As the sun rose upon a peaceful morning, Zycor began to stir. He had a smile of comfort upon his face as he enjoyed lying in his bed. Trying to enjoy the silence and peace, Zycor kept his eyes closed as he muttered, “It really is nice to have our own bed.”
Zweicor let out a relaxed sigh as he responded, “Agreed. An inn’s bed never could compare.”
This peace and silence was abruptly shattered with Aislin throwing his bedroom door open. As she did so, she loudly announced, “Time to get up! The time for sleep has passed, now is the time to help your big sis!”
Zycor’s smile faded from his face as he sat up and muttered, “So much for a peaceful wake up.”
“Hey now, I heard that!” Aislin exclaimed. “Well, whatever, Aisha is downstairs waiting for you. I want you to go with her into town and grab some things for me.”
As she inspected Zycor closer, Aislin sighed, “But first, we need to do something about that hair. It’s reaching below your shoulders now, how long has it been since you cut it?”
Zycor thought for a moment before shrugging, “I don’t remember, maybe around eight months ago or so?”
Aislin’s left eye visibly twitched at his response. “Yeah, that is not gonna fly. Sit down, I am cutting it.” Aislin directed.
“But-.” Zycor began to protest.
Aislin cut him off as she retorted, “No ‘buts’ aside from yours getting in that chair! I will be back with a hair knife.”
Aislin returned with a knife enchanted with a minor offensive wind rune engraved. As she channeled a small amount of magic into the knife, the air around the blade began to vibrate rapidly. She gave Zycor his long overdue haircut, the knife effortlessly cutting through his hair.
After about ten minutes, Aislin took a step back as she admired her work, commenting, “Well, not too shabby if I do say so myself!”
Zycor examined his reflection in the large mirror within his room as a soft smirk leaked onto his face. His once long hair now mostly lay upon the floor. The remainder was styled in a fashion reminiscent of how he wore it before his journey.
Leaving the room to meet up with Aisha, she sat at a table waiting for him. Making his way down the stairs he called out to her, “Hey Aisha, you ready?”
She glanced over at Zycor before she swiftly stood up and cheekily responded, “I should be the one asking you that!”
She saw Zycor’s haircut and smiled, “Though, I suppose I can let it slide since you were taking care of that mess of hair. Honestly, had I not been so happy to see you yesterday, I would have scolded you about it then and there!”
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Zycor rolled his eyes at her comment as he grinned and began to leave. “H-hey! I am talking to you! Don’t just walk away from me!”
“Then you better keep up princess! We can’t talk if I get too far ahead!” Zycor teased back.
Aisha, fuming, began to follow as she muttered, “Jeez~ when did you get so good at banter?”
Before they left the Guild hall, Zycor called for Novos, who swiftly exited the bedroom, hopped over the railing and glided down to Zycor. Novos made himself slightly smaller to wrap himself around Zycor’s neck, his favorite spot.
The trio, after arriving at the market section of the city's district, began browsing shops. Aisha was walking a fine line of staying on task and goofing off by looking at clothes and accessories. Despite Aisha enjoying her time, Zycor remained on edge the entire time. He was constantly scanning their surroundings while trying to contain himself. There was the makings of an infestation of Velathrian knights within the city. Aisha, taking notice of his growing frustrations, asked Zycor, “Hey, are you alright?”
Zycor had completely shut Aisha out, continuing to glare at the Velathrian knights that continued to roam the streets. Aisha, following his glare, noticed the knights. Although she did not have the full story, Aisha knew that Zycor had major issues with Velathria. She grabbed his hand, snapping him out of his trance, and dragged him into an alley.
“What is going on with you? I know that something went down between you and Velathria, but you cannot go staring daggers at them like that!” Aisha questioned as she scolded him.
Zycor looked at her, his eyes now narrowed, and asked, “How long have these pests been here?”
Aisha took a moment to think and replied, “About a year and a half now? Velathria made a treaty or something with the kingdom of Muthgrad. Though, with how the current ruling family is, I assume they were paid an exorbitant amount of money to hand over ruling authority over to Velathria. They have been warmongering as of late, so it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case.”
“I see. So the ones I slaughtered up North were raiding for war purposes.” Zycor muttered to himself.
Aisha, not letting his comment slide, irritatedly requested, “Do you mind repeating that?”
“Huh? What part?” Zycor responded, cocking his head in confusion.
“The part about you killing Velathrian knights!?” Aisha angrily reiterated, trying to keep her voice down.
Zycor only returned a stare filled with even more confusion. “I don’t see the problem Ai, they were bad guys about to do bad things, so I stopped them.” Zycor explained matter of factly.
“And your first thought was not to subdue them, but to kill them!?” Aisha questioned even more ferociously.
With a slight amount of unease, Zycor hesitantly responded, “Y-yes…”
Aisha stood looking at him, completely stunned. She was lost for words. Despite how mature he had seemed to have gotten, it seemed as though this one aspect of him refused to mature with him. She let out an exasperated sigh, “I cannot believe you can be so mature and have grown so much, and yet not see the issue with your actions.” There was a brief pause before she continued, “Well, I will deal with that problem later. For now, let's head back. I really do not want to deal with any trouble the day after you get back.”
As the two of them slipped out of the alley, two Velathrian knights watched them. As the pair left, one of the knights sternly ordered, “Go inform the boss. He’s here.”