[https://i.imgur.com/4yzZvCn.jpg]

It had been a rough week, to say the least. This entire week, I was super sore all over from our perilous adventure in that Treasure Dungeon. My whole body ached to the point where I didn’t want to get out of bed. I even contemplated having Lio carry me to a healer.

But today was not so bad. I’d been in bed and recovering for over six days, so I was significantly less weak than I was before. But that didn’t stop me from aching a bit. I just had to walk it off, no biggie.

Besides my aching muscles, there was some good to come of my recovery week. When I felt strong enough, I stammered over to the Merchant District in order to get the gem from the cat appraised. And let’s just say I was finally lucky this time.

“What?! Miss! Do you know what this is?!”

“Uhm, that’s kind of why I’m getting it appraised. So no,” I said, rubbing my sore legs.

“Miss, this is a pure painite gem! The rarest mineral in the world!”

“How much is it worth?” That was the whole point when I came there. Money. I needed that tome.

“I’ll gladly give you three hundred gold coins,” the merchant said with gleaming eyes. He really wanted this gem.

“Three hundred?! You have a deal!” I was so joyful that I disregarded any sense of etiquette, shaking the merchant's hand violently and snatching the plump bag of gold coins when he brought it out. I left that place as fast as my weak legs could take me.

The issue was that I hadn’t purchased the tome yet. That was the plan today. Since I felt much better, it was the perfect day.

I sat up from my bed and rubbed my eyes. I just knew my hair was a mess, but I’ll fix that later.

“Meow!” What sat next to me at the end of the bed was that black cat I took from the dungeon. It lived with me as of now, since it was so attached to me for some reason. No point in having it live with Lio or even Fiar, because that cat would definitely find a way to my place. It was stubborn like that.

Speaking of the cat, I haven’t thought of a name for it yet. I didn’t even know if it was a boy or a girl. Guess I got to check really quickly.

I… uh… checked. It was a boy. It was best to wait for Lio before naming him. He was pretty much like the adoptive father to this cat, so we had to discuss this together.

Trivial matters aside, I had a job to do. I had to go buy myself that tome. And so I stood up and brushed my hair. Despite all the suffering and sweat it's been drenched in time and time again, it still stayed healthy, by my credit. I try to take care of myself.

Then I walked over to my wardrobe to pick out the outfit for the day. The Water Mage robe was out of the question, since I had to take it over to a tailor to get the sleeve where my arm got slashed repaired. It was very dirty too and soaked in blood, so it needed a lot of work done to it. All that was left was a white tunic and brown shorts, commoner clothing. Well, these clothes were made for adolescent boys, but I still wore them. I bought this one from a wandering merchant as well, so I better get my money’s worth from it.

I put on those clothes and grabbed my pouch of gold coins. The cat lifted his head up high after seeing me walk towards my front door, meowing loudly yet again.

“Hold down the fort, okay?” I said to the cat and tossed a gold coin over to him. He purred enthusiastically. What a good cat.

My humble abode wasn’t very impressive compared to the rest of society. It was made of wood, not the chiseled stone or marble of nobility, and it was bare. I rarely had any decorations, only a houseplant on the windowsill or a basket of fruit on my table where I ate. But hey, that was the case with every commoner. I wasn’t a noble or cut from the cloth of royalty, I was your average commoner folk. Maybe on the richer side compared to those in my societal class, but I was still a commoner.

That aside, my place was much larger than average, due to the fact that I was living in Galligar way before all the tourists or immigrants began flooding in for work or entertainment. That was when prices of housing were cheap, and I was able to afford a slightly fancier home. The evidence of that was the gorgeous mahogany door that cut me apart from the average commoner.

I walked over and turned the doorknob to leave, but a band of different sounds added some zing to the ambience that seeped through the cracks of the door once I opened it slightly.

It sounded like a festival outside. That was one of the downsides of living where I was, you live right on the city center strip, where all the crazy things happen. Even crazier, a girl stood at my doorsteps with a giant grin.

Long blonde hair, ocean blue eyes, a thin frame, and a bandage wrapped around one of her thighs. Yup, it was Christia. She wore a white chiffon-lace dress, looking a bit more formal for the normal occasion.

“Charliette! It’s so nice to see you!” She dove in for a hug, so I caught her and we hugged. But she oddly clicked her tongue afterwards. “Heh, what am I going to do with you! You just keep getting thinner by the day.”

“I’m trying my best to work up an appetite, but it's been hard with what we’ve been through last week,” I told her. I was bedridden for a couple of days due to my aching body and my lack of energy. I could imagine how unhealthy that would have been for my body, working hard to repair itself and getting little food in return. Like I said, though, I was trying my best!

She nodded and brought a finger into the air, yelling “Aha!” over the sounds of cheering, laughter, and thousands of footsteps behind her.

“What? What’s going on out there?” I looked behind Christia to see dozens of pedestrians walking past us, the pathways filled with them. It was still early, yet people were flooding the streets?

“It’s the Autumn Festival, don’t you remember? C’mon let’s go check it out.” The ever exuberant girl snatched me by my wrist and led me out onto the lively streets.

The autumn festival was one of the major traditions of Kori Soaro and the surrounding nations. This festival celebrated the abundance of food gained from the spring and summer months of agriculture and ranching. Kori Soaro was especially efficient in these fields, capable of producing more food than all its neighboring nations combined. Although it wasn’t the best nation in the world in that regard, it was definitely in the top five, maybe even top three.

Because of said abundance of food, it allowed everyone to indulge like crazy, which was the point of this festival. It had a motto that went “Eat and drink like gods for a day, live and laugh ‘til your face turns gray!” This festival encourages enjoying yourself as much as possible.

Even after such a lucrative traditional festival, Kori Soaro would still have an excess amount of food that they could store in vaults for the winter. It was a win-win, keeping both the Monarchy and the people happy.

“Where are we going?” I said, staring at Christia’s dress fluttering in the wind as she ran.

“The main attraction!” She giggled.

And there we were, running down the street like little girls scampering to find adventure. I didn’t know what this “main attraction” was, but I was willing to experience something new.

We ran past dozens upon dozens of people who walked about the pathways with their families, and all of them wore fancier clothing than usual, just like Christia. I didn’t get the memo that I was supposed to dress nicer. Not like I had a choice anyway.

X X X

That main attraction was something I was not expecting. Although my memories of this festival were foggy, I never could recall there being an attraction like this.

This attraction was known as the “Matur Hunt” and involved a monster brought out from the Beast Dungeon known as the Matur. A Matur was essentially a huge rhino-like creature with silver fur all around. It was deadly and aggressive most of the time, so I was surprised that they snatched it from a dungeon and got it under control.

Christia and I stood just outside a barrier that made a circular arena, alongside hundreds of other people gathered. Parents had children on their shoulders, couples hugged each other close, and fanatics shouted as loud as they could.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Inside that arena was a Matur, who towered over everything around it. Steam blew out of its nostrils menacingly. Standing against such a beast was what the community fondly nicknamed “The Maturo.” Anyone can hold the title of Maturo, you just have to prove yourself worthy by being in the ring with such a powerful fiend.

What we gathered to watch was a match between an experienced Maturo, not a newbie. I didn’t know Christia was into this stuff.

The Maturo stared down his opponent and scratched the scruff on his cheeks. Besides his relatively normal attire of black pants and a casual white tunic, he wore a long brimmed explorer hat, a large golden belt buckle, and a sword on his hip. This was THE Maturo.

A horn was blown, and the crowd erupted in cheer. The event had begun.

The Maturo took out a handkerchief from his pocket and waved it in front of the beast before him. He smirked. “C’mon, you fatass!”

The Matur charged full-force at the man, but he swiftly dodged it. He twirled around like the most skilled ballerina, and smacked the beast on the side with his wringed handkerchief. The beast turned around and swung its mighty horn at him, but he sidestepped to avoid it.

The crowd, including Christia, were squeaking with excitement. Some even swooned over this man, who was confidently taunting the beast with an elegant flare.

The Maturo continued his harmless onslaught. When the monster charged at him, he always dodged and fired back with a whip of his white handkerchief. The cycle never failed to rile up the crowd.

One instance, the Maturo dodged a charge from the matur, and smacked it on one of its eyes with the handkerchief. It roared in pain, then blew more steam from its nose. It was furious, and didn’t even target the man of the hour anymore. It tried to ram into the crowd.

That was when a crowd of adventurers lept into action and subdued the beast with Displacement Magic. Stasis was enough to lock it in place.

Personally, I hadn’t found this attraction to be too riveting. I just wasn’t a fan of it. I knew the crowd was, though, since I was overhearing people chatting ecstatically to each other.

“This event really got my adrenaline going, wow!”

“Yeah! My heart was racing the entire time!”

“I want to meet the Maturo so badly! He’s drop-dead gorgeous!”

Yeah, the fangirls.

Because of the Matur’s unexpected rampage, the attraction had ended earlier than anticipated. But everyone was still incredibly satisfied.

I turned to see Christia eyeing down the Maturo as he left with an adventurer escort, with a dumbfounded expression. “Charliette.”

“Huh? What?”

“ I think I’ve fallen in love.”

“With the Maturo?”

“Yes!”

“Good for you, I guess.”

Once again, Christia had grappled onto my wrists and pulled to another destination. “I’ll tell you all about it!” she yelled enthusiastically.

X X X

Before we ran off again to where Christia wanted to go, we had stopped by the magic shop in the Merchant District so I could buy the tome, per my request.

As soon as I picked it up and purchased it, Christia once again grabbed hold of me and dashed off. I’ve got to tell her to stop doing that, even though I pretty much do the same with Lio. I hugged the tome tight in my hands as we moved on.

Oh, I could never forget holding such a beautiful book in my hand for the first time. When I picked it off the shelf, my heart raced with a child-like eccentricity. Even when I walked over to the merchant and dropped the necessary coins in front of me, I had the largest grin. My pearly whites might have been able to blind the merchant with how long they revealed themselves to him. The merchant smiled back.

I would now be able to be a full fledged Water Mage! The thought made my heart feel warm. I was anxious to show Master Lio my tome as soon as I could, but I had to deal with Christia for now.

She dragged me to a food stall that lined the streets. This place was exclusively set up for the festivals, so you’d see it nowhere else in Galligar any other day.

Since I had a little more than a hundred gold coins, I went up to pay. What the two of us got back was a cuisine I hadn’t seen in forever. It was curuni-style beef loins.

Curuni was a neighboring nation to Kori Soaro, bordering it on the western side. Curuni’s food culture revolved around on-the-go meals, which resulted in sit-down restaurants not being very popular. I wasn’t saying they didn’t sit down and eat, I was just saying that meals like handheld foods, where you can eat it on the road and such, were more popular for the growing youth population. You know what they say, the youth is the future of the nation.

The meal Christia and I got was essentially a flatbread filled with thinly cut beef loins wrapped in lettuce. The flatbread was then seared shut on all sides. It seemed like a relatively basic meal, but whatever the cooks seasons the meat with was amazing. The thin slices made the meat practically melt in my mouth, and a delectable taste was left on my mouth. It had a spicy kick to it too, and a crunch from the lettuce. Most genius of all was the closing of the flatbread, which eliminated the worry of ingredients coming out of the bread every time you took a bite. The sides were shut so well that nothing even managed to penetrate the bread. I do have to say that the meat was sufficiently rested, which prevented it from leaking out juices too much and sogging up the bread. These cooks that invented this meal really thought out everything.

But who am I to talk, I’m not a chef.

Of course, Christia and I didn’t follow the food culture of Curuni, because the two of us sat down at benches that lined the sides of the cobblestone pathways. People walked past us in bliss.

Christia chomped down on her curuni beef loin and a loud yet satisfied “mmm” escaped her mouth. “This is delicious! How’d you like it?”

“It’s really good, I love it!” I wasn’t kidding when I said this was a genius invention. I looked down at my Curuni beef loin, the meat glistening in the sunlight.

“That’s good, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.” Christia looked down at her legs as she swung them back and forth. “So, about the Maturo…”

“Mhm?” I took another bite of my meal. It was even better on the second bite. “You said you were in love with him, right?”

“Yeah something like that. Although I haven’t even talked with him before. Guess I’m pretty shallow for only loving him for his looks, huh?”

Part of me wanted to spit out “Yes you are” but I was a girl that reads the room. Of course I wasn’t going to call a friend shallow. I was just not that well versed in this topic. “No, everyone does that from time to time.”

“Did you?”

I was silent. Did I do that? Sure, I've acknowledged people’s good looks when I saw them, Fiar being a prime example. But I never flat out declared my love for someone even when I haven’t spoken to them before. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh really? Not even with Lio?”

Lio? I didn’t recall doing that. I haven’t really noticed his attractiveness, or did I? Ugh! Now I was doubting myself!

Birds soared over at us, chirping their melodies, and the hubbub of the crowd of people still continued to echo down the city streets. Smells of delicious foods from the various stalls carried into the air. It was a good day, but they all felt like distractions to what sat next to me, that unusual blonde girl, whose hair moved with the wind.

“I never really thought of Lio as attractive. I don’t know why.”

“I think he’s pretty attractive, but I swore I saw you swooning over him at the Dungeon of the Dead.”

Oh right, I remembered now. It was true that I let my emotions get the better of me in that situation, but that was only because I was stressed. Having someone rescue us made me much more emotionally vulnerable than usual.

I didn’t even bother to reply to Christia. I just took another bite of my Curuni meal and stared blankly forward. I had never chewed slower in my life.

“Are you in love with Lio?” Christia threw that question in the air. I wasn’t in love with him, yet something in my heart prevented me from expressing that. Ever since coming out of the Treasure Dungeon, both the dynamic between Lio and I changed slightly. The times he visited me at my bedside, he was much less distant to me, willing to move and still closer to me. It was a common occurrence now for us to enter each other’s spacial bubble. But did that mean I loved him now? I didn’t know. My eyes were drawn to the tome that sat next to me on the wooden bench

“I… I don’t know.”

She bit on her own meal, slouching on the bench while chewing on her food. “I see.”

“What’s wrong?” Did my answer tick her off, or something?

“Nothing. It’s nothing. I was just wondering…” She sat up slightly, then analyzed my body thoroughly like I was some kind of weak prey to her. “Why are you wearing those clothes? I thought you normally wear that mage robe?”

Ah, it was about that. “My mage robe is being fixed up at a tailor right now, so these are the only clothes I have that are clean at the moment, besides my nightgown.”

She must have seen me staring at her dress, because she sat up and wiped off crumbs that fell on it. “I got this dress for my birthday last year. Looks nice, huh?”

“Yeah, you look good in it.”

Christia giggled, then nudged me on the shoulder. Geez, she should have warned me if she was going to do that. I was so caught off guard that I jumped, nearly dropping my food. “Do you have any birthday gifts you like?”

My family weren’t one’s to have birthday gifts to give me, since I came from an extremely poor family. Gifts weren’t something I was used to, and that was honestly perfectly fine. I was fine with not getting one this year too, which would be coming up soon. Very soon. Okay, extremely soon. At least my family is still in good health, that was all that mattered to me. They’d moved to another country to live with extended family, but I stayed, no way could I leave Kori Soaro. I just loved this country too much.

When I told her that, she looked distraught. “When is your birthday?”

She wasn’t very subtle when asking that question. I knew from a mile ago where she would take this. It was an opportunity to get me something. But I couldn’t stop her, if she really wanted to get me a gift she’d do it even if I said no. There was no point in rejecting her.

“It’s tomorrow.” That was right. Tomorrow, and we’d coincidentally brought up the subject of birthdays. I’d be turning twenty years old.

She was baffled. Christia immediately jumped to her feet and looked down at me with widened eyes. “Eh?!! No way!”

I nodded. Why do I need to lie? It wasn’t like I was trying to keep it a secret.

“Well… uhm… you see…” Christia was too flustered to make coherent sentences, She just thinly sliced them like the meat in her meal. “I just realized that I have an errand to run, so I have to leave right now, sorry!” She bobbed her head down, apologizing profusely. I saw her gold hair sway back and forth, moving with Christia’s gentle movements. She was fast when she abruptly left me alone, disappearing into the crowd of dozens of people.

I looked down at the tragedy of the day, a half eaten Curuni beef loin that was dropped on the ground. Its contents spilled everywhere, and the crowd stomped it flat against the stone.

I stared at the meal, then took the last bite of mine.

“What a weirdo.”