Ch 63. Breaking Bad News

"Dead? All of them?" Jagen seemed to doubt his ears.

Marcella was perhaps even more shocked, still seated in my lap, but leaning to the side and turning her neck so that she could look at me. Seeing perfectly well that I wasn't joking. Seeing her face as pale as a ghost, not ready to accept the situation.

"I'm sorry, but that's most likely the case... we encountered monsters that had some form of special powers."

Explaining the events of the night while simultaneously smoothing over the most unflattering of my own actions. Careful to not intentionally lie, but seeing a need to paint myself in an unnecessarily negative light. Given that the only other living witness was my brother, he had no reason to contradict me. 

Jagen was upset, but also burning with interest over what these creatures were that had power over the minds of an entire group. Focusing his anger on these monsters, rather than on me. Which luckily enough, I even had a specimen to show him. 

Materializing the small goblin-like creature onto the floor, no longer worried about derailing the meal given how the atmosphere had already taken a turn for the worse.

Jagen had no idea what it was, but both Marcella and her mother seemed to recognize it, being the veteran adventurers of our dinner table. 

"Dream eaters." Marcella's mother spoke up, apparently familiar with what these were. Marcella too emotional right now to speak, collapsing into my chest tiredly as her mother continued to explain about the creatures.

A type of monster that had an awful reputation among adventurers. Difficult to deal with, requiring very specialized equipment that practically nobody had the ability to bring along for general expeditions. Given how difficult it was to mount a defense, most groups would be wiped out without any chance at all.

"I suppose it's good that you're safe. I would hate for my new son-in-law to die just after his wedding night... we haven't even held the ceremony yet." Having moved up the bedding before the actual ceremony itself. 

Even saying that, Jagen looked understandably upset as I extended my sympathies. His face casting a frown as he contemplated to himself. 

Five knights, eleven soldiers. A tremendous loss for a frontier town like this. Maybe not so much for the loss of life, but the weapons and armor of the knights were all as expensive as my own. Training knights up was a lengthy process, but the real loss to the territory was that their gear was irrecoverable. A knight might be more skilled than a soldier, but the difference between a knight and soldier was mainly made up by their gear. 

Today's loss must have been over a thousand gold, truly feeling sorry for him.

"I've been doing this for twenty years, and it never gets any easier. Always hurts to lose good men." Jagen finally spoke, breaking his moment of silence. A hint of tears in his eyes. 

Jagen tried inquiring the identities of which knights were the ones who went with me, while I just stared dumbly at him. He really expected me to know all of their names? I suppose with his experience leading troops he really had a firm attachment to them. 

A little flustered at being put on the spot, since I honestly had no clue who most of them were. To me they were just soldiers. 

This seemed to irk Jagen somewhat but he didn't particularly pursue it. It wouldn't be hard to figure out their names from a little bit of asking around with the troops.

But actually there was one name that I remembered. Thinking of the incident with the treant, the man's obvious hostilities, and the letter he received. 

"Gawn. One of the knights, had that name. You'll have to ask about the others." 

Jagen seemed to perk his ears up at that, while Marcella looked like her strings were cut.

"He was there?" Jagen seemed a little disappointed once again. 

"Gawn was one of our best... Keaton, I'm sorry to say, but don't go exploring like that anymore. There's always a risk when I send my men out those gates, I can accept that. But you're a mage Keaton, and a space mage at that. There's no reason to send you out there as well. I believe it's important that you can defend yourself... but that's not your role." He said sternly, not particularly upset with me, but lecturing me sternly about accepting the reality of my new role. 

My face sank, those expeditions were my ticket to greater power.

"You know that I'm an adventurer too. I have my own pride." I argued weakly. Realistically speaking he was right. No real space mage had a reason to be doing the things I did, to him it just looked like I was thrill seeking. And after today's consequences that just looked suicidal. 

"Keaton, enough. Consider things from my perspective. This is for your own good." Jagen was starting to get angry at me, something I wanted to avoid. Accepting his terms with a grit of my teeth, irritated at how things had turned out for me. Even if I knew I had pushed my luck too much.

I did feel some responsibility for what had happened, but losing the support of the guards wasn't ideal. I'd be stuck in stagnation. Maybe I couldn't get back in his good graces, but I didn't have to be the only one getting chewed out. Remembering the day's events with a hint of irritation. 

Marcella who had been completely lost in her own world finally seemed to regain her senses. Trying to sit up, but failing. Everyone was aware of her odd reactions, but nobody was sure what exactly this issue was yet. More interested in my own story than hers. 

Seeing her act like this just increased my irritation. That letter. Gawn trying to kill me. Losing all the knights. Losing the right to leave the safety of town. Nothing today was going right.

My gaze shifting towards Marcella who was still on my lap. Originally I had planned to confront her in private, but my feelings had changed. 

"Are you crying over Gawn?" I asked her, loud enough for everyone to hear. My patience for this had long passed. 

She just cried, hearing his name. 

"He told me he loved you," I decided to push her a step further.

At this point she was unconsolable. Being told her crush had died by the very person she hated most. Perhaps if I didn't come along they really did have a chance of being together, but with my being a 'space mage', there was no reason for her father to hesitate. Marrying his high-born mage daughter off to a mere knight would be practically an insult to his family. But if Gawn could accrue merits with his abilities he did have the opportunity to earn territory for himself. 

Jagen himself looked like he knew about this, seeing the dark and furious look below a feigned veil of politeness. 

"Do you still love him?" I asked again. 

At this point I was speaking only for the benefit of those present, not particularly caring for how she reacted. Trying to think of the most damaging things that I could to prove her guilt. Deciding to expose it all.