Edited by: Solyom

My muscles were crying for help. Stupid Gis and her stupid ballast. An equipment made specially for Jericho and his students. It wasn’t big, it wasn’t disturbing your movements, but it was there, adding some extra kilos on your shoulders, arms and legs. Even walking with this stupid gear was annoying, after half an hour, you could feel your thighs getting heavier. There was also no way of getting any form of relaxation! You couldn’t even take it off to massage your pulled muscles, for the straps of the gear wouldn’t leave me alone until the magic of it would be completely used up.

I probably could “cheat” a little, in the end, disturbing the structure of a spell was the basic form of protecting yourself from other magicians! I am pretty sure that they are teaching it in the Academy, still, the question remained if I should do it? One, I needed to train, two, if a certain dragoness would find out that I allowed myself to take the gear off, she would get mad. And as I mentioned, she is a half dragon. A berserker half dragon. Have you ever seen an angry half-dragon berserker? Exactly. So this one night of relaxation would cost me a week of healing bruises (yes, a week, cuz if Gis found out I healed them with magic or abilities, she would merely repeat the process).

Such thoughts wandered through my head as we were slowly coming back to the guild, carrying a chest with treasures from our ride. Yes. We were carrying. Plural. You heard that right. So what if Gisele didn’t want to share her treasures, so what if there was literally nothing for me? When your woman starts nagging that you should help, it means that in 99.9% of the time, you really should help. Well, at least when your girl is a head taller than you and you are not a masochist that wants to earn some punches, that is.

- “That’s really sweet of you!” she smiled at me when I grabbed one of the chest’s handles, sharing the weight of the little box.

- “Don’t mention it…” I tried to smile back.

She is taller, you remember? Because of this, most of the chest’s weight was pushed on me. And I was wearing a ballast. After dungeon raid.

This is probably why my smile’s imitation could deprive most kids of peaceful dreams at night for a week.

- “Is everything ok?” she asked.

- “Nice and dandy.”

My poor shoulder.

… So what if I am whining? I LOVE WHINING! I will bitch about heat, I will bitch about cold! I will bitch about sunshine and about growing old! I will bitch about everything, inside and out! You will find that there is nothing I can’t bitch about!

- “Still, I can’t wait till I can tell everyone about the dungeon I beat!” she almost shined with joy.

- “You? I wasn’t there?”

- “Come on. You are a support. Frontliners always take all the glory! Look into the legends! Heroes always had a team, but now, name any hero!”

I quickly searched the corners of my memories. Studying the history of this world I have read a few stories. It wasn’t a hard task.

- “Gilgamesh, David, Lud…”

- “And now name their healers! Or rogues!”

- “For Gilgamesh that would be: Astroth as battlemage, Belal as a rogue, Maz’eirin as…”

- “… You are the only one that can name them… WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY IS: you don’t carry a sword - you are not important!” she smiled widely.

I pointed at the sword of embers attached to my belt. With every word and gesture, I made her more and more red on her face

- “Fine! I will mention you. Maybe. That you were there too.”

- “… You know what. I think I will tell a story or two of my own.”

- “Which one? The one how I wonderfully handled my blade? Or how bravely I jumped into a group of foes?”

- “… How you were running from spiders.”

She stopped walking, I didn’t, which made me stumble and fall into the dirt.

- “No one will believe you.”

- “You sure?” actually, many would hate me, even think that I am leeching on Gisele to rank up quickly in the guild hierarchy, but I never lied to anyone, I never colorized any story, which couldn’t be said about Gisele.

Oh. Her stories. As she would come back from a dungeon raid, she would say how she has slain two elder drakes. After a week she would say that there were four of them, after two weeks, a whole nest and after a month these weren’t even drakes, but fully grown dragons.

I talked with Aloizy. They fought as a team with a wyvern. One. Injured. One injured wyvern. And everyone knew that. Still, when you see a half-drunk adventurer telling how he/she killed a sea serpent with his bare hands, you only nod with a smile and pour him/her another drink.

And then, there was me sitting by the side of the team. Never boasting about achievements, staying in the corner of the room until I would be provoked. I was the most trustworthy source of information. And Gisele just realized that.

- “Y…You won’t do this!”

- “Won’t I? Just don’t try exaggerating what happened there.”

She pouted. Exaggerating was her second nature.

Oh, I could finally tease her back. For the ballast, for carrying things, for her attitude. I was going to have my fun for the whole journey back to the city, and there were still a few nice hours of walking.

Same time, Capital of Neira.

Jason finished checking most of the financial reports of Grand Houses. It was pointless, leading nowhere. One, their sources of income were limitless: farms that belonged to them, having their own people in merchant guilds, earning them a percent of the guild’s income (which was a lot), prizes from fighting tournaments (oh, nobles and their tournaments, “fighting styles” resembled more to theatre act or dancing than actual fighting) and lot’s of hidden incomes. Like gambling, that wasn’t very legal. No, not illegal. Just not legal either. Because, you know, taxes. If they would say that they earned 10 gold coins from gambling, they would have to pay 2 to even 6 gold coins as a tax. So instead they said it’s a gift from their family from another country and such. Then the tax was merely 25-50 silvers. Because of that, the middle-aged man wasted lots of time trying to track down some possible church influences.

But there was more: checking finances was stupid in and of itself. Grand houses were literally sleeping on gold. They didn’t want more gold, they wanted to influence.

He wasted three days. Three. He won’t learn anything this way, not via documents. He needed to do it personally. But with who?

He is a commoner, they won’t let him talk with the heads of the houses. Unless…

What day is it? The birthday of little princes isn’t it? Maybe he should pay her a visit? In the end, EVERY more important noble would be there. It would give him a great possibility to scout the ground… But he looked like a homeless. And didn’t have a gift for the brat.

His looks could be easily changed, in the end, he is a photomancer, but he will need to ask for a favor or two. This is why he started walking toward the King’s palace. The front entrance was out of questions. Some guests already started appearing, which meant that he would be spotted by everyone, but then again – if he was about to sneak in, he wouldn’t be merely asked to identify himself. Yet he took a job, and he was, no matter how silly it sounds, a man of his word. He promised he would look for the traitor, so damn, he will.

Breaking in the palace was difficult. Very difficult. Among the king’s guard, there were also magicians and because the day was quite important, every guard was actually doing his job. There was not a single chance that after spotting something weird they would roll with “must have been the wind.” Oh no.

Another problem? What after breaking in? Where would King stay before the party? On which floor? In which chamber?

Then, as he got close to the King’s mansion, he spotted it – the opportunity. In a storage room, quite far from the nearest guard patrol, he saw a single servant dealing with supplies of high-quality food for the party. Probably waiting for other people to come in and help him. He wasn’t the help he was expecting, yet here he approached him.

- “Hello friend, I may have a favor to ask you.” He started with a friendly tone.

- “HE?!” a man almost jumped “W-what are you doing here?! It’s restricted area!”

- “I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle.”

- “There is no way tha… what is a motorcycle?”

- “I have no idea either, once I heard a friend of mine saying these words after he got drunk. But then again, he is weird. But honestly. I need to tell you a secret. I am working for the king, undercover. And I need to talk with him. Now.”

- “Yeeeah. Right. Of course, I will help you.”

- “Really?”

- “No. I am calling the guards.”

Yet he didn’t manage to do so.

- “Punch of justice!” the crazy light mage yelled.

The servant raised his hands to cover his face… Yet the punch never came. Instead, he was kicked in the groin.

- “Works everytime.” Jason just shook his head as he was striping the man off his clothing. Then he tied him, silenced him with a gag and dropped him into the deepest corner of the storehouse. Then a little of magic and VOILA! He looked just like poor bastard.

- “Now, who is ready for a meeting with the King?” He said as he started walking toward the palace.

- “Oh! Steve! Here you are!...” some friendly voice could be heard from across the field. “…Lazing around as always, ain’t you!? You took your sweet time, so I came to look for you! Come on! Grab those barrels! Party can start any minute!”

Another servant came from the back entrance of the palace. A woman in her middle 20ties. Bit curvy. Not fat. Nicely curvy, that is.

GOT DAMN IT JASNY! You have a job to finish, not cleavage to gaze at!... Still, that’s quite a fair set of…

- “Come on!” she yelled while forcing the magician towards the barrels.

- “But… excuse me… I have to…”

- “You have to start doing your job! The king was such a great man to let you work after the last stunt you pulled! Be grateful and pay your debts!....” Yet then she added. “… still, I had to beg mister Archibald for three days to let you stay…”

… Now. Working for the sake of the country is one thing, but you can’t let a lady wait, especially when she tried so hard. His wife would never leave anyone without help when they needed it. Steve, you lucky bastard. I am doing it for you!

Jason thought as he lifted the barrel.

- “Very well, show a way… Madam.” Yeah, he didn’t know her name.

- “Madam?” Her eyes widened. Then she burst into a cheerful laugh. “… Come on! Steve! If we didn’t know each other since we were kids I would never… wait… aren’t you drunk?”

- “You may be surprised, but no, I am not…”

He said that in the name of both of them: Steve and Jason. Indeed, a rare event, worth being celebrated with a drink!...

NO-NO-NO-NO-NO! Bad Jason! Bad! Job first, then drinks. Or actually, women first, then drink, then job!... Damn it! No! Again, job, drink, woman? Wrong again! It’s so hard to think while being sober! For now, let’s help this nice lady.

- “You said that I need to work on my manners if I want to serve at the King’s place… so... I thought that I may train… on you. I hope you are not mad! I mean… It’s not that I just want to use or anything… but… I mean…”

He made a fool out of himself on purpose. It worked. The girl chuckled.

- “I don’t mind Steve… I mean, sir.” She courted. “… But now, if you allow, his majesty awaits for the whiskey in this barrel to be delivered to the dining hall.”

… he was carrying whiskey?... Damn. This job gets more and more challenging.

City at the border of the Neira. Adventurers Guild.

Gisele kicked the door open.

- “We are back bastards!” she yelled from the front.

- “Welcome back, wanderers! How was your… Oh.” The guild administration worker called from reception desk

Exactly. There was no better word that would describe how we looked (and probably smelled) than oh.

- “Quite a challenge, was it?” the man asked with courtesy.

- “You have no idea! This place was…” Gisele already wanted to start telling her stories.

- “Exactly. He has no idea. And he most like can wait in blissful ignorance for an hour or so more. Gis, we are killing him with our odor. Bath first, then maybe some sleep. The guild is not going anywhere.”

The man looked at me with gratitude.

- “Buuuuut!” she whined displeased.

- “No buts. Can I ask you to…”

- “Oh. We have a separate room that we jokingly call an emergency bathroom. It’s literally a huge wooden basin, filled with water. We are at the crossing of many different climate zones, so trust me, we needed it. Badly. A guy once went for a desert, yet he returned covered completely in mud, like, really completely, at first we thought it was some golem that…”

- “For sake of Mother of all that is living! Brother! Just show me the way!”

- “… at the end of the corridor. You are a couple, yes?”

- “I am surprised myself, but yes,” I answered. And earned me a punch.

- “Then you may just use it together. The corridor to the left, the last door on the right.”

- “May Aira reward you with many offsprings.” I bowed my head, grabbed Gis my sleeve and forced her to walk after me.

- “I still don’t know why you had to rush me! One or two sentences wouldn’t hurt us!...” she pouted as we locked the door behind us and started throwing our dirty clothes at the ground. “… I admit that I was dreaming about it, but it could wait a minute or more. I didn’t need it this badly!…”

15 minutes later.

- “… I needed it soooo badly!” she almost whispered as she was sitting in the simple wooden-bath with hot water.

I didn’t respond. Only purred quietly from the other side of the bath enjoying the moment. The water was kept warm by a single fire gem thrown at the bottom. Nothing great, just a crystal-core with a lesser fire enchant on it. Another similar gem was put on the other side of the room serving as a dryer for our cloth.

These gems were worth more than what a party of B ranks could earn in a half of a year. And here these guys were using it to warm their asses. I could respect that.

- “Gis.”

- “Hmm?”

- “You know that we should slowly leave this place?”

- “Yhym. The word is the only one worth being taken into consideration.”

- “Don’t you want to tell everyone about your wonderful adventurers?”

- “The guild isn’t going anywhere. You said that yourself.”

Now, we begin the actual fun part.

- “Is that so? It would be unkind of us to occupy this room just for myself. Our cloth should be dry by now… Is there anything else we can do here?”

She raised her brow a little, but then she smiled with the corner of her lips. In the next moment, I felt her leg brushing against my thigh.

Guess who will stay in this nice, cozy bath for the next hour or so?