…

A few hours later, Greaves wakes up in a bed with a soft groan. Alicia sitting on a chair nearby notices.

「Ngh…」

「Greaves, how are you feeling?」

「Like a stick that was thrown to a dog a hundred times, then bit and slobbered all over.」

Greaves says, rubbing his eyes with his hand. He sits up, and his blanket slides off. His chest and arms are covered in bloodied bandages, and the parts that aren't are scored in shallow scratches, big and small.

「How's Will?」

「He's fine… He's resting, though. I hope you don't mind, but I healed him entirely first. I don't know how bad he got wounded, and I thought he might have internal damage, so…」

「Eh. He's a big baby who can't take a little pain. He should go first, or he'll cry.」

「I was gathering strength to heal you next, but you woke up before I finished.」

「I'm feeling fine. Don't worry about me. Is this the inn?」

「Yes. We had to drag you here, I partially healed you in the forest, then we bandaged you here.」

「But I thought we ran out of money? Oh. Did you turn the quest in?」

He asks, slightly confused as he looks around the room. Alicia shifts in her chair and looks away.

「Well… Actually…」

「What?」

Alicia pulls on her robe and puts her hand inside, reaching for something in a pocket on her shirt underneath the robe. She pulls her hand out, and raises a gold coin.

「Wha-!?」

「…It's kind of a long story. But to make things short, those weren't the monsters we were supposed to kill. In fact, when I came to the guild to report it, I learned that the quest was already cancelled.」

「Then- What? Then where did the gold coin come from?」

「When we came back, we first dragged you to the inn. The innkeeper was kind enough to let us get rooms for ourselves for free, but we'll get kicked out if someone shows up for them.」

She moves her hands as she talks, explaining what happened so far to Greaves.

「Then after we bandaged you, I healed Will and went to the guild. I told them we killed the horndogs, but the loggers came and cancelled the quest, because they killed the monsters they saw.」

「What!? Then what was it!?」

「It was just 4 goblins…」

Greaves puts his palm on his face and groans.

「…So Will was right after all?」

「…It would appear so.」

「Tsk. Shit.」

He looks away and clicks his tongue. After a moment, he looks at Alicia again.

「But if it was cancelled, why did we get paid?」

「I was getting to that. Since we were more concerned with getting you out alive, than getting proof for the quest, the guild sent an adventurer to verify our story. He came back, and confirmed there were a lot of dead horndogs near the manatrees.」

She sighs and spreads her arms.

「…And the guild contacted the head councilor. He decided that while it may not have been a quest, us killing the horndogs served the town's interest, and so he compensated us, and the guild.」

「So our first real quest wasn't even a quest!?」

「Yes.」

「Shit. At least we got first real money for a bogus quest.」

「I was thinking about splitting the coin and giving you and Will half.」

「What are you talking about? You were there too.」

「I didn't really do anything…」

「Alicia, stop being dumb! Me and Will aren't dead because you were there. I think you should keep the coin.」

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「Huh? Why?」

「Because if you give it to Will, he will just hoard the money and never spend it. If you give it to me, I know all the money will be gone by tomorrow, because I'm a dumbass.」

He points at Alicia.

「But if you have it, you won't spend it on stupid stuff, or cling onto it. You'll buy things we need. It's party money. I'm sure Will thinks so too.」

「But…」

「No buts! I'll talk to him.」

Greaves says as he throws off the rest of the blanket from his legs, and gets up from the bed.

「Wait! You're still badly wounded!」

Alicia stands up from her chair and moves her hands towards Greaves, but doesn't have enough confidence to physically stop him.

「I'm fine! You worry too much! Did you even rest at all since we came back? Take a break.」

Greaves takes his torn and bloodied shirt from the table and slips it on. He opens the door, but pauses to look back at Alicia.

「I'll be right back. I'm fine, make sure you are too. He's in the room there, right?」

He points at the side and asks Alicia, as she's clutching onto her wand with worry on her face. She nods gently, and he closes the door behind him.

He takes a step towards Will's room and stumbles onto the wall, stopping himself from falling with his arm. He breathes heavily as his head hangs. He takes a few moments to recover, then stands up straight and walks into Will's room.

「Will! Heard you're not dead!」

Greaves waddles in and slams the door behind him. Will wakes up, turns around on the bed and squints.

「Greaves. You almost were.」

「As if! I'm the legendary hero! What do you think I'm made of, paper? I guess if you're not dead, then you're not either, but you could have fooled me, they really tore you up!」

「Tsk. That's because you wouldn't listen to me.」

Will says as he pulls the blanket off, sits up on the bed and puts his glasses onto his squinting face.

「Yeah. Okay. My bad. It could have turned out bad if not for Alicia.」

「Did she tell you what happened?」

「Yeah, mostly.」

「Well, then you know that because you are a dumbass that won't listen to the brain of the party, you almost got its heart killed?」

「Tsk. I know. I'm mad at myself too. That was way more than we could have handled. I'm a pretty poor leader.」

Greaves looks away with a pout as he admits defeat. Will adjusts his glasses.

「…To be frank, while I am mad at you for walking us into almost certain death, I think we did a lot of good today. The horndogs already scared the loggers off a few weeks back. They would have killed someone, sooner or later.」

「You mean they knew?」

「They didn't. They heard the howling and growling, and left. Just like we should have. In fact, we should have turned around, when we realized we went deeper than the loggers would have.」

He crosses his arms and one of his hands taps its fingers.

「…But I'm glad you're alright. You were bleeding pretty badly. Did Alicia heal you yet?」

「Heh. Do you think I'm a baby like you? I'm already fine. But I'm glad you are too. I don't know how Alicia would take you getting shredded to bits.」

「Well if you don't want to find out, how about you listen to me next time, dumbass!?」

「Tsk. Fine. I will listen to you once if we seem to get lost. But if you get us really lost, it's over, you don't get to tell me where to go. By the way, I told her to keep the coin.」

Greaves says as he points at Will. Will raises his eyebrows slightly above his spectacles.

「…That's surprising. I was expecting you to tell her to immediately give you your cut.」

「I was really fighting the urge to.」

Greaves smirks, with his hands on his hips.

「Figures.」

Will shakes his head slightly with his arms crossed.

「Well, I'm gonna head back to my room, and beg Alicia to buy me some snacks as a reward.」

「How about paying for the inn so we don't get kicked out, dumbass?」

Irritated, Will asks Greaves as he's walking out.

「Huh? And who's going to kick the legendary hero and his party out? Do you even realize how bad for business that would be?」

Suddenly, he stops and backs into the room a few steps.

「By the way, I figured out how to prevent something like this next time.」

「…And that is? Listening to me?」

「A fourth member to babysit you, while I kill monsters!」

Greaves sneers, and shuts the door.