Chapter 196 - Divergence (2)
Nevertheless, the girl was of the same size as Billy\'s siblings, but she didn\'t look so lively like them. Living on the run made her have unhealthy pale skin, but she looked quite a bit with Ignace… She had long, straight black hair and green eyes. She looked a bit with Samara, but she liked her hair shoulder length in order not to get on the way of training and fights.
"Hello, my name is Kate," Kate said while smiling. "What is yours?"
"Rosalie… I am pleased to make your acquaintance," The girl said and then bowed slightly.
"No need for formalities. When I thought that my life was over, it just started when someone helped me. I am planning to help almost the same amount, so you can rest easy, ok?" Kate asked.
"Okay…" Rosalie said with her head down.
Billy thought that the little girl was smarter than Kate for being wary of strangers. One of her servants decided to ask them for help, but Rosalie only heard scary stories about the wildlings. While they didn\'t look grotesque like the stories made them out to be, their skills were. Rosalie saw Billy burying the corpses in the ground without breaking a sweat… he probably could do with living beings as well. While Billy could, such a method to defeat his enemies made him feel shivers… he would only use that against those that truly pissed him off.
"While I am thankful for your support, we can\'t all leave this chance to clear a dungeon. We only have one month to have free access to it," Kate said. "The help of only one of you will be enough."
"Don\'t worry. Other changes will come," Billy said. "Tomorrow I will write a letter to Jean and the guild master to say that we are sorry, but the party as a whole decided to change our plans. Besides, we can\'t exactly clear the second most difficult dungeon with only four."
"I suppose that is true… I am sorry about this, Billy," Kate said. "But I truly couldn\'t leave them alone."
"I don\'t mind," Billy said.
Kate smiled since she was thankful, but Alexander looked troubled since he could tell that Billy was pissed, and it was kind of surprising that the others didn\'t notice that until now. Natalie was supposed to have good senses, but she wasn\'t acting like something was wrong.
"Billy is right, and we can\'t involve Jean or our families in this without risking causing a problem to the two states," Kate said. "So, what are our options?"
"We can hide them in Billy\'s workshop," Lily said.
"But that would make things complicated for Billy if they were to be found out," Kate said.
"There are some parts of our territory that are rarely visited. With the use of Earth magic and with some wood, we can create a decent house pretty soon," Sarah said. "Her face is probably known, but her servants can probably visit our town to buy the things that they might need."
"That is a good idea… are you guys fine with that?" Kate asked.
"Yes," Rosalie said.
"What if Jean notices that something is weird and investigates it?" Alexander asked. "If he knows that we hid this from him, it might damage the relationship between countries."
"If that happens, I will take full responsibility for it," Kate said.
Alexander realized that Kate was taking that too lightly… she didn\'t realize that she would never truly be punished for it because of her father, and even if a war is avoided, she will cause a lot of work to Jean and her Dad.
"... Do you have any idea, Billy?" Alexander asked.
"Nope," Billy replied.
Alexander didn\'t like the way things were going. The girls became too close while the boys were doing other things, so they wanted to support one another. Alexander had heard that Billy kept his distance while he was away, and he imagined that it was because the party might end if things didn\'t go well with him and Lily, he thought that many times. So, he felt really relieved when Billy accepted his offer to clear another dungeon, but now his fears were back with full force. Billy didn\'t seem the type who would dissolve the party over a small disagreement. Still, the problem was how that situation could escalate. In any case, once the conversation was over, both groups went to sleep, and Alexander tried to talk with Billy.
"Hey, Billy, don\'t get so angry over that," Alexander said. "Kate doesn\'t mean any harm when she is trying to help others."
"Relax, dude," Billy said.. "You guys made me the leader of the party, but I don\'t have to be the leader forever."