While the trip was indeed brief, the prolonged silence in Plum’s house that came after it made Tinz worried. The setup was as follows.

Ferry was left outside, her feet too muddy to be let indoors. Tinz, Magnolia, and Dolce were all crammed onto one sofa, with Plum and their mother on the sofa across. Plum’s mother had an air of overprotectiveness about her. Tinz recognized it well. It reminded him of his own family. The smell of baked goods was wafting in from the other side of the house… 

Dolce was grinning wide, although whatever type of facade he was showing was starting to crack in the lack of conversation in the room. Magnolia seemed unaware of any tension, and she decided to break the silence.

“So… Hello! I hear your child has been looking for a party, right?” She smiled. Tinz sighed in relief.

“Yes. She has,” Plum’s mother stated bluntly. Plum shrunk in their seat. “Are you the party she talked about over the phone?”

Magnolia clapped her hands together. “Yep! We’re a team of a healer, a summoner, and a magician!”

Plum’s mother raised an eyebrow at the mention of a healer. Tinz clenched his jaw in preparation for more belittling of his chosen class.

However, this never came.

“Interesting. Plum has been looking for a party for a while now,” she began, “Wanting to take up her father’s hobbies... I’m Rose, by the way. Forgive me for not having anything to drink asides water,” she smiled apologectically. 

“No need to apologize!” Magnolia kept up the conversation. “I’m sure you’re worried about your child going out and about in the big world, but that’s almost like, every kid’s dream nowadays isn’t it? To be an adventurer.”

Rose sighed. “I suppose so. Even when I was young and met her father, he was relentless in his … quest to kill boredom. Shame he left one day.”

The room went quiet again. And awkward. Tinz glanced around nervously, peering at anything in the area that could spark interest or another topic in the conversation.

“Well, you can trust us to bring Plum back safe and sound, haha,” Dolce grinned humbly. Tinz nodded.

“Yeah, we’re not going adventuring to do anything serious, we just kind of… want to explore, I guess,” he added on.

Rose stared at the three of them, eyes boring into their souls. The air got tense again, and Tinz was certainly wanting to get this over with. He looked at the other two on the shared sofa. Their expressions with faltering again. Just as Tinz was about to speak up…

“Mama, it’s not that serious…” A small voice called out. Plum was joining in on the conversation now. “I’m not going anywhere like dad did.”

Rose’s eye twitched, but her face was still ice cold. 

“Uhm, if I may say, maybe you could come along with?” Magnolia tried. “That would like, get rid of any worries wouldn’t it?”

Plum frowned briefly, and Rose simply sighed. “I have the bakery to attend to. The one you saw connected to this house. … I suppose it is fine,” she relented, looking down at her hands. “She’s only seventeen. But you three seem trustworthy enough, especially compared to the rest of the townspeople,” she grimaced. “I don’t like living here, but people rely on the bakery. I wish to move to the city one day.”

Dolce coughed. “The city is certainly … a city! For sure! Small businesses tend to come and go over there, maybe it’s best for a bakery to stay small,” he laughed. Tinz rolled his eyes.

“Yeah but the city has more community to it, or at least it did. Even smaller parts of the area have plenty of love in it,” he argued. Magnolia was sitting between the two of them.

Dolce looked over to Tinz, expression still unreadable. “Oh? Are you also from the city? You don’t look the part.”

“I used to live there as a kid,” Tinz kicked his feet idly. 

“So you’re probably just full of nostalgia, then.”

“And? Can a place really go to shit in the span of a decade or two. C’mon man.”

“ENOUGH!” Magnolia shoved her two hands in the faces of Dolce and Tinz. “We’re not here to argue, we’re here to convince Rose that we’re capable people! Ugh…” Magnolia looked to Rose with pleading eyes, but was met with a genuine smile. She apparently realized her own expression, because she quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

“Forgive me, I was reminded of when I was your age. I… I did adventure with my husband for a bit. It was as chaotic as you three. I have an idea, if you’ll excuse me,” she said before leaving to the backyard. 

Plum sighed and put their face into their hands, and their elbows rested onto their knees, “I’m so sorry about her, she’s always been like this.”

“Well, no harm done, she seems to love you a lot,” Dolce nodded. Plum picked their head up and stared at the three across from them.

“I hope she says I can go…” was all they muttered out before a loud noise struck its way into the room. Rose had come back with… a chicken.

It ran out of her arms as she cursed aloud. It then skittered around the room nervously, before jumping up onto Tinz as he screeched. 

“WHAH. HUH. WHY IS IT–”

“Ooh, is that a Mail Chicken?” Magnolia remarked in awe.

“A WHAT?!” Tinz managed as he calmed the chicken down.

“A Mail Chicken! It’s a robot from a while back that can send and receive emails! It’s so cute isn’t it?” Magnolia giggled. Dolce was fumbling with his phone to try and take a picture, but his gloves made it difficult.

“Don’t take a damn picture, help me get this thing to calm down!”

Rose stared at them, and then looked to Plum. Plum had a small smile on their face…

“I have the other chicken currently paired with this one. I expect to receive an email once a week about what happened during your travels.”

“Huh?” Tinz, Magnolia, and Dolce said in unison. Rose sat back down by Plum before taking their hands.

“Be careful… okay?” Rose asked. Plum’s eyes grew wide.

“Of course! Of course I’ll be careful…” they sniffled. Tinz and Magnolia looked at each other, Mags smiling wide. Dolce finally put his phone down after snapping a pic of the chicken itself.

“Well, now that that’s settled, should we get going?” Dolce hummed. Rose stuck out a hand, signaling them to wait.

“I’d live to give you all some bread before you leave. Incentive to come back and visit. For more bread,” she nodded. Magnolia audibly squealed in glee.

“WHAT KIND OF BREAD DO YOU BAKE!” She stood up with a huff. “I’ve smelled something delicious coming from the other side of your house and I’ve been meaning to ask!”

Rose smiled. “Come with me to the bakery, I’ll show you our stock.” The two of them, followed by Plum and the chicken, went to the bakery. That left Tinz and Dolce to their own devices…

“So,” Dolce scooted closer to Tinz. “How do you feel about all this?”

“...I mean. It ended well, so it’s fine?” he replied. Dolce nodded in agreement.

“I didn’t expect Rose to say yes, but it seems like things went fine, yeah,” he crossed one leg over the other. “Where did you live in the city, anywho?”

Tinz looked at Dolce, who was smiling again. Tinz grimaced at the eye contact.

“I’ll tell you some other time.”