Chapter 62: Roots, Part One

"Good, don't let up," Maria told Rin in the middle of their training.

She threw out a small flurry of punches, all of which Rin managed to dodge before the rookie tried to retaliate with a right hook. Maria ducked under it and tapped Rin's stomach.

"Egh-" Rin froze up, as she hadn't seen that coming, and Maria stood straight with a smile.

"You're getting faster," Maria said, clapping a little with a smile.

[... Still not fast enough, though.]

Five days had passed since Rin's second mission on Monday, and Rin was still hard at work. She and her mentor were currently in the Meditation Center, doing some basic sparring after the day's classes. Rin had felt that she'd slightly closed the gap between herself and her other classmates, but she still had a while to go before she'd fully caught up.

"Do those new clothes feel comfortable?" Maria asked, looking up and down Rin's body.

"Y-Yeah," Rin chuckled. "I, uh, got a little bit of money last week, so I figured I'd buy some new training clothes too."

"Good, good," Maria said, sounding glad to hear that. "Little things like these, Rin, can do wonders for our attitudes. And, your mentality going into training or work can affect you more than you know, so, it's nice to hear that you've freshened up a little."

Maria's personality had almost completely bounced back from the nervousness she'd shown before. Rin partially wanted to know what had happened, but, at the same time, as Cara had said, it was Maria's business.

[Maybe, one day, I can sit down with her and just ask,] Rin thought. [Not today, though.]

"I think we're done for today," Maria told her, and Rin let out a tired breath. "Get some rest. We'll pick back up tomorrow."

"Okay, thanks for the lessons!" Rin said, raising a hand up as she turned away, and Maria waved goodbye at her. She walked out and quickly hustled down the stairs, to her room. Upon opening the door, Rin saw that Elisa had gone somewhere else.

On top of the drawers to the right were two sets of armor. One that Maria had bought for her, and one that Rin had bought with the combined money she'd received from Sye and that one guy at the bar. Maria's set was composed of gloves, boots, and brigandine armor, all made of red drake scales, the remains of a Rank C monster. Maria apparently bought this set from an armory in town, and it cost almost the same amount of money Rin currently had.

As for Rin, she'd bought another set of leather, identical to the one she had before that got ruined from quick overuse, and after buying some regular clothes as well, she had just a little over six gold coins left, or six hundred silver coins, with just one more thing that she wanted to buy on her list.

[I still need to get a good dress and some heels or something,] she thought. [For... special occasions, and all that.]

At the armory, Rin had learned that most adventurers spent almost half of their money there on weapons, which had let Rin notice something convenient about her journey. Since she wasn't going to use any weapons, she was going to save herself a lot of varols on offensive equipment and the subsequent upgrades the others at the Academy would need to purchase.

At the same time, she asked about Maria's set and according to the guy who'd sold her it, armor of that kind would stand up to most Rank D monsters' attacks, but anything over that would still cut through her outfit easily.

So, basically, Maria had gotten her something that she could use for her current enemies. None of the ones she'd face in the future, however. And, even then, it was still incredibly expensive. 

That fact only solidified Rin's plan further in her thoughts.

Rin walked over to her bed and sat down, wondering for a moment what she should do something caught her attention. She saw it from the corner of her eyes. A letter her mother had sent a couple of days ago that Rin hadn't read yet.

[Right, crap,] she thought as she reached into her bag and plucked the letter out.

She laid down, holding the paper up as her eyes quickly scanned through what her mother had written to her.

[... "Things have been calm lately. Jay's been helping me settle into the new job, and Felix visits the house often, but..."]

After she read it, Rin blinked. 

[What? Mom's feeling sicker than normal?] 

Quickly, she was worried, because she knew how intolerable her mother's illness could be at its worst.

A little saddened to hear that, Rin put the paper aside and her brows narrowed for a second.

A part of Rin wanted to walk over to the station and ride back to Dren right this instant. She'd been taking care of her mother ever since Tristan, her brother, had left to become an adventurer, she felt like it was her responsibility to do that.

"But... I can't just..." She mumbled, sighing.

However, as soon as the idea had appeared in her thoughts, it started gaining some power.

[... Well, why can't I?] Her thoughts countered and Rin sat up. [It's Friday, so, I won't be taking classes again for two more days. I know Xhez would love to see Dren. I still haven't shown her the train either, so...]

Slowly, but surely, she convinced herself that it wasn't that bad of an idea.

She knew, though, that she was biased. Obviously, she'd want to go back and make sure her mother was alright. So, she figured she'd ask a third party for their opinion.

And, who better to ask than the person in charge of her training?

Rin quickly folded the letter up, put it back in her bag, and jogged out of the room. She walked down the stairs to the first floor, and, after going from one office to another, eventually, she found the one she was looking for.

"Come in," she heard Maria's voice say from behind one of the last doors to the right, as her office was at the opposite location of Cara's, and Rin walked inside.

The teacher looked confused.

"Rin? Do you need something?"

"Yeah," Rin nodded as she walked up.

This was her first time in Maria's office and, instantly, she noticed some differences between this one and Cara's. Cara's office was exceptionally clean and organized, with a few decorations that made the room, well, feel like an office. This one was... empty. There was barely anything in here, save for some folders sitting on a table to the right and a few bottles of water on Maria's desk.

[Uh... Okay.]

There was also one chair in front of Maria, which Rin sat down at.

"So, listen," Rin started, "I... I just got this letter from my mom. She's feeling a little bit sick and, I wanna go see if she's alright. Can I?"

"Oh, my, uhm, how severe is it?" Maria asked.

Rin didn't want to overload her with personal problems, but she decided to let Maria know a little about her.

"It's, uh, not a new thing. It's an inherited disease," Rin explained. "She's always had it."

A few people throughout her life called it a "curse", but Rin didn't like using that word. She doubted there was anything magical to it.

"Goodness, those are rare," Maria replied, nodding as she knew what sort of thing Rin was referring to. "So, you have it as well? Rin, you have to be careful with that sort of thing, you're working yourself hard every..." Maria began to say, but Rin cut her off.

"No," Rin answered, shaking her head. "No, I didn't get it, for some reason. But, yeah, she's had it all her life."

"Oh," Maria blinked. "Really?"

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"Yeah," Rin nodded. "And, basically, drains her body of its energy, every now and then. Anyway," Rin waved her hands, "I was just wondering if I could take a couple of days off to go check on her. I could come back on Sunday," Rin stated. "What do you think?"

"Hm..." Maria looked down for a second. "It is a strange situation you're talking about, but... Sure. If you come back on Sunday, there should be no problems. However, Rin, have you taken your mother to a healer?" Maria asked. "Libera has better healers than Dren, I know that much. Maybe you could..."

"Yeah," Rin replied. "Mom's talked to healers from all over the world. Apparently, her thing is sort of unique. Everyone's said there's nothing to be done but make sure she's well taken care of whenever her health drops like this."

According to her mother, anyway.

"Ah, well, in that case, then, of course. Go ahead, it's alright. Try to come back on time, however."

"Thanks, teach'," Rin sighed with relief.

With another set of goodbyes, Rin's plan was set and she went back to her room. Now, there was another person she needed to tell about this, and Rin imagined she'd be excited.

If she could take care of her mother and show Xhez some new sights, then she figured that was clearly the best choice to make.

---

{Xhez}

{A Few Hours Later}

"Um, i-is this normal?"

"... Mostly," Rin replied, as her chest pressed against Xhez's face.

The two of them were standing in the middle of a crowd of humans, all packed up together at a place that smelled foul to Xhez. The sun was going down, and all of the people surrounding Xhez were carrying big square objects on wheels that made things even more cramped.

Of course, if anyone touched Xhez, they'd feel the moisture from her sprite skin and hair, so Xhez remained as close to Rin as she could.

Which made the fact that Rin's chest was so strangely large all the more notable as Xhez almost felt smothered by the woman's breasts.

"Rin," Xhez said.

"Yeah?" The human asked, keeping her eyes on the others around them.

"What is the purpose of those things?" Xhez asked, tapping Rin's boobs. "They seem heavy."

"Uh..." Rin chuckled a little. "W-Well, they have milk in them, sometimes. N-Not mine, other people's, I mean."

[Like the milk at the cafeteria? Really!?] Xhez asked as she looked back down at Rin's chest. Another question popped up in her mind.

"Ohhh, like the wa-" Xhez stopped herself, lowering her voice. "Like the water in my hair?"

"Yeah, something like that..." Rin replied with a smile.

Logically, Xhez came to a conclusion from that.

"Could I drink from them?" Xhez asked and, when Rin heard that, she burst out in laughter. "D-Did I say something silly?"

"N-No, no, no, you're right, you're right. It's just, uhm... hard to explain. Still, you'd be surprised how many people are into that sort of thing, I've heard some really interesting things, back home," she said, but Xhez didn't understand what she meant by that.

According to Rin, a sort of vehicle would soon arrive at this place, on the metal beams a short distance away, that would take the two of them to Rin's home. A town south of this city, known as Dren. Rin had told her that it was a little different from Libera, and, of course, Xhez was eager to see how.

A couple of minutes passed, and soon, the ground began to tremble and Xhez threw herself on top of the two lumps she'd been analyzing so heavily a moment ago.

"W-What is happening!?" She asked, clutching onto Rin as others around them gave the two weird looks. Rin kept a smile aimed at the crowd, trying to seem normal as she put her hands on Xhez's back and whispered:

"Don't worry, that's just the train," Rin explained.

[What? The train is doing this? How powerful is this invention!?] Xhez asked herself as she then saw something approaching from a distance.

Soon, it appeared in view, and Xhez's eyes widened.

A metallic, dark monster with no Spirit was traveling at an absurd speed, aimed at them. She gulped, but as she looked back up at Rin, she realized she wasn't lying. That thing was apparently the train.

And, then, it arrived.

With a screech that made Xhez cover her ears, the "vehicle" slowed down dramatically, grinding to a halt next to them, and the crowd began to form up into a few lines.

"Come on," Rin gently pulled her into one of them, and soon, the vehicle fully paused.

"All aboard!" A man yelled out and the lines of humans slowly began to file into it.

Rin and Xhez did the same. Xhez noticed the adventurer dropped a few coins into a box beforehand, and then she got a good look at the interior. This part of the train was completely different.

[Wow...] Xhez gawked. Strange, cushioned seats lined two rows of a long hall, and Rin pulled the sprite to the back of one of them.

Here, they sat down at an empty set of chairs next to a window, and Rin kept a comforting arm around Xhez the entire time.

"Well," Rin said, "here we are! How is it?"

"Whoa, this is so soft!" Xhez noted, patting the chair down. Then, to compare, she placed her hands on Rin's chest and the adventurer laughed. "Hm... You are softer, however."

"Uh, thanks?" Rin said before turning toward the window. "Actually, you should sit over here."

"Hm? Why?"

"You'll see," Rin said with a smile. "I saw this for the first time myself about a month ago. It's a nice view."

The two switched chairs and Xhez, who was still shaking just a little, but now from equal parts anxiety and excitement, took a deep breath.

Then, one of Rin's warm hands clutched one of hers. And Xhez turned toward her.

Rin gave her a wordless smile and Xhez found herself shaking just a little less upon seeing it.

After a while, the vehicle started to move, and then, Xhez saw what Rin was alluding to.

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