Chapter 168 – Unexpected Outcome
After a few days, Anlesa got back into the flow that was life at Arisea Station. They were pretty confident they were going to deny Lavender’s requests; the journey seemed like too much of an investment for them currently.
They still wanted to return the massive favour they owed Maca, but outside of Lavender’s words, they didn’t know if this was how Maca would want them to repay him.
“Hmm, hmm, hmm!” Eva was humming to herself, giddy with excitement.
[The fact that you appear never to be bored despite days at the table is a true testament to your enthusiasm for the art.] (Luna)
[We are calling potion-making an art now?] (Syrus)
[Anything can be art. Especially if it has any tinge of creativity in its spirit, which potion-making, showcased by Lilly, clearly has.] (Luna)
[I guess?] Syrus chose to accept it and moved on. Still, it was weird to hear Luna say something like potion-making was artful. That would be like saying swinging her sword was artful. The idea of anyone calling her blade artful gave her a small chuckle. [Heh.]
The reason for Eva’s excitement was simply that, after days of collecting supplies and making potions, she got all the ingredients that were on her bingo list to buy. All for her future experiments with the redux crystal.
She formed a list of the various experiments she wanted to run, bought additional notebooks to mark and record the results, and was ready to gobble every potion down to see the effects. The latter part of her plan was immediately slapped down by Luna and Syrus. While Eva said she would only drink the potion she knew would only have positive effects and minimal negative effects, her extreme excitement ended up being her downfall.
[You cannot deny that she is still very excited.] (Syrus)
[But she is also ignoring us.] (Luna)
To let off a bit of steam since Luna and Syrus got in the way of her potion making, she was ignoring them for the moment and doing her own thing. How could one ignore someone with whom one shared the same body? Well, one had to hope your head neighbours were nice and decided not to take control of the body to do their own thing.
“Hmm hmm hmm!”
[I mean… it is quite funny?] (Syrus)
[...You can’t say that….] (Luna)
Throughout their journeys through the city, they did meet Cobalt and Ethan again, who were back and excited that she was back so soon.
They were excited to learn more from Syrus, but she told them she was still in recovery and needed to make some money back first; however, she would happily answer any questions they had. They were in a better state physically than they were in before the attacks on the city happened, but Ethan didn’t need to know that. Their need for money was a real concern, as pretty much all of it disappeared again after Eva bought all her newest supplies.
On their way down the street. The street they went down nearly every day. “There she is!” They heard the familiar voice of a child.
[...] (Syrus)
They instantly turned around.
“Syrus!” Another three called out.
Anlesa turned around. “Elly..?” Behind them in the far distance was a large cart filled with children being pulled by two horses, with a tired woman out front driving the vehicle.
[Why are they here?] (Syrus)
[How did they get here so fast…] (Eva)
[This… is certainly not what we expected.] (Luna)
“Hello again, Syrus.” Elly waved back; her voice was barely noticeable thanks to the children, but Syrus knew what she said.
The cart slowly moved towards them, and Anlesa could do nothing but stare in surprise. Once they were close enough and Elly allowed it, a number of them ran out to swarm Syrus.
She couldn’t do anything, so she crouched down to their height and patted some of their heads.
Once the cart was close enough, Elly pulled it to a stop and tied the horse to one of the many posts in the ground made for this purpose.
“Hello again, Elly.” Syrus returned the greeting now that she was closer. “I can’t say I expected to see you, well, any of you all today.”
“Ain’t it a nice surprise?” Elly chuckled before speaking seriously for a moment, “I talked about it with the children, and we didn’t feel safe staying there.”
“Here was the safest spot?” Syrus questions. Most wouldn’t consider a city that just got attacked by a swarm of mutated animals safe.
“Better than back there for many reasons, but most importantly, the children agreed.”
Jerry shouted, “Yep!”
Ella whacked him on the head. “You can be a little quieter.”
“That’s right.” Leah nodded. “You are supposed to be the hidden child now.”
“I still don’t know what that means…” He replied.
“...” Leah didn’t reply and said, “If you know, you know; if you don’t, you don’t.”
[What on earth have these children been up to…] Syrus was nearly exasperated seeing the difference. Despite any excitement Jerry had shown during his trip, the fear in his eyes was always prevalent, but now he seemed to have reverted mostly to his old self. There were clear gaps in his expression, but he seemed a lot better.
“...Let me drop these items off, and we will find you a house.” Said Syrus.
“Can’t we stay with you?” One child asked.
Thankfully, Anlesa didn’t have to answer that question.
“No, Callum, she only lives in a small house. We need to find our own place.”
Syrus asked cautiously, “Did you come here with a place in mind?”
Elly said, “I do have a basic idea of the current state of affairs here, and the children are fine to camp out for a while before we find a place, but I think I can manage buying up a larger or a few properties.”
“Isn’t that going to cost a lot of money?” Anlesa was a little worried about the feasibility of their plan.
“...I will still have savings leftover even after bringing what I expect to be over the required amount …”
“Isn’t the bank in Cancole?”
Elly said with confidence, “It is good to keep your valuables in multiple locations.”
After an awkward laugh, they continued moving. Elly and some of the children went to find a home, while Syrus walked back to her home, where a few children followed.
Some even came inside and marvelled at the equipment on the table, and Eva had to warn them about how what was on the table was dangerous for them to touch. It was, in the end, a quick in and out, and they all went back to help Elly.
Though by the time they reached Elly, she had already had places to buy.
The houses weren’t big enough to house all the children, so Elly bought two that were next to each other, and with some help from Anlesa and the children, they started to remodel the walls. They tore down the walls that were between the houses and recycled the wooden boards to connect the walls of the two houses. By the time the sun was setting, they were far from done, but they expected that.
With plenty of blankets, the children were cozying up to each other, ready to sleep and begin working in the morning. They were all hard workers, and that had never changed.
“I am surprised you got a place so quickly.” Said Syrus.
“Should know that people are keen on selling at the moment.”
“There is that, but you were able to buy two houses next to each other.” The houses that Elly bought were on the western side of the city, where, as she was right about, a lot of people were keen on selling, and some were waiting for the right opportunity.
“My, it is the world telling me this was the correct decision.” Elly laughed, “I am actually thinking of buying more houses.”
“Heh, you are crazy.” Anlesa laughed back, but she was deeply worried about their finances; they wouldn’t look good with those purchases. She was going to stay with Elly and the children tonight.
[Well, with everyone here… the idea of going away seems even less likely.] (Luna)
[What about the parent and child?] Eva said, [Didn't we agree to meet them once?]
Since they had some relation to Maca, they wanted to at least speak with them.
[...The issue is Lilly the moment we meet them. That chance we end up going on this trip will drastically increase.] (Luna)
[You don’t know that.] (Syrus)
[I just have a bad feeling something is going to happen.] (Luna)