Log InRegister
    Read Free Web Novels Online
    Chapter Index

    “Sachel, Ceselee’s requested your immediate presence,” Onk said as soon as she opened the door, the knocking ensuring she got up when all she’d wanted was an early night, leaving her rubbing her eyes as she answered.

    “Ugh, Onk? What is it and why couldn’t it wait until tomorrow?”

    “An impromptu town meeting where some are suggesting trying to kick Ben out of town. Seeing as how you and him devote yourselves to the same god, she was hoping you’d come to try and help calm things down.”

    “Wait, what? Why?”

    “I’m sure you’re already well aware of what happened today.”

    “That’s…”

    She couldn’t respond to that, even if she knew more than most from talking with her god. Like so many others, she’d seen Stonewall be devastated by the explosion of plant life and she’d seen Ben put it back together again with a terrifying level of power, but that wasn’t all she’d witnessed. She was one of the town’s awakened skill holders and a plant mage at that, with all of the benefits that would come from such a thing, expected and not. Sure, her power had practically exploded compared to what it had been before and thanks to connect merging into it to turn the skill into a variant beyond the standard form, she could do far more with it than others who held the same power, but there was another change that anyone would get when awakening any affinities magic as well. She could now see the spirits and elementals who matched the ones she held.

    A result that made her well aware of all of the earth, water, and life spirits constantly in town and the few elementals who’d make their way there as well but just as importantly, had given her a far better idea of what had happened, letting her feel the plant mana that filled the land that Ben himself would never have been able to produce and being enough for her to ask their shared god for the real story, learning that he was just covering for the child in his care in the process.

    It was something that he decided for himself and she wasn’t going to correct anyone on it either but that didn’t mean he should be exiled for it; least of all when he’d done everything he could to put things right as well.

    “But that would obviously be terrible for the town, wouldn’t it?” She tried instead. “I mean, his weird research center alone, doesn’t he pay it out of pocket?”

    “I’m not sure, why?”

    “Because he’s loaded and pays well and all of that’s going to go back into the local economy, isn’t it?”

    “An excellent point, one of many I hope you’ll bring up with the more reactionary members of town. Now if you don’t mind hurrying, the guild master is doing her best to keep things under control.”

    Right.

    With nothing else to be said, she ran off, following Onk to the town square and finding it far more crowded than she’d ever expected, with it looking like nearly a quarter of the residents were there, facing Ceselee and even the mayor beside her who were doing their best to keep things calm.

    “I know plenty of you are unhappy,” Ceselee said, trying to sound calm and reasonable. “Some of you have been hurt and the experience must have been horrifying but he did his best to make up for it. Everything’s been rebuilt and he’s compensated enough money to more than cover any lost food and emotional harm. I’m not saying that has to be enough but that doesn’t have to mean kicking him out of the town itself. We can all discuss an appropriate way to try and make this right.”

    The mayor beside her opened his mouth to say his own piece but didn’t get the chance as one in the crowd, someone Sachel recognized from the guild as fifth-ranked adventurer, yelled out instead.

    “And we’re just supposed to take that?” The man yelled out. “Toss a bit of money at us and act like it isn’t a problem? Yeah, this is one big thing but it’s been one damn thing after another since he moved here, hasn’t it? People trying to kill him and cause chaos or testing his inventions out in the streets or drawing ridiculous crowds and disrupting all of our lives and then just moving hundreds of people here without a word! Why should we have to put up with his antics when it would be easier on all of us to just kick him out!”

    While not everyone, there was a murmur of agreement that went up, what had been a bit of occasional dissatisfaction escalated by both the events of the day and the mob mentality as Sachel pushed her way to the front to take the guild master’s side.

    “If by ‘moved hundreds of people here without a word’, you mean did everything he could to save a group that was going to be wiped out by the demons then you’re correct,” She said, focusing on the easier point to deal with while noticing the distinct lack of demidemons in the crowd, all of them too new to be made aware of such things when they’d only just come to town and had only started to integrate. “A group that’s immediately started helping I might add, in case you didn’t notice just how well staffed the clinic currently is.”

    “That doesn’t change the point,” Another lower ranked adventurer yelled, leaving Sachel to wonder if that was going to be a trend. “He’s dangerous and he’s careless, we shouldn’t have to live like this, wondering if he’s going to cause some other chaos like that again when maybe we won’t be so lucky to get away with just a few injuries!”


    If you come across this story on Amazon, it’s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    “In case none of you noticed, the whole world is dangerous right now,” The guild master sighed. “And let’s clarify something here. In Ben’s case, dangerous means powerful. I’d much rather have that same strength you all saw around town to help out when it can and I’d view that as worth a bit of risk.”

    0 chapter views

    0 Comments

    Note
    1 online