Aldric was still in the same position when Kai walked toward him.
Folder in hand.
His eyes going from Kai to Serah, from Serah to the space where the dungeon had been, back to Kai.
"How did it go?" he finally said.
Kai thought about it for a second.
"Fine."
Aldric looked at the glowing dust still floating in the plaza air — the last remains of a stone structure the size of a medium building that had existed that morning.
"It seems it was... simple for you," he said, with the specific tone of someone choosing the least incorrect word available.
"More or less," Kai said.
Serah said nothing.
She remained half a step behind Kai, her silver markings in their most stable state — the slow, steady glow.
Aldric looked at the two of them.
Looked at the list of impossible quests Kai had kept folded in his pocket since the day before and had now pulled out without being asked.
"What will you do now?" he asked.
"Because if I'm being honest..." he paused.
"This town doesn't have much left to offer you in terms of quests. What you just did was beyond the classification of any request we have available."
Kai smiled.
Not the dry smile of someone finding something technically correct.
The small, genuine smile the chat had seen exactly once before — when he'd challenged the guildmaster of Dunholt.
He unfolded the pages.
Eight quests marked in red.
All with the note: "Minimum recommended rank: S or higher. No hunters available."
"There are still interesting things to do here," he said.
"And I still have a lot to learn about how this world works."
Aldric looked at the pages.
Looked at Kai.
Looked at Serah.
Closed the folder.
"Alright," he said, with the tone of someone who has decided to stop being responsible for certain outcomes. "Which one do you choose?"
---
[GarcíaFTW: "there are still interesting things" — the red pages. ALL EIGHT RED PAGES.]
[NocheEterna99: Aldric closed the folder. He already knows there's nothing to write down that would make sense.]
[xSorinx: Serah is half a step behind Kai and hasn't moved from there since they landed. No one's commenting on it but we're all seeing it.]
---
Forty kilometers north of Valdris, in a cave on the edge of the mountain range that separated the northern sector from the central territory, there was no light.
Not because torches were missing.
But because whoever lived there preferred the darkness.
It was a preference cultivated over eight centuries.
Sunlight was inconvenient.
Loud noises were inconvenient.
People who didn't understand that their presence was a privilege were especially inconvenient.
The woman stood at the cave entrance, looking toward the southern horizon with her arms crossed and the expression of someone who has been waiting too long for something that should have arrived sooner.
White hair to the waist, completely straight, with the kind of luster that comes not from care but from nature.
Skin that hadn't seen direct sunlight in centuries — not because she couldn't, but because she'd decided it was an overrated experience.
Black lace dress over a structured corset, black elbow-length gloves, a small diamond on her right index finger — the only object she carried with no apparent practical function.
Red eyes.
Calm, unconcerned gaze.
A bat arrived from the south.
It perched on her right shoulder and whispered something in her ear — not animal sounds, but information.
The woman listened.
Her lips — where fangs barely peeked out at rest, without her trying — curved slightly.
"Hmm," she said. "Interesting."
The bat waited.
"We'll have to pick up the pace," she said, with the naturalness of someone adjusting a minor schedule item.
"Once night falls."
She looked south — in the exact direction of Valdris, though nothing was visible from here.
"We need to deal with that little piece of trash accompanying the wet dog before she gets too settled."
The bat made a sound.
"The wet dog's been there for weeks?" The woman processed this. "And the trash let her stay." Her red eyes moved toward the horizon.
"And he has millions of viewers from another world? There's no need for you to invent information."
Another sound from the bat.
"He destroyed a floating dungeon with his fists?"
Silence.
"Today?"
The bat.
The woman stared at the southern horizon for three full seconds.
"Interesting," she repeated, with a tone different from the first — more intrigued.
She turned toward the cave interior.
"Still," she said, "a piece of trash. Let him mind his own business."
---
[xSorinx: WHO WAS THAT]
[GarcíaFTW: white hair, red eyes, cave to the north — that's the SSS entity that's been approaching from 12km away]
[NocheEterna99: "the little piece of trash accompanying the beast that smells like wet dog" — LIRA CALLED KAI TRASH]
[StreamerHunter: and called Serah "wet dog"]
[Deral_Bleattler: HOW CAN WE EVEN SEE THIS????]
[System — alert updated]
[Additional SSS Entity — current distance: 12 km]
[Speed: temporarily halted]
[Projected movement: resumes at nightfall]
[Intent classification: the system has updated from UNKNOWN to HOSTILE]
[The system knows Kai isn't going to do anything about it]
[The system knows it's a lot of text]
[The system mentions it anyway]
---
Back in Valdris plaza, Kai had chosen.
Of the eight red pages, the third from the right. The one with the most margin notes in the cramped handwriting of someone who'd tried to draft the quest several times and had finally given up on the details.
The summary was simple: a man.
Offensive magic of unconfirmed classification.
A village two hours northeast that had been under his control for weeks.
The hunters who went in to investigate didn't come back.
Kai read the summary twice.
"This one," he said.
Aldric looked at the page.
"That quest's been on the board for three months," he said.
"The reports we have on the mage are... inconsistent. Different hunters described completely different abilities. Some say fire magic, others shadow, one insists it was time magic."
"Contradictory or variable?"
Aldric thought about it.
"Variable," he finally said. "As if it changed."
Kai folded the page and put it away.
"Good," he said.
"Tomorrow."
"Why tomorrow?"
"Because today we've done enough."
Serah, who had listened to everything without moving from her position half a step behind Kai, looked at him.
"And tonight?" she asked.
Kai looked at her.
Serah's silver markings pulsed once, slow, with that steady glow she'd had since they landed in the plaza.
"Tonight," Kai said, "like every day, you train."
Serah processed this.
"That's it?"
"That and dinner." Pause.
"In that order."
Serah looked ahead.
Her markings flared differently for exactly one second — it seemed she wanted something else.
"Alright," she said.
---
[GarcíaFTW: "and tonight?" / "you train" — KAI ANSWERED LIKE THAT]
[NocheEterna99: Serah was expecting something different. And accepted it anyway. The markings said it.]
[StreamerHunter: tomorrow they go after the mage. Today Serah trains. Kai has the most consistent priorities in the world.]
[xSorinx: 12km away there's a red-eyed vampire waiting for nightfall. Kai selected a quest for tomorrow. This is going to collide.]