Elsewhere, not too long ago…

Alicia, Greaves, and Will pull out chairs and take a seat around a round table in the inn. Their clothes torn badly and of the three, only Alicia's robes are undamaged. Greaves lets out a sighful groan.

「Man… I can't believe we wasted basically an entire day just resting.」

Greaves complains with his head lazily propped up on his fist, elbow on the table.

「Excuse me!」

Will calls out towards one of the barmaids behind him with his arm raised. She looks towards their table, raises her hand and nods in acknowledgment. Will turns back to Greaves.

「Whose fault is that, Greaves? Alicia had to take the time to purify our clothes and the bed sheets you bled on, and I was recovering from nearly having my guts ripped out.」

「Tsk. Get off my ass, Will. It wouldn't kill you to look around once in a while, but it can kill if you don't.」

Greaves says as he crosses his arms and turns sideways on his chair. He now faces Alicia more than Will, despite sitting straight across from him.

「Guys, stop it. It didn't go as planned, but everyone is safe and the town council was thankful. And we can afford things now.」

Alicia breaks in straight in the middle of the argument. The barmaid finally arrives at their table behind Will, slightly off to the side. Will glances up at her and quickly looks away when he sees her bust. He adjusts his glasses, looking down at the table.

「What will you have?」

The barmaid asks in a cheery tone. Greaves uncrosses his arms and with his elbow on the table, turns his upper body to her slightly.

「I want a chicken cutlet with beetroot side! And cheese toasts!」

Greaves demands loudly, making Will cringe.

「…You're going to eat toasts in the evening?」

「Yeah, what's wrong with that?」

Will shakes his head as Greaves confuses a breakfast for the last meal of the day. He turns his bespectacled face towards the barmaid a little.

「Just give me a regular stew.」

Will orders without looking at the barmaid.

「I'll have a stew too.」

Alicia perks up as says, the barmaid nods. Will glances at the barmaid for only a second.

「And we'll have two mugs of ale. And carrot juice for Greaves.」

「Hey-!」

Greaves protests and slams his hand on the table as Will orders drinks.

「Sure thing.」

The barmaid nods, Alicia pulls out a gold coin from beneath her robes.

「…I'll be paying. We'll be paying for the rooms for tonight, too. Let the owner know to take what we owe him for today, please. Is a gold coin okay?」

Alicia asks politely, and holds the gold coin up between her thumb and finger. The sight of the gold coin makes the waitress pause for a moment and her eyes widen, but then she smiles again.

「…It shouldn't be a problem. I'll let the boss know.」

She takes the coin and walks to the innkeeper.

「Hey! Get me an ale too!」

「Ignore him, he can't drink yet.」

The barmaid stops in her tracks when Greaves shouts out, but then nods and continues when Will fills in more information.

「Tsk. Will! I'm almost an adult! Stop treating me like a damn child!」

Greaves slams his hand on the table again. Alicia sighs. Will crosses his arms.

「You're almost an adult. Not an adult, Greaves.」

「Wow, big deal! You're one year older. You and Alicia, and you think you're a big adult now!?」

「No, I just think you're not allowed to drink yet. For someone who is calling me a big crying baby all the time, you seem to be really self-conscious about this point.」

「Because you rub it in my face all the time! You were born a year earlier, so what!?」

「Greaves, alcohol isn't really that great…」

Alicia meekly tries to break up the argument again.

「Oh yeah? Then why aren't you getting a carrot juice?」

「I didn't order it…」

As if he just received a new information, Greaves pauses and looks to the side, blinking and slightly squinting.

「…Okay. Fair point. But that doesn't mean Will gets to treat me like I'm a child!」

「You are a child, Greaves.」

「No you!」

Will takes his glasses off momentarily and sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. The waitress returns with bowls of soup and places them in front of Alicia and Will.

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「Here you go. I'll bring your drinks next, and the toasts.」

「Thank you.」 「Thank you.」

「Wait! Bring me an ale- Damn it!」

Both Will and Alicia thank the barmaid in unison as she sets the bowls down, and she walks off quickly towards the innkeeper ignoring Greaves's demand. He slams his hand on the table again, the soup splashes in the bowls slightly.

「Greaves, stop that. You'll break the table.」

Will scolds Greaves, and the barmaid returns with a plate of cheesy toasted bread. She sets it down in front of Greaves, and then one by one sets down the tankards that she somehow managed to fit into her other hand using barmaid magic.

「The cutlet will have to wait a bit. I'll bring you your change in just a moment.」

She smiles at Alicia, and Alicia nods. Greaves takes his tankard of carrot juice and starts guzzling it down. Will lowers his face to his stew and eating, blowing into it to cool it.

「Ahh… Damn it!」

Greaves sighs as he lowers the tankard and sets it down on the table, he then slams his hand on he table again. Will's face gets splashed by his stew.

「Pft- Greaves! What is wrong with you!? Will you stop that already!?」

「I wasn't meant to drink that! I want ale-」

Greaves looks up from his tankard at Will, and grins with a smug smirk.

「Heh. Serves you right.」

「Now my glasses- Grrrggh. I'll have to spend the whole night cleaning them!」

Will takes his glasses off and looks at them. He groans as he sees the oily soup dripping off.

「I'll purify them after we eat, don't worry…」

Alicia smiles gently, though the fatigue is visible on her face.

「See, Greaves!? Now you're making Alicia do more work!」

「Tsk. Sorry…」

Greaves once again turns away from Will, biting and chewing his toast.

「…Not for you though, Will!」

Greaves once again smirks, Will grinds his teeth as he squints at him with his glasses set aside on the table. Alicia sighs.

「Still… We need to figure out what to do about the fourth member.」

「Fourth member?」

Alicia tilts her head slightly then asks as Greaves finishes his toasts, and crosses his arms again.

「It's just something Greaves conjured up in his head, don't mind him, Alicia.」

Will puts down the orange-haired teen's idea, then slurps more of his stew.

「What, you again want to get your head bitten off from behind you?」

「…No, which is why I am not going to just blindly follow you again, when you're wrong.」

Alicia sighs and starts eating her steaming soup as well.

「I told you I am going to listen to you-」

「Here's your cutlet! And your change!」

The cheery barmaid interrupts Greaves, and puts down a large handful of silver and copper coins on the table in front of Alicia.

「Thank you.」

Alicia thanks her and nods with gratitude from her soup bowl. The inn waitress bows slightly, and heads to serve another table.

「…Where was I?」

Greaves asks.

「You were agreeing with me about how we don't need a fourth member, and that you just need to stop being a stubborn ass.」

「What!? No I wasn't!」

「…And that's the source of the problem.」

Will says as he slurps his soup. Alicia sighs, and scoops another mouthful up.

「Tomorrow, we should just skip town after we get our new clothes.」

「…Why?」

Will raises his eyebrows at Greaves's suggestion.

「There's nothing here. Just bunch of trees, a big hill and a lake we didn't even see. We got the sword, so there's no point staying here any longer.」

「What about the quests?」

「What quests!? I'm not picking herbs again! And there's barely any adventurers here! We could find our new party member in the next city over!」

Will sighs and squints with a slanted mouth at Greaves.

「Don't you think that's why we should stay? That there's a lack of adventurers?」

「There's a lack of adventurers, because this place sucks!」

Will notices Greaves lifts his hand, he recoils away from his bowl quickly as Greaves slams it down on the table again.

「Greaves I told you-!」

「Hey, kid! You paid for the rooms, not the table!」

The man at the long table shouts out at Greaves with his arms crossed.

「See!?」

「Tsk. I'm not a kid!」

Greaves clicks his tongue at the innkeeper scolding his table-smashing. Alicia sighs again while Will shakes his head a little. They continue their meal in relative peace…