Yuri awoke the next day feeling incredibly groggy, her head throbbing in pain.

“Awawa…i feel horrible…”

She slowly got up from bed while holding her head.

“You’re finally away, Yuri.”

Hikaru was sitting in the corner, cleaning his sword.

“Why do I feel so…shitty…”

She slowly massaged her temples.

“It was probably the candy I gave, it had concentrated alcohol inside it.”

A glass of water was slowly poured and offered to Yuri, which she gratefully accepted.

“Alcoholic candy..? But I remember drinking without trouble before. Why would I get affected by candy..?”

She frowned after finishing her water.

“Well, the city I got this from specialises in all sorts of peculiar candy, I guess this was an extra powerful variant.”

He went back to cleaning his sword.

“Right..”

Nodding, she noticed that she wasn’t wearing the dress that she got from the vault, but instead one other plain ones.

“…I don’t remember changing my clothes..”

She looked at her clothes curiously, before tilting her head at Hikaru.

“I had no choice…”

He didn’t look her in the eyes.

“When you passed out from the candy., I put you to bed, and you ended up having..an accident..in your sleep. I couldn’t wake you up so I was forced to do it for you.”

“So you…”

Yuri’s face became fire red.

She grabbed her while dress which seemed to have been cleaned, presumably by Hikaru, and stormed out of the inn, not bothering to listen to anything Hikaru was shouting after her.

Once She had gotten a fair bit away from the inn, she changed her dress in empty alleyway to her magical white dress.

“Much better, at least this one is magical..”

She sighed softly.

“I hope Hikaru dies while looking for me. Has he no shame…even though I’m still a guy inside…but still..has he no shame!?”

She grumbled angrily, her face still red while walking down the main street.

While walking towards the marketplace, she tried taking a shortcut through a small alley, figuring she might as well explore while she’s out.

She felt something small touch the back of her neck, which she casually slapped away, thinking it was an insect.

What instead fell down was a small dart with an obviously green shade in its tip.

Checking her neck for wound, she was relieved to feel soft cloth instead of blood. Her dress seemed to have enveloped the back of her neck right before the dart hit, as protection.

“That was close…i should probably-”

Her eyes narrowed in a dangerous manner.

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“-Run away now!”

She ran through the alley, trying to get to a more populated place, but was met with a big wall that wasn’t there before.

Upon closer inspection, she realised it wasn’t a wall blocking her escape, but a giant bear of a man, wearing a long white hooded robe that covered his face.

“Huh. Doesn’t seem the dart has taken any effect, little miss is tougher than she looks~”

A voice behind her.

Turning around, she found a figure smaller than the one in front of her, who wore the same hooded white robes, blocking her escape.

“Uh…what’s up?”

Her eyes darted all over, looking for a way to escape.

“Don’t worry, little miss. We mean you no harm. We just want to talk..isn’t that right Hugo?”

The smaller man approached Yuri, while the large man in front of her stayed completely still and unmoving. So much that she could almost swear he was a statue, if not for that his robes swayed slightly in the wind.

Her hands moved to where her dagger usually was, before remembering that she didn’t have it.

Instead, she held up her fists, in what she thought was a threatening stance.

“How cute.”

Despite him wearing a hood, she was fairly sure the smaller man was laughing silently.

She attempted to throw a quick punch towards the smaller man’s face. Her fist was lazily caught, and then pulled into a close embrace with her.

She tried to hit and bite her opponent, but either his robes were also magical, or her attacks were not very effective as he didn’t budge.

“Hmmm..seems sharp things won’t work on you..”

A small needle covered in green liquid seemed to be trying to stab Yuri in any possible place.

It was brilliantly blocked by the white dress that stretched around Yuri’s body while blocking each attempt.

“Guess, we will just have to break your legs..Hugo, your turn.”

Yuri was thrown against the wall, making her fall on her backside.

The large man that she assumed was called Hugo, took out a small bronze hammer and held it up at the sky.

Yuri could see the muscles in his arm growing and flexing as the hammer slowly increased in mass until it was the size of her.

She tried to run away, alas her legs wouldn’t move. A small amount of whatever covered the needle had gotten into the cloth of her dress and touched her skin, robbing her of some of her basic motor functions.

Yuri looked up at the hammer that cast a shadow over her eyes and prepared herself for the pain of getting her legs crushed.

Right as she braced herself, the hammerhead seemed to detach itself from its handle and fell on the smaller man’s head, knocking him out.

The large man named Hugo looked at the handle curiously, and Yuri could see that the hammer didn’t just unscrew but was cleanly cut off at the handle.

The figure of Hikaru appeared in front of her as if he teleported there. She couldn’t tell how he had suddenly appeared there, she assumed it was due to the venom that messed with her vision.

Hikaru did a quick slash towards the big target of an opponent, but was blocked with a speed that seemed unusual for his large build with the the small handle Hugo still held in his hand.

The large man quickly picked up his fallen comrade over his shoulder and jumped up on the roof of a nearby building with a single jump, before disappearing from their vision.

“Are you okay?”

Yuri was helped up by Hikaru after he sheathed his sword.

“Yeah, I’m fine..”

She sighed, her anger at Hikaru was replaced with an irritation at not being able to protect herself.

“Are you sure, are you hurt, what happened?”

Yuri was bombarded with questions. She shortly explained what had happened to Hikaru.

“I see..those didn’t seem like simple muggers or kidnappers…too skilful…mostly..”

He looked over the hammer head that was the only thing left from the two attackers.

“Hey isn’t that..”

Yuri pointed out a familiar symbol on the hammer.

“It’s the same symbol we saw on that piece of paper, when we tried to find the relic!”

“….It is…”

Hikaru’s face became dark and a shadow covered his face. His eyes filling with hatred.

“Hikaru..you seem to know what this means..?”

She asked timidly. She was still not used to seeing that kind of expression on Hikaru’s usually calm face.

“Yes..i do..”

His hand went to his swords handle for a moment, gripping it tightly before letting go.

“So..shall we go now. We should look into this and try and find out where your dagger went, maybe we should contact Delem?”

His expression went back to normal as he suggested casually while walking down the alley.

“O-oh sure!”

She relaxed almost immediately when Hikaru was back to normal and quickly ran up to him, while they walked together towards the busy streets and away from the dark alley.

Behind Yuri, as she was walking away with Hikaru, the hammerhead fell apart into several neatly sliced piece, with the symbol of the sun laying on top of the rest in the middle. Uncut among the other pieces of bronze metal.