Chapter 169 Book 3 Chapter 14

Willow’s sleep was interrupted by a commotion in the Faber household the next morning. She grumbled a bit before getting up, suspecting the cause, and wanting to at least be there for the aftermath. Besides, she imagined that there would be many questions sent her way about the events of the previous night.

She was at least glad that she wasn’t sensing any negative emotions in the family.

When Willow stumbled out of Rom’s old room, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, the group grew quiet. Missus Faber seemed inordinately pleased, while her uncle’s happiness was tempered with concern and confusion. Remy was a little bashful, but mostly just felt excited. Likely due to waking up with a new friend in his life.

Said new friend was currently resting atop his head, as the Promise was far smaller in reality than they were in the dreamscape. It was also interesting to Willow that the Grudge it had once been was a formless cloud of negative emotion outside of the dream, yet their new form was largely the same as it had been in the mental realm, if smaller in stature.

Probably a side effect of shifting from an emotion spirit to a more symbolic one, and Miss Mu would definitely like a look at them regardless.

All these thoughts flew through her head before she mumbled a morning greeting to the family, slightly nervous at the sudden attention that had come from her arrival.

Missus Faber’s first words did little to ease that nervousness. “I knew you were interested in Remy! Why did you act so coy at dinner last night when you had such a romantic gift planned for him? Sure it’s a little unorthodox, but I could’ve done more to help you out!”

It was far too early for this, Willow decided, but sadly she had to deal with it now before things got worse.

“I still don’t have any interest in Remy that way Missus Faber, and I’m a little confused why you think I do.”

The face of her friend reddened, and Willow internally winced at the small pang of hurt she felt in his core. “That’s what I was trying to tell her before you came out. She’s gotten it in her head that it was some sort of marriage proposal.”

She wanted to instantly deny it, but held her tongue as she remembered a few customs that did look remarkably close to what she had done, minus converting a hostile spirit to do so. Teaching a prospective partner your family’s binding technique and gifting them a spirit was still a popular proposal method in some parts of the territories. It was also considered good form to find a spirit with a romantic concept like Passion or Love, though it wasn’t a requirement.

A Promise likely fell into that same category.

Willow rubbed at her face tiredly. “I’m seeing how she came to that conclusion, actually, even if it’s still wrong. I just wanted to do something nice for a friend as payment for helping with a job that needed doing, nothing more, nothing less.”

Uncle Lucius nodded. “I thought it was something closer to that effect, but I’m glad we didn’t have to explain why we had the wrong idea.” Though now he was looking between the two of them with concern. “What exactly was the job you had my son doing?”

Willow scratched at her cheek in thought, wondering if she should downplay some of the danger he was in.

It should be fine to just explain the basics.

“There was a negative spirit in the village that was feeding on and exacerbating certain negative emotions, and I needed Remy’s help to deal with it. It shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

She did her best not to look at the Promise on her friend’s head. She doubted that the two of them would appreciate the origins of Remy’s new friend. Somewhat understandably, she had to admit, but it would be better to not attach such a stigma on a newly reborn spirit.

Despite her efforts, both parents felt somewhat alarmed at her statement. Though it was her uncle that was the first to speak.

“Were you hired by the village head? We weren’t informed of any problems that needed a Wanderer’s intervention.”

His wife had different priorities, voicing a complaint before Willow had time to answer her husband’s question. “You should have informed us before dragging Remy into danger like that! He could’ve gotten hurt!”

Her friend reddened further in embarrassment. “I was safe the whole time, didn’t even really get to see the spirit since Willow used some kind of protective technique on me as soon as they showed up.”

Missus Faber seemed to be pacified by that, though she was still clearly a little upset.

Since Remy had addressed his mother’s concerns, Willow decided to focus on answering her uncle. “I don’t think the village head knew about it, or would even be in the right headspace to ask for help if they were. Emotion spirits tend to go unnoticed unless someone with the right skill set passes through, and with the particular variety of emotion spirit we were dealing with, me and Miss Mu decided it would be better to just deal with it without bothering the village head about it.”

She put a smile on her face. “Besides, I had a nice reunion with everyone, so that’s a good enough reward for my work. A nice meal and friendly company is worth more than any amount of coin.”

The Faber’s cores brightened at her words, and she chose not to mention that she didn’t value money too highly anyways, a trait she’d largely gotten from her mentor.

Willow didn’t have many opportunities to spend what little money she did have, and each clan had slightly different denominations, so it was a headache to keep track of. It really didn’t help that the places in between tended to have an uneven mix of the different currencies so the rewards handed out for their work were often random assortments of coins, which meant making any kind of purchase a small nightmare most days unless they spent a decent amount of time in one region.

Miss Mu claimed to have a clear grasp of her current finances, but Willow was fairly certain that was a lie. Her grandmother and Li Wanyu had tried their best to impart her with some fiscal sense and responsibility, but they had few opportunities to do so since they were living out in the middle of nowhere, which made their examples and lessons more abstract than was really helpful.

Which left Willow appreciative of money as a means to acquire more stories, but otherwise felt no real need to hoard it.

She felt her mentor approaching the home, which meant she was running out of time. They were still on a tight schedule and had lingered long enough in this village, so they needed to get back on the road.

Willow’s smile dimmed. “Miss Mu should be arriving in a bit, so I think this is where I say my goodbyes.”

Her uncle tried to stay positive, stepping forward and clasping her arm. “If you’re ever in the area, feel free to stop by again. We’d be happy to host you again.”

Willow tried to keep from getting misty-eyed. Despite needing to say it so often, she was still terrible at saying goodbye.

She gave Uncle Lucius a nod, not trusting herself to speak at the moment.

After breaking away from her uncle she turned to her friend. Before she could convince herself not to, she gave Remy a hug, resting her chin on the top of his head. “Take care of yourself, alright? And make sure to take care of your new friend as well.”

His voice cracked a bit when he promised to do so, and she tried to ignore the effect she was having on his emotions with their embrace. She knew it wasn’t his fault that he was feeling this way, just like it wasn’t hers that she couldn’t reciprocate.

Willow managed to leave the Faber household just as her mentor arrived, using her arrival to avoid a prolonged goodbye with Missus Faber.

This little stop had gone better than she could’ve hoped, but it was time for her to get back onto the road.