I blocked the sunlight with my hands as I woke up. Without the sun blocking my eyes, I saw two beautiful women besides me. Merry hugged Risa as they blissfully sleep on the comfortable king-sized bed.

I stood up and woke up Merry. Today was our day off and we planned to go to the market for other matters.

Merry woke up, and was a bit surprised to see me. After a moment, she recalled what happened and seemed to calm down. She pushed her navy blue hair behind her ears and stood up. Normally, she would tie her hair to be a ponytail, and I had seen her with her hair fell down but since she was sleeping, she had to keep it loose.

With Merry moving and waking up, Risa followed suit.

I woke up Takana while Merry woke the other two girls. After that, I went in to the kitchen to see if Feim needed any help but she was annoyed when she saw me as she hummed alone in the kitchen. Since she didn’t need my help, I instead join Takana in the bath. We all wanted to be refreshed before going out.

I put my clothes in a container, grabbed a towel, covered myself up and went inside the bathroom. It was a bit foggy and humid. Ah, what a great time to be alive! The heat was perfect against the cold.

“This is the life,” Takana let out a sigh of relief as he enjoyed the hot water. He noticed me. “What? Don’t tell me you can’t take a bath with other men.”

“Of course I can,” I took a shower first before going into the bath. I scrubbed parts of my body and cleaned my hair.

“If I ever get the money, I’ll get a T.V. and watch in the bathroom.”

“I don’t know what a T.V. is, but I hope you get to do what you want.” I felt the warmth ran its course on my body as I entered the shallow bath. The water was only up to my shoulder while sitting down. It felt refreshing.

“Say,” I started a conversation. “Why do you hate William so much? He seems like a nice person.”

Takana looked at me. “I know a thing or two about people like William,” Takana rested his head on the side of the bath and looked at the ceiling as if reminiscing his past. “My old man was like him.”

“Your father?”

He nodded. “Basically, just like William, my father was a piece of shit,” he clicked his tongue and shook his head. Must be a bad memory. “I can feel it when someone is not telling the truth. You can say it comes from experience. That's why you have to trust me when I say William has many masks.”

“Do you have any proof?”

“Of course I do!” he quickly stood up, revealing the tiny man that lived in his crotch. He then proudly pointed in his chest. “My feelings are proof enough that William is a shady person!”

It was a mistake talking to him.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that! You’ll see! Don’t tell this to anyone but the reason I’m hanging out with Fuyuki instead of Kihana is because I don’t trust William. He might do something to her.” He said with a serious look. He truly thought that William was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Not that it mattered. I was going to kill William whether he was a good or a bad person, anyway.

“You keep fighting with Fuyuki but in truth, you really care for her, huh?” I smirked.

Takana slowly sat back into the bath. “Shut up, it’s my business. I can do anything I want with it.”

After taking a bath, I went back to my room and wore my clothes. I went downstairs and we ate breakfast. Nothing much happened. William wasn’t even there, so breakfast was uneventful.

We waited for Chance since he was going to town, too. Lindwal offered us a ride but I politely refused. I didn’t want to trouble him of arranging a ride for us when Chance was available. But to be honest, the ride in question was so fancy that even a blind person would notice its presence, and we didn’t want the people of Nurrunld looking at us.

Chance had told us he would be indefinitely staying at the capital for a while. Probably months as he said they were a lot of emails to be delivered and to be taken into. Poor postal office, always understaffed.

Everyone was here, but two of us weren’t going to the same place. Takana would check the Warrior Association, Kihana would go to the temple and Merry would go to the Swordsman Association. As for the rest of us, we were going to check the market and the capital. There wasn’t a reason for us going to the market, we just wanted to check things out.

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I had told my party that we couldn’t take life easier while we stayed at William’s house. Our expedition to the capital had been months, and during those months, we didn’t get any stronger. Sure, we gained more experience and new knowledge about the world but in terms of our fighting capabilities, we were still the same people who defeated Bladetree. The only reason I noticed this was because of Kihana. When she mentioned that she was going to the temple to learn new skills, it hit me.

We rode through noble’s quarters. I still couldn’t believe the sizes of their houses. Just how rich were they? We passed through the north gatehouse for the noble’s quarters. The interactions with the guards were smooth, unlike before, and we left the noble’s quarter with no problem.

“Doesn’t the noble’s quarters have their own market?” I asked Feim.

“There is no public market within the noble’s quarters,” Surprisingly, Feim wore normal clothes. When Merry left the orphanage, she wore nothing but her maid clothes. “Every noble have their own necessities and desires directly delivered to them by business producers and artisans. There’s nothing nobles hate more than wandering around and wasting their time with partying being the only exception.

“So, why are you going to the market?”

“There is something that I need. I’m only a servant and I had no intention of troubling my master for my needs.”

According to Chance, there were two walls that separated Nurrunld; one for the plebeians and one for the elites of the society. Though they were one city, the differences between them were great. Locals tend to call their wall as the outer wall while for the elites, the inner wall.

The inner wall was for the elites. While it was often called the noble’s quarters, it didn’t encompass the entire place, only most of the noble’s places. The most prominent place in the inner wall was the palace, which was located in the middle of the inner wall.

As one would expect, everything was better in the inner wall. Thanks to the technological advancement of the borgos, the quality of life improved. I hadn’t been in other noble’s house but as you’d seen from William’s house, having a modern house like on Earth was somewhat feasible.

We toured around the outer wall as most of the places they were going to were far away from each other. The outer wall was divided into four districts; north, south, east and west. Each district had their own different markets and temples. The associations with the wanderers guild were located in different districts, so we had the chance to explore the town a bit.

First off, we dropped Takana and Kihana in the north district. The place was decent. Just like what you would expect in a city, it was bustling with people. There were slaves here and there, and some children doing menial jobs. The north district also had its own tavern and great foods. Takana wouldn’t let Kihana go home by herself because his throat was itching for a drink, right?

We then went to the west district where the Swordsman Association was. It was the same as the previous district. I told Merry to take care of herself and be home safely. It sounded a lot like I was a strict father who didn’t want her daughter to leave.

To go to the east district, where the post office and market we were going to was, we had to first go to the south district. Chance insisted we went back to the north but we wanted to see how the south looked like. Even Feim was against it.

As we entered the south district, at the start, it was mostly the same as the other districts. Establishments and people. But as we get closer to the wall, it felt as if the air started to suffocate me. I covered my nose as the smell of urine and excrement made its way through. Not only that, but the mixed smell of rotten foods allied itself with the urine and excrements that I had to shut my mouth and gulped all what I had for breakfast. It turned out, just behind the wall was a city dump where most of the bad things were thrown into. Not going into detail because I couldn’t stand the smell, so we immediately left.

After the horrendous experience at the south district, Chance dropped us at the market while he went to the post office. We went to the market, seeing all kinds of things.

“The market!” Fuyuki exclaimed. “I’m ready to find things I’m going to give to each one of you!”

“You’re going to give us things?”

“Yeah!” Fuyuki exclaimed again. She was super enthusiastic. “You know how we never really manage to take things slow? What’s more slow than giving someone gifts!?”

I thought about it for a second. “Why is giving gifts slow?”

“Think about it, Terrin,” she waggled her finger. “Have you ever received a gift? If so, when do you usually get gifts? Isn’t it only once or twice a year!? That’s pretty long, you know!”

While it was true, it still didn’t make any sense. Understanding the intricacies of the universe might be easier than understanding Fuyuki.

I nodded back and forth. “Forgive this fool for not understanding such basic concepts. So, what are you getting us?”

“I still don’t know,” she rested her hand on her chin as if contemplating about it. “I want it to be long-lasting but I don’t have enough money.” Sadly, money was a huge factor in gifts.

“Well, let’s take a look. There might be some good things here.”

“What about you, Terrin? What would you like?”

“I’m fine with anything, as long as you like it.” I smiled.

She cackled. “Is that so?” she then turned around. “Guess it will be a surprise! How about you, Risa? I’ll give you anything you want!”

“There’s nothing Risa wants that’ll make her happy,” she seemed uninterested.

“You’re so cute!” Fuyuki pinched her cheeks. “Just you wait! I’ll pick something that will make you smile!”

“Stop it! It hurts!”

As the two played with each other, I noticed Feim was gone. I looked around and saw her holding a doll, with a smile on her face. Did she like dolls enough for that cold maid to smile?

I approached her. “Do you like dolls, Feim?”

“Indeed. Now I’m starting to hate them because you know them.” Still, she purchased it and put in a box.

“That’s surprising.” Fuyuki said. See? We didn’t think Feim would be into dolls.

“Of course it would be surprising. You don’t know anything about me, after all.”

I guess that’s true. Same goes for us.

We continued to stroll around the market. Fuyuki bought a lot of things for her gifts to us but she didn’t tell me which one was for whom, so even mine was a surprise.

Well, I guess I’ll just see it tomorrow.