The Systems Challenge-Chapter 455: The Guest part 2

"Well, you could always ask him in the morning when the food I promised arrives," Samantha said, startling Jonas.

"Wait, I thought he wasn't aware of us here?" Jonas said, looking to the others for support on that assertion.

Samantha shrugged as if it didn't matter to her. "Actually, he wasn't until he learned about me preparing to spend the night out of the city." Samantha paused for a moment, as if she suddenly realized something. "Maybe he's worried about mother complaining that I was kidnapped or something, but I don't plan on going with you guys wherever you're going."

"Well, that's good to hear," Blot remarked, getting up from where he had been laying on the ground by the packs. "I'm not sure where we're going would be same for someone as young as you."

"I'm older than I look," Samantha declared, apparently either not realizing it was book that said that or was already used to talking books somehow.

"Don't mind Blot," Elin said. "He can be insensitive sometimes."

"I'm merely stating a fact," Blot replied. "She clearly doesn't have the build of someone who's trained in anything, she's clearly a child, even if she's about to leave that period of her life, since I have no idea how to really tell about that, and she's clearly not dressed to go on any long trips."

"I could have packed something else," Samantha declared, looking around for whoever said that. Making Jonas suspect that she really didn't realize she was talking to a book.

"Yes, you could have, but if you did, you didn't bring it with you. Your horse, and that of your guards, don't have any packs of any sort. As such, I can only surmise that you don't even plan on going with them."

Samantha looked like she'd been punched in the face, minus the physical effects of that happening. "I just said that I wasn't planning on going!" She cried, clearly outraged by the circular argument that Blot had made.

"Sorry about Blot, Elin said. "We're still getting used to his way of looking at things."

"Who's Blot?" Samantha asked, looking around. "I don't see anyone here that I haven't been introduced to yet."

"Oh, yeah, we did forget to introduce you to Blot," Elin said, her expression one of surprise.

Jonas had to admit that he had forgotten as well. Though, he didn't plan on saying it right then. Not when he was pretty sure that there wasn't a need to draw that sort of attention to himself.

Elin walked over and picked Blot up. "This is Blot. We found him in the Library of the Ancients."

Samantha looked at the book, including where it was clearly the tassels on the corners of the cover were moving and the part of the book that Jonas could only assume was Blot's head was looking at her in return.

"I've never heard of a talking book before," she breathed, clearly in awe of the book. "How'd you manage to get him? I heard that no one can take any books of any kind out of the Library of the Ancients."

"Well, apparently, if you bring other books in with you, you can trade for any book in there," Elmo replied. "We had found some books on our way there and apparently was enough for us to trade for two books. Blot was just one of the books we chose."

"Books for exchange are judged solely on the condition of the new books. The worse the condition, the more books you'll have to bring to trade," Bot added.

"That's good to know," Samantha replied thoughtfully, clearly thinking about something in relation to the library.

"Anyway, let me tell you about what we did after we left," Elin said as she started to fill in Samantha on what they'd done after having left the capital.

Jonas merely tuned Elin out, not caring what she said. Even if her perception of anything Jonas had done wasn't good. Though, he doubted that was the case, since he did help her out when she was by herself and couldn't even remember who she herself was.

Instead, he waked away a distance, with Kim following him, her expression telling him that she had something to talk with him about.

"What's going to happen in the morning when the king arrives with the supplies?" Kim asked quietly, after they reached the other side of the camp. "Assuming he does come in person."

Jonas merely shrugged. He had no idea about that, nor did he really care that much. Not when there was so many other things to worry about right then. Even if they had to escape from the dungeon in the king's palace, he was confident that it'd only be a small delay and not one that would really impact their timeline more than anything else. Even though he couldn't be sure that the extra day or so wouldn't be what Stanley and his group would need to get ahead of them.

"As far as I know, we're not in the city, so the king isn't going to be bound by his promise to detain us when he sees us next," Jonas replied. "I have a feeling he'll want to go with that technicality out here and I'm sure that when word comes back about how Lance, Guy, and all the others are doing, the king would dismiss the kidnapping charges out of hand. Partly because it really wasn't a kidnapping case in the first place. It was just controlling parents not liking the fact that they had some who left to get out from under their parents' thumbs."

"Yeah, but legally I doubt that those same parents would think of it the same way," Owen remarked dryly. "As far as they're concerned, their children were kidnapped and you are the ones who to blame because you probably put the ideas in their heads one way or another."

"I'd have been happy if they'd gone back on their own," Kim grumbled, clearly unhappy with the situation in general.

"It doesn't matter what the parents think. Otherwise if I said something to them that gave them the idea to run away, even if it wasn't with them following us, then I'm still not responsible for their choices. They are," Jonas protested firmly. "If that makes it kidnapping, then I bet a lot of people throughout the various worlds would likely be guilty of the same thing."

"Just because you call it something different doesn't mean you change what it is," Owen replied.

"Yeah, a rose by any other name, right? Well, I agree that applies here. Only in this case, I'd say it's the parents who are calling something kidnapping when its clearly not that. The only difference is that they have more power than us, which doesn't necessarily make them right. No matter how much they'd like to think it does."

"Doesn't mean it wasn't," Owen replied.

Jonas could see that they weren't going to get anywhere with that. That neither of them were going to give any ground on the subject, which meant they were clearly at an impasse. Where no matter how much they discussed or argued about this same subject, they weren't going to change the other's mind and based on how Owen looked, Jonas had a feeling he was coming to the same conclusion.

"Looks like we'll need to move on to something else," Jonas remarked, looking away from Owen.

"Don't back down now just because I'm winning," Owen retorted.

"Oh, I could come up with several responses. Only you'd come up with something, possibly countering my statement, and so on, but I don't see that that's going to be a beneficial use of either of our time. Not when neither of us are liable to budge from either our positions on the subject."

"Excuses, excuses," Owen remarked, clearly trying to provoke Jonas. Which Jonas didn't feel like responding to . Not when he knew what he knew about Owen and his position.

No matter what Owen thought about it, Jonas didn't care to waste his own time. It was already enough of a pain where it was already.

"If you're really that interested in continuing the subject, does that mean you're ready to concede your point on the matter?" Bart asked, a grin on his face, which made Jonas wonder if he was just doing what he could to annoy or just bother Owen. Either way, he suspected it was working, even if it didn't show.

After that they all quieted down, the only sound being Elin describing what happened on their journey to Samantha. Which Jonas continued to tune out. He didn't care what Elin's story would look like at this point, but that didn't feel concerning to him. He trusted Elin, and this might be one of the few things she could do outside of her system that wouldn't endanger her.

There also wasn't much to eat, so when Jonas had had his share, he quickly threw his blanket over himself. Others had their own conversations going, but Jonas didn't care to join them. Though, he did look behind him when he felt Elmo lift up his blanket from behind. Though, he settled down when he could see that Elmo was just settling in for the night himself.

Despite the fact that Jonas wasn't in the mood for any kind of company, he pushed that down since it was Elmo. He was pretty sure that Elmo wouldn't be happy if he did that to him like that.

Besides, it wasn't like they hadn't done more together than this when Jonas felt much the same way on previous nights.