Chapter 197: The Scorned, Part Twelve

"... What?" Cara asked. The woman blinked twice and Rin could see her trying to focus a little harder, almost as though that would make the contents of Rin's words change now.

She might have guessed that the words she had just heard were a result of her being half-asleep. It was early, after all. Rin had approached her as soon as she could, though, because that damned corpse smelled so bad she couldn't sleep last night.

Hence, why she was saying this:

"I need help disposing of a body," Rin stated again, confirming to Cara that she hadn't misheard her the first time.

The teacher frowned, opening her mouth to say something before closing it again. After a brief pause, she said:

"Does this have to do with that party or do you want me to be an accomplice to murder?"

"N-No, it was a guy from the party," Rin replied. "We got into a fight last night. It'll probably make the news later, or something.

[Unless those guys cover it up. It's probably better for them that no one finds out about this.]

"Anyway, uh, long story short, it's them," Rin finally declared. "We brought one of them over here last night to interrogate him but, uh... He died. So, yeah, I need help with that."

Once Cara got a good grasp of the situation she was surprisingly quick about offering up a solution. She went straight to Rin's room and handled things accordingly.

The teacher took the body back to her own office, telling Rin she'd take care of it in a moment.

Rin raised a brow, but she stood out in the hallway as Cara did her thing.

The adventurer vaguely heard the sound of a Fire-based spell, and then a Wind-based spell. A couple of seconds later, Cara came back out.

"Done."

"Uh..."

"Walk with me."

"... Right."

[Come to think of it, how much Essence does Cara have? Could she have been a mage if she wanted to be one?]

Setting that aside, now that the body was out of the way, the two of them walked up to the Meditation Center and sat down there.

"Okay, so, what happened?"

Rin broke everything down as best as she could. From the book she'd found, to what Sara heard under the stairs, to the group the two of them had fought outside. She mentioned the notes Xhez had taken, however, she told her teacher the guy had willingly offered those details up. One of these days, Rin hoped she'd be able to tell Cara about Xhez's true nature, but now was probably not the right time.

Cara nodded along as she listened, eventually giving a long sigh.

"... It's actually them, huh? Well, that confirms that they're here in Libera. From the looks of it, they're recruiting regular people. People in need of help or resources who might feel safer under the umbrella of a group. And, based on what happened with you, we can assume at some point they train them to be killers. This is all sorts of fucked up."

"What do I do?" Rin asked then, crossing her arms as she couldn't help but feel a little bit nervous. She felt like she'd just opened herself up to a much larger situation, though she didn't know what she expected to come out of all of this.

"You? No, no, you're done," Cara made clear. "You don't need to put yourself in harm's way again. Even if none of this is good enough proof to take to law enforcement, this is enough to let the Mages Guild know about what's happening. Though, even then, I don't think we should mention you."

"Why?"

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"That guild could still very well be working with them, Rin. They got that teleportation spellsign from somewhere, after all," Cara argued. "I'll let the others know that we should only tell them what's necessary for them to be aware of. If we prop you up as some sort of hidden spy, that might bring more problems onto your plate and I don't want that. So, no, Rin, you've done enough."

Rin looked away, frowning. A small part of her was disappointed, which was funny given how nervous she'd just been a moment ago. Still, she couldn't deny that a small part of her wanted to strike back at these bastards, given what she'd seen them do.

A hand fell on Rin's shoulder, providing her with a warm touch that brought Rin's eyes back up to meet Cara's.

"Thank you, Rin," Cara said with a little smile. "Putting yourself in danger like that couldn't have been easy, but, you've proven to be reliable. I'll be sure to put a good word in for you if any adventurers come asking about my students. You know, just to get you working."

Cara stepped past Rin, then, and opened the door, gesturing for her to walk out.

"For now, just enjoy your winter break. Oh, and make sure you've got the money to pay for the next semester."

"Shoot, you're right," Rin muttered.

[I should go take more fights at the Arena. I don't think I want to be seen as Triss for a while after what happened last night.]

A question popped up in Rin's mind and she couldn't help but ask:

"What will you do during the break? I-I mean, aside from looking into this."

"Hm?" Cara raised a brow. It looked like she hadn't expected to be asked such a question. "I dunno... I'll probably head down to the bar a few times. Maybe I'll visit my family or something," she muttered.

It was that one word, parents, that reminded Rin of a certain promise she'd made.

"OH!" Rin borderline yelled out as she recalled that. "Uh, yeah, I... I think I'll do the same. Well... Bye."

She barely hid the fact that she wanted to sprint out of the room. Cara smirked at her.

"See you around, kid."

As Rin jogged down the stairs, a conversation she had with Xhez played back in her mind, over and over again.

Racing back to her room after that, the adventurer ran over to where Xhez's bag was. She opened it up after taking a couple of breaths to calm herself down and after a short wake-up call, Xhez jumped out, landing next to Rin with a soft thud of her feet against the floor.

"Rin," Xhez said, as she stretched her arms before covering her nose. "Ugh... The smell of that fool's body is still lingering here."

"Yeah, I might need to buy some scented candles or something one of these days. Anyway, Xhez!" Rin put her hands on the sprite's shoulders.

"Yes?" Xhez asked, tilting her head.

"Your parents!" Rin declared with a smile. "We should go see them, right?"

The beaming smile she received in response gave her the answer.

As the sprite hugged her, that moment from the previous day came back to her.

[... I'll ask her about what happened last night at some point, but, for now, it might be best to take her mind off of it. Whatever she saw really shook her up.]

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