“No can do!” Lucy raised her finger to her head and shook them both fervently. “The request was to kill the wolf. If that wasn't done then Lucy can't pay you.”

They'd returned to the scout’s guild hall after their encounter with the wolf to try and get compensation for their efforts. But, according to Lucy, they could not because they didn't manage to kill it.

“But we managed to chase it off... Is that not good enough?” Mahiro tried to convince her, but she didn't seem to be having it.

“Nope. You were supposed to kill it. Kill it. That's completely different from chasing it away, isn't it?”

That meant they would not be given a single copper. Zilch. Nothing.

Keisuke looked down, defeated. “Then that means we don't have any money at all. What are we supposed to do now?”

Lucy shrugged. “Lucy doesn't know. But she cannot give you the reward if the quest wasn't completed. That's how it works. There are no leeways!”

“Right…,” Mahiro said and they all waddled off.

The three party members were seated at a table in a corner of the guild hall. It was late at night, so it was fairly busy. The guild also served food and drinks, so it filled in as a tavern for scouts. Naturally, that was who it was occupied with. People were sharing stories of their quests and drinking the night away.

Keisuke's group could not join in on the fun, however. They looked down and depressed seated at their table. Why wouldn't they be? Their first quest had ended in failure, after all. It seemed like they were the only ones, too. Everyone who'd arrived with them seemed to have had success on their quests.

They were all basking in tales of each other's glories. Meanwhile, Keisuke, Mahiro, and Fumiko couldn't even afford food. All they could do was sit and watch everyone else and listen to how they managed to attain success.

It was beyond depressing. The three of them sat in strained silence for almost ten minutes.

“Who would've thought it was going to be that hard, huh?” Keisuke said. He was running his finger over his right forearm, recalling the wounds that were there but an hour ago.

All of it was real. The pain, the experience, the wolf. It was just like that time he got struck by an arrow. He could've easily been killed both times.

“I’m hungry...” Fumiko placed her arms around her stomach.

“I know,” said Mahiro, sighing. “We will eat soon, okay? I promise.”

Keisuke eyed the hall from table to table. He noticed a couple of familiar faces. Ryoma and his party were seated on the second floor of the hall. They were surrounded by other scouts who were showering them with high praise. Apparently, they had completed yet another difficult quest.

Keisuke's table was suddenly approached by someone they knew. “You guys look miserable,” said Noburu. He took a seat beside Keisuke.

“Noburu-kun... How did your first quest go?” Mahiro asked him.

Noburu outstretched his arms wide, and smiled even wider. “Well! I joined a party and we hunted down a couple of goblins. You get five copper for bringing in one of the weird necklaces they wear. I got three of the bastards!”

Fumiko asked, “What are these goblins...?”

“Yeah. Short, green, ugly things. They’re kind of like…little children? No, that sounds wrong.”

“I’m happy your first quest was a success, Noburu-kun.” Mahiro smiled but there was grief behind it.

“And? How did yours go?”

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Keisuke placed a hand over the bite marks on his arm. Fumiko said that they would disappear eventually, but at the moment they were clear to see. “Not so well, to be honest with you.”

“Yeah, we couldn't even get any money.”

“Huh? What do you mean you couldn't even get any money?”

“We didn't really complete our quest, see,” Mahiro said. According to Lucy.”

“Don't tell me...!” Noburu suddenly stood up and slammed his hands on the table. “You guys! Have you eaten?!”

Keisuke was ashamed enough not to answer. Mahiro and Fumiko couldn’t bring themselves to reply, either. It was embarrassing to admit that they couldn't afford to feed themselves.

“Seriously?” Noburu looked stunned.

Mahiro managed to put on a brave smile. “It’s all right. We'll get our act together tomorrow.”

“Don't give me that.” Noburu raised his hand. “Hey! Excuse me! Can I get help here?”

“Um, Noburu-kun? What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I'm doing, Mahiro? I'm getting you guys something to eat. Duh.”

Mahiro blinked a few times, then waved his arms around. “Wait, what? No, no, you don’t need to go that far!”

“Shut up, man.”

Keisuke also wasn’t sure about this. He opened his mouth to voice protest, but Noburu stopped him before he could, noticing. He frowned at Keisuke. “Don’t even think about it,” he said.

“But…”

“Fine, then. You two may be fine with no food, but is Fumiko?”

Keisuke’s eyes widened. Right, we have Fumiko to think about as well, he remembered. He turned his attention toward her. She was looking down at the table, saying nothing, but her face was telling.

Mahiro must’ve noticed that as well because he nodded his head stiffly and said, “Thank you, Noburu-kun. We will pay you back as soon as possible.”

“Don’t worry about it. The food is cheap here, anyway. So, just eat up, okay?”

Three bowls of thick stew of barley, carrots, and onion, hot and freshly-made, were brought to their table by one of the guild hall’s serving wenches. The savoury smell had caught Keisuke by surprise, filling his nostrils, and he realised just how hungry he had been by the watering of his mouth. Noburu had truly done them a service.

The stew was served with thick black bread and a jug of water. Noburu promised to treat them to ale some other time, but Mahiro vehemently refused, saying this already was plenty. Keisuke had to agree.

Before he attacked the stew, Keisuke bowed his head, closed his eyes, and clasped his hands together. “Thank you for the food.”

When he opened his eyes again, everyone else was staring at him. A single eyebrow raised, Noburu asked, “Eh? Like I said, don’t mention it. You don’t have to be that sincere. You’ll make me blush…”

“What? No, I was—” Keisuke couldn't finish what he was saying. All of a sudden, he realised that he didn’t really know himself. “Um. Huh? I think it's like… I don’t know, actually…”

“This guy,” Noburu sighed. “Are you sure you can work with someone like this, Mahiro? He doesn’t seem all there. Like, you know, mentally.” He tapped a finger on his temple as if to say Keisuke had a few screws loose up there.

“Th-thanks for the food,” a voice muttered. It was Fumiko. Apparently she had bowed her head and did as Keisuke did.

Noburu looked at Fumiko, then back at Keisuke back and forth. “Huh? Am I missing something? Is this some important thing? …Wait, um, I guess it is?”

“Somehow, it feels natural,” said Mahiro, bowing his head too. “Thanks for the food.”

Noburu scratched his temple with his forefinger and looked up at the ceiling, thinking. “Hmm. Now that you mention it, I guess it does feel familiar. Thanks for the food, huh…”

When they were done offering their thanks to whoever, Keisuke rolled his sleeves and attacked his bowl like a starved animal. He broke off a heel of bread and dipped it into the soup, put it in his mouth, and swallowed it. In terms of taste, it was nothing spectacular, but that didn’t matter to Keisuke.

During his time in the fighter’s union, he’d been fed three times a day. The food was mostly tasteless gruel and porridge, with not much in terms of enjoyment. It was safe to say that this soup he was eating now was the best he’s had since arriving in Altear.

The same must’ve went for Mahiro and Fumiko as well, because they seemed to be enjoying their food just like Keisuke was. It was almost as if the incident with the wolf earlier hadn’t happened. The three of them continued to eat in silence.

“Say, you guys…,” Noburu began, looking at them, “do you have a place to sleep?”

Keisuke and Mahiro both looked up. “A place to sleep?” Keisuke demurred.

He and Mahiro looked at each other and their eyes widened.

They realised that they hadn’t given it any thought.