I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Three days after the Grayroot briefing, Arthur arrived at the Obsidian Hand loading yard.

The carriage was already half-loaded, though the exact definition of the cargo was currently under dispute.

Leon walked to the back of the carriage, lifted a wooden crate, and set it firmly on the cobblestones. A minute later, Arthur watched Felix walk around the opposite side, pick up the exact same crate, and slide it back into the carriage.

"Felix," Sylvia called out from the guildhall steps. She walked over, pulled the crate back out, and left it beside the guildhall steps. "An abandoned quarry is not a free shop. We did not authorize salvage equipment."

Felix adjusted his glasses. "I was simply anticipating opportunity."

Nearby, Emily was attempting to pack three different steel hammers into a single travel bag. When she turned to argue with Felix about his definition of salvage, Alicia quietly reached into the bag, removed the largest hammer, and tucked it behind a stack of grain sacks. When Emily noticed the missing weight five minutes later, she immediately accused Felix of liquidating her assets.

By noon, the team had reduced the load to food, field equipment, sample jars, medical supplies, and whatever weapons they could carry without damaging the carriage.

Chloe stood near the rear wheel, checking the team’s protective gear. She confirmed that every person carried a cloth mask and basic washing supplies.

"These masks restrict airflow," Emily complained, testing the thick fabric against her face. "It’s going to make fighting uncomfortable."

"Choking on contaminated dust will be worse," Alicia replied quietly.

Felix held his mask up by the strings. "If the quarry is clean and these remain unused, can they be returned to the infirmary for partial reimbursement?"

Chloe completely ignored the financial inquiry. She finished checking Emily’s kit and turned to the frontline commander.

Leon looked at the medical supplies, then looked directly at Chloe. "If you order someone out of a tunnel, does that override my combat call?"

"If the problem is exposure or injury, yes," Chloe answered evenly.

"Understood," Leon said, accepting the chain of command immediately.

Emily watched Chloe give Arthur’s equipment a final inspection.

"You’re giving him special attention," she said, amused.

"Arthur requires more supervision, not more attention," Chloe corrected.

Arthur wisely chose not to correct either of them.

The rest of the team climbed into the carriage or moved toward the front benches. Arthur hung back in the yard, walking over to the infirmary cart where Beatrice was finalizing the medical logs.

She handed him the final sealed package of supplies and adjusted the fit of the mask around his neck in three quick movements.

"Chloe now has the authority to order me out of a tunnel," Arthur remarked.

"She earned it at the Founders’ Fair," Beatrice replied, her voice steady.

She paused, looking past him toward the carriage. "Chloe will be watching the other five," Beatrice said softly. "You watch her."

Arthur looked toward Chloe, who was checking Felix’s pack for the second time. She would remove anyone else from danger without hesitation. Getting her to leave a patient behind would be harder.

"I’ll watch her."

Beatrice reached up, tightened the upper strap of the mask behind his head, and left her hand resting briefly against the back of his neck.

"Bring all six back," she ordered.

Two mornings later, the carriage passed through Lornfell’s north gate before sunrise.

Several hours into the journey, the carriage was making good time, sharing the wide dirt road with two merchant wagons traveling in the same direction.

Emily slumped against the wooden bench, watching the trees roll by. "How long until something attacks us?" she asked, entirely bored by the peaceful transit.

Across the carriage, Felix leaned out the window, deep in a conversation with one of the merchants about regional toll prices and overlapping freight routes. Alicia sat quietly near the carriage opening, her eyes tracking the roadside rather than joining the overlapping conversations.

Chloe sat beside Arthur, glancing down at his right arm. "Is the new bracer irritating your wrist?"

Arthur flexed his fingers. "Brunhilda threatened me more effectively than Beatrice ever did," he said. "It fits perfectly."

On the opposite bench, Leon unrolled the faded map of Grayroot Quarry. He and Arthur spent several minutes reviewing the access road, the foreman’s house, and the surface buildings marked on Rusk’s map.

Outside, Felix’s conversation with the merchant drifted toward the local environment.

"The animals near Grayroot have become unusually aggressive over the last month," the merchant warned, steering his wagon alongside the carriage. "And if it rains, don’t drink from the stream below the quarry. Sometimes the water carries a glittering black grit."

Before Arthur could ask the merchant for a more precise timeline, the horses pulling the lead wagon panicked, rearing up and screaming in terror.

A massive boar burst from the roadside brush near the lead wagon.

The boar was broad and powerfully built. Dark crystal covered part of its left tusk and spread across one shoulder, where the surrounding flesh had been rubbed raw.

Leon vaulted from the carriage and landed between the boar and the panicked horses. He struck his blade against the road and shouted, pulling the animal’s attention away from the wagons.

The boar turned and charged.

Alicia moved first. She slipped past its tusk and drove her weapon across its flank, changing the direction of the charge without trying to stop its full weight. The boar stumbled across the road as Felix dropped beside the carriage and raised his shield between the animal, Chloe, and the merchants.

Arthur moved laterally, drawing Whisperwind as the boar fought to turn. The new bracer held his wrist firm through the movement. His arrow buried itself behind the crystal-covered shoulder, but the growth and thick muscle kept the shot from reaching deeply enough.

The boar snapped its altered tusk toward Leon.

Leon shifted aside and turned its head into Emily’s path.

Emily stepped in and drove one compact punch into the damaged tusk. Crystal burst across the road, and the weakened tip snapped under the impact.

The boar reeled.

Alicia was already moving. She entered through the opening Emily had created and ended the fight with a thrust beneath its jaw.

Emily shook out her taped knuckles and approached the carcass for a closer look. Felix followed, opening his ledger to record the altered growth.

"Stop," Chloe ordered sharply.

Both of them froze.

Chloe pulled her cloth mask up over her nose and mouth. She approached the carcass carefully and crouched beside the broken tusk, keeping her hands away from the exposed crystal.

"There is black grit embedded around the roots of the crystal," Chloe observed.

Arthur and Leon moved past the carcass, their eyes tracking the deep, torn hoofprints the boar had left in the dirt. They followed the trail back through the heavy brush until they reached the edge of a shallow, slow-moving stream.

Dark mineral sediment had settled thickly in the mud along the banks. Arthur looked up at the current. The water was flowing directly from the direction of Grayroot Quarry.

Chloe arrived with the sample kit and crouched beside the hoofprints crossing the mud. The boar’s trail was not the only one. Older prints from deer and smaller animals covered the same stretch of bank.

The merchant who had warned them about the black grit climbed down from his wagon. "Animals use this bend constantly. It is the last easy watering place before the northern slope."

Chloe glanced back toward the carcass. The skin around the crystal-covered shoulder was still raw rather than healed, suggesting that the growth had appeared recently.

Arthur marked the stream bend on Rusk’s map while Chloe collected water, dark sediment, and a fragment of the broken crystal. She sealed the samples separately before washing her gloves.

One altered boar could have wandered anywhere. A watering place used by several animals was a larger problem. If the contamination was reaching this stream, the damage around Grayroot might already extend beyond the abandoned quarry.

After helping the merchants calm their horses and clearing the carcass from the road, the team climbed back into the carriage and continued north.

Near sunset, the trees thinned and the abandoned structures of Grayroot Quarry appeared across the valley. Rusted lifting frames stood above the storage yard, and several buildings had partially collapsed under years of neglect.

Before unloading the carriage, Arthur walked to the edge of the ridge and raised Rusk’s map.

The lower tunnel entrance was marked as sealed.

From this distance, Arthur could already see that the barrier had been broken.

He and Leon descended far enough to inspect the debris without approaching the opening itself. Stone blocks and broken timbers covered the ground outside the tunnel.

Leon crouched beside one of the blocks. The dirt beneath it was freshly disturbed compared with the untouched ground closer to the entrance.

Arthur looked into the black opening beyond the ruined seal.

Whatever had broken through the barrier had not been trying to enter Grayroot.

It had been trying to get out.

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