"No, you are not." The calm and almost factual statement like tone came from none other than Alice.

While she had been working to help a few small injuries that occurred during an accident on the road from some of the construction workers repairing a section of the nearby roads, she had seen Walker arrive. She had been more than happy to have lunch with him, but the ideas he shared with her?

Not happy at all.

"It would be just to gather mana and find what I need to improve the elemental storages I am making. I could break through the barrier I thought would take me ten years or more." His explanation was one from someone that already knew he was in the wrong.

"You just returned. You and the others have plans. You can wait." She seemed more like a troubled parent right now rather than the woman that meant everything to Walker and the healer who always spoke kindly even when she did not speak often.

What Walker was being blind to, was simply the fact that she was comparing him with Gil right now.

She had seen his promise to help Alma get along more easily and faster in the fact that she was literally providing for a child the two would have together. Therefore, she expected that Walker would also focus on his family and the relationships of now rather than push more and more toward the future.

The time and place was now, she knew that he would and should understand this naturally, but he was caught up yet again in his own head. He had been captured by the ideas that he could do more and that he had to do more.

She was frustrated by it since he had just promised to do more as well, but now was back on the same path charging head on toward the unknown.

A few of the healers, nuns, and apprentices moving around heard this conversation and made space. They fully understood that no one should get on Alice’s bad side. While she was always kind and the epitome of caring for others out of the goodness of her heart, they also understood she had proper power and the morals to enforce the rules that kept everyone safe and sound.

They also knew that Alice used light as if it was another limb. Her songs could literally encompass massive areas now. Angering her by being foolish just was not an option. They also understood that Walker, as any man did here and there, was about to get a pretty straight forward lesson.

"If you tell me you are going to leave Genesis within the next two weeks and not spend time celebrating your sister’s new robes that are being made and designed for the mage side of the Genesis academy, then no. if you are going to spend the next two weeks leaving and not visiting your mother’s new outdoor seating, then no. if you are telling me you do not want to sit with your father and catch up on how many guards he has helped train in the basics recently, then no."

She looked at Walker and there was a slip in the light mana around them. Enough to tell that he had seriously made a mistake with not looking at Alice with the importance that she should always carry.

"If you do not wish to spend time with me, then you can leave and you won’t have lunch with me. I will share it with Midnight and Su when they come to help me pick out some small furniture for the mansion. I already started to build what we need in one of the spare rooms." Now Walker was stumped.

What had Alice been setting up? Why did they need some room with new furniture?

Seeing his confusion, she looked angrier now. But she kept her calm. It was even scarier to Walker seeing that Alice was calm and not even speaking.

"Saintess, send the little hero over here. He might have all that magic and battle skill whatever, but he is still a fool like everyone is when they are younger." The older gravel filled voice called over. It was a somewhat familiar skinny old man who rested within the cathedral so that he could enjoy the healing light helping his joints. He didn’t often speak out unless he truly enjoyed the songs or the light instrumentalists playing. Normally he was silent.

After taking a few steps over, Walker found that the older man’s face was filled with memories. Most likely of his own past and how he had made his own mistakes. But in a very telling way, the look in his eyes said that Walker had just walked in to a field of monsters and was asking for them to bite him.

"Now, when I was younger I worked in the lumber mill for most of the day. I went home, ate, and slept. Then I did all that over and over until one day I realized I couldn’t recognize my own son and daughter because they had grown a full inch overnight. My wife had three new wrinkles. Do you know I didn’t notice them or even what I looked like?"

Part of Walker wanted to say he understood the point in this. But before he could speak, the older man spoke out again. "When I looked at my own wife I realized that I missed a lot by being away. So much that I couldn’t even see that there was a third child on the way and she needed me to help around the house so that she could nurture that life."

"If I hadn’t been lucky to look around when I did I could have left her to be hurt, my son and daughter to be ill, and my newborn never to be born. So maybe you should take a better look with those fancy hero eyes and ask a more important question to yourself. You may not be lucky."

Walker hadn’t expected that it would be a lesson in more than just responsibility. But he also did as he was told.

He looked closer.

Then he realized something he hadn’t expected.

The bright cherry red face of Alice proved that she was still somewhat angry, but also very embarrassed since a decent few people also heard the news in that old man’s wise eyes.

"You are angry because I am not helping build a nursery for our child too."

"You should be very smart, but you can be very dumb too." Alice spoke out. The comment is not really carrying weight as Walker understood.

"I’ll be a dad too and I need to act like it."

"Sounds like you understand now. So don’t go off running around all hero this and hero that. Be here for a while and plan it out better. Make the time." The old man leaned back and hummed softly to himself. He didn’t have a care in the world. He was retired and shared a little with those younger than him. He’d done his part.

"I..." Walker lost whatever he was going to say as he scooped Alice up in celebration. While his mind still had a tiny piece holding on to the feelings of expansion for his multi dimensional storages, the rest had become solely focused on Alice and what he needed to do.

He also realized that Su and Midnight might already know all of this. That they had planned things too.

"Su and Midnight aren’t coming for shopping. They were going to eat with me. I was going to bring them shopping to pick up my orders after because I can’t carry it all." she had not really lied, but it was enough to show Walker that Alice had done enough to demand his attention and she was not wrong to reprimand him.

"Family it is." he whispered in her ear before scooping her up and stating a fact, "this lovely saintess is currently on leave today. I trust that her work will be protected." Walker saw a few of the priests and nuns laughing. They had no issues with this. Instead, they imagined just how crazy Alice might go not being here to help people.

They all knew that their saint was dedicated beyond the norm, but they also understood that just like Walker, she would fall in to the same hyper focused trap. Focused on helping people without breaks or rest. So, this would be an interesting experience for them all.

"ah , good. Those two were going to make everyone feel like we were getting too old around here." The old man spoke up as Walker and Alice left. The slight grin on his face told everyone that he was just joking, yet, they all still felt like they had just been let in on a moment more telling about those who sacrifice for the people than they had expected.

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