"I am unsatisfied that it is still an open-ended question whether my son is missing or dead, but you have still fulfilled to-the-letter the requirements of the quest. As I am an honest lady, I hereby consider this quest completed. I suppose I will have to open up a new quest for only information, concerning whether he was killed by the monster or escaped. That will probably be a more fair apprentice quest than this was, regardless. My apologies for the incredible danger you four have exposed yourself to in my name. I will reward you with more than was promised, as a form of recompense. Of course, the difference is not a valuation of the danger to your lives, but token of apology, so please take no offense."

With the wave of a hand, the duchess appearifies a giant bag of coins on the floor between her and the party.

"I recognize that you four have not yet decided on a party name, so for the purpose of this quest, we will fill it out as all four of your names. Do you have any aliases you would rather we use?"

"No," says Max. He's already asked the others about all this. No objections to the usual way of doing things.

The duchess nods.

"From Duchess Moria Sensis to the four novice-become-adventurer youths, Max, Igni, Zero, and Shauna, is herein written a letter of recognition as legally-observed adventurers, and a recognition that other polities, nations, kingdoms, and interpolitical entities also recognize as such; formally, under charter of..."

As she reads the glorified quest-completion-acceptance-plus-graduation-recommendation letter, everyone spaces out, unable to pick out more than a few words.

----------------------------------------

It didn't take that long to get back to the big city. They managed to catch a lucky ride with one of the few caravans passing through Foxmere, with Foxmere's trading association paying for their ride, as thanks for basically saving the town. And then they went back to the Assembly, found Leo, sat down, and told the story. At first, he didn't believe them, but the duchess walked in and explained that she got a letter from Foxmere town hall detailing exactly the same story, with some of the details elided. From there, Leo and the duchess worked out the details of the quest completion in another room, and she came back out and loaded all of that money on them. That incredibly stupid amount of money. The whole situation was so uncomfortable that the party would rather put it behind them, not dwell on the details.

Fast forward to later that night, at the inn. Naturally, they can't stay with the Assembly anymore, no longer being students, and they have no problem affording an inn now.

So they've got a nice big single room with four beds, one for each of them, and plenty of extra space. Plenty of room to lounge around and chat without it getting weird.

"...What should we call ourselves?"

"The Four Warriors of Light?"

"Not that."

"The Writers of Emptiness!"

"Zero."

"Sorry."

Igni speaks up.

"Last Knight. With a K."

"You too?!" Shauna yells.

Shauna is dumbdounded. Is Zero rubbing off on Igni? Can that even be a thing? No way. No way. Zero is all about the awkward half-formal half-histrionic stuff, not puns. Maybe this is what Igni is like underneath her hard-to-penetrate outer layers.

"...Sorry," Igni says.

And now Shauna feels guilty. She shouldn't have reacted like that, there's a chance that it hurt.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Er, I, uh..."

"Don't worry about it."

Shauna turns her head. She has to worry about it. But at this rate, what if she does something she can't undo? What if she did something she can't undo?

...Well. For now, until they all get to know each other better, all she can really do is hope that she doesn't mess anything up too hard. Time heals all wounds, or at least most of them.

"Sorry." This time, from Shauna to Igni, not the other way around.

Igni repeats herself. "Don't worry about it."

Their party name will have to wait a while longer.

"So, uh, about this money. This is a lot of money! More than I could ever imagine using!"

"Don't you think we should give some to the traders? They're kind of the only reason we managed to do this in the first place..."

"They already got their cut. See? That's what this line here does." Max holds up a piece of contract paper, his thumb pointed at a specific line.

"Ah."

"Not a penny to spare for the hard-working self-made."

"Zero."

"Yes. Sorry."

"Max, where should we go next? What do we do next? Igni, you're not leaving, are you?"

"...I'm not."

"That's great!"

"Let's see... I always wanted to visit my parents when I finally made it. It took a while for me, you know? Getting here, where we are now. Not just a week or two like it took you."

"Where do they live?"

"Oh, nowhere special."

"Max is from the town of Kings, in the south."

"Igni!"

"...Of Kings?"

"You're not familiar with the area, right? The town's name is Kings. Nothing to do with any actual kings."

"That's weird."

"Hmph."

"Oh no, the dragon is huffing and puffing."

"Maybe I should leave."

"No, please don't! I'm sorry, so sorry!"

"Turn the theatrics down."

"Yes. Sorry. But actually sorry."

Later that night, Shauna awakens early. As does Igni. And Zero. One after the other. In the dim room, illuminated by moonlight filtered through the window, they nod to one another. They need not exchange any words. They've already worked out what they're about to do.

Max is still asleep, snoozing with a silly smile on his face and his covers half-overturned. Zero looks over him, and then turns to the two girls, with a silent, unspoken question. They nod.

Zero puts his hand on Max's shoulder. It's now or never. No pity for those who break their promises, and none for those who forget the plans they make.

Tension fills the air.

Without warning, Zero shakes Max violently. And he whispers, wake up, dummy!

"Ngh...?"

Max is still barely half asleep. How can he forget such an important promise?

"Max, we were leaving as soon as we had a chance, weren't we? We have to go, wake up!"

Max stares back at Zero as the half-asleep gears in his head turn in slow motion. They're almost making creaking sounds. It's that bad, and that awkward.

Oh! The change in expression on his face is so sudden, and so extreme, that it makes it feel like his thoughts are audible. Fully animated, he stumbles out of bed and into the corner, where a changing curtain is already set up. Last to awake, first to change into real clothes.

Minutes later, once they're all fully clothed, they head out under cover of darkness, and slip away, headed for Kings.

Down the street, behind them, a robed lady watches them depart. She promised she'd visit, after all, just to make sure everything's all right. And it does seem to be. All is well.

----------------------------------------

"Shauna, wake up!"

It was two past noon, and the sun would have been beating in through her windows if she hadn't closed the curtains before going to bed.

"Shauna! You've slept in!"

The door opened, and in walked a tall, thin girl in a light dress.

Shauna rubbed her eyes.

"Sis?"

"Are you still half asleep?"

Wince. A bit of sleepy-sand got back in her eyes when she tried to rub it out. The absolute worst.

"Ugh..."

"You didn't sleep well, huh."

Her sister sat down on the edge of Shauna's bed and put her hand on her forehead, wondering if she might be sick.

"My! You have a fever!"

"Ngh...?"

"Please lay back down, I'll be back with tea right away!"

No. Something bad is about to happen. Something really, really bad. Please don't go. Come back. You're going to—

But she's already gone and out the door.

"...Shannon... Come back..."

She never came back.

So goes one of Shauna's last childhood memories, one of the ones that wasn't taken away by the fever or the heat.

"Shauna, wake up!"

Huh?

Shauna stands there on the highroad, a good three yards behind the rest of the party.

"Did you just space out?"

"...I guess so. I was having a flashback."

"Oh yeah? About wh—"

About what, Max was about to ask, before remembering that Shauna's personal history is full of horrible trauma. He puts on an awkward forced smile and shakes off the topic.

"The moon is waning, we should make as much progress as we can! Soon we'll only be able to travel by daylight! So don't slow us down!" He says it all in a playful tone, not a scolding one.

"Yesirree!" She jogs a little and catches up.

What's she reminiscing for, anyway? The past is the past. There's no going back. For better or worse, only the future matters.