The Runesmith

“Stay still boy, this isn’t going to take long.”

“Awoof!”

“I didn’t know that he would be afraid of healing magic that much, I’ll hold him down…”

Roland had to go down to one knee and keep Agni steady while Kassia performed her healing spell. Surprisingly the large dire wolf had a fright of divine magic, perhaps it was some kind of innate fear as he was still a monster. Luckily Roland was able to hold him down until the priest was done with her spell.

“I don’t think he has any either, can tamed monsters also be a host to those creatures born of vile magic?”

“I’m not sure, I’ve only seen them take over people as hosts.”

This brought up an interesting question but not one that was important. After spending twenty minutes in the church everyone had been dosed with holy energy. This is what he expected to see as no one showed any signs of discomfort when venturing into this chapel. Roland expected some kind of reaction from the abyssal creatures even though the concentration of divine energy was low.

Sister Kassia went through everyone one by one while focusing her divine energy on their heads. There was no feeling of discomfort for anyone in their small group. Loreena from the golden order went through the same process and there the reaction was quite visible. Either the monsters would try to crawl out through an orifice or black smoke would rise from the infected person while it perished. This holy energy was extremely deadly to these tiny creatures thus they were obviously not in any danger.

“AWOOO!”

Agni jumped back while wrestling out of Roland’s grip after he loosened it up slightly. He was quick to run behind Elodia while whimpering. There was no damage that he received from the healing and cleansing spells so his behavior just made everyone confused.

“Your fluffy friend doesn’t seem to like me too much…”

Kassia cat ears flopped down slightly after her last patient seemed visibly shaken. Perhaps it had nothing to do with the healing spell. Maybe it was the age-long conflict between the canines and the felines that was making Agni behave like this. Now was not the time to speculate about the relations between cats and dogs, there was more work to be done.

“You have my gratitude, Sister.”

“Aye, I give you my thanks as well.”

“If what our bossman is saying is correct, then we owe you one.”

Everyone started thanking the feline priest which made her cat ears spring back to life. Her frown turned back to a radiant smile as if it was never there to begin with.

“I just did what the lady of radiance has entrusted me with, her blessings are meant to be shared with the people!”

On one hand, Roland was grateful that the lady priest performed the treatment fast but on the other hand she was getting into preacher mode. If they waited too long she would start praising the sun and now after she did them a favor they might have to stay and pray along with her.

“Her radiance has blessed us with another…”

“Uh… Sister Kassia… I think you probably have enough work on your hands now that you know about this affliction…”

“The affliction…”

Roland managed to cut her off before she could continue babbling about Solaria. The moment he mentioned the parasites again she became quiet. In reality, she didn’t have any information from the church so she would not be able to act on her own accord. They had a strict hierarchy in this church and Kassia was not the leader.

“You are correct Mr. Wayland, I need to consult the head priest! We will have to postpone our discussion about the radiant lady for later.”

‘It was more of a one-way discussion though…’

“Before we leave, would it be fine with you if we brought over more people later?”

“There is always a place in the church for the afflicted!”

“You have my gratitude then, If you ever need runic items you are welcome to come to my shop.”

Roland knew that it wouldn’t be fair to just let the woman leave like this. She had allowed them access to her healing spells without taking any payment which was somewhat uncharacteristic of a Solarian priest.

“Oh? I will be sure to take you up on that offer if I require anything but for now, I will have to excuse myself.”

They had gathered outside to take care of Agni so Kassia was the only person returning to the church. While she was a high-level tier 2 priest she was not the person making the decision.

From his perspective, Kassia would probably be forced to stay silent until the top brass decided to make a proper decision. There was no way of knowing how people would react to this knowledge. This small temple that they had created here could probably not manage too many people clamoring for their services at once.

“There she goes…”

Commented Elodia while Roland just nodded and was about to turn away.

“...”

“Hey, what are you looking at?”

There he noticed Bernir’s head moving at an angle as he was trying to take in the view of Kassia’s behind. Dyana noticed this and delivered a smack to the back of her husband's head which made him do a nice flip to the side.

“Ey, what was dat fo?”

“You want another one?”

“Uh, sweety please calm down…”

“Don’t you sweety me!”

“I uh… how about you two take the rest of the day off, it's already late, I’ll see you tomorrow at the workshop.”

Roland turned to Elodia who started chuckling and nodding. It was already the middle of the day, even if they returned there wouldn’t be much time before the sun went down and the two were allowed to turn in for the day.

“No boss, help me.”

“Sorry, you’re on your own with this one, let’s go Agni we need to get your documents renewed.”

While Bernir was getting chased by his oversized wife, Roland and Elodia headed towards the adventurer guild. Finally, he could start to relax. Everyone close to him was doing fine but this wasn’t quite over. Even though the ones closest to him had been examined this was not true for everyone that he knew. Elodia was still part of the orphanage and they were also others.

“When you were talking to the priest, you mentioned others, do you mean?”

“I don’t want to worry you but you have probably realized by now.”

“Lobelia and Armand…”

Elodia leaned in towards Roland while also grasping his visibly larger hand. He could see the concern in her eyes and it was justified. The probability of the kids at the orphanage of being infected was close to zero. None of them ventured out of the city much and the only place some of them visited was his own workshop.

“Those two have been taking missions outside of the city for years, we need to get them to the church fast…”

Elodia nodded while also grasping his hand harder when he mentioned both of her adoptive siblings. Armand after achieving the gold rank had been adventuring through the entire island. With Roland being in the city he had someone that she could rely on and thus he could focus on his progress.

Lobelia was part of the thieves guild, the places she visited were unknown to him but she had also made her rounds around the continent. Sometimes she would even vanish for a month or longer before appearing as if nothing had happened. Roland noticed one fight between the two sisters when the half-elf had not shown herself for a while.

“Do you think they will be at the guild or are they out of town?”

“I think Armand should be there, he came back from a trip recently, he never leaves for too long…”

“That’s true, he does seem to go back to that place a lot…”

“Hey!”

Elodia jerked her head towards Roland who mentioned Armand’s little addiction to the redlight district. It seemed that he had grown accustomed to some of the girls there. With not having to worry about the orphanage with Roland in the picture his expenditure there had only increased.

“Well… if Lobelia isn’t there, I’ll check the other guild, her two fans might know where she is.”

“Those two? They probably would…”

An image of a dog and fox fighting it out for the affection of the elven maiden popped into his head. The two would probably know if she decided to leave the city or was just having fun elsewhere.

“First let’s see if they are at the guild.”

Elodia nodded and the three of them headed toward their next destination. With Agni’s increased size he was really standing out. Roland was forced to put him on a leash that was not very appreciated. From time to time the ruby wolf would just sit down and grumble, even when he tugged on the line he would just sit there with his nose down in the dirt.

“Stop being a little baby Agni.”

Luckily with some words, Elodia was able to get him moving, if this continued Roland was ready to deliver some punishment in the form of withholding food. Finally, after some time had passed they managed to arrive at the adventurers guild. The building did not change at all, among the adventurers, Agni would comfortably fit in as most of them had already seen a tamed monster.

“The tamer stables are in the back, wait for me there.”

“Sure.”

With Elodia here he would not really need to go in there himself. After giving her the old documents he started moving to the area behind the guild. There he would find some other facilities like the training area that he had his bout with Armand all those years before.

‘There were people shouting and cheering just like now… wait?’

After moving closer to the back of the guild he started hearing various shouts. People were cheering and some even ran past him towards the training area. He couldn’t really see what the noise was about but this was not something that rare. Perhaps there was someone advancing to their silver rank and taking a test or someone was in a sanctioned match between adventurers.

The guild was filled with various people that liked to let their fists do the talking. When a dispute arose between two parties they could always clear it up in a fair match. The reason for allowing a brutal competition where their health was on the line was as always money. People could bet on who would win and win quite a high amount of coins.

‘The loser will be disgraced and the winner takes all the glory?’

Roland found something in this sentiment. Perhaps if he knew about this tradition sooner he would have taken on the party of adventurers that hurt Bernir there. It would be a good show of his might but luckily for him the guild master wanted to do business with him at that time and he got off scot-free.

“Awoo?”

“Is something wrong Agni?”

“Woof!”

The ruby wolf pointed with his nose towards the direction of the training area where all the noise was coming from. There was something there that Agni wanted and Roland kind of had an idea what.

‘Did he recognize someone’s smell? Maybe it’s Lobelia or the idiot?”

He had just arrived at this location and even if he went towards the training ground it wasn’t that far away from here. Elodia would probably need at least fifteen minutes to get everything sorted out even with the many guild members she knew. That left him with nothing much to do for that time, perhaps checking out what the commotion was about wasn’t such a bad idea.

“Okay, let’s go then.”

“Awoo!”

“You think that she can win?”

“I don’t know, her axe was damaged and that other adventurer looks strong… why can’t that idiot keep her mouth shut?”

“A'd say tis in favour o' th' lad, they gauntlets be unusual, it must be dwarven craftsmanship!

It didn’t take long for him to get there and before he could examine the situation he started hearing familiar voices. Three of his new adventurer friends were gathered right at the entrance and talking. He didn’t need to look to figure out that Grisalde was involved in this event as even the bystanders were vocal about it.

“I’ll put one large silver on the giant woman, just look at those muscles!”

“Hah, you’re an idiot look at that weapon she has, it’ll be a miracle if it doesn’t break, Armand got this in the bag.”

‘So that idiot was really involved…’

After hearing that Grisalde and Armand were involved he wanted to facepalm. Finally, he looked towards the training area and there he saw Elodia’s brother smirking. Opposite to him was the barbarian woman that he met during his journey and she looked mad. The two were both gold rank adventurers but Armand fell behind in levels, this he probably made up with the runic gauntlets that he was using.

‘Why are those two there, didn’t they just arrive? Is this some new world record for finding trouble?’

Much time didn’t pass between him going to the workshop and back to the city. The caravan had to stop before being allowed through the gate, this added to about two hours before this incident had to happen. Roland was quick to take his friends to the church and to get here. This meant that Armand and the barbarian woman started fighting not long after they visited the guild.

“Hey, it’s Wayland… but what’s that thing with him?”

“Is that a Ruby Wolf… but it’s much bigger!”

Both Senna and Orson finally spotted Roland that was sticking out like a sore thumb with Agni next to him. The large ruby wolf noticed the group of three and thanks to his sense of smell could tell that his master had interacted with them for a while.

“What is going on here, what is Grisalde doing?”

Roland quickly moved toward the three to ask the question. It didn’t make sense to him that such a situation could have arisen within this short span of time.

“Do you want the long or the short version?”

“Short.”

Roland quickly replied while Senna pointed at Armand and started explaining.

“In all honesty, that musclebound idiot started it, when we were in the guild he walked up to the other musclebound idiot, I think he was trying to woo her?”

“Wait, he was trying to woo her?”

“Hah, that was my reaction too, does he even have eyes?”

“Uh… so I reckon that this courting process didn’t go too well?”

“I think that’s still debatable, the two idiots made a bet… if the guy wins she has to spend the night with him but if he loses she gets ten small gold coins?”

“Why would she…”

Senna shrugged while Roland started wondering where such a ridiculous bet came from. Ten small gold coins were a large sum of money and probably the reason why Grisalde decided to take Armand up on the offer. The barbarian woman probably wanted to pay off her debt to Senna with this one last gamble but her chances of winning weren’t that great.

“Don’t ask me, maybe she was playing hard to get? That guy is an idiot but he does have a handsome face.”

Senna rubbed her chin while looking at Armand’s handsome features. Even now he was getting cheered on by a group of ladies from the side. This of course was only fueling his big ego that he didn’t seem to have been able to get rid of even after suffering many defeats. The times he had been beaten up by Roland faded into obscurity while the recent victories and ranking up took over his mind.

‘We don’t have time for this…’

Normally there were rules with these kinds of bets, people from the outside could not get involved or they could be held responsible by the adventurers that just loved making bets. Luckily for him, he had a high enough position in this adventurer society that he could risk it.

“There you are, I’ve been looking for you, what happened to getting Agni registered?”

Before being able to move towards the two idiots that were staring at each other he heard Elodia’s voice behind him.

“Good that you are here, can you help me with that.”

“That?”

Elodia followed Roland’s finger and instantly frowned when she saw her younger brother puffing out his chest. Then even more as she noticed another familiar person further behind him, this person was holding on to a lot of cash and gathering various bets. Even Roland was noticed by the entourage she was with.

‘At least all of them are here, now we can…’

Yet before he could move in he heard a loud banging sound that indicated the start of the fight. The large group of adventurers swarmed towards the fence to quickly block off the path as the fight had started…