It was dark outside and my stomach was grumbling. I might as well get dinner before going to my deadbeat apartment.

I walked down the dark streets with only the starlight above providing some light. I kept my ears open, just in case some random dodgy person tried to jump me.

I only calmed down when I saw the door of my favourite tavern in front of me. I entered with a smile.

It was empty inside. Though for some reason the tables were overturned and a splash of blood was on the wooden floor. Looks like there was a bar fight here

“We’re closed for crying out loud!” Rose, the owner of this fine establishment shouted. When she saw me, her fiery anger seemed to calm down. “Oh, it’s you Ruihyn.”

I took a seat on one of the few tables that wasn’t overturned, “You look pissed. What happened?”

“A fight. Those bloody rascals were looking for trouble and I gave it to them,” she spat on the floor.

“Rose, don’t say you were involved in a fight. Again.”

“You know how those new money beastkin kids act around here. They think they own the place. I have no choice but punching some respect into their thick skulls.”

“You’re pregnant for crying out loud!” I pointed to her bulging belly.”

She waved me off, “I’ll be fine. And the twins were happy seeing their mother smack some sense into those rascals.”

I chuckled. Rose is unbelievable; she was also a beastkin but rather a kitsune. She had the ginger ears and tail of a fox. And has a rather quick temper. I thought pregnancy would slow her down but she’s still the same Rose I befriended ages ago. We are the same age, but she is running this tavern all by herself since the recent passing of her mother.

Rose took a sit next to me, “Anyway, what do want to have?”

“You got pigeon pie?”

She groaned, “I’m too tired to make pie for just you. How about rice?”

“Are you saying I’m not enough for you to make pie for me?”

“Don’t twist my words like that, Ruihyn. You know what I mean.”

“Please can I have pigeon pie, Rose. Pretty please.”

She shook her head, “No, I’ll make you rice and some left over chicken.”

So she wants to play it like that?

I cupped my face with both my hands and smiled at her. “Please, Rose.”

“Not the puppy eyes,” Rose sighed.

There’s also another ace up my hand.

I bit my lower lip and whimpered before her helplessly. I could see the last forms of resistance snap away.

“I hate you.” She pointed at me with shaking arms.

“I love you more,” I blew her a kiss.

“You can go drink piss for all I care,” she shouted as she stormed into the kitchen.

I could hear Rose continue to curse out loud as she prepared the pie. The full pie was done under an hour with some ale on the side.

She placed the tray on the counter, “I hope you choke on that pie.”

“Your words wound me, Rose.”

“Whatever,” she cried out and sat next to me.

The pie smelled delicious. My tongue was tingling with just the thought of biting into it. But there was one problem, the ale.

“Rose, you know that I work too hard to come here after a long gruelling day and end up assaulting my mouth with the taste of ale.”

“Wine, then?”

“Need I say more?”

She smiled. She got up once again and went into the kitchen. Seeing her return with a bottle of wine brought a smile to my face, though I must admit that ordering around a pregnant woman has a bad taste in my mouth.

“Rose, you should get some help here. You can’t carry on like this,” I said to her as I took the wine bottle from Rose.

She rolled her eyes, “You worry too much. I’m a big girl, now eat. And you better finish the pie and leave no crumbs behind.”

“Yes, ma’am!’ I saluted.

She laughed.

I took a bite into the pie and moaned as the crust melted into my mouth. And the pigeon meat, well words could not begin to describe how delicious the pie was.

Rose was staring at my hair. I quickly swallowed the food in my mouth.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“The pin I gave you. Where is it?” she asked me.

“Oh, I lost it. Nosan and his gang kind of ganged up on me and I lost it then. Sorry.”

“Really now?”

I laughed, trying to diffuse the situation. I’d prefer not to have this volcano in front of me erupt in anger.

“Don’t be silly, Rose. I got this from Boss’s butler. I still got the pocket watch you gave me.”

I showed her the pocket watch and her eyes softened.

“Sorry,” she said, her voice showing her embarrassment.

“I guess those motherly instincts are creeping up on you.”

She glared at me harshly, “Are you saying I’m becoming soft?”

“Of course not.”

Rose gave me that look of hers. I could see the lava just shooting out those eyes of hers.

“Take that pin off. Now.” She commanded.

“That seems unnecessary,” I said as I took another bite from the pie.

She took my plate and dropped it on the ground. There was still a good portion of pie left and now it was on the floor.

“Take. That. Pin. Off. Now.” She said slowly.

Rose’s abrasive personality makes her come off as shrew when you don’t know her deeply. But since I’ve grown close to her as her friend, I can assure anyone that Rose deep down is really a shrew. But she’s my shrew and I guess I can tolerate her questionable tendencies at times.

I removed the hairpin and gave it to her. She got up and walked up stairs. When she returned, she had a two new pins for me.

“Here, don’t lose them.” She gave me the pins.

“What happened to the other one Gert gave me?” I asked.

With her other hand, she revealed that the ivory hairpin given to me by Gert was now broken into a dozen pieces.

I used the two wooden pins she gave me to tie my hair back.

She looked at the plate on the floor, “Ruihyn, do you want me to make you another pie?” Rose asked calmly.

I shook my head, “I better get going. I’m filled up anyway.”

“You’re not upset with me?”

I’m not going to answer that honestly.

“No, in fact I want to ask you for a favour.”

She raised her brow, “What kind of favour?”

“I want to perform next week, the day before the Grand Lunar Festival.”

“Why?”

“I have an important mission on the Grand Lunar Festival. I want to have fun before it. If you don’t mind.”

“Is this mission dangerous?”

“Not from what I can tell. But performing before a mission does help clear my head so I don’t mess up.”

“I know you’re lying to me, Ruihyn. How dangerous is this mission?”

“I’m not lying!”

She crossed her arms, “I’ve known you for over a decade. So drop the act.”

Rose is one of two people I can’t seem to able to lie to. Maybe I should work on my facial expression or something.

“Fine, it’s an S-rank mission.”

“You’re joking.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“It’s far too dangerous.”

“I’ve already given Boss my word, I’m not backing away.”

Instantly, Rose grabbed the nearest table and threw it to the wall, shattering it into many pieces.”

I guess this is the stage when the volcano fully erupts.

“You can’t be serious!” she shouted at me. “The last time you took an S-ranked mission, you arrived here in a horrible state, barely clinging onto life. You were lucky there was a [Cleric] in the tavern or else you would have been dead.”

“I know, I know. But he offered to set me free after the mission.”

“What good is that if you end up dead!?”

I shrugged, “That’s more motivation to stay alive.”

Rose scoffed, “You’re not taking this seriously, Ruihyn. Am I now a fool for even caring about you when you just shrug off the danger to your life.”

“Come on, Rose. It’s not like I’m a child.”

She remained silent and turned her back on me.

I didn’t say a word and just touched her shoulder.

“I can’t lose you too.” She whispered.

“I promise I’ll make it alive. You know I always keep my promises.”

She sighed, “I don’t think you can keep this one.”

“Remember the first promise I made to you? How you said the exact words.”

She chuckled, “That was different. We were kids.”

“Yeah, but the essence was the same.”

I believe we were ten years old at the time. I was still a low ranked thief, spending most of my days in the market square pickpocketing the denizens of this city. I was pretty good at it, no one could resist my young dashing smile (even to this day) and easily lowered their guard around me.

Being so good, I attracted the wrong attention, a rival gang. They took all my earnings for that week. I couldn’t fight them off. And Boss would have punished me severely for losing that much money. It was the end of the week and so I couldn’t pay my ‘rent’ to Boss. So I thought of running away but then I came across Rose. We talked and she ended up stealing cash from her mother and gave it me. Rose and her mother had recently got into a big fight and in a way of getting back to her mother, Rose stole the money.

I promised Rose that I would return the cash she gave me but I would double it the next day. ‘I don’t think that’s a promise you can keep’ she said to me and well, I proved her wrong. I discovered the day after that tap dancing before rich merchants and nobles earned me more gold than trying to pickpocketing them. Anyway, I ended keeping that promise to Rose. End of story.

“You better keep your promise,” she turned around to face me.

“Cheer up, buddy. How about I do a performance the day before the festival. That way I can put my mind at ease before the mission and you can earn lots of money and thus forgive me for poor life choices.”

“Are you bribing me?” she laughed.

“It’s not bribing when I do it for a friend.”

“I’ll take the deal. You perform and I take all the cut from ticket sales.”

I shook my head, “You can’t be serious. I should get at least half of the money from the tickets. Beside, you’ll make more money from customers buying your food.”

“I thought the reason for your performance was placating me and also easing your mind. So what’s the problem of me taking the whole cut?”

“Funny.”

She grinned. “We’ll negotiate when the time comes.”

“Yeah, yeah. But I’m not budging. Anyway, I better get going.”

“Aren’t you going to help me clean up?”

“Of course not,” I laughed. “You did after all throw my food on the floor and broke that hairpin Gert gave me.”

“I hate you,” she laughed.

“See you later, Rose.”

I waved goodbye and got out of the tavern.

The apartment building I live in was one of the few buildings in the slum made out of cement. It was three storeys high. And I lived in the highest floor because it was the cheapest.

I went straight to bed. I had only one-bedroom. The roof was still cracked and I could hear rats moving in between the walls. Sometimes having acute hearing is a nuisance.

I stared at my lute in the corner of my room. I should practise. That’s the only way I could rank up in my class.

I yawned. Not today however. Probably tomorrow or something. Well, I said that yesterday that will practise today. Okay, fine. Tomorrow, I’ll seriously practise.

I need to make level 19 in the [Bard] class before my performance.

I yawned again.

…

…

I heard the screeching sound of my alarm clock. I winced, I hate that thing.

I angrily grabbed the alarm clock but just before I was about to throw it to the wall, my senses returned to me.

I’d be crazy to throw away this new invention. Very few people had this contraption, so it would be foolish to throw it away. Even though I stole it, I still cherished it deeply.

Instead, I pressed the button on the back of the clock and it finally went silent.

I stared outside the window. It was still dark. I put on a light tunic that reached down to my knees.

Time for a good run.

Before any good run, one must stretch properly.

“What you’re doing?” one of the urchins asked me.

“Preparing to run.”

“Why don’t you just run?”

“I don’t want strain my muscles.”

“Oh.” He said confused. I could tell that he wasn’t fully sure about the stretching part but I didn’t have time to go through my reasoning.

Time to dart. I ran from the apartment building and into the streets. The jog wasn’t anything special, more like exercise.

I carried on running. I ran across the alleyways of the slum but as I approached the city centre, running became easier because of wide paved roads.

Merchants were already up and preparing their stalls for selling goods and stuff.

One of the stall owners waved at me, “Hi there, Ruihyn.”

I waved back, “Hello there, sir!”

Mr Hukabell threw one of his apples at me.

Luckily, I caught it. “Thanks. But you don’t have to give me an apple each time I come by.”

“Nonsense, child. Have a good run now.”

I thanked him again and gave him a respective bow before continuing my run.

As I jogged around the city, I reached the inner most walls that gated the district where nobles lived in.

A guard stopped me, “Hey, you’re not allowed here unless you work for a noble or have a pass.”

“Sorry, I got lost.”

One day, I want to walk on the gold paved roads of the noble district. Unfortunately, it is very restricted.

“Just bugger off!” the guard shouted at me.

I ran the opposite direction and headed to the district where rich merchants and wealthy adventurers lived in. I didn’t need a pass to run around here but the guards patrolling here can evict anyone seen as being suspicious.

The houses around here were made out of concrete and had vibrant coloured paint decorating their walls. All of the houses here were gated and had privates guards, usually hired adventurers, patrolling around their perimeters.

I kept my run for about two hours.

I was sweating all over by the end of my running session and needed to get a thorough wash.

I hurried to a public bathhouses in this merchant district. It was still dark and I had to wash up before the sun got up.

I approached the clerk and gave her three crown coins

First was the cold shower. Then lukewarm water with herbs and soap. If you paid for extra, you can get someone else to massage you. Since I don’t have money to play around with, I guess my own two hands bestowed to me by the gods will have to suffice.

Then came the last spot, the actually hot tub. Sitting in there, alone, I just relaxed.

I sat back and relaxed in there. I was all alone since no one comes early here.

“Ruihyn, fancy seeing you here.”

Please don’t say that is who I think it is. I looked up and saw my landlady dipping in the hot bath. Yep, that wrinkled face and grey hair belongs to no other than my landlady.

She entered and she smiled at me. “No need to fear, I’m not going to demand rent.” She chuckled.

I forced a laugh. I better get out of here. This is why I try coming to the bathhouses early on, I don’t want to meet people that I know.

“It’s nice seeing you here so early.” I said to her.

“Yes.” She nodded at me, “I have a meeting with the tax collector.”

I just nodded at her. Would it be seen as rude if I tried getting up and darting for the door?

“You seem nervous.” She crossed her brows.

“Nothing, just a bit stressed out.”

“You know, I might need to increase the rent again. Many people have been requested your room.”

This greedy lady! She probably wants to increase rent and she’s coming up with this stupid story as justification.

“I’ll be happy to pay more if need be.”

“Really?”

As if I had a choice. I don’t want to be left homeless or worse, sleep in one of Boss’s dens.

“Within reason, of course,” I added.

“Of course,” she chuckled.

We remained in awkward silence for what seemed to be forever. If I leave, she might take that as rudeness, which in turn could have her want to jack up my rent highly.

“These are really harsh times, Ruihyn,” she droned to me.

“Indeed,” I responded, utterly disinterested.

“Her Imperial Majesty requires more funds in order to fuel the Empire’s defensive war against the Northerners.”

I don’t like listening to politics but to humour her, I might as well feign interests.

“I do hope the army is able to fend off against those barbarians,” I said, rather animatedly.

“Indeed! Those Northerners are the scum of this world. They envy our civilised nation and wish to bring us to their level. Hah, our empire shall never debase itself to savages who don’t even know how to write!”

Calm down, granny! She was working herself up. If she kept up with this then she’ll end up having a stroke. I’m not sure that would be a bad thing.

We went on like this with her talking about the current political gossip in the Imperial Capital to me just nodding off. Soon, the bathhouse had more visitors. Merchants that I recognised entered into the hot tub. One by one, people of all shapes and heights trickled. That was my cue to leave.

“Hi there Audrey. Ruihyn, good to see you here also,” Ove greeted us two, he was one of the richest banker beastkin in the city.

“Oh my, time has surely passed by.” The landlady gasped seeing the over three dozen bodies in the tub now.

“Well, goodbye Landlady Audrey. I must leave you even though I enjoyed our conversation very deeply. And goodbye to you too, Senior Ove.”

She nodded at me, so did Ove.

I wrapped a wet towel around my waist before I left the hot bath.

I returned to get my clothes hanging on the wall and took a new dry towel to remove the water from me.

The sun was out and people were moving about. If this went according to plan, I should have left before the majority of people were out and about.

I heard someone whistle.

“Aren’t you the cutest thing?” A halfling female, who looked to be 17 years my senior, stared at me.

I could tell she was a halfling by her unusual purple eyes and rather short fairy wings. Thus she was half human and half fairy.

“Come on, Beatrice. We don’t have time for this,” Beatrice’s friend said behind her.

“Relax, Holly. A little adventure never hurt anyone. Right sweetie?’ she winked at me and took a step towards me.

I instinctively took a step back.

She chuckled.

“I won’t bite,” she grinned, “unless you’re into that.”

And she took another step towards me. My back was now pinned to the wall.

“Beatrice, let’s leave this place!”

“Not until I had a taste of him. What’s your name, elf?”

I didn’t respond.

Beatrice was wearing a silk dress, she was certainly from the upper class. I looked at her wrist; she had a hollow circle mark there. She was nobility and legally classified as human.

Come on brain, think of a way out of this.

Beatrice kept looking at my exposed legs. I was wearing a tunic that stopped just above my knees. The only reason I wore this clothing was because I was certain that by the time I got out of the bathhouse, very few people would be up.

Now, I was being harassed. This is the second reason why I wake up early, to avoid predatory eyes like this lady in front of me. Her eye’s even shimmer like a tiger.

“Not much of talker?” she pressed her chest onto mine. I could feel her warm breath just on my upper lip.

My heart was beating quickly. I can’t let her kiss me or I’d be in violation of the miscegenation laws of the empire that don’t allow ‘mixing’ between the humans and non-humans of the empire. If it wasn’t clear, an elf is a non-human. Halflings are considered humans only when a human female births them. Other than that they are usually non-human.

Beatrice had a mark on her wrist that showed she was considered human and part of some noble house.

“Lady Beatrice, I don’t think its proper the manner you’re acting right now.”

She chuckled.

“Let me be the judge of what is proper or not.”

Beatrice then removed a strand of hair on my face. I just realised the perfume she had on had that spicy-sweet smell. I never smelt that before, it’s interesting.

But I have to put that aside. I looked at Holly, her friend, and gestured to her.

“Can you please tell your friend to get off me before she disgraces herself before these fine folks around here?”

There was a large crowd now gathered around us, gawking at what was happening.

Holly spoke up, “Beatrice, enough!”

Beatrice took a step back from me and glanced at the beastkin in the crowd.

I took this opportunity to get out.

I felt Beatrice grab my hand.

“What was your name again, elf?”

“I never gave you my name.”

I tried removing my hand. She instead squeezed my hand.

“Why are you being so difficult?” she snickered.

Does she lack the self-awareness that other nobles have? She’s not a child, Beatrice is old enough to be my mother.

I successfully ripped my hand from hers. The crowd gasped at this.

“I’ll have you, one way or the other,” she smiled.

I wish I could say something like ‘In your dreams’ but she’s a noble, I don’t need the unnecessary attention from this incident.

“Good luck at your quest, Lady Beatrice,” I respectively bowed and walked away from the scene.

I rushed back to my apartment to get into real clothes. I put on a short tunic, an overcoat and some pants. I got my leather bag and said goodbye to the rats in my apartment.

My morning started off badly. So I hope the rest of the day will be okay.

Instead of going to the Boss’s house, there was an office building around here in the slums. It was mostly a wooden building with a large chicken as a sign. The shop sold eggs but the real purpose of this place was to take special request from clients that other Guilds won’t take.

To an onlooker, this was a legitimate business.

Anyway, time to go to work. Even though I had a big assignment in six day’s time, I can’t sit around doing nothing. I’d rather make a bit of money on the side.

I arrived to the building just in time. I twisted the doorknob and stepped inside.