Alaric walked back from the Alchemist’s shop with Scarlett trailing slightly behind him. The boy’s mind was mostly stunned. He’d stepped out of his comfort zone with the negotiations with the alchemist, Thai… but now he was stuck yet again.

The moon shone brightly in the sky, like a soft reflecting mirror of hope, casting a dim glow on the world down below. Alaric could feel the faint tremours of headache that came from overtasking himself. His vines were already sprouting in unassuming spots around the city of Melbourne, working as his eyes and ears.

He’d never been on edge as much as he was here in Melbourne. Partly because the town wasn’t as far from the Tower of Seekers as he would have liked and partly because of the Emperor’s Soldiers he’d met earlier that day.

According to Garin, however, it was the safest place for him to hide. A town not too far from the Tower would be perfect as his enemies would have expected him to run as far from the Tower as he could.

“Do you live near, Scarlett?” he asked the girl walking silently behind him.

“I’m currently renting a cottage close to the Safe Woods,” the girl replied.

“Safe Woods?”

“The Woods furthest from the main gates. They call them Safe because they are within Melbourne’s Holy Barrier,” she responded.

“Oh, I see… Also, the whole cottage? You’re renting a full cottage?” Alaric mused.

“The owner wouldn’t let me buy it. In any case, the rent is good and with the money I’ll be hauling in from taking quests, I should make enough to either build or buy my own place,” she responded.

“Ah, I see…” Alaric replied. He didn’t see himself with dreams of settling down just yet though.

Then again, Scarlett wasn’t settling down either. She was doing something far weirder. Buying a home while still holding on to the free life of an adventurer.

“Don’t you want to travel the world? I find it hard to believe you became an adventurer just so you could settle down in Melbourne,” Alaric wondered. He turned to her and noticed she was still carrying her groceries.

Holding out his hands, he offered to carry them for her, to which she obliged, “I’ll get a place of my own and still go out on adventures. I could even buy homes in all the major cities and rent them out whenever I know I won’t be around for a long time.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Alaric raised a brow at this, “Huh, that’s smart. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Not many people do. You’d need a lot of money to pull it off. Which means I’ll be adventuring a lot. What’s your plan?” she wondered.

“I’d like to reach the Steel Temper Rank… That would be me shooting for the stars though. Stone Rank Level Five would be good enough for now,” he responded.

The woman giggled, “You’ve got quite the ambition. Though I have a question to ask you.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“Well, you look and act smart but then you go and associate yourself with someone like me as if we’ve known each other a long time. Is that your childish naiveté that makes you act that way?” she asked.

“Naiveté?” Alaric grimaced. What was wrong with being naive? It came with the territory of being young. It would be normal, in fact, to think of him as naive.

…But that part of him had been battered away a long time ago. Alaric had lost a friend to a demon. It might have not been enough to drain him of his childish naiveté but he gained a guardian that pommeled the rest of it out of him.

Alaric chuckled lightly, “Not many have called it that. I guess I could say I’m just following my gut. I think anyone deserves to be given a chance… but I’m not stupid enough to think the world would be a better place if it worked like that.”

“So your gut tells you I’m a good person?” she wondered.

Alaric laughed at this. Wouldn’t it be nice if Scarlett was the kind of person who could be called ‘good’? They’d only spent a short time together and Alaric was getting drawn to something about her. That something was not good… but a variation of it.

Scarlett had the potential to be good and during the time that he was with her, that light was shining in her eyes constantly.

“More like the potential to be good. You didn’t hesitate to blow up the training ring and you injured Daphne quite badly because of it. At the same time, I didn’t sense any hostility coming from you. It was the weirdest thing,” Alaric noticed she stopped walking as he spoke even though he continued walking as though he hadn’t.

After they were three meters apart, he turned back, “Something wrong?”

“Daphne wasn’t injured during that battle,” Scarlett whispered.

“I healed her and her armour had self-repairing enchantments. No one noticed a thing… I doubt even she noticed,” Alaric explained.

The silence between them was tense and Alaric could feel he’d crossed a line. Scarlett was strong and part of him would have liked her companionship but as he stared at her under the moonlight, he noticed the light that had been shining in her eyes had vanished, replaced by a cold icy stare, “Quite the frightening look you have.”

[ Circulate aether through your body and get ready to leave ] Alia’s voice echoed in his mind.

“Leave… I’ll make it home on my own now,” Scarlett said.

Alaric approached her and held out her bag of groceries. He struggled to keep his heart from beating heavily in his chest, all in a bid to hide just how frightened he was of fighting her. Taking the bag from him, she walked past him and continued on her way.

[ We need her ] Alaric told his guardian.

[ No we don’t. ]

[ She knows about Troy. Unless she’s willing to stay quiet, we need to make sure she won’t betray us. ] Alaric replied.

[ Don’t abandon your principles in the name of caution, Little Prince. Believing in people when no one else will is part of what makes a good prince. From this point on, Scarlett makes her own choices. Give her the benefit of the doubt. Remember, you don’t know what her life’s been like ] The boy’s body relaxed at his guardian’s words.

Wasn’t this the naiveté Scarlett had been talking about?