Nentonia woke up in a cold sweat. It’s been a while since she dreamt of her days in the orphanage, but every so often they’d creep back up like this. She looked around her to ground herself back in reality. Right now, she was in a shabby inn room, undecorated and barren, with only bare necessities such as a bunch of spare clothes and a single wooden staff hanging on the walls. She looked outside the window and realized that the sun hadn’t even risen yet.

In fact, it was still dead in the night.

Still, she doubted she could go back to sleep now, so instead, she got up and lit a candle. She stared at the candle’s mesmerizing flame. She reached out to it with her fingers, feeling its warmth as she got closer.

“...”

She shook her head and got up. She was still a bit riled up from her dream, so she thought taking a walk would do her some good. Of course, there was the possibility of bandits lurking in the night, but she never really cared about it that much.

She left the inn, taking care not to wake up anyone else, and went on her stroll under the moon. The wind was cold, and the streets were uncharacteristically silent, which she found oddly comforting. She gave out a long sigh.

“Come to think of it, I think I need to stock up on potions...” she said to herself. Despite having learned healing magic, she isn’t able to cast it as often as she’d like, so she carried potions around as a back-up. She managed to use up all of it during her last adventure. “Right. My last adventure, huh.”

The memory left a bitter taste in her mouth. It’s already been three years since she ran away from the orphanage, during which she trained her clerical spells to a point where she’d be able to do some adventuring. But there was only so much a non-combat-oriented cleric like her can do alone. In the end, she needed a party.

Just recently, she found one that was willing to take a rookie like her in. They called themselves the Black Crayons, and generally speaking, they were nice to her. They went on three adventures together, before one of them found out her “tendencies”. By accident, she lost control of her impulse and dug her fingers into one of her allies’ wounds. In any case, they were reluctant to keep adventuring with such a cleric, and she was left behind.

Nentonia slapped her face in between her hands. What’s done is done, and thinking about it would only make her stomach churn even more. She should just focus on finding an apothecary’s shop so she could stock up on potions. Well, she doubted if any of them were still open, but it would be reassuring to know their location anyways.

After a few more minutes of unsuccessful searching, she finally came across someone else who was wandering around; a man with orange hair. His armor looked expensive yet shoddy at the same time, and his eyes were like a dead fish’s. He looked dangerous, so Nentonia considered turning around and going another direction. But as luck would have it, the two of them made eye contact.

Nentonia sighed. She didn’t want to spend the rest of the night wandering around anyways, so she might as well ask for directions. Him being dangerous didn’t scare her as much as it should, anyways.

“Excuse me,” she said as she approached him. “Can I trouble you for directions to the apothecary’s store in this town?”

To help him tell her, she grabbed a map from her bag and cast a simple Light spell to help him see better, along with a pen for him to mark the map with. Without saying a single word, the man took the pen, stared at the map for a bit, then marked an area. “Impressive,” she thought.

However, the more she looked at the map, the more confused she became. At some point, she began to believe that she was somehow holding the map upside down.

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“...Then, if the equipment shop is over there ... take a left, and then ... Wait, that’s not right. This area over here should be the jeweler’s, not the apothecary’s. Are you certain this is correct?”

“No. I just guessed,” he replied without even a single shift in his uninterested expression.

This asshole, she thought. “I wish you said that before I spent five minutes trying to read these directions. But, well, I guess I can make do with this.”

She looked at the map again. It might’ve been wrong directions, but he may have made an educated guess. Maybe the apothecary’s was around this area after all.

“You an adventurer?” he suddenly asked.

“Well, yes, but how did you—”

“It’s best you quit. Not worth it.”

“Excuse me?” she said.

The man’s tone was rough and rude, and carried no genuineness at all. Judging from his attire, he was likely an adventurer himself. In fact, his appearance was familiar. She’s heard of him before, in tavern songs, and recently, in small talk between people drinking. “Kalaman”, they called him.

“I said it’s not worth it. You’re young, so don’t go off dying early.”

“That’s a bit hypocritical, don’t you think? I mean, you don’t look that much older than me. Also, the way you said that was a bit too ... unenthusiastic. Almost like you don’t care if I do it anyways.”

“Because I don’t.” His replies were quick and snappy.

“Hmm. Then why say it?”

“Habit.”

“Hmmm...”

She took a step forward to see him better. His eyes were like pits in the earth, too deep to see the bottom of.

All she saw in front of her was a broken man who saw no worth in life. In that regard, he reminded Nentonia of Jaysie. But she felt that he wasn’t entirely like Jaysie.

He reminded Nentonia of herself, in a way. He was just like her.

“You’re pretty rotten inside, aren’t you?”

“And if I am?” he replied, not denying it.

“Hmm, now that I think about it, I recognize you. You’re that adventurer everyone’s been talking about lately. Uh, that dragon killer guy or something!”

“...And if I am?” His tone became harsher. He was probably getting annoyed.

Still, Nentonia didn’t care and stuck out her hand. “I’ve always wanted to meet a hero! I’m Nentonia, by the way. Nentonia Brava.”

He looked at her hand, then back at her. She gestured with her eyes for him to take it. For a second there, she thought that he wouldn’t take it. Figures. He seemed like the unsociable type.

However, he suddenly reached out and shook it once, before immediately letting go. It was like he was embarrassed, which she found amusing. Before she knew it, she grabbed his retreating wrist, which made him widen his eyes a bit.

“I thought it was customary to respond in kind,” she said. “I gave my name, so you give yours.”

He forcefully pulled his hand away, yanking it out of her hold. Just from that one move, she could tell how physically powerful he was. “Kalaman Kampus.”

Nentonia nodded. “Mm. I knew that.”

He clicked his tongue. “...Then why did you ask?”

“Habit. It’s customary, isn’t it?” She smiled, enjoying his reactions.

“The world doesn’t work the way your wet nurse taught you,” Kalaman said. “Rules don’t exist anymore.”

“I’ve noticed that recently,” she replied. “But doings things like this is less stressful for me, so that’s that. I mean, it must be the same for you right? You feel rotten inside, and yet you play the role of a hero.”

“Why do you say I’m rotten?” he asked. She seemed to have gotten his interest with that.

“You said you didn’t care, right? Even though you’re a hero. You’re going through the motions, doing things you don’t want to do just because people expect you to do them, right?”

He didn’t feel like a hero at all, so that’s what she guessed. In Jaysie’s case, she managed to hide it well, but this guy must’ve been bad at that.

“I’m a hero because people call me that,” he replied. “I don’t give a shit what they call me. I’m not doing anything for them.”

“And yet a hero you are. How did that happen?”

“Beats me.”

Nentonia giggled. “Well, you certainly feel rotten to me. I’d know. I’m rotten just like you. Thanks for the help, even though it isn’t very useful.”

She raised the wrongly-marked map and walked away. At this point, sun was going to start rising, and she still hadn’t confirmed the apothecary’s location.

“Wait,” Kalaman called out.

Nentonia stopped and turned around. His hand was outstretched a bit, and it looked like he didn’t know what to say ... as if he called out by instinct. She stood there, waiting for his words.

“You’re a cleric,” he spoke. “As it happens, my party just lost their cleric.”

She knew what he was going to ask. She just didn’t believe that he’d ask it at all. After all, wasn’t he a hero? A legend? Just like the one in her stories?

What would someone like him want from someone like her?

“...”

And yet, deep inside her heart, she already knew what her answer was going to be.

“If you want to continue adventuring, then why not join us?”