CH899

“You doing okay there, Delair?” Ben asked after they reached their last planned stop for the day and finding his student starting to lag.

“Mmh, I’m fine, I can keep up.”

He looked at her as she said it, clearly worn out from the long day and shook his head before picking her up to let her sit on his shoulders as they went. “Sorry kiddo, I didn’t think about how tiring being on your feet so long might be for you. I should have noticed sooner.”

“No, it was fun. I had such a great time seeing all of these new places and trying so many new snacks too!”

“Which reminds me, I saw how much you ate. If you think you’re going to be sick, try to give me a heads up before you barf all over me, would you?”

“I’m not going to be sick,” She said indignantly. “When you’re working, you need to eat, it’s important!”

“Ha, it is but it really shouldn’t be anywhere near as many snacks as I let you get. I feel like your mom won’t be thrilled with me if I ruined your dinner.”

“It’s fine, mom’ll understand.”

“Well, I hope so and… Abel, what are you doing?”

“Nothing,” She said, completely innocently as she did her best to climb Ben’s back.

“Half of your attributes are higher than mine; there’s no way you need me to carry you.”

“No, but it looks fun! I don’t usually get to be so high unless I really stretch out and that creates other issues so it’s not worth it.”

…If Thera sees this, she’s really not going to stop saying I’ve adopted Abel until she leaves, but…

“Fine,” He sighed, moving Delair to sit on one of his shoulders and letting Abel sit on the other. “But no kicking your leg while you’re up there. I know you have the strength to collapse my rib cage if you do and having already suffered plenty of rib damage less than a month ago, I’m not looking for a repeat.”

“Got it!” She laughed, taking in the better view and just enjoying being higher up while Ben ignored the looks they were getting as they went through the gate to the magic towers. Carrying Delair usually didn’t draw attention since not only was she young, she seemed on the shorter side for her age. Abel, though, was undeniable in the latter end of her teenage years and carrying her like that was more than enough to get some eyes on them.

But since I doubt anyone’s ever done this for her before, it’s fine. He thought with a sigh. Being a good influence and a positive role model and absolutely not a father.

<No, you’re definitely like a dad spoiling his daughters.>

Quiet you.

The looks only continued through the magic towers, where far more people were able to recognize him on sight for his various work there, both in their library and their guild, but since it was making the two happy he kept up with it till arriving at the guild hall itself, finally setting them down and ignoring their complaints about it as they passed through the building and back to the shop.

Okay, a ton of healers have been leveled and even more ordinary people got their brains augmented too so both Thera and the gods should be happy. And with a bit of time left in the day-

A loud banging came to the front door, unexpected since the town in general was aware they were closed and anyone who was meant to be there either had a key or else would come with some sort of warning, yet it didn’t let up, even as they went unanswered.

Well, I guess if it’s nothing crazy, nothing wrong with making a quick sale. He told himself, purely from the perspective of getting Delair some firsthand experience on that front since they’d been closed up ever since he’d started training her and led him to answering the door, finding far more than he’d been expecting on the other side from the small crowd that was waiting for him.

Aaaand I instantly regret answering.

People of various species, none of whom looked particularly happy to see him as they wore faces of either resolutions or discomfort waited for him on the other side and before any could so much as get a word out he’d closed it again, seeing a problem he didn’t want to have to deal with.

“Alright guys, new plan,” He said lightly to the two with him as the banging started again, all the more insistent now that they knew he was there. “That looks like it’s going to be a pain so what we’re actually going to do is dip out to where Thera and Mora are going to be and then get Thera to give us a lift back into town the long way. It’s going to waste an extra hour or two but it will probably be worth it.”

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“Sounds funny,” Abel laughed at the very thought, imagining how long they might wait before giving up while Delair was more practical.

“What if they vandalize the shop though?”

“Well, then I track them down one by one and… Not do that because I’m trying to be a good influence on you. Okay, fine, I’ll see what they want.”

Whatever it was, he just wanted to avoid it but it was important to try and put on a proper display for his student as he opened up again with his most professional smile on his face, speaking up before any of them could.