The shadow crossed her arms. Unlike before, Kalender and Jyn could actually see her eyes, but the rest of her was hidden under a mask and a hood.

“So? What is it?” she said.

“Miss Page has joined us,” Jyn went straight to the point, “but there is another matter.”

The shadow saw this report as a bore. She already knew that Page agreed, what with watching her train with Jyn and Kalender in a public training field.

“The Goddess Minimine has—”

“Wait.” The shadow raised her hand. She said ‘goddess,’ didn’t she? Mental preparation was key. “Go on.”

“The Goddess Minimine has incarnated—”

“Wait.” The shadow raised her hand again, massaging the creases on her forehead with the other. “Go on.”

“… has incarnated into two mortal vessels—”

She raised her hand. It didn’t sound like the details would stop escalating. Please supply the full statement in writing so I can adequately prepare myself—she really wanted to say that, but her deception detection skills wouldn’t work in that case.

Jyn innocently tilted her head. She’d never had the opportunity to mess with an Inquisition agent until now.

The shadow invoked her Untouchable skill, which temporarily phased her body into the shadow realm, and, most importantly, put her mind into a calm, unassailable state.

“Speak,” she said, her voice echoing in dual whispers around the alley.

Jyn smirked. "The goddess Minimine has been cursed. To control it, she incarnated into two mortal vessels, one rational, and one insane. The rational one is keeping the insane one in check. Both are locked in combat somewhere far west of here.

"We know this from one of her resurrected Heroes, previously wrongly assumed to be an Unalive, who had allowed herself to be captured and delivered this message to us. She and Priestess Tak, a follower of the goddess, have agreed to put Kalender in the center of a plan to control the curse afflicting the goddess.

“We will carry out this plan in earnest in three days, once Priestess Tak’s reinforcements from the Priesthood of Minimine arrive.”

“I see…” the shadow replied in shady whispers. “Is that all?”

Jyn shook her head. “Can you keep us informed?”

“I am not your messenger. Look inside the crate before you leave.”

The alley fell into silence.

[+10 Excitement]

“T-that was amazing…” Page muttered. Jyn heard that.

“Sorry?”

“That was scary!” Page was doing double peace signs, for some reason.

“You’ll get used to it.”

They looked around the alley and found the crate the shadow was talking about. Upon opening it, they found two anti-charm cuffs of the same type Kalender wore.

“So now I’ve got six of ’em, huh?”

The Inquisition gave them to him likely as a preventative measure against cases like Page’s. He didn’t want to bring that up, not in front of the girl in question, so he just quietly put the cuffs around his upper arms.

He nodded to both of them. Jyn started out first. As soon as she walked past Kalender, he and Page gave each other a thumbs up at the absolutely amazing experience of seeing a shadow get flustered—before following after Jyn.

***

It was still early in the afternoon. The Knight HQ training field had been reserved for the town guard’s troop exercises, so Kalender’s physical training had been called off. The mage practice range had also been reserved for some big shots to give a demonstration for knights-in-training, so neither Page nor Kalender could flex their (pastry) attack magic.

“What do we do…” Kalender trodded along at a leisurely pace, kicking rocks to the side of the road.

“We currently do not have a source of income,” Jyn said. “I would advise taking a Guild mission—but it’s not as if we can. Well, it’s no matter. As long as we minimize our expenses, we should be able to reach Harmony with much to spare, then make up for our deficit there.”

“Harmony? We’re going to Harmony?” Page asked.

“Uh-huh.” Kalender nodded. “Mom said I can’t join the Adventurers Guild, so I should join the Explorators Company, instead.”

“Huh? That Explorators Company?!” Page raised a voice. “Do you have any idea what hell you’re walking into!”

“Oh? Do tell,” Jyn said. She already knew, but it was always different when you’re hearing it from someone else.

“I just know stories, okay?” Page continued. “All their senior members are at least Level 20, and whenever they take fresh recruits into the Monster Wall, only half of them come back out!”

“Level 20, huh.” Jyn recounted a particular training session between the Explorators and her former unit. “I do remember they were quite robust and relentless fighters.”

“Hm? Sounds like you met them before,” Kalender remarked.

“Ah, yes, it was a mock battle between my comrades and some visiting Explorators seniors. They almost always won in individual combat.” Jyn smirked. “Almost. They did not think a Knight would invest in Hand-to-Hand Proficiency. Of course, competition aside, that just goes to show how much Knights typically value specialization, and Explorers and Adventurers value versatility.”

This made her think of something. She eyed Kalender for an uncomfortable amount of time. “Jyn?” he called.

“No, sorry, I was thinking—you would actually be a good fit for them. Your talent in magic just sings versatility.” She imagined how, in later levels, Kalender would have so much more MP than he knew to do with, and so it would be inevitable that he would abuse his All-Language Fluency to the extremes. What sort of chants would he use? {Stop hitting yourself}?

“I only have 10 MP, though…” Kalender replied. He had a pained expression as if missing just a single cent before he could buy his favorite game.

“You are still Level 1. If you reach Level 10, you should have around 100 MP.”

“Ohh, that sounds a lot better!” Kalender clapped. “Man, I really wanna level up, now.” Too bad we can’t get Guild missions…

“W-wow, you have a lot of MP,” Page remarked. “I only get +2 per level.”

“Most people get +0.1 per level,” Jyn told Page. “Don’t look down on yourself so much. Kalender is simply and very literally much too blessed.”

“But I’m a Librarian. What can a Librarian do in a fight, anyway?” Page said, looking down.

“We can probably come up with something?” Kalender said. “I mean, Skills are hard to get, I’m sure, but it’s not like just because you’re a Librarian doesn’t mean you can’t get Sword Proficiency, right?” He turned to Jyn. “Right? I’m just guessing.”

“Your guess is correct, but still, it’s extremely difficult. You will need to train and express something close to an expert level of raw skill before it can become a Skill in your status. At least, that’s how it happens for us knights.”

“Wait, so…” Kalender scratched his cheek. If the Skill system was part of the same, larger system that also handled magic in this world, then it would imply that, like magic, the Skill system couldn’t actually read a person’s mind.

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He’d tried going chantless. It didn’t go anywhere.

If it couldn’t read a person’s mind, then it would need, like an AI, to be trained from examples a prospective Skill user showed it—the more diverse the examples, the better. At least, that’s how he would’ve done it. There was probably some sort of threshold before the Skill system could practically “understand” what someone was doing, at which point it finally took over as a support system that filled in the gaps of the Skill user’s intentions.

There’s probably a bunch of holes in that theory, but I’ll roll with it.

“Hey?” Page bumped Kalender with her elbow. He was jolted back to reality by this, then realized that Page bumped him with her elbow. This was a precious moment—one small step for trust, and one giant leap for their budding friendship.

“Ah, sorry. Deep thoughts,” he replied. “I have a theory about how the Skill system works—but let’s sit down somewhere first. My feet are aching.”

“I’ll treat you two to my favorite place,” Page smiled. Jyn and Kalender smiled back, then to each other. It was nice to see their third member getting used to them. Well, she really was just bribing them with sweets.

***

They arrived at a quieter—cleaner—part of town, just behind the town lord’s villa.

“This place…” Jyn frowned—in horror. “I can already feel the tension in my purse strings.”

“Don’t worry about it! It’s my treat!” Page smiled.

Kalender leaned over to Jyn’s shoulder. “It’s not our money. Don’t cry.”

She tried not to. She really tried not to. Knights didn’t cry. Before Jyn could turn about face, Page and Kalender grabbed her shoulders.

They eventually dragged her, at Page’s lead, to a little cafe. There was soft music coming from inside.

As soon as Jyn assumed all the remaining pride she had a Knight, regaining her poise and posture, they stepped in with Page at the lead. The door opened with a little jingle of a bell.

“Wait, that’s a saxophone,” Kalender said of the band performing in the corner, “and blues?” Weird. There were just four other customers in the little shop—a group of three well-off merchants discussing some deal or gossip or another, and an old man listening intently to the mad sax solo going on.

“This town’s called Clarinets, but I haven’t seen a single clarinet,” Kalender continued.

“Hm? It’s an instrument?” Page asked.

“It’s like a flute, but bigger.”

Page tilted her head.

“Yeah, I think I’ll do a disservice to clarinets if I try describing them…”

Jyn and Kalender found a table, somewhere far away from the other people—everyone was doing their own thing here, after all—while Page strode over to the counter and greeted the owner before making her order.

“She opened up rather quickly to you,” Jyn said. She sat across from Kalender.

“Hm? Page? I guess, yeah. I’m surprised, too.”

“So?” Jyn continued.

Kalender met eyes with her. He didn’t catch the implication. " ‘So’? "

“What do you think Excitement means?”

“Ah.” Well, this was embarrassing—but he could probably phrase it a little less childishly. “Mysteries and such, I think. She really likes them.”

“It can’t just be her,” Jyn continued with a smile. “I can’t have gotten Respect if you didn’t respect me, as well.”

She was beginning to get the ghist of how the Kalender Phenomenon worked. Their unique stat likely encapsulated the very foundation of their friendship.

“Ah, well, I share the same excitement over the same things, I guess?”

“You ‘guess,’ or you do?”

“I do.” Kalender chuckled. “Tickles my sense of intrigue and adventure.”

They watched Page happily come back with a slice of cake and a clipboard.

“Somehow, it feels as if she will grow much too powerful after killing just one slime,” Jyn remarked, half laughing, and half looking forward to that inevitability.

“So, everyone!” Page sat down. She put down a clipboard for all to see, and pointed at the menu items. “Take your pick?”

Kalender happily scooted over to get a better look at the menu. He and Page looked up to Jyn at the same time.

“… Why are you both looking at me?”

“I’ll pick for her,” Kalender said. Page nodded. Jyn’s protests were summarily shot down.

Page handed Kalender all the 30 Notes needed for his strawberry frappe and Jyn’s lemon sherbet.

As soon as Kalender left, Jyn asked Page, “So?”

Page cocked an eyebrow. " ‘So’? "

They even reply the same. “The two of you grew close surprisingly quickly.”

“Ah…” Page scratched her cheek—even the cheek-scratching? “To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s a good thing…”

“Is it because it might just be the charm effects?”

Page replied with a sigh.

“But you both have indisputably found something in common in each other, haven’t you?”

“That’s—now that you say it like that, that’s right. Charm effects have nothing to do with that, right?”

“How can it?” Jyn scoffed. “Trust yourself more.”

Just then, Kalender started away from the counter with the sweet stuff in his hands.

“Mind if I’ll be forward for the next few minutes?” Page asked. She didn’t understand the important parts of Kalender at all. He was fun to be around, but that didn’t kill the inner part of her nervousness. There were things that she just had to know.

Jyn knew what she was about to do. She nodded.

“I’m back,” Kalender said with a smile. As he was sitting down—

“Kalender,” Page said. Jyn quietly acquired her sherbet as Kalender involuntarily stepped back. The chair’s feet rubbed against the floor as he practically fell on it rather than just sitting down.

Wh-huh? She used my name?! The look on Page’s face was gloomy, uncertain—conflicted, ambivalent, and all the words that could cut an emotion in half, and yet allow the halves to remain connected by ugly strings like stretched mozzarella.

Page continued, “What do you think of me?”

“Huh? I think you’re … nice? Fun?”

Page shook her head. “Not like that. What do you think of me … as a woman?”

A-ah, is that what this is about? He exchanged glances with Jyn, and Jyn’s eyes said, Yes, this is that.

Kalender shrugged. “Honestly, you’re totally my type.”

“Wh-hah?!”

Jyn blinked. “Wow.” [+1 Respect]

Completely ignoring Page’s fluster, Kalender continued. “You’re really cute, especially when you have a spring in your step.” He scratched his cheek. “Even above all that, though, I was pretty impressed when you just completely accepted being roped into … mom’s business.”

Jyn shook her head. She didn’t like referring to the Inquisition as ‘mom,’ but in a public environment as this, it was completely appropriate, and she couldn’t tell them off about it. Sigh. Maybe she was the childish one—

“I mean,” Page scratched her cheek, “that’s because it’s amazing, isn’t it?!”

—Jyn was wrong.

“Guh—I know, I know. One day, you’re doing your day job, the next, you’re doing ‘errands’ on the daily. It’s the dream.”

“Right?” Page froze, realizing she’d let herself get carried along with the flow. She’d leaned forward unconsciously. She straightened her back and cleared her throat. “T-that said, I-I’m not sure what to think of what you said.”

She’d lost all distinction between the charm effects and just plain being flustered. Surely, if any other man had said it, she’d still be flustered about it.

“Ah, well—those things just aren’t as important,” Kalender explained. "I know you’re nervous because … there’s tension in the fact that you’re a girl, I’m a guy, and, well, I guess it’s too late for me to deny that I don’t find you all-around great.

“But that’s not really the source of tension, isn’t it?” He offered the gentlest smile he could manage. “It’s that you don’t know what I might do, and what might happen to you. You don’t know if what you’re feeling is really you, or if it’s just something someone else wants you to feel.”

Memories of Jyn’s first day with him in that test chamber were still fresh in his mind.

“So here’s what we’ll do,” he continued. “Going by the Big-C’s description, it sounds like it only affects feelings—so we can assume that we still rationally know what’s okay, right?”

Page sheepishly nodded. He frowned, seeing her like this. He needed to settle this right this moment.

He continued, “I’ll tell you what I want, and you tell me what you want—it’s a contract! When the terms aren’t good, let’s compromise.”

“A … contract?” Page parroted. “For what?”

“For how we’ll act towards each other.”

“I’ve never heard of that,” Jyn interrupted, nonetheless echoing Page’s own thoughts. “Deciding beforehand how your relations will progress… It does not sound natural.”

Kalender made a befuddled sound. “It is, though? It’s what commitment’s for? You decide on something important together and stick to it, right? This is pretty important, I think.”

“… In hindsight, that much is obvious,” Jyn cupped her chin looked into the distance in apparent thought. Nothing was going through her head, though.

“Commitment…” Page repeated the word.

“Yeah! Even as friends, we’ve got commitments to make, right?” Kalender said. “Heck, I’d even argue that a committed friendship is about as heavy as a committed relationship.”

“Commitment … as friends?” She chuckled. “Sounds strange.”

Kalender crossed his arms. “It is what it is. I take my friendships seriously. Look—Exhibit A, I told Jyn I wanted to care about her like I’ve known her my whole life, and I think I’m doing pretty great.” He had this smug look about him—and finger guns—but he tilted his head towards Jyn. “I’m doing great, right?”

Jyn laughed. “I feel that I’ve softened since meeting you, yes.”

“Damn. Needs more work, huh…”

“What on Gaia are you talking about, Kalender? You can’t even go a day without embracing me at least once.”

“E-embrace?!” A flustered Page shot up from her seat.

"“Not like that.”" The flustered Page sat down.

The silly atmosphere died down with their noise, and the seriousness hung over them once more.

“So … Page?” Kalender met eyes with her. Her eyes didn’t reflect ambivalence anymore—hesitation took over in its stead. “I still feel sorry about interrupting your life out of nowhere.”

Page put her hand up. “You don’t have to apologize over that in particular.” She locked eyes with him. “What I want to know the most … is how you feel about me.”

Kalender inflated his chest. “Remember when we went to Emergency Bakery?”

“Yeah?”

“More of that,” he said. "I want more of that. Let’s go around more and discover more things. Just walking around and uncovering secrets. It’s nice to share that with you.

“I’ll be frank, even if you’re my type, I don’t think we’ll make a good couple—” It’s a gut feeling. “—Just this sort of distance we’re closing in on right now, I think, is what’ll make both of us the happiest. I really don’t want to ask anything more than this from you.”

Page nodded. She understood not just the words, but also the intent behind them. It really was nothing deep. It all amounted to ‘Walk with me,’ but underneath that…

“I just wanna be good to you,” Kalender said with an embarrassed chuckle.

“Guh, you didn’t have to say that out loud!”

“Wait, why—oh, damn, I did you a disservice, huh…” It was gonna be the unspoken thing! I spoiled it, gah!

Jyn squinted at them both. Sigh. Children. Perhaps being children was what tied the two strongly together—the freedom, the simplicity, tied into a convenient bundle around one’s heart.

No, before even that, it was that they shared something between only themselves—a secret, special something. How incredibly sappy. I feel as if I will turn into a resin-preserved specimen of humanity before long.

She’d been downing her lemon sherbet this whole time. A brainfreeze hit her. “Perhaps you two are better off married,” she remarked while massaging her temples. The two choked.