It had concluded. Hiona’s thief group had finally finished a mission of incredible magnitude, even returning with a new ally. A few days had passed and things remained relatively safe and peaceful, with everyone having a feast right after they had returned. Sebansio and Bernie were shocked by Ivet’s appearance, but quickly caught on to what was happening and accepted the girl with a worried smile. Hiona constantly kept her eye on Yohiro, tracking his progress in knowledge and maturity,(but Bernie and Clous took care of his body maturity). The boy was still learning the alphabet with Ivet and Bernie’s help. He had made it to the letter H in about a week.

‘’I’m hungry~,’’ Rosa said as she played with her hair, sat across from Clous around the coffee table. ‘’So? I’m not a store, am I?’’ Clous replied.

‘’You’re heartless, aren’t you, Clous? We stole a damn princess, after all, didn’t we?’’

‘’You and I didn’t do shit, it was all Yohiro and master,’’ Clous replied, annoyed.

Rosa, of course, knew that, but she didn’t really care. She was a part of the mission, so she deserved credit, and that’s all that mattered to her in the end.

‘’Are you gonna be the main man on the wedding?’’ Rosa asked him mockingly. ‘’There’s not gonna be a wedding, for more reasons than one. Now leave me alone, I’m exhausted,’’ Clous said, rolling to the right. ‘’You wouldn’t be if you hadn’t wasted your time trying to learn that triplet’s fighting style. It’s really your problem,’’ Clous didn’t say anything after that, feeling once again ashamed.

‘’You guys, where’s Yohiro? Me and Ms. Ivet were going to teach him how to exclamate today,’’ Bernie walked into the room with Ivet by his side, the significantly shorter girl smiling awkwardly, still not used to her new, dirty, less rich environment. ‘’I think master let him go into the city,’’ she said, ‘’she told him to go buy some milk; and she was surprisingly specific about wanting milk, for some reason.’’ Bernie snuck a glance at Clous quickly, before looking back at Rosa, ‘’You don’t mean he’s alone, right? Sebansio’s with him, for sure,’’ Bernie smiled, reassuring himself. ‘’No, I’m sure he left the base alone, carrying a bag of money. Master’s probably plotting something again,’’ Rosa told him, shocking him and the slightly quiet Ivet.

‘’He’ll get killed! Or kill someone accidentally! Why did you let him leave like that?!’’ Bernie shouted at her, with Ivet silently repeating his waving gestures in silence, not wanting to interrupt him. It seemed like she had gotten used to Bernie. ‘’It wasn’t my problem, and my blood sugar’s getting low anyway. I want something sweet!’’ Rosa quicky changed the subject, not wanting to talk about it anymore, apparently. ‘’What’s with you two? You really don’t care if he gets into trouble?’’

A smile emerged on Rosa’s face, a slightly saddened one. ‘’The case is different. It’s not that he’d get into trouble with us beside him, but the opposite; he make the problems, if you hadn’t noticed. Let him have a walk around the district,’’ she said, confusing Bernie. There was the one thing they chose not to tell their fellow comrade: The fact that the gem was giving Yohiro guidance, and that it’s the main reason they escaped the castle peacefully. He believes it was Hiona who managed to do it, which wouldn’t be normal, but he didn’t think they would lie to him.

‘’D-does he even have the address to the closest store?’’ Ivet spoke up at last, making Clous flinch as he was pretending to be asleep. He wasn’t given directions by Hiona at all. ‘’Keep calm, you guys, master...probably gave him the address, right?’’ Rosa said without certainty, watching the sweat begin to flow down Bernie’s face like a waterfall. ‘’He could be at the other side of the district!! Where’s master?!’’ Bernie slammed his hand against the table, scaring Ivet. ‘’She went out, saying something like, ‘’I’ll go the details down, regarding the completion of the assignment. See ya~,’’ or something along those lines,’’ Rosa quoted, wagging her finger.

In a split second, Bernie’s newfound determination crumbled as he slid down to the ground, beginning to worry. ‘’You guys!’’ A shout came from Clous, who finally made the decision to roll towards them, still lying on his back, ‘’I’ll go look for the kid, so stop worrying so much,’’ he said, stopping Bernie’s weeping and freezing Rosa in place, leaving Ivet staring at them both, thinking, ‘’Is that so unusual here…?!’’

‘’If the kid does something out of proportion, we probably won’t be able to deal with it. I’m gonna go get ‘im,’’ Clous groaned right after, jumping from the couch and stepping on his two feet. ‘’You’ve changed quite a bit, haven’t you, you sly fox?’’ Rosa asked, still a little surprised, as she watched him walk towards the exit. ‘’Shut up… I can’t change at this point, anyway. Keep your bullshit to yourself,’’ he told her seriously as he left, keeping his back to all three of them. ‘’A-ah. Did the mission depress him that much…?’’ Bernie turned to Rosa, finding Clous’ new, more monotone way of speaking out of place for him. ‘’I guess. We were both pretty much stock fodder for master, as usual. It’s just that he took it the worst, it seems,’’ Rosa said. ‘’Um,’’ Ivet raised her hand, ‘’do you think Mr. Clous would be able to get along with Mr. Yohiro? They seem like complete opposites to me,’’ the girl spoke, carefully picking her words.

‘’Honestly, I’m surprised at how bad you’ve judged Clous and Yohiro, especially since one of them is gonna be your husband one day,’’ Rosa chuckled, ‘’Clous isn’t just some random dick, you know? On the contrary, Yohiro...is someone I can’t say anything about even now; that kid grows and grows, adapts quickly, and doesn’t seem to wanna stop. They’re not comparable in that regard.’’ Ivet was slightly taken aback. Yes, what she had said about Yohiro was right in all regards, however, she couldn’t really understand the comment on Clous. She thought it best to not dig any further than she did.

Clous had left the bar, ignoring the greeting from Sebansio, and began heading towards the closest store he could think of, about a few hundred meters away from them on foot. It was a little obvious that Yohiro wouldn’t be able to find it himself. It wasn’t like walking to a neighboring building or something in your line of sight. It was a rather good thing that Clous couldn’t have been bothered to take off the robe keeping him invisible from others. He refused to hand it over to Ivet when she was cleaning everyone else’s, resulting in a messy outfit.

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He headed out immediately, walking at a faster than normal pace. Before long, he realised he wasn’t paying his surroundings enough attention and chose to go by roof. He watched down upon the streets from on top of the roof, looking for the new, bright-blue shirt Yohiro was given, which fortunately, fit him better because of his body’s growth. The problem was, there were too many people with blue clothes and the voices of the people around him began to get to him and annoy him. He shunned it and instead began keeping an eye out for white hair.

Without realising it he had began staring at the ground below, beginning to ponder. ‘’Was I being too harsh, annoying, insulting? More than usual?’’ Flashes and flashes from the lack of sleep began appearing before Clous, frustrating him further. ‘’Worst part is, he was right in the end, wasn’t he? Things are a lot different than what they would’ve been a lot more different if he had helped me against master back then, instead of calling her… But she wouldn’t even be there if that were the case…’’ It was so sudden, it even surprised him. It seemed a little out of place and even out of manner, but the thought kept flooding in. His suppression of his surroundings had led him to turn his brain off for the most part, too.

‘’I wanna go back there, I wanna live with Yugashi, I wanna...never lose again, and only have Gagu as my obstacle. If it were to go back to that, I could be better, maybe not even a thief, maybe a chef or something else,’’ he mumbled to himself, feeling relaxed in the wind, sitting down. ‘’Yohiro’s gonna be fine, totally fine and relaxed like me after he gets his milk. Why did master send him to only get milk? She’s probably sending him out to get acquainted with the are, maybe… So many different routes this whole existence of mine could’ve gone, yet it decided to plunge into this shithole.’’

The seconds turned into minutes, the minutes evolved into hours, all of that being completely and utterly irrelevant. Clous felt like he was in a trance, but it was just his own imagination. Horrible things happening around him was but a fait accompli, he thought.

‘’Hello~?’’ Clous suddenly jumped up out of shock, realising he was drooling. ‘’Clous? Why’re you up there, huh?’’ He crawled closer to the edge of the roof, finding himself staring down upon Yohiro, who was holding a grocery bag, seeming like it was pretty empty at first glance, but Yohiro was certainly holding something inside that bag. ‘’Uh, I was just kinda sleeping, yeah,’’ Clous made up an excuse. ‘’But...it’s night. Wouldn’t you wanna stay home and rest there?’’ The boy shot a bullet; the first bullet. ‘’And why’re YOU still out?! Weren’t you done with shopping? Are you that useless?!’’

‘’My milk got stolen by a child, so I chased him for a about an hour. He was exhausted, but I wasn’t. I found myself lost, and that’s why I’m out here. Were you looking for me?’’ Two bullets at once were fired at that moment, leaving Yohiro with only three. ‘’No, I wasn’t! I’m getting more air! God Muscle works better when you have more fresh air!’’ Clous began shouting irrationally. Fortunately for him, not many people were really walking the streets at night around. ‘’The air here isn’t that fresh due to the smoke that comes out of the house, which is a problem due to the pipes it comes out of being uneven,’’ bullet four, ‘’and if that were the case, you would have come out a lot earlier,’’ bullet five. ‘’Also, I don’t think I understand quite well, but...you didn’t really fail,’’there it was, the last sixth bullet, fire off perfectly. Clous forced himself to speak, despite his embarrassment and annoyance, ‘’Stop pissing all over my progress. For once, stop doing whatever the hell you want, Yohiro!’’

Yohiro stepped back a little, putting his hand inside the grocery bag. ‘’I’m not doing whatever I want; I got this,’’ he said as he took out a large carton of milk, ‘’in fact, you’re the one playing by his own rules, Clous, aren’t you?’’ Yohiro smiled as he pulled his hand back slightly, raising his leg a little. ‘’I want to do my best! I don’t choose what to do, unlike you, Clous!’’ Yohiro forced his hand forward, throwing the carton of milk at Clous. It was approaching slowly, a little too slowly, seeing as Yohiro didn’t have much of a throwing arm, but Clous just stood there, getting hit by it and falling backwards, with the carton falling next to him, all crumpled up on the outside and leaking a little from the side.

‘’Ah, that’s not wong, is it…?’’ Clous realised: Yohiro never truly had free will in the grand scheme of things. He’s always been a treasure, even if it wasn’t really important. ‘’The kid didn’t give a damn… He just fuckin’ did what we told him,’’ he murmured to himself as he stood up, picking up the now useless, half-empty carton. ‘’If you wanna try yourself with me, start throwing like a man for once!’’ Clous took a deep breath, concentrating his muscles. Yohiro cracked a grin, opening his arms wide. ‘’Here then, catch, Yohiro!!’’ All charged up and into God Muscle, Clous thrusted, throwing the carton with all his might, destroying it immediately as it connected with Yohiro’s chest, sending the boy flying off his feet and onto the hard ground behind him.

The boy moaned in fully intended defeat, leaving Clous smiling and gasping for breath as he got down from the roof and onto the ground, letting out a quick, exhausted breath as he released the effect of God Muscle. ‘’You couldn’t have escaped, but you didn’t try either way. Now look at you, covered in milk, sitting on the ground in a pathetic state. You’re a disgrace, you know!’’ Clous yelled at Yohiro, not realising that he was going off the intended harsh and proud tone, and sounding much more happy, much more relaxed. ‘’A-ah, sorry… But it does kind of hurt, so he-’’ ‘’Help yourself, weakling,’’ Clous said, turning around and beginning to walk away energetically, as if nothing had happened, leaving Yohiro with his jaw dropped to the ground.

''H-hey, my chest really hurts! It’s gotten red, Clous!’’ Yohiro exclaimed, coughing a little. ‘’Good luck with that! I’m gonna go take a shower, maybe wash my robe. Maybe ask your wife to treat ya a little,’’ The fox laughed as he walked away, seemingly at his own act. ‘’Ow… Why did I have to act so cocky, huh?’’ Yohiro frowned as he looked at the gem again. ‘’Whatever.’’ He sighed.

‘’It’s kinda refreshing to hit that kid for some reason. Maybe because he was getting ahead of himself. Either way, him feeling bad was hilarious… But it also didn’t feel the best at the same time,’’ he talked to himself as he walked away from Yohiro. the boy, however, stood up, taking a deep breath.

‘’I hope you’re feeling better, Clous!!!’’

‘’He’s always such a brat, it’s goddamn annoying, but then again, so am I’’ Clous thought, turning around and looking at the boy who was holding his chest, careful not to touch the gem.

‘’Thanks, I hate you...and keep trying.’’