The Weight of Exhaustion

Chapter Seventeen: The Eavesdropping

Light, Time, and Lucas ended up being scolded when they arrived back from their scouting mission.

Lucas ended up joining once he found out what they were doing once they stopped by Light's house, and didn't take no for an answer when he found out what they had planned. Lucas, no matter how hard Light pushed to keep Lucas in the town, didn't seem to care for his worry and doubled down on wanting to go.

Time was no help on either side, just pushing at the to figure it out because they were losing time as he tossed several items in a bag just in case something went wrong.

Was it minorly spiteful to feel some sort of glee at the fact Lucas was also being berated for going on the scouting mission. Yes. Did he care? Not a bit.

Light wondered if all Humans were as stubborn as Lucas and Sabre were, or if they were just unlucky to get the two that were extremely stubborn. They are the first two Humans in their world, and compared to how much the Steves know about themselves, Humans were basically unknowns still.

It was now, after so long, some Steves are deciding to...study, in the nicest terms, Sabre. Well, now Lucas too, once his existence actually gets truly out there.

Already, it seemed as if the Steves had gotten over the shock of the arrival of the second Human, and now seem to be interested in what makes Lucas...Lucas.

The morning after Sabre was announced missing, Light found his house empty besides his possessions and himself.

Lucas ended up waking up before Light and seemed to have left to explore the town some more. Light should have expected it, since it seems as if Humans always wake up before the sun if both Sabre and Lucas do.

Which is how, as Light walked around town, checking up on everything as he headed to the next meeting, he stumbled upon where Lucas was.

He sat under the large tree in the town center, with several children surrounding him, staring at him with wide eyes as they whispered exclamations to one another or blurted out questions that came to mind.

Further back, out of the grassy town center and in the stores and buildings around the area, the more adult-like Steves watched and listened with faces copying the young ones, either discreetly or not.

When Light got closer, he was able to hear what Lucas was saying that grabbed their attention like it did. It was a new experience for them, hearing about the world the two Humans hail from. Sabre was not one to talk about his home world much, especially out in public. Lucas did not seem to have that issue, as he spoke sentence after sentence about what his world, his town, his home was like.

Light merely listened, leaning against the fence posts that separate the town center from the roads. He spoke of his town, and of the mischief he and Sabre ended up getting into. That set off more questions, and Light could see several heads that were trying to not look turned at the story.

It was understandable, since, to the older Steves, even if Sabre liked to deny it all he wanted, he was a hero to them. To the children, who were too young to really get the situation the world was currently in, Sabre was the one that played and entertained them when the other Steves were too busy.

Sabre was the one to calm them down if their powers got out of control, too used to being hit with powers of an adult that the ones of a child were just a flick to him. He was the one to take them on sprawling adventures around the town where it would be a common sight to see Sabre walking down the road with a chain of kids behind him. Sabre was the one to pass on minor bits of knowledge on survival when he and a few others would take the children outside of the kingdom. What to do, what to eat, where to take shelter.