Alex’s Party Perspective
As Nyx leaves, Maria says goodbye, and once he leaves, Alex and Wendy sigh in relief.
“Hey Lucia, you can come out now; Nyx is gone.”
Alex said it to a hatch on the ground that Wendy and himself were standing behind.
The hatch opens to reveal a fearful Lucia hiding inside.
“Is he really gone?”
“Yes.”
Reluctantly, Lucia poked her head out and sighed as she saw Nyx was not inside.
Chelsie, who saw Lucia running straight for the underground food storage cabinet and Alex and Wendy hiding her, now sees Lucia coming out, ask.
“What was that all about?”
Lucia sighed in relief and said.
“I really don’t want to duel Nyx.”
Chelsie tilted her head in confusion at the answer.
“Didn’t you want to fight Nyx and complain nonstop about not dueling him for the last week? What's change?”
“It’s hard to describe, but his smile when he was fighting the Owlbear is just terrifying.”
Chelsie tilted her head even more confused and asked what she meant by smiling and if she was seeing things, showing her skepticism since Nyx is always expressionless.
“He was; I saw it with my own eyes, and he was even laughing.”
Chelsie gave Lucia an even more skeptical look, even more so with what Lucia just said.
“But–.”
Putting his hand on Lucia's shoulder, Alex said.
“There is no point.”
Alex looked at her with a sympathetic look, and Lucia realized what Alex and Wendy meant by they wouldn’t understand when they told her not to bother after the Owlbear boss fight.
“Come on, let's go back to the surface; I’m tired.”
Turning to look at Maria and Chelsie, he asks.
“Are you coming with us or are you going to stay here for the night?”
“I’ll be staying here; I have a lot of backlog I need to finish.”
“I see. How about you, Chelsie?”
“I’m also staying with Maria to help.”
Hearing their answer, Alex told them they would be seeing them tomorrow and would bring back materials for Maria’s alchemy.
They said goodbye to each other and went back to the surface.
Going to their inn, they washed themselves, got something to eat, and went to bed.
The next day Alex, Wendy, Lucia, and Alice went shopping at an alchemy shop they usually go to.
After talking to the owner and filling up 2 backpacks full of alchemy materials and supplies, they went down to the 19th floor to give them to Maria.
Once they were done, they went outside the village and fought some monsters for the rest of the day.
The next day, Alice surprised Alex, Wendy, and Lucia when she said she couldn’t come today because she had something to do with Nyx since he needed her for something, which surprised them, even more, when Alice was wearing her dress when she was running away and asked Lucia to help her put on her makeup since she doesn’t know how to do it herself.
Seeing Alice leave the room, Alex said.
“I wonder what Nyx is asking Alice to do.”
“Either way, I don’t want to be near him.”
“You’re the one to talk.”
“What do you mean, Wendy?”
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Lucia looked at Wendy with a confused look as the three of them were looking out the window.
“At least you didn’t have to fight him.”
Wendy shivered at her response to Lucia, to which Lucia shivered and rebuffed.
“At least he is not actively trying to fight you.”
Wendy and Lucia began bickering, and Alex looked at them pitying himself because he was also one of Nyx's vic– sparring partners, and it was only a matter of time before Nyx suggested sparring again.
He gave a wry smile and stopped Lucia’s and Wendy’s arguing.
“Come on, let's get going; we have to pick up Maria and Chelsie today.”
Wendy and Lucia huffed at each other and said fine at the same time.
Going straight to the 19th-floor village, they pick up Maria and Chelsie and lead them up to the surface.
Under the light of the sun, Maria was blinded due to being cooped up in her alchemy room all day, while Chelsie stood in the warm embrace of the sun with a slight smile and stretched her arms and legs.
Once they were back in their rooms, Maria plopped on the bed and immediately went to sleep, while Chelsie went to a changing room to change into new sets of clothes.
Coming out, Alex asks.
“What do you want to do?”
“Window shopping. We made quite a lot of money.”
“Let's go.”
“Yeah, right away, and you're paying.”
Alex had a wry smile hearing it but didn’t put up a fight as he was about to be dragged away by Chelsie.
Chelsie, on the other hand, had a smile, but it froze when Wendy and Lucia stopped her and said they would be coming along.
Going out of their inn and looking at some stores, Chelsie was holding Alex’s arm while Wendy and Lucia were fighting for the other arm because Chelsie gave them a death glare, causing them to back off.
Additionally, it wasn’t just for Lucia and Wendy but was also for the women who were looking at Alex with blushes; their faces immediately turned white at a glance at Chelsie’s glare.
Consequently, her glare also made the men, cursing at Alex, also turn white. Alex felt kind of bad for all the women and men exposed to Chelsie's scary glare; however, Alex’s eyes landed on a girl, slightly older than himself, who was unfazed by Chelsie’s glare and just walked away like nothing had happened.
Clare’s Perspective
In the city of Acton, Clare just had entered the city and was looking for an inn, exhausted from the journey to get here.
Tomorrow is the day I will start looking.
She thought to herself that because she had the gut feeling her lady was somewhere in this city, just at an arm's reach away.
She continues walking, looking for suitable lighting. She looks around the shops and people around. Compared to Farsbarow, it was much more bustling and crowded with people, something she was not used to seeing.
Clare follows the flow of people making their way through the streets and coincidentally stumbles onto a scene.
People were making room for the group, and from what she could tell, they were deeply afraid of what was coming in her direction.
Eventually, the group walked past her, and she was surprised to see the group be a guy with a girl on one arm glaring at all the women near them and two girls, one a beastkin and the other a mage, fighting for the other arm.
The girl who was glaring at all the women they had gone past eventually landed on her for a moment. However, her momentary surprise and that girl's glare, bordering on murderous, was set aside because it wouldn’t help her find her lady, so she continued walking.
Tamsin perspective
As Lady Alice and her acquaintance leave his store, the clerk, who is his wife, asks.
“Oh my, have you learned anything?”
His wife looks at him with a weirdly interested look.
“You know what I told you, right? Lady Alice is looking for a suitable housing arrangement, and her acquaintance, how do I put it, is quite strange, Kathy.”
Kathy's eyes began sparkling, and she said.
“Strange, how strange.”
“Lady Alice really trusts him, to an unnatural extent.”
“And?...”
Kathey became even more excited like she was hoping for a certain answer.
“I can’t even read him.”
Hearing the answer, the stars glowing in her eyes were gone, replaced with confusion, and she asked.
“What? What does that mean?”
Tamsin said plainly.
“Like I said, I literally can’t read him or get a reaction.”
Sulking from the response Tamsin asks.
“What were you hoping?”
Walking to her counter and retrieving a book, she shows it to him.
“And what is that?”
“It is the book that I was reading recently.”
“What is it about, then?”
Kathy had a big smile and said.
“It’s about a commoner boy saving and winning the heart of a noble’s daughter. It was quite popular recently, so I decided to give it a try, and it was an amazing idea because this is an amazing book from the famous and mysterious author Blake.”
Tamsin gave a baffled look at his wife, wondering if she was right in the head.
“You know those types of stories never happen in real life? Are you sure you’re not confusing fantasy with reality?”
Kathy puffed out her cheeks, which Tamsim found cute, and said.
“Of course not, but what happened in the book and what happened to Lady Alice are just too similar; I at least have to hope.”
“Similar?”
“The plot where assassins target the heroine's life and the boy saves her life and feeds the assassins off as the heroine figures out how to live as a commoner.”
“Huh… you’re right, that is oddly similar.”
“So-”
Placing her hands on her hips, Kathy asks.
“What are we doing now?”
Tamsin thought for a moment.
“I want to learn more about Lady’s Alice acquaintance. He might be a potentially valuable partner if Lady Alice trusts him that much, but I haven’t figured out why he chose to accept my offer since I only offer half of what it is actually worth.”
“I see, then why don’t we test him?”
“Yes, let's do that.”