It was a young woman in her late teens dressed in leather armor and armed with a short sword on her waist. Her blond hairs were tied together to form a short ponytail which slightly moved every time she turned her head.

The woman didn’t seem to carry any kind of animosity in her eyes, she looked at the young boy with a blissful expression. She directly dropped her hand on the boy’s hairs and patted it with such vigor that he almost fell became dizzy enough to almost fall to the ground.

“You’ve finally made a friend Bran?!”

Despite trying his best to answer, Bran couldn’t manage to form an answer as he was still due to dizzy from her joyous reaction.

Her eyes fell on Shina and widened for an instant before glittering and making a sparkling expression.

“Such a cute girl!”

What a pity… If only I wasn’t on duty, I wish I could kidnap her and bring her home...

Making a bitter smile, the woman stared at Shina for an instant after calming down and realized that she had never seen her before. Being far calmer than Bran and in charge of the children, she definitely knew that Shina wasn’t a part of them, or at least of her group.

She was at the same time glad and saddened. Bran had finally managed to talk to someone else since he joined the group, but that person wasn’t a part of them.

Crouching to match Shina’s eye-level, the woman greeted Shina with a bright smile.

“Hello, what’s your name?”

Shina returned her smile and nodded very politely.

“I am Shina, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too Shina. I am Nilisa, but you can call me Nini if you find it too complicated.”

“I see, I’ll call you Nini then...”

From her ways of talking to Shina, it was obvious that Nilisa was accustomed children. But even so, she felt a little surprised of how mature she behaved. At her ages, young girls of her age tended to behave more shyly around adults. There were of courses a few exception but they were rare.

“Did you also come here to collect herbs?”

Noticing that Shina still held one of Bran’s herbs from when he was explaining the difference between them, she dropped it back in his basket.

“No, he just explaining a few things to me about the mercenary apprenticeship.”

“I see. How is it, does it sound fun?” Nilisa asked while tilted her head with a curious face.

“Yes, it might be fun to participate. One of my friends also want to become a warrior in the future, so we might join together.”

“Is that so? I’d gladly take both of you in my group in that case, but you might need to discuss with your parents beforehand.”

The apprenticeship wasn’t free after all, a lot of parents wanted to send their child to the guild but didn’t have enough funds. Even though the Guild was aware of this issue which prevented a lot of children from joining, they couldn’t do anything about it.

They needed to pay the retired veteran who formed the senior apprentice as well as the various activities which they provided. They barely made any money out of it and sometimes even lost some, this course was, in fact, a service put in place to reduce the mortality rate of beginners by giving some essential knowledge on adventuring and fighting. They were even sometimes allocating some of the money they earned from demands as funds for this service, they even used the senior apprentices to teach the younger generation when there was a shortage in exchange for a cut in their apprenticeship fees.

Shina somehow understood her intention but didn’t say much, simply acquiescing with her head. Her pocket money was more than enough to pay the fee and she was convinced that her parents wouldn’t oppose her decision, they might in fact even pay it for her if she asked them.

“Your parents must be around, right? You can go and ask them if you want, we’ll be here until noon. After that, we’ll have to return to the Guild.”

While Nilisa’ inquiry was right, Shina actually didn’t know that they were actually following her and shook denied her question.

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“I am here on my own.”

Nilisa’s expression almost instantly changed as hundreds of different settings actually formed in her head.

Was she abandoned? An orphan? From the slum? But her clothes are clean so maybe she is running away from her parents?

Seeing Nilisa’s distressed expression, Shina laughed.

“They are actually not that far, they’ve let me come here to visit a friend.”

In a way, what Shina said was almost a lie but no totally. The distance between her house and the city was so large that it would take her days, if not weeks to walk back home. But considering the fact that she was traveling on a wyrm’s back… It was indeed not that far.

Nilisa looked at Shina’s mischievous expression with uncertainty, she didn’t know what to do and wished she could meet her parents to give them a piece of her mind. Letting such a young child alone, what if she was kidnapped? Luckily she didn’t know what had happened days ago with the city guards trying to kidnap her, otherwise, she would be absolutely maddened.

“Do you need me to… call someone to find your friend?”

Being responsible for a group of children, Nilisa just couldn’t abandon her post, but she also felt reluctant to leave such a young girl roaming the city on her own.

Shina hesitated for an instant, she didn’t know where Eniel was and couldn’t remember the way to her new home. Moreover, she had a few encounters with the city guards that didn’t end very peacefully. Also belonging to the slum, Shina highly doubted that they would be aware of where she lived. Not to mention knowing where she lives, if they did, they might have actually tried to arrest her…

“It’ll be fine, please don’t worry about me. But thanks for the thought.”

Rejecting her goodwill, Shina didn’t forget to thank her with a childish smile.

“I should get going, we might come visit you at the Guild.”

“Y-Yes...”

Hearing Shina’s reply, Nilisa didn’t know whether she should speak up and go with her to find her parents. But from Shina’s confidence, it didn’t seem to be her first time in the city.

Will it be alright for her?...

As she was watching Shina run away toward the city gates, Nilisa remembered that she had completely forgotten about Bran whose gaze was still focused on Shina’s figure.

“I hope she’ll be alright…”

“M-Mmmh…”

Making a shy nod, he acquiesced while deeply blushing.

“You’re as red as a tomato… Do you like her.”

“W-W-What?! O-Of course not! That’s not… true…”

The boy strongly shook his head, but his expression betrayed his real feelings which made Nilisa laugh at him.

Her gaze returned toward the city gates and she noticed that Shina was already gone from her sight.

“I truly hope she’ll be alright…”

“Yes…”

Bran once again nodded while watching before suddenly freezing as if paralyzed. He suddenly became as stiff as a tree, he couldn’t move any part of his body as if he was deeply rooted into the ground. It felt as if he was being intensely stared at by someone, but as he regained control of his body, he didn’t find anyone.

The feeling of being watched swiftly disappeared, making him think that perhaps he was tired and asked to take a rest. Luckily, the eyes watching him were devoid of malicious intent, otherwise, with his age, he would probably have fallen to the ground and start crying…

Somewhere far away in the forest, a man dressed in white mumbled something with a sulking expression while looking toward the distant city. The woman next to him watched him with an amused smile.

“Come on, you’re not gonna sulk whenever she talks to a boy, right?”

Confronted with the woman’s sarcastic comment, letting out a small ‘humph’, he ignored her completely and walked away.

“Pfff… I wish your subordinates could see you like that.” She said as she followed him.

Giving a last glance at the boy far away, her expression turned serious with a dangerous glint in her eyes for an instant before returning to a carefree one.