“United by one wise man, an Independent State. This was much against the wishes of certain governments, whose leaders tried to break us down and make us all repent…”

Eventually, the steam that filled the bathroom and his own lack of focus on maintaining the technique allowed it to fade away much faster than it otherwise would, and he continued scrubbing away while quietly humming the melody of that song, just in case something loud enough to be heard by the naked ear happened. Something as mundane as this wouldn’t have phased him at all in any other circumstance, but the fact he had unwittingly eavesdropped somehow made him feel filthy, dishonorable even.

The sun was high up in the sky. The townsfolk milled about on the street. Makhus and Sigmund had been awake for a good three hours now, invigorated by the first time they had slept in proper beds in a long, long time. The two men were busy running errands, buying cleaning supplies and taking the first steps to preparing Riverside Remedies for re-opening.

Meanwhile, in room four…

Zelsys slowly, ever so slowly drifted into consciousness. Confusion briefly washed over her as she felt the touch of skin that clearly wasn’t her own, the weight of another’s head on her chest, the feeling of another’s legs tangled with hers. The spark of waking flickered into a flame. She remembered, and a smile crept onto her face as she reached up to run her fingers through that platinum hair.

She’d been wrong to call the one-eyed markswoman a coward. Zef stirred and let out a half-awake groan, slowly, ever so slowly reaching her hand out from under the covers and towards her face, briefly stroking her cheek. She wound her hand back and Zelsys braced herself expecting a slap, but it never came.

Zefaris just reached behind her head, pulling herself up by the bed’s headboard to plant a sudden, aggressive kiss on her lips. Once the brief moment of surprise passed, she melted into it, closing her eyes once again.

“You win,” the cyclops uttered when she finally pulled away. “My legs are still numb.”

Zelsys couldn’t help but chuckle at that, still running her fingers through that off-white hair, jokingly asking, “You sure you won’t need me to carry you to the bathroom?”

“Fuck you,” Zef said jokingly.

“Fuck me yourself,” Zel responded.

“Later. Don’t you have a beast-slaying contract to fulfill?”

“...I do,” Zel murmured, scanning the room for any sort of clock. There was one right on the wall above the window. Eleven thirty-seven. “Oh. It’s almost noon.”

She had intended to depart very early in the morning, early enough to kill the beast shortly after sunrise, but in hindsight… It probably wouldn’t be too much of an issue to do it in broad daylight.

She shifted into a more upright sitting position, stretching. Her trousers were in a crumpled mess by the bed, but it was no bother - the half-wrapped roll of bandages that she used to bind her chest waited on the nightstand, and she used it precisely for its purpose.