‘You know we don’t charge you for chewing, right?’ Leah called as Lan shovelled down the rest of his food before heading for the stairs, feeling better than he had in a long time.

‘No time!’ Lan called as he sprinted up the stairs, followed by half-muffled curses from the doors he passed as he stormed down the hallway.

Reaching his room, Lan retrieved the rest of his coin from his pack, keeping only what he thought he would need and placed the rest into the Other World Chest.

[Gold Dragons: 22 – Added]

[Silver Talons: 9 – Added]

Leaving him with the six Gold Dragons, nine silver pieces and ninety copper, which would cover anything he would need. With that, Lan looked over his gear. Despite all it had been through, most of it was in decent shape. Aside from his cloak, which looked more than well-worn already, his chest plate had taken the brunt of the damage, and even then, the most significant damage was a crack along the main plate, which Lan guessed had happened when the Goblin Titan grabbed him. Most of the leather looked like it had been pulled out of a cross-hatched drawing due to all the cut marks, with only a few deeper ones having found the skin the leather protected under.

Despite the blood stained into the wrappings, the steel on his odd sword looked just like the first time he had drawn it. In fact, looking closer, there was an almost pearl-like shine to the blade.

Remembering he could, Lan focused on his link to the blade.

[Odd straight sword Bonded to Landrin Cross the Light Marked. A blade forged by the smith Cawl, using uncommon materials for a sword of this type. The Odd Steel blade seems to have the ability to absorb fire magic.]

[Damage Score: 15]

Durability: + A

Rarity: unclassed

Quality: Skilful.

Construction: Odd steel – D, Edge – B, Point – D

Traits: Fused Tuning Core, Flame Eater.

[Link Level: 5]

The new text aside, the change to the stats surprised Lan the most. A plus durability… that didn’t make any sense. Just to be sure, Lan retrieved his mace.

[Well-made Iron Mace forged by the smith Cawl.]

[Damage Score: 12]

Durability: B

Rarity: Common.

Quality: Skillful.

Construction: Iron and wood – D, impact damage – C, edge F.

Traits: none

[Link Level: 5]

That was more of what he expected to see in turns of durability, as the more a tool or weapon was used, the lower the durability would fall, with the chances of it breaking rising in step. For his sword to not have dropped by even a half mark after so long seemed off. He hadn’t been gentle with the blade, and with his lack of experience, he should have weakened the sword as much as he did with the mace.

For it to have gotten more durable just didn’t make sense unless there was more oddity to the Odd Steel, but a self-healing sword could be dangerous, Lan reasoned as he tried to put a price on something like the blade in his hands.

Wars had been fought for swords with unique properties, and although it wasn’t indestructible as far as he knew, a healing blade could be worth a small fortune. Not to mention, it was able to absorb fire. Numbers started flashing in Lan’s mind, but before he could land on one, he forced himself back to reality.

He decided he could focus on that at another time before dropping the rest of his gear into the Other World Chest and leaving his room.

‘Bye, Lan!’ Leah called after him as Lan flew out the hall. Managing to catch himself by the doorframe, Lan stuck his head back inside.

‘Bye, and thanks again!’ He grinned before vanishing through the door and up the road, almost crashing into a young man carrying a bread basket.

‘Light, please no!’ the man shouted a little too dramatically as Lan twisted and jumped back.

‘Sorry.’ Lan apologised, allowing the young man to vent a little before starting up the road. Although a part of him felt like he needed to rush. He was sure his mother and father would be home at that time, so there was no need to hurry.

Even as Lan thought as much, the sounds of a living market filled his ears as he realised that he was almost halfway up the market district. It was the longest way to get to the gate leading to the village, and he had taken it without even thinking about it, which made him pause.

On one hand, he was rushing for no reason; on the other, he was unknowingly trying to delay reaching the village. At this, Lan noticed an odd rhythm in his chest.

It took a moment for him to remember what the feeling was. He was nervous. How could he be nervous? He had faced a horde of Razerwolves without flinching, had stood his ground against the horde of goblins and was even able to make jokes in the heart of their camp, all without batting an eye, but just going home was making his hands shake.

Sensing this thought, Tyr flew to hover in front of him before sending him a feeling that was a mix of worry and curiosity.

‘I’m fine,’ Lan said, conscious that to outsiders, he was just talking to himself after freezing on the street as Tyr had finally decided to cloak herself.

Once she was satisfied with the examination, Tyr did something new. She sent a feeling that was a question about something other than him. The moment she did, Tyr took off towards a large shop window with carved and painted flowers in the frame. Stopping to hover in front of it and sending the feeling again.

Surprised she could even interact this much, Lan walked over to see what had caught her attention.

As Lan stepped close enough to see past the sun's shine on the glass, he was greeted by an assortment of pastries. High-quality, expert-crafted-looking sweets, cakes and tarts formed bright-coloured flowers in a garden of sugar.

However, what Tyr was looking at lay in a small white box. Two shallow round pink, green, and blue domes were joined together by a filling in the matching colour laid upright in the box next to one another. Forming three neat rows.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Macarons… seeing them sent Lan's mind jettisoning into the past when he was still just a boy. Every day, he and his mother would go out for walks that took them past an odd little bakery that sold all manner of desserts and pastries that no one had ever seen before, which meant that there was always a line out the door. Even still, they would wait in line and buy a macaron to share, and every time, they would talk about how they would buy a whole box of them one day.

Something that was impossible back then because as everyone was trying to get something from the shop, the stock was always limited, and that was to say nothing of the price.

Once he started living with Dell, Lan had promised himself that when he became a merchant, a box of them would be the first thing he bought to show his mother he hadn’t forgotten, or it was a child's way of showing that all his sacrifices had been worth it.

Whatever it was, those thoughts had kept him warm on nights when the cold he felt had been more than just the chill in the air. And every time he had been in the city and able to walk past the shop, it would steel his will, making the next few days easier.

That was until the shop closed, and he tried not to think about it too much.

Seeing that the owner had reopened or someone had been able to recreate the recipe, amongst others, made Lan feel like layers of darkness wrapped around his heart had been shaken off. And… now he could keep his childish promise, only now it took on a different meaning.

Not one made for when he became a merchant but one of an adventurer. To say that he would come back no matter what he faced. The whole time, this box had been his sign that he had reached the point where he could stand on his own two feet. He would have to convince his family of it anyway, so this seemed like a good start in convincing himself.

Coming back to himself, Lan found Tyr still looking at the macarons, and Lan got the feeling it had something to do with the shape of the pastry. In her eyes, they must have looked like little sculptures of wisps, if not little effigies in her honour.

‘That reminds me, I never asked if you need to eat.’ Lan asked, and if Tyr had understood him, it was either a no or she thought it wasn’t important enough for him to know. So with that, Lan stepped into the shop.

As he did so, Lan momentarily felt like he had stepped into a woman’s restroom if the horrified looks of the well-to-do women around him were anything to go by.

Reflexively, Lan looked down at himself. No one would be mistaking him for a member of the Gentry anytime soon, but he looked far from scruffy. He wasn't even wearing a sword and had left his burnt cloak in the Other World Chest. But he might as well have been an ogre at a tea party with the way they stared at him.

Looking around, the café was far nicer than he had first thought, but it still wasn’t going to stop him.

‘This isn’t a Tavern, young man, so you must be lost.’ An older woman with blonde hair just starting to show with silver huffed before sipping from her tea. Which was enough to make the other women around her look like they would say something.

‘I'm well aware of that,’ Lan found himself saying, ‘the calibre of patrons was a dead giveaway.’ He ended with a grin that he didn’t know where had come from or clearly the noblewoman had expected, as she bristled while the younger women around her looked shocked. While women at another table gave Lan little giggles that only seemed to upset the woman even more.

Noticing that while all those at the older woman’s table were dressed in shades of white, all those at the new table were dressed in green, Lan guessed that he had unknowingly stumbled into a noble’s spat. One that he was saved from getting in the middle of a moment later when a voice called out to him.

‘Oh, a new customer.’ A cheerful voice said, which seemed to quell the rising hostility.

Looking up, Lan was greeted by someone that he did not expect to see: a woman of average height dressed in a fine dress and apron with unassuming blue eyes and blonde hair, which would have been common if not for the highlights of pink through it.

Lan knew that there were some genuinely odd hair colours out there, but hers had always stood out to him from the first time he saw her as a child.

‘It’s you!’ Both Lan and the woman said at the same time.

‘Wait, you remember me?’ Lan asked, surprised at the sudden change in the room.

‘I have only ever seen two people with eyes like that,’ She smiled, ‘You and your mother would come into my old shop every day. You two always looked like you had just walked out of a storybook.’ She said, looking wistful for a moment. ‘How is your mother anyway?’

‘She’s…’ Lan blinked. ‘Doing good.’ Lan said, hoping it was true.

‘That’s wonderful,’ the café owner smiled as everyone around watched the odd conversation play out with a mix of curiosity and bewilderment.

‘That’s why I am here.’ Lan added quickly, getting a more nostalgic smile from the woman.

‘I know exactly what you're here for,’ she turned, gesturing for him to follow her. ‘Although I have to say, after so many years, I am surprised that you recognised me.’ she said as they walked.

Aside from the fact that she looked like she hadn’t aged a day, there wasn’t anyone else he knew who could make the sweets she could.

‘You looked just like the last time I saw you, and I think your hair is just as unique as my eyes.’

‘Hmm, well, it never grew back the right colour after I came here, so it can’t be helped.’ She said off-handedly as she headed into the back of the café.

‘Oh, is it not normal where you are from?’ Lan asked, thinking that had to be the case. Changing one's hair colour was also common, but why would it change back on its own?’

‘Oh! Don’t worry about it.’ she said quickly, smiling as she popped her head out the doorway, a moment before her body followed along with a small open-top parcel with a single chocolate macaron in it. ‘Here you are,’ she smiled.

As Lan took the offered sweet, he knew that if anything else wasn’t enough to convince him this was the same pastry from his childhood, then seeing the odd soft, thin, yet crisp paper forming the little box that the macaron was in would do it.

That was if a single bite hadn’t sent his mind flashing back fifteen years.

Sitting next to the fountain near the start of the market district. Lan looked at the perfect little domes with the ring of glistening filling for the first time before taking a bite. The light, crisp shell gave way to the soft interior and filling of a sweetness that Lan had never tasted before, Lan thought as He looked up with stars in his eyes as he offered the rest to his mother, sure that she had to taste it too, and that was how it all started.

‘Hello, are you alright?’ the woman asked.

‘Sorry.’ Lan said quickly, ‘Just lost in thought for a moment. Although I am happy to see that even though the location has changed, these haven’t

‘Yeah, I guess I did just up and close out of nowhere. But it couldn’t be helped when some people didn’t like that I wouldn’t give them my recipes.’

‘Really.’ Lan asked, even though he understood exactly why that would happen.

‘Yeah, but now that the honey cake wars are over and I have more enthusiastic patrons, I don’t see myself closing again.’ The woman grinned.

‘Well, miss?’ Lan started.

‘Lucy.’ She smiled. ‘Feels a little odd doing this now, right?’

‘Landrin,’ Lan smiled back. ‘But people I like call me Lan. Well, I guess people I don’t do too.’ he shrugged, making her chuckle.

‘Well, Lan, that first one was on the house for old-time sake.’ Lucy said, which made the older woman, who, along with the rest, had been watching, huff. ‘Anything else I can do for you.’

‘There is, if you have it. I would like a box of macarons. It can be whichever ones you have as long as there are a few chocolate ones.’ Lan said.

‘It seemed you haven’t forgotten the rules.’ Lucy smiled as she headed to the back, leaving Lan alone in the café with the women, including the newest member to his list of enemies who didn't seem to like that he knew Lucy in any way.

‘What’s this rule.’ The woman asked.

‘Oh, no hogging any one item.’ Lan smiled.

After a few minutes, under the woman’s frosty stare, Lucy returned with a box a little larger than the one in the window, including a whole row of the chocolate kind.

‘The other good thing about this shop is that I can make more at once. The rule is a little looser now.’ Lucy explained as Lan gave her a questioning look.

But it was nothing compared to the look he gave her when she said the price. A Silver talon; ten silver pieces. Which Lan guessed made sense once he could think again. There were thirty in the box, and the café's clientele seemed different from the past. Although the price had almost doubled, the new shop on the main street alone would call for a raising of prices, and that was to say nothing of the fact a place that served nobles would have to buy from one particular supplier that catered to nobles, meaning even higher costs.

It looked like the woman would say something about that momentarily but stopped short when Lan reached for his coins and cleared her throat.

Turning, Lan found her pointedly not looking at him while the women at the other table seemed to be appraising him, and some seemed to have started seeing past his clothes to his physical appearance.

Before they could draw any wild conclusions about who he might be. Lan spotted a new woman, who Lan guessed worked for Lucy, carrying something that held just as much sentimental value, which, to his delight, was just ready for sale. So, with a promise that he would be back and the second basket he needed to buy in a week full of his bounty, Lan made a hasty retreat as a woman in green looked ready to ask for his name.