113 Fruit caused problems

The duke Jazay relayed the information on when the next caravan was leaving for Red-water to Emp like he said he would and had the information delivered to him in no time. Along with Calla, Emp prepared their departure carefully. They stocked up on all sorts of food and ingredients for Calla, stored all her new things in the bag and even added bunch of furniture for their house he bought along with her and Harriett.

He could have mostly everything made in the village by carpenters but if he wanted something special, like a large and divinely soft bed, he had to buy it here in Bêtéclair.

Aside from the preparations to leave, Emp was satisfied with Calla's visit in this city. He had managed to do a lot in the time the two hims had been there together and managed to get most the things he needed before he had to split again.

He had trained a lot, presented Calla to everyone, saw her make a few new friends and also, more importantly for the village, he found a new mage for the Dark-glint.

Like he had promised, the old duke found him a few mages that he thought were trustworthy enough to be employed by a Muracier and keep the secrets he was given.

Emp met three of them in person, it was the first time he was using the name of Muracier for something important. He absolutely needed to use his name here because the whole point of hiring a new mage himself was to make sure he would be loyal to the Muracier and more importantly, that he would take care of Marcy and Calla properly.

He rejected the first two after only a short meeting with them. One was pretty similar in attitude to Sophus and kept looking at Emp as if he was a weakling. Emp didn't even bother telling him his name and left, he didn't want to plague the village with the presence of such a man.

The second one was very amicable, the perfect opposite of the first but it quickly became apparent that he was far weaker than any other mage he knew. Even the itinerant mage Jaska working with the huntresses was a far more talented mage than him. He might have been very friendly but if he could not do the job he was hired for, it was pointless.

The third one he saw was called Martin Tournesol. He seemed to have a surprisingly sunny attitude for a man in his thirties. The man was a wielder of light elemental magic surprisingly oriented towards combat rather than the usual healing. He also knew quite a good amount of water spells to fill in the gaps in his portfolio of light magic. He had studied under Heinrich years ago in the imperial school and then focused on his own research, living by spending the fortune his parents left him as inheritance instead of properly working on anything.

The Duke Jazay thought he was trustworthy and Heinrich believed him to be talented so Emp had high expectations for him and he wasn't disappointed.

Martin however wasn't keen on moving to some village away from the comfort of the city until Emp showed him his hunting card. Knowing he would be working for a Muracier was way more motivating to him as if he did his job well, joining the imperial mages afterwards wouldn't be so hard. The pay was great too.

Emp had him sign a contract quickly. The words on it forbade him from saying anything about him or his family to anyone living outside of the village. In exchange, Emp would give him his support when and if he applied for a position in the elder circle of mages in Thronewoods. Since his support was conditional to whether or not he did the job correctly, Emp didn't mind promising it to him. He didn't seem like a bad man and he wouldn't stay secretly hidden in Dark-glint forever. As long as he kept the Champoms safe for a while, everything would be fine.

The day Emp and Calla left for the village, they first stopped around the school to say goodbye to everyone. There were many small bows shared and even a big hug from Mable that Calla happily returned.

The two new friends would miss each other, Mable already couldn't wait for the next time they'd meet and was already making a list of everything she wanted to show Calla then. She would have loved to spend some more time with her and both of them hoped they'd met again sometime soon even though Calla really didn't want to leave the village again for a while, if ever.

The duke too gave them heartfelt wishes for safety in their travels as well as a happy reunion with everyone soon in the future. He told Emp and Calla that he would miss having the lady Muracier close by to protect her but he understood that her place wasn't really in this school.

Blackbull wished them farewell as well although very soberly. She still helped by stopping the others from complaining about the short stay of Calla and how they hadn't had any time to really meet her at all.

Calla had the hardest time saying goodbye to Harriett and Celtine because they were the two she spent the most time with. After a long and hard look and some wavering tries, she managed to read the goodbyes of Celtine on her own thanks to her efforts in practicing everyday since she came to the school. She promised them that she would be careful and had them promises in return that they would keep helping Emp as best as they could. She also promised them that she would be able to read the words of Celtine properly by the next time they met and told them one last time that she thought the two of them were great and that she'd support them from home.

"No, it is mistress that is great. I'm glad master accepted your offering." Harriett said.

Calla didn't know what to answer so she just gave he two one last hug before they left.

Emp didn't feel anything in particular because he would be at both places at once but everyone else seemed to be pretty saddened to part ways. In an attempt to make everyone feel better, he reminded them that they could share messages through him pretty easily. All he had to do was recall the other him or place the message in the bag to let the other side get it. In a way, Calla would be able to talk with Mable, Harriett and Celtine whenever she wanted.

"Master's right! We can all just send letters and they'll reach mistress the very same day! That's a great idea!"

Celtine and Calla agreed with a smile as well and everyone felt better right away.

Finally, it was time to leave for the village. Emp and Calla dressed in ordinary clothes to not attract too much attention in the caravan and left for the south gate. Esther at the reception desk wished them good travel on their way out and soon, they were back on the streets of Bêtéclair.

"Aren't we going to say goodbye to your mom?" Calla asked while they were walking down the street.

"I don't think we need to. I'm pretty sure she will just hear you if you say your goodbyes from here anyway."

Calla understood his point of view and simply said goodbye in her head. If they were to stop by the temple, they'd end up late to catch up the caravan.

Instead of going to the temple, they followed the main street through the swarm of merchants and shopping nobles. They were walking holding hands because Calla feared to end up lost in the crowd.

It was still early in the morning so there weren't so many people that it was hard to navigate but there were still enough to make her dizzy. Like every time Calla was in a crowd of stranger, she was tense and kept looking around nervously despite Emps best attempts at reassuring her through the contact of their hands. Once they left the city, she'd surely feel much better.

Everyone around them talked in small groups as they walked and Emp paid attention to none of them until a few short sentences caught his attention.

"Hey, look over there, did you see her?"

"Isn't she the girl from the other day?"

"Yeah look, that's really the same girl from the other time."

"We have to thank her."

"More importantly, look, she seems in trouble, we got to help."

Emp got curious to see who was in trouble and looked around to search who was talking and what they were talking about but found neither. Everyone around them just kept walking normally and nothing seemed out of the ordinary at all.

Emp found it curious but since he couldn't hear them anymore and saw nothing suspicious, he turned his attention back to the road. After only a few more steps though, Emp felt that something was wrong.

He pulled Calla into his arms and jumped forward using his blessing to reach further. Calla yelped sharply in surprise and immediately after, right at the spot they had been standing on, two smaller girls bumped into each other at high speed and tumbled to the ground with pained groans.

"Ow!"

"How did we even miss him so bad?"

"We ruined it again."

"Quick get up before he runs away!"

The two girls hurriedly disentangled themselves from the other and got back up to face a confused Emp and Calla. Those were definitely the voices he heard earlier. Didn't that mean that the girl in trouble was Calla and that he was supposedly the bad guy? How did this even happen?

"You, bad guy! Release the kind lady now!" The taller one yelled while pointing a finger at him.

Her fall combined with her yell gathered the attention of everyone around them and made Calla very uncomfortable. For now, no one moved to help either sides because no one knew what was happening yet, it might not be long before they all started to pick sides. Emp had to disperse the crowd fast or Calla would crumble from the weight of the stares.

"Calm down alright? Whatever you're thinking is happening is a misunderstanding. Just lower your voice and we'll talk."

"That's exactly what a bad guy would say!"

Calla quickly hid her face behind her arm to escape the stares and Emp held her more strongly to keep her from falling.

Meanwhile, the two girls had taken an heroic pose with the fists clenched on their hips. It might have been impressive if they weren't so small. The tall one was barely the height Emp had when he was created and the other was half a head shorter. They both wore leather pants held by straps along with oversized and undyed long sleeved shirts. The tall one had a face full of freckles and short blond hair cut close to her head while the smaller one had two side buns of hair and her eyes were of a much darker brown than the other.

Together, they were trying to intimidate him since their surprise attack had failed.

"See? She's scared! Release her now!"

He needed to come up with something else or this nonsense would never end. It didn't help that they were speaking in the noble tongue, Calla couldn't understand a word they were saying.

"She's scared of you instead. You do not know her at all, you don't even know her name! You keep calling her kind lady."

"We do know her, she gave us fruits the other day!"

Fruits? Could they be the girls Calla helped the day she went out with the others.

"The night she gave you those two fruits, my wife was walking with a big group of girls right?"

"How did... Wait, your wife?"

"I told you it's a misunderstanding."

"Huh sis, did we mess everything up again?" The shorter one asked while cocking her head to the side.

"That can't be! Why would she look so uncomfortable with him then?"

"She not uncom/"

"Alright, everyone hold it right there, what's happening here?"

Emp was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a group of ten guards. Five surrounded Emp with their weapons drawn and four surrounded the girls, ready to catch them if they attempted to flee. The last one, the leader of the group, stood in between the two small groups and looked at them both in turns with an authoritative glare. Their appearance did nothing to improve the state of mind of Calla but at least, she knew that as long as they learned about his name, they would never hurt Emp or her. This might have been the only reason she didn't collapse on the spot.

The guard sergeant first turned his attention towards Emp.

"First you, release the woman for now."

"But I'm afraid that If I let go of my wife now she'll collapse."

"Do it!" The guard ordered strongly.

Emp released an annoyed sigh and gently lowered Calla so that she would sit safely on the ground at his side. Once sat on the ground, Calla still clutched his trousers in fear that he'd disappear while she had her eyes closed

He had wanted to join up the caravan without gathering too much attention from the crowd of regular travelers but this happened instead. That was very upsetting.

"Tell me what is going on. Why are you arguing with two small girl in the middle of the road?"

"I don't know yet, I've been trying to figure out why they want me to let go of my wife since they tried to tackle me earlier." Emp told him.

"That's because she's looking so distressed, I'm sure he's trying to kidnap her! Plus, he had that serious look like he's planning something shady" The tall one explained.

"Yeah!" The small one added.

"Why would I kidnap my own wife? She's just afraid of crowds so we wanted to hurry on our way."

"Yes, a likely story." The guard said, rather skeptical. "We'll bring the four of you in for a quick interrogation, just your two hunting cards should be enough to prove at least her identity as your wife, or disprove it. You'll all be free by the end of the day, admitting that no crime was committed."

"By the end of the day! But that's ridiculous, we have a caravan going to Red-water to take."

Emp couldn't believe those two small girl could cause him so much trouble! He was getting rather frustrated.

"Just do as you're told if you're innocent or resist and prove your guilt." The guard narrowed his eyes menacingly.

"Can't he just show his card here? I'd feel really bad if I was wrong and they missed the caravan because of us." The girls on the other side hesitated.

"No, I said we'd do it in the guard post and so we will. This whole thing has no reason to take place in the middle of the road."

Emp groaned in frustration, they didn't have any time to waste on this. They already went through the trouble of saying goodbye to everyone so it would be really ridiculous to go back to school tonight because they missed the caravan. On top of that, he would have no choice but to show them their hunting card. Once it happened, of course Emp and Calla would be released right away with a profusion of apologies but it would be too late and everyone in the whole city would know that he was here in less than a week.

In that case, it was best to get rid of them all right now.

"Alright, I've had enough of this nonsense. I order you to look at the name on my card right now." Emp said as he made his hunting card appear.

The guard was about to shout in anger at his disobedience and the way he was being addressed but then Emp saw his face pale under his helm when he saw the name. As soon as Emp was certain that he had seen it, he made the card disappear before anyone else could take a look from further off.

"Calla, please show him your card as well."

She willed her card to appear in front of the guard and then had it disappear again after a short moment once Emp told her it was enough.

For the crowd, keeping a safe distance form the guards, it only seemed as if the captain was focusing on the cards so no one got any clue as for what the guard had just witnessed.

"So as you just saw, we really are husband and wife. It really is all just a misunderstanding and my wife truly just doesn't like to be in a crowd or under observation. She'd feel a whole lot better if everyone forgot she was ever here, do you understand?"

"Really? Shoot, then that means we messed everything up again!" The taller girl dropped her shoulders low in regret.

They had not seen the name from over there but since the two cards had been shown and Emp seemed so confident, they had no choice but to believe he was saying the truth.

"I told you." The smaller girl told the taller one.

"No you asked me if we did, you didn't affirm it."

"That's the same!"

"No it's not!"

Meanwhile, the guard sergeant blinked twice and then gulped before nodding like an obedient kid in front of his father.

"Yes of course, you were never there and nothing happened. It was all a false alarm, haha... Yes, right. In that case, those two are causing a ruckus for no reason and should be punished."

The guard turned around towards the two girls but Emp called him back.

"No need, Even though they were wrong, they intended well. I'm not angry at them at all, it was just a misunderstanding. However, I'd like to see your own card."

"M-My card?"

"Yes, you were so helpful in coming to help a girl like my timid wife right away. I'd feel much safer if I knew your name, that way I'd be able to find you if my wife was harassed in the future, do you understand?"

"Yes, of course."

The guard showed his card willingly and Emp nodded once he was sure he'd remember it. With what he said, he was pretty sure that the guard would understand what he wanted him to do. The meaning of his words were truly; Nobody must know we were here, if anyone learns about it and find my wife I'll find you and you'll be in huge trouble.

Emp thought it was pretty clear and by the nervous look of the guard he seemed to think so too.

"Thank you, I appreciate your help. You don't have to worry for my wife too much, once we get home, she'll feel much better again. So... are we all good?"

"Uh, yes, of course. We're done here guys, let's move on, who knows what might be happening further down the road."

The other guards followed the wave of his arm and moved away without asking any question even though they had several. When the sergeant was acting like that, it was best to just shut up, they might have unexpectedly pointed their swords at someone important without knowing.

The rest of the crowd moved out of the way of both the guards and Emp because they knew that something was up. The attitude of the guards changed too much after they saw his card and no one wanted to mess with him any more than that.

No one except the two girls.

Emp had barely just raised Calla back on her feet when the two girls rushed towards them again. This time however, they wanted to apologize. They got in front of Emp and Calla and bowed in apology.

"We're sorry that we caused you trouble."

"Yes, very very sorry. We just wanted to help the kind lady."

"She haven't said anything yet, is she mute or something?"

"No, she's just shy and also, she doesn't understand the noble speech." Emp answered.

He knew how to get rid of the knights because he had been taught how to in multiple classes by many people but as for the two talkative and curious girls, he didn't know how to get rid of at all. Instead, he just started walking with Calla while the other two followed and gasped in surprise.

"Really!? But she was walking with so many nobles the other day!"

"We really were super wrong. We're sorry kind lady." The two girls said in the common tongue.

Calla gave them a weak smile to accept their apology but didn't answer anything. She was eager to move away from the observers and leave the town. Emp understood this by how she behaved and so tried to put an end to the conversation in a gentle manner.

"She accepted your apology see? Now, if you would both excuse us, Calla really doesn't like the crowd so we should get going."

"We're sorry, is it really that bad?"

Calla nodded and Emp answered as he walked away.

"That's why she only went outside once for the whole time we were here."

"Hey wait! Wait up!"

The two girls kept following them.

"We haven't thanked you properly for the last time."

"Calla told me she was happy to give you those two fruits and I was curious of the circumstances but we really must go, we can't miss the caravan."

"You're leaving town? But when are you two coming back?"

Emp thought those two girls were very obstinate. In theory, he didn't mind people coming to talk to him but they were slowing them down, had caused them a bunch of trouble already and they were embarrassing Calla with their persistence.

"We're going back home, we were just visiting. We might not come back. Goodbye now and don't worry about those small fruits, neither of us mind at all. We're just glad you were happy and had something more to eat than the small piece of meat she told me you were fighting for. Bye."

Emp ended the conversation with a wave of his hand and Calla raised her fingers too. He tried his best in order to not sound too annoyed even though he was cutting the conversation short. He really wasn't that annoyed at all, the girls just didn't meet them at an appropriate time, it wasn't their fault.

The two stopped following them with a face saying they didn't really know what to do anymore and simply raised their hands towards the pair of Calla and Emp disappearing behind the many passerby.

Finally rid of them, Emp let out a sigh and let Calla trough the streets of the city, away from the noble quarters and into the lower city until they reached a place close to the gate where the caravan was gathering.

Like one would expect from such a procession, there were a great amount of wagons of all size and shape, a bunch of merchants and tag-along travelers as well as a hefty amount of mercenaries and death seekers to provide security on the trip.

Most of those hired guards didn't bother looking at any of the travelers in particular but a small group hung around a wealthy looking mustachioed merchant who was walking around collecting payments for the privilege of travelling with his caravan. The merchant was the owner so he had the right to ask for everyone else to pay him for protection. At least, he didn't ask more than the reasonable amount of six copper coins per person.

Some people would not pay anything and would just follow the caravan from further back but doing such a thing was risky because the hired guards wouldn't do anything for them and they wouldn't be allowed to sleep in the camp with everyone else. A few of them had no choice but to take the risk but Emp had more than enough money and paid the twelve coins without problem.

Right after, he looked around the gathering area and found the man he was looking for. He led Calla up to him.

"Hi Martin, are you ready for the trip?"

"Of course I am, I had to rent a whole wagon just for my supplies." The mage said pointing at the large cart behind him.

"Hm, by the way, how am I supposed to address you if I can't use your name?"

"Just calling me Emp is fine. Here, let me do the presentation. Calla, this man is Martin Tournesol, he's going to be the new mage of Dark-glint." Calla waved her hand to welcome him. "Martin, that woman is my wife Calla. She's not very talkative but she's very kind."

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'd give you a deep bow but I don't want your husband, uh... Emp to glare at me."

Calla shook her head to tell the mage it was fine and the conversation continued on to other things. They spoke a bit about what he had stored inside his wagon and after he had told them happily about most of it, the mage was suddenly bothered by a question he decided to ask right away.

"You know, earlier you said I was the new mage, right? What happened to the previous one?"

Calla looked away while Emp answered the casual truth.

"The previous mage died, I killed him."

"You what!?"

Martin seemed shocked and stepped back with a shiver.

"Yeah, that's because he was... What is it Calla?"

He interrupted his answer because Calla kept tugging at his sleeve. She was making a smile as if she was about to giggle and was looking at something behind him.

Emp turned around and saw to his great surprise that the two girls from earlier were arguing with the caravan leader with loud indignant tones and frustrated gesture. They each had a small bag over their shoulders and seemed really miffed.

"Six copper each is way too much! Who has the money to pay that! I'm sure you're trying to charge us more because we look weak!"

"It's unfair!" The small one added.

"What are they doing here? Don't tell me they followed us." Emp asked in disbelief.

"I found them, look they're over there!" The small one pointed at him and calla.

"Kind lady! Over here!"

Calla really started giggling and looked at Emp with those eyes saying; Please, go help them.

"Fine."

Emp agreed it was sort of amusing but he was also worried about why they were following them. He hoped it wouldn't be something too bothersome.

"Wait! He was what?! Don't leave the story hanging there, you're scaring me! How do I avoid the same fate! Come back!" Martin pleaded behind him while Emp walked up to the caravan leader.

"You know them?" The mustachioed man asked in annoyance.

"Sort of, yes. Sorry, I'll pay for them too."

"Fine but watch them, if they cause any trouble I'm kicking them out."

The man took the twelve additional coins and left with the guards to the next place.

"Yay! We found them!" The small one said happily while the older one apologized.

"Sorry we caused you trouble again. We didn't think it would cost so much to get in."

"It's fine, it's just a silver. Come join us and tell us what you're doing here."

Emp gestured at them to follow him and turned back towards Calla and Martin.

"You must be right. He said a silver was nothing, he must be a rich merchant." The smaller girl whispered to her sister, not low enough to stop Emp from earring.

"The fruits too, it was nothing to them. Lets do our best this time!"

Do their best for what? The caravan leader was right, they were clearly troublemakers.

Emp walked up to Calla and helped her sit on Martin's wagon as the rest of the caravan ended their preparations too. The mage seemed pretty desperate and made a pitiful face.

"How does the story end! What did he do wrong?"

"Later Martin, I can't tell you that in front of those two."

Emp pointed at them while they were tossing their bags into the mage's wagon as if it was perfectly natural. They made themselves home and just sat down close to Calla.

"B-but..." The mage pleaded.

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"Don't worry, unless you try to seduce my mother, nothing bad should happen."

Martin seemed even more confused than before by his answer but Emp ignored that problem for now to focus on those two strange girls instead. He saw the two of them inch themselves closer and closer to Calla and so he decided to sit between them to stop them from going any further. It didn't disturb the two girls in the least.

"So, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm Erin, and that's my little sister Leonni. What are your names?" Erin returned the question.

"I'm Emp, My wife's name is Calla and that's Martin."

"Martin Tournesol, noble mage of light and water." The mage presented himself with a tiny bow when Emp pointed him.

"Wow! You know a mage! That's cool!"

"Why is he the cool one if I am the mage?" Martin complained, feeling a bit dejected.

The little girl just shrugged and Emp asked his question again.

"So why are you two following us?"

"We aren't! It's just a coincidence." Erin defended herself with a fake air of indignation.

In front of the furrowed brows of Emp who didn't believe it for a second, she slumped her shoulders pitifully.

"Fine, you said you needed to catch the caravan and with the way you were going, we guessed it would be one that left from this gate, we rushed to get all our things and came here to follow you."

"But why?"

"We wanted to protect the kind lady on the way, I mean Calla."

"That's right, we can protect her!" Leonni added.

"Don't worry Calla, we'll protect your bad-guy looking husband too."

Emp didn't feel like he looked like a bad guy. Why was he being called that?

"He doesn't look like a bad guy, he just looks serious." Calla defended him using the cuff to make herself heard.

Erin shook her head in denial.

"Naw, that's the same to me. He's got the face of my grandpa."

Martin snorted loudly and Calla giggled while Emp just kept a straight face. He had not met her grandpa so he didn't know how right or wrong it was. Instead, he focused on what they said they were here for.

"You said you wanted to protect Calla. Do you have any weapons with you?"

"No..." Erin seemed disappointed.

"Do you know how to fight at all?"

"No..." Now the two sisters seemed almost dispirited.

"Then how do you plan on protecting her?"

"Well uh, our father is the son of a knight!"

"Yeah! We're almost nobles!" Leonni nodded vigorously.

"I don't see how this helps at all."

"Nobles are all super strong, aren't they? Since we're almost nobles too, we must be super strong as well! Believe us, we'll keep you safe." Erin said with confidence as she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Nobles weren't strong because they were nobles though, they were strong because they had plenty of time to train a lot.

"I can't believe she's saying this to you of all people." Martin mumbled with an incredulous face.

"Does your father know you are here?" Calla asked, worrying for them.

"Dad doesn't care."

"He didn't want us home because he didn't have money for all of us and we kept breaking things." Erin explained.

"He told us to go find work for ourselves and to not come back unless we could pay our own food."

Calla seemed very appalled by their story and Emp agreed it was a bit sad. For him though, it was way more confusing than sad.

"Isn't your dad a knight? How does he not have enough money for you all? How many siblings did you even have?"

"We have fifteen siblings but they won't talk with us anymore." Leonni said with a saddened face.

"And dad wasn't a knight, he was just the fourth son of one. He didn't get anything and grandpa said he wasn't talented enough to be a knight on his own."

What sort of story was that?

"So your dad threw you out of the house until you found some work? Weren't you working in a shop the other day when Calla gave you those fruits? How come you didn't have any money still?"

"We got fired that day because we broke some porcelain." Erin admitted with her head hung low.

"We keep messing everything up and we got fired from every place we worked for." Leonni said.

"The longest we worked in a single place was three days."

So the whole story about why they only had a small piece of meat for the two of them and no money to buy food was because they couldn't keep a single job for more than a day? In the end, there was no deep explanation or crooked merchant exploiting his employees, they just got kicked out of every single place they worked for because they were troublemakers.

"It's so bad that dad told us to not use our family name anymore because he didn't want to get in trouble because of us." Leonni explained.

"No one wants to hire us anymore so we thought we'd have better luck in... where are we going exactly?"

"The caravan goes all the way to Red-water but we're stopping in Dark-glint village." Martin answered helpfully.

"What are we going to do in Dark-glint?" Erin asked, including herself in the group as if it was natural. "Do you have some big business as a merchant there?"

"I'm not a merchant at all." Emp answered.

"What!?" Leonni gasped.

Erin bounced back up from the revelation quickly because of how used she was to setbacks.

"But what sort of work do you both do then? Do you think your boss would be willing to hire us too?"

Martin started laughing and almost lost it hearing that but Emp glared at him and stopped him from revealing the secret.

"We won't make any more mistakes we promise!" Leonni said, thinking this was the reason why Martin was laughing.

"But you don't even know what the work is." Emp said.

Not that there was any work in the first place.

"Then tell us, I'm sure we can do it! We're willing to give it a try and work hard!"

"Yeah, we're not afraid to work hard."

Following that the two girls pestered them until Emp decided to tell them that Calla cooked. It wasn't really her job but that was mostly what she did of her time.

The girls seemed to think it made perfect sense and decided to practice cooking in order to impress the imaginary boss.

Since he was unrelated to them, he could advise them strongly against going with the caravan but he couldn't stop them. They decided to tag along despite his advice and included themselves in the group right away.

Emp was willing to let them be as long as they didn't do anything too outrageous. He didn't want to be cruel and kick them out, plus, he had already paid the fee to let them in.

That's how, on the third day of travel, they ended up doing something outrageous that made him angry.