As Kiorif walked down to the bar some gave him a glance, though others were less calm with his presence. Even without his uniform some scoffed or shot slurs as he passed them, with a man leaving his seat as Kiorif sat near him. His eyes slashed at Kiorif, being gruffed and rigid.

“Leech,” he spat as he left the bar.

“How can I help you,” the bartender arrived at Kiorif, with her voice being softer than those around him.

“Just waiting for someone,” Kiorif kept to himself until he heard a familiar voice.

“You are the earth soldier, correct?” He turned to see the guard from before still wearing his gear, though he had a small smile.

“I believe you had some questions for me?”

“Didn’t expect you to be so happy about them,”

“Well as long as they aren’t pointless. Black Irish whisky” the soldier sat next to him as he received his drink.

“Drinking during work?”

“It isn’t a real job, only a casual contract until I move on to my next bounty. What could be done when at a place like this which is quite isolated from towns is if the owner agrees to allow people like bounty hunters or soldiers to act as guards in exchange for a room. You may have seen it,”

“Yes I have,” Kiorif remembered his time in Fresh-Root, so Spoon’s offer was not as odd as he thought for the moon.

“If that is all you can leave, I would like to enjoy my drink now,”

“Things aren’t as simple, this isn’t something seen on earth,”

“Go figure,” the soldier drank his fill.

“How come this is still allowed, wouldn’t it make more sense to have trained individuals do this,”

“I’m trained,”

“Ones who are actually competent at security,” the man scoffed hearing this.

“Please, politicians already tried that, and all it did was give people God complexes and impossible prices. It ended with one’s not on the government's leash to being the actual competent ones,” Kiorif kept calm, the man may have had a similar personality, but clearly, his beliefs and thoughts were more different than he thought.

“You had some fine weaponry,” Kiorif decided to move past politicians for now.

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“Get to the point,”

“In the town Fresh-Root they didn’t have enough of an arsenal compared to yours, more limited and in some cases primitive. It doesn’t seem cheap so the money must have come from somewhere,” the man sighed and stayed silent for a moment.

“Another refill. Besides I believe you already got the answer from Arthur, killing monsters pays well when they’ve become a reality. At first, it may be hard, and many die trying to get the money. But once you start getting the money to actually defend yourself, things do become easier to take down. And like I said, the trained ‘professionals’ were an embarrassment on the government's part. Do you really think they would get rid of us?”

“Once they find a solution,” both had their small stare down, with the refill of alcohol calming the pressure.

“We are similar. Both men who don’t want to add extra to things that don’t matter, but one thing I suggest is being careful when you’re the one who needs answers. You’re lucky Arthur is mostly a push-over cause not everybody is gonna welcome this,”

“And I shouldn’t need to take advice from somebody who is similar to me,” Kiorif now left his seat.

“I’ll let you enjoy your drink,” Kiorif drily shot

“And I hope you enjoy a night’s rest,” he tirelessly remarked. Kiorif felt annoyed with his meeting, part of him raising his pride whilst another tried to humble himself.

‘It would be beneficial to be more cautious with my choice of words,’ though when he stopped he heard a faint thud ahead.

Turning the corner nobody was there, but he did feel cautious with a potential new issue.

***

Rookie slept without a care in the world, tucked under bed sheets with dreams writing themselves in her mind. These dreams would be a wall for her mind and the outside, with the outside having a less-than-ideal reality. Her door creaked open quietly, a figure sulking towards her bed.

She didn’t feel its presence even as it reached a hand out towards her exposed body, until.

“Oi wake up,” the hand shook Rookie’s shoulder. Taking a deep breath she woke up to see Kiorif above her.

“Hmmm-wait. Kiorif I’ve finally got a proper bed, just give me five more minutes,”

“It’s half past 10,”

“2 more minutes,”

“You will be out of your room after 2 more minutes,” leaving her room he saw Tomobi leaving their room as well.

“Where are you going?” Tomobi paused for a moment.

“I just want to check on Seeno,” Tomobi felt nervous as Kiorif kept his eyes on him, still unable to tell the difference between his emotions.

“Alright you can go check up on it, but I want you back before twelve,”

“That much time?” Tomobi was shocked by the leniency.

“Is there a problem?”

“Oh no, thank you Kiorif,” Tomobi picked his pace and paced down the hallways.

“What,” Kiorif turned around to see Rookie growing a sly smirk.

“You gave Tomobi so much time? I remember that you would only give him five minutes for potty breaks,”

“Well,” Kiorif avoided Rookie’s eyes.

“We don’t need him behind us all the time,”

“Yeah of course,” Rookie smiled as she nodded.

“So can I get an extr-”

“No,”

“Ba-Wha? You didn’t even hear what I was gonna ask,”

“I know it will be something stupid, come on and bring the broken gun,”

“What are we even doing?” Rookie called out from her room as she got the equipment, lost on why she had to wake up.

“From what I learned the hotel has guards correct,”

“Yeah,”

“And they have weapons to protect themselves correct,”

“Yeah,”

“So where do they get these weapons to guard the hotel,”

“Yea-ohhhh, I get you now,” Rookie nodded as she followed behind Kiorif. And behind them, a figure stayed behind a corner.