All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 189: Pets and Pats

Bee couldn't wait for her master to return. With how busy she was, it was a couple more days before she had time to return to the library. She hadn't forgotten about her class options, of course. They had stuck with her in the back of her mind, distracting her during other essential tasks. But with everything going on, she simply had no time for herself to really research or consider them any further.

As time went on, the influx of new castle inhabitants presented a similarly consistent list of things to attend to. There were constant problems with settling everyone in. Most of them were minor, but many were still issues she needed to advise someone on. Most of her day was spent meeting with the castle's leadership: Mary, Trent, Susan, and Tony, as well as the recently added Gertrude and Captain Major. That or, given that they too were overburdened, handling any number of issues personally.

That's how Bee found herself stepping up to fill in the gaps. Hopefully, she'd be able to train people to take command and handle all these every day matters so she wouldn't have to. Besides, she still felt woefully underqualified for this, having practically no life experience with organizing. Yet she was looked up to because of her position and relationship with Void.

At the end of the day, whenever she was lucky enough to spare some time in the evenings, she would rather catch up on her sleep than think about the exciting prospect of a class change. And after the first day of not getting to it immediately, she decided it could wait a bit longer.

There was no urgent rush. Leveling had gotten a bit slower recently, and it was a big decision. She wanted to talk to Void about it. What would her god think if she chose a companion class if it didn't even want a companion? That would be pretty bad. But it didn't stop her from taking every chance to ask advice from the more experienced members of her staff.

Mary and Susan both encouraged her to take the companion option, saying that she didn't need to take all of these responsibilities on herself. She had never wanted or intended to become a leader, after all. She should be out learning about Void and letting other people take care of the day-to-day duties that a high priestess would have.

Trent, though, disagreed.

"Like it or not, you've got an important role 'round here now. Void needs someone to be his voice. I know the kids can understand him, but well… you know them." The older man shrugged. "They mean well, but they might not be up to it yet. People definitely won't respect em' the way they do with you. Definitely not their mothers."

Bee could see both sides. In the end, though, it really came down to what Void wanted. Not what she did.

So it was with taut nerves that she waited for her master's return. There were still plenty of reasons to be excited about Level 50. The skills after this would become much more specialized. Almost all of them would probably end up being some sort of cleric skills or holy skills, which would be lovely and hopefully help her more than the current offerings. Maybe she's even been able to level faster with their help. There were even some instances where people were granted a passive effect, sort of like a lesser version of the domain that some monsters showed.

As excited as she was, all those thoughts went out the window when Void finally did come home.

As Bee sprinted down the castle steps and bore down on her master, she half hesitated, not sure what to do. It wasn't like she could greet Void with a hug or jump into his arms or anything like that. The physics just didn't work out.

So while it sat there merrily waving its claw at her, she skidded to a halt a few feet away and bowed deeply. It seemed to be the right thing to do. Void reached out with his claw and patted her head several times. The gesture made her smile. Perhaps it was worth risking a massive social faux pas to show her own excitement. With a mental shrug, Bee reached down and gently touched the top of Void's shiny black surface.

Guiltily, she appreciated the odd feeling of Void's skin, the strange texture and smoothness in its abnormal geometric patterns. It's not that she had never touched Void before, of course, but never in such a casual manner. This time, she was comfortable enough to actually notice the details. But before the contact could grow awkward, she drew back quickly. A hint of wetness appeared at the corners of her eyes. "Void. It's so good you're home. We've all missed you so much."

—-

Finally. Finally. It was a day for celebration. Beatrice had, at last, given me the head pat I so desired. It was quite late, and I was able to evaluate my own performance much better now, meaning I didn't exactly require the head pat scale of satisfaction for reference. Not like I had so long ago, back when my regard for humans was much higher. But that wasn't to say I didn't appreciate it. It was a shame that it was so fleeting. But the contact felt nice.

What followed was a whirlwind of activity. There were so many new people I didn't know. I focused on scanning them as they came to file away in my people dictionary. It helped that Beatrice worked to introduce me to everyone, making sure that they kept a respectful distance and knew who I was.

So I was treated to a series of very polite bows and sometimes murmurs of a name. But most of the time, it was just a general show of respect or pleasure that I was back. But that didn't last for long. Soon, the children arrived.

The Nighty Knights had been quite busy. It appeared the couple dozen of children that I had been training had now exploded in numbers, and many of the newer kids I saw were carrying rough sticks instead of the beautiful personalized ones I had made. It looked like I would have to refresh their supply. If I found them worthy. I would probably need to restart their training again, too. Hopefully, they had been keeping up while I was away.

Each one of my personal trainees gave me a salute while touching their swords, and the new ones did their best to copy. I noticed that many of the younger women in the crowd were looking on with quite intense frowns. I wondered what that was all about.

Oh, well, I guess not everyone could be happy that I was back. I did my best to keep it out of my mind. Soon enough, the other adults were there. Tony and Susan both said hello, and Mary Trent welcomed me back warmly.

It was actually starting to get a little overwhelming. There were so many people here. Plus, I hadn't realized how long I had been gone. This had been the longest I had ever been away from my home. Well, excluding the running tally of time, I had been away from my old home, obviously.

But it had been several weeks since I'd gone away. As nice as it was to meet everyone, I was itching to inspect the castle and its grounds more closely to ensure they were properly taken care of. In my absence, I had faith that Mary and her underlings would have been able to do so competently. But I really needed to know for myself.

But the last thing I wanted to do was be rude. It was almost two hours before I was able to untangle myself from the crowd. I would need to talk to Beatrice alone soon. But that could hold off for a little bit. Quickly, I darted into the castle, doing my best not to be intrusive, and took myself on a castle tour.

The rooms were reasonably well maintained. I wasn't going to be upset with Mary or anything at their state. Still, I definitely would have held myself to a higher standard. But luckily, my powers were growing such that all I had to do was simply roll into a room for a few seconds, and between my skills and my domain, most things were quickly taken care of.

A little bit of Air Manipulation helped get the dirty spots, and some Sanitation Lamp at a very low and diffuse setting was able to remove all of the germs and bacteria that were lurking about. My mop was not even required, which I was very grateful for.

I also did my best to purify the air. It was an ability that I hadn't really used much. Still, without me having cycled everything, there were certain parts of the castle that had begun to take on a mildewy aroma, even if I couldn't quite find the source of it. Perhaps that had been cleaned up, but only after it'd been left for a bit too long.

After I went through the castle, I started going through the castle grounds. There, things were a bit more chaotic. I would have preferred things to be neater, but as I explored, people were actively moving stuff around, so it was hard to tell whether it was just a transition from one ordered state to another ordered state. It was possible that I just saw a snapshot that looked like chaos, not actual chaos.

It was nice that the rows of planted crops were coming along nicely. As I'd been told, the snow wheat would be harvested soon, which was a nice source of order. Even if each plant was slightly different, their compositions were quite organized. I could still appreciate it.

The walls were also surprisingly well maintained on the outside of the castle, except for some of the higher spots, which would have been dangerous for a human to reach. So I quickly took care of those while I was here.

The outer wall was also well maintained and thoroughly patrolled, and I could see little bootprints where kids had evidently walked along it. I didn't begrudge them for their fun, but I still cleaned up after them.

By the time I was thoroughly satisfied with the castle's state, the sun was well past the horizon, and the only people still up and about were Tanu and Cliff. Both of them were having a stern argument with the guard on watch. Cliff in small woofs and yips, Tanu with measured words.

"Kid, I can't let you out there at night. You saw what happened last time. If your mom found out again? She'd skin me alive."

"Me ma knows I'm a Knight. An' Cliff and I go huntin' all the time."

"I know she knows, but you training here where it's safe is one thing. Going out there? Totally different. She thinks it's too dangerous for a kid."

Cliff let out a slight growl, and the guard put up his hands defensively. "Look, it's nothing against you! Void knows you're big enough to swallow darn near anything out there whole. But I can't do it. You try being on the other end of Talia's ladle sometime."

"C'mon, mister, it'll be fine." Another child was there as well, standing by the guard station. I wasn't familiar with this one. Why was he at the guard post? In fact, wasn't it past both of their bedtimes? "Everyone's asleep, and Tanu's just being helpful! He'll be back quick."

They went back and forth for a while longer, each side adamant. I figured I could step in and resolve the issue. Going out for some space seemed like a good idea. Plus, it would be nice to catch up with this little one and the big furry dog. Well, wolf, I guess. I was still not entirely sure about the difference. Zipping over to the gate, the group startled before all four of them straightened and saluted. Cliff's "salute" was interesting, but I got the idea and waved at them.

"Lord Void." All three of them echoed while Cliff let out a simple woof. I beeped a greeting to them and gestured for the guard to raise the gate. Immediately the adult leaped to the winch, and slowly, the gate began to slide open. The other Nighty Knight watched, smiling with an expression that seemed to convey, "I told you so." It was quite interesting watching these humans interact sometimes.

When the gate was most of the way up, I beckoned for Cliff and Tanu to follow me and rolled out along the path out into the woods. I assumed Tanu was taking Cliff out for a hunt, but if there had been problems getting her out for exercise a lot recently, that would have been too bad. I could recall what happened when the more reasonably sized dog I remembered was cooped up for too long.

I figured they would have set up a system for this, some arrangement where the guards would have known to let them out. Perhaps something else was going on that I wasn't fully aware of. But as long as I was with them, I was reasonably sure they'd be safe from anything in this forest.

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