When Liam tried to head home, the grey Direwolf that he had just named Percival tried to follow him. Both Liam and Scath scolded it into staying put until the next evening. Honestly, Liam thought having all the Direwolves in his shadow would be more convenient, but the others could not use magic. Apparently that was an attributing factor in their decline. After bidding farewell to Gardenia, Liam exited through the wall of fog and returned to the city.

Just before sunset, he arrived at the apartment above the shop. When he opened the door, his first thought was: Where the hell is this?

To his surprise, the main room now contained a lounge chair and a couch along with a desk and armoire to match. The only thing to make him realize he had entered the same room as a few hours prior was Nora lying on the couch with a fish on a stick protruding from her lips while blinking at him. Pulling the fish stick out of her mouth, she asked, “What do you think? More homey now?”

“Kind of. How much did it cost?”

“Does it matter? I used my own money.”

“Really?” Liam asked, raising a brow. “Still, how much did it cost?”

“A few gold coins…” she sulked.

Locking the door behind him, Liam pulled three gold coins from his inventory and tossed them to Nora. Obviously startled, she only managed to grab two from the air and missed the third.

“I didn’t buy it to get paid back,” Nora said, sitting up in order to grab the dropped coin.

“Feels wrong, though. Tell me next time and I’ll give you the money.”

“Tch.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing said like that always means something,” Liam replied while walking through the hallway.

“It’s nothing. Also, I managed to get the leader of the Thieves’ Guild interested in meeting you in case you want to meet him,” Nora said while following him.

Surprised, Liam spun on his heels and asked, “The hell? How do you end up doing so much in a few hours?”

“I’m fast and felt like I should somehow return the favor you did me last night,” she answered, winking. Then, her face flushed as she muttered, “I can’t believe I just did that…”

“Heh. Well, then. I guess I won’t mind meeting them,” Liam said, grinning ever so slightly.

“Also, I spoke with the leader of a mercenary gang if you’re interested,” Nora muttered.

This time Liam simply blinked and wondered how this woman accomplished such a thing. Perhaps she could be of more use than just a tool to figure out how much his heart changed. Briefly shaking away the thought, he said, “I’ll check out the Thieves’ Guild tomorrow, then. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about the mercenaries, but it could be worth checking out.”

“If it helps, I only talked to a group consisting of former soldiers.”

“Did you do that because of my background?” Liam asked.

Nora nodded.

“That kind of… surprises me,” he muttered, raising a brow.

In response, Nora shrugged and said, “I never had to do anything for anyone besides myself, so I guess this was the only thing I could come up with to help you.”

“Well, it saves me the trouble of setting up such meetings myself.”

“I doubt you would have gotten meetings at all if it was just yourself.”

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Furrowing his brows, Liam asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.”

Shaking his head, Liam decided to end the conversation. Then, he took out the meat wrapped in ferns and said, “Here. I’m sure you can cook this in the kitchen or something.”

Taking the chunk of rabbit and squirrel meat, her fingers sank into the blood leaking from it. Looking at the blood dripping on the floor, she asked, “You’re not going to ask me to clean that, are you?”

“I might if you don’t hurry and take it to the kitchen.”

“It stained your clothes, didn’t it?” Nora asked while walking away.

“It may have…” Liam muttered, lowering his gaze to look inside his jacket. Sure enough, a heavy bloodstain soaked through the fabric. “Tch.”

“Thought so,” Nora said from around the corner.

“Up for doing another favor for me?” Liam asked.

“I’m sure you can handle that one just fine.”

Damn… Liam thought while looking around the room. I’m going to have to invest in some sort of clothes washing device…

* * * * *

The following morning, Nora led Liam through a back alley near the western edge of town. Of course, Liam left behind his bloodstained jacket after spending an inordinate amount of time washing it despite the lack of soap. It still hung just outside their bedroom window since it had yet to finish drying.

Rounding a corner, they bumped into a couple of hoodlums dressed in ragged clothes. One of them had a bandage strapped to his face. By the looks of things, they were probably no more than twenty years old. At first, it looked like they would start a fight, but they quickly backed off upon seeing Nora.

“Sorry, ma’am,” the bandaged one said. “We’ll get out of your way…” His last word ended up getting drawn out when he noticed Liam behind her as well. His body stiffened.

“Thanks for letting us through,” Nora said as she brushed past them.

Once they were out of earshot, Liam looked back and asked, “What was that about?”

“Ran into ‘em yesterday. They thought they could play with me a little. I denied them. End of story.”

“Mhm. Sounds rough,” Liam muttered. However, he wondered, Is she stronger than I thought, or were they just weak?

A minute later, she led him to a stairwell descending below a tavern. At the bottom, there was a wooden door with a knocker on it. Nora grabbed the metal ring and knocked in a pattern. Three taps; a pause; Two taps; a pause; One tap; a pause; Four taps.

In response, a peephole slid open and wary green eyes peered through. When the person saw Nora, the man spoke, though his voice was muffled slightly by the door. “So you came back already, woman? Er, wait. Password first.”

“The woman at the well was watering within the well,” Nora recited.

The peephole slid shut and several unlatching noises echoed on the other side of the door. It opened. A man garbed in dark, sleek clothing nodded and said, “Welcome, but keep your eyes peeled and ears open.”

“And never forget your knife,” Nora replied.

“Indeed… well, Boss is waiting for you, and he don’t like waiting.”

As Liam passed by, the man eyed him warily before slamming the door behind him and deadbolting it ten times over. The area they stepped into basically looked like a cellar that smelled moldy and damp. A single stone hallway lay before them, multiple doors to either side leading to unknown rooms.

While Nora led him down the hall, Liam asked, “Are you a member of the guild?”

“More like an honorary member since I always sold everything here,” she answered.

Nodding, Liam said, “I suppose that makes sense.”

At the end of the damp hallway, they reached a pair of double doors. Nora pushed them open. Both creaked with age and smelled of mildew. They stepped through into a fairly large room decorated with decidedly simple wooden tables and chairs as well as a simple bar in the center manned by two bartenders, one male and one female. Both wore simple serving clothes Liam had seen workers at restaurants wearing.

Only a few people, dressed in similar garb to the man up front, sat at a few tables. However, one stood apart from the rest. In the far corner, a lone man sat at a booth with chin resting on his hands. Although his sleek jacket, pants, boots, and dark green mantle garnered more attention than the clothing of the others in the room, his most notable feature was his hair, bedraggled yet somehow dapper. Its green color made it look like a wig composed of long blades of grass reaching just past his ears. Even his eyes glowed green like plants on a midsummer’s day. His face maintained the serious expression of one who had experienced many hardships, and the scars on his face and arms only served to prove the point. In spite of that, he looked no older than Liam himself.

Liam did not feel surprised when Nora led him to the man’s table and sat down. Before he could sit down as well, the man looked up at him and said, “Good to meet you, friend.”

“And you as well,” Liam replied, noticing the same lack of verity behind the man’s words as his own in such situations.

As soon as Liam sat in the booth next to Nora, the green-haired man gazed deep into his eyes and said, “It is good of you to come. My name is Doran.”