“Grim?” Ed nudged me with his elbow.

“……..”

“Hey, Grim.” He nudged again.

“……………...what?”

“Wanna practice flying to Great Hiana and back with our new runic stones?” He jeered at our bartering incompetence.

“SHUT UP!” I lashed out.

Yep, we got scammed. And Ed’s using the situation to make fun of me. Now I know why he didn’t have any friends before we met. Back when we met, he was getting bullied by the other kids, and me being the naturally kind hearted soul, reached out to help him. Needless to say we got our butts handed to us, but it proved useful in deepening our friendship, as he seemed interested in the books I read. I taught him how to read, and soon enough he started catching up to me in terms of literary prowess. He too became a bookworm (and I’ve never been more proud).

So how, pray tell, did this promising disciple of mine become so cheeky?

“You accepted the deal with me at the same time, so if anything, we’re both idiots.” I reasoned.

“?” Ed looked at me with a confused frown, “…who said I wasn’t an idiot, I just wanted to tell you that you are as well.”

Yep, definitely no friends. And I thought I had an unsociable personality!

“Either way, what do we do now? We’ve no money, no rations, and no handbook.” I named off all the items we have left at our disposal.

“Wait? What happened to the handbook?” Ed asked me.

Here’s the thing: remember back when we fought the snair and I had to throw the book into its mouth? Well, I completely forgot about pulling it out after it had died, so it’s probably still in its intestines. And since we traded it in for these lousy rocks, it’s now well and truly in the hands of the merchant who scammed us. Why do dishonest people get to get away with being dishonest?!

“I uhhh…forgot to take it out of the snair before we sold it.” I said as I slumped my shoulders.

A defeated look enveloped my face, since I truly felt like the biggest idiot in the world at that moment. Schnell, I’ve failed you!

“Hmmm, then we have no choice.” Ed donned a serious expression as he grabbed my shoulder.

“Oh?” I turned towards him with an intrigued look on my face, “What’s the plan?”

As I said this, I was thinking Ed’s got that look on his face. The face that says “hold up, I’ve got a great idea incoming!”. I wonder what he thought up-

“Let’s just wing it.” He said with a deadpanned expression.

“…”

Well, that’s certainly new. I didn’t expect this from him of all people. He was always the ‘Play it safe’ kind of guy, so I have no idea how to react when he starts suggesting ideas more befitting of someone like me.

“Wing it? Like with zero items in our disposal safe from a few tools?” I mentioned again our lack of items.

“Yeah. I mean, screw it, we can’t go any lower from here, am I right?” He asked rhetorically, “We’ll have to work a bit harder to get back on our feet, but it’s not like our previous resources we’re all that plentiful to begin with.”

True, we have sunk low, so I guess just going is gonna be the best thing to do now. Nice going, Ed! You get a gold star!

After this interesting plan that Ed proposed, we hopped on to a nearby transport wagon that was heading out to the capital of Secundis, Stringwood. With this, our journey officially began.

***

The transport wagon we used stopped a bit earlier than anticipated, so we had to sneak out and walk the rest of the way to the city. It wasn’t that difficult, since the roads were beautifully paved almost the entire way there. It was a lot easier on our feet than if we were to run on a gravel road, in any case.

In Stringwood, you immediately notice the differences from the village in which we’ve spent our lives in. Again, the roads are paved, and they even have sidewalks! No livestock in sight! All the people are dressed so formally, it’s as if everyone here is a lord! (Then again, it might just be that we’re dressed way too informally…)

As we were gawking at the novelties of Secundis’ capital, we had wondered what to do from now on. Our first priority was to stop our stomachs from rumbling any more than they already were, but we quickly realized the issue with that: unlike in the village, where you can just grab some fruits from the trees, food here isn’t as free.

“We should get some money first and foremost.” I offered some starting input, to which Ed replied:

“Yeah, but how? Should we ask for a job? I’m sure the pay is high judging by the people’s clothes.” He noted the luxurious fashion sense of the townspeople.

“That’s the thing, though, our clothes are dragging us down.” I answered, “no one wants to hire some kids with raggedy ol’ clothes like ours. I mean come on, your pants have more holes in them than a block of cheese!”

“Cheese…” Ed started drooling as he imagined the sight of food.

Well, ignoring Ed’s food fantasy, this was the truth no matter how you look at it. People don’t wanna employ country bumpkins, so we need another plan.

“Let’s see…” I put my right hand on my chin.

“Hmmm…” Ed followed suit and equipped a thinker’s pose.

“OH! I GOT IT!” I suddenly shouted, surprising both Ed and the nearby civilians (sorry about that…).

“When Schnell started off, he too had little to no funds! So to rectify the issue, he went to the Kingdom of Carmen and requested a loan from The King!”

“Yeah, but that happened around the middle of the book, not at the start,” Ed refuted calmly, “and he wasn’t buck poor like we are, he had enough money to sustain himself.”

He did have a point, but there really isn’t any other choice but to starve on the streets. The Kingdom of Carmen is a bordering country to Secundis, so it’s not like we had set our goal to be on the other side of the world. Guess we were lucky to be born here, after all!

As such, we had set our course to the Kingdom of Carmen and went to sleep on a nearby bench. The day where we get enough money to afford an inn is still pretty far into the future…

Ugh, I thought as I tried my best to find a comfortable sleeping position, it’s been a long first day…