While Wolf ate and Anna battled with the piece of jerky she held in her hand, the girl gave a general explanation of her situation. Today was the first time Anna had snuck out of her home.

Back home she was bored. She had to slave away to meet her parents’ unreasonable expectations. One day Anna found an opening and snuck away from home. Now that she had escaped, she wanted to live alone and free!

Anna even had money! She stole it. The girl made the claim with surprising pride as she showed a fistful of silver coins.

Looking at this self proclaimed important and quick witted girl Wolf barely held back from rolling his eyes.

She’s going to end up in a potato sack, he thought. The girl was oblivious of the world. She was noisy and kept talking even while eating. Which was an amazing feat, especially considering that she was eating jerky made out of that dragon-blooded boar…

“So, what do you plan on doing next?” Wolf tried to drop a hint and help the girl realize the reality of her situation.

“I already told you! You weren’t paying attention to what I was saying! I said I'm going to live free from now on!” Anna declared confidently.

“All right, that sounds good. And what are you going to eat tomorrow?” Wolf tried to be a bit less subtle as he pointed out the problem. This girl didn’t seem to have any special qualities other than being cute and having a good, if not full, set of teeth.

“You’re silly! I will buy food with my money!” Anna proclaimed smugly, as if explaining obvious things to an idiot.

“And when you spend the money you have? What will you eat then?” Wolf was exasperated. Could people really be so oblivious?

“I will earn more money and buy food with that money!” the girl explained to the dummy.

“Oh, really? And how will you do that?” Wolf asked. Excellent! We’re finally making progress.

Hearing this question, Anna hesitated for a bit.

“I don’t know. Is it difficult to earn money?” she asked, her voice lacking confidence for the first time since they touched the topic of survival.

Wolf smacked his forehead.

“It’s not easy to earn money,” Wolf explained calmly. “If it were easy then the city wouldn’t have been flooded with so many homeless people. Very few people choose to live like that…”

Well, South seems to enjoy it greatly. He’s even wallowing in trash every time I see him. I don’t mind it either, but a lot of the others look really miserable with the way things are.

“What do people generally do to make money?” Anna gazed at Wolf with admiration as the boy shared his wisdom. She was greatly interested in the subject, since her freedom depended on Wolf’s answer.

“As far as I know you can earn money by doing things and by selling things. I don’t know if there’s anything else.” Wolf wasn’t actually clear on the subject. He had never had to work.

He had always had money, and he earned more by selling some of the things he had looted, but generally he wasn’t too sure how other people went about it. That’s one of the reasons anyone selling anything to Wolf struck it rich. The boy didn’t understand money, nor the effort it took to make money.

The conversation about earning a living went on for a while. Eventually Anna sighed in exasperation. Making money was too hard and seemed impractical. It took up a lot of time and then once you had it you couldn’t enjoy it, since you didn’t have the time and energy.

“Living free is really hard,” Anna concluded. “Fine then. I have decided. Starting from today you can feed me. In return we can play that I’m a noble lady and you are my servant.”

“Why would I want to play like that? How about I am the lord that feeds you, while you are my maid?” Wolf frowned.

Was this girl expecting him to pay her for playing with him? Who would ever do that?

“Who’s your maid?!” Anna shouted. “I am living–”

“Greetings young lady and young lord,” a sleazy man said as he and his friend crept into the alley. “Your pair of humble servants here would also like to eat if you don’t mind?”

“I don’t want to have such dirty servants! Wolf deal with these men,” Anna said while making a shooing motion with her hand. All it took was a moment for her to dump everything on Wolf. As far as she was concerned he was competent, he could take care of these unpleasant people.

Both Wolf and the intruders were dazed with the girl’s confident statement. They looked at each other blankly and then back at Anna. Wolf didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The thug who’d just spoken didn’t seem as amused. He rushed towards Anna and grabbed her hair, lifting her off the ground.

The girl shrieked miserably, prompting Wolf to act on instinct.

He stepped forward and smashed an open palm into the thug’s elbow. With a crack the arm bent at an unnatural angle and the thug screamed, dropping Anna.

Wolf snatched the girl before she hit the ground and then dashed off. He carried Anna in his arms like a princess while the girl stared at Wolf’s face, crying in fear. Then, a moment later, she started giggling.

“Let’s play another game! I’m a princess and you’re my loyal knight! It’s just like in the stories, you saved me when those wicked men tried to kidnap me.” Anna was actually exhilarated.

This was the first time something like this had happened to her. She was an actual damsel in distress! And a knight in shiny armor appeared to save her!

She was unaware that the only reason those thugs were still in one piece was because she was there. Wolf was afraid he would traumatize the little girl if she saw blood spraying everywhere. Otherwise he would’ve just chopped them into pieces and disillusioned Anna.

“How about we talk after we’ve escaped far enough,” Wolf suggested. It wasn’t a problem for him to chat and run at this pace. However he had put down Anna and let the girl run on her own two feet. Even without talking, Anna began panting after barely covering two hundred meters.

After running for a while longer Anna stopped. She was gasping for air and when she looked at Wolf she saw him nonchalantly standing guard besides her. She couldn’t help but laugh. “That was so much fun! Will we be doing stuff like that often?”

Wolf gave her a look to check whether she was joking, but the girl seemed to really mean what she’d said. She also looked like she was half-dead from running less than a kilometer.

Are regular children really this feeble? the boy wondered. I can run at a pace faster than this for half a day without getting tired. And what was fun in running from a pair of weaklings? I would’ve punched them dead if it weren’t for you.

“Come on, what do you say? Will you be my knight in shining armor?” Anna asked with a toothless smile after finally catching her breath.

Wolf looked at the annoying little girl. That cute, disarming smile and that flushed, freckled face, which was slowly returning to normal after being purple from just a bit of sprinting.

The girl was spoiled, weak and she needed someone to take care of her, otherwise she’d end up dead or sacked before the end of the day. He kind of felt pity for her, but there was another emotion stirring in his heart…

“All right. I’ll be your knight and you, you will be my noble lady.” Wolf was surprised to hear those words coming out of his mouth.

Anna on the other hand was apparently expecting this.

The girl giggled happily. “Good, in that case where do we go next, brave sir Wolf?”

“Lady Anna, I have a quest I must attend in three days' time. It is a feast with another noble. If you wish, you may join us.” Wolf was getting back into the whole noble lady and her shining knight game.

“We must hurry then! Will there be danger?” Anna asked, trying to act serious, but the playful smile betrayed her.

“There will be monsters and maybe even brigands, but I promise you I will protect you no matter what happens.” Wolf was half playing half serious. Given what happened today it was likely that there would be some unscrupulous people targeting him because of this well dressed young lady.

“I will be in your care then sir Wolf!” Anna said with a grin.

Just like that, two kids were off on their little adventure. Anna got tired from walking every hour or so, but she didn’t cry like she did the first time. She either pressed on or told her knight that ladies needed more rest than knights. Then Wolf stood guard over her, while Anna rested for a while.

Wolf was also into the game. Whenever he noticed something that remotely resembled monsters he’d seen or read about he would say something along the lines of “Halt, I sense that there are Granite-Tail Rattlers nearby. Look!” Then he would point towards a large coil of rope or something that vaguely matched the monster’s shape. “We need to carefully avoid it.”

Wolf couldn’t remember ever having this much fun. Anna also seemed to enjoy herself. The children were overly enthusiastic and quickly lost themselves in their game.

Surprisingly there were no further incidents by nightfall. Once it was time to sleep Wolf helped Anna onto a roof. Anna was wowed by the view from the rooftop and started shouting that they should travel on rooftops. Almost immediately Wolf started shushing her.

“Shhh! There are people living in this house.” He didn’t say that he knew this from experience, because people yelled at him to quiet down whenever he made a commotion on their roof.

Anna frowned at being told to shut up, but didn’t say anything.

The two of them had dinner consisting of some bread and jerky before going to sleep together, covered by the camouflage cloak Wolf often used as a blanket.

During the night Wolf prepared a pair of Greater Fleet of Foot, as well as an Endurance for Anna to help the girl once she gets tired.

If they kept going at the same pace as yesterday they would need a week to get to the corner shop to buy ingredients and then reach South’s alley.

He cast the spell on Anna while the girl was still asleep and then woke her up. The sun had risen and it was time for their little game to continue.

Thanks to Wolf’s preparations the day went by in a flash. Anna and he only stopped for lunch and didn’t encounter any trouble. They were moving too fast for trouble to find them.

In the evening Anna was really proud of the improvement she had made in a single day, oblivious of the fact that she was light on her feet thanks to Wolf’s magic.

Wolf handed her the bread and jerky, of which she was already getting tired. As Anna munched on her tough rations Wolf cleared his throat.

“Ahem.”

The girl looked at him, apparently he had something important to say.

“I have to handle something tonight. I’ll leave you here with the sleeping bag and the blanket, but I promise I’ll be back. I’ll try to make it by morning, but you should wait for me until midday. If I’m not back by then assume the worst and leave on your own.” Wolf spoke seriously and as he did Anna’s frown grew deeper and deeper.

“You’re an irresponsible knight!” Anna started loudly, but stopped herself before Wolf did the whole Shhh! thing.

“My lady, I’m heading on a dangerous quest…” Wolf spun this into leaving to handle something too dangerous for such a noble young lady. As a knight her safety was first concern.

Anna was greatly pleased by his words and allowed her errant knight to leave before going to bed.

Wolf on the other hand rushed towards Mark’s Corner Shop, the store that sold the ingredients South wanted for their meals. This time Wolf needed to buy enough to prepare a meal for three. The place opened at around four in the morning to receive new goods and it wasn’t unusual for them to have customers at those early hours. After all, most kitchens started working around that time to give the servants enough time to prepare everything for their masters’ breakfasts.

Wolf arrived two hours early, but patiently waited in front of the store, dozing off for a bit. When Mark, the owner, opened the shop he saw the familiar boy. He smiled and nodded with appreciation. This young man is really hard working. The kitchen he supplies must be doing something special today.

Mark greatly appreciated hardworking people. As he and his employees took in the new stock he took the time to prepare a mug of herbal tea for Wolf. The boy was a regular customer and his diligence deserved some kind of reward.

Just as Mark had expected, Wolf bought extra ingredients and spent more than twice as much money as he usually did before rushing off into the darkness of the early morning hours.

“A good boy. Maybe I should tell him to come here if he ever needs a job?” Mark muttered while smiling.

Such a hardworking young man was bound to be a good worker once he grew up. Mark believed it was always worth investing in people and nurturing such talent.