After waiting an hour for the others to finish looking, Iris, Bellona, and Eir went to the front of the store with several hangers of clothing. Swimsuits, skirts, shirts, and other various clothes hung from their arms as they chattered excitedly and waited patiently for Arylos to come back.

“Why is he taking so long?” Iris wondered aloud while looking around. “There’s no way he’s taking this long to pick out what he wants.”

“What makes you say that? Maybe he’s taking his time?” Eir asked in a confused voice.

“He’s a guy,” Iris and Bellona responded simultaneously with frustration in their voices.

“And? Maybe he cares about how he looks?” Eir wondered aloud while slowly backing away.

“Oh please, the one time he cared about how he looked it was just to impress the neighbours,” Iris complained while brushing stray hair from her face. “Every other time he just wears something black or he’s shirtless because he ‘can’t be assed to care’.”

“Yup, that sounds like Arylos alright,” Bellona responded with a nod. “He’s lazy half the time, or just can’t care enough because that’s too much work. Or he’ll say things like ‘I don’t have anyone to impress’. Or my personal favourite; ‘that’s too much work’.”

“In other words,” Iris began while signalling to Bellona with a snap of her fingers.

“He’s a guy,” Iris and Bellona said in unison with each other.

“You two are pretty rude, you know that?” Eir complained softly. “He was nice enough to agree to this trip and even pay for it.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that he’s a big idiot,” Iris said in a confident voice.

“You know, you say that so much that it kind of loses any meaning,” a growling voice cut in. Iris turned to the side and she saw Arylos approach, this time wearing a white long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the top buttons undone, showing some of his tattoos on his upper chest. He also wore dark shorts that showed the tattoos on his lower legs below his knees and comfortable fleece slippers on his feet. As Iris admired him, he began tying his hair back into a loose and short ponytail yet keeping his bangs loose.

“Well don’t you look so smooth now,” Bellona said in a snarky voice as she eyed the Titan. “Integrating well into human culture now, are we?”

“I wouldn’t say well; ask Iris how much I mess up even after living here for almost two years,” Arylos laughed while leaning against a nearby pillar.

“Yeah but you do pull off that look,” Iris confessed with red cheeks.

“Thanks, although it is kind of thrown together,” Arylos confessed with a nervous chuckle. “I take it you girls have gotten what you wanted?”

“Yep!” Iris answered while nodding.

“Now time for your part of the bargain,” Bellona added with a smile.

Arylos rolled his eyes as the realisation came to him. “Alright, come on,” he said while walking towards the front to pay for their wares. He internally braced himself for the damage that would be done to his funds. He had allocated their funds carefully so his main hope was that the gods, or the girls really, would be merciful to his soul or at least what’s left of it.

Until he realised that he left them alone to shop.

“Holy fucking shit,” Arylos wheezed as he nearly collapsed in the street. He couldn’t get the haunting image of the price out of his head; it was like his heat stroke all over again. Eir and Iris fanning him and trying to keep him from full on collapsing only partly helped.

“You can’t put a price on happiness, Arylos,” Bellona teased while laughing victoriously.

“No, but a quarter fucking million Marks sure isn’t making me happy,” Arylos growled. For the first time, Iris was concerned that he was actually going to kill her, for real this time.

“Yeah, but didn’t you proudly state that you budgeted forty million Marks for the trip?” Bellona teased while patting Arylos on the head.

“Keep doing that and I’ll bite your hand off,” Arylos growled with his fangs bared.

“Please don’t,” Iris cautioned while hugging Arylos. “If it helps, we can return what we bought.”

“Absolutely not,” Arylos insisted while getting back on his feet before pointing to Bellona. “Especially since that witch got more than the two of you combined.”

“Well look at that; you were so concerned about Iris’s reckless spending that you forgot about me,” Bellona said while sticking her tongue out.

Arylos growled before rubbing his sore eyes, feeling a migraine kick in. “It seems I have miscalculated. I’ll have to factor in that you will be the biggest spending risk while on this trip.”

“I guess it’s only fair then,” Bellona smirked, happy over her victory over the Titan.

“Fair is fair,” Arylos laughed as a smile came to him. “Which means everyone’s spending limits will be recalculated. Since I have to factor your recklessness in, Iris’s spending limit will be reduced to a thousand Marks a day.”

“What?! I can’t even get lunch with that!” Iris complained as fear overtook her.

Arylos laughed as he crossed his arms and gave Bellona a wicked look. “You’ll just have to make do like the rest of us. If this is how spending will go on our first day, I can only imagine how bad it will be.”

Iris slowly turned around and looked at Bellona with hatred in her eyes as they started to turn blue. “Can I kill her?” she growled as electricity jumped from her skin.

“Wait, hold on now; Arylos is just playing this up, it’s not a big deal,” Bellona pleaded while laughing nervously.

“No lunch, no souvenirs, no tickets to events; a thousand measly Marks a day,” Iris growled as her hair slowly started to turn silver.

“Uhhh, Arylos? Can you do that head patting thing of yours that she likes so much?” Bellona asked while backing away slowly.

“Oh, she’s beyond that now,” Arylos teased while crossing his arms.

“W-Well, maybe we can write this off for now? Just this once? That way Iris can go back to normal?” Eir nervously suggested.

Arylos’s smile widened as he set a hand on Iris’s shoulder. “Say Bellona, remember when you were a rookie soldier in the armada and you and I had that little betting war?”

Bellona’s face quickly changed to horror as she realised what Arylos was suggesting. “Wait, hold on, we can still talk about–”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Thousand push-ups,” Arylos coldly interrupted.

“Huh?” Iris asked while turning towards Arylos.

“I knew Bellona from a young age and she would always think she was stronger than me,” Arylos explained while keeping his eyes on Bellona. “Everytime she would lose a sparring match with me, I would make her do a thousand push-ups to reinforce her training. It was a lot of fun watching you go from sundown to sunrise and looking like a sweating mess at the end of it all.”

Bellona started to panic as she began shaking her head. “Hold on, we’re on vacation. Shouldn’t you–”

“Look at you now; a full grown Templarian and able to retain your power even as a mortal,” Arylos continued, ignoring Bellona completely. “Surely a thousand push-ups would be like a morning jog to you. I’m sure you could make it up to Iris by that one little act.”

Iris slowly calmed down as her eyes went back to their usual brown colour. “Not going to lie, I do like the sound of that,” she agreed while watching Bellona intently. “If she does it, does that mean our spending limits go back to normal?”

“I am a forgiving and generous god,” Arylos growled in an evil voice.

Bellona felt her heart sink as she watched Arylos and Iris laugh with evil smiles. “You two are evil. You really do deserve each other.”

“How are we evil when you reduced the little girl’s spending money?” Arylos laughed while giving Bellona a wider smile.

“That’s a lot of talking and not a lot of push-ups,” Iris cut in while pointing at Bellona.

“Come now, let’s give her some time to fulfil her debt,” Arylos told Iris while continuing to laugh. “In the meantime, let’s take all of this stuff back to our cottages and rest.”

“Oh! Can we get something to eat too?” Iris cheered with a sparkle in her eyes.

Arylos chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck. “You know, I did have plans to cook something toni–”

“I’m with Iris on this!” Eir jumped in as excitement overtook her with Iris nodding along. “I want something exotic and unique!”

“I swear, just how old are the two of you?” Arylos sighed while rubbing his forehead.

“Twenty two!” Iris answered in a cheery voice.

“437 over here!” Eir responded without hesitation.

Arylos sighed and looked up at Bellona who crossed her arms and turned away. “You and I both know the answer to that; no point in saying it.”

“Sounds like someone’s in denial of how old they are,” Arylos mocked while walking away from Eir and Iris. “Fine, we’ll get something to eat and then head back.”

The sounds of the women cheering were followed by what Arylos could only describe as a frenzied fever dream only remembered in segments. The women dragged him by the arms as they walked through the city to various restaurants and shops along the way. Each stop made Arylos’s mind spin, as if the heat was affecting him again. It wasn’t until night came over the city and he realised that his arms were full of bags; each one containing something the others bought.

As they walked through the darkening city, Arylos began crunching the numbers. He tallied up each expense and compared it to his other values. Each transaction seemed small but the sheer number began to make Arylos’s head spin. With each calculation, he hoped that he would stop seeing red and would start seeing green. When the final number came in, he braced for impact.

One million Marks.

Arylos stared at the mental number, trying to make sense of it as he felt like his legs were going to give way. He stopped in his tracks as he began tallying the expense and found that already on day one, a good portion of the budget was gone. Forty million Mark budget and already in terms of fees, travel, room and board, it was all adding up. He rubbed his head as he tried to mentally understand the math. This Kaiyumian Marks currency confused him with small items being worth a hundred Marks. He secretly missed the confusing and inaccurate Gold system of the Templarians or the ambiguous Favour system of the Khymr.

“Hey, are you alright?” Arylos heard Iris’s voice call to him. He looked at her in a new yokui he bought for her and her hair decorated with flowers. He felt softer inside but her look of concern she was giving him told him to snap out of it.

“Yeah, just doing some maths,” Arylos explained while shaking his head. “Are you having fun?”

“Well I was until you looked like someone stabbed you in the gut,” Iris responded while poking Arylos’s stomach.

“As long as you’re having fun,” Arylos said with a relieved sigh.

“Yeah, I am,” Iris answered with a warm smile. She then grabbed Arylos by the arm and pulled him along. “Come on, a bath and a bed are calling my name.”

“Hey! If you two are done loitering in the street, we’re going to bed!” Bellona called out from the porch of her cottage.

“Oh, goodnight!” Iris returned as her and Arylos waved back.

Bellona laughed under her breath as her and Eir went inside and closed the door behind them. Eir placed her bags of stuff on the table as Bellona popped something in her back from carrying so much stuff the whole way.

“Think we’re getting somewhere?” Eir asked while picking out a fruit from her bag.

“With those two? No idea,” Bellona answered with a sigh. “I’m not looking forward to those thousand push-ups though.”

“Maybe he forgot?” Eir said while taking a bite of the fruit and enjoying the sweet taste.

“Trust me; Arylos doesn’t forget,” Bellona answered with a heavy sigh before moving away from the door and going down the hall to her room. “I’ll take a bath in the morning so it’s yours for tonight,” she hollered to Eir before closing the sliding door to her room.

Isolated and at peace, Bellona threw herself down onto the bed and closed her eyes to rest them. When she opened them again, her room was dark of all lights save for the red and white light of the moons overhead peering in through the window. Bellona groaned as her sore body protested any movement and felt clammy from sleeping in her clothes.

Bellona rose up and began taking her shirt off. It took her a moment to realise that as her shirt started coming off, a pair of small glowing red lights hung near the corner of her room.

“How long were you there?” Bellona said in a heavy sigh.

“Not as long as you think,” Arylos answered, moving away from the corner so he was visible. Bellona noticed that he had changed back into his usual all-black attire that hid him well in the shadows.

“What is it you want?” Bellona asked as she lowered her shirt back down.

“Your debt has yet to be settled,” Arylos answered with a wide and fang-baring grin.

“Seriously? Now?” Bellona barked in realisation.

“Yes, now,” Arylos answered with a nod.

Bellona sighed as she rose up from her bed and went over to get a change of clothes ready. “You know, you could be nice and let it go. It’s not like money is tight for you.”

“There are a couple of problems with that Bellona,” Arylos answered while leaning against the other wall and crossing his arms and looking away from Bellona.

“Oh? Do tell me?” Bellona asked while taking off her shirt and remaining out of Arylos’s eyesight, a part of her wondering if such an attempt is futile against a Titan who is constantly aware of his surroundings.

“Namely, I don’t want Iris knowing just how much wealth is at my disposal,” Arylos said, keeping his eyes and attention away from Bellona. “The less she knows about that, the better.”

“She’ll find out one way or another,” Bellona answered while undoing her sash so she could finally breathe before putting a loose shirt on. “If you plan to make a life here, she’ll have to know more about you and your financial situation.”

“I plan to live here as a mortal as best as I can and no mortal has the amount of wealth I do,” Arylos said, thinking about his plans for his life on Kaiyumi. “I don’t belong here, Bellona; I’m too different. The most I can do is pretend.”

Bellona undid her belt and took off her trousers while quickly putting on a loose set of lounge pants on, starting to become self-conscious of Arylos’s presence. “And how long do you plan to play pretend?”

“As long as I can,” Arylos said softly, starting to become aware of how crazy this lie of his began to sound. “Keep poking holes in it and I’ll up your debt by another hundred.”

Bellona sighed as she walked over in front of Arylos. “So you’re just going to sit here until I give you a thousand push-ups?”

“Yep, that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Arylos said with a smile and a nod while turning back towards Bellona.

“You just had to wait until I could relax, didn’t you?” Bellona asked in frustration while resting her hands on her hips.

“Then I would get no satisfaction from it if you were prepared,” Arylos responded while sitting in a chair and leaning back to relax.

“Wouldn’t it be weird or something?” Bellona asked while looking around her room. “Sneaking into a woman’s room late at night. Wouldn’t Iris get the wrong idea?”

“Oh please, this was her idea,” Arylos answered while crossing his legs and relaxing.

“Fair enough,” Bellona admitted while getting down on the floor and getting in a ready position. As she got ready, she watched Arylos pick up a cup of a steaming liquid and took a drink while eyeing Bellona expectedly.

“Seriously?” Bellona complained with a heavy sigh. “You even brought tea?”

“I intend to enjoy every moment of this,” Arylos answered after taking a drink and raising his eyebrows.

Bellona shook her head with a heavy sigh. She was backed in a corner with nowhere to go now.

“One, two, three, four…”