The two older siblings’ eyes shone. My words resonated well with them.
“I’ll work hard.”
“What are we going to do now?”
Aren was focused on himself, while Erin was more curious about our group.
“Back to the inn for you three. I’ll ask Mrs. Itfan if she’s still interested in teaching you.”
“Not that. What about the mage who put the house on fire? What if she comes back?”
“I’ll take care of that. Don’t worry, they won’t escape punishment so easily.”
“What can you even do?”
There was some resignation in her tone, the type that only someone who had always been on the receiving side of injustice could feel.
“First, I need to find out who’s behind this attack. And when I know…”
I turned my head again and looked at her right into her eyes disillusioned by life.
“…They’ll pay the full price for what they did.”
She was surprised by my tone, but soon shook her head.
“It’s easy to say that.”
“I know people in high positions. It’s my job from now on. You three should just continue to learn as before.”
They looked away, clearly not expecting much. A lot of people knew I was acquainted with Crali now, including them. Knowing her didn’t mean I had any influence, however.
The rest of the trip was spent quietly, everyone being lost in their thoughts, except Orun, who started to ask what was happening when he became bored. Erin and Aren tried their best to explain the circumstances to him, while I was only listening with one ear.
In the end, Suuru had been right all along. The outer world truly wasn’t safe, even in the well-protected bunnies’ village. It wasn’t like the army could monitor every corner of the village at all times, especially during the night. In a way, I was glad Suuru and Minsto hadn’t needed to go through all of this. Kuini and the kids were strong, but she would certainly have taken the event very badly. As for Minsto, I wasn’t sure if anything could faze her. That didn’t mean I wished that something would happen to her, though.
Back in Geola, I took care of the most urgent tasks first. I sent the children to the same inn as before, and went to see Mrs. Itfan. Fortunately, she hadn’t found another job to fill her morning time and was glad to resume teaching the panthers. After that, I reported the incident to the city guards, even though I was sure the army had already made a report. It didn’t hurt if more people were on the case, even though I had little hope that the city guards could do anything.
I spent the rest of the day working in the store, trying to focus on simple tasks to forget the pain of losing my brand-new home. My peace was interrupted by a jaguar, intruding on my store as if it were hers.
Crali had the largest smile I had ever seen her sport, her eyes squinted so hard in joy it was hard to tell if she could still see anything.
“I heard your house burned? Pffft. How sad. Hahahaha!”
I seriously wanted to punch her right now. I had to exert all my willpower not to do so.
“That makes you laugh?”
“Yeah! Best day of my life! Serves you right for being so hateful! Hahahaha!”
“The army you’re so proud of couldn’t even react to the attack. I want to be compensated for the loss.”
“Pffft! Hahaha! Good try! Dream on! The army isn’t there to protect you. It’s there to protect the bunnies.”
“What if the bunnies had been targeted? Do you think they’d have reacted any better? No, there’s no need to even consider that option. What if the fire mage who attacked us had fired some spells toward the rest of the village? Or what if there had been some wind during the night? The whole village could have gone up in flames, and hundreds of bunnies could have died. Does that still make you laugh?”
It didn’t. She had completely stopped giggling, her eyes now frosty. There was a moment of silence before she answered.
“I’ll investigate what happened. We’ll find out who did that.”
Her sudden change of attitude even managed to startle me. I didn’t think she would react so strongly.
“…Thanks. I’ve been curious about this for a long time now. Why do you care about bunnies so much?”
Her cold eyes now pierced me.
“You don’t need to know that. I’ll come back when I have some news.”
She turned around and started to leave. After a few steps, she slowed down and eventually looked back at me, her expression slightly gentler.
“If you’re so curious about it, you can ask my mother. And… Sorry about your home.”
This time, she left for good. Talk about bipolar. Speaking of which, did she really have nothing else to do than come to laugh at me? Wasn’t she supposed to run the city? I sighed, not even surprised by her antics at this point.
I spent the rest of the day reassuring my employees about how I felt, even though I was the one who lost the house. Since I didn’t have any place to stay, I went back to Suuru’s home to be a freeloader once again.
She was shocked by the events and immediately hugged me, glad that I was safe at least. For some reason, Minsto came to hug me too, even though she did not attempt to console me whatsoever. That was still something, and I appreciated her gesture, which I believed was a mix of mimicking Suuru and liking giving hugs herself.
We slept the three of us together for the first time in a while, which made both women happy in their own way.
The following day, I was surprised to see Crali come to the shop in the morning. Geola’s information network sure was something else. I wished to build one like this too in the future.