When Bee reached the castle, she was greeted by an odd sight. Thankfully it was one that Susan had prepared her for, if only slightly. On top of the wall, a pair of guards stood watch. The one to the right was one of the n that had co as a refugee, one of Susan's personal trainees. To the left, top of his head barely visible above the crenellations, was one of the children.
This wasn't a child she had particularly interacted with before, but if she rembered correctly, he was 4 or 5. Much, much too young to be standing guard. Even if sothing did happen, she couldn't imagine what he would do. But when she scanned him, she saw that he was, in fact, level two. This ant that he had not only gotten one kill to get that first level, he had managed to accumulate more since then. What had these kids been up to?
As she approached, the guards noticed her. They both ca to attention with a salute before relaxing to a more informal wave. Without hesitation, the adult guard disappeared from the wall and began opening the gate from below. When she reached the entrance, she just simply ducked under the still-opening gate and turned to thank him. To her surprise, she saw the little boy walking down to et her. But he didn't use the stairs leading to the top of the wall. He was simply walking on air.
"Hello! High Priestess Bee!" the boy said. "Welco back! Everyone's missed you a bun- uh, greatly!" Bee just stared at him, slightly dumbstruck. Was that the air step skill she had read about? That was a really rare one, not to ntion powerful. To get it as his first skill… This kid was insanely lucky. Or was it luck?
She'd have to talk to the rest of the kids. But if they were all getting powerful skills like this, it could be that the system was rewarding them for earning their first levels so young. It would explain why she managed to get Scan, one of the rarest skills in the kingdom, as her own first skill. Hm. An interesting theory.
"Yeah. It's good to be back. I'm sorry, I can't rember your na. Could you remind ?"
"Of course, Miss Beatrice! I'm Jason."
"Well, Jason, that's quite an impressive skill you have there."
"I know! It's the cool- erm, I an, it's quite impressive!" He jumped a few tis in place, each taking him higher than the last. "I can't fly yet, but I can already get really high up!"
"How high, exactly?"
"Ummmmm, 12 steps! It used to be 2 or 3, but I've been practicing a lot. I can go higher than the wall now!"
The man stepped over from the gate winch, leaving the gate fully open. "He's right. He literally hasn't stopped the entire ti. He paces back and forth. He's been hovering a foot off the wall for as long as he can. I've had to catch him from falling over three tis just this morning."
Jason looked slightly abashed. Bee laughed and looked over at the slightly annoyed guard, who seed to be putting on a little bit of an act and wasn't actually annoyed as he was pretending to be. "Well, I'm glad soone was here to catch him, at least. Does anyone know where Mary would be?"
Jason piped up. "She's probably in her office. Oh, she has an office now! It's fancy. It's uuuh…."
"Right, you were gone by the ti she set that up. It's on the second floor in the East wing. You should be able to find it pretty easily."
"Thanks, you two. Keep up the good work, Jason." Bea smiled as she started walking towards the entryway. It sounded like she had a lot to catch up on.
Bee made her way into the castle. For a mont, she stood and drank in the familiar sight. She was finally ho. The pristine white stone walls and grand entry were just as she had left them.
She had hoped to go right to Mary and let her know what was going on, but every single person she passed from the entry hall up to the stairs stopped her to chat, even if it was just to say hello. Most people were just welcoming her ho and expressing their hopes that Void, too, would return soon. Even still, the nurous brief interactions added up.
It seed that the news that Void was not with her had spread. She didn't mind it or anything, but it was good to know. So far, it seed that everyone was in high spirits, looked well-fed, and rather busy. That was to be expected as the whole palace was buzzing with preparations for the arrival of new guests.
Bee eventually made it upstairs to talk to Mary, but she did notice a lot of children along the way. So of them were standing at conspicuous points at the ends of hallways, and she made a ntal note
to figure out what they were up to. Perhaps they were also guards. Still, the idea of child soldiers didn't quite sit very well with her. Even if they might be disproportionately useful and excited about it themselves.
Soon after Bee knocked on the door, Mary's voice called from inside. "Co in."
Bee let herself in. Before she knew it, Mary had dashed over and wrapped her up in a warm embrace. Bee stood stunned for a second before returning it. "Oh, it's so good you're back. When you left, I had no idea you'd be gone for so long. But I hear you're bringing us new friends."
Bee muttered sothing, but her voice was muffled from the way she was pressed against the older woman. Eventually, she managed to extract herself from the embrace, and they sat down around a small writing table Mary was using for a desk. "Yeah, a lot has happened. A lot. But we managed to accomplish everything we wanted to. We saved the city, fought so undead, and now we have a caravan of refugees looking for shelter."
"Oh, my. That sounds like quite a story."
"Yeah, it is. I want to take care of a couple more things before I tell it to everyone, though."
"Understandable. Of course. What do you want to take care of?"
Bee then updated Mary regarding the incoming refugees. She gave her head of food managent all the numbers and details about who they'd be taking in and what supplies they ca with, which Mary promised to pass along to Trent. After Bee finished her summary, she asked about the kids. "The other thing is, after we finish talking, I'd like to talk to all of the children who have been engaged in getting levels. I want to make sure that they're not hindering their future developnt. And maybe there's so things I can do to help."
Mary sighed. "Well, they might actually listen to you, seeing that you're the high priestess and all. But I'll let them know that you'll be waiting for them. They should gather to et you after this. There's a lot going on. I really hope you can help them, dear."
—-
Tracking down the larger man was easier than I expected. Turns out he was the third largest man in the camp based on his weight. At least the footprints I had surveyed so far indicated that which I believed to represent about 72% of the group. So returning to the ss hall and following his footprints was as easy as whisking up dog fur.
His tracks also wound around the camp, though he spent a lot less ti stopping to talk to people and instead went towards the outskirts where the more low-ranking troops stayed. I found him in a large tent cramd with 20 people. He was by far the largest person there and was already asleep, snoring quite loudly.
Now that I had located both of them, I needed to figure out what to do. I could consu both of them, which was what I had done in previous cases that warranted punishnt. But seeing how that had worked out for the humans, I still had it in my dustbin... I didn't think that was a great option.
I set a reminder for myself to check on them again soon. It had been a while, and I really had been putting it off. Not because I was averse to the work, of course, but because the thought of what might have happened to them was quite unpleasant.
So if I didn't want to put them in my dustbin… well, really, perhaps they deserved that. They did kill a man. I considered talking to Arthur about it. He probably would know what to do. Well, actually, I could save ti by just bringing them to Arthur. That would be way easier.
So not wanting to burst into the tent and cause a scene, I sent a gust of air inside the tent and lifted up a rock. With a brief flex of Air Manipulation, I sent it flying towards his stomach. It bounced off, but he just kind of brushed at it with his hand as he was sleeping and didn't wake up. That didn't work. I was hoping to get his attention, but clearly, that wasn't enough.
So instead, I simply grabbed the collar of the shirt he was sleeping in and yanked on it with Air Manipulation. The fabric wasn't quite strong enough to lift him without ripping, but it certainly got his attention. He jumped up suddenly and disturbed a few people around him, who crankily mumbled at him.
He rolled over a couple of tis, then eventually got up, muttering about having to go to the bathroom. As he walked out of the tent, I pounced. Grabbing him by the back of his neck with my Grabby Arm, I lifted him into the air and flew away. Then I completely wrapped his mouth with my air manipulation so he wouldn't be able to disturb anyone with his screams. I then boosted over to where I had found the other, more average-sized man in the much larger tent to retrieve him too. It took a little bit of adjustnt to hold on to them both, but after arranging the two n in a hug secured by cords of air, I grabbed the larger one's neck once more. Now I just needed to find Arthur.
I hovered over the mostly sleeping camp, looking for the commander. He wasn't in his tent, but he clearly hadn't gone far. I eventually spotted him standing over by the cri scene, looking at the dead body. Oh, good. He already knew what had happened. That ant I wouldn't have to explain so many things. I might just be able to help him find the culprit. With a quick thought, I adjusted my boosters and zipped over to him.
As I was approaching. I heard Arthur talking to soone. "Poor man. He was one of the few nobles I actually had hopes for. All the others seed to be fairly useless, if not downright troublemaking. But maybe it was his attempts to actually learn how to behave properly that did him in. It wouldn't surprise if he found out sothing he shouldn't have, and they didn't trust him to take the bribes like everyone else did."
Huh? I'd have to ask Arthur what he was talking about later. Descending from above, I set my two charges down and gave Arthur a cheery wave. Hopefully, this would help him clear up the matter quicker.
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