Brandial was still leading him somewhere when a troubled child ran up to her.
"Keeper! Keeper!"
"What happened Tyom?"
"Uncle got bit while trying to deal with the intruders again, you have to help us."
"Oh my! We must go quickly to the baker's shop."
The whole interaction was a set-up for his next quest. Poltas was somewhat glad he didn't have to aimlessly wander around to find this quest. But what kind of intruders would bite people?
Perhaps a spear was not enough and he should get armour from Astoff too.
The bakery was not far, and soon they had entered the back room of this store. But unlike his expectations, Poltas was very disturbed to see that the intruders were actually small insects and worms.
"Uncle I brought the keeper, you must close the hatch and get treatment."
"I'm afraid I cannot close the hatch Tyom. The leader of these pests has broken the locks."
Brandial heard this exchange and turned to look at Poltas.
"Is it possible for you to help them deal with the intruders, while I take Mr. Aslant to the healer?"
The quest was progressing this quickly?
Poltas had barely acknowledged that the 'intruders' were insects, and now they wanted him to kill them.
'You heartless woman, taking the baker to the healer while I'm abandoned in a pit of worms.'
But before he could make a decision, Brandial had already run off, and even Tyom had disappeared from the room. With no choice left, Poltas was forced to pick up the insect spray and swatting stick to accomplish his task.
Once he started killing them, the insects did not put up any resistance. They were dying so quickly he began to doubt his own actions.
'Why was the baker so scared of these weak little bugs? They seem stupid and are easy to kill.'
But the longer this continued, the more his concerns grew.
'Are they perhaps poisonous insects. Maybe when they die they release toxic substances.'
His mind was filled with all sorts of what-ifs and due to the placebo effect, Poltas felt a bit unwell.
The one-sided battle continued until the leader of the insects was laid to rest with his underlings. Even without any poisonous effects from the insects, the room itself gave a very disturbing feeling, and was covered from ceiling to floor with dead bodies.
Poltas exited the room to find Tyom standing like a lifeless mannequin near the door. As soon as Tyom saw him, he exploded.
"Miss hurry and lock the door behind you."
Without waiting for his reaction, Tyom ran to the door and tried to close several latches which did not stay in position. Although Poltas was not a fan of kids, he didn't find any amusement in watching Tyom behave this way, so he grabbed a chair and propped it under the door handle, to prevent the door from opening.
Now that the door was secured, Tyom calmed down and finally took a proper look at Poltas. After realising that he did not know Poltas, he suddenly appeared a bit shy.
"Um, thank you miss. My uncle is still at the healer, did you get bit, I will lead you there as well."
"No I did not. I'm okay, but we should still go to Darshel since I have business with Brandial."
"Oh."
Tyom kept his head down as they left the bakery. The kid was finally coming to his senses.
"I'm sorry about what happened before."
"Before?"
"I- My uncle is allergic to insect bites, so when he got bit I panicked immediately. I'm sorry for interrupting your business with the Keeper."
Tyom's voice tapered off by the end of his apology. Poltas could almost hear the tears, ready to fall from Tyom's eyes.
"Don't worry, it was not a very urgent matter."
This was the most comforting response Poltas could offer, but the child started audibly crying next to him.
See nothing, hear nothing. Poltas repeated this mantra in his heart and kept walking towards the clinic.
At the clinic, Aslant the baker had been given anti allergy medicine and seemed to be doing well. When he saw his crying nephew he immediately turned to look at the person accompanying him with the intention to question. But upon spotting Poltas, his benefactor, he decided to temporarily stay quiet.
Brandial also saw the two come in, and immediately came to Poltas' side to inspect him.
"Did you get hurt anywhere?"
"No."
"Were you able to subdue the pests?"
"They were not as difficult to handle as the baker made them out to be."
Hearing this, Brandial had a look of enlightenment on her face.
'You didn't actually abandon me because you were scared, did you?' Poltas cried in his heart.
"I am happy to see you resolve this issue. I know you came here to help Pamsteria, and maybe asking you to handle pests isn't the best use of your strengths, unfortunately we don't have anyone else who can help with these tasks."
In the eyes of Brandial, he had been demoted from an Adventurer to a handyman just after two quests.
"Shouldn't these people be educated on how to deal with these situations instead of acting like insects are the end of their world."
Brandial looked embarrassed at his words, and hid it by lightly coughing.
"Of course, we just haven't taught them how to handle insects yet."
'That's an old man. What do you mean he hasn't been taught that. How long does he have to go to classes to learn that?'
But Poltas didn't say this outloud to keep Brandial's face. Taking his lack of response as an end of the discussion, Brandial quickly switched the topic.
"Why was Tyom crying when you came here with him?"
"How would I know, he just started crying on his own."
"Oh. Surely he was scared by the insects and seeing his uncle hurt."
The words were meaningless and only existed to fill the silence. Poltas didn't bother to reply and Brandial couldn't drag the conversation out anymore. So they excused themselves from the pair of relatives and left the clinic.