Trash: Chapter 173 Something About Icicles (Patreon)

Chapter 173

Something About Icicles

We are power walking. No other term can describe this process of walking in short choppy steps at a brisk pace, that screams both I’m in a hurry and I’m not trying to run. Why we are powerwalking, well I think we would if Junior was in better shape. As it is, we are going as quickly as he can move, while also telling me everything I need to know, while not passing out.

“Why are you here?” I ask, my voice mildly impacted by our semi-quick pace, though I am mostly frustrated with the fact that we are not going faster.

“Th-anks,” Junior manages to wheeze out. I’m trying to be patient with his clear lack of cardio. Especially the fact that he ran to get me from History class. I mean, what are signs that I was apparently an American in my past life? When the History teacher does an exhibit on guns and you don’t even notice the moment that Marcus was called out to investigate something. Then I am hit with a nearly passed out Junior who allegedly sprinted all the way to the lecture hall to find me, and now bring me back here.

“You know what I mean, why didn’t Marcus come to get me?” I ask.

“He couldn’t, he is acting as council to Le-Lelia, who will not divulge the location of where she got icicles,” Junior declared.

“All of this for icicles?” I ask, not getting the reference. I mean, it is a little warm for icicles sure, but this can’t be what they are questioning her about.

“Well not, icicles. Actually. I have no clue what they are, that she found,” he continues to speak in short breath assisted words like a chain smoker running to the corner store, knowing that tomorrow the ban on smoking will take full effect.

“Well, can you describe what these icicles are?” I ask. This is apparently not the thing to do, for Junior does something very dirty with his fingers.

“You know,” Junior exclaims as he pantomimes grabbing something with his hands and tracing an insane shape. I just shake my head as we continue to walk. I do not know what Junior means, and this is getting ridiculous.

“Oh come on, you’ve had to have seen one before,” Junior continued.

“Yes, I’ve seen an icicle before,” I reply.

“Gah—not an icicle, but a, you know,” Junior replies and again makes the same odd grabby hand gesture, this time involving his pointer finger and a pulling gesture. I just shake my head. We are likely getting closer, at least I assume we are, as I can see more and more people gathering. Realizing this talking about icicles is not going to be solved anytime soon, I instead go onto the next pertinent piece of information.

“Moving on, why were you the one that got me?” I ask, trying to understand if Marcus knew just how bad Junior was at relaying pertinent information.

“Marcus sent me. Originally, he was going to send the runner that got him, but thought it would be easier for me to tell you to come and get Le-lia,” Junior manages but he’s huffing and puffing and slowing us down.

“Okay, and what exactly is happening to Lelia?” I ask, realizing that we are going to have to slow down a bit more, but I feel that I am still missing something with why this all needs to happen so quickly.

“Because, Lelia will not tell the location, she was going to be punished. But then—” Junior pauses and wheezes for breath dramatically. He is trying, and I can see that with every labored breath he takes, but we are going to get him on a high cardio regimen here shortly, this is ridiculous. “Then, Marcus saw her and declared some magical rite that caused everyone to shut down, and then I was sent to find you.”

A magical rite. That’s what he’s giving me.

I am soon put out of my misery, as we get to a building make our way past a gaggle of spectators, where I proceed to see the three different types of crystals: Experience, Enhancement, and Skill crystals laid out in a pile on a table. Suddenly Junior’s comments about icicles, and his odd hand gestures click in my head. Sad that I had to see the items in person to truly understand what he was talking about. Once my mind recognizes the crystals and immediately understands that there is a lot of gold potentially at stake here, with the pile of crystals that seem to be the heart of this investigation that is happening.

Surrounding the open table are a few high-ranking ROW officers, a few teachers, and several students who have wisely backed up to give room. Then at the back is a stoic fox faced girl who seems to be mastering the art of meditation, as her hands are calmly splayed on the table, while her backpack remains exposed to the air, but otherwise untouched and resting an arm’s length away from her. Then directly behind her is Marcus who might be giving lamas lessons with how calm he is and how he seems to be telling Lelia to just breathe and relax. My mind sees all of this, before the world changes as Marcus looks up, no doubt reacting to the number of gawking students who are already moving out of Junior and my way as we enter the main corridor.

“And there she is!” Marcus exclaims, making sure that everyone turns to face me as I get closer and try to take control of whatever is happening.

“And just is happening here?” I demand. I’m not certain what exactly is happening, but I somehow feel that I have a good deal of leverage, given my position as a healer and a team lead. Seeing Lelia there, and the fact that no one has emptied her pockets, a fact that I am certain of, as I can both see bulges in her pockets, and the table is relatively clear of clutter tells me that Lelia has not been searched. This all seems to imply that I can offer some type of legal protection to Lelia, at least that is what I think is happening.

“Healer candidate,” the first ROW officer from yesterday calls out, the sacrificial scout as it were. Not the Sinclair guy who made me vomit my guts out, but the other one who threatened, Luna, Lucia, and myself ad different times with his spear. “Bloom—”

The fact that he also remembered my name was both good and bad. Bad that leadership already knew of me, but good in that it would speed things up a bit.

“It would appear that your party member has either stolen a haul of crystals or has found a location of substantial importance that needs to be explored. As she was unwilling to prove her innocence to the matter, we have held her until it can be verified that she did not in fact steal these. Which if she had, would have been fine, but she insists she just found them, which seems implausible at this point,” the first ROW officer explained.

“That is when I invoked the rite of Actio Iniuriarum, by his insulting team member Volica's dignity and reputation,” Marcus cut in, moving around close to me to provide both clarification and help me understand more of what the actual problem is. Also, with his definition, I suddenly understood what Junior meant by saying that Marcus cast a spell, that made it so everyone waited until I could arrive.

“Actio Ini—” I begin but then stop as I realize I have no clue what the rest of that word was.

“Actio Iniuriarum,” Marcus corrected, before continuing, “in this case it refers to the fact that these claims of theft are unwarranted and can hold Lelia to a bad standard, which will ultimately show poorly on you. Since you are her team lead, and it has come to an impasse, your presence is required to help settle the matter before us.”

Hearing Marcus speak, I’d swear he is a law student in training at this rate, maybe a dignitary of the court that has all of the laws and bylaws ready to read off at a moment’s notice, for he is amazing. Again, Junior’s comment of this being a spell are not lost on me, for while I am not seeing any signs of magic or Skills being used, his very presence and confidence in what he is saying makes this easy to believe that Lelia is a victim in all of this.

Then as if Marcus had been teaching Lelia how to cast her own lesser variation of the same school of magic, he turns to Lelia and nods. Seeing the nod, Lelia raises her head as well, signaling that she understood, the speaks for the first time since I arrived. “Now that my team lead is here, I will inform her of the origin point for these items, so she can decide how to proceed.”

There was a gasp from the crowd as everyone was still watching the spectacle unfolding around us. Hearing the gasps, I shake my head as if momentarily pulled from the spell that is being cast around me.

Then moving forward, I head towards Lelia and am somewhat relieved by her completely calm demeanor. For a moment I wonder what type of life she has had to make it so being this thoroughly interrogated is second nature to her. A thought I dismiss quickly as I lean in and hear what she has to say.

***

(Quin “Mousey” Mossey)

Despite being a relatively new disciple to the order, Quin found himself yet again crossing her path.

Almost as if it was destiny.

That was his thought at least, that this was all destined. That their paths were meant to cross multiple times all but proved their intangible bindings by fate. Even though he wore a face covering, as all ROW recruits did, he was certain that she would recognize him. While she had bypassed him completely this time, to speak to his current caretaker, Lt. Keller.

What had begun as a quick investigation into trying to figure out who the Foraging instructor would have to pay back, quickly went confrontational as Lelia, Catarine’s shifty teammate all but refused to explain who she stole the crystals from.

Honestly, seeing the stack of glittering crystals before him, Quin couldn’t quite understand the appeal. They looked nice, but were they really so valuable as to cause everyone to stop and stare like this? Or to cause an investigation to be made.

“I hope you are taking notes,” Lt. Keller whispered to Quin. This was part of why Quin did not like the idea of this being a true investigation, as he knew it would fall to him to write a full incident report now that it had involved the summoning of a healer candidate.

Knowing that he was currently under his vow of silence for the order, Quin just nodded. Then watched as Catarine went over and placed her ear next to Lelia’s mouth, which Lelia covered with her hand to prevent lip reading, and began speaking. Again, everything about the shifty girl screamed that she was lying. Worse, this could have all been cleared up, had she just confessed to who she stole the items from, and either keep them if she stole the most, or give them back if someone stole more than her. The fact that she was being so squirrely about the entire thing is why everyone had been summoned. As this went from a typical Foraging class gone too far lesson, to a full-blown case of a student lying to ROW officers. At least that was what Quin was told and was currently tracking as part of his notes that he had been provided by Keller on their way here.

Finally, after a minute of talking, Catarine nodded her head, then placed a reassuring hand on Lelia’s shoulder, a sign that said Cat had her back.

“All right, I have spoken to my cli—teammate here and realize that this is in fact a case of Actio Ini—” Cat began, but then gestured at cadet Marcus Ghulum the barracks lawyer as the ROW officers called him. A person who knows the rules and regulations just enough to cause problems for the ROW officers. Most often the advice he gave was correct, but the way those following his advice used said advice was incorrect or questionable.

“Actio Iniuriarum,” Marcus completed the statement.

“Yes, that,” Cat replied, before continuing, “what we have here is a case of you unfairly branding one of my teammates as a liar. A fact that will both be proven incorrect here shortly, but before this we need to have a compensatory plan to make her whole when your accusations are found to be baseless and inaccurate.”

“And what would you propose the compensation be?” Lt. Keller asked, as he crossed his arm over his chest, a sign that he was clearly intrigued by the conversation happening.

“Well, since this is clearly damaging Lelia’s reputation here,” Cat says while gesturing to all the students, faculty, and of course ROW members that are in attendance. “It only makes sense that should I move on before she is ready, then others might not be willing to give her a chance to join their team out of perceived prejudice from this very incident.”

As Cat speaks, she makes a gesture towards Cadet Ghulam who has been here for too long but somehow manages to find sponsorship in the most unlikely of places.

“Very well, a fee of 500 credits will be awarded to your team’s account if she is proven innocent,” Lt. Keller declares. At the number being given, everyone gasps as apparently that is a lot of credits. Well, everyone but Cat, who just shakes her head in annoyance.

“No, I want it so that her cost to attend here is zero credits until she has completed her training,” Cat declares. There is a slight pause, before she continues, “this way if she opts to leave me or my team, or we lose a duel, her educational costs are guaranteed.”

Quin was almost going to disagree with his friend, until he heard her argument and realized that yes losing a duel could be detrimental to a team. With this, regardless of whatever happened, Lelia would be covered for life, a deal most everyone would be envious of, Marcus especially as he seemed to just stare at Cat in shock, but only for a moment. Most might not have caught the look, as almost everyone else was doing what Marcus was doing and staring at Cat, who seemed imposing with her oversized sword and violin strap resting over her chest.

“Very well,” Lt. Keller declared. There was a pause as Cadet Ghulum leaned in and whisper something to Cat, at which point she straightened up and demanded.

“Swear by the system.”

More gasps, but Cat just stared the lieutenant down. Then Quin saw something he never expected, an almost chuckle came from the Lieutenant who just smiled and nodded.

“Fine, I swear by the system, that should it be proven that Cadet Lelia Volica not have stolen these crystals before us, her current and future class loads will be free,” Lt. Keller declared, while holding up his right hand. As he spoke, a faint golden glow filled his eyes, a sign that he was actively invoking the system. Once he was done speaking and the glow faded from his eyes, Cat nodded.

Then in what could only be called the ultimate of Cat moves, Cat proceeded to double down.

“Now that we have her reputational damages covered, we now need to come to terms for her compensation,” Cat declared.

“Compensation? For what?” Lt. Keller demanded angrily.

As if expecting this very outcome, Cat lazily crossed her arms, taking on the same nonchalant posture that Lt. Keller was sporting. “Compensation for a first hand guided tour to a location containing more crystals.”

“More?” Lt. Keller asked, looking at the pile of crystals on the table before looking back up to Cat for confirmation. For her part Cat just glanced to her left at Lelia, who nodded in confirmation.

“Yes, there are still more in the location, which is how we will prove both Lelia’s innocence, and why we will charge you for compensation,” Cat declared.

And like that, Quin got to sit in on what was his first live contract negotiation.