Avarein: Vant

Chapter 17: Nara

The pair of patients prepared to get up, with Morma now clinging onto Vant's back like some sort of backpack, much to the embarrassment and dismay of Greva. Carte wondered if he wasted his money as they enthusiastically strutted out of the door, him following closely behind, taking notes. Perhaps he could use them as a potential source of infinite mana, since the two of them seemed to have an endless supply of energy. Greva took followed behind him, turning towards the doctor just as she was about to go through the door, smiling as she did so.

"Thank you."

+++

"What's wrong? Don't like the other kids?"

Greva both consoled and interrogated Morma, who latched onto Vant's sleeve as he cut the steak into bite sized pieces. The young one shook her head, seeming more comfortable around the adults around her compared to the children that had been playing outside.

"Are you shy?"

No response. Vant tapped her on the shoulder and she opened her mouth, biting down on her food when she felt the cold silver of cutlery on her lips. Greva sighed, accepting that the child they had sudo-adopted was much too stubborn to speak of her weaknesses. Although it made her harder to deal with, she supposed it made her cuter too, to most people.

"Morma. Just remember they're human... just like you are. I'm sure they're just as nervous too."

Morma reacted slightly with a head twitch, but refused to turn. Pretending to have ignored her, she continued to silently be fed her pub dinner. Considering that it was their first meal in a while that wasn't vegetables, fruits and bread, princess Morma, queen on all dimensions and goddess of all the land could ignore the presence of a few drunks in the corner playing some sort of card game. Greva eventually joined Morma and Carte in enjoying the meat they had ordered, although she would let her eyes gaze down upon Vant's untouched meal a few times.

"It's fine, Greva. I'm sure Morma isn't interested in dolls anyway."

Greva took a few moments to wonder how he was so confident about his knowledge on an amnesiac child's hobbies and interest, but simply accepted it as him projecting. She turned to the girl and gave her final plea, waving around a small piece of cooked cow on her fork as she did so.

"Morma, you really should make friends your age. They'll be fun once you get to know them."

Morma shook her head, jumping out of her seat and up onto Vant's back, hanging off his shoulders as he kept feeding her, unphased by his new role as a jungle gym.

"Vant's the most fun! Plus, he's the strongest hero around!"

Greva immediately turned her soft gaze into an annoyed glare towards Vant, who couldn't do anything but shrug and try to keep his grin from showing too much. Greva silently wondered how much nonsense he had fed her before coming back to the task at hand, this time going to Carte. The mage read a particularly large book as a floating set of a fork and a knife perfectly diced his meal slowly and fed him in the same manner Vant did, although his technique was a bit less messy.

"Can you help me out here? I'm trying to talk some sense into there two."

Carte tore his gaze away for a moment to take a look at Greva, then a little further towards the pair of Morma and Vant, coming to the realisation that they had sat in the order of their heights and finding it moderately amusing. He turned back to his book, not particularly interested in supporting Greva's cause.

"Kid, you want to learn magic?"

"Yes!"

"You will NOT be learning magic. It's barely been three days since... well, you get it."

Morma groaned at Greva, showing her displeasure at the administrative decisions being made as clearly as possible. Now certain that neither of her two companions were going to be any help, Greva gave in and decided to utilise the ultimate form of negotiation.