Loosely Lawful | 6

The ever-lengthening northbound train out of Gaville ended its run in the small town of Brick Grove. The name implied a sleepy, canopy-covered town with nice gardens, and its image on the map, which was of a single house surrounded by tall trees, looked likewise idyllic.

Reality was slightly different.

Brick Grove bustled with activity. The forest had been clear-cut for the town, and the fields beyond lay just as empty. Its buildings shone with a kind of newness Sera had only seen once, in the richest neighborhood of Gaville, and its people scurried to and fro with a single-minded energy typically reserved for the downtowns of major cities. In fact, the only difference between these folk and those in Gaville's financial district, was that the people of Brick Grove carried axes and rough lumber rather than coffees and briefcases.

"Aye, get out of my fuckin' way!"

A massive man with two axes strapped to his back barrelled through Sera and Kyle, knocking them both into some poor sap who'd been standing in front of them. The man didn't even apologize, or notice that he'd bumped into them. He just parted the crowd like the people were firewood and he was the axe.

"Whoa," Kyle said, as he and Sera stared after the man, "what a goon." He wore a stupid-looking smile, like he was imagining getting his ass handed to him.

"Don't even think about it," Sera growled, but Kyle started mooning after the passersby’s physique anyway, while Sera reached out to steady the person she’d bumped into.

Her hand landed on a well-muscled shoulder, the kind of muscle that people grew on purpose instead of by being totally ripped because life made them that way. And when the guy turned, he revealed a soft, open face so smooth that Sera was tempted to put him on par with Kali. In fact, his shiny, black hair practically did put him up there. It framed his eyes and curled around his cheekbones, making him look like a cherub from a painting.

But it wasn't his face that Sera noticed most. It was his clothes.

Where Sera’s fingers landed, she felt silk threads under her skin. Her eyes caught on worn, but still intricate embroidery at his collar, and his bag, now that she had a closer look, was made of thick, soft leather, with perfect stitches holding it together and well-polished metal fastenings. And to top it all off, he carried the most expensive-looking longbow Sera had ever seen.

It was the sort of weapon she and Kyle dreamed of having as they pressed their faces to the glass of an armory’s storefront. Tiny details danced around the grip, and the grain of the wood grew sure and straight. Even the string looked high-class, the strands so fine she couldn’t even see them.

What was a kid like this doing out here?

“Sorry about that,” she told the rich guy. “We didn’t bump you too badly, did we?”

He was taller than Sera, but somehow, he managed to give her a startled, bashful look through his eyelashes. It was the kind of look that normally made her swoon.

"Oh, no," he said, in the sweetest tenor to ever exist. His eyebrows furrowed, and he bent, straight-backed and proper, to clutch at Sera's elbows as if she were the one needing help. "I hardly felt it. Are you okay?"

Sera was incredulous. This guy was so nice someone was going to rob him.

"I'm totally fine!" she replied. She sounded squeaky. She sounded like she had the first time she and Kyle met Kali. Librata above, she was a mess. And because it was so hard to focus with a Hot Person right in front of her, she blurted out the first piece of horrible jock small talk she could come up with. "That's a really nice bow you've got there! Are you planning on hunting?"

The rich boy broke into a shy, sheepish smile and tucked a stray lock of hair behind his ear. "Yes, actually. I'm here on business. I took a monster-hunting job in the forest north of here." He glanced about awkwardly and then spoke again. "What about you?"

Sera's eyes darted to Kyle to see if he could get her out of this conversation. How did one explain visions from goddesses without sounding completely self-important? But when she glanced to the side, she found Kyle, not next to her, but several paces away, flexing his biceps with a set of equally buff lumberjacks.

"Haha, how funny!" Sera said, wishing she had never opened her mouth. "I'm also here to hunt monsters." She wasn't. She was here to actively discourage someone else from monster hunting, and also to investigate a holy errand. But it was the first thing that came to mind that she could say to this guy, and Kyle at least was definitely here to hunt monsters.

The rich kid tilted his head. "Oh, really? Is it the one for the North Wilds Company? Seven-hundred gold?"

Immediately, Sera’s brain cleared of the hot-person fog.

This was an impossible coincidence. Sure, there were probably several people out for this job, but there were way more people here to do logging work. What were the odds Sera had run right into someone on that same damn job? With a nervous gulp, Sera pulled the first thing she could think of out of her ass. "Yep. That's the one. I am on that job also."

"Wow, what a coincidence!" The guy adjusted his bow and quiver and shuffled on his feet. "I guess we're rivals now, huh?"

Only shitty, insufferable Avon could be Sera's rival. But that wasn't the kind of thing Sera could say to a total stranger, so she settled for peering around the square once more, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rich guy's teammates. If they were all so well-outfitted, then maybe they'd have some tips.

But when she looked around the crowd, which had thinned considerably since all the train passengers disembarked, Sera saw only three adventurer-looking types: herself, Kyle, and this guy. She put on an awkward smile and scratched her neck. "I guess we are, haha. But hey, if we beat your team out then no hard feelings, right?"

The kid blinked. "Team?"

Holy shit, this guy was going to get worse than robbed. He was going to get mauled. "Um, yes?" Sera tried. "You must have come out here with a group, right?"

Somewhere in the distance, the lumberjacks scared Kyle off with their tree-trunk-sized triceps, and he came slinking back, clutching at his upper arms like they'd betrayed him. When he stopped next to Sera, the rich guy looked at both of them like they were crazy.

"Um, is seven-hundred gold supposed to be a two-person job?" he asked. "I just- that's not a lot of money."

Seven-hundred gold was twice Avon and Kali's monthly rent. It was a lot of fucking money! But then again, Sera reminded herself, this was a rich person.

"Have you ever gone adventuring before?" Sera ventured. It was an insulting thing to ask, but he was just so clueless.

Rich Guy smiled. "No. This is my first."

Despite the general bustle of town, Sera felt like everything had gone quiet. Was this guy insane? No one in their right mind just hopped on a seven-hundred gold job alone for their first ever gig. Even Avon and Kali, two experienced adventurers who knew how to handle themselves when they were in over their heads, weren't suited for this.

Then, of course, Kyle ruined the moment. He recovered from his lost flexing contest, punched the kid's shoulder, and grinned. "Hell yeah, dude. Gotta lose your adventuring virginity!"

That was it. This conversation had to move elsewhere. "Kyle!" Sera shouted. "Don't say it like that!" She grabbed him and the rich guy by their elbows and tugged, dragging them out of the busy square and down the street, toward the northern forest.

Technically, as an acolyte of Librata, goddess of law and balance and all that good stuff, Sera was not supposed to bully people.

Alas, some rules were made to be bent. When it came to protecting innocent dumbasses, one could only do so much within the confines of law and order.

“Are you crazy?” she hissed, as she shook the rich kid by his shirt collar. “Seven-hundred gold is a lot of money! And unless you happen to be an archery god, there’s no way I’m letting you just waltz into the forest alone where you will probably get your ass killed.”

Kyle laughed behind her. “Hell yeah! Get ‘em!”

Sera dropped the brat to his knees and rounded on Kyle. “Oh no,” she said, pointing a shaking finger at him. “You’re next, you absolute fucking enabler.”

Kyle only laughed harder. He reached out to ruffled Sera’s hair and offered the rich guy his perfect, beautiful, jock smile. “Don’t worry about her,” he said, and when he pulled his lips to one side to reveal a dimple in his chin, Sera swore the kid’s knees trembled from shear attraction. “We’re just looking out for you.”

“Oh, um. I think I understood that part?”

Sera wrenched Kyle’s hand off her head and considered the steps she would need to take to throw him over her shoulder.

Unfortunately, Kyle knew her all too well. “Say,” he started, casually stepping into Sera’s grapple to wrap her in a bear hug, “do you wanna come with us?”

Sera choked. She felt the air grow hot with the steam of the rich kid’s newly awakening infatuation, and the humidity of it made her choke again. She shot Kyle an offended, open-mouthed glare, but he rested his chin on her head and grinned so hard she could feel the muscles in his chin pulling on themselves.

“Oh, um. What?” the rich kid asked. Thank Librata he had enough of his reason left to not immediately say yes.

“I said, do you wanna”-

“No, no!” the kid squeaked, waving his elegant hands with their billowy silk sleeves attached. “I couldn’t possibly inconvenience you with that kind of”-

The rumble of Kyle’s chuckles ran through Sera like a purr. “Brah, I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t mean it. You should come with. We’re meeting friends anyway, and if you like us, we can just keep hanging out. Sera and I have a pretty sweet living situation, and we could take better work with more people.”

Sera hated when Kyle was smart. She tugged on his arms, trying to slip away from him, but he only hunched further over her, rubbing his stubble into the side of her face. “Come on, brah. What do you say?”

The rich boy glanced nervously at her. “I… I don’t know. Your teammate doesn’t seem to like”-

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Sera growled. “I hate everyone.”

“Naw,” Kyle said, now plucking Sera up off the ground. “She’s a total sweetheart. She’d love to have you come along. Just doesn’t want your death on her conscience.”

“Shut up.”

Rich Kid blinked, the fear in his eyes rapidly transforming into a combination of confusion and wide-eyed admiration. “I mean, if you’re really sure…”

“We’re certain,” Sera bit out, finally freeing herself. She snarled at Kyle, fully aware that she had only escaped because he’d let her. “Now come along and don’t get yourself killed.”

A wide, puppy-dog smile grew across the rich brat’s face. “Oh! Thank you very much! Um, are we- are we leaving now, or doing introductions or”-

“I’m Seraphina,” she snapped, already stomping off along a logging trail headed north. She pointed ungracefully at Kyle and introduced him as well.

As the boys trailed after her, she vaguely heard the rich kid introduce himself as well.

“I’m Benvolius,” he said shyly, clutching at his bow. Sera felt, rather than saw the heavy pat Kyle gave the smaller boy’s back. “Thank you both so much for helping me out.”

“Benny!” he proclaimed. “Great to have you, brah.”

Great, the kid already had a nickname. Now there would be no getting rid of him.