As I knock on the door, Yorgar is here to open it. He seems a little confused, but flashes me a smile anyway.

“Calmed down?” He asks me. I just nod.

“Alright, you just stay here. I will go purchase your clothes when the stores open.” While the marketplace can be active from early in the morning, most storefronts only open up after lunch.

There is an awkward silence in the room. “oh right!” Yorgar exclaims. He disappears quickly and then reappears with something. It’s my hunter tag.

“You left this in the manor. I told the others I wanted it as a memento”

…

“Thanks” I say and take it.

“I said I wanted it as a memento… Since they all thought you were dead… And I didn’t know if you wanted them to know”

“Yeah, thanks”

I hadn’t been wearing it while working with the group, as we didn’t do requests for the guild, but worked under Ahorn personally.

…

“How was God? Like, as a person?” He suddenly asked. It seems he is desperate to make some conversation. Amina is just doing some house chores in the background.

“Annoying… Brazen… Something like that?”

“Oh, I see… How so?”

“Laughing a lot at me, making sound effects, acting somewhat capricious”

“Ah I see”

…

“Well, I better go get you those clothes” Yorgar flees. The conversation was probably too much for him. It should still be too early, but off he goes.

I have been waiting for this. To be alone with Amina. I want to ask her something.

“Amina?”

“Yes, sir?” She stops her cleaning and turns her head in my direction. I steel myself. I might not like her answer.

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“Why Yorgar and not me?”

She looks a little taken aback. But she soon collects herself.

“Sir’s treatment… It was as if sir could not care less who I was, only seeking to fulfill sir’s own needs”

“I didn’t care about you?” I think that’s bull. “Didn’t I provide for you for two years? Didn’t I comfort you when you needed to be comforted?”

“Sir, that is simple. Sir was looking at me like the priest that… like the priest did. It made me consider all your considerations as a mean to an end, as if you were trying to buy my affection to get access to my body”

I start to think about it, but nothing comes to mind. Wait, I think I do remember looking a lot at her face and… Her breasts and hips when the clothing allowed for it. Shit. I feel like scum.

“And what did Yorgar do differently?” I have accepted Amina is gone. But if I ever meet another woman, I want better odds at securing her.

“He spoke with me. About my feelings. My problems. How the past made me feel and expressed his sympathy. I felt like he really cared about me. He too, after Vasha died, shared his own conflicts and feelings. Made me feel a deep connection to him. In contrast, sir only rarely spoke of things that had a direct connection to him.”

So, I didn’t make a connection on such a level huh?

Amina continues her cleaning after our short chat. I feel like I am left only to sort out my own feelings.

Eventually, Yorgar comes back with a new set of clothes. Simple pants and a shirt. I take them and thank him. As I undress, I remove the cape. I have never really seen it before like this, but it looks like a rather simple cape. I had half expected there to be some fancy pattern or symbol somewhere, but it just looks like a pale, blue cape.

After getting dressed, I ask Yorgar. “Where can I find Ahorn?”

“I don’t know specifically, he just told us he would head to the capital, but are you sure you want to meet him? I thought you wanted to hide your gift” Well.

“I feel like I owe it to him, to tell him what happened” I said. He is a fellow man thrust into this world by the capricious child-god.

“If you need a place to stay, you should know you are welcome to stay here for a while” Or so he says. But I feel it would be far too awkward, especially if their relationship is a physical one. I reject it respectfully and set out. Yorgar offers me ten asti on the way, to tide me over. Which I accept, all the while regretting it isn’t twelve, so that I could go directly to that bar.

I wanted to earn a bit of cash first, so I go to the hunter’s guild, but something is wrong. There is crowding around it, and a lot of people seem anxious.

I get the attention of a man in the mob surrounding the guild and ask him what’s wrong.

“It’s the dungeon.” He explains. “The monsters of the early levels didn’t come back yesterday! Or rather, most of them didn’t!” Huh? The dungeon stopped working?

This is probably my fault, isn’t it?

Some guy comes out from the guild and makes an announcement. “Gentlemen, please calm down. We are investigating whether this is an isolated incident or something has happened elsewhere, in addition to sending couriers to the university in order to investigate if anything like this has happened before. Lastly, much better-paying jobs than usual will be posted, for lower floor monsters to be hunted and delivered to the guild! We will work together to make it through this!”

Huh, better pay? I think I am about to profit from a problem I caused, but it was more the God and not me, right? I should be morally in the clear, right?