Chapter 117: Peacekeepers

The Healer stopped a few steps away and planted the end of her staff against the road, her pale gray eyes moving from the crying little girl to Nick and then settling on Jaxir. Whatever uncertainty she might have felt from a distance was gone now that she was close enough to see the girl on her knees.

"Get away from her."

Nick stared at her for a second before his mouth twisted. "You know, it’s impressive how a body can put all that effort into such a pretty face and yet none of it into the brains behind it."

Jaxir made a weird face. The Nick he knew was smarter than to antagonize the woman further for no obvious benefit.

As expected, the woman’s eyes widened before narrowing almost immediately, and whatever chance they had of calming the situation vanished. She took another step forward while tightening her grip around her staff.

"Excuse me?"

"I’m just saying, you’re gorgeous, obviously, but maybe ask what happened before you start accusing people."

"You expect me to listen to a pervert compliment me while a little girl is crying at his feet?"

"See, this is what I’m talking about. Beauty, no brains."

Jaxir looked at him again, increasingly convinced Nick had decided to make the situation worse on purpose. "You know you’re not helping, right?"

"You have no moral basement, do you?" the woman snapped. "You’re just digging until you hit bedrock."

Nick frowned. "Give me a night and I’ll really show you how far I can dig."

One of the people from the woman’s group finally stepped forward, a broad man carrying a sword and shield who looked considerably less eager to turn this into a fight. He glanced at the growing crowd before lowering his voice.

"We don’t want any trouble. Just let the little girl go and everyone can walk away."

Another member of the party sighed and looked toward the Healer. "Elara, we already talked about this. You can’t get involved in everything you see, or we’re never going to level properly."

Elara rounded on him so fast that her white hair swung over one shoulder. "There are some things I’m not going to stand around and ignore. These 2 perverts are harming a child."

Nick pointed at Jaxir. "Two? What did he even do?"

"You’re both standing over her!"

"That’s a crime now?"

Jaxir rubbed at the bridge of his nose while the argument continued around him. The little Natural had already stopped crying quite as hard, and from the corner of her eye she was watching the situation with far too much interest for someone who had supposedly been terrified a few moments earlier.

Jaxir stepped forward before Nick could insult Elara’s intelligence again. "You can take her if you want."

Elara gave him a disgusted look before crouching beside the girl and lowering her staff. Her expression softened as she offered one hand.

"Are you okay?"

The girl nodded, then looked past her and directly at Jaxir. "You’re really going to abandon me after all the things you did?"

Elara went still.

Jaxir closed his eyes for a moment and sighed.

"What things?" Elara shot back to her feet so quickly that the girl had to lean away from her. "What did you do to her?"

Nick opened his mouth, but Jaxir gave him a level stare before a single word came out. Nick hesitated, glanced at Elara, then shut his mouth and folded his arms.

That was probably the smartest thing he’d done since she arrived.

Jaxir looked down at the little girl instead. He had no idea what she thought she was accomplishing anymore, but she had probably stopped thinking several steps ago and was enjoying getting back at Nick after he tried to shoo her away.

No matter how strange Naturals were, children were still children.

She had gotten annoyed, made a bad decision and now didn’t know how to walk it back without embarrassing herself.

Elara’s voice rose as she demanded an answer, drawing even more attention from the players and NPCs passing toward Marr Town. One of the ordinary gate guards finally started toward them while the other remained at his post, though neither looked remotely prepared to deal with what they were hearing.

"Guards!" Elara pointed toward Jaxir and Nick. "These 2 need to be detained."

The guard frowned. "Detained for what?"

"Abusing a child."

The guard looked at the girl, then at Jaxir and Nick before scratching at the side of his helmet. "I need more information than that."

"She literally just said they did something to her."

Jaxir remained quiet while Elara argued with the guard, his attention staying on the little Natural instead. His expression had gone flat without him realizing it, and the longer he stared at her, the less amused she seemed by the mess she’d created.

The girl’s eyes shifted away.

Jaxir had laughed when she tried to steal from him, laughed when she insulted his talent and laughed when Nick thought she was selling them out to the Matriarch. She’d barely seen him wear anything other than an amused expression since meeting him.

Now he wasn’t smiling.

Her lower lip pushed out as she started fidgeting with the hem of her oversized sleeve, and Jaxir could see the act falling apart for real this time. The confidence disappeared first, then the smugness, until she finally looked like the child she actually was.

The girl shuffled closer and tugged lightly on Jaxir’s robe.

"I’m sorry."

Elara stopped talking.

Unfortunately, Jaxir could already tell what the scene looked like from her side. A little girl had made an accusation, Jaxir had stared at her without speaking, and now she was suddenly apologizing while clutching his clothes.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Elara’s temper flared again. "Don’t threaten her."

Jaxir ignored her and rested one hand on the girl’s head. "Just don’t do it again."

The girl looked up at him. "I was just—"

"I know."

She immediately turned toward Elara, clearly preparing to explain the entire thing, but Jaxir shook his head before she could start. At this point, an increasingly elaborate explanation about pirates, Naturals, stolen eggs and giant river creatures probably wasn’t going to make the situation look any better.

"There are some things that aren’t easy to take back once you do them." Jaxir kept his voice calm while looking down at her. "If you start over-explaining now, it’s only going to sound worse. Do you understand?"

Her shoulders dropped and she nodded, though both of her hands remained wrapped around the corner of his robes.

Jaxir looked at them for a moment and found himself wondering where her parents were.

He hadn’t thought much about it while everything was happening on the river, but being a Natural didn’t mean she had appeared out of nowhere. Rovan had been an adult, and the woman riding the 2-tailed fox had looked like one as well, which meant there had to be families or communities somewhere that this girl belonged to.

Elara had gone quiet.

Not completely, but enough that Jaxir noticed the uncertainty beginning to replace some of the anger on her face. She looked between the girl holding the corner of his robes and Jaxir’s hand resting on her head, and for the first time since storming over, she seemed to consider that she might have read the situation wrong.

Movement from the city gates interrupted the thought.

The second guard stepped aside as a group of 4 walked out of Marr Town in matching silver-and-black uniforms, and unlike the ordinary guards, none of them looked confused about why they’d been called. Two carried Melee weapons, one wore heavy armor with a broad shield across his back, and the last held a staff.

Jaxir focused on the first one.

―

Level: ???

―

His brows rose as he checked another and got the same result.

Whatever their exact strength was, all 4 were far enough above him that the Sparkling Third Eye couldn’t read them. Either they were at least 2 full Tiers beyond him or their foundations were high enough to create the same result, and neither option made fighting them particularly appealing.

Nick noticed the uniforms and immediately turned toward Elara. "You absolute bitch."

Her head snapped toward him. "What did you call me?"

"Oh, now you hear perfectly?"

Jaxir frowned.

This had gotten completely out of hand.

The ordinary guard stepped back as the newcomers approached, which told Jaxir everything he needed to know. The men at the gate weren’t responsible for situations like this, so they’d called the people who were.

The lead peacekeeper was one of the Melee Classes, a lean man with a sheathed saber resting at his side. He stopped in front of the group, looked once at the little girl gripping Jaxir’s robe, then swept his gaze across everyone else.

"What’s going on here?"