Gun Girl from Another World

Escort

*Remmi*

"Oh, great, it really is an escort mission …"

Leuke, Ayre and I are standing around a corner as I stare at the hulking form of Chief Ronolo and the comparatively tiny figure of his granddaughter beside him. They don't know we're here yet, just standing around waiting for us to show up, though Leuke and Ayre don't really get why we're hiding, either.

"What's so bad about an escort mission," the elf asks.

I roll my eyes hard enough that my head follows the motion. "Escort missions are absolutely despised by my people," I explain. "They're always the most frustrating missions of all. The escortee is almost never any help, and never moves at the same pace as the party, so you're always having to slow down to an unnatural crawl to accommodate them. Either that, or their walking speed is slightly faster than your walking speed and slightly slower than your running speed!"

I've clearly already lost poor Leuke, who is just blinking blankly at me. "That sounds … frustrating?"

"It's made worse by the fact that the escortee is often more suicidal than a chicken running into a pot!"

Ayre, however, frowns down at me. "Are we still talking about real escort missions? Or is this one of your stories again? I mean, you can just maintain the same walking pace. There's nothing keeping you stuck between two different speeds like some sort of construct."

I frown, too, though I continue facing the scene ahead. It's true that this is the real world, so a lot of those restrictions really don't apply here, but something about the idea of an escort mission at all still grates at me in all of the worst ways.

Leuke ventures a question into the silence. "How do you know it's going to be an escort mission?"

"His granddaughter's with him," I point out, "and she's got a cute little red backpack on over her traveling clothes."

"Maybe she's going somewhere else?"

"They're specifically waiting for us," I counter his hopeful optimism. "I guarantee you, he's going to ask us to take her along with us through the dungeon."

"He did say that she's as strong as a silver-rank adventurer," Ayre reminds me.

"And when have you ever known a grandpa that didn't talk up his grandkids?"

Leuke tries his hand again. "He must think an escort with two Heroes in it is going to keep her plenty safe."

"And I'm sure it will," I agree, still sour. "The real question is how much trouble is she going to be?"

"Maybe she's not going to be any trouble at all," Ayre finally picks up, his tone taking a scolding one as his balled hands come down on his hips. "Maybe you're worried about nothing and everything will be fine! Maybe she'll even carry her own weight!"

I turn back to my friend, take one look at his Disappointed Big Sister face, and I sigh. "You know what, you're right, Ayre, I'm overthinking this. All of my complaints could be premature."

I push myself to my feet and dust my knees off. "Come on, let's face this with our best faces forward! No more worrying and fretting!"

"You were the only one doing that."

"Then we're two-thirds of the way there, already!"

It's Ayre's turn to sigh. "Just walk, Miss Hero."

"At least she recovers quickly," Leuke puts in positively as we all make our way around the corner and into sight.

It's a short walk from where we were hiding to the oni chieftain, and I'm grinning the entire time from the interaction with my friends. Ayre's right, I'm thinking of this too much in gaming terms. Most of the worst things about escort missions come from how they're programmed in video games, and those that weren't … Well, Korrigan, Ronolo's granddaughter, didn't cross me as the whiny, wimpy, demanding sort, from what little I'd seen of her.

Yeah, it's better to think of this as meeting new friends! With that outlook, I'm even kind of looking forward to it!

I wave my hand above my head to get their attention as I raise my voice above the bustle of the village. "Hey! We're here, Chief!"

Ronolo and Korrigan had been conversing with each other when we came around, so they weren't immediately facing us. When I call out to them, however, their heads turn to us and the chieftain's face illuminates with a wide grin.

"Little Remmi!" he calls back and waves us over. "And your friend Ayre, too!" He turns to Leuke and takes in the young man's measure. "And Leuke! It's been too long since I've seen you! Becoming a Hero has done you well! Or is that old Geold's doing?"

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Leuke laughs off the heavy hands coming down on his shoulders. "Chieftain! It's good to see you! And I think it's the armor."

"A good, solid set of armor, it is," Ronolo praises, clapping it again for good measure and causing a racket from the impact.

"You said you wanted to talk with us about something before we headed to Ogre's Grotto," I skip the small talk, gesturing to the child. "Does it have something to do with Korrigan looking all ready to go?"

Ronolo turns toward me with the light in his eyes of a grandfather getting to talk about his favorite subject. "Oho! Little Remmi, your cleverness cuts to the heart too quickly! I had a whole speech prepared for you and everything!"

I just smirk at his bombast and cross my arms. "You should have kept her out of sight until you were ready for the big reveal, then. Having her out in the open with you, all packed up to go, ruins your speech for you."

The large man acts shocked, stunned even, far too dramatically to be for anything but show. "Hide the light of my life away?! Impossible! Ask me to move a mountain, and it would be a more plausible demand!"

"With your physique?" I jest. "Shouldn't the comparison be something a little harder than that?"

He laughs at that, a great, deep belly laugh. "Ahahaha! You flatter me! Perhaps in my youth, it would have been a simple thing, but I am getting up in years! No longer quite in my prime! That's why it's important to uplift the younger generation, you know!"

Oh, I have to admit, that was a nice segue, so I nod along with it in agreement. "Gotta give us a chance to really find out what we're working with," I nudge it along.

"Exactly!" Ronolo takes that opportunity to crouch down next to Korrigan and prop his hands on her shoulders, so that the girl becomes the literal center of the conversation.

"Now, I know my granddaughter is on par with a Silver-rank adventurer, but she's far too young to join the guild, herself, and I'm not convinced it's the right life for her, anyway. But there are two components to a truly powerful individual. What my granddaughter lacks is not raw power, but practical experience."

The chieftain stands back upright again, placing his hands on his hips as he does so. "I've already explained why she can't get that from the guild, so I turn to you, friends of the Huohi. Your timing with this dungeon is fortuitous, and I can't stand aside and let it pass us by! Won't you consider it a personal request from a doting grandfather to take Korrigan with you?"

I cross my arms again and give the old man a wry smirk. "Sounds like you got your speech in, anyway."

He just grins back at me, unabashed.

I turn my attention to Korrigan, then, who has been quiet so far. I get the impression that she has been raised to be very proper, speak when spoken to, be seen, not heard, and all of that other stuff. Maybe it's just around adults, or even just around important people like her chieftain grandfather. Well, now, it's her time to speak for herself. She won't amount to anything if there's no spine there.

"Korrigan," I ask, "Do you want to go into a dangerous Silver-rank dungeon, risking life and limb for bonus points and maybe a little treasure?"

Part of me feels like I'm laying it on kind of thick, but I remind myself that's really not the case. If anything, these are areas children even my new age would never be allowed into back in my own world.

But the girl's eyes light up with a fire even before she finds her words. "I do," she says with a nod, and her voice is tiny, but sharp, like a little bell. "I want to be stronger, strong enough to make my grandpa proud."

I spare a glance to the man in question; from the way he's grinning, I don't think his pride in her is in any way lacking, but I understand the sentiment. I don't think I could have done hardly anything to damper my own grandparents' love for me, but I know how that can motivate someone to want to be worthy of it.

I watch her for a moment, wondering how much of it is youthful foolishness, then turn back to Ronolo properly. "And this has her parents' approval?"

That makes his grin falter. "Ah, I'm her guardian. Her parents are not with us anymore, a father should not have to bury his own child."

My own gaze circles back and meets his as I try to communicate my empathy through my expression alone. "Ronolo … You sound like you're each the only one in the other's life, then. Are you sure about this? Dungeons are dangerous places even for seasoned adventurers."

There's no boasting in his tone now. His face is serious, and his deep voice is low. "If my heart were to have its way, Little Remmi, I would wall my granddaughter away from the world with the strongest of stones from deep within the earth so that no harm could reach her. And she would stagnate and grow, rightfully, to resent me for it."

He regathers himself and finds some reserve of bravado as his volume rises again. "A flower requires the sun on its leaves, the wind against its stem and even the rain dousing its petals! Seal it away in a fool's bid to preserve its beauty, and one will only cause it to wither away to dust! Though it might be trampled, uprooted or even consumed, it can only bloom to its fullest in the wild!"

I can't help but let out a laugh at his exuberant delivery. "A poet and a philosopher, Chief! You're just full of surprises!"

He folds his arms across his massive chest and grins widely enough that his fangs are plainly visible. "Haha! Just so! But to answer your question, Little Remmi, I will not cause my sweet Korrigan to be smothered away by my overprotectiveness." He sweeps his hand out as if across a great vista. "If she is to be a wildflower, then I would see her bloom across the whole of the land!"

He leans down toward me for emphasis. "But I need not throw her to the boars and the elephants without precautions. A dungeon is dangerous, yes, which is why it has been a place forbidden to her before now, but it is far safer with two Heroes looking out for her, and the experience will be invaluable."

I turn back to Korrigan, more speculative than prepared to address her again, thinking over his words and nodding to them. I can see where he's coming from, and it's largely what I expected his reasoning to be. But I'm not ready to pass judgment on my own, and I turn instead to Leuke and Ayre.

"What do you two think?"

"I think we can take care of her," Leuke immediately speaks up. "I can't imagine any dungeon trip any safer than with the two of us along."

Ayre is more hesitant to rush to an answer, his mien worried and conflicted. "I'd say that we don't know her abilities well enough to make a decision. I'd want at least some idea of what she can do before we took her anywhere like a dungeon."

I nod. Ayre's concern is a practical one, and I turn back to the pale oni girl once more. "Well, what do you bring to the party, Korrigan?"

When the girl's eyes spark, I can see her grandfather in them, and she answers with just a single word.

"Explosions."