FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife-Chapter 52: What does constitute a proper quest?

"Would it still be a quest..."

Selia repeated my words before looking down into the fire and then rubbing her chin.

Yet, rather than coming up with some sort of an answer—

"What is it that you are trying to say?"

I chuckled a little while leaning back myself.

Given how immensely vast yet shallow my general knowledge was, nothing could make me happier in a discussion than giving me a chance to come up with some seemingly random trivia.

Especially when said trivia could be actually useful for our consideration.

"As far as I’m aware, the word quest, just like request, actually comes from an older, dead language..." I started with an explanation of the topic I once found researching two hours past midnight while, for some unknown reason, refusing to just put my phone away and go to sleep.

"A dead language?" Selia interjected, tilting her head to the side in confusion as she asked for clarification.

"A language used in the past that no one actively uses anymore. Some languages die off because they evolve so much, a person of today wouldn’t be able to communicate with someone in the past. Other languages can die due to geopolitical processes, like the cultural center that once spread the use of said language falling to an invasion, only for the local language to be replaced with one of the conqueror..."

I shook my head.

"But I’m digressing. Originally," I raised my eyes over the fire and onto Selia’s focused, serious face, "to quest meant to seek," I paused for a moment, building the tension with a tool as simple as silence, "or, to be more precise, to pursue."

One would be wrong to assume that the word quest came from a request, being a creative adaptation of the game-makers that needed a fancier word for a mission.

In reality, knights were going on quests long before people moved on from asking someone to do something to requesting someone to do it.

"Sure," I waved my hand, as if to dismiss the objections no one had raised before they could be brought up, "there can be repeating quests, killing quests, search quests... But they all come with an added module explaining their unorthodox nature, don’t they?" I smiled.

For some reason, it felt really good to explain something like this.

’Is it me bragging about my knowledge of trivia?’ I thought, initially ashamed by this realization, only to then quickly dismiss it as a potential source of shame. ’It’s better to brag about one’s knowledge than trying to brag with one’s fighting prowess, isn’t it?’

And it was with this satisfied, slightly smuggish smile, that I continued.

"It is just my guess like many others, but for a quest to be valid, it needs to be something that has to be pursued. Which makes me wonder," once again I looked at Selia.

This time, however, with enough intensity for her to sense my stare and look up before locking eyes with me.

"Would it work if I tried to base another reward on touching you on the shoulder again? What if I quested myself to touch the very same shoulder of yours for the second time? What if I specified that it has to be the other shoulder? Or maybe to hold my hand on your shoulder for twice as long?"

I listed out all sorts of possible variations of the quest I’d already fulfilled and got my reward from.

"Now that you mention it," Saintess squinted her eyes before lowering them down and locking them on the small, dancing fire between us. "That’s a really good question," she admitted before putting on a small grin as she looked up without raising her face, "or maybe you are just that eager to plant your face on my lap, you came up with some random theory that needs to be tested right away?"

Rather than endorsing her teasing, I merely shook my head.

"The question we need to find an answer to is, will I receive a reward if I set my quest to be ’touch the bare shoulder of the person you are bonded by fate with again.’"

Seeing me dismiss her playful attempt, Selia grew all serious again...

Only to devolve right back to a weirdly intense smile that quickly developed into a smirk a mere moment later.

"Hmm?" she made a cute sound while leaning forth, only stopping once her hair flew uncomfortably close to the fire. And while Selia herself was way past the point where a simple fire could actively hurt her, the same couldn’t be said about her lovely, silvery hair.

And no woman in the world would be happy to sacrifice her hair, especially if she stood nothing to gain from it.

"So your original quest wasn’t to just touch my shoulder," she recounted my own words, only for the smile on her mouth to grow even wider, "but to touch my BARE shoulder?"

With the accent on the right word, Selia forced me to realize the problem with what I said...

And the mess I’d potentially put myself in as a result.

The sparks from the fireplace reflected in her eyes, appearing as if they danced in pair with the sparks of amusement already filling those blue crystals she had for eyes. And with the addition of the day growing darker and darker by the minute and only serving to make Selia’s aura all the more vibrant and mysterious...

Unable to bear it all, I turned my eyes away, acting as if I didn’t check on the kiln’s insides for too long to my comfort.

Then, while the conversation clearly could lead somewhere deeper, to where even I would be more than happy to journey to with Selia by my side...

Reality just found the right way to bring me back, get my head out of the gutter and make me focus on the mundane reality.

If we weren’t into camping out in the wilderness without any camping tools and while actively paying for an empty room at the inn, then we were slowly running out of time.

A distant sound of the massive bell ringing that we’d heard about an hour or so ago was the so-called last call of the town’s bell.

Or, in simpler words, information for everyone nearby to hear that the town would be closing for the night in exactly two hours since the bell’s ringing.

A perfectly standard, ordinary and common feature for all the cities in the period this world was styled at, and yet, a feature I found infinitely charming.

But now, rather than worrying about the fun little details of a life in a low-medieval kind of world, I had to take a more realistic approach.

If we moved fast, we could reach the town in just twenty, maybe thirty minutes.

And that left us with only about as much time to crack the kiln open, grab all the charcoal we could find and then stuff it into my backpack and then get back on the road!

Which is why, when my newly developed ability informed me how the last bit of heat within the kiln had settled down, I jolted up from where I sat and looked back at Selia.

"It’s time," I’ve announced only to turn around on the spot and move over to where the top of the kiln stood out from the otherwise flat patch of the ground.

"Did it work?" Following right behind me, Selia kicked up some ground into the campfire, killing its flames instantly, before moving right to my side.

"There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?" I replied with a smile before taking a step back and pointing at the kiln with a faint smirk on my lips. "Would you like to do the honors?"