NOVPUBArwin nearly choked on his own saliva. The casual way in which Thane prophesied his own death had caught him completely off guard. There wasn’t a single ounce of fear or worry in his tone. It sounded more like he was making an idle observation about the weather.
“What?” Arwin asked. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said,” Thane replied. He tapped the bag of scrolls before him with a pensive look. “I’ve tried to take every variable into account. You can’t, of course, but you know that. It isn’t possible. There’s always something that can’t be accounted for. But I believe I’ve weighted things close enough to reality to get a very accurate estimate of my chances — and that estimate says there’s absolutely no way I survive tomorrow. I’m going to die.”
Thane’s guard looked entirely unbothered. It looked like the mage was more than used to his charge’s manner of being. He just scratched at his chin and drummed his fingers against his staff.
Arwin exchanged a glance with Melissa. The expression on her face made it clear that Thane had already had a similar conversation with her. He did everything he could to keep his expression neutral.
It wasn’t easy.
Hearing someone as young as Thane say with such certainty that he was going to die was a sad thing indeed. But perhaps worse was the fact that Arwin agreed with him. The odds were immensely stacked against Thane. If he’d gone with just about any other Adept ranked team, he would have almost certainly died.
I’m pretty sure we can handle this with the Menagerie, though. He seems far from an arrogant idiot. If the kid follows our orders and doesn’t plunge into danger, then we should be able to handle this without any problem. But that isn’t even my biggest problem.
“And if you think you’re going to die, why are you doing this?” Arwin’s brow furrowed as he searched for clues in Thane’s expression. “Why not get your Class literally any other way? There’s no need to plunge off a cliff if you think you’re going to splatter at the bottom.”
“Oh. Well, I have to,” Thane said without missing a single beat. “That’s my duty, Sir Ifrit. I’m the second in line to House Blacktongue.”
“What’s that meant to mean?” Arwin asked. “I don’t see how that has anything to do with what we’re talking about.”
“My duty is to create value for the family. My brother is being prepared to take over the family. That means he has to stay safe. But we’ve been stagnant. The only thing Blacktongue has now is money. We need someone to spearhead the family’s strength. That duty — and danger — falls to me,” Thorn explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I need to take the risks so that he can’t.”
“Nothing about that means you have to kill yourself in a dungeon far too dangerous for you.”
“It doesn’t,” Thane agreed. “But have you heard of House Blacktongue before today?”
Arwin hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should lie. Then he shook his head. He wanted to know where Thane was taking this. “No. I haven’t. Why?”
“It’s because we haven’t done anything. My brother and I are both turning sixteen very soon. I was born ten minutes after him, but the next day over. My mother gave birth to him just before midnight.” Thane paused, then realized he’d gone off track and corrected himself. “The point is, we’ve accomplished nothing. Blacktongue may as well not exist. If we don’t have some manner of achievement under our belts by the time we’re sixteen, we’ll lose face.”
Arwin stared at Thane. “You’re going to what you believe to be certain death because you’re worried your family will lose face if you don’t?”
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“Yes, exactly!” Thane didn’t catch a single drop of the stunned sarcasm in Arwin’s tone. He just nodded enthusiastically. “Getting a class myself won’t do anything. It doesn’t really matter. But getting one like this… working together with the Menagerie, it’ll go a long ways in building our name.”
“Even if you die?” Arwin asked.
“An honorable death is a worthy one.”
Arwin stared at Thane for a second.
No. No, it isn’t. Death is death. Living is worthy. Dying for something worthless like this isn’t even honorable. It’s just a complete and utter waste of life. And being so willing to go along with it…
“Do you even want to be an adventurer?” Arwin asked. “Or is that for your family as well?”
“Oh, no. I love everything about adventuring,” Thane said, his eyes lighting up. “I don’t want to die. The freedom, the ability to help people… it sounds incredible. I’ve been studying adventurers ever since I was a kid.”
You’re still a kid.
“Studying?” Arwin tilted his head to the side. “Not practicing? Have you ever used a sword? Not swung. I mean actually trained.”
“Nope,” Thane said. “My parents wouldn’t let me. They didn’t want me getting hurt pointlessly.”
Arwin’s eye twitched. He didn’t miss the last word Thane had said. Pointlessly. Not that they didn’t want him getting hurt, but they didn’t want it happening in a way that could potentially inconvenience the Blacktongue family. 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓅𝓾𝒷.𝒸ℴ𝓂
Well this is just great. I fucking hate this kid’s family… but I rather like him. If I tell him to get lost to spite his family, he almost certainly does die. But if I help him, then I help his family. What a pain in the ass.
“Exactly what kind of adventurer do you think you’ll become?” Arwin asked, keeping his words measured. “Because a mark of adventuring is not taking idiotic challenges. You can’t do anything for anyone if you’re dead. Risks have to be—”
“Measured,” Thane said with a nod. He nudged his bag. “I know. I do a lot of that. I think I would like to be a mage. I’ve always loved magic.”
And he shows up with a sword. Lovely. At least he doesn’t want to be a warrior. Kid’s built like a twig and he doesn’t seem nimble enough to dodge much of anything. He’d get snapped in half by a rabbit, much less an Expert tier monster.
“I see,” Arwin said, if only to buy himself some time to think.
“Would you give me some advice? I’ve spent a ton of time researching your guild. That’s how my parents found out about you, actually. I was actually reading up on you before the Proving Grounds. I had a bet that you would perform well. It’s really an honor to meet you. Anything you can tell me about adventuring would be really highly weighted.”
“I’ll have to think on it. Advice thoughtlessly given is often pointlessly heard,” Arwin said. He wanted to say more, but the expectant excitement in Thane’s eyes killed the words in his throat. The kid had way too much faith in him.
But if it comes to letting someone die to screw his scum family over or helping them out to save him… a life is worth more than anything else. I’ll just have to make sure Melissa rinses these bastards for all they’re worth.
And she won’t be the only one.
House Blacktongue was going to regret underestimating the Menagerie and giving them free access to their dungeon. Arwin was going to personally make sure of that. His team was going to pick the whole damn place clean until not even the flooring was left.
“I don’t mind waiting. But I would appreciate if you gave it to me before tonight,” Thane said, scratching the back of his neck. “I won’t be in a good spot to hear it after then.”
“Stop with that. You’re not going to die,” Arwin said through a snort. He clapped Thane on the shoulder, then winced as the kid nearly crumpled under his hand. The boy really was weak. It didn’t look like he’d spent more than a few minutes outside of a classroom in his whole life.
“Yes I am,” Thane said. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t need false hope. I’m perfectly accepting of my lot. This is what I was born to do. Being able to spend one day as an adventurer is more than I thought I’d get. There’s just no way I can fight an Expert Tier monster. It’s impossible.”
The strand of anger in Arwin intensified. Being so satisfied to accept death for such a completely and utterly pointless reason was infuriating. It infuriated him. Life was too precious to waste, much less on something so worthless.
Thoughts flashed through his mind. The day was still young. He had time to create gear before the time to enter the dungeon rolled around… and he was starting to get a pretty good idea of exactly what he would make.
“I don’t make a habit of lying. I have people that are far better at it than I am,” Arwin said. “I’m telling the truth.”
“You’re saying my calculations were wrong?” Thane asked. “How? I’ve done them over and over. I’m not missing anything.”
“Yes, you are,” Arwin said with a cold smile. “And I know that you haven’t properly accounted for what the Menagerie and I are capable of. Not even close.”
