Chapter 245

When it came to reporting to the Baron, they were sparse on the details, at least the parts relevant to Natalie and her class. They had discussed the dilemma on the return trip to Tarenhelm: the balance to strike between the Baron’s need to know what was going on around his city and Natalie’s need for secrecy. She didn’t want to divulge everything about rousing goddesses and her class’s involvement.

They ended up giving him a mostly true report, as far as the practical details went. They had found, fought, and defeated a goblin with golden veins, who was significantly stronger than a goblin ought to be—on par with a level three boss. They suspected similar creatures might be inside the base, and so they had returned to recuperate before tackling the final fight. They suspected all of it had something to do with their aberrant hoarding behavior.

Ultimately, the Baron deserved to be appraised of the threat harassing his city, but only insofar as it didn’t reveal too much about their personal situation. The lack of full disclosure didn’t feel like it was a huge deal since they would be heading out and clearing the goblin base the very next day.

Tenet, however, would be getting a more detailed report. It was possible Natalie and her team had been assigned to this goblin infestation in the first place because Tenet had already suspected something odd was going on—possibly even the details. Clearly, the waking Passions weren’t as isolated a phenomenon as Natalie had assumed. Not only did Elida clearly know about it, but there were also surface monsters running around attuned to Greed.

It seemed unlikely to Natalie—and her team, since this had been a group discussion—that across the entire world, these were the only monsters sponsored by a deity and behaving strangely. It was more than possible that the Passions were working on a far larger scale, even, and that Natalie’s position as a paladin and these goblins’ imbuement was nearly irrelevant on the global stage. Though they had no way to confirm or deny that. They simply acknowledged the possibility.

Once their meeting with the Baron had concluded, they returned to the Kraken’s Hearth to rest and recover for the day.

Liz pulled Natalie aside just after she had finished showering. Closing the door behind her, she studied Natalie with a far more serious expression than she was used to seeing.

“What’s up?”

Liz sighed, then walked over and sat on the bed, tucking her hands underneath her thighs. She idly kicked back and forward, still studying her with that uncharacteristic seriousness. It went on for a good several seconds.

“We need to talk.”

“Yeah,” Natalie said. “I guessed that when you said, ‘Nat, we need to talk.’”

She could’ve imagined Liz pouting at the friendly sarcasm in a normal circumstance, but the royal kept her serious face. Natalie sobered up, realizing that whatever she wanted to talk about really was important.

“It’s about what we learned,” Liz said. “And us. As in, our team, and you, and all of it.”

“Figured.” It’d been the nonstop topic of discussion since leaving the Duskwood.

“But specifically about me,” she continued. “Or rather, my family.”

“The Beaumons?”

Liz bit her lip. She seemed to struggle with what to say for a second. “When we were first learning about all of this,” she said, “I had thought you’d been given some strange and powerful class, but not something that could shape Valhaur’s trajectory as a kingdom. So I was keeping it a secret, because that’s what friends do.” She shifted uncomfortably around on her bed, seeming mildly distressed as she looked at Natalie. “But it’s becoming obvious the scope of this is expanding way past what any of us had assumed.”