Chapter 7: Chapter 4: Will of the Heart

It felt like they were in a completely different part of the dungeon, the walls seemed to move every so often as they continued onwards through the narrow hallway. Priscilla kept glancing over her shoulder every so often despite the corridor being devoid of any other passages.

“Is it just me or does it feel like we’ve been walking in circles?” The spell fencer asked as she took another look over her shoulder. “I can’t tell whether or not we are progressing.”

“It takes a while for the dungeon to reconnect itself.” Reinhardt explained. “Rather, think of it as a living organism rather than a cave system.”

“Meaning we are at the mercy of its whims?”

“In a way, yes.” He answered. “But many think it isn’t for its own benefit, at times it was said the dungeon helped adventurers escape from the deeper floors by connecting its rooms to the higher floors.”

“That seems awfully convenient…”

“Neither me or Elaine have been personally in a dungeon like this. We’d usually do mercenary work but oftentimes you hear people in the taverns around the city saying dungeoning is much more safe.”

“After this first impression I’m not sure what to say.” The elf snickered. “To be fair, hunting down bandits is easier for me, at least it’s out in an open forest not an underground labyrinth.”

“Now, now, we are being paid just as well for this job, which aside from that strange poltergeist coming after us, it was rather uneventful.” Reinhardt was trying to keep the morale up. “We even got to meet with Rio too so I take this expedition as a fruitful one.”

Elaine shrugged.

“As long as we get paid I suppose.”

They continued walking for a few more minutes until the knight noticed a glint of light coming from the end of the dark tunnel.

“Another room a few ways away. I think we were indeed walking through a curved hall after all.”

“Let’s just hope it leads somewhere safe.” Priscilla was muttering. “Dark enclosed spaces like this give me the chills.”

“I thought you were a trained swordswoman.”

The elf sourly chuckled, making fun of her.

“That has nothing to do with this!” She looked at Rionara. “Don’t you feel the same way?”

“...not really.” She grasped both sides of her cloak closer to her body. “The dark is comforting for me.”

The spell fencer found it a bit disturbing that a girl her age would find peace in the darkness, but then again, nothing of that situation was normal. Being stuck inside a dungeon with nothing other than her clothes and weapon was by far the worst she had to deal with in months.

“Alright, not too much further now…”

Reinhardt still kept his arming sword and kite shield ready just in case, but it wasn’t necessary as they reached the end of the hallway with no issues. The blinding light was indeed the first floor of the dungeon. It was already morning inside. Priscilla squinted her eyes and used her left right forearm to cover from the sunrays.

“What the… was there always sunlight inside the dungeon?”

“There is a day and night cycle apparently.” Reinhardt commented. “It was daytime when we first came here as well.”

“Let’s quit this place. I can almost feel the blood seeping out of the bag.” She lifted the already stained burlap that carried all the ears cut off kobolds. “Plus it smells.”

Rionara recoiled from the bag once the elf had pulled it out of her belt.

“Yes, we’ll pass by the guild once we are out of here.” Reinhardt looked around before spotting the wall that led to the surface. “Come on, let’s keep moving.”

He led the way while the rest of them kept in formation, watching each other’s back as they managed to exit the dungeon. The climb of the stairs was met with a sigh of relief from all of them, once they stepped outside to the real world the fatigue seemed to come all at once especially for the trio that had been in there for almost an entire day.

“Ah… finally some fresh air!”

Elaine stretched her arms out, almost hitting one of the soldiers in the back of the head who was standing by the entrance. They walked past them without an issue but one of the soldiers tilted his head slightly once Rionara passed by him.

‘Was that little girl with them?’

The soldier thought, but didn’t inquire with the group. Once certain she was outside the dungeon, Priscilla took a deep breath and arched her back backwards in order to crack it. While her constitution wasn’t exactly great, she didn’t think venturing in the dungeon could be that exhausting.

‘Well I think I deserve a good lunch after all that…’

She reached to grab her purse but it was a bit on the lighter side as she reached for the backside of her belt where she would leave most of her things tied to it.

“Wait…” The sack of coins she carried was in fact too light. As she pulled the string that was holding it she noticed the sack was ripped open and there were only a few gold coins inside. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!”

From the generous paycheck she had received, only a handful of gold coins remained from the previously filled sack.

“What’s wrong?”

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Rionara asked while staring at her.

“I… lost my money inside the dungeon.” She pressed her left hand against her forehead. “It was gold coins for goodness’ sake. This must be karma…”

“Hey! You adventurers!” A male voice called out to Reinhardt and Elaine that were in front of the group. It was a bulky man with slick ebony hair wearing a set plate armor with a crimson red shield right in the middle of the breastplate that showed he was with the warrior’s guild. “Have you seen a prim young lady wearing a white trench coat when you went in?!”

“I don’t know about a prim young lady but I know someone that wears a trench coat.” Elaine shrugged off as she pointed to Priscilla who was standing a few steps behind Reinhardt. “That one?”

“Hey! Priscilla!” He simply walked between the knight and the elf to approach the spell fencer. “Where were you all this morning? I’ve been searching high and low for you!”

“In the dungeon, I wanted to get some practice but I wasn’t expecting to get stuck on my very first visit.”

“Bah, you are fine if you can talk like that.” He relaxed his stance before letting out a tired sigh. “Listen, we found some clues about your father.”

“You did?! Where is he?!”

“Calm down, I had a few trusted members look up with the town’s guards and there was indeed someone else named Avellion that entered the town a few weeks ago. It would be better for you to come to the guild and we’ll talk about the reward for her.”

Without being able to ignore what he just heard, Reinhardt turned around and looked Priscilla in the eyes before he asked.

“Did your father go missing?”

“Oh… huh… yeah something like that.” The spell fencer scratched her head. “But don’t worry about me, you three have done plenty for me already, I couldn’t possibly ask you for more.”

The elf elbowed the knight slightly as she whispered.

“I heard something about a reward. If she was indeed carrying gold coins, it would solve our problems.”

“Elaine, please have some courtesy. Her father has gone missing. How can we even ask for a reward in the place of a person’s life?”

“She can always repay the favor. Come on now Rein, you gave those coins to the little miss thief over there, you might as well do yourself a favor at this point.”

As much as he wanted to refute her, it was because of him that they were practically without any money.

“Ngh… very well.” He grunted before approaching the spell fencer. “Dame Priscilla, if you are in need of more people to search for your father, me and Elaine are at your disposal.”

As the two began to talk with each other, Rionara was slowly making her way towards the central square and when she thought she was far enough away to run, Elaine suddenly grabbed her dirty cloak by the hood and yanked the little girl close to her hips, as if saying ‘Like hell I’ll let you run away.’

“Rein.” The elf called him which prompted the knight to turn to her. “I’ll take lil’ Rio here with me to the guild.”

He smiled faintly before nodding and replying.

“I’ll head with Dame Priscila to the warrior’s guild, if you finish your tasks swiftly come drop by, else we meet in the central square.”

Elaine replied with a fake smile and subtly dragged Rionara away, however instead of entering the guild, the elf instead opted to slip away in an alley located between the guild and inn. A few quick glances was all it took for Elaine to confirm they weren’t seen and as soon as they entered the alley she pressed the girl against the brick wall.

“Listen carefully because I’ll say this only once.” She stared into Rionara’s eyes as if she was seeing through her soul. “While Rein may be merciful with folks like you, I don’t like your kind. You robbed us from what little money we had and it is thanks to you that we need to risk life and limb in order to get that coin back.”

Rionara lowered her head as she began to clutch her hands near her chest.

“I… I’m sorry…”

“I don’t need to hear those words from you. If it was for me you would’ve been dead.” She let go of the girl’s cloak and sighed. “Now that he knows of your plight I’m sure he’ll go out of his way to help you. While I don’t like the idea of spending time and effort for someone who stole from us, if something were to happen to you I’m sure he would be sad. So from now on you’ll be sticking with us you hear?”

“You mean…”

She sighed once again while scratching the back side of her head, unsure how she was supposed to say to the girl.

“You’ll stay with us until we can find someone to take care of you. Understand?”

“Can… can I really?”

Elaine reluctantly nodded and as she did so Rionara threw herself against the elf’s waist, hugging her tightly. Though the act certainly surprised her, she wasn’t totally against it as she let her be for a while until the girl let go of her.

“Well… either way let’s head to the guild and exchange these.”

She walked out of the alley with Rionara in tow. They entered the guild hall and as one would expect from a mid day visit, it was empty, only a few employees hanging quests and stray adventurers perusing said quests were in the main area.

“Oh you’re back!” The receptionist who took care of their first quest came around the balcony to greet Elaine. “But, where is the other gentleman that was with you?”

“He’s off with another adventurer we met in the dungeon.” The elf answered as she lifted the red stained burlap sack full of ears. “Our reward for these?”

“Ah, yes, a moment if you will.” The receptionist went around the balcony and wore a pair of leather gloves as she reached for the burlap sack, counting each ear that came out of it. “Aren’t you the overachievers, sixteen in total. That is four times the original quest objective.” She settled the ears in a glass jar while tossing the burlap sack away inside another basket in the back and removed the stained gloves. “Since the requester did add an extra reward for more materials I suppose you can take these with you.”

She pulled out a sizable, trimmed sack from the counter and placed it on top of the balcony, the sound of coins clinking was like music to Elaine’s ears.

“How much is this?”

“Forty silvers.”

“Thank you.”

The elf grabbed the sack and began to firmly tie it to her belt, meanwhile Rionara, who was staring at the whole exchange, noticed the receptionist gaze directed to her.

“Um… can I help you little miss?”

The woman smiled while asking but the girl’s first reaction was to hide behind Elaine.

“She’s a… friend of ours.”

“I see.” She answered while reaching for something behind her. At first even the elf wasn’t sure of what she was going to do until the woman offered a puffy white cylindrical treat on a toothpick to the girl. “Here you go, little miss.”

Rionara was hesitant at first but Elaine pushed her in order for her to take the receptionist’s offer. At first she was hesitant to take a bite but since the woman was staring at her with so much expectation she couldn’t help but nibble on it.

Contrary to Rionara’s expectations the white fluffy candy was a bit chewy but pleasantly sweet, so much so she began to take bigger bites off it. The receptionist smiled warmly.

“We used to make these for the orphanage back in Astera.” She glanced at Elaine. “Take care of her, Miss Elaine.”

The elf glanced at Rionara who was too absorbed in the candy to pay attention so she patted her shoulder twice as she turned around to leave.

“Come on, let’s go.”

The girl nodded but before they left the guild hall she turned around to look at the woman who just gave her the candy.

“T-thank you lady.”

The receptionist smiled while waving at the two who left the hall. Her carefree waving hand slowly lowered on the balcony as it slowly curled up into a fist as she held it within her left hand.

‘I pray for your safety.’