Astrid threw herself down on the bed as soon as she returned to her room. Her first day as a security guard had gone by mostly uneventful, but walking around for eight hours was exhausting, not to mention boring. Still, she was glad nothing had happened, as she doubted Filip would be much help in an emergency. He had looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown the whole time, and nothing Astrid said seemed to reassure him.

Deciding it would be a shame not to enjoy the festivities outside while they lasted, she dragged her body back up and went out to the marketplace.

The streets were packed with people walking forth and back between the stands, buying food and drink. She got some dinner for herself, as the food options here were more interesting than the thin stew the inn had to offer.

After eating, she went to the academy. The final duel of the day would start soon, and she wanted to see it.

Lots of people had already gathered by the training ground, but she spotted Villads and Brigitta sitting on the grass, waiting for the final duel to start. Astrid went over to them and sat down beside Brigitta.

“How was your day?” Astrid asked them both.

“It was fine,” Brigitta said. “I think I managed to convince a few kids to join our class once they are old enough.”

"Well, my day was boring,” Villads said. “I just walked around on my own since everyone else was working.”

“You could just have signed up for something. You brother signed up for several things.” Astrid said.

“Walter hardly has a choice. He has overseen Largon’s security since he graduated.

“That doesn’t mean you couldn’t have signed up for something and maybe helped him out a bit. At least then you would have had something to do.”

“As if you didn’t just spend the entire day walking around,” Villads countered.

“I also helped a child find their parents again. I have heard that the day shifts are usually the slowest, so not much happened. I have the evening shift tomorrow though.”

“The final duel is about to start.” An announcer said, and Astrid turned her attention towards the field. Two older students she didn’t know stepped inside the dueling ring and bowed to each other. One was a dark-skinned girl with long braided hair, and the other was a tall brown-haired boy. Both wore grey shirts and pants.

Astrid wasn’t sure what she had expected from the duel between the older students. She knew that both their offensive magic skill and their defensive magic skill were at level two, as that was a requirement for moving on to the next class. So was getting enough grade tokens and passing an exam.

Still, she was surprised to see how much better these students were compared to her and her classmates. They threw spell after spell with practiced ease. The duelists moved so fast it was hard to keep track of all the things that were happening. They fought for several minutes, each trying to get the upper hand. Astrid couldn’t tell if either of them were succeeding. As soon as she thought one of them had the other on the defensive, it would change a second later with a well-timed dodge and counterattack.

Astrid couldn’t wait until she was as strong as these duelists. Then no monster would be able to bother her. No, that wasn’t necessarily the case. Dueling and fighting monsters were two very different things. Walter and all his other teammates would have their weapons skills in at least level two and likely closing in on level three, but they still didn’t take lightly on fighting monsters.

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After about ten minutes, the duel ended when the boy of the duelist didn’t dodge fast enough and took a glancing blow to the arm.

*

The next morning, Astrid allowed herself to sleep in a bit, something she had never really done before. Back on the farm, she had always been up with the sun to start on her chores, as that was the only way to complete them all before it got dark. The habit had carried on as she settled into her new life in the city.

The only reason she had allowed for this exception was because she had the evening shift that wouldn’t end until midnight. She needed to be well rested for that. Still, she found it difficult to sleep much more than an hour longer than usual. Eventually she gave up on trying and got out of bed.

She went downstairs, paid the innkeeper for another night, and went to get breakfast. Then she left for the market. The stalls were just beginning to open, so she spent a while just walking around looking at all the things on display.

When she looked around the city, she also saw the increasing number of refugees sitting on the side of the streets, as there was nowhere else for them to go. It wouldn’t matter if they had enough money to pay for a room at an inn, as there simply wasn’t any left. Even the temples were filled, although the gods only offered shelter to their own followers.

Many of the refugees came from villages, and Astrid found it hard to imagine monsters strong enough to send dozens of people running. Why didn’t they stay and fight? Especially since you would be leaving everything behind. Even her dad had tried to fight off the wolves, although with no success.

Then again, attacks would happen so fast that there wouldn’t be time to organize a defense. There hadn’t been when her farm was attacked. Don’t think about that, she scolded herself. Thoughts of her old life appeared less and less as time passed, but the memories were still painful whenever they showed up. To distract herself, she went to the park to participate in some of the games that had been set up. It would do her good to spend a few hours just being a child.

*

Later that afternoon, Astrid hurried as much as she could through the crowded streets to get to the meeting point in time. She had thought she had plenty of time to get there, but it took a lot longer than she had anticipated to get anywhere with all the people milling about. Apologies and pleas to let her through flew from her moth as she tried to get through the masses faster. Walter wouldn’t take kindly to anyone arriving late.

With relief, she joined the group waiting outside the building where they met up before the shift started. Not even a minute later, Walter stepped out and began giving instructions.

“As this is an evening shift, we must assume that trouble will occur.” Walter said. “Therefore, we will be going out in teams of three where at least one member is an experienced guard.” He began assigning people their groups before sending them out into the city. There would be three groups of three patrolling the streets, and each group had their own route to follow.

Astrid was teamed up with Filip and a grumpy middle-aged man with gray hair and a scared face. His name was Gorm, and Astrid wasn’t sure what had made him this unhappy, but she hoped it wouldn’t affect his work performance. He was supposed to be the experienced member of the team after all. She took the staff that was handed to her, and the three of them began their route.

They had barely made it past the temple grounds before they heard a commotion. A large crowd had gathered, which made it impossible to see what was going on. However, it was clear from the screams that it was nothing good.

“Sounds like someone is fighting,” Gorm grinned.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Filip asked.

“Aren’t you?” he retorted. Filip went deathly pale, and for a moment Astrid thought he was going to pass out.

“I... uhm...” he stammered. “You’re the adult, so you really should deal with this.”

“I don’t feel like it. Whoever is taking a beating probably deserves it.”

Astrid looked at Gorm in disbelief. No one deserved to get beaten up, and it was their responsibility to ensure the safety of the citizens. That entailed stopping fights. She wanted to tell Gorm off for not doing his job, but she doubted it would work. Besides, the longer the fight went on, the more likely it became that someone would get seriously hurt. Since neither of her teammates seemed up to the task, Astrid figured she had to step in herself. She would have to tell Walter how Gorm was acting. No excuse would be good enough to justify him not stepping in when that was the job he had signed up for.

“I’ll handle it,” Astrid said resolutely, and with as much confidence as she could muster, she marched over to deal with the commotion.