Sarah's Story Chapter 053 - To Rolland Alone

Several weeks after Sarah created the Finder Class, and took it as her second, Brawler and Homemaker Helen finished wrapping up her business in the capital of Asufal and departed, just in time before the winter snows made travel difficult if not impossible, and returned to her home village in Mortimer Barony.

The leaders of Asufal breathed a great sigh of relief.

Sarah had spent that time training. Training her Brawler Class, and polishing her skills with various weapons. Her mother finally taught her the secret techniques that she in the past had learned… copied… stolen from other fighters, and which she had refrained from teaching before Sarah had her second Class lest they interfere in some way.

[Technique: Fist of Raging Water Dragon]

[Technique: Mountain Splitter Chop]

[Technique: Earth-shattering Stomp]

And even more exciting, Sarah finally got training in using rope the way her mother did.

Brawler Class Skill [Rope Mastery] has been acquired.

…

Brawler Class Skill [Rope Mastery] has reached level 8.

Sarah also made time to put some last minute polish on her Skills and Techniques with various weapons: the sword, the épée, the spear, the knife, the dagger, the bow, the sling, and the club.

The hardest to learn was the shield: standing in place and blocking an attack ran against the entire philosophy of fighting as a Brawler.

But…

As a Finder, if she found another kidnapped child, and needed to defend him from attackers…

Being competent with a shield would be invaluable.

Brawler training was one part of how she spent her time before her mother’s departure.

Another part was saying her farewells and wrapping up outstanding business.

But the lion’s share of her time was spent developing the Finder Class.

Normal Classes nudge people in the direction of how the Class is supposed to develop. Skills are acquired and grow through training and practice. And although there are more Skills than one could fit in a book, even for a Class like Baker, the typical Skills are easy to pick up.

Not so for a new Class like Finder.

Sarah could already tell that the Class could develop in any number of ways, depending on how she used it.

Finding missing items.

Tracking down lost treasures.

Detecting hidden or concealed things and people.

Even something as simple as foraging in a forest could fall under ‘Finding,’ and needed to be handled with care.

Sarah wanted to find her brother. Kidnapped shortly after choosing two non-combat Classes, when Sarah was only twelve years old, she had spent the last three and a half years doing almost nothing but training to be able to find and rescue him.

James was her brother.

Helen was her mother.

Nadine was her aunt.

So she imagined something like [Family Finder] would be helpful.

And it took the better part of a week, but after finding her mother repeatedly throughout the day, and tracking her aunt through the city as she tried to hide at night, Sarah succeeded.

Finder Class Skill [Family Tracing] has been acquired.

Sarah grinned toothily, redoubled her speed, and quickly caught up to her aunt.

“Auntie Nadine! I got it!” she stage-whispered.

“You did? Good, let’s celebrate inside. It’s freezing out here.” The older Brawler shivered theatrically and hurried into a nearby bar.

Ah, the bar.

The natural environment for brawlers.

One could hardly imagine a better location for picking a fight and causing maximum chaos.

The best bars were seedy things, full of glass, wood, booze, and angry people itching for a fight.

This bar, however, was more high class.

The wood was dark and polished. The lighting was tastefully dim, the bar stools were cushioned, the glasses were clean, and there were comfortable tables and booths for more private conversations.

They sat down, ordered a flight of tasters each in an attempt to sample all the new brews, and got down to business.

“So, you got a Skill you think will help you find James?”

“Yeah, it’s called [Family Tracing].”

Nadine breathed a sigh of relief. “Good, I was getting worried, after you only picked up those synergy Skills.”

Early on, Sarah had acquired [Visual Acuity], [Sensitive Hearing], and [Sensitive Touch] in her Finder Class, and they had developed into Synergy Skills because she already had them in her Brawler Class.

She also acquired [Scent Sensitivity] and [Taste Sensitivity], which had overlapped enough with her Brawler’s [Bouquet Appreciation] and [Discerning Taste] enough to also synergize, and resulted in acquiring the Synergy Skill [Enhanced Perception].

Everything was more vivid and memorable now. The grain of the wood of the table. The precise deviation of the floor from perfectly level. The sound of ale pouring. Sarah could even see more colors, now: incredibly vivid purples and violets, and reds so deep they faded into black.

“So, how does it work, this new Skill?”

“I’m… not sure. As soon as I got it, though, it was much easier to follow your trail. It was just obvious where you had been, and where you were.”

Nadine latched onto that. “Where I was? At that moment? That sounds like exactly what you want!”

Sarah nodded, and went silent for a moment, and then frowned. “I still have no idea where James is, though.”

“What about your mother?”

Sarah frowned, eyes closed, straining… and then sighed.

“Nope.”

The tasters arrived, and Nadine toasted to Sarah’s success, and they focused on celebrating the day’s small victory.

One step at a time.

Leaving the bar, Nadine returned to her nocturnal activities, working as she did in the grey zone on the edge of the criminal underworld, and Sarah returned to the inn where she had been living with her mother for a year now.

By that point, Sarah had figured it out.

The Skill only worked within a certain range, roughly fifty yards. Within that range, she could tell where her family was, and where they had been within that range.

Still, this was a huge step forward. Sarah had already long been resolved that if she simply had to kick down every door in this Kingdom—and all the other countries—to find her brother, that she could and would do so.

Being able to tell just by walking down a street whether or not her family was inside any of the buildings on that street was a huge time saver.

Sarah’s mother was still awake when she returned to their shared room, and when Sarah told her the good news she breathed a huge sigh of relief.

And then, for the first time since James was kidnapped, Sarah saw her mother relax.

Really relax. Tension drained from her shoulders, and her back. The facade she wore, the mask, the lie that everything was fine came off and the worry lines formed on her face, but her expression of pure relief warmed Sarah’s heart better than any hearth-fire.

“Thank the gods. Now… Now I can fully rely on you, Sarah.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry, Mom. I’m going to find James, and I’m going to bring him home.”

For three and a half years, Helen had been losing her mind.

Her son was kidnapped, with no combat Class, completely unable to defend himself.

The Baron couldn’t find him.

The rest of the nobles, and even the Royal Family of Asufal couldn’t find him. And worse, they had ordered Helen not to leave the country, even going so far as to add her to the Army reserves list.

She had poured all that frustration and nervous energy into Sarah, her only daughter and youngest child.

And the only of her children to Choose Brawler as her combat Class.

Using Skills from her Homemaker Class, she had hidden her natural obsessiveness, and pushed Sarah harder than she should have. And when she realized what she had been doing, it had broken her heart.

It was only that heartbreak that had made her accept the truth: there was nothing more she could do.

James was, by now, more than three years past his Choosing Day.

He was fully an adult, wherever he was.

But now… Now that Sarah had this new Skill, and this new Class…

“Sarah, dear… don’t push yourself too hard,” Helen said, and to her own surprise, she meant it.

Sarah smiled dashingly. “Don’t worry, Mom. I won’t.”

“And write to me every day, okay?”

At that, Sarah blanched. “Every day? Seriously…? You know the mail only goes between Rolland and Asufal once a week in the winter, right?”

Rolland. The Grand Duchy bordering the Kingdom of Asufal, to the east. It was the opposite direction from Mortimer Barony in the western reaches, but there was evidence to suggest that there was a kidnapping ring operating from Rolland, discovered when that kidnapping ring had tried to spread to Asufal.

Sarah had rescued their very first attempted victim, and uncovered the corruption that had extended to the city guard and even into the nobility itself.

“Fine, if you’re exceptionally busy, then every other day. But no later! And if you need anything, anything at all, promise me you’ll tell me. I’ll come running, and I’ll bring your father and Nadine, King’s orders be damned…”

Helen, despite her current state of relaxation and relief, was still naturally obsessive and prone to flying off the handle.

“Okay, fine. And… thanks, Mom. That’s really reassuring. I’ll let you know if I need help.”

Her daughter, having inherited the Brawler legacy that ran through her family, accepted that spirit as perfectly normal.

Two days later, mother and daughter parted ways.

Helen, the Brawler so powerful she had been forced into the Army Reserves, boarded a carriage bearing a Baron’s seal to return home.

Sarah, the B Rank Adventurer who had risen through the rankings like an ascending dragon, joined a caravan heading east, to the Grand Duchy of Rolland, providing security as part of a request.

Although her ultimate goal was, and would remain, finding her kidnapped brother, Sarah had a burning, more pressing goal.

Wiping out the kidnapping ring, and rescuing any victims.

She wouldn’t stand for it.

Wouldn’t tolerate it existing in the same world as her.

She stalked alongside the caravan in the chill wind, fingering the coil of rope at her waist. Feeling the braided fibers with her thumb.

The kidnappers of Rolland had no idea what was coming for them.