Anzuri City, Kingdom of Azuria.

Sanctuary Inn

7:18 AM

Miritta yawns heavily as she brushes her new white, silky hair with a comb. She then wipes herself down with a towel before adding a touch of perfume, making sure that the smell from the mess she made last night on the bed wouldn’t linger on her.

The room however, was covered in thick vines originating from the wall outside. The vines moved unnaturally quickly, akin to octopuses or worms, shifting furniture back to their place as well as throwing the dirty clothes and mattress into the laundry bag before quickly helping Miritta with her morning routine.

Putting on a white sundress she bought yesterday while walking around the Merchant district, she never felt better about her appearance as she spun herself in front of the mirror causing the dress’s silhouette to fan out. “This lovely dress is so cute!”

The vines finished with braiding her hair, putting a pair of white cecilias between her braids as a final finishing touch.

“Thank you.” She said to it as the vines retreated outside to return to normal, adjusting the pair of cecilia sitting between her braids.

Making sure that she had finished gathering her belongings, Miritta made her way down to the dining areas. Being an upscale establishment located in the Merchant district, Sanctuary Inn offered far better meals and entertainment for customers with much deeper pockets. The dining area was three-quarter full with people of every kind of people you would see in this district: Wealthy merchants from the West, aristocrats looking for a place to crash when conducting illicit activities or having an affair, high ranking Azurian military officers and business owners looking for merchants to sign contracts with.

Miritta doesn’t feel that she stood out too much, despite what she thought was a somewhat elaborate makeup job done on her as some of the female patrons taking a seat within the dining room wore an even more ridiculous array of colorful outfits and cumbersome dresses, competing between themselves to see who is the most flashy to attract attention.

Noticing Alice and Lewis sitting on a table meant for four next to a wide glass window, trading chatters between themselves, she took the opportunity and made her way to them.

“You told me about your home last night, wasn’t it?” Alice asked Lewis in a cheerful voice. “I wanna know more about it, hehe.”

“Yeah, but we gotta talk about your uh… personality last night.” Lewis said carefully, trying to avoid the word ‘attitude’ when talking to his girlfriend in fear of angering her.

Alice puts her arm on the table and her head on her palm, staring at Lewis with a lustful look. “I didn’t know I would like it so much, after all it was my first time with someone...” She extends her right leg forward, rubbing his crotch slowly with her bare foot underneath the table. “Especially with this little guy.~”

“Alice we’re in publi-” Lewis tried to protest before his eyes suddenly widened in terror, body sitting still as he stared at the person behind his girlfriend which also caused her to turn around quickly.

“You seem to be having fun.” Miritta stared coldly into Alice’s eyes, barely able to contain her disdain at the attitude of the woman in front of her. “Do you mind if I take a seat next to you?”

A chill running down Alice’s body, freezing her still as well with only the right leg slowly able to retract back to her. “Miritt- alright…”

“You really have to work on controlling yourself, Alice. A nice lady like you shouldn’t do that sort of stuff, especially when people are walking around.” Miritta sat down, putting her belongings next to herself.

“Um… about that. Did you hear anything from our room last night?”

“No.” Miritta said quickly in a casual tone. “I didn’t hear anything, did something happen?”

Lewis buries his face inside his hands as his head falls low, receiving secondhand embarrassment from Alice’s interaction with her friend.

God damn it, Alice… she mentioned ‘controlling yourself’! Was your brain matter replaced with love juice?! You should’ve caught that! No wonder why she has that look when you tried to flirt with me, she definitely knew what happened last night…

Alice let out a sigh of relief, believing that she had successfully convinced Miritta. “Phew… I was worried about that ever since we got here. We only slept together after drinking half the wine bottle, though. After that I got the best sleep of my life!”

“If you say so.” Miritta grabbed the menu for customers who stayed overnight, her mouth began to drool slightly as she read the tasty descriptive meals written on the fine parchment.

After spending so much time in Vayur forest, having a complex and well made meal made by someone else is pretty much a luxury Miritta rarely has the chance to taste, only once or twice every several months on her visit trips to the capital.

Noticing a peculiar new dish in the menu she had never seen before, Miritta asked the waitress in a maid outfit about the meal.

“Oh, that’s Fish and Chips. It’s a favorite among the Elysian soldiers around here, the recipe came from the Federation I think. People around here also liked it quite a bit recently.”

“I’ll try it out then, along with a cup of warm tea.” Miritta closes the menu, handing it over to the waitress.

“We’ll have them too.” Lewis joined in.

“Alright then, I’ll relay your orders.” The maid waitress said nicely as she walked away.

Alice turned to her new friend, her face filled with delight as she eyed the sundress and the pair of cecilia on Miritta’s head. “By the way. You looked like a proper noble lady today! What happened to the girl that I met yesterday?”

“I supposed I find it better suited in a fancy place like this, the owner was giving me weird looks because of my cheap outfit last night.” Miritta answered honestly, thinking of the moment when the owner thought she was some random peasant girl before snapping back quickly, noticing the maid waitress pushing their breakfasts to them on a trolley.

“Here’s your breakfast, miss.” The maid laid down the brightly colored food on the dishes, sprinkling the meal with some light salt. “Have a nice meal.”

As the maid pushed the trolley away, Miritta looked at the brightly colored meal, curious about how they made it. “I know about fish but what are these?” She asked Lewis, who is already digging into his own plate of fish and chips with a pair of knife and fork.

“Those are fries, made from potatoes.” He answered casually, dipping his fries into a peculiar white sauce sprinkled with some herbs. “They’re better if you dip them into the tartar sauce.”

Miritta grabs a fork and tastes it, her eyes widened in surprise as the warm, alien flavor overwhelms her senses, causing her to eat the bright golden fries faster. She dug in the fishes, finding the crispy texture addictive in comparison to dry river fishes she preferred to have in the forest.

“Dis ish shooo goud!” Miritta gave out a compliment, still not finished with chewing the fishes in her mouth.

“That’s my favorite dish, uncle always made some for me when I came home from school.” Lewis said as he and Alice laughed together at the sight of Miritta barely being able to hold herself back as she ate the meal.

“Ah shit…” Lewis suddenly switches his tone to a disappointed one as he glances outside through the window, facepalming himself. “Come sit next to me, Alice.”

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“What’s going on?” Alice asked him, worried about his reaction. She switches her seat, pushing her meal next to Lewis.

The front door of the inn bursts open as a group of three Elysians march in rudely, attracting some awkward looks by the customers as they walk around the place looking for someone.

“LEWIEEEEE!!! Where the fuck could ya be?!!” One of them yelled out.

“There he is! Over there!” Another yelled out, pointing at their table.

Miritta recognized the men from yesterday when she was passing by the Scarlett House brothel. She paused her meal, eyeing the drunk Elysians attentively as several plants in the decoration pots around them twitched slightly, indicating her influence on them.

The trio walked up to them cheerfully, their expressions shown that they were slightly drunk as they continued on to Lewis’s table.

The lead one was the first to speak in a heavy southern accent as he was somewhat drunk, standing behind Lewis. “Ay, buddy. We got them chicks outside over on the other side, you might wanna go check ‘em out!” Joker said cheerfully, focusing entirely on Lewis.

“Ya, the elf lady looked a bit like a whore, but…” Milton gives out an ok hand sign as he nods his head while smiling satisfyingly.

“…”

“What?”

Noticing no reaction from Lewis besides silence, Richard steps in next to Milton as he looks at the two women around the table. “…I think we're too late, Milt.”

Overhearing what Richard said to Milton, Joker flashed a devious grin as he looked at Lewis and Alice.

“Lewieee, you sneaky snail, what did you do? Wait a minute… Did ya’?” He looked at Alice and then Lewis who had already lowered his head down, before switching his eyes back on Alice again. “Did ya?…”

Lowering himself down to the same height as their seats, he wraps his arms around Lewis and Alice as he leaned his head against his friend’s shoulder, looking at Alice who’s visibly disturbed by the man in front of her. Alice’s lips began to quiver, not knowing what to do in this situation.

“Did you take this pretty, young thing for a roll?” He asked Lewis sarcastically, already knowing the answer by his friend’s lack of reaction.

“What’s the quiver? Why ya quiverin’? Don’t worry ‘bout me, I’m a friend. He fucks you, you fuck me. That’s how it works.” Joker said to Alice, slightly poking her soft breast as he pointed back and forth between himself and Alice, causing her to quickly cover her chest in fear.

“C’mon man you gotta pass the plate, make a donation to the cause!” Milton joined Joker, wanting to get in some fun himself. “It’s not fair you get free pussies while we throw half our paycheck for a night.”

“Alright don’t touch her.” Lewis said to Joker, his voice near inaudible in a vain attempt at getting his friend away.

“Don’t touch ‘er? Ya don’t get to tell me what to do.”

“Don’t you fuckin’ touch her!” Lewis yelled as he pushed Joker away angrily, giving him a punch in the face. “God, you’re drunk as shit.”

“What? Got some pussies and think you can act like a man now, huh?” Joker stood up, crackling his fists and lunged towards Lewis.

As Lewis and Joker wrestled around the table, Milton walked behind Miritta. “Hey there sweetheart, don’t mind him. That Joker guy is just a fuckup.”

He began to put his hands on Miritta’s shoulder, not caring about her visible discomfort as he began to massage it. “Not me, though. Why are you so quiet? Don’t worry I’ll treat you well, how much for a night?”

“Hey!” A voice suddenly shouted out from the main doors, causing everyone around the table to halt as they focused on the man standing there menacingly. Several disgruntled Azurian military officers were also present, amplifying the tensions building up in the room.

The sudden intervention by the officers caused the men inside to stop fighting, all four of the Elysian Marines stood up and saluted the man standing in the middle.

Miritta retracted the tranquilizer needle that had been slowly creeping up behind Milton’s neck, seeing no need to put the man to sleep.

“What the hell is going on here?” Boris asked his four subordinates. “What did I tell all of you about NOT conducting illicit interactions with civvies?”

“I’m sorry, Sarge.” Lewis said, catching his breath from the brawl with Joker.

“So this is what you little shitheads were up to behind my back.” He turned to Lewis as he gestured towards Alice and Miritta. “I thought you were better than this.”

Realizing what’s going on, Alice panically jumps to Lewis’s side to help him up. “Don’t! He was protecting me! Don’t punish him!”

“What’s the meaning of all this?” One of the Azurian officers raised an eyebrow as he asked her.

“Lewis was trying to get those guys off of me, please. Please let him go.”

Boris analyze the situation as he calmed himself down. For all he knows he could be the one in the wrong. But the four of them clearly were up to something, he just knew it, he had been assigned to them long enough to know each by their characters already. Lewis wasn’t usually the one who can do bad things without moral justification, while Joker and the others preferred to do their own things behind his back. Deciding that he has little authority, He made up his mind.

“Tsk. You’re all lucky that the MPs don’t go here often. All of your vacation passes are cancelled, Colonel Stanford wants all personnel back to Fort Anzuri by 10:00.”

“What? Why?” Richard asked.

“They’re assembling a task force to reach deep inside Harukami Shogunate down south, I don’t have the details but all we know is that the entire archipelago is infested with monsters.” Boris explained. “They want us to be the vanguard due to our experience against the Yarian’s goblins. So get moving, Marines.”

“Yes, Sarge.” Three of the men replied as they tried to hide their discontent from getting robbed of 2 weeks off, saved for Lewis.

He turns around, seeing Alice covering her mouth in shock. “You are going to WHERE?!”

“I don’t even know, Alice.”

Alice reaches for him, giving him a hug. “Don’t go there! It’s dangerous!”

“Sarge said it’s full of monsters, but you don’t have to worry too much, Alice. They shouldn't be too hard to handle with my rifle.” Lewis gave Alice a reassuring smile as he tried to console her.

“Nobody’s ever come back from that place. I don’t want you to be gone…” She tried to hold back tears.

Miritta folded her arms. “You shouldn’t go there, Lewis.”

“You too huh… wait, what the hell is at that place?” He noticed the patrons around gasping in shock at the mention of an expedition to the unknown archipelago. “Why is everyone so scared of it?”

“Many generations of Azurian explorers have once tried to explore whatever is left of the Harukami Shogunate. None have ever been successful as even the average monsters there can challenge even a mid-tier adventurer one on one while the larger ones can crush experienced ones. Despite knowing magic, mages could barely stand a chance as well." Miritta explained.

Lewis gulps. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“That’s why I told you NOT to go!” Alice hugs him tighter before being pulled off aggressively.

“You two gettin’ fuckin’ married?” Joker grunted, kicking Lewis towards the door. “Get your ass back to the base, Lewie.”

“I’ll write for you, Alice!” He grabs a napkin to write his contact number on it, quickly throwing it to her. “You can contact me there whenever the post office opens!”

“I love you!” Lewis said before quickly being dragged off by his three comrades.

Seeing Alice sitting on the floor crying, Miritta gave her a hug. What a heartbreak, she thought to herself as she looked at her new found friend. To find love and to have it ripped from you, she knew that all too well. She took the napkin, quickly copying it on a fine piece of parchment.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Miritta gave her a light hug from the back. “They’ve got machines and crafts that we can’t comprehend, I’m sure this time it would be different.”

“It’s ok, Alice. Come on,” She offered a hand to her. “Today is your brother’s birthday, isn’t it? It would be a shame if you would show up at your home like this. I’ll give you a ride.”

Not saying a word as she wiped the tears away from her face, Alice stood up. They walked together outside the wall, out to a field where Miritta called for her horse.