Chapter 24

  Barracks

  Where we end up waiting is a low, wide building full of tables, like the world's most boring dive bar. It's largely empty this time of day, but not for the usual reason a place that looks like this would be empty. The reason isn't that it's the wrong time for drinking, though it is. In fact, I'm not certain this place even serves alcohol.

  We're in the commons area of the village's guard barracks. Because it's only a village, almost all of the guards go home at the end of their shift, only a few staying in the handful of beds past the doors. This is probably usually because they have an odd shift or are pulling a double and there's no point going home.

  The commons area is the largest section of the building, with only said bunks, a couple offices, a small armory and a Mayberry-sized area for holding cells taking up the rest of the interior space. They have a small training area that honestly seems kind of pathetic after having seen what the Guild office of even a tiny place like Dabun has, but that's outside.

  They don't even have snacks available for the guards, let alone guests like Ayre and me, so I've reached into my magic bag yet again with milk and cookies. I think it's kind of a cringe snack, but we really are running low on supplies, so, short of a full meal, it's all I've really got at the moment.

  Not that Leuke minds.

  "Wow, you really are good at cooking, Rem," he says around another one he just shoved in his mouth. Somehow, despite his tendency to talk when he eats, and to stuff his mouth with food, precious little manages to escape it. It's like the laws of physics bend to his will to eat all of the stuff. "These are the best cookies I've ever had!"

  He swallows and chases it with some milk before speaking again. "Somehow, I figured this would be Sei's specialty. But wow, what kind of fruit did you use to sweeten it? I can't pick up on the texture at all!"

  Sei, that would be Seina Bibe, the Theurgist Hero. She specializes in holy magic similarly to a Priest. I'm not sure of the differences, but since I've never seen a Priest with a flail, I can only assume she's more combat-oriented than they are. I was ... distracted during the initial presentation of our abilities, though, so the only thing I saw from her was barriers and healing magic, both of which I know a Priest does, courtesy of Yorin.

  I can see what Leuke means, though. Seina feels different from the other Heroes. I never really thought of myself as a warrior, per se, but I think I've proven a go-getter. Leuke, Benarou and Tassim all radiated experience, or at least knowledgeability, from the moment I first met them.

  Seina, on the other hand, wasn't out of place in that room where we shared breakfast, so much as she simply lacked a big presence. And not because she was short or ... endowed. She just didn't feel like a warrior. She felt like a ... a caregiver. Even her flail is really a thurible. It's easy to picture her in ceremonies or next to someone's sick bed, but much harder to picture her in the middle of a bloody battlefield.

  Personally, I'm all for that kind of Hero, too. You can end up overlooking a lot of needs when all you have are combatants. You're also at risk of having such an outweighing hammer that every little problem starts looking like a nail. I'm glad she's there to keep our perspectives broad.

  I really only make a mental connection to what he must have meant about Seina before circling back to Leuke's question about the cookies, though. "That's because I didn't sweeten them with fruit. In fact, these specific cookies are called sugar cookies."

  "Sugar?!" And, I swear, he actually almost sprayed that time, as he's already snatched up another and shoved it in that bottomless maw he calls a mouth. He compulsively swallows again. "Oh, gosh, and I've been eating them up! It's nice of you to share something that expensive, but I feel like I owe you now!"

  I wave it off. "It's fine, I've got a source. It's one of the essence crops I grow, and one of the few things I've still got plenty of in storage since it grows so fast. If you checked your status, you'd see the sugar cookies boost mana regeneration."

  "Huh, no kidding?" He turns his head a bit away, no doubt checking exactly that. "Wow, you should share some of these with Benny!"

  Benny, that's Benarou Sendai, the Battlemage Hero. He almost looks like he's the one that got brought here from another world, tall, lean, jet black hair and glasses. Not to mention dangerously clever. He guessed a lot about where I came from just from seeing my Outsider status and disproportional stats.

  Also, he hates when Leuke calls him Benny, but the big lug has proven oblivious to social cues. Really, there must be something in general against nicknames in this society, because I'm the only one that doesn't mind him shortening my name. I'm not sure Leuke even remembers our whole names, anyway.

  I take out a couple caramel apples and set them on the table between us. "You can eat one now because I know you'll want to, but save the other for when you're in a tight spot. If you think the cookies are impressive, these things fully restore your health and mana, no matter how much you've lost."

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  He marvels at the wrapped treat. "Wow, these could change how we treat injured forever! Why haven't we already started spreading them throughout the empire?!"

  "We have," I admit with a bit of fidgeting. "Slowly, anyway. Essence crops are so powerful that the Throne is worried about them becoming prolific enough for abuse. I can see where they're coming from. Personally, I'm more concerned about the consequences of inflated statuses driving people to a false sense of invulnerability."

  "Oh, yeah." Leuke's response is slow, probably from processing the number of larger words.

  Ayre's there to help. "She means the Throne doesn't want bad people to get hold of them, while she's worried about people using them to pick fights bigger than they can handle."

  "Oh! Yeah!" His face immediately lights up with understanding. "Thanks! Sometimes, Rem talks a lot like Benny."

  Ayre gives a knowing nod. "She calls it collegiate." Then, in a sarcastically loud whisper, the elf adds, "She doesn't think she's one of them!"

  They share amusement at my expense, then Leuke adds, "You must be pretty smart, too, if you're able to keep up with her, Ay!"

  Aaaaand there's the nickname. He's managed to shrink even Ayre's short name. I wasn't sure it was even possible. Maybe it's some sort of unique talent.

  Ayre's bottom lip goes out, but the elf is very clearly trying not to take offense while simultaneously finding it offensive. "Actually, my Intellect has been slowly going up ever since I met her. I think just listening to someone like her and trying to follow along must count as mental training."

  That surprises both of us Heroes. This is the first time Ayre's mentioned this.

  "Wait, really?!" I ask. "That's so cool! Why didn't you mention that before?!"

  My friend frowns over at me. "Because if I told you that listening to you yammer about otherworldly nonsense was making me smarter, you'd never stop."

  ... Okay, that's fair.

  Leuke's shock is being replaced by a more thoughtful expression. "Actually, it makes sense in a way. You get faster if you try to keep up with someone fast. You get stronger if you try to keep up with someone strong. It's a basic fact of training."

  But then he sighs. "Man, you're telling me if I'd just been paying attention to Benny's constant lecturing, I could have gotten smarter?! But it's so dull!"

  "... You're a Hero," Ayre points out flatly. "You can just buy Intellect directly."

  He grins in embarrassment as he rubs the back of his head. "Well, yeah, sure, but that takes points, and those are hard to come by!"

  "Right, points make the world go, Hero or not. Except for one." Ayre pins me with an accusing gaze. "Funny how she never has that problem, somehow."

  I feel like I'm getting grilled under a spotlight for some reason, and twiddle my thumbs. "I'm sure it's just because of all of the training we do! And we've been running through dungeons one after another ..."

  "If at all possible," Leuke puts in on that, "I want to do Ogre's Grotto with you two. You're the only Hero I haven't gotten to really see in action!" He turns to Ayre with just as much energy. "And you're keeping pace with a Hero, Ay! I couldn't have imagined doing that! You must be really amazing, too!"

  Ayre rubs behind one of his ears as they wilt in embarrassment at the praise. "Well, a Sacred Priestess told us to keep it quiet, so keep this to yourself, but Heroes like you and Remmi give allies a point multiplier, just like training in a dungeon."

  "Wow, really?!" He looks down at his own hands in wonder, as if seeing them for the first time. "We can do something like that?! That's crazy!" Then his face split into a bright, excited smile. "Maybe Captain will want to train with me!"

  "Speaking of the Captain," I speak up, seeing an opportunity to get the topic back to something more current, "I keep hearing Captain this and Captain that, but everyone seems to know them so well that they don't actually share anything. What can you tell me about the guard captain, before we meet?"

  Leuke practically starts gushing, it's almost cute. "Oh, you'll like her! She's really nice, and we all really look up to her! I grew up with her, and she was always looking out for me. She stopped me from doing so many dumb things!"

  "So she's the same age as you and she's already captain, huh?" I ask. I'm starting to get a rather cliche mental image of the tomboy next door.

  "Yeah, she always worked really hard!"

  "Captain is only second in command for most guard hierarchies," Ayre fills me in. "Bigger cities will have more ranks, and Captains will be in charge of divisions. In smaller towns and villages like this, though, there's not enough guards for more than one Captain, and they're the right hand of the Commander of the Guard."

  I rub my chin at that. "Then why does everyone we talk to default to all of this reverence for the Captain? Why aren't we talking to the Commander?"

  "The Commander's getting up in years," Leuke admits awkwardly. "Heck, he was getting up there when we were kids. I still wouldn't want to make him mad, but his stamina isn't what it used to be. Everyone else his age has retired, that's why Captain was able to get promoted so quickly. Now, she's basically running all of the day-to-day stuff in his name."

  "Oh, so she's the Captain in name only, basically. That explains it." I shift in my seat before correcting course again. "So what can we expect, personality-wise?"

  "Oh, super-nice," he nods eagerly. Then he pauses, considers for a moment with his head back, and lowers it to look at us again. "In fact, Tash reminds me of her!"

  Immediately, I'm taken aback. That would be the last Hero, Tassim Miyan, the Shadowstalker Hero. Out of the four Heroes, not counting myself as the fifth, Tassim had struck me as the one that had, to borrow a phrase from back home, "seen some shit."

  She wasn't mean, or even particularly standoffish. She was just taciturn. Cool, distant, a little brooding, maybe. I'm pretty sure she was involved in illegal stuff before becoming a Hero. I wouldn't be surprised to find out she'd killed before.

  But, like with Seina, I know what Leuke means. Whatever Tassim's background, rather than some evil, bloodthirsty assassin, she'd been protective of us, calling out our more troublesome behaviors and doing her best to mediate our personality differences. Most notably, she'd been the buffer between everyone and Leuke's loud bulldozer personality.

  But nice? She isn't exactly the poster child for nice, let alone super-nice. Leuke is nice. Tassim is ... orphanage big sister that's been around too long to put up with the little brats' nonsense. Jaded, that's a good term for Tassim.

  "How does Tassim meet the definition of super-nice?" I finally ask.

  Even though it was his comparison, Leuke has to think about it for a minute. "She seems the type to always keep us out of trouble?"

  That's true, and he did say that was something this woman did.

  Before I can say another word, the doors to the barracks are thrown open in a manner that nearly gives me flashbacks.

  "LEUKE FLAMVEL!"

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