In the next morning, in an eastern inn…

Fwap.

「Mnh…」

Stripe lets out a sudden, quiet groan and her ears flap on a reflex in her woolly hat after something flicks them.

「Get up, cat. It's morning.」

Straf says as Stripe groggily looks around the inn room. The haggard serfs in well-worn clothing are preparing to leave.

「…Mhhnnn.」

Stripe continues groaning as she sits up on her mat, rubbing her face with her clawed hand. Cycelia wakes up, opening her emerald eyes.

「…Mhhmm… Good morning Stra- Ah! Stripe! You're back!?」

Cycelia turns her eyes to Straf, and blinks for a brief moment at Stripe's face before realizing that it's not Straf's.

「…I've got nowhere else to sleep and nowhere to go, even, after that shitty bastard burned all my bridges by interrogating me. It can't be helped.」

Stripe crosses her arms and explains with her golden gaze turned away from them both. Lily and Nona slowly wake up as well, with Nona yawning loudly and stretching like a sleepy cat.

「After I IED'd your bridges… And it was mostly your own choice.」

Straf chimes in, correcting Stripe and wagging his finger at her with a smug smirk.

「I'm glad. I was a little sad when you left. I would have missed you.」

Cycelia says with a smile while rubbing her groggy eyes with the back of her dainty hand.

「Yeah, whatever…」

Stripe replies with her brows furrowed in mild surprise as she breaks eye contact with Cycelia, turning her gaze away again.

「Ahh… So the beastman decided to stay? Hmpf… Predictable.」

Lily yawns while covering her mouth with a loose fist, then crosses her arms and scoffs at Stripe.

「…W- What's so predictable!?」

Stripe waits for the group of serfs to leave the inn, then exclaims with her fist clenched, staring at Lily's smug face with her golden eyes wide open.

「You are predictable… There's this quote about letting things go, but I'm not going to quote it. See? You are a slave, just like those guys who left.」

Fwompff!…

Standing up, Straf says with a smug smirk and a loud flap of his coat's sleeves as he throws his arms through them.

「N- No I'm not! I'm free to leave anytime I want!」

She shoots up to her feet while clenching her fists.

「Yeah… So why are you here?」

Straf asks, shrugging his shoulders as his hands snake their way into his coat's pockets.

「Khhhkhkkk…」

With her teeth and fangs bared, Stripe clenches her teeth in frustration as a slight blush appears on her cheeks. She turns her golden gaze away, and stomps towards the exit.

「…Hmpf! I'll wait outside!… Don't keep me waiting forever!」

She scoffs as she departs. A door slides open and slams shut.

「…Want to keep her waiting like an idiot?」

Straf asks as he turns to Cycelia.

「Heh… I don't mind.」「Straf! That's mean!」

A mischievous grin appears on Lily's pale face. Cycelia pouts and furrows her brows, chiding him with her dainty hands clenched into fists.

「…What's that?」

Her emerald eyes drift to the leather satchel strapped to Nona's waist by a belt. Nona turns her amber eyes to meet hers while throwing her robe on.

「Hm? You mean this?… That's-」

Nona pulls her robe open while looking down at her hip. She reaches for the holster.

「Don't pull it out. Not without a good reason.」

Straf grabs her wrist before she can reach for its buckle. He lets out a sigh and unhands Nona, placing his hand back into his pocket.

「…That's a pistol. A gun. I don't want her waving it around here, since something is bound to go wrong.」

He turns his slanted mouth to Cycelia and explains with a quick shrug of his shoulders as Nona fastens her toggles on her robes, and throws her hood onto her fluffy brown head.

「A pisto-? Ah. Ahhh… I see.」

Cycelia asks, before recalling Straf briefly explaining the concept of pistols, gunslingers, and the wild west.

「…Why can I have the bang-thing but not the hammer, Straf?」

Nona asks, tilting her hooded head.

「'Cause one is for fighting, the other's for fun.」

Straf replies with a lightly amused smirk as he heads for the hallway. The rest follow him out to the streets, where Stripe is waiting with her arms crossed and leaning onto the building.

「Finally…」

She scoffs, straightening out.

「So… Since we ought to wait the laggards… Any interesting places? Where's an adventurers' guild?」

「There aren't any.」

Straf asks, and Stripe quickly replies with her mouth scrunched to the side.

「Fuck… Seriously? How am I supposed to earn money then? Nobody wants the shit that dropped from rocs.」

Straf rolls his eyes in deep frustration, and his shoulders slump.

「…You fought rocs?」

Stripe narrows her eyes at Straf, tilting her hatted head slightly.

「It's more like he slaughtered them… It wasn't really a fight.」

Cycelia chimes in with an awkward smile on her face. Stripe's confused glance jumps between the two.

「Sooo… Any fun places to waste time?」

Straf asks again, spreading his hands.

「…Not really. This is a border town, what do you expect? A circus? There's not much to do here… I guess we can visit the market… And the snack lane.」

Stripe replies with a shrug of her shoulder, briefly clicking her tongue and swallowing a large amount of saliva.

「The snack lane, huh?… You're paying. Let's go.」

Furrowing his brows, Straf nods his head, then shrugs his hand before it snakes its way into his pocket.

「Kuh… Fine… This time… Get your own money next!」

Stripe clenches her teeth in frustration before yielding. Her shoulders slump with a sigh, and she gestures her head down the busy street.

Straf follows with the rest of the group, weaving through the thickening crowd…

…

Around the same time, at the foot of the mountains, in a village hut…

Will wakes up, groggily rubbing his face. He plucks his glasses off the ground beside him and places them atop his nose. He shakes Greaves awake by his shoulder.

「Hrrrk- Wha…?」

Greaves wakes up mid-snore, blinking his confused eyes at Will.

「Greaves, it's morning. Wake up…」

Will explains with a weary face and groggy eyes.

「Five more minutes…」

Greaves replies and lies back down to sleep.

「No! Not five more minutes, get up!」

Will intensifies his shaking, much to Greaves's chagrin as he's forced awake.

「Fine, fine!… Buzz off!…」

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Pat!…

He slaps Will's hand away and sits up with his mouth aslant. The woman from before enters the hearthfire room.

「Ah. You're awake? Good morning.」

She says with a smile while carrying a wooden bowl and a spoon in her hand. She approaches the covered pot hanging over the dying flames.

「Ah, did we wake you? I'm really sorry.」

Will replies to the woman's unintelligible words, bowing his head low. When he raises his eyes, he sees a bowl of stew held out in front of him.

「Here, you must be hungry. You should eat a lot at your age.」

The old woman says with a smile, encouragingly nodding her head while holding the wooden bowl out for Will.

「Eh? For me?…」

Will asks, and hesitantly takes the bowl and the spoon from her hand, glancing at Greaves with confused eyes. Lian and Alicia wake up form the soft commotion.

「…Here, for your friend too.」

The woman quickly fetches another bowl from the kitchen area, spoons the stew from the ball-like wrought iron pot into the bowl, and holds it out for Greaves.

「Light… I don't think we have enough food to feed them.」

The old man says with a yawn as he emerges out of the dark room.

「Tsk… Stop being so greedy! Her Divine Embodiment said to be kind and charitable to strangers!… We usually have leftovers anyway!」

The woman wags the spoon in her hand as she briefly stops filling another bowl.

「Yeah, but we eat 'em…」

The old man says with a greatly troubled face as he looks at the very foreign-looking woman, and the young girl sitting beside her.

「Here, pretty.」

The old woman says as she holds the bowl and spoon out for Lian.

「Thank you.」

Lian replies with a bow of her head, and immediately begins eating.

「…And here. For you.」

「Thank you very much…」

Alicia thanks the old woman for the bowl of stew, then yawns loudly. The sniffs the bowl's contents, then hungrily begins spooning it into her mouth as well.

Having had started much earlier, Will has already finished his meal. Despite starting second, Greaves finishes shortly after him, almost as if racing Will.

「…Greaves, how much do you figure we should pay them?」

「…Iunno.」

Will asks, to which Greaves shrugs his shoulders with his brows furrowed.

「I think a drake is fair, right? I mean…」

Will furrows his brows, then rubs his chin as he thinks.

「…Actually, more like two. They did let us into their home, purely on trust basis… And they gave us a meal. I think two is fair enough, right?」

Will asks, turning his gaze back to Greaves.

「I don't know? How am I supposed to know?」

Greaves spreads his hands, replying with a hushed tone while the old couple eat leisurely at the low table in the center of the room.

「…Alicia, I'm going to get some money from your pack to pay them.」

Will declares as he crawls up to Alicia's backpack on the floor beside her mat.

「Okay…」

She nods, still groggy from her sleep, and slowly eating her stew.

Will digs through the various odds and ends and Alicia's folded spare robes, then finally finds the folded bundle of drakes. He searches for low denomination drakes, and pulls out two.

「…Here. It's not much, but we don't know how much you want for the night.」

He says to the old woman while holding out two drakes in his hand. She raises her brows in slight, but visible surprise.

「Hm? What is this paper?…」

She asks while looking at the drakes, lowering her bowl without making an effort to take them.

「I don't know… Maybe it's a gift?」

The old man replies with a shrug.

「Ah, no need to thank us. We're happy to help young people like you-」

The woman sets her bowl down on the table and gently shakes her head with a smile.

「No, I insist. Please.」

Will nods his head in reply while holding the bills out closer to her. With a troubled sigh, the woman relents and takes them.

「Thank you.」

She says in a heavily accented lowland common and a large smile.

「Ah? No, thank you…」

A little surprised by hearing a familiar language, Will's head perks up. He quickly bows it, returning gratitude instead. Then, he turns around to dig through his own pack.

「…And here, from me. A little gift.」

He pulls out a wax paper-wrapped ration, and holds it out for the old woman.

「Ah? What's this?…」

The woman sets the drakes down on the table, and receives Will's gift into her hands. She looks at the old man with a confused gaze, then unwraps the ration.

「…Ah! Meat jerky?… And some dried berries too!… My, such nice young people!… And you wanted to be stingy! Aren't you ashamed!?」

Her head perks up with a joyful smile when she sees the dry jerky packed within, and some shriveled blueberries piled on top. She places her wrinkly hand on her smiling cheek, then turns her gaze to the old man sitting beside her. She slaps him in the back of his head. He winces, and rubs the back of his neck with an awkward grimace on his head and a quiet groan.

「Thank you, travelers. Feel free to stop by on your way back.」

The woman sets the opened ration down on the table, and bows her head to Will.

「Ah, no… Thank you for everything…」

A little flustered, Will waves his hands in front of himself with an awkward smile. Alicia and Lian have already finished eating, and they set their bowls down on the table.

「…Right. We should go. We still have roughly a day's travel to the meeting point.」

「Yeah…」

Will declares as he stands up, and Greaves soon follows, dusting off his pants with his hands.

「Again, thank you for everything. We really appreciate it.」

Will says as he bows again, then heads for the exit as he slings his pack onto his shoulders. Lian nods towards the old couple, following him, before Greaves and Alicia join them.

The old couple escorts them to the door, then the two bow before gently shutting the door behind them. Will hastily fiddles with his backpack to pull something out from within.

「…What are you doing?」

Greaves asks while watching Will scribble something down on a sheet of paper against a small wooden block supporting it.

「Taking a note… Before I forget…」

Will replies between words while entirely focused on writing.

「Forget what?」

Greaves spreads his hands, narrowing his eyes at Will, who stands up and looks around the lanterns hanging outside some of the doors.

「Their words for thank you. I think I have it figured out.」

Will says, then resumes looking at the lanterns. He approaches one of the doors.

「Where are you going?…」

Greaves follows Will with his arms spread in confusion. He glances over his shoulder at Lian and Alicia, who can only return confused shrugs themselves.

「…Hello? Good day?」

Will says as he sticks his head into a nearby potion shop. It's small, dim, and the old man at the counter seems rather tired, but there are definitely health and mana potions lining the shelves.

「…Sorry to bother you.」

Will says to the old man, bowing his head, and backs out of the shop. He slides the door shut then copies the characters on the lantern hanging outside.

「…What are you writing!?」

Greaves exclaims as he throws his hands up, staring at the unlit lantern with confused eyes while standing beside Will.

「I think it says alchemist, or potion shop, or something to that effect… I think. I don't know how to say it, but if I can at least show the characters to someone…」

Will explains while scribbling down the characters onto his sheet of paper with his brows heavily furrowed in focus.

「…That's going to be big help. I hate that I have no idea what they're saying. I want to be at least know basic phrases, like thank you, or sorry. Stuff like that.」

He adds, and shrugs his shoulders.

「…Who cares? We've got food and bed for the night without knowing a single word.」

Blinking at Will in deep confusion, Greaves shrugs his arms.

「Tsk… Maybe you don't appreciate the value of being able to communicate with them, but I do… Lian, Alicia, give me a moment to figure out what the signs mean.」

Will replies, then turns his gaze to the girls as he approaches another lantern-marked door.

「Sure thing…」

With a shrug of her cloak-covered shoulders, Lian lets out a sigh after glancing at Alicia's troubled face. Greaves shakes his head in confused disapproval, but follows regardless…