"Is grumpy just your natural state of being, or am I a special flavour of annoying?" Aira said with a raised brow.

  I grumbled and glared but followed her lead down down the street nonetheless. "I could be training right now, instead of wasting my time like this."

  "You certainly could." Aira nodded. "But I've got at least some respect weaseled in that heart of yours, don't I? Besides, this is important. Sometimes an argument just needs an added perspective."

  "You really think this failed apprentice of yours will convince me of anything?"

  Aira pursed her lips and let out a sigh. "He failed at nothing...I failed him. Big difference."

  "I'm sure." I rolled my eyes.

  Aira turned to look at me with a pensive frown, but decided to keep whatever she was going to say to herself. I shrugged it off, I didn't know what me and her were at this point. Sure, I still learned from her, but only because I decided to humour her as I valued our dynamic.

  Monster biology didn't mean shit to me.

  But I'd entertain this flight of fancy, if only with the hopes that she'd quiet down her complaints when this inevitably didn't work. Was I being stubborn? Sure, but the world confirmed that stubbornness was necessary when lacking power and talent. I'd have died plenty of times by this point if I practiced something so silly as moderation. So onwards we went with the crunching of snow over the cobble streets.

  I lived on the north side, but I didn't explore it much.

  Most of the middle class lived either here or to the west, which still made it unique since the west was controlled entirely by gangs.

  There wasn't much of note, utilitarian was too complex a description. It oozed mundanity with it's uniform structures. Same height, same width, same length. Over and over and over. The only flavour were the buildings dedicated to the artisans, but even then their uniqueness only went as far as it was necessary.

  But it was clean, rivalling even the east in that department.

  The magisters seemed to value this place, since it was what most of the city's economy relied on. Not much coin coming from the slums or gangs after all, and the east was a luxury district only made possible by the labours of the north and passing caravans.

  There were the farmers that resided past the borders of the city walls, but they weren't as plentiful as one might imagine because of how difficult it was to maintain large agricultural ventures with the presence of monsters.

  No, the northern empire relied on hundreds upon hundreds of small villages to sustain the three cities it contained.

  It was novel in a sense, and probably a logistical nightmare.

  I didn't envy the poor fools who had to keep track of food collection and circulation. Apparently the southern empire (past the mountain range) didn't have as many monsters, so they could afford larger nexus points for farms. I doubted they could rival the size of the ancient civilizations of my old life though. Less monsters still meant monsters after all.

  Aira stopped in front what looked to be a building for weavers, looking at the door with empty eyes before turning to face me with a sigh. "This is it, try to be polite, yeah? I get that you're brash as a person, but Ulan doesn't deserve any of your shit."

  "I can be pleasant if I want to be."

  "Sure."

  She knocked on the door with a surprising amount of strength considering it looked like a light tap, and waited with poorly veiled anxiety. I could pick some of it out from the World! What fun. I wondered what friendships would be like once I could read them like plain text.

  Could pretend to be some wise sage, that would be entertaining.

  The door opened with a creak to reveal an aged woman of many wrinkles, her passive expression turned downright hostile at the sight of Aira.

  "Hello Pern," Aira said with a stiffness I hadn't heard before. "I hope the season hasn't been to harsh on you this year?"

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "The season was doing just fine up until now," Pern said.

  Aira cringed but held her ground. "Ulan wouldn't happen to be inside working, would he? I just want to chat for a bit, then I'll be gone. Promise."

  "What delusions have you crafted for yourself to think I'd let you anywhere near my grandson?"

  "It's important, Pern."

  The elderly woman scoffed and went to close the door, which would've shut all fine and dandy if I didn't place my hand on it and pushed it back open with a liberal application of my spell and a scowl. "Who the fuck do you think you are? This bitch behind me hasn't done anything to deserve being treated like dirt."

  "Yir—"

  "Don't 'Yir' me!" I whirled on Aira. "Are you really gonna take this bullshit from some rando with wrinkles?"

  That seemed to stun both of them into silence, though one from offence and the other surprise. I let out a huff and faced the old lady with open contempt.

  "How 'bout you ask your grandson if he wants to see us, and he makes the decision?"

  Pern stared at me in silence for a few seconds before nodding slowly and turning to walk further into the building. I huffed and stepped inside, only to be faced with the stares of a bunch of weavers as they've paused their work.

  Oh. Well. That's a little embarrassing.

  I decided to play it off with the familiar grumpiness that I was apparently known for by this point, scowling at all of them and daring them to make something of their stares.

  None of them did, which was what I expected, getting back to their work as Pern hobbled up to the second floor. I blinked as the woman disappeared to the tyranny of elevation.

  "Do we, uh, follow her?" I said to a bemused Aira.

  She shrugged. "Probably for the best. It'd be cruel to make Pern walk back down the stairs with how her joints treat her."

  I nodded, that seemed reasonable enough.

  Aira motioned for me to lead the way, and I drooped but walked over to the stairway. The price of overtaking a conversation was high it seemed, even if this whole thing was her idea.

  The second floor was much like the first, a punch of weavers spinning together threads to make fabric. It looked like the place focused on mass production rather than quality, but I wasn't one with a distinguished eye when it came to cloth.

  Finding Pern was easy enough, she was hobbling forward towards a boy who was on the border of adulthood...making a toga? Strange, he was the only one I'd seen here making actual clothes.

  I stepped forward but stopped far enough to be respectful as the crotchety hag spoke with who I assumed was her grandson. Close enough to hear her grumbles as she tried to convince the man not to talk with Aira (a bit entertaining), but when his eyes landed on the woman I knew from the the way he lit up that Pern's reasoning was doomed.

  He waved us over with a wide smile, and ignoring the rest of what his grandmother had to say, I took that as my cue to step forward.

  "Master!" Ulan chirped. "It's been too long! Don't tell me the winter makes you squeamish to visit an old apprentice?"

  Aira chuckled. "No, Ulan. I've just had my hands full with this gremlin."

  She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly, at which point the boy finally acknowledge my presence. a hint of jealousy flashed through his eyes, but he masked it quick enough with some mirth I assumed was forced.

  "Oh? You're the one training up the rat-slayer? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you do have a habit of attracting the insane."

  I scowled, but didn't say anything.

  This was a reunion for Aira, no need to ruin it.

  "She's not so bad." Aira smiled. "Most of the time. Recently she's been an absolute menace though."

  The boys eyes sparkled. "Oh? How so?"

  Aira's gaze softened on Ulan. "She's been pushing herself to extremes and taking on challenges that are more likely to kill her than not. Any of that sound familiar?"

  "None of it was his fault," Pern spat. "We both know that you—"

  "That's enough, no need to scratch at scabs, eh?" Ulan said as he rested a hand on the woman's shoulder, facing Aira with a smile. "So, you visit to share my failures? Can't lie, that hurts more than a little."

  Aira deflated, she looked...smaller than I'd ever seen the woman. "I'm sorry."

  "It's fine, it's fine. Might as well right?"

  She caved in on herself all the harder, and Ulan looked at her for a while before letting out a sigh. He turned to me with a flat expression and pursed lips. "Best if I just showed ya, then explained."

  He reached down to the bottom of his toga, and lifted it up to reveal a wooden leg.

  ---

  Silence was a theme in my life at that point.

  Whenever a hard conversation came up? Whenever there was pain to suffer? Internalizing and playing through my thoughts was so much easier than talking. People reacted to it in different ways. Consolation, space, small gestures of kindness, or just straight up rudeness hoping to shock me back to normal.

  The success of which depended more on the person and execution rather than the method.

  But this time I wasn't the one in pain, and I didn't know how to act as the two of us walked down a street surrounded by the noise of a city that could feel so hollow at times. That was a melodramatic way of saying that I had no idea what to say, or if I should've said anything at all.

  So we walked for a while, one step in front of the other, until my desire to do something overpowered good sense.

  "None of that was your fault you know," I regretted the words immediately by how the woman shrunk and sighed.

  "That's sweet of you Yir, but my words led to him losing his leg. I might not have puppeteered him to the boar, but that's no excuse to exonerate myself with."

  "He should've known the monster was out of his league."

  Aira shrugged. "Does it matter? He was the child, I was the adult. I had a responsibility to nurture his growth, and instead I goaded him right off a cliff."

  "But that's not going to happen with me," I said. "I'm not doing anything I can't tackle."

  "The trust I have in those words is close to being nonexistent."

  I pursed my lips. "I could...go about it differently? Be less self-destructive, but still keep up the intensity."

  Aira let out a hollow chuckle. "I'll take what I can get."