Bella’s POV

I pressed off the bed and met the pair of dark green eyes. He raised an eyebrow at me. “You woke up suddenly. What’s the matter?” he asked, his morning voice still quite deep.

“Were you watching me in my sleep?” I asked

“Of course. Why do you think I wake up earlier than you most mornings?” Kelly asked with a slight yawn.

I just smiled and tossed the covers off, doing a giant over-the-head stretch. I felt my back quiver as a bolt of lightning shot through my muscles, and I let out a soft moan. Morning stretches like that were always the best.

“And I’m greeting someone. I smelled them coming,” I said as I walked to the door.

“Hey? Wait, shouldn’t you at least cover yourself up?” he asked, a bit concerned.

I just waved his concern away. “Nah. It’s nothing she hasn’t seen before. She’s seen every part of me. We’ve been together for far too long to care about something like being naked.”

“I’m not sure if I should be excited or concerned,” Kelly muttered to himself.

I just giggled and opened the door. A pale hand was in the middle of knocking, but she just looked up at me slightly with her cyan eyes. Her nose twitched, and she looked just past me, only to stare with a blank expression.

“Good morning, Kelly,” Veme said in her usual dry tone.

“Ah, good morning, Veme,” Kelly responded.

“What? Aren’t you going to greet me?” I asked playfully.

Veme’s cold eyes and doll-like expression rarely ever changed. She didn’t even sigh at times. She was a true ice queen, but that’s what I loved about her. And even though she was an ice queen, she wasn’t entirely emotionless.

“I’ve seen enough as it is, Bell—hey—wait, stop, this isn’t the time, your fiancee is—” Veme said, backing away from me and keeping me at arm’s length. Her hand sank into my chest, eliciting a moan from me, and I pretended to cover myself somewhat, making sure not to knock her hand away.

Veme’s eyes darkened somewhat, but her tail swishing side to side gave it away. I could always count on making her a bit awkward. But her eyes immediately hardened, and I knew that was the sign to stop messing around.

Veme cleared her throat and released my chest. “We have been summoned.”

“By whom? Don’t tell me the guild is going—”

“It’s not the guild. The quest is ready. We are setting out,” Veme explained.

“Ah, is it, huh? Well, I’ll get ready. I should be good to go in like fou—”

“You are to be ready in two hours maximum,” Veme said curtly.

“Hey, that’s not very nice coming from the group leader. It takes time to get ready,” I pouted, crossing my arms.

Veme stared blankly. “We are to meet with the other party sooner than expected. Things have already been handled. But I am no longer the party leader. So I willingly passed it on to the new member.”

Huh?

“You passed on the role? To who? Not many people would outrank you. Did Kaladin hire some big shot without telling us?” I questioned.

Veme shook her head. “It’s far more complicated than that. The sooner you get ready and clothe yourself, the sooner I’ll explain it.” Veme ducked to the side and waved stiffly. “Goodbye, Kelly. I will see you when we return.”

Kelly just chuckled. “Yeah, good to see you too, Veme. Keep Bell safe for me, okay? And thanks for agreeing to go with her in my stead. Oh, and make sure you come back. It wouldn’t be right if you didn’t make it on our last quest.”

“Of course. I will return her so you can deal with her for the rest of your life,” Veme said dryly.

I snapped my head back and glared at him. “Are you trying to jinx her?! What is your problem?! Don’t say that to an adventurer that’s about to retire!”

“Well, you are also about to retire, so I guess—”

I grabbed my friend by the shoulder and shook her. “NO! STOP! YOU ARE GOING TO BRING US BAD LUCK! ARE YOU INSANE?”

“Superstitions are nothing. I’ve had enough bad luck for ten lives. By anyone’s standard of luck, you and I should be rotting in the ground somewhere,” Veme said calmly as she turned her head and took my hands off her shoulders. “Please move your chest sacks from my face. I’ll be waiting in the usual spot. Goodbye,” she said, turning on her heels and closing the door.

Kelly just laughed to himself as he got out of bed. “Veme really is amazing. She’s pretty funny without even realizing it.”

I turned around and planted a foot in front of him, not bothering to hide my frustration. “What, don’t tell me you want to marry her as well? And I can’t believe you said that…do you want me to die?”

“No…I’m having a hard enough time handling you. I don’t need or want a second woman in my life,” Kelly said.

“Awww, how cute…now why do you want me dead!” I shouted.

He chuckled to himself and started his morning routine of stretching. If it were any other time, I would pounce on him for being just so…handsome. “It’s just like she said. Superstitions are nothing to worry about. Besides, it’s not like you are going off to slay a high-threat level monster or something. You are retrieving a single person, sending them back with the others, and going to look for your brother in Ostela, right?”

“You just don’t get it,” I groaned as I wobbled off to start packing.

“So, it’s gonna be a while until I see you again, right?” he asked quietly.

I felt a pang in my heart when he asked me that. I had lived a long life, and many people had said similar things to me— I never once felt anything at their words. Some of them were even more in “love” with me than Kelly, but…none of them were like him. None of them made me feel the same way that he did.

I guess this is why I love him. Who would have thought that, huh?

It pained me to leave him after we decided to share our lives together, but I couldn’t leave my brother out there, not when I knew where he was. Sorn might have a knack for getting himself in trouble and being a major pain in the neck. But he was the brother who always protected Veme and me. So leaving him to rot under some scummy noble in the City States didn’t sit right with me.

One last time…if Sorn goes off on his own again and gets captured, I’ll have to just chalk it up to fate and move on.

“Yeah, at least a year just to get there and back, but it’ll probably be longer,” I told him.

“That’s a generous estimate,” he said back.

“Not really. Normally stopping to do quests to make ends meet and walking to places is how something like this usually goes.” I turned around and winked at him as I slid some clothes on. “But our backer is rather powerful this time, so there aren’t many obstacles. We are going to be riding in carriages and moving straight through until we arrive. I’m half expecting it to take longer to find Sorn than it will to get to his last known location.”

A complicated expression formed on his handsome features. I just sighed and knelt down in front of him. “You shouldn’t be so hard on the guy. He’s just a kid and the son of that woman. You can’t really hold it against him, can you? And I know it’s not the best thing to say, but…the war is over, Kel. Holding that grudge will just eat away at you for no reason.”

He sighed deeply and sprawled out on the floor. “You have a point…it’s just…hard, I guess. I had trained with a lot of those guys for most of my life. I thought I was over it, but I guess not.”

Letting go of those who died was a crucial aspect of being an adventurer. You went to one guild hall for years only to leave for a month and come back to see so many faces missing. The pubs you used to visit were filled to the brim with familiar voices, only never to hear them ever again. It was hard, but it was life.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

He parted his morning hair from his face and randomly started doing crunches on the cold floor. “I don’t blame him or anything. It’s difficult to separate him now that I’ve seen the connection. He looks a lot like his mom.”

“Well, I guess he does. Not that I’ve seen her or anything. But if she is as pretty as he is handsome, then I understand how it might be hard to separate them,” I said with a smirk as I looked down at him.

Kelly gave me a blank stare but ended up sighing deeply. “Calling a student of mine handsome is rather awkward, Bella.”

“Oh? Is it? But you seem more jealous than bothered,” I giggled.

He started getting up off the floor slowly. “Maybe I should teach you a lesson straight from the Professor Garrison textbook that you’ll never forge—oof.”

I pressed him back down to the floor with a foot. “I don’t think so. You had your fun last night, and leaving you with a sense of longing, so you miss me more sounds way more fun—besides, captain’s orders,” I said with a salute.

Kelly chuckled to himself and let his body collapse altogether. “Understood, ” he groaned. But a warm smile spread across his face that made my heart flutter. “I’ll be awaiting your return, Lady Garrison.”

Ugh, I just want to eat him up.

—

I finished packing quickly, as I had long since prepared for this quest. Considering that I would be gone for a year or more, I was basically taking everything. Which, for someone like me, wasn’t much.

Traveling light was the adventurer's way. Having large amounts of clothes or luxury goods on your person just wasn’t feasible if you didn’t have a home base. I guess I could have bought a Spatial Ring, but those things were expensive. Even as a future lady-to-be, tossing around that kind of money willy-nilly was difficult.

I mean, I had to learn etiquette and stuff which was a real pain. I never imagined myself giving a single damn about half of this stuff, but I had no intention of embarrassing my lovely husband all because I was a commoner. Even though he said he didn’t care because he was a commoner, it just didn’t sit right with me being a burden when I could do something.

Sigh…maybe after this is all said and done, I’ll get Kaladin to get me a ring…that could be his gift for our marriage.

Either way, with my remaining time, I went out and purchased what I needed for my travels which just consisted of rations and any miscellaneous gear that I needed. I had my weapons and armor cleaned and ready to go.

I just needed to meet up with my lovely friend, who I found waiting for me. She was bundled up in a warm fur jacket that matched her gray hair, and she had even bought herself some new Goliath leather armor which was quite fancy, along with a cobalt chest plate. She looked dashing in her new black and blue outfit.

“You are surprisingly on time. I gave you two hours expecting three,” Veme said with a hint of amusement.

“Wait! You are saying that I had time to kill! I could have had one more passionate morning with my husband!” I whined.

Veme's blank eyes never wavered. “I thought you had enough, judging by your lack of attire this morning. I guess I should have expected your lust would never be sated. But it’s probably a good thing. If you got pregnant and then left on our quest, that would be disastrous for us.”

I pointed a finger at Veme. “Hey! I’ve been a good girl ever since I agreed to go on this quest! No kids just yet! Besides, I’m not even in heat, so—”

Veme shrugged. “Well, whatever, go inside and report to the guild of your departure. Our party leader should be here soon.”

I was about to argue with her for a moment, but I stopped myself. “Hey, aren’t you mad? I know that Kaladin has given us a payment that far exceeds a quest like this, but to take you off of party leader? That’s kinda pissing me off. Don’t tell me he hired some big shot because he didn’t trust us to get the job done.”

Veme looked up at the morning sky. Snow had already begun to fall, and it was cold enough that I had to wear pants, which really irked me. I hated having my legs covered. Covering them made my skin crawl.

“At first, I was angry, yes. Normally when you are removed from a party leadership position in a quest, that means your pay gets cut, and the quest giver doesn’t trust you, but none of that happened. Kaladin kept my pay and said I didn’t even have to relinquish it if I didn’t want to. But in the end, it was the right choice.”

“Okay? So who is it? I—”

“Good morning, Veme and Ball Busting Bella. It is good to see you both in good health,” a deep toneless voice called out from behind me.

The voice came from a tall man clad from head to toe in pitch-black Mythril armor with an Emerald adventurer tag hanging from his neck. His cobalt halberd rested on his shoulder, and a brown backpack was strapped to his back. He felt as imposing as ever, no matter how many times we met.

I had smelled him before he even walked up since he always gave off a weird smell. I knew he lived in the capital, and we were outside the Adventurer's Guild, so it was nothing to be surprised about. But the man was always a bit awkward to deal with.

“Mornin, Twilight, what brings you here?” I asked, trying to be friendly. There were zero reasons to get on this guy’s bad side. And he was always kind, if not just weird.

The man tilted his helmeted head to the side. I was honestly confused whenever he did that. Was he trying to be cute? Was it a way to express any form of emotion? I had no idea. I just wished he stopped doing that.

“Have you not been informed? I have taken over as the party leader for this quest,” he stated.

I raised an eyebrow and looked over to Veme, but she closed her eyes and nodded. Now, everything made sense. Well, not everything, because I had no reason why somebody like the Twilight Knight would be interested in a quest offered by Kaladin. But at least I understood Veme’s decision.

“I suppose not…we were just waiting for the final bit of information, but…why is someone like you going on a quest like this?” I asked.

“I understand that you are skeptical, considering this is abnormal. However, I request that you understand my position before making further judgments on the matter. I am here for personal reasons to reclaim the honor I have sullied. I hope that you understand my predicament,” he explained.

No…no, I don’t understand a damn thing. Sullied honor? Did Kaladin beat the crap out of this guy or something?

“Can you maybe explain it so I can understand better? I’m a bit slow here,” I said with an awkward chuckle.

The Twilight Knight stood entirely motionless for a time. It was awkward, considering we were out in the open and people were staring as they shimmied by his giant frame.

“Yes, I believe I am allowed to explain my position somewhat. But I believe this is neither the time nor the place. We have a carriage to catch to Curia. I have procured our tickets, please finish your business inside, and I will regroup with you at the main gate,” he explained.

Well, this ought to be interesting. But having an Emerald-ranked adventurer all but guaranteed success. He would be a real help considering he is comfortable in the Iron Citadel as well.

—

The journey to Curia usually took a whole week, but that was only if things went as planned. Winter was upon us, which meant more monsters, more fighting, and more stopping. It was a hassle, but it just came with the job. It was a shame we didn’t have a mage with us.

Almost two weeks later, we finally arrived at the city’s gates. On the bright side, that little adventure was an excellent way to warm up for what was to come as well as get used to how we fought together. Not that it was a challenge or anything.

The Twilight Knight wasn’t an Emerald-ranked adventurer for nothing. The guy cleaved monsters and bandits alike in half with a single swing of his massive halberd. He was fast in that full plate set, and it honestly surprised me with how nimble he was. It was almost like the armor was just a part of his body at this point.

But in between the fighting, it was also a way for us to become more acquainted. At first, we didn’t talk all that much. Veme was always on the quiet side, and she could go hours without even so much as breathing too loud. It was much the same for the Twilight Knight.

I curbed my boredom by teasing the carriage driver and his young daughter, but even that got boring fast. Thankfully, Twilight was ready to spill the details on why somebody like him was even considering a quest of this level.

Basically, it was a family issue mixed in with his wounded pride. At least, that’s what I understood after his confusing explanation. I had no idea this guy was connected to Kaladin like that, and I always found it hard to believe that he was a Dark Elf.

I had never seen so much as a speck of his skin before, let alone his face or ears. And the only reason I knew he was a Dark Elf was because of his vague and confusing scent he gave off. It was truly a unique smell for a person. Even Kaladin, a mixed Dark Elf, smelled more…normal than him.

But calling his scent abnormal was wrong as well. It was just weird and hard to place. I had once asked Veme if she felt the same, and I only got a shrug from her. She told me that he smelled like a Dark Elf that really wanted to be a Human, which was as close to an explanation as I could get.

The mix of cologne, oil, blood, campfire, and metal on him just…mixed in such a weird way. I guess he’s kinda a weird guy, so maybe it all makes sense.

We made our way into Curia and found ourselves a small inn. If The Stars weren’t here, then it was only a matter of time before they arrived unless something tragic happened to them. Twilight said he gave them adequate time, and they should have been ahead of us. However…

“Is this dinky inn really where we are staying? I mean, I don’t mind, but I think we can afford something a little nicer,” I complained.

“This place was cheap, and it was Twilight here that recommended it,” Veme said back.

“Oh? You never care where we stay. Why this place?” I asked the tall man beside me.

“A comrade of mine runs this establishment. Therefore, I can confirm that we will be treated well,” he responded.

We pushed our way through the creaky wooden door and were treated with the usual stare-down. The place seemed populated with adventurers and soldiers, which was no surprise if a friend of Twilight ran this place. The smell of alcohol and debauchery had seeped into the timber. It was a nostalgic scent that got my blood pumping. And the intense stares the men gave me just brought back more memories.

I hadn’t adapted yet to life as a noble lady, and honestly, I probably never would. I would, of course, try my best, but it is what it is. No matter how much I griped before we walked in, a place like this always felt like a home to a person like me.

And the moment we walked in and everyone gazed upon our lustrous ranks, their eyes returned to whatever they were doing beforehand. Not before they muttered some things about my nickname or the fact that the Twilight knight was present. I didn’t spy a single person over Opal here. But a voice beckoned us over.

“Yo! It’s good to see you, Bella, Veme!” Nick called out across the room, waving a tankard of ale.

Mmm, it’s good to be back.