It had been four days ever since we last saw them. We waited at the entrance of the mine, the mountain looking rather small than the last time I saw it. I rubbed my hands together as I pray for the sun to show itself, the others seemingly hoping for the same.

“You know, you could have stayed at the inn with the others, right? You don’t have to come with us everytime, and you’re troubling Merry.” I said as I looked at Risa. This past week, she had taken a liking at riding on Merry’s back. She probably just liked the feeling of being tall again.

“First of all, Risa wants to be here!” she shouted, her mouth spewing out white clouds of smoke. She then adjusted her head and looked at Merry. “Is Risa a nuisance to you, Merry?”

Merry lightly chuckled and readjusted Risa. “Not at all. Truth be told, I like it.”

“You like carrying Risa?” she tilted her head, the fur on her coat wiggled.

“Yeah, it feels like I’m not even carrying someone. That’s why you have to eat a lot, so you’ll grow up big and healthy.”

“Of course!” Risa grinned from ear to ear. “Although, Risa doesn’t want any vegetable anymore, they taste so bad!”

“They’re good for you.”

As I looked at the two, the cold weather didn’t become such a bother anymore. The warmth that they radiated was enough for me to take off my coat at this cold temperature, not that I was going to, though, but it was enough.

Come to think of it, I guess I haven’t really apologized to Merry properly.

Someone poked me from behind. “Terrin,” in spite of all the surrounding noises, a quiet yet clear voice made its way into my ears. I quickly turned around, hoping it was them.

“Fiss? What’s happening? Where’s Elird?” I said, my voice soft enough for some reason. She was wearing a brown cloak on top of her clothes, which was strange and solicitous.

“This is not the place to talk. Do you know a place where we could talk?” her voice was low but her words were concise.

I didn’t really know what was going on but this was indeed not the place to talk. “I know just the place.”

*

“This…This is not the place that I have in mind…” the joyous yells of drunkards occupied the place we were at, leaving me barely hearing what Fiss said. They raised their mugs everytime they took a drink, just like someone annoying that I’d known. After waiting on that brutally cold place, this place was amazingly temperate, probably due to the sea of drunkards being drowned on their beers. If I was an alcohol enthusiast and wanted to be warmed, I’d probably go here.

“What do you mean you know the place? Have you come here before…?” Merry looked at me indifferently, needless to say, it sent shivers down my spine. Even I could understand from her gaze that if I didn’t explain myself right now, I wouldn’t be walking out of here.

“Isn’t this the same place we go to? There’s just a lot of woman, though. A crass one, at the very least.” Risa moved her head to scan the entire place.

Wait, she doesn’t know a place like this? I thought for sure…well, she has never been in a human city before we met, so it does make sense. Maybe I didn’t think this through.

“Takana invited me here once and told me this is the place to meet when you want to do something shady. Well, let’s get out of here then if it makes you uncomfortable…” the moment I said Takana’s name, Merry deeply sighed. Having Takana’s name must really hurt.

“I’m fine with it. This place is repugnant but they won’t look for me at a brothel. Needless to say, let us take a table farthest to the stairs.” Near the stairs was where the “sounds” were coming from. It was indeed needless to say.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, now let’s go.”

As we weaved and looked around, a group of men called us.

“Hey, little miss, you’re so pretty. How about some time near the stairs?” one of the drunken men was going for Merry’s, um, base. I was ready to cut the filthy and creepy hand of the bastard but Merry got to him first.

Merry took his hand, broke it, and slammed his head on the table, causing the table to break apart. Everybody looked at her as she said, “We would like you not to disturb us, please. Thank you.” then the crowd cheered. They were drunk, that was for sure.

“There goes my cover…”

After finding a table and paying for the broken table, I ordered a hot beverage for me, Fiss and Merry while Risa ordered a steak. Apparently, in this type of place, breaking a table was so commonplace, they had pre-ordered a lot of tables.

“So, um, what happened?” I asked.

“So, we’re not going to even talk about that, huh?” Fiss looked around first before the hood of her coat. Her white hair swaying like falling snowflakes. “As you all know,” she started. “Elird and I are son and daughter of wealthy merchants but we are not nobles. In the eyes of an ignorant, there are no differences but only a fool wouldn’t be able to see the differences. In a noble’s eyes, we are still commoners.” She looked at her mug, seemingly looking at its reflection.

“The only way to be a part of the aristocracy, the highest hierarchy in Ergaos, is to be bestowed upon by the king and the royal family. Although, there is one more but this option is only available to the wealthy.”

“What is it?”

“Marriage.” Fiss said, her eyes, a bit melancholic. “As the eleventh son of his father, not only does he not have any guaranteed inheritance, her mother is also a concubine of his father, making the probability even less. Have you heard about the Wilden Tournament in the capital?”

“No, we haven’t. Whatden Tournament?”

“Wilden Tournament. It’s basically a den of nobles watching affluent young and old people fight for a prize. While some are aiming for the prize, what they truly want are the gazes and applauses of nobles. If you could prove yourself, they might talk to you about marriages and stuff, thus increasing your reputation and influence. Do you understand?”

“Yeah…but what does Elird have to do with that?”

“He wants to participate in it.” Fiss said as her brows furrowed.

“I don’t really see a problem with that.” Merry said. “If he wants to, why not let him?”

“I did, that’s why I’m here. Right now, we’re not allowed to go anywhere due to the stunt we pulled last time.”

“So…what exactly do you want us to do?” I said.

“Well, we hired you the first time because we needed guards to accompany us and we needed to see actual battle.”

“From the looks of it, it seems, at least, you can handle to kill enemies.” Merry said after taking a sip from her drink. The heat gave her cheeks a pinkish color, a cute one, to be honest. But I digress. She was right, when we fought with those kasaks before, she didn’t hesitated and she actually knew what she was doing.

“Yes, one of my hobbies is to go hunting with my older and younger brothers. As for Elird, he had trained with a instructor but I believed that was his first time in the wild, where his life was at stake. But now that we’d seen what it could do to us, I’d like your help to train him to prepare combat.”

Train him?

I leaned back on my sit, the words she just said was too heavy to process, especially for me. “Did I hear that right?”

She nodded hard. “Yes, I’d like you to train him. Is there something wrong with that?”

“Not really…it’s just that, there are many wanderers here in this town and with your money, you could ask someone who’s better than us. Why choose us?” I was seriously baffled why she was choosing us. This wasn’t some plaything we could just play. Training someone could take a lot of effort, not only that but you could be the reason for their downfall because of what you would teach. We were still weak, that was something that was gummed to my brain.

Suddenly, I felt a painful jab from my left side. It seemed Risa had elbowed me for some reason. And for some reason, she was mad. I looked at Merry to get some answer but she, too, was looking at me like I was Takana or something.

“As son and daughter of merchants, of course Elird and I took some measures and risks. When we first saw you at the guild, we knew you weren’t from here as you were reading the boards about the monster here and you also brought a cute child with you.” she looked at Risa and smiled.

“Cursed human, Risa’s not a child!” She stared at the “cute child” she just mentioned. She then kept looking back at Merry and Risa. To be fair, Risa was truly cute and I understood that. I’d be surprised, too, if a cute child cursed me.

“Please do excuse her.” Merry bowed, urging Fiss to continue.

She then continued. “Okay…In the mine, we gambled with our lives. Obviously, the fact that we didn’t know you or anything you do was frightening. You could be anything but good for all we know. But since you did help and heal us, we then knew that you were people with high values.” She bowed, or more like, she nodded a bit. “If what happened in the mine was the package, today was a bonus. I fully believed that you weren’t going to be there after purposely waiting for a couple of days. Anyone with the right mind will go and take the five gold coins and disappear. Quite bluntly, you people are eccentric but one that I would gladly accept.” She smiled, the smile alone was enough to know that she did trust us.

Whenever people would start to trust me, it’s always about money. And I don’t understand why.

“We are honored for your words but I’m not confident that I can teach him properly…” I looked down as I said it.

“Who said you have to teach him?” Merry looked at me. I’d known her for a long time and yet everytime I see her, I wholeheartedly feel comfortable. “I could teach him, so does Takana. You don’t have to do everything by yourself, that’s what you taught me, right?” the corner of her mouth slightly turned up but even though it was slight, I felt she just lifted a heavy rock.

I really have to apologize to her, or else my heart won’t stop bothering me.

I nodded. “Thanks, Merry.” I then looked at Fiss. “We’ll take him.”

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

*

We were outside of the inn as I stopped, the two palpably confused why I did.

“Risa, go ahead. Merry and I will catch up to you.” she was a smart kid, I’d knew she would understand my meaning.

“Huh? What are you talking about — Oh! Okay, well, Risa will be going now.” She went inside. Awkwardly, mind you.

“So, do you need anything?” Merry’s delicate yet robust hands took a pinch of pink as she rubbed and blow on it.

Let’s get this over with. I made her wait long enough.

“I just wanted…I just wanted to say sorry for treating you like that.” after every word I said, my voice became muffled. I was really pathetic, if Takana was here, he would have punched me for sure.

“I told you, that’s already over.” She smiled. She’s been smiling a lot these days and I loved every time she did it. “But thank you. You’re the first person who hurt me and apologized to me. That makes me happy.” I couldn’t see what expression she was making because I lowered my head. I was really pathetic.

I could feel my eye getting hotter in spite of the cold weather. I mentally cursed the weather for not being cold enough. “Well, I’m happy, too. Let’s go or else Risa would be staring at us all day.”

As if on cue, the door to the inn “accidentally” moved. “You’re right. Let’s go.”