There was no time to call Fren! With her bare hand, Clar curled a fist. Then, with all of her body weight —all her strength, she punched the enemy golem!

CRACK!

She landed-kneeled. Her right palm, the one she punched her enemy with, still closed tight, curled in a fist —cracking the stone floor.

She had leaped backward once her punch connected; a mere one and a half second gap. Now, she was standing between the golem and her master. Her arm spread wide, her aura flaring — forming a swirly yellow shield.

True to her prediction and just with three seconds to spare, she heard it. Her punch had reached—

BOOM!

—the golem core, blowing it up.

BOOM! BOOM!

BOOM!

She felt the dust blew and blew. Rocks, small and big, flew. Her aura, thin as it was, trying it best to redirect the worst of the impact before it had the chance to touch master. She could felt some of the small flying rocks —shrapnel as master called it— ricocheting, bouncing off her shield, toward her surrounding, and more importantly. toward the sneaky man. Good! That should hurt the sneaky man a bit! She thought. She would handle the sneaky man after this. How dare he exposed master to enemies! And here she thought he just sneaky, not bad! She promised herself that from now on, she’d never dismissed master warning anymore. But for now, master safety was more important. She could still saw, two other enemy golems. Their eye shone red behind the cloud of dust. She must succeed! She must protect master!

 

Saying that he was shell-shocked wouldn’t be too far from the truth. However such statement was as correct as someone saying they like orange juice because it tasted sweet. Sugar water, the liquid, syrupy kind were also sweet. Sweeter than the orange juice. But no one in their right mind would say sugar water was orange juice. Taste, like emotion, thought, and everything else, had these ...complexities, nuances.

It layered itself, contained and mired with multitudes. It demanded one to be honest in their self-reflection —to open and reopen to different, contrasting interpretation. Which was why, Euca, who had a shrapnel cutting his ankle length with a gash and pain akin to the evil paper cut, held all his knee-jerk, unsavory emotions threatening to burst. Even though his own naked eyes currently witnessing hundred and hundred of his golds crumbling. Exploding to dust, to smithereens.

Waiting for the chaos to settled, he pushed himself to do the same. He made a big mistake. Thinking Clar was in the same, similar situation as him. She wasn't. Thus, he closed both of his eyes, drew a very long breath, and dipped his head downward. Embracing ‘the nuances’ in full.

He beheld and savored all the emotional layers bursting within him. He noted, cataloged each and every implication that shook his very soul. He observed his approach, scored, and assessed it in distant impartial gaze. Letting his rational self hold the rein tight.

Then as it ended, as the conclusion —the lists of unwarranted things he knew would pop up from here, he delved to his emotion. Taking note what he himself wanted.

He didn’t sideline them. Emotion birthed reason. And what life without at least a reason? So he let them took hold. Feeling them. Delve to them. He saw each and every single one’s intricacies. How they were mished and mashed to a very fine blend. And he saw them, the major one at least. Mix of elation tinged with feeling of safety, fear of discovery folded with fear of unknown, and good old hindsight, reminding him why it called 20/20. He let them guided him to a conclusion.

And just in time.

“Cease. Idle,” he said, raising both of his right hand index and middle finger side by side, forming a close up number eleven. It were the command words. The [Chronicle] command words. He was not sure it’d work, but...

“Master?” At once he saw her dropped her battle stance. Her feet closed, standing straight. Her [Aura Shield] disappeared.

“Mm-hmm.” He nodded, swallowing his sigh in relief. Thank goodness... He said to himself. It worked.

Schooling his face, he fished his affectation —wide jaw, wide smile, plastered straight to his face in record time. “Good job, Clar! You spotted the enemy so fast!!”

“Thank you, master! But master… there are more!” Her eyes pointing to the other three golems, who thanked his purse, still stood untouched.

“I know, I know,” he paused. Ignoring her implicit request to relieve her idle state. “But Clar…”

“Yes, master?”

“They’re not real enemies. They’re” —he lowered his head and spoke to her ear— “training enemies.”

“Training enemy?” she replied, also whispering.

“Yeah! Like the one we visit on Mirfield remember?” he whispered still. “The one you got Gold score!”

“Oh!! Clar remember!” she said beaming.

“Good, good. Now stay here, okay!” He patted her beret twice.

“Okay!”

“And don’t touch anything!”

He half-ran toward the still opened, ajar door. To the [Minder] who despite the man’s rather raggedness hadn’t berate him mad. Yet.

“...tocol. Tha client’s companion instantly atta’ tha designated gol’m number two unprovoked. The gol’m physical structure is destr’yed compl’tely. ‘nchantment status result pending [‘nchanta] obs’rvation. Tha ‘mployee obs’rved sev’ral furtha’ damag—”

Or not...

“So…,” he asked, dragging his feet on the last five steps. Trying very hard to stare straight to the [Minder’s] eye. “How much do I owe the guild for… for you know…”

“ —es. Damn ye Ooca! Thar golem made ta stand full atta’ from a peak C rank!! Peak C!! Yer siste’ damn scary!”

“S-sorry...” He drooped his head. “I know she’s been training with Miste— sorry, with… with... old master. But I didn’t know she had progressed this fast... It just… when she said she wanted to become an adventurer, I just worried you know? But” —he said pointing to the room with both of his hands— “I guess, I’m just fooling myself...”

“Tis’ fine Ooca, Tis fine. Ye just worried... Hell if me family could do sumthin’ like this, we’ll brag aboot it fer seasons!”

“But Mira warned ya. And she’s right, thar gol’m is mighty pric’y.”

He paused, pulling the door leaf wide open. His hand beckoning him. “Come, let just tell her wha had happ’ned. And hope she is in one of her good mood.”

The walk wasn’t long. Just a short three minutes steps where the first two mostly spent to reassure Clar that Barna wasn’t some evil golem summoner coming to trap him, her master, in a diabolical, demon-worshipping, cult’s sacrifice room. Again. Hindsight.

Sighing, Euca prepared his account card alongside the merchant guild’s pre-approved letter of transfer. He hoped the damage hadn’t exceeded three hundred golds, lest he must make the trip personally. Thus, he was surprised when he heard the double-digit’s bill he presented with.

“...how much is it again?”

“Twenty three golds...” The receptionist put her hand in her forehead. She’s been shaking it for a half minute now.

“Oh.”

“Look, I’ll be honest with you, Euca. You seem like an honest kid. We don’t get much of that kind here. And you just trying to help your sister right? Which hearing from Barn, made an ...accident.”

“And if you tried to help, which I’m sure you would. Because who in his right mind wouldn’t help her own sister right? Right? RIGHT? —we have collections, deliveries, even stuff like cleaning. It’s very easy, even for G-rank. Although your sister” —she pointed to Clar— “could skip to D instantly.”

“After we verified it of course... Barna who’s the available instructor right now?”

“Telin’, Mira.”

“Ouch... Well, no matter! The guild will note your debt and took half of your quest earning until you pay the rest of it. Of course the longer you pay it, the more interest it cropped up, so you should work hard to pay it immediately—”

“...thank you miss, but I think I’ll pay it right now.”

“—now of course we need to have you registered. Here the introduction pamphlet, take it. Your card will have to wait a bell, Syn is outside having lunch. What’s wrong with our cafeteria anyway? That girl really. Now where was I? Oh right, you’ll want to have your class, but that’s not until next sixth. So for now it should be quest. Hmm, quest, quest, quest... Here we have request from Mrs. Polp to clean her storage in the El— wait. Wait what?”

“What did you say again…?”

“Umm… I’ll pay the damage right now?”

“You have golds?”

“Umm ...yes?”

“Why didn’t you say so!”

“I did, miss... But, you keep talking and it feels rude to interrupt you... ” Euca said, opening his pouch, taking —counting the exact total golds before handing it to the miffed receptionist who received the coins in what he guessed as a fiery mix between disbelief and annoyance.

“He got ye there!” he put a stiff smile, walking two steps backward as not to be in the line of fire between the receptionist, her eyes flaming, and the [Minder] who he was assured would get a rather interesting evening out of him.

“Whatever,” she said, counting and depositing all the gold to a box labeled ‘GUILD’. “I’ll assume you still want to have your sister tested?”

“Yes please.”

“Fine. Barna, tell Telin we have a skipper. Use room B.”