This was Mono’s daughter…?

The small girl was nearly as tiny as Merit. And not just in height either. She was skin and bones, at best… Were they not feeding her enough? Or was she sickly? Her lack of weight was more than just her age or not being much of an eater. Something was likely wrong with her.

Though it might just be her way of enduring her abilities. Some saints did get ill, physically, when they used them. To the point they got like this, all malnourished and stuff.

“So… how much leeway do I get?” Mono asked me.

“For…?” I asked carefully.

“When telling you a prophecy. You get angry, don’t you? When we do? How far can I take it before you actually kill me?” she asked with a small smirk tugging at her lips.

My eyes narrowed. “Your mother tried that too. I only needed to threaten a single thing to keep her from ever trying again,” I said, warning her.

Mono’s smirk disappeared as she tilted her head. “Really…? What was it?”

I lifted a hand and placed a single finger on her brow. Right in the middle of her forehead, nearly where her eyebrows met as she frowned up at me.

“If you test me, I will destroy your nerves. So that never again in your long life will you feel anything. No pain. No pleasure. Nothing. Living as if in another’s body, unable to even feel the wind upon your skin.”

Her shoulders slumped as her eyes went wide… and then she simply nodded.

Lowering my hand, I smiled gently at her and extended it as to offer a handshake in greeting.

She took it and sighed. “Mother should have warned me about you,” she mumbled.

“She hadn’t?” I asked.

“She died not long after I was born. By the way, have you ever met a snake? A man with white eyes and a long forked tongue?” she asked.

Hm…? I searched my memories as I released her tiny, mostly bones, hand. “No… I don’t think so. Why?”

“Supposedly he’s my father. I’m looking for him so I can kill him,” she said.

I didn’t need to read between the lines. The look on her face, and the tone she had used, told me all I needed to know. So I simply nodded. “Then when, or if, I ever meet the man… I’ll make sure to capture him for you,” I promised.

She blinked at me, and then frowned in shock. “You’d… not just kill him yourself?” she asked.

“If you want me to, yes. But you hadn’t told me to kill him,” I pointed out.

Little Mono then smiled and nodded. “Right. I hadn’t. Thank you! Light and the rest refuse to help me, saying I shouldn’t do it, but he hurt my mom! And not in a good way either!” she said as she raised both hands, forming fists, and shook them as if excited.

Right… she had enjoyed pain, but not that kind. Mono was likely the same. Thus her asking if I’d hurt her to keep her from saying prophecies. It was why my threat of ruining their nerves worked. It was akin to threatening Renn to take her sense of taste away, and thus not allow her to enjoy her smoothies anymore. It was a potent threat. “Got any more information about him…? His name? Where she encountered him?” I asked.

“Actually I do! I’ve had two dreams about him!” she said excitedly.

Uh oh… well… I raised a hand before she could ramble off whatever she knew, or had seen, and gently waved her down. “Hold on. I’ll more than happily help you, but in return please tell Renn this stuff instead. So that I don’t have to know such things,” I said quickly.

Mono blinked, and then nodded. “Right…! I’ll go find her right now!” Mono said quickly and then turned and darted off, before I could say anything.

Watching the young saint run out of the room, I sighed as I realized I’d just signed up for something rather serious.

But well… how could I not? That tiny thing was in no condition to do any kind of fighting, let alone getting revenge for her mother. Especially if it was a male non-human who had such strong traits such as a huge forked tongue.

If she’s had prophecies of him, he was likely alive. Hopefully he was nearby so I’d be able to handle it swiftly…

“Is she gone?”

I turned and watched a new face enter. Another small girl, though not as scrawny. Which was weird to think, since she was still scrawny herself. Was Light and the rest not taking proper care of them or something? “Hello,” I greeted the girl who was undoubtedly a wolf.

She had white ears. Ones not too different than Renn’s. But they were unmistakably that of a wolf, and not a cat or anything else. She had shoulder length hair which started out white, like the fur on her ears, and ended up some kind of blonde color. “My name is Tundra!” she happily said as she hurried into the room and up to me.

Tundra the wolf. Obviously.

“Tundra. I’m Vim, the Protector,” I introduced myself and held out my hand. The young girl gave me a toothy grin as she hurriedly took my hand and shook it, with far more vigor than she should have. Within three shakes I realized what she was doing, and likely why she was doing it, so I simply sighed and allowed her to try and squeeze me hard enough to hurt me.

It only took a few moments before she gave up, but she didn’t let go of my hand… even as our hands came to a stop, hanging between us as if lifeless. Only connected because neither would let go first.

“You… you’re more than strong, huh…?” Tundra whispered as she stared up at me.

I nodded.

“How…? This… this isn’t just strength, is it? It’s…” she began to mumble as she glanced down at our hands, and I watched her once again try to squeeze with all her might. Thanks to her sharp nails, kind of like what Renn had, they dug into the back of my hand a bit but not enough to make me stop her. I allowed her to squeeze again, and watched as she actually grimaced in effort.

“I hope you don’t do this to everyone you meet,” I said gently.

She immediately stopped, and then looked up at me with a weird look of annoyance. As if I’d just insulted her. “Of course not! Pretty much everyone else is weak!”

Oh boy. One of those.

I kept another sigh from escaping as I gently smiled at her. “So? Can I squeeze you back then, since you’re obviously not one of the weak ones yourself?” I asked.

Tundra’s ears shot straight up, and her already pale face went even whiter.

My smile softened as I released her hand, and slipped free of her half closed grip. “I don’t recognize you or your smell, but I’ve known other white wolves. Are you related to Snowbell?” I asked.

Her look of utter terror disappeared as she blinked and tilted her head. “Snowbell…? No! Who’s that? Can I meet them? Where are they!?” she asked excitedly.

Woops. “Sorry… they’re gone now. I was just wondering if you were related to them or not, or at least their bloodline,” I said gently. Obviously she wasn’t, if she didn’t know. Snowbell had been from a very proud family. The kind that knew each and every member of their pack, able to trace their lineage to their monarch and god. If this young girl didn’t recognize the name, then she wasn’t a member of their pack at all.

“Oh… No, I don’t think so. My father was the wolf. Mother was a fish. Father never told me much about his family, said they didn’t join the Society so weren’t worth talking about,” she said.

“I see,” I said, unsure of where to take the conversation from here. So… was she a purist or not? A part of me wanted to say she was, based off her attitude, but yet he hadn’t mentioned her mother with any scorn or distaste.

Tundra’s ears fluttered, but not like Renn’s. They looked like they could only move a bit in either direction, where Renn’s had a lot of mobility. To the point Renn could turn both ears completely different directions. Tundra’s though looked in sync, and unable to such a thing. “Why are you here and not with Renn and the rest?” she asked me with a gesture to the empty room we were in.

“I’d been talking to Less. She just left a bit ago,” I said. Then I’d gotten trapped by that scrawny saint.

“Ah… she’s a bore. I hear her sister is fun though,” Tundra said.

“Landi would eat you. I’d suggest not testing her as you had me,” I said, warning her.

Tundra shifted a bit and frowned up at me. “Are… you speaking from experience? Are you able to tell that I’d lose from our handshake just now?” she asked.

I nodded.

Her frown deepened. “Really…? Am I that weak then?”

I suddenly felt a little bad. This young wolf looked utterly hurt. As if I’d just told her of her parent’s deaths or something. She looked moments from breaking out into tears. “Rather than weak, you’re just young. Landi is a full grown predator.” And she had hearts within her, but I’d not say that here and now.

“So… I’ll be stronger once I get older too?”

“If you can live long enough, yes. You’re a wolf. A rather thick-blooded one…” I glanced down at my hand, and considered the strength she’d just displayed again, this time with a bit more sincerity… and I nodded. “If you trained, I’d say you’d become rather strong once full-grown, yes,” I decided to say. Maybe not Lilly’s or Renn’s strength, but not far off from them.

“Really!?” Tundra stepped forward, grabbing my shirt as she did. I shifted a bit, as I realized she was either a simpleton or much younger than I had first assumed her to be. She was now looking up at me as if I’d just given her a wonderful prophecy.

From a wild saint to a wild wolf. What was next? At least with Mono though I had been able to confirm, to a point, that the heart I carried was not carrying any divine power. It was in my left pocket, not a monarch pouch, and she’d not even glanced at it.

“Really.”

She beamed me a huge grin, her ears fluttering a bit as she made tiny happy noises. As she did so, I noted a lack of movement or sound coming from beneath her gray robe. She had no tail, it seemed. It’d be swaying something fierce if she had one, right now, I’d think.

“Think I can become the strongest!?” she asked excitedly.

No. “If you tried hard enough. Why do you want to be the strongest?” I asked.

“Because then I’d be the best, of course!” she said happily.

“Lot of responsibilities being the best you know,” I warned.

Her happy smile shifted, but not in worry or annoyance. “Huh? What do you mean?”

I nodded at her and gestured lightly at myself. “Look at me. I’ve been working nonstop for nearly four hundred years, without a single break. Even now I’m in a hurry, I should be heaving south right now and not here. If you become too strong, you’ll end up having to always be doing stuff like me,” I warned her.

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Tundra frowned and considered what I’d just said for a bit, and then she gently nodded. “Right… but that’s okay too! That means I’d just be needed then, right? It’d just make me even cooler!”

Cooler. Not a common word amongst this era. I wonder who had raised her. I didn’t recognize her smell at all, so I likely didn’t know either of her parents. “Do you want to become a knight or something?” I asked her, wondering what her goal was.

“No way! Mono is weird, Glasses stinks and Light won’t let me fight she said, so no!” Tundra said with a huff.

My eyes narrowed at that, and I read between the lines. Mono being weird was obvious. She was weird, in her own way. Glasses I’d not met yet, so had nothing to say there… but Light saying she’d not let this girl fight? Even though she was an actual predator, and was actually half-strong?

That meant there was a reason for it. One that Light had foreseen.

“Well… there are many uses for those who are strong. You can be like Merit who protects a location, if you’d like,” I suggested gently.

“Yeah! I’d be okay with that! A wolf should be a proud territorial protector, right?” she agreed.

“Mhm. The white wolves I knew, the one I mentioned, protected not just a location but a whole area. They guarded roads, bridges, and whatnot too. They did it so well there were many locations that tried to get them to be included in their territory,” I said.

Tundra’s eyes got huge as she became fascinated. “Bridges too!?” she asked with such a rush her voice cracked and squeaked.

I nodded. “They were a large family, a pack. About… twenty odd or so, yet they protected and claimed several hundred square miles of area. Several of them were very strong, to the point they even killed a few monarchs,” I said.

The young wolf stepped forward, and grabbed me by the arms and shirt. “I gotta know more!” she shouted excitedly.

“There’s actually someone who would know way more about them than me, if you’d rather hear about them from someone who used to live with them,” I suggested.

“Who!?”

“A man named Lawrence. He’s currently at the Animalia Guild, working as one of their auditors,” I said.

Her eyes glowed in glee as she quickly nodded. “Okay! I’m going to go pack!” she then said, letting me go and turned around.

“Pack…?” I asked before she could run off.

“You’re talking about the place that Light and Less moved to, right? I’ll move there too!” she said happily.

“Hold on… you have to get permission first, Tundra,” I said quickly before she could get ahead of herself.

She hesitated and glanced at me. “Permission…? From who?”

“Those who live there. Light had to get it too, so it’s normal,” I said.

Her ears fluttered a bit as she turned to face me. She had been just a few steps from the door, and looked as if she still wanted to run out it as to go pack. “Can’t you give me permission?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I’m the protector. I have no authority in deciding such things.”

“Right… who do I ask then?” she asked.

A little glad she didn’t seem too bothered by the idea; I went ahead and offered her a promise. “I’ll speak to Brandy and Gerald when I go back there tonight. That you’d like to move to the Animalia Guild. You don’t need to live there though, you know, Lawrence would likely be happy to sit and talk with you every so often if you simply visited and asked. He likes to reminisce about his old friends,” I said.

She quickly shook her head. “I’d rather go anyway! You’re there, and so is Renn and Merit, right? I bet it’s so much funner there!”

Funner, huh? “Well… you might also need to talk to whoever is the elder here too, with Light gone for now,” I said. I assumed it was Less, but honestly I didn’t know.

Tundra hummed as she nodded. “I’ll go talk to Blasco then. Are you going back there soon?” she asked.

“No. We have a few things to take care of before we go back…” I hesitated a moment, as I realized something. She was speaking as if she couldn’t go outside by herself. Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure if any of them left this building much if it all… “Once you have permission, from both locations, I’d be happy to help you move. I’m sure Renn would help too,” I said gently.

“Really!? Okay! I’ll go ask Blasco now!” Tundra happily nodded, excited again as she turned once more and hurried out of the room. This time though I didn’t stop her.

Sighing a little, I wondered who this Blasco was. I didn’t recognize that name either.

Really, what was I going to do about them all…? In theory if I followed through with stepping down, as I wanted to, it wouldn’t matter who they were or what they were doing… but…

Crossing my arms, I closed my eyes and wondered if I should keep getting involved or not. Less had wanted me to do something too, which was why we had stepped away from Renn and the rest as to speak privately. Now I had three requests to deal with, and I’d not even met everyone yet…

“Well, I must say it’s rather nice to see our protector so worried.”

Opening my eyes I turned to greet a new face, once more. This time it wasn’t a young girl, at least… though it was one with glowing eyes.

“Glasses,” I said, upon seeing the large spectacles on her face.

“Kind of give me away,” she said with a smile as she stepped into the room and held out a hand in greeting.

I took her hand, and was glad to see she was neither malnourished like Mono nor one to try and test her strength on me like Tundra. We shook hands normally, and I as we did I noticed she was standing with a very faint crookedness. A limp in her left leg, it seemed. I couldn’t tell if she was missing the leg, and walking on a prosthetic or something, but now that I noticed it, her slight unnatural stance was rather obvious. She looked like she couldn’t put much weight on her right leg.

Possibly an old injury.

“My name is Vim. I don’t believe we’ve ever met,” I said in greeting as our hands separated.

“No. I joined not long before we left to the other lands, before I had a chance to properly meet you,” she said.

Funny. I had been on those ships that had sailed there, all four of them. I had not felt a single saint upon them, as far as I could remember, yet here again was proof there had been. I wonder how Light had accomplished it.

“Well, welcome back, I suppose,” I said lightly, deciding to not spend much more thought on it. It was a long time ago, after all, and it wasn’t as if it really mattered.

The bespectacled woman smiled and nodded. As she did I couldn’t help but acknowledge that she was actually kind of cute. Not in the way Renn was, and not in a way I’d ever have pursued her for it since she was a saint… but if she’d not been a member, not a saint, and I didn’t have Renn… then in another time, another life, I would have likely asked her to dinner.

For a tiny moment I was a little shocked at thinking such a thing. After all, she was a saint… and honestly lately I’d not thought such things about anyone else ever since Renn had come into the picture. When was the last time I’d actually even noticed a woman’s appearance…?

“Not going to ask what I meant by seeing you worry?” Glasses then asked, snapping me from my thoughts.

I smirked at that. Was that why I’d found her cute, I wonder? “I understood your meaning. You’re glad to see that the one who is supposed to protect you and your people can find himself worrying, even over simple matters,” I said.

She smiled again at me, and I noted her sharp canines. Not as sharp as Renn’s, but far more than a human’s. “Indeed! Tundra… she’s a promiscuous girl, but can be sweet if you know how to handle her,” she said.

Sweet. Sure. “Right… Too sweet for me, I think I’ll let my wife handle her request if I can,” I said.

Glasses giggled at that. “How sweet indeed!” she said, obviously speaking of me this time.

Gosh she was cute. And she did indeed have a limp leg. I wonder why she didn’t have a cane or something; it looked almost as if she needed it. “I’m glad you found me, by the way. I had a small request of you, if you’d be willing to oblige me,” I said, doing my best to stop noticing that I found this saint attractive.

“Hm…?” she tilted her head at me, and for the first time I noticed she was wearing one of those headdresses. It was kind of shocking, since it was obvious. I couldn’t even tell what her hair color was, thanks to the style of the head-wrap around her head.

Really. What was wrong with me? “I’d like you to look at something,” I said as I dug the heart out of my pocket.

The saint frowned a bit as I held out the small heart. I offered it to her, and she gave me an odd smile as she picked up the green orb. “A… stone? It’s pretty, I suppose? I’m sorry, Vim, I don’t know anything about rocks or precious gems… What is it you’d ask of me?” she asked.

Studying the way she studied the heart, I felt a little… giddy, as I realized she wasn’t pretending at all. She genuinely thought it was just a pretty stone. She was peering at the thing through her thick glasses, trying her best to find the probable cause for me to have asked for her help.

“Was hoping someone could tell me what it is. You don’t have any clue at all? Never seen one like it before?” I asked.

“No…? There is someone here though, an older woman named Hervish. She’s rather knowledgeable about such gems and rocks. She might know what it is,” Glasses said as she then went to hand it back to me. She gave up rather quickly, likely because she genuinely had no clue about it either way.

I accepted the heart back and shifted a bit as I wondered if I could test it in another way.

Mono hadn’t noticed it, while in my pocket.

This saint seemed to not realize it was a heart. Usually a saint’s eyes would light up at the mere sight of them, and then they’d try to find a way to take them from me. But maybe this woman wasn’t a very strong saint…

“It’s fine… Maybe another time,” I decided.

Glasses gave me a slightly worried frown. “Is it important…? I feel bad now, since I’d come to ask you for a request and yet here I am… not really presenting myself well before I do,” she said gently.

Oh. Woops. I quickly shook my head as I put the heart back into my pocket. “It’s fine, really. I’ll be honest I was just making small talk, I uh…” I took a bit too long to find a proper excuse, as Glasses giggled at me and nodded.

“Don’t like saints, yes. I know. I’ve heard all about it,” she said calmly, covering her mouth as she chuckled at me.

Nodding gently, I accepted the easy out she’d given me and went ahead and gestured at her. “So? A request?” I asked.

“She perked up a bit and nodded. “Yes. I’ve been told, on good authority, you are a man of great knowledge. Beyond what any of us possess, at least,” she said.

Hm…? “I’d not go that far… but I do know certain things, I suppose. What would you like to know?”

“Rather, it’s what I’d ask you to do. Um…” Glasses then glanced at the nearby door, and I followed her gaze. There was no one there, thankfully, but she still acted as if there was. “Can I close the door, Vim? Or would that seem improper?” she then asked with a whisper.

“Improper…?” I asked gently as I stepped around her as to close the door for her. Since she had a small limp, I didn’t want to make her overexert herself if she didn’t have to.

“Thank you,” Glasses thanked me as the door shut, and I turned around and found her pulling up her robe. I didn’t flinch at the sight of bare legs, since her showing me her right leg made a lot of sense in this context… especially upon seeing the deformed limb as it came into view.

“I see,” I said as I stepped forward and knelt down a bit, as to get a better look.

“An accident. One I wasn’t able to properly heal from,” she told me as I studied the scars.

It looked as if she’d not just gotten burnt, but crushed. Half her thigh was missing, and her lower leg had a good bit of deformed flesh too. Odds are it had gotten stuck under something, and she’d been sitting down or something when it happened. It almost looked like something took a bite of her leg when it was curled underneath her, since the deformity was in the middle of both her thigh and her lower calf. It easily explained the limp I had noticed earlier. In fact, it was a bit surprising she was even able to stand and walk with this leg. It was missing at least half its mass, muscles and tendons especially. Odds are the only reason she even still had it, let alone was able to use it, was thanks to her being both a non-human and a saint.

“I’m to assume you want me to make you something that can help you walk?” I asked as I stood back up, and nodded to her so she could lower her robe back down. It was the only thing that made sense to me. The wound was far too old for me to be able to do anything else for her, such as surgery or anything. And even if I tried, I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to help her much if it all. She’d need muscle graphs and transplants, and such things just didn’t work for non-humans.

She put her robe back down, quickly, brushing herself a bit as she did. “Yes. Several others have told me that you’ve made such things before. Wheelchairs, or braces for those with similar ailments,” she said with a nod. She had a very faint blush on her face, which I assumed was from her showing me her bare legs.

I nodded at her. “I’m sure we can figure something out. You seem to be able to stand and walk at least, so…” I said with a tiny gesture to her.

“Yes. It doesn’t actually hurt, Vim, it just… I can’t put much weight on it at all, really,” she said as she glanced down at her own self.

She reached out, and I took her arm as she went ahead and showed me. I watched her slowly put more and more weight on her right leg, until I had to firmly hold and prop her up since it gave out on her. She quickly went back to standing on her other leg, and sighed at me as she nodded. “See?”

I nodded back at her. “Yes. Did that hurt?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not really.”

“And neither your, nor Light’s healing, helps it much?” I asked.

“It was worse, actually. Light’s the one that helped me to this point,” she told me.

Huh. Quite a feat. “Well… why don’t I come back tomorrow then, to measure you and diagnose it. Figure out what we can think up together,” I suggested.

Glasses gave me a flush of a smile as she nodded. “Oh yes, that would be just lovely,” she said.

The door then opened, and I turned to smile gently at Renn who glared at me… and then relaxed a bit as she realized what was going on.

“See? Told you that you should have knocked,” Merit said with a smirk as she glanced into the room from behind Renn.

Before I could say anything, Glasses immediately released my arm with a small yelp of a shock. Then, I had to step forward quickly as to catch her because she had fallen backward in surprise, thanks to her leg not working properly.

Catching the saint, who had gone deep red in the face in embarrassment, I sighed as Renn hurried in to help the woman back to her feet.

“Careful!” Renn said worriedly as she took over helping the saint to her feet and to collect herself. I stepped back, since I was the one who was obviously making her feel awkward and bashful.

“I’m so sorry…!” Glasses whispered with a strained hush, but not from pain of her fall… instead from utter shame.

She was saint. And judging by the robe and headdress, not one just in name. Thus why she had asked if it was improper to close the door earlier. She was like Light, probably. And she’d just gotten caught with a man in a closed room, and not just by anyone but his wife.

Sighing softly, I glanced at Merit who was smirking happily at me, enjoying the show.

She wasn’t cute anymore. Now she was just another headache.

One of many.

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