The next day started early for the three, Belle made sure to be the first one up, before the sun had even fully risen. She wisely woke Adrest up first, shyly and quietly whispering repeatedly to the sleeping young man.

“Big bro, can you wake up. Big bro it’s time to get up.”

Slowly, Adrest peacefully emerged from his dreams because of the soft spoken words. With a yawn and smile at the girl crouched down by the bedside to his level, he greeted Belle.

“Morning Belle, looks like you’re excited for the trip. Just give me a few minutes and I’ll head down to make something, then I’ll try getting Big sis Ali up and around.”

After Belle bounced out of the room, Adrest quickly got around and managed to wake Alissa up without much difficulty. In just under an hour, they were dressed and packed and the three went around and made sure all the doors and windows were firmly shut, as well as all the fires were out.

“Well lets get going, the sooner we get to town, the sooner you two can eat all the bakeries clean.”

Belle blushed at Adrest’s little jab, while Alissa smiled excitedly not bothering to argue with what he said. Alissa scooped up Belle who barely even jumped at the sudden shift, having gotten used to it through the months of the older two doing it to get a scream out of her.

With a tightly bundled Belle in her arms, Alissa led the way through the grey skies and in just a few hours, they were touching down on the lightly snow-covered forest a few dozen miles away from the town.

It was still an hour or so before midday when the three approached the gate near the mountains and entered easily enough by showing their IDs, with Belle getting her own once inside. She hadn’t needed one before as she was a slave and considered the Randolph Groups property. Now, she was thrilled to have the new card in hand, looking at the simple document with a proud expression.

The first stop for the family, now that they were back in the small town, was a walk through the food carts for an early lunch eventually deciding on a lamb type meat completely covered in a blend of green and yellow spices. They ate as they browsed the various stalls manned by merchants bundled in many layers to keep the winter chill at bay.

They would occasionally stop at a stand for Alissa and Belle to look through jewelry and other accessories. Alissa bought a few pieces that Belle liked. They also stopped at a man selling bright scarves and mittens, along with some other winter necessities. Alissa ended up picking out a red set for Adrest, green for Belle, and purple one for herself.

Cozy and warm, the picturesque family finally made their way into the barroom of the Home and Hearth where Rose was sitting behind the empty bar. Her face immediately lit up seeing the familiar faces and rushed up to greet them.

“Adrest, Alissa, Belle! I’ve missed you. It feels so quiet without you all staying here.”

Alissa grabbed Rose’s hand, having taken a liking to the kindhearted inn owner, “We’ve missed you too Rose! Half the reason we came back was just to spend time with you every evening.”

“So sweet, that’s why you’re my favorite customer!”

Rose gave a big smile and led Alissa back to the bar where in one smooth motion Rose tapped and poured a mug of a mead she had been saving just for Alissa.

As the two were already chatting and catching up, Adrest got the key with the room number tied to it and had Belle help him drop some of their things off.

Belle flopped onto the bed she had picked for herself and rolled around the now messy blankets, “It’s so comfy!”

Looking at Belle making herself at home Adrest smiled, he also noticed that the blankets were different than the ones from the last time they’d stayed. They had been switched to much thicker blue comforter. The beds looked so warm and inviting during the cold midwinter day, Adrest was tempted to lay down then and there.

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Fighting the urge, Adrest said, “Well, we should go back downstairs to see what Alissa wants to do next.”

As he finished the sentence and looked to Belle, he was surprised to see Belle completely curled up in her bed with only her eyes and rabbit ears poking out.

Laughing at the scene, he noticed the small parts of Belle he could see were turning red and a small voice reached his ears.

“It just looked so warm, and we’ve been outside all day…”

Still chuckling, Adrest said, “I’m sure Alissa will want to talk for a bit before we go anywhere. So why don’t we go downstairs, get two big cups of warm cider and warm up by the fire. Rose said it’s basically empty this time of year so we can find something to play for a bit too.”

Belle jumped out of the bed and was pulling Adrest’s hand towards the door. Adrest followed the rabbit’s whims out the door, she only let go of him when they reached the stairs which she raced down and over to the sitting Alissa who was still at the bar with Rose.

As Adrest made his way over he heard Rose finishing venting about how her parents are pushing her to hire more people so she can meet someone. As she spoke Adrest noted the hints of annoyance threatening to break through her normally bright smile.

Alissa was curious and was about to continue but paused as Adrest joined them.

“Don’t mind me, Belle and I were just hoping we could get some cider to warm us up, Alissa here forced us into the cold all day without a single break.”

Adrest had to dodge the barrage of insults and fists that came from the angered Alissa. Rose and Belle both had the same peaceful smile looking at the scene. By the time Rose set down two streaming mugs of brown liquid, Alissa had stopped hitting Adrest, whose hair and clothes were now disheveled. He ran over to the bar before running off with Belle in one arm and a deck of cards in his other hand that he must’ve extorted from Alissa earlier.

As the two played war, Alissa and Rose were talking about the monster problem and the big shot the guild sent over.

“I really can’t believe they sent out someone from that school all the way out here, it’s almost a month of travelling on a fast carriage to get to the capital from here after all. You’ll probably see her tonight actually. Since coming to town, Rin is the one who has been keeping me company at the end of the night.”

Eyes sparkling with curiosity, “They really sent an SC here? I can’t wait to meet her! I’ve heard a few stories from people as I’ve travelled.”

“I’m sure you’ll get along great! Rin is such a nice girl, and always so happy.”

Adrest overheard the conversation and was as curious as Alissa. She had mentioned in class that every county nurtures the most talented to prop up their nation. They went by different names, heroes, saints, blood-heirs, ect. They all meant the same thing, they were the supremes among their generation, they all had rare and strange affinities and were absurdly strong. In Radagon they were heroes, and children with the potential to become heroes are enrolled in a academy in the capital,

While that might seem intimidating to most, Adrest was used constantly being near an absurdly strong dragon. He recognized his thinking might be warped, but he didn’t really feel any pressure or fear at the imagined strength of this mystery hero, just curiosity and excitement at getting to see what a hero of the fantasy world was like. He just couldn’t see how she could possibly be more freakish than that dragon always lurking near.

In the middle of Rose speaking Alissa suddenly sent a glare towards Adrest out of nowhere and Adrest felt cold sweat on his back. “A woman’s intuition is terrifying.”

They ended up staying downstairs as the only customers for a few more hours until people slowly trickled in for dinner. Seeing Rose become busy Alissa gathered the two children still sitting at the table, now playing old maid, and they left to go see if there was any interesting quests available from the Guild Hall.

As they entered the spacious reception area, Adrest noted that it seemed just as busy as always with a steady flow of people coming and going. They made their way over to the quest board, and ended up getting several rank D and a single C rank mission to push toward the party recognized as C rank.

The D rank missions were all simple gathering ingredients in an area with weak monsters that Adrest and Belle had long gotten too strong to properly fight against.

The C rank mission was more difficult as it required hunting down a roaming C rank venomous python, they were large but agile and were able to kill D rank adventurers in only a few seconds after being bitten. Due to it’s size however, it could just as easily crush a man in it’s coils. It’s leather was highly prized though for armor, and the venom was used in several recipes by local alchemists so it was a walking goldmine, and one had been reported a week ago in the south-east of town, about 15 miles away. It would be a great warm up for Belle tomorrow morning.

They got several warnings form the clerk who accepted their requests to be extremely careful hunting the python. With gracious nods the three headed out and found a nice food stall for dinner. They were soon wondering the cool late day walk with a seasoned fried dough containing large melted chunks of cheese.

The trio found that this late into winter most of the entertainment industry of the town was shut down, which was expected but still disappointing. Instead, they killed time by finding a few new outfits for each of them.

It was close to 9 in the evening when they finally returned, Belle’s nose was red from the chill but looked quite happy at spending the day together.