…

Straf chuckles quietly to himself as he and Cycelia are walking down the town's wide and mostly empty main street. The sun hanging low in the sky shines on them faintly.

《Heheheheh… Man, 5 gold coins for massage gloves without haggling? The only thing that would top this off is a quest reward that's extra worthless.》

「You're really good at getting things sold, Straf.」

Cycelia comments on Straf's aptitude in merchantry. She looks away, with a slightly slanted and pouting mouth.

「Shame about those gloves though…」

「Hm? Did you want them?」

「Ah! No! I- I mean- I just-」

Cycelia waves her arms around as they pass a wooden message board. Many little slips of paper and annoucements hang nailed onto it. Straf suddenly rapidly backpedals and reads one of them.

「No fucking way.」

He says in utter disbelief and with glee in his voice.

「I just thought- Huh?」

Cycelia stops as Straf disappears from her side, he rips the paper off the message board.

「Lia! When is this!?」

Cycelia recoils a little when Straf shoves the paper in her face. He points to a date written on it, she takes it into her hands and reads through it.

「Wow! A tournament, huh? That's tomorrow. What about it? Do you want to see it?」

「See it? I want to join! I can't believe I'm witnessing this so soon!」

「Join? Ah… You certainly are strong enough to win, but…」

She gets concerned as she reads more of the tournament announcement.

「…It's like there was an entire arc that we skipped in the sewers. Or is this the second season already? No, nobody in the right mind would greenlight this trash.」

Straf rubs his chin with furrowed brows.

「…Arc? Straf?」

Cycelia asks, slightly puzzled with a tilted head as Straf is muttering to himself.

「Huh? Yeah?」

「If you want to join, we would have to go now. Registration for combatants ends tomorrow and the tournament proper starts in the morning the next day.」

「Shit. Are you alright with that, Lia?」

「Well, if you really want to participate, I don't mind, but… What if the manhunters are there?」

She looks up from the paper with worried eyes. Meanwhile, Straf rolls his.

「Come on, Lia. I dealt with a soul-eating demon. You think a couple chumps will give me any trouble?」

「Ah… I suppose you're right. I'm just worried…」

Straf turns starts hastily walking towards the road outside the town, Cycelia rushes to join him.

「Worried about what? Me kicking their heads off?」

Straf smirks and Cycelia covers her mouth as she suppresses a chuckle. She sighs with audible relief, and says nothing more as she follows Straf out of the town. A few hours later, the sun is well below the horizon and the night proper has arrived.

Straf glances to the side at Cycelia, looking weary with her eyes opened much less than usual.

「Do you want to stop and rest for today?」

Straf asks, looking at her curiously.

「Ah… No- Honestly, I'd really like a break. I'm not used to walking this much.」

Cycelia tries to feign having more energy than she really does, but gives up when she realizes it just won't be convincing enough. Straf stops in his tracks suddenly, and walks off-road onto the grassy plains.

《I could probably run all the way there. But that wouldn't be much of a harem then, would it?》

「Let's break camp here, then.」

Straf says, lookin around. Cycelia sits down on the soft grass and takes a few deep breaths.

「It's going to get cold without a fire, but I don't know if it's a good idea to start one-」

「I'll gather some wood, then.」

Straf gets up, and walks towards a lone tree sticking out from beyond a small hill. Cycelia perks up, briefly widely awakening.

「Wait! If we start a fire, someone might see us!」

「Yeah, and? Random encounters are what you should expect when you rest outside. Going to sleep in an inn, and getting woken up by an assassin trying to kill you is a little annoying, though.」

Straf nonchalantly says over his shoulder as he walks away.

「…Assassin? Straf, did that happen to you?」

《Why did he leave his country? Why won't he tell me?》

Cycelia meekly asks, but wind obscures her as it rustles the long grass. She theorizes on Straf's past as he walks up to the tree on the other side of the hill.

「Right… I said I'll get some wood, but how do I start? Do I just snap the branches off?」

He thinks out loud as he's looking up at the tree, the branches are far beyond his reach.

「Hmm. I could probably jump up there, but… Honestly, that's too much effort for some stupid wood. Why couldn't you just grow a little shorter, huh!?」

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Arms crossed, Straf asks the tree and gives it a rough kick. It snaps in half with a loud rustle of leaves and crashes down onto the ground. He looks down at the stump slightly surprised.

「Oh. Well. That solves the firewood issue.」

He walks up to the branches and snaps them off one by one, his [Portable Storage] opens, and he throws most of what breaks inside.

「And that will be for later… Hm.」

He rubs his chin with a raised brow as he looks onto the felled tree.

《…Isn't crafting one of the skills?》

Straf shrugs and takes the rest of the broken branches under his arm then turns to walk back to Cycelia. He stops after a single step. Straf drops the wood on the grass and walks up to the tree.

「Hup! Aaand hup!」

Straf vocalizes as he picks the tree up, and throws it into his [Portable Storage]. He dusts his hands off, then picks the dropped wood back up.

《Waste not, want not!》

A few minutes later, Straf returns to Cycelia with the firewood under his arm. He walks up to her, then raises his arm a little and unceremoniously drops it on the grass.

「Here's your bundle of sticks, and don't call it anything else.」

「Um, okay?」

Cycelia tilts her head a little.

「Now… How do I start a fire, though?」

Straf asks, staring down at the pile of wood.

「Huh!? You don't know!?」

「What? Is that weird?」

Straf furrows his brow, shifting his gaze to Cycelia still resting on the grass.

「N-no! I didn't know how to either when I left! It's just… I thought someone as capable of you would know how to do that. Even if by means of magic…」

「Yeah, well. Sorry to disappoint. All the stats in the world-」

Straf clicks his tongue and waves his hand through the air dismissively.

「…Stats?」

「…Can't really teach a man how to fend for himself in the wild. I guess I could kill a rabbit, or something.」

「No, I'm not that hungry…」

「I meant for something to start the- Forget it. So, can you start the fire then?」

He asks as he sits down next to Cycelia.

「Yes, give me a second.」

She draws her sword and takes a stick. She carves away a small indent in its center with the sword, then starts shaving off woodchips and sets them aside. She takes another stick, and carves one of its tip to be blunt, yet slightly pointy.

She inserts some of the shavings into the indent she carved out, and starts vigorously rubbing her hands on the blunted stick. Her hands travel downward as she rubs her hands into the shaft, forcing it into the woodchip-packed space as it rapidly grinds the shavings.

Straf observes Cycelia attentively as she tries to start the fire. She notices Straf staring intently, and she gets a little self-conscious. She averts her gaze, and keeps rubbing the quickly rotating shaft. Eventually, Cycelia notices a very faint glow of an ember on the bottom stick.

She cautiously takes the ember and drops it into the wood shavings on the ground, she covers it with more wood, and starts blowing onto it gently. Nothing seems to happen for a while, but then smoke starts to rise from the shavings. She covers the small flame with fittingly small branches.

「Wow. Impressive.」

Though Straf sounds monotone, there is no irony in his voice. Cycelia smiles slightly and looks away.

「N-no, it's really easy once you know how to…」

As the flames consume the small sticks, she places more wood onto the fire, then sighs.

「And there we go. As long as we feed it some fuel every now and then, it'll last through the night.」

Cycelia says, smiling a little as she looks at Straf. She lays down on the grass with her hands beneath her head, and looks at the starry sky. Straf lays down beside her as well.

「Isn't the sky beautiful, Straf? One of the few good things about being on the run is, I got to look at it a lot.」

「Yeah. I guess.」

She lifts her arm and points her finger at a segment of the sky.

「Do you see that star? That's the center of the wyrm and dragon constellation.」

Straf looks to where Cycelia is pointing. He squints slightly.

「Yeah? What abou- Ah fuck!」

Straf quickly rolls onto his side, covering his eyes with his hands. Cycelia sits up alarmed and with wide open eyes.

「What!? What happened Straf!? Did something hurt your eyes!?」

「No! I just realized that with each passing day my powers reveal themselves to be a curse!」

「What powers, Straf? Tell me, please!」

「The ability to see everything fucking sucks! I don't need to see all that in this much detail!」

「What did you see, Straf?」

Cycelia leans towards Straf with worry on her face.

「Remember that thing about the big man? It's related a little.」

Straf says, still covering his eyes laying on his side.

《How am I supposed to explain probably the most terrifying thing in existence to a girl who most likely thinks her planet is flat!?》

「…Are you alright now, Straf?」

「I'll be alright. Just go to sleep.」

「Are you sure-」

「Yup, don't worry about me even a little.」

Cycelia sighs a little, then lays down.

「Good night then, Straf. Wake me up if you need to talk, okay?」

「Yeah sure good night, sleep tight.」

Straf shoots back, still covering his eyes.

《Man, if only black holes had fucking health bars.》