Chapter 119: Wins and Losses, Part One

{Rin}

As the group ventured out of the walls of Libera, Rin remained at the back, with Eve floating beside her. Ahead, the adventurers were going over some of the basic details.

"We'll arrive tomorrow afternoon," the ax-wielder, Troph, said with a deep voice and a stoic expression. At the front, next to him, was his partner, Vick. Behind them, were Seth, Dylan, and Cara, then behind them, in front of Rin and Eve, were John and Carla.

"Short walk, honestly," Vick added. "I'm sure you know this already, but sometimes the walk to a mission can easily take a week or two at the most."

"Depends on how much money you're willing to make for the sake of it," Troph said.

[Damn,] Rin thought.

"I wonder how long these things will take for me, once I get in the field," Eve told Rin. "I might end up being the most productive adventurer ever. Well, if I don't end up having to wait on you to catch up."

"Hm?" Rin tilted her head.

"I mean, we'll probably go on missions together sometimes, right?" Eve asked, with a pair of hopeful eyes. "The teachers said it's bound to happen on occasion. I-I mean, if you want to, and all."

"Eh, I'd be down," Rin answered with a carefree tone. "I wish you'd been on my team when we did those group missions before, actually. We haven't gotten to work together."

"I think we'd be an awesome duo," Eve floated ahead of Rin and struck a cool pose. "With my magic and your punches and kicks and all that, what could stand in our way?"

"Careful, you say things like that and the world might take it as a challenge," Rin chuckled.

"Eh, I'll just let that be a problem for future-me."

She was glad to have the fairy here with her. There were only these two adventurers as strangers right now, but Rin had no idea how many much more powerful and much more experienced people she'd be encountering tomorrow. Having Eve here to fall back on felt comforting, at least.

However, the more she walked the more she wished she could sit down for a moment. The reason was that notebook she was carrying in her travel bag, cuddling up to her bread. Now that she knew what was in that thing, all she wanted to do was take it out and read as much as she could.

There were some obvious reasons why, and some not-so-obvious ones. The obvious one was that this almost felt like an opportunity to hear Tristan's voice again, even if it was through the medium of his writing. The not-so-obvious one came once Rin was on the road, and she briefly compared herself to these two gentlemen ahead of her.

She wondered if Tristan may have unintentionally included some potential tips that Rin could learn from.

There was also a chance he may have included some tips intentionally as well, considering the fact that the Guild wanted Rin to have Tristan's stuff, specifically. It was a curious thing, the fact that they'd kept these things there for so long. It made sense that they'd hold it all for his family, at least for a while, but surely they'd just give it away to whoever after enough time passed.

And yet, they didn't. They waited until Rin reached out to them, and as soon as she did, they sent his stuff all her way. As weird as it was, all she could do was be thankful right now.

[Ah... Screw it,] she thought, and, awkwardly, she reached back to pull the notebook out. She tried her hardest to do so in a steady enough manner, hoping she didn't disturb Xhez, who was in her bag, tied to Rin's waist.

[I'll just go over a page or two,] she thought, as Eve tossed a curious look her way.

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Reading while walking wasn't exactly Rin's preferred way of going through Tristan's journal, but she was too curious to wait. So, she opened it up and slowed down just a little, to make sure she didn't run into anyone. Keeping her hands steady, she started reading.

---

{Tristan}

Alright, so, this is my first time writing this sort of thing, so, bear with me a little. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my thoughts across a little more smoothly once I get a few more pages in. Right now, I'm sitting on the train, on my way to Cradle.

What do people normally talk about? The weather? It's raining outside, and the air feels pretty cold. I'm alone. Someone brought a baby on board and it's crying so loudly it's almost competing with the sound of the train's wheels.

Is that it? Is my journal done?

Anyway, yeah, this journal might not see too much use depending on how my missions go. There's a very real chance I'm going to die as soon as I fight something, but dad taught me just a little bit about fighting, so I hope I do well enough to survive.

Honestly, I didn't realize how hard I had been coping with my decision until the day I had to leave home. Even right now, just remembering the look on my mom's face, and the way my sister held onto my hand once I was about to step outside the door, I feel like tearing up. But, since dad died, I had to step up.

You know, I might be in over my head, I might be completely insane for doing this, but I want to give it a shot. A few of my friends know some adventurers and they've told me how much money they make and, really, the stuff I've heard would make anyone consider this job for at least a few seconds.

Oh, you'll probably want to know how prepared I am. Or, how unprepared I am, depending on whether you find this journal next to a bloody corpse or whatever. Well, let's see.

I have a sword that used to belong to my dad, from when he was a soldier. I have a couple of potions that I bought with some money my friends and I pooled up. And, I have my dad's old armor. The armor is a bit too big for me, but as long as it keeps knives from taking my insides outside, I don't care.

And, yeah, that's all I've got.

Every time I close my eyes, I see my sister looking back at me, begging me not to leave. Every time I close my eyes, I swear I can almost feel my mom's arms around me, as if we were still hugging it out, getting our 'goodbyes' out of the way.

I should probably try to put all of that behind me as soon as I can, to focus on everything I'm doing, but, fuck it. I think it might help to think about them. To help me keep in mind who I'm doing this for.

As for right now, though, I think I'm just gonna go to sleep. By the time I write again, I might be in Cradle already. We'll see.

---

{Rin}

Rin wiped away a tear.

It made her sad to read about what was going through Tristan's head when he left, but at the same time, she was glad to hear his voice again, and she definitely wanted to read more, as soon as she'd get a chance to sit down for a while.

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