Knock knock knock

The sound of knocking came into Remy’s ears. He rolled around in his bed, still tired from their adventure the day before. The knock continued. Feeling bad for whoever was on the other side of the door, he forced himself up. He opened his eyes lazily, catching sight of Atilia sleeping peacefully next to him. He took a moment to caress her hair, before getting off his bed.

The morning sunlight pierced right through the window on the side of the room, coming through a gap in the curtains. Remy took a quick inspection of the world outside before turning around and heading straight for the door. He expected it to be Mimiyat. But, as it turned out, the one standing outside was a male.

“Good morning, sorry for disturbing you,” said the guild staff, holding an envelope in his hand. “We received a letter from the port, addressed to Miss Atilia.”

“Atilia’s still sleeping. I’ll give it to her when she wakes up.”

“Alright.” The staff handed over the brown envelope. “Enjoy the rest of your day.” The staff turned around, leaving them in peace. Remy took a quick examination of the envelope. The envelope had Atilia's name, but its sender wasn’t the port. It was the Kingdom of Juskon’s official embassy. Remy didn’t actually know what it was. It could be an organization entirely different from an embassy back on Earth. Or, maybe, it was the same, an organization acting as a representative of the state or country. Regardless, it sounded like a serious organization, something he didn’t want to mess with.

“What did they want with us?” Remy murmured. He decided against opening it and set it down on the bedside table. He went next to Atilia and began poking on her cheeks.

“Wakey-wakey… you got a love letter from the embassy.”

“I… want a love letter from you…” Atilia muttered, still half asleep as she rolled around on the bed. Remy let out a wry smile. He didn’t have anything to write with, but he would be glad to write one if he had a pencil or a pen. He sat on the bedside, letting Atilia sleep a little longer. Atilia often made late-night trips into the city when he slept, so it wasn’t surprising if she needed some more time.

Then he remembered that he could probably borrow something down in the guild. He rose from the bed and changed out of his pajamas. He left the room, walking down the hallway. He took the stairs down to the first floor of the guild building.

He took a quick look at the quest board. There were new quests on it, but nothing caught his interest. He proceeded to the receptionist, where he asked for a pencil and a piece of paper. The guild staff told him that they ran out of pencils and that the shipment had been delayed. He then offered to help write whatever thing he wanted to write.

Most of the guild staff could use more complex magic, even as far as creating ink to write on magic paper. But Remy felt uncomfortable with telling the staff exactly what he wanted to write. He instead thanked him and returned to his room.

The sound of the door opening finally woke Atilia up. Atilia stared toward the door, half-awaked.

“Where did you go? Not starting an affair, are you?”

“No, of course not.”

“That’s a joke, but I’m impressed by how hard it is to get you flustered. I should have used my chance when we first arrived in this world.” Atilia pulled herself up. “Good morning.”

Remy approached and kissed her on the forehead. “Good morning. By the way, what are our plans for today?”

“We’ll need to meet up with Mimiyat.”

Atilia then told him about everything that had happened the night before. Remy paid great attention to her every word. Her voice became music to his ears, and he wouldn’t mind if she decided to ramble away for hours on end.

“I see, that’s great,” Remy answered with a smile after she finished. “Hopefully, we can find her friend quickly. She must be really worried.”

“Haha, yeah…”

“Is it alright if we ask Kathy to help?”

Atilia tensed up at the mention of her name. “Of course, she probably won’t mind-”

“With you, I mean.”

“... It’s fine… don’t worry about it. I’ll call her now.”

Atilia stood up and closed her eyes. Kathy appeared out of thin air, catching Remy by surprise.

“Kathy-”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. I was spying on you last night.” Kathy let out a wide grin. “Leave it to me.” She puffed her chest before disappearing right after.

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“... So there’s that.”

“Yeah… Anyway… You think Mimiyat’s already awake?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Probably not, not yet at least.”

Atilia stretched her limbs and got off the bed. Her eyes saw the brown envelope on the bedside table that Remy had taken earlier.

“What’s that?”

“A letter from the port, but the envelope said that it was from the embassy.”

“Which embassy?”

“Juskon.”

Atilia took the envelope in her hands and did a quick examination of it.

“You haven’t opened it?”

Remy shook his head.

“Why?”

“It’s addressed to you.”

“Aren’t you trustworthy?” Atilia opened the envelope, pulling out a piece of paper. Her eyes went through the text.

“What did it say?”

“An invitation to a meet-up with a staff member from the embassy.”

“Why would a nation’s embassy want to meet with us? … Where even is Juskon?”

The Kingdom of Juskon owned the Urkon Maria. He knew nothing else about the nation, though.

“Did the letter say anything about the ship?”

“No, it doesn't.” Atilia handed the letter over. Remy reread it out of curiosity, not finding any new important information. It did propose the meeting time during lunch, if able, in a cafe located not far from the guild. He was a bit surprised that the word ‘cafe’ existed here, although that shouldn’t be surprising. Probably the result of an outworlder.

“So… should we invite her?”

“She’s staying at a different inn.”

“You know where?”

“Yes.”

Atilia then changed into her white dress, the dress remaining clean regardless of what it went through. The two headed out of the room. They walked out of the guild, making their way through the streets of Lasabinka. The streets still had puddles, a leftover from last night’s rain. Remy avoided them. Atilia, meanwhile, carelessly, or perhaps deliberately, stepped in them, splashing water everywhere. Remy looked down at the shoes she wore. It, too, didn’t seem affected by the world, all of the damage dealt to it gone, the shoe restored back to its original form.

“Did your clothing not get affected by anything?”

“Hmm?” Atilia looked down at the dress she wore, then did a little twirl, sending the water flying.

“You can call it a magic item. It’s really convenient.”

Remy himself had bought a couple of change clothing back in Purwa, albeit he left it all in the guild room. He didn’t expect he would find himself this far away after their little dungeon run. Cathirina already knew about this. The staff there was kind enough to help move their belongings to a more secure location.

“Wouldn’t you want to try different sets of clothing?” Remy asked.

“As a normal human girl, I would love to. But we don’t exactly have a lot of extra money lying around as of now.”

Remy pulled out his card, tapping on the space behind it, bringing up the magic screen. He took a quick look at his credits.

“Yeah… you’re right.” He stuffed his card back into his pocket. There were some, of course. They weren’t that poor, but he would rather not be spending them on those things for now.

“We’ll need to work hard. That way, we can have some money to spend for ourselves,” Atilia said with a chuckle. “Guess all we can do is take more jobs.”

“Yeah, thank you for sticking with me.”

“Oh come on, I think we had this conversation before.” Atilia elbowed her husband. “I’m happy just being with you.”

Atilia used the clock on her card to check the time. It was only nine.

“We returned at four last night. I honestly think it’s not enough time for her to sleep.”

“Should we pick a bite while we wait?” Remy suggested.

“Sure.”

The two took a detour, searching for a place to eat. They managed to find a tavern not far from the inn and ended up buying a meal as they waited.

* ••

The two waited for an entire hour, before getting very bored. After they finished their meal, they headed back to the inn.

The building had an inn text written in Pataranian in front of it, with the sign of a bed next to it. The two went inside. It was an independent inn, one smaller compared to the one at the guild.

With nothing else to do, they borrowed a chessboard from the inn. The pair played a couple of games as they waited in the lobby. Atilia already knew Mimiyat’s room, as she accompanied her the night before. By eleven, they made their way to Mimiyat’s hotel room.

“Mimiyat.” Atilia knocked on the front door. No response came. She waited, then knocked again. And again. And again. Only after the fifth time did Mimiyat finally open the door, looking irritated.

“...”

“...”

The two girls stared at each other. Remy was too busy examining a painting on the side of the hallway to realize. He marveled at the details of it, wondering if it was painted with a brush or if it was made with magic. Both options seem equally impressive. Eventually, Mimiyat got tired of the staring game and was the first to speak up.

“What is it?”

“We’re getting called by Juskon’s embassy.”

Mimiyat’s eyes widened, as if finally awake.

“What do they want?”

“Don’t know. They didn’t say, only invited us to a meeting this lunch.”

“And…?”

“You’re our party member now, so you’re coming with us.”

With a pained expression, Mimiyat exhaled. “Fine…” She headed back inside and closed the door. Atilia and Remy waited in the hallway for her to change. Time continued to tick, but Mimiyat showed no signs of finishing whatever she was doing. Atilia knocked on the door again. And again.

But this time, there was no fifth time.

Atilia opened the door, which Mimiyat didn’t lock, and stepped right in. She found Mimiyat lying on the bed, asleep. She walked up to her, shaking her and forcing her to wake up. She lazily woke up, got changed, and went out of the inn.