It has been two days since we moved off to the inn Elliel suggested us to stay in, and since that day we have received no further word from him.

It was early in the morning. We were in the restaurant part of the inn. Nia and I were waiting for the breakfast to be served. It has only been one day since, but that’s pretty much all we did lately; wait for food to be served, eat, sleep. I wasn’t particularly fond of this rhythm, but it wasn’t like there was anything we could do.

While waiting for the aforementioned early breakfast, we took notice of a man who, by the look on his face, I could tell was in his early twenties, if not late teenth. He entered the inn, greeted joyfully the boy and the pregnant woman who apparently was replacing the Madam on the counter since she seemed to have gone out to make some course along with several other inn-workers, before heading to, from what I’ve seen these two past days, was both the storeroom and the staff room, which also happened to be toward us.

He first casually strode, but upon noticing us, he started to walk slowly to the point of completely halting himself. At this point, I have noticed those kinds of gaze thrown at us, to the point that I would even go as far as to say that I have gotten used to it and therefore am not bothered by it anymore, but this one was too much to be ignored given the fact that the man was standing still starring at us.

"Is there a problem with us?" I asked.

"No nothing." the man blurted out, noticing what he was up to before heading once again for where he was heading for, only to be stopped by no one else but Nia.

"Wait,"

"Hm?"

Pointing at what he was holding in his hand, Nia asked, "What is it?"

"This?" The thing in question was a pocket book. Seeing her curious gaze, the man just handed the book to her to see.

"I got it from one of our customers."

I don't know who exactly he meant by customer, but with these words, the man just straight took a seat, and asked, "I have never seen you two before. You two aren’t from around here, aren’t you? "

I nodded, not even sure if it was the right thing to do, but at least I knew that it was better than just keeping silent when he just allowed Nia to read something that was obviously his.

"Franquett Nightsinger, you can call me Franq."

"An."

"Oh, quite a unique name, and this lady is?"

"Rena."

"Quite a beautiful name," he exaggerated.

Having taken a seat with us, the man went even further, to ask, "I’ve heard of you two from my customer." So, I’m quite curious about the two of you. Where are you from exactly? "

I had no reason to answer this question to him, but it was clear from how firmly he was seated and how he asked that question that unless told the answer or a clear no, he wouldn’t leave.

I was about to give him the latter but stopped myself after noticing the person who came to my rescue.

Putting the two baskets from the market ontop of our table, the owner said to the man, "What are you doing here? As far as I remember, we are not on that day yet."

"Oh, Madam, good morning. It’s always a pleasure to see you."

"Is that so, so?"

"True, madam, it is not yet that day, but it is that week, right Zaraha?"He waved to Zaraha, the pregnant woman, who upon being called sighed and avoided his gaze.

"So them too?"

"Yes, me and the boys will be around for some time for our beloved friends. What kind of comrade wouldn’t welcome their long-lost half-no quarter home after being away for so long?"

"Hmph! Whatever, what about you take this for me to the kitchen instead of bothering my establishment’s customer? " The owner's proposer was sliding toward him the fully garnished baskets.

Without protest, the man took the basket and said, "I certainly can, Madam." Nia, who was about to leave, was about to hand over his book, but he refused, saying, "It's okay miss, I kind of work here, so I'll be around anyway; you can give it back any time." before heading for the kitchen.

Once the man disappeared behind the kitchen’s curtains, Madam asked, "I hope that idiot didn’t bother you two too much."

"No, he didn’t." curious about his identity. I asked Madam, "Who was he?"

"I’m sure he already gave his name, Franquett, and his stupid self-proclaimed nickname, Nightsinger."

He is a bard, ... a singer, or at least that’s what he calls himself. Each seven days of the week he performs for our establishment. "

"I see."

So that was most likely what he meant by customers.

"How has your stay been so far?" she inquired, a smile on her face."Is there something you need that I could help you with?"

"Our stay has been very pleasant. So far, we’ve been more than simply satisfied with everything. "

"I see, if there is something you need, you two know where to find us."

She was about to leave, but I stopped her. "Wait, Madam."

"Hm?"

"... As you most likely know, everything about our stay here has been organized by Ei, but we were never told when we could possibly meet each other again."

Nodding, she answered without even being asked the question, "I, myself, don’t know for sure, but I think he should be able to pay you two a visit by the end of this week."

"... only 5 days left then, Madam."

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With these words, she headed back to her counter, only to notice the two people making their entrance and went straight onto them.

One of them goofily went for a hug from Madam, only to be casually dismissed by Madam. They, just like the personnage from earlier, seemed very familiar with the owner. They talked about something which I reckon most likely concerned us, but at this point I didn’t pay any more attention for the meaning we have been waiting for was finally served to us by one of the inn' waitresses.

***

Half an hour has passed since our food was served.

I was now on my own in the restaurant part of the inn, for Nia, for obvious reasons, headed to her room earlier than usual, leaving me to finish the leftovers on my own under, once again, several gazes.

Those gazes were of the people the owner talked to at the entrance earlier; two young men, most likely in their late teens, since the moment they sat down when Nia was still there, they relentlessly threw those curious glances in the corner of their eyes at us. Maybe they were thinking that they were healthy, but I was well placed to tell that they weren’t.

The young man from earlier finally emerged from the kitchen, which he had been to since he last went there to deposit Madam’s packages.

I intended to immediately call him out to explain where his book was, but before I could explain anything, he, in a very festive way, called to the two other young boys.

"Boys!" he celebrated upon seeing them.

"Ah, my least favorite singing parrot!"

"Pipe down you two; you’re bothering the others."

I wasn’t particularly sure, but those words felt particularly addressed to me.

The way they were interecting and greeting each other suggested that these three were good friends.

I didn’t want to interrupt them and I still had some leftover to finish, so I settled for telling him later.

It took me less than 5 minutes to finish what was left. I stood up and approached the man named Franquet.

"For your book, my friend took it with her to her room. She will give it to you back as soon as she can."

"No problem with that friend; tell her to take her time."

"Thanks." With these words, I planned to retreat back to my room, but the moment I turned heel, I was called by the name I had earlier given.

"An, was it? Why not join us for a game?" Franquet proposed, showing a pack of cards from his pockets. "We just happened to miss one player to make a full party."

The other nodded in response to his proposal.

I didn’t actually have anything to do, but I wasn’t sure if this was a good idea.

"I... don’t think I know the rules."

"Don’t be shy, take a seat, we’ll show you." One of them proposed reaching out for the fourth chair for me.

"Well, why not?" I said, accepting their offer.

"I suppose the three of you don’t know each other so—an, these two jobless creeps here are Henry and Charles."

"Who are you calling creeps?"

"Shut up, Franq."

Charles was the one who tried hugging the owner, and Henry was the taller of the two.

"—You two, this is An. I heard you were eying him and his friend creepily earlier, are the hosts of this respectable establishment, so I would appreciate it if you were to behave boys. "

"Tsk."

"Man, shut up!"

"We're sorry if we came across as creepy. We didn't mean to. It was just that you two, especially your very beautiful friend— I mean that, of course, very respectfully," Henry and Charles said, trying to diffuse what Franquet immediately went half-apologetic, half-defensive. "If it was our fault that she left so fast, please forward her our apologies. "

"Don’t worry, the reason she left that fast had nothing to do with the two of you."

"You hear that, boys? Thank God you weren’t embarrassing as you always are today." Franquet scoffed at the two.

"Man, shut up already; you’re embarrassing us."

"Yeah, shut up and cut those cards."

"Yeah, yeah."

With that, he started to share each of the cards with me while also explaining the rules to me.

"So, friend, do you get the rules?" they asked, after a while.

"Well, more or less."

"Perfect."

We gave the cards back to Franquet for him to share them with us.

I knew very well that asking questions when wanting to keep anything about me secret was a bad move, but I none the less asked Charles and Henry, "Are you two brothers?"

"Who–us?! No, of course not, my father would never give birth to someone this dumb! "

"Mine definetely would someone like you."

The thing seemed like an inside joke, for the three of them laughed maniacally at these words, leaving me the only one reactionless on the table.

Henry, wiping the laughing tears off his eyes, finally explains clearly, "To answer your question, An, we're not brothers, but Charles and I have known each other for what, eight years now? I think we really started hanging out like this around two years ago, a few months after the Calamities."

"I see. So you’re just friends."

"Yep."

"Yes, and it is the same for Franq over here." We all started to hang around each other two years ago.

There should be a fourth one, but sadly he is not yet available, right? "

Once again, the three went scoffing like madmen at the mention of a joke known to them alone.

"Sorry, sorry, I’m sure you must be confused, but basically there is a fourth one of us. He is, for the time being, a little bit "away", and actually the four of us and you and your friend have a mutual friend that we met 4 years ago."

"Who?"

There was only one person that came to mind.

"Ei."

As I thought

I know it wasn’t particularly bright given my circumstance, but I couldn’t but ask, "Would you mind telling me how the four-no, the five of you came to know each other exactly?"

Their responses were not as spontaneous as they had been in the past.

"Well, I'm not sure if it is a good thing to talk about them in their absence, so — what if we told you our own side of the meeting instead? It’s certainly less interesting, but we’re close to the end of the week, so I’m sure in no time you’ll get their side of the story too."

It was the second time today that I heard the mention of "end of the week." I wasn’t sure what it represented, but apparently it is on that day that Elliel was supposed to come over.

"Please do, I’m really curious."

***

It was several hours later. Our small gathering came to an end. With them having other business to attend to,

I was about to knock, but decided not to, and instead went for mine. Upon entering, I immediately noticed Nia sitting on the small chair in the middle of the room. I am reading the book lent by Franq.

She only raised her gaze to acknowledge my presence and went back to her reading.

Without saying a word, I went to my bed.

After several hours of sharing the same seat with Franq, Charles, and Henri, and hearing their stories and with how chatty and friendly they were, it wasn’t particularly hard to get useful information about what was going on in the world without looking overly suspicious at them.

From what I’ve learned, while Franq is some sort of singer, as he claims himself to be, who each night offers his service to several inn and restaurants, the two others are apparently the Benjamin sons of two quite wealthy commoners, which allows them to live and roam around while keeping their easygoing lifestyle of living half of their lives going from bar to bar and explains some of their friendly and almost overly direct behaviour.

There were times when they were asking questions about me and Nia, but even with giving vague or little to no answers, they didn’t seem to particularly mind. In the end, I didn’t end up regretting accepting their offer. In fact, I even came to enjoy it.

Speaking of enjoying it, Nia here seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself with what she was reading. I noticed, at the corner of her mouth, curved into a smile that she was trying hard to hide in my presence.

"What?" she asked, finally noticing that I was silently staring at her the whole time.

"Nothing, huh?"

"Really, what is it??"

"Really, nothing. I was just staring. Nothing else. "

"Mh? I see. "