The rest of the return trip had been fairly uneventful. Since his sword had been reduced to a hilt, I’d lent Dranner a Blade of Grass, stressing that I’d be expecting it back once we returned to the town. It had proved to be an effective weapon in his hands against the few monsters we encountered.

We had met only a few monsters as we had passed straight through the now vacant Wind Wolf pack’s territory, which was clearly a good thing as our group was exhausted. Janet winced every time she cast a spell, Liz’s arms trembled whenever she drew back her bow, and Lupia’s ears and tail were drooping. Thora looked to be running on Dwarven GritTM and was steadily getting grumpier with each step. Dranner, Vyra and Stone were doing the best, though the human had a pronounced limp; Thora hadn’t managed to heal him completely before coming up empty on divine energy. Tear was actually doing alright, having not taken part in either the flight-ing or fighting, though she was tired out just from walking.

We probably gave the two watchmen guarding the log palisade of The Outpost quite a shock when we shambled zombollically out of the treeline and up to the gates. They let us through at a tired wave from Lupia, and we all trooped up to the town hall.

Stone slipped his arm out of his tower shield’s grips and drove it into the ground to stand upright on its own. He blinked twice, slowly, at the shattered floorboards and muttered something about how he’ll “pay for that” before translating from vertical to horizontal in a crash of metal and more splintered floorboards. It seems he was more exhausted than he’d let on.

The other members of our party were similarly arranged across the floor and chairs, with the exception of Dranner. The young nobleman was stood in front of me, muscles working in his jaw. In a single swift motion, he drew my sword and levelled it at my nose. I ignored it, steadily meeting his eyes instead. His jaw clenched and unclenched, clenched and unclenched; for a long second we faced each other… then he reversed the sword in his hand, offering the grip to me. I took it, not breaking eye contact. He snorted, turned sharply on his heel and walked over to the wall where he sat, back against the wall.

I looked down at the sword in my hand then dropped it back into my World Storage. Interesting.

Lupia tiredly announced that she’d announce the results of the rank-up test once she’d got a nap and something to eat, and that everyone should come back in an hour. No one made any move to leave. Stone even lowered his head, which had been raised to listen to Lupia, back to the floor and started snoring.

After parking the gently snoozing Tear on the couch in Lupia’s small living quarters, I excused myself and headed out, closing the door quietly.

I stood just outside the door and stretched up tall, hands reaching for the gathering clouds filling the darkening sky overhead, taking a deep breath in, air heavy with the scent of coming rain.

I made my way to Gavin’s store, intent on collecting my carpets from the cloth merchant, but when I arrived, I was informed by Henrietta, his wife, that he was ‘out reclaiming some stuff Old Man Brown stole from us again’ and that ‘he does that often’ and the apparently sole reason was that ‘he was bored’. She gave me the carpets though.

We talked for almost the entire hour; when I left the sky was dark, both with impending night and the promise of rain.

The adventurers in the town hall looked much more alive when I returned. Stone looked particularly well-rested; he was sitting cross-legged, his dented and dirty armour in a pile next to him, tower shield across his lap. He ran one hand across the deep rents in the metal left by the Master-level Wind Wolf and sighed.

I nodded to him as I crossed the floor, entering Lupia’s living quarters. Tear was still asleep, curled up on the couch and I left her there, letting the young catgirl sleep, and tapping softly on Lupia’s door.

The wolfgirl emerged wearing a plain sleeveless undershirt, hair dishevelled.

I pointed back to the main room and opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off. “One second,” she said, grabbing her Adventurers Guild staff uniform coat and shrugging it on.

“Do you have to wear that all the time?” I asked quietly, realising I’d never seen her wearing anything different.

“Unfortunately yes,” she sighed. “I can’t legally do anything related to the Adventurers Guild without wearing it, and since that includes issuing emergency requests I just wear it all the time.”

“Sounds annoying,” I whispered as we passed Tear.

“It is,” she agreed more loudly after closing the door.

All 6 of the adventurers were all awake now, sitting in chairs and standing around Lupia’s desk. An air of expectancy filled the air as she took her seat. I leant against a wall at a slight remove.

The branch head of the Adventurers Guild cleared her throat and spoke “Ok, so I’m not going to beat around the bush.” She fixed Dranner with a steady gaze. “My apologies Dranner, you will be remaining at B-rank.”

“Your reasoning?” Dranner asked tersely.

“The reasons why you failed the test while the others passed are as follows: First, you were underprepared, you didn’t bring a tent or outdoor supplies. Second, you caused the front line to collapse in the battle with the Wind Wolves instead of trusting your party to take care of the wolf that got past you. It’s commendable that you tried to help, but Thora was also taking the A-rank advancement test with you. Without evidence to the contrary, you should’ve trusted him to handle a single Wind Wolf by himself. And third, you had a duel with the person you were escorting after attempting to pressure him using your noble title. As an adventurer, the higher in rank you get, the more likely you are to encounter people from other countries, or of higher nobility than you. Your noble rank would mean as much to them as it meant to Lyte here, and could even cause a diplomatic incident. With these factors combined, I have judged that it would be better not to promote you to A-rank at this time,” she explained, counting each point off on her fingers as she said it.

“I see,” Dranner nodded and, much to my surprise, the nobleman left it at that. To my eyes, he seemed contemplative.

“Stone, Vyra, Thora, Janet, Liz,” Lupia turned her steady gaze to each in turn as she named them, leaving several shuffling nervously in expectation, “all of you passed. Congratulations on becoming A-ranks. Come see me tomorrow and I’ll give you the documentation to hand to the main branch in Durell.”

“Hells yeah!” roared Thora, throwing his arms up, exhaustion forgotten, “Where’s the nearest tavern? Drinks are on me!”

“You may regret that!” teased Liz. “I’ll show you just how much I can drink!”

“You will?” Vyra scoffed mock-disdainfully. “You look like you’d get drunk off of the fumes from dark elven liquor!”

“Oh yeah? Guess I’ll be showing you too! Prepare to get drunk under the table!”

“Bring it on lightweight!”

“A drinking contest it is!” Thora declared.

All three missed the distinctly predatorial grin on Stone’s face.

Thora turned to me. “Ye coming laddie?”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. Tear’s asleep and I should really get us both back home before the rain starts. I’m only still here because I was curious to see who passed.”

“Home? If it’s a place in town ye can just join us after.”

“I live at the tower.” I watched that slowly sink in.

“But- that- getting there will take hours!”

“Nah, it’ll only be half-an-hour or so for me.”

The adventurers stared at me for a long second, then Thora chuckled and waved a hand. “Ach, whatever, I’ll just accept that’s possible for ye. Then ye can come back and join us once you’ve put the young lass to bed.”

“I’ll have to pass,” I declined again, “fl- travelling is miserable in the rain. So… congratulations to all of you, but I really must be off now. Enjoy your night!”

After waving the adventurers off, I returned to Lupia’s living quarters and knelt in front of the couch. “Tear, Tear, wake up Tear, it’s time to leave,” I called softly, gently shaking the catgirl’s shoulder.

Her blue eyes shot open, hands flashing towards her dagger, and stopping as her eyes focused on me enough to identify me as not a threat.

“Mrmrm?” she queried drowsily... then fell asleep again.

I stood, mildly stunned. How can someone whiplash from ‘Ah! An enemy!’ to ‘Meh, unimportant, imma sleep’ so quickly?!

I sighed and tried waking her up again, to no effect, so I took the other available option. Pulling her coat, which the catgirl had partially wriggled out of, back on properly, I lifted her in my arms, bid a quiet farewell to Lupia and headed out.

The rain began to fall while we were still on our way back; steam rose from my Solar Shield projected overhead, not a single drop reaching the girl in my arms.