276 A hardy guardian's tale (2), intermission

"Beatrix?"

I startle a bit as Mary gently touches my shoulder. I had been spacing out and she had probably been trying to tell me something.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

She looks at me with worry written all over her face.

"Are you alright?"

I nearly break into laughter at the question. Her, a small, almost dainty little woman asking me, a giant monster of a woman, if I'm alright.

I am not. How could I be. I had gotten an emergency message from my parents telling me to come home as quick as I could. They wouldn't do this if it wasn't serious.

They had chosen not to tell me what had happened. They likely planned to tell me in person.

I am excellent at handling physical attack, even magic doesn't scare me. But I'll admit that emotionally, I've never really been able to handle more than the average person.

Mary seems to read most of the thoughts going through my head through my expression as she keeps her hand on my shoulder.

It feels strangely comforting. As if that hand acts as a sort of armor, keeping out the emotional turmoil within me. A strange image, I know, but it's the best I can come up with.

We will be home soon and then I'll have my answers. I'm just not sure if I even want to know…

The car arrives at the mansion gate. I roll down the window and wave for us to be let in. My face alone is enough to grant us passage and the car speeds up the long driveway until it reaches the mansion itself.

We alight and Mary pays the driver while sending him off. After the car has left, we head to the front door of the mansion. Before we reach it, the door is opened by a servant and my parents come walking outside. They both look tense. My father's tear stained face tells me has been crying, a lot. Not something he normally does.

They look us over, Mary is acquainted with them but nothing more. They are probably looking for a polite way to send her away right now.

"She stays. My team deserves to know why we postponed a big delve on such short notice so consider her their representative. Now tell me, why did you suddenly call me home."

My mother looks at me, measuring my words and judging if they are reasonable. Then she turns and pulls father back inside.

"Let's go somewhere else, this isn't the place."

I get the urge to insist that this is exactly the place but I already pushed them by having Mary join us. The two of us follow after my parents.

We move to a room that is meant for receiving guests. There are two couches facing one another, one for me and Mary, the other for my parents. The moment I take a seat, my father blurts out a string of words that my brain momentarily fails to process.

"Brigitte is dead."

I feel my body tense up as the message sinks in. Every fiber of my body is ready for combat, adrenaline is coursing through my veins, but there is no opponent here. Only death, and it's aftermath.

"How?"

I barely manage to spit out the word. She stopped being my idol a long time ago but still, some part of me always looked up to her. That strong, unwavering back, even if she acted like a selfish coward at times.

"She entered the Noxian mausoleum with her team. When they didn't return for a few days, some of their sponsors asked a specialist in divination to check. We don't know what he saw but the Noxian mausoleum has been reclassified as a forbidden area and the whole team was pronounced dead."

Killed in a dungeon? Just like that?

Aunt Brigitte had reached level 182, her team consisted of similarly strong adventurers. Their equipment was good, the best you could get at their level, and with her willingness to abandon her companions when the danger became too much…

What kind of abominable monstrosity could succeed in killing her?

I feel my body lock up and cold sweat run down my back. Will I also die like that? Or will my life end even faster when I decide to defend my companions even when aunt Brigitte would already have run?

I suddenly feel scared to enter a dungeon. My level isn't comparable to aunt Brigitte and my skills have yet to improve enough to make me proficient. Isn't it suicide to enter a dungeon?

"Beatrix, calm down! Focus on breathing, I am here for you."

Mary is truly a friend sent by the heavens. She rubs my back reassuringly as I notice that I've been hyperventilating. I try to slow down my breathing and stop thinking about aunt Brigitte.

Perhaps this was her fate. The consequence for deciding that risking her life for her companions was foolish. I will reach even greater height than her! That will be my way to honor her. I'll be the best guardian there ever was!

I stay for a few more hours to talk to my parents and discuss the funeral arrangements for aunt Brigitte. Then, my parents talk me into meeting the producers that worked with Brigitte's team to bring out videos of their delves. I hear that they made a lot of money from those videos but during the conversation, it quickly becomes apparent that they did much more than release videos of their delves.

The discussion ends with them forcefully adding another adventurer to my team to, as they put it, check out our marketability. They say that adventurer was a student of another member of Brigitte's team and he will be in charge of filming and commenting.

I doubt I'll like it but I agree to keep my parents happy and extra cash to buy better equipment never hurts.

I just hope nothing goes wrong during our next delve…