to be of help to us. Far more than a normal person should. As I have the awareness of her burdens, it falls on me to try to help in some ways. Simply waiting by as an accomplice wouldn't fit one of my vows. — Nalfimiria said while holding onto her emblem, suggesting this work had been done for the sake of the sisterhood, if I had to guess. 

I could have seen that. High nobility effectively worked as extensions and representatives of royal power in the nations of Galecirnan. Seeing as the crowns of the region were themselves allied to the sisterhoods, it wasn't an exaggeration to say the high nobility's purpose was in part to help execute the terms of those alliances. Hence why I felt like there was such a big shift in behavior between high nobles and normal nobility, or other groups born to some power. Acting high nobles typically carried some sort of commitment to their jobs, as well as to the country itself. If only that dedication caught on more frequently to all of those in power. It wouldn't be that strange that there were seats I hadn't heard of in high nobility that were specifically designed to keep track of these things more directly. Or at least that took that assisting role more directly, and sounded like this might have been the case for this girl. "Maybe the next time I make contact with the others I could try asking about her." 

—I see. If the debt is of that nature, I see no need to question it, then. — Chiaisei seemed content with not chasing that mystery further, having heard that much. 

That brought an end to the initial wave of questions. Senshin got a little curious about that debt being implied after Chiaisei stopped her questioning, though all it took was for Nalfimiria to say this girl had a duty that assisted them for him to quiet down. His view of Sowanar seemed to change a little after that declaration as well. Maybe his definition of him changed from "fellow warrior" to "a warrior who follows a purpose" or something. I didn't get what to think of Senshin exactly, yet it felt like some stuff like that might make sense in his head. With that, most of the doubts we had about confirming the formation of our unit had been solved. However, as we were about to leave, I decided it might be the best time to point out something I had been thinking about myself. "It would be unfair not to warn them." I thought, while asking the group to wait another moment. 

—Also, before we confirm anything, there was something else I felt needed saying. I'm not really sure how long my stay with this group will be in the first place. — I said, after asking for a word. Weirdly, the only one who seemed surprised by that information was Senshin. Chiaisei already knew about it, and if Nalfimiria knew things about my old unit's situation that meant she knew it existed. And if I was important enough as bait to be given priority by his boss, it was likely Sowanar knew some things about me before we met. The guild likely had been preparing to send me and Chiaisei towards them since we met, if we hung around together. At that time, it wouldn't be strange if he got some information about the two of us. Still, I figured I might as well try to explain the whole situation. 

—So, I kind of already have a unit. I was temporarily displaced from it due to some issues that were taking place, but I never really intended on leaving them for good. I'm here mostly as a means of helping out Chiaisei with adapting to the job, for now. Don't know when it will be, though once that is done my intention is returning. Are you all fine with that? — I asked, trying to be succinct. Nalfimiria simply said she saw no problems with this, not showing much of a reaction to the situation. The others didn't protest either, however the boys reacted a bit differently from each other. For Sowanar, I had no clue what was going over his mind. No sign of surprise, or of him taking it as good or bad news. He just sort of nodded, without affirming much at first. 

—You had mentioned before you've been doing this for some years. That meant there had to have been prior coworkers for you before meeting us. It's a good thing they are both unharmed and on good terms with you still, compared to what else could have explained the situation. It would be unreasonable for us to expect you to place them in the same order of priority as a group you've just met as well. — He said, after noticing I had been trying to figure out how each was taking the information. Didn't really answer the question, but soon after stating that much, he continued. 

—So long as the temporary nature of our joining will cause no issue to this connection, I see no reason to complain. Perhaps then the partial goodbyes might have an effect, though only so if our time together had quality. That should be enough from this meeting as of now. — He spoke his poetics while still keeping up the expected attitude of a knight. I was surprised by how consistent he was with it to that point. Knowing his reply, I turned to Senshin. Chiaisei and I had already agreed to this, and Nalfimiria said she saw no problems with the situation. As far as the elf was concerned, things with us likely still would be on the short term even if they lasted years, so maybe that reaction wasn't that surprising. Noticing us waiting for his answer, Senshin looked over. 

—I see it as a virtue, so no issues. — I had no idea what he was talking about. 

—See what? More details, please. 

—Loyalty to your past comrades. It is a good thing to have when fighting as a group, and therefore a good sign for your presence among this unit. — The occasional warrior-code like bullshit he would spill made me conflicted over whether or not I should take him seriously when he was talking like this. 

—Ah, gotcha. Gotta watch out for our homies and stuff. Backstabbers deserve no trust and all. — I tried answering the call either way, or at least saying it in the language people normally spoke. 

Either way, having all agreed on that, we decided to head back to the HQ. Seeing as we had more or less gone most of the way back by that point, it didn't take that long to get back. Arriving there, we had to confirm the addition of the other three to the unit. Most of the job came down to signing down some paperwork, as well as hearing some explanations from the guild. Partially to verify if Nalfimiria and Sowanar were aware of how work would function through the association, as well as to explain how our wage would be handled. As connected Pact Wardens, Senshin, Chiaisei and I would be getting some while on standby. Training was lowkey a part of our work, after all. That didn't apply to Sowanar and Nalfimiria, since they were connected to different organizations, though that wouldn't affect the income we would get at the end of a task.