Chapter 63. Rare Encounter
The morning came too soon. Rhys stretched and sat up. He hadn’t made much progress in his intent skill, but he had progressed a little, enough that he needed a visit to the trash heap to repair his body. He made a quick detour there and repaired his body, washing off in the stream afterwards. As he climbed out of the water, the raccoon who’d shown him the stream edged up to him. It grabbed his robe and tugged it once, twice, then nodded into the forest.
Rhys smiled. He nodded back. “I know,” he whispered, though he was impressed at the raccoon’s senses. It was barely at Tier 0, but it could sense what he had to struggle to sense at Tier 2.
Then again, it’s a wild beast. Of course it would have stronger senses… that, and it probably didn’t start as trash. As though he hadn’t noticed a thing, he adjusted his robes and walked on, heading into town again.
Today, he had one goal. No, two goals. The first one was to attend a forging class and figure out how to repair that valuable cauldron he’d found in the trash. The second one… well.
“Are you done? I know you’re there,” Rhys said, looking over his shoulder. He caught a glimpse of dark robes before the figure darted away, and sighed aloud. “Come on. Why don’t you get down here? I know you’re there, so there’s no point for us to keep playing this game.”
A blur flashed through the air, and a Purple Dawn student materialized in front of him. To his surprise, he recognized them, and his jaw dropped. “Mouse?”
“Er…I’m sorry! I didn’t want to do it! They made me, they said, they said, I was so quiet like a mouse, so I might as well be the one who—I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to follow you, I had to!” She bowed repeatedly to him, hiding her face behind her hands and her heavy bangs.
“No, no, it’s… not okay, but I can overlook it.” No matter what, Purple Dawn was going to send someone to follow him. He’d already accepted it. Honestly, he had to thank them for the giant throw of putting Mouse up to the task. He supposed it made sense. Her peers looked down on her and devalued her, as if she were trash. Of course she’d get the shitty task of watching the trash disciple of Straw. That did bring up a question, though. He cleared his throat. “Did they tell you why you were following me?”
Mouse shook her head hard. “N-n-no! Ethan knows, but he said a little mouse like me doesn’t need to know. I-in fact, he said it’s better if I don’t know.”
Rhys nodded. That made things easier on him. If she didn’t know why she was following him, it would be easier to escape her watchful eyes. Of course, it was very possible that she was lying to him, and she knew exactly why she was following him, but he was willing to take that chance. He’d seen the way Ethan treated her, so he wouldn’t be surprised if she really didn’t know. If she did, then… it changed nothing. He’d planned to treat her the same regardless of her response, so he’d really only asked for his own information, but it really did sound like she didn’t know.
He glanced into the forest once more, but said nothing. That was for later.
Turning back to Mouse, he nodded. “Shall we?”