If ever there was a more perfect saying for how I felt I wouldn’t have known it. To everyone else, it was just another cheer, a toast to a won battle. As I looked over to Roaren though, I could tell by his eyes that he understood. It made sense to an extent. If he was really half-elf his mom might have even lived through it. Although it was unlikely…

It came from a story as old as Rothet itself. A great king lost his wife and only child in the battle that saved his kingdom from dragons so numerous they blocked out the sky. Those were supposedly his words at the end of it all. It felt a little silly connecting myself to him, after all my parents didn’t die in my fight with the minitour. As everything started to blur together though, it almost felt like they had.

I don’t remember much after that. There was some mix of people apologizing and kissing up to me. There were even a few people asking if I would join their party, but I was too lost in thought to react much. Eventually, I just ended up back in my room, alone…

For the first 10 years of my life, I shared a room with my parents in our tiny little house. It took me the next 6 to get used to being by myself, and just like that suddenly it was as if I was turning 11 again in an empty room, trying to fall asleep to the sound of cheers. It may have been from my party this time, instead of a festival like back then, but that somehow only made it worse.

…

I woke up to a heavy banging on my door that rattled my skull so much that I didn’t even know how I got to the door, just that I was opening it to a few guardsmen.

“Chika, you are the adventurer that killed the minitour, is that correct?”

I was frozen in place, too nervous to move. The only time the guards approached you was when you did something wrong. “U-uhm… That’s me… To both I mean.”

The guard grimaced, handing me a sheet of paper. “We were told to hand this to you. Sorry for the inconvenience.” He bowed and walked away.

It was a relief it wasn’t anything more serious, but I was still confused. After they closed the door I looked back at the paper and slowly read over it.

******************************************************************************

Fine:

7 Gold Coins.

Citation: Failure to report finished quest. [Black minotaur hunt] endangering the lives of fellow adventurers, and threatening a beekeeper.

Access to teleporters and other guild services will be restricted until the fine is paid in full. If unable to pay in full, please see officials to negotiate alternative options.

******************************************************************************

‘Seven gold….’ I rubbed my eyes, making sure I was reading it right. It was enough to buy a house, a real house… It took me a moment to remember I actually had enough to pay it, but even that didn’t make me feel much better. My heart was too tired to race, instead, it just sank.

‘Alden…’ I thought back to when he told me he could only accept one quest at a time… I told him to mark it as completed anyway, but he clearly didn’t. ‘Even if I hadn’t the fine would be at most something like a couple of silvers… I messed up… I let my guard down because I was in too much pain to think straight…’

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Walking over to my bed again, my legs fell out from under me as I sat down. A part of me didn’t even want to admit the situation was my reality. My head ached, and my body was still sore… but those were all just excuses I was using to try and get myself to go back to sleep, instead of dealing with it. Of course… Even if I did try I knew I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again.

‘Seven gold…’ I repeated. ‘Well, I have two options, obviously, I could pay the fine, or I could not pay the fine… Even after paying it, I would still have plenty of money left over. But… That would be like admitting that I made a mistake when I didn’t, not to mention it would crash my reputation before I even got one… I could claim physical harm as my reason for not reporting it, but again…’ I sighed laying back down. ‘I did report it though…’

a long growl escaped out my nose. ‘So I don’t pay it, ok… I think there's an appeal system, but it’s going to be hard to figure all that out without help… The mages from Whitelight should still be here. I think I made a good impression on most of them. Since they are one of the 10 guilds responsible for governing the nation their members all have to know about this stuff… I learned that much the hard way when I tried to join one.

‘First thing’s first though...’ Throwing the fine in storage I headed out to the castle and stopped by Alden first to officially turn in the quest.

His wry smile said it all… Once again, I dropped the minitours head on the desk, making sure some of the blood splattered on his robes, permanently staining them as I gave a wry smile of my own. “The quest bounty was 4,500 Tallons,” I said calmly.

He folded his hands and leaned forward. “I’m sorry, but all guild services have been suspended for you.”

‘He’s just trying to provoke me now, it’s almost funny how obvious he’s being.’ I sighed, finding his act unamusing. “The guild regulations clearly state that even those with suspended status are allowed to finish any outstanding quests, and attempt to rectify the cause of said status.”

He just rolled his eyes, handing over 4 silver and 4 copper, once again short-changing me. “Here.”

“You still ow me another copper coin,” I grumbled.

The guards took a step forward. “You're so greedy, lying about how much you receive over a simple copper coin?”

My eyes darted around the room and I froze. I wanted to pull my dagger again, but if I threatened him he’d arrest me for sure. Even if I so much as raised my voice it would be the wrong call… “Sorry, I didn’t mean any offense.” I sent the coin into my storage. “If you’re sure it’s the right amount then I won’t object again. You know minitours are funny.”

His wry smile vanished with surprise as I played along. “How so…”

I slowly scraped my finger through the fresh blood on the desk, wetting it. “Monsters are afraid of minotaur blood, because anyone strong enough to kill one, is pretty good at killing things, you know?” Flicking more blood onto his robe, I threw the head back in storage and walked away. ‘Wow… You know, considering my position, I really didn’t think that would feel that good.’

Stepping outside I took in a deep breath of fresh chilled air. ‘At least it’s taken care of, that means the quest was officially turned in. Now I need to go to the medical tint. If I could find that one girl that helped me, Pieta, or Posy, the girl I helped, or even Pieta’s master.’

I walked in, feeling anxious about the whole thing. I hated asking for help, much less from someone who was basically a stranger… And even more so if they had already helped me in the past… It just always felt like they’d say no… ‘Why is it so quiet?’

I stepped in through the entrance and found the whole thing emptied out. There wasn’t a single occupied bed, and everything was being packed up into carriages.

“Oh, it's you.”

I turned to see Posy and felt a wave of relief crash over me. ‘At least I won’t have to awkwardly look for her.’ “You look a lot better than last time.” I chuckled. Trying to find the right words.

Her smile practically lit up the whole tint as she showed me her hands. “All better see! Thank you so much for your help back then. We were all kind of overwhelmed with how bad things got.”

“Yeah…” I looked around again, noticing everything getting taken down and packed up. “So you guys are heading out now? I’m surprised how fast the turnaround was on the antidotes.”

She nodded. “When you have incitive to make them, they can be brewed in 36 seconds on average, but that number goes down even further with experience. By the end, we got it down to 29.” I saw her suddenly yawn, covering her mouth, clearly embarrassed by it.

“Lack of sleep finally catching up to you?”

Her hair swung back and forth as she shook her head, revealing stoney patches of skin on her neck. “No no I’m fine I promise, don’t worry about me.” She paused for a moment, suddenly appearing to analyze me. “Wait, did you need something? You not hurt are you?”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little, “no nothing like that. Well. I mean I am, but I was treated already.”

She Let out a sigh of relief. “Good, I would have felt horrible if I was keeping you while you were in pain.”

“Oh, you know… It only hurts, when I breathe… But I was actually looking for a different kind of help.”

I don’t know exactly why, but it suddenly became hard to steer the conversation away from what all was “wrong” with me. And of course, the list was long and varied… Considering she started diagnosing mental illness as well…