Robert Robinson had received the most calm phone calls from his wife in a while. Which, if you knew her, you would know it meant trouble.

  “”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No. But you remember that farm he’s been working on? It belongs to Seffara the Sapphire.”

  Those words caused a short circuit in his brain. He took a minute before he replied without really thinking. Just an automatic response to the string of nonsensical words.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “”

  It still took two hours before Robert managed to head home. Their home was quite a bit far away from his office, but the main issue was that he couldn’t cancel one of his meetings with an important client.

  That was Robert’s thought as he stepped outside of his car in the driveway. He looked around, there were no flashy trucks of the sort around the neighborhood. Seffara the Sapphire had been on the local news lately, running around with her truck over her head. Robert shook his head. He really must have misheard.

  He opened the door.

  “Honey, I’m home.”

  “Over here dear, come say hi!”

  Robert walked to the dining room and when he turned the corner, what he saw made his mind freeze up. Two large figures sat by dining table. A massive orc he had briefly met in the hospital, his son, his wife, and another large figure that was in a simple dress. Her muscular figure dwarfed only by the orc next to her.

  It was Seffara the Sapphire.

  Robert Robinson dropped his briefcase.

  His wife smiled stiffly at him. He knew that expression well, that expression was one of pain and suffering, of being embarrassed at failing to host someone to her standards.

  “I, uh, I forgot to buy some champagne.”

  “”

  “So she is.”

  –

  Ryan was enjoying the dinner. His parents were so starstruck and out of balance that he could probably throw anything their way and they would accept it without causing a fuss. There was already a plan in progress to get his parents to accept the house he just bought for them. This really was a miracle of miracles and he was really enjoying himself…

  The only issue was the mean ugly orc next to him.

  Ryan didn’t like that Barry was content to play the stupid and stoic meathead with his parents.

  His dad looked apologetic at the orc. “Barry, I apologize for doubting your healing potion. It probably saved our son.”

  The big orc just shrugged dumbly. “It’s okay. Was a reasonable assumption.”

  Robert chuckled, “Still, I thought I knew all of Seffara’s team members.”

  The orc sniffed a little. “I’m from the Settler generation.”

  The mood on the table died down instantly. Barry looked around then scratched at a tusk. As if he didn’t know exactly what he was doing.

  “Sorry.”

  Robert chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. “Ahaha, not at all. I’m sure if Seffara considers you her team member then you can’t have been one of those mad lunatics.”

  “No, I don’t think I was.”

  Both Ryan and Seffara rolled their eyes. It was different now that Ryan knew the orc and what to watch out for. He couldn’t believe he had been taken away by Barry’s facade, ever.

  The conversation was pleasant, Seffara brought out food from her bag on his mother’s insistence. Linda Robinson had a moment of regret when she tasted the food and attempted to clean up their meals so she couldn’t embarrass herself further.

  “Come on mom, your cooking’s great.”

  Seffara agreed with him. “Absolutely, Linda. Your chicken pot pie is wonderful. Manager only knows how many tries it took to figure out how to bake a passable pastry. The amount of pots and pans I broke!”

  Seffara was so… nice. Ryan really hadn’t seen this side of her ever. All calm and trying to be pleasant. The only times she lowered her voice was when she was actually mad… or about to dole out a punishment…

  [Lesser Dangersense]

  Ryan’s instincts went off despite the clear lack of threat to his life. He rapidly reevaluated the dinner and realized he’d let his guard down. Ryan glanced over at Barry and it was clear that the orc was lowering everyone’s guard to get a better gauge of his parents’ attitudes.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Were Barry and Seffara trying to unmask him here, right now? Did they have any idea how his parents would react? The first thing they would do was explode, Seffara or not. Even if they managed to calm them down they would eventually go tell the press. Ryan glared at Barry.

  He was tempted to send an aura tendril to snap the chair’s legs under the orc.

  The orc noticed the stare, but instead of ignoring it and playing dumb, he turned and looked Ryan in the eyes. The orc gave a smile Ryan had never seen before, then nodded lightly. It was an open smile, friendly, calm even. There was no test here, no ploy.

  Just someone that believed in doing the right thing, even if it cost him.

  .

  And for once, Ryan did.

  Barry then turned and nudged the [Knight] in a dress. She nodded as the table went silent at the gesture. His mother had seen the entire interaction and was frowning. Seffara took in a breath.

  “Everything was wonderful, Linda, Robert. You two have a nice home and I can tell where Ryan got a lot of his good nature from.”

  Robert Robinson puffed out his chest and chuckled. He put his hand out for Linda to hold. Ryan’s mother held the hand lightly, her eyes narrowing slightly at the heroine.

  “I’ll be honest, we have a reason for coming here today. We have been hiding something from you both and I think it’s only right for both of you to know. Your son… He’s become an adventurer, a Destined.”

  Both parents had very different reactions.

  “We know.”

  “What?!” Linda squeezed her husband’s hand hard and stomped on Robert’s foot. “Ow. I mean ahem, of course we know.”

  Ryan blinked at the interaction. He didn’t think his mother was lying, had she figured it out from interacting with Seffara?

  Linda scoffed at his surprise. “The first thing you do is run from the hospital and disappear to a farm with a couple friends. Then Seffara the Sapphire turns up at our doorstep. That Clara girl’s been avoiding me for weeks now. ”

  Robert coughed, trying to cover up his surprise. “That’s right. We’re your parents, of course we know.”

  Linda glared at Ryan.

  “We were just hoping that be the one to tell us in person Ryan. Why did you keep this hidden for so long?”

  Ryan nervously scratched his neck. He wasn’t sure what to say, nor what Seffara and Barry had planned to reveal. He went with a noncommittal answer.

  “I was going to, eventually. I just had some stuff to deal with, mentally I think. I’m sorry for not telling you all.”

  Seffara nodded. “Yes, well he had good reason to do so.”

  His eyes darted to Seffara and Barry, hoping to all hell this wasn’t going to be them revealing Artigan.

  “Ryan’s gotten in conflict with the American government due to the Manager interfering and is having to lay low for a bit.”

  “He what?!”

  Seffara tried to calm them down. “Don’t worry, I have it handled. I know people still talk about the government doing… unsavoury things. But they won’t do things like kidnap you lot. not with me around.”

  “But our son, is he safe?”

  Seffara glanced at Barry, the orc shrugged. The [Knight] turned back to Linda, “He’ll be fine. I’ve been fairly public with him going around on my jet and having him use my truck and other facilities. The government knows he’s under my protection. So unless they’re willing to make disappear they won’t do anything.”

  That seemed to ease his parents’ nerves. If only the stupid orc had given him a heads-up instead.

  Robert let out a sigh of relief. “The heroine of Sapphire, as reliable as always, always standing up for what’s right.”

  His parents beamed with pride, not at Ryan, but at Seffara. One of the only Settlers that made them feel proud to be American. Seffara didn’t look embarrassed, she just gave a small smile, accepting the role that had been thrust upon her.

  After knowing her past, Ryan understood Seffara as someone that didn’t believe she deserved the title of heroine. It had to have been grating, even more so, now that she knew it had all been planned. The Tyrants having let her live so she could assume this exact role. No wonder Barry hadn’t told her until recently.

  Ryan sighed a little. He was only realizing that now, as he saw the telltale pained signs on Seffara’s smile. It was also frustrating that he didn’t completely understand Barry’s point here. Ryan could literally think faster than the orc could. Yet Barry, and to a lesser extent Clara, seemed to operate on a wavelength that was sometimes completely alien to him.

  His mother brought him out of his thoughts.

  “So, sweetie, how did you get in conflict with the government?”

  Ryan gave his parents an abridged version of his conflict with the three soldiers in his first Trial. He had, of course, skipped over the stuff with the Manager.

  Linda shook her head at the events, “I can’t believe our government is still up to those kinds of things.”

  Robert seemed impressed, though not surprised, “See, son? All that adventurer training wasn’t wasted after all. Effort spent is never effort wasted.”

  Ryan smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I completely agree dad.”

  Linda pointed a fork at him. “That was weeks ago, what have you been doing since then?”

  He shrugged, ready for that question. “Oh, you know. I didn’t want to make waves after what happened. I’ve been staying low profile and out of sight.”

  Barry almost started choking on his food while Seffara’s eye twitched. His mom narrowed her eyes at the terrible coverup. Ryan expected Seffara to fail to hide her reaction but Barry? Ryan rolled his eyes and shook his head.

  Better to throw a wrench in now.

  “So mom, dad, I also have something to announce.” Ryan paused. “I bought our old house back.”

  Now that got the reaction he was expecting. Both parents were taken aback at the sudden announcement.

  “Yeah, I made enough money to buy the house back. I paid a little extra above market and they were happy to sell.”

  Neither reaction was quite what he expected. His mother looked slightly heartbroken.

  “Oh Ryan.”

  His dad, however, just sighed. “Ryan, we’ve been meaning to tell you, we’ve been saving up for a house.”

  This time it was his turn to get surprised.

  His mother smiled at Robert. “We’ve been saving money for awhile to move. It was too far from where your father worked and you hated staying here… so, of course we were planning to move!”

  “That’s great! You guys can move back to our old house and save your money.”

  His mother gave him a smile. “It’ll be a cold day in hell when we take that much money from our own son.”

  His dad puffed up his chest, possibly with more bravado than usual due to present company. “Did you think we would be here, stuck in the same place? We have our pride too, son. Besides, doesn’t adventuring cost a lot of money? You should keep that money for yourself.”

  “I already bought the house! It’s done! I’m not selling it for a loss now!”

  His mom narrowed her eyes at him, “Actually, how you make so much money in such a short amount of time?” Her eyes darted to Seffara, remembering her reaction from earlier. “You haven’t been causing too much trouble for Seffara, have you?”

  Ryan coughed, “No, nothing like that. I’m an anonymous Destined, there are ways–”

  His father interrupted him. “I remember you said you were going to take your employer for everything they were worth. I didn’t realize you were talking about . Shame on you! Shame on me! I thought I raised you to be better than that.”

  Seffara turned on Ryan. “You were going to take me for everything I was worth, huh?”

  “Yeah, that’s me. Going to take advantage of one of the richest and oldest adventurers around.”

  Ryan threw up his hands then sunk into his chair, taking abuse from all sides.

  He couldn’t help but smile.

  reon is

  23 chapters ahead