1. Perfect Sibling Sync

Log 1 Early Fall

We managed to set up our adventuring party!

While my brothers endlessly argued over our name, I registered us as Zandre’s Triplets to honour you, Dad!

I’m sure many adventurers will be willing to help us hearing the children of the legendary Thunder Seizer have also set out on an adventure of their own.

Love you!

Joanne

“Joanne, why do you always do things like this? Why didn’t you pick something packing more heat? The dragon slayers! Or… Oh! Triple demise! That’s a proper name, but you made us sound cute.”

“Exactly!” Vinz agreed with Matz for once. “‘Aww, the triplets are going on a little adventure,’ I can already hear everyone saying that.”

“Stop complaining.”

The wooden flooring in the old guild house creaked with every step I took towards them. I stretched out my hand holding their pin badges of the guild’s crest.

“Pin these on your chest so other adventurers know that we’re also adventurers~. So exciting~.”

The two of them took their badges out of my hand, but neither of them actually pinned them on.

“'Exciting,' she says. For you, yeah! I told Dad I wanted to be trained by a smith, not walk around in forests to piss and shit in bushes.”

“Language!”

“You’re lame Vinz,” Matz scoffed as he walked towards the exit. “Isn’t this the first time you’ve left the house this year? Enjoy life a little.”

Vinz rolled up his sleeves and sucked his lips in. He clenched the badge in his fist and flung it hard against the back of Matz’s head.

“Hey, that hurt! What’s wrong with you?”

He threw his badge right back at Vinz, who managed to dodge it just in time. As the only one who seemed to care about the badges, I was the one fetching them.

“Can you two please get along for once? We need to decide together what our first mission will be.”

“Forget these missions,” Vinz said. “‘Your goal is to find your mother’s pendant,’ is what Dad said, remember? Once we’re done with that, we can all go our separate ways again.”

“Idiot. We were told to team up with other parties. You need to have completed at least one mission before you’re allowed to do that.”

“Matz is right. Let’s get ourselves to the quest board!”

I pushed them by their backs until we all stood in front of the wall filled with a myriad of quests. The lady of the guild who registered our party also explained that the lower you look, the beginner friendlier the quests are.

“Oh, look at this, guys~. It seems like someone has lost their kittens.”

Matz crossed his arms, “Great! Let’s set out on our big adventure to find some kittens.”

“‘I will be the world’s first monster tamer,’ you said. How are you going to deal with actual monsters if you can’t even handle some kittens?”

“Enough! Let’s all get along and finish this quest as swiftly as we can.”

Bickering the entire way, we made it to the lady in need of our help.

“My sweet baby had three babies of her own a while ago. For some reason, they just can’t seem to get along. Three days ago they had a really big fight and then all of them ran away,” she wiped her tears away as she explained her situation.

“How weird,” Vinz remarked. “They’re siblings right? Why don’t they just get along.”

“Right?” Matz nodded.

“Yeah, riiiight!”

I seemed to be the only one understanding the irony of his remark.

“No worries. We’ll get them all back here before sunset!” I boldly stated.

“Before sunset she says—”

I firmly shut his mouth before he could add any sarcastic remarks.

“Yup! Before sunset~.”

Once outside, the two of them banded together to do my head in.

“Before sunset, are you out of your mind? Take a look at the sky, silly!”

“Or did you mean tomorrow’s sunset?”

I raised my clenched fist towards the sun peeping through the clouds. If no one else believed it, at least I should.

“Let’s get going, guys. We only have a few hours, but how hard can it be to find some kittens?”

“'How hard can it be?' she says… What’s your plan?”

I twirled with a strand of my hair, “We’ll run around until we find them.”

* * *

For how much they were ridiculing my plan, it did work surprisingly well. It only took us an hour or two to find them. All three of them were hiding in various places near the farm’s fences.

“In contrast to all the fuss they made, they do seem to like staying close, huh,” Vinz remarked.

“Right?” Matz nodded.

“Am I really the only one who sees the irony in that?”

They both went, “Huh?” at the same time.

“Forget it, let’s bring them home.”

I gently picked one of them up out of a hole beneath the fence and handed him over to Vinz. Meanwhile Matz climbed the tree in which another one sat.

“Pet them on their weak spots and they become more docile than a houseplant.”

Only when he handed his one over to Vinz as well did the both of us notice that there was something wrong with the third one, location.

“Oh no! This one is wounded, look at its legs.”

Matz knelt down, “Let me see if there’s something I can do.” Before he had finished his sentence, my arms were already stretched out toward the poor thing.

“Heal,” I casted the most basic of healing spells onto it.

The air around the kitten looked like a small cloud of green light. It didn’t take long before the little one rolled over and got back on her feet.

“All good to go~,” I gently picked her up and faced my brothers, “Vinz, you want to hold—”

Both of them had already walked off. They usually did so when I used my healing or lightning magic. Perhaps they hold my skills in such high regard that they know they can leave it to me…
…But that’s not exactly the vibe they’re giving off.

Once the kittens were safely returned, we used some of the reward’s budget to eat a nice dinner in a cosy restaurant right next to our inn.

“Here’s to us~.”

I raised my glass so cheerfully that water spilled all over us. The other two didn’t cheer along, nor did they get angry at being splashed.

“Are you guys that tired?”

Vinz shook his head, “Tired, hah. Don’t make me laugh. All we did today was chase some kittens.”
“And we didn’t get a single step closer to completing our mission.”

One of my eyebrows shot up, “This was the first step, right? Now that we’ve completed a quest we’re eligible to team up with other parties.”

“Now tell me one party of adequate level that will help us on our mission just because we’ve gathered three kittens.”

Whenever Matz used difficult words, I knew he had been brooding over that thought for a while. If only he had shared that concern sooner, that way we could’ve talked it out.

“Well… how hard can finding a pendant be? I know us three will finish the job in a jiffy~.”

Vinz sighed, “A jiffy… Dad said his only regret as an adventurer was never retrieving the pendant. If it were as easy as you’re picturing it in that empty head of yours, he would’ve gotten it back in a jiffy ages ago.”

I wanted to say something back after he called my head empty, but if I—as their big sister—didn’t keep a cool head, we’d each be at a two-front war at all times.

“Let’s just enjoy dinner together. Starting tomorrow we’ll take on a serious quest! And also—”

I reached into my pouch to take their pin badges out.

“—you two must wear these as well.”

Reluctantly, they both pinned them on.

“We’re all matching now~. Soon we’ll be perfectly in sibling sync once I craft some party bracelets.”