A day before the Demonknight appeared.

“Can anyone tell me what’s going on?”

No one answered.

Myr didn’t mind it too much. She was used to being ignored. All the time. But she can’t just say something that insane and don’t tell me anything!

But then, Luna turned toward her and said, [Leave. I want to… talk with her.]

“But can you please tell me what’s happening?”

The Shard sighed. [I will explain everything later. For now, leave.]

Myr nodded. She couldn’t exactly refuse Luna’s request, so she left. Regrettably.

But Luna didn’t forbid her from speculating.

Is Elicia a Shard?

That was absurd. Shards are Soul Fragments of Vant— well, Nanthos, according to Luna. And they’re bound to objects. Elicia’s a person!

Seeing that thinking more about it would just make her head hurt, and remembering that Luna had promised to tell her everything, Myr decided to put it aside and jump down to the ground.

She quickly looked around. The battle was over, luckily. Wearily sitting around were the Hunters actually participating in the battle. The ones that didn’t ran like headless chickens, carrying supplies and retrieving the wounded.

Myr scanned her area. James and Webb were nowhere to be found, and she didn’t like it. Did they die? No, that’s impossible. Determined, she marched around, trying to find them.

And she did. They were a distance away from the caravan, digging holes with the merchant.

“Finally earned your keep huh, little lass?” The chubby merchant wiped his sweat and stabbed his shovel on the ground. He took a canteen from the pouch on James’ waist and gulped the content. “I know you just fought, but help us a bit here.”

Myr lightly nodded. Taking the shovel, she began digging.

She didn’t know how much time had passed, but by the time she became aware of her surroundings again, she noticed that James and Webb were on either side of her.

“Like what you’re seeing?” Webb’s blue eyes curved mischievously as he noticed Myr staring at him. He swept his blonde hair back. The sweat made it seemingly glisten in the sun.

Myr blushed. She quickly averted her eyes to the ground and continued digging. But she wasn’t spared from the hell that was social interaction as surprisingly, the normally stoic James struck up a conversation with her.

“I saw how you fight.”

“...”

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He didn’t mind Myr’s silence too much. “I’ve seen your type before. Chasing high-level moves without any foundation. You also saw it, right? How useless you are once your Mana runs out….”

Myr bit her lip. He was right. At first, she was going to slowly learn under Luna, but her meeting with Solis made Luna become… hyperfocused. Without Mana, she was no more than a child waving her sharp stick around.

“W-Why are you saying this? T-There are better ways to h-humiliate me.”

“Simple. I want you to join me.” James extended a hand out to her. “You’ll have to lay the foundations first. But I believe you can reach great heights.”

Webb suddenly shouted from behind, “Hey, he also said that to m—” But his mouth was covered by the merchant. “I got it! I got it! Just keep your greasy hands off me, pig!”

Myr stared at James’ hand. Unlike the image that Webb had just projected into her mind, it was firm and scarred. It was so… big, so… reliable.

“H-How good is your information department?”

“What a weird question to ask.” James raised an eyebrow. “But if it satisfies you, it’s almost the best in the Northwestern region. Second only to the Broker Guild.”

Well, there’s no reason to refuse now. She also found out that they were also heading for Linder city after this job, so there was really no reason not to join them, even if temporarily.

She shook James' hand and nervously smiled. “Please take care of me.”

“...You’re going to take care of yourself.”

“W-Wait!” Myr flailed her hands around, trying to stop James from walking away. “I-I didn’t mean it like that! It means a different thing where I came from! It’s just some pleasantries!”

But it was already too late. James had already gone off to do his things. He didn’t care about what Myr said, but Myr herself didn’t know that!

While she was standing still, speechless, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

It was Webb. He whistled as he played with the shovel in his hand.

“At least give him some dowry first.”

Annoying….

James shouted. He’d heard what Webb said. “You can punch him if you like. He’s mainly there to be my stress reliever.”

“Hey, take it easy there! Only boss can hit me. W-Wait, what’s with that face? W-Why are you raising your hand—”

.

.

.

.

“W-Why are we digging holes?”

Webb rubbed his swollen cheek. With slightly teary eyes, he huffed. “I can’t believe I let a girl hit me. Why did you even do that!? All I did was tease you a little!” He continued rambling on and on, not noticing Myr’s weary sigh.

To be honest, she did that in the heat of the moment. Webb was just that annoying. Seeing that he wasn’t going to answer her question any time soon, she turned her gaze toward the merchant.

“To bury the dead Hunters,” the merchant explained. Then, he leaned closer to her and whispered, “Don’t tell anyone this, but I think it’s stupid. We would’ve been halfway to Iglsah right now if, you know.”

I can see where he’s coming from. But the surviving Hunters also needed to rest. And, to be frank, she wanted to rummage through the dead bodies for anything valuable. Maybe I should become a merchant. Or a tomb raider. Any will do.

After several hours of digging holes and transporting dead bodies, Myr was finally done with her job.

“W-What about the bandits?” Myr asked James. She’d noticed that no one was touching the bandits’ corpses.

“Leave them. They’ll serve as a warning for other travelers and a threat for other bandits.”

After that, all the Hunters got up from their well-deserved rest and returned to their Walkers. Myr was no exception. She scaled the leg and got into the now-familiar dark compartment.

Looking around, she could see Elicia sleeping and hugging her rapier as if it was the most precious thing in the world.

“...I’ll just—” Myr sneakily pulled Luna away from the child. “—there we go.”

Settling on the opposite side of the compartment, she curled up, hugged the rapier tight, and dozed off to sleep.