As we stared at the chest, the World Soul choose that point to announce:

<{Spiritist} Advanced to level 7. {Awaken}, unlocked. {Gourmet} Advanced to level 2. {Cooking}, increased. For defeating the Legendary Ghost Pirate Captain Ramos, and returning the lost souls of Captain Ramos’s captive crew to the Well of Eternity, you have advanced to {Spiritist:7} & {Gourmet:2}>

I saw Eshaan and Soriya stiffen for a bit next to me. It was pretty obvious they’d just leveled too.

I smiled weakly at them. “So, uh… ding?”

Soriya grinned and did a little cheering leap, fist in the air. “Yeah! Two levels! I got my {Elementalist} capstone skill!”

Eshaan nodded in agreement. “Yeah, me too, actually. But um… excuse me… ding?”

Soriya laughed, and I ducked my head in embarrassment.

“It’s a thing from our world. Don’t worry about it.” She reached up and ruffled his hair.

Otherme glared daggers at her.

Hey! Chill! If Eshaan is boyfriend material, then we don’t own him! He gets to have friends too, who are affectionate like Soriya!

She’s touching him! We don’t even get to touch him!

That’s because you never just do what you want, but always try to do what you think you should. If we’re going to be living together… you need to do more of that.

But you still don’t want to have Eshaan as a boyfriend!

I do not. But… I do want him as a friend. And… it’s ok for friends to be affectionate.

Otherme grew silent, and I could feel her chewing that over.

“So!” I clapped my hands. “Chest?”

“Oh, right!” Eshaan said.

We all refocused our attention on the chest. Eshaan nudged the chest with a toe. A hank of seaweed dripped onto his toe. “So… is anybody gonna open that?”

I looked at him, then Soriya. “Sure. Why not? In for a penny in for a pound.” I knelt down and lifted the lid. The contents were oddly dry, given the fact that the chest was coated with barnacles and seaweed. I pulled out a scroll case and a small pouch. The other two leaned over to look.

“Is that it? That’s not a lot for such a big chest.” Soriya peered at the scroll case, then grabbed it. “Lets see! Maybe it’s a lost spell!”

Eshaan frowned at her. “Soriya, hang on, that could be dangerous!”

Soriya smiled wickedly at him. “Oh I hope so!” then popped the lid off the scroll case, sliding out several sheets of ancient parchment. Soriya carefully unrolled them, and I could see from the disappointment on her face that they were not, in fact, ancient spells of world ending destruction.

“It’s an incredibly ancient language… give me a second.” She slowly read through them, then shook her head. “Useless. It’s just the last will and testament of that awful Captain Ramos, and a map where he says he buried his treasure.”

“Wait…” I said. “An actual pirates map? To buried treasure?”

“I suppose. It’s just money though.”

“We… kind of need money though.” Eshaan ventured. I nodded in agreement. “It’s always good to have gear and equipment and this is a new city, so… equipment upgrade?”

Soriya flipped her hands dismissively. “Sure, sure, but you can Gate.”

I blinked, looking at her blankly.

“So you can travel?” She said, staring at me with her hands on her hips. I continued to stare at her blankly.

She sighed in exasperation. “So you can sell stuff from place to place really easily! Or even courier messages for zeni! We’re faster than an airship!”

Eshaan and I both let out a long “Ooooh…!” of understanding.

“Right, so our money is sorted.” Soriya continued. “This is… just a sidequest, really. What really interests me is this.” She tossed the small leather pouch in her hand, then tipped it out. A small handful of gemstones poured out, shimmering with a blueish light. Soriya gaped at them, then nodded, very gently poking at them with her forefinger.

“Hm… hm?!” She held them out to Eshaan.

He looked at them curiously, and then his eyes got big. “Oh… oh wow! I’ve never seen so many before!” He took one from her hand hesitantly.

Soriya got a big triumphant smile on her face, and she turned to me. “Oh yes…” she said softly. “This… is a treasure.”

I leaned closer. “What are they?” I asked.

Eshaan held his up to the light. “These are essence stones. As a grunt trooper, we almost never got to use them, they’re far too valuable. Common slang is ‘soul stone.’ The mage in charge of our briefing didn’t really go into the details of them, but they can enhance your skills or give special effects to your equipment.”

“Huh. Soul stones.” Soriya said. “What a quaint name. No, a better name for them would be memory stones. They’re fragments of memories, thoughts, emotions, feelings, all seeped in the Wake.” Her voice was quiet with awe. “These… are priceless.”

Soriya looked up, then poured the stones back into the bag and drew the close string tight.

I gaped at the two of them. “They’re materia?!” I squeaked out.

Soriya tapped her nose and pointed at me. “Exactly.”

Eshaan scrunched up his face in confusion. “I assume that’s something from your world, so I’m just used to being lost about that kind of thing. But what I really don’t understand is why these appeared in that chest. If it’s a treasure map, why put a bag of treasure inside? Why not keep that with the gold and stuff?”

Soriya shrugged, closing the lid of the chest and pushing it to the side. “If I had to guess, I would say that it’s because they were priceless, but useful. Didn’t want to bury them, because he wanted to use them. Or perhaps it’s because we were guided here by the memories and desires of the crew, and these are the distillation of both. I don’t know for sure. Not a lot about this world makes much sense to me.

She smiled at us. “Speaking of which.” She pointed at me. “Put your hood up, miss healer mage. The church is looking for you and probably has some posters up somewhere around here.”

I blinked, and then gasped. The pirates… the living pirates that is… had mentioned something like that hadn’t they!? I hurriedly flipped my hood up over my distinctive pink hair.

Soriya and Eshaan nodded approvingly, and Eshaan said “Actually, I’d like to know more about this. Why is miss Lily being sought by the church? How do they even know what she looks like?”

“Divination spell?” I ventured.

Soriya snorted. “No. Much easier than that. It means they’re involved in it somehow. They’re responsible for bringing us to this world somehow… but they’re only looking for one girl… that’s interesting.”

Eshaan looked shocked. “Miss Soriya, no! The church would never stoop to something like that!”

I gave a long sigh, and felt otherme give me a gentle push. I stepped over to Eshaan and patted his arm. “Not the whole church Eshaan, of course not. Just some bad people in it. But not everyone who serves the church is a paragon of virtue.”

He frowned, but nodded, clutching at his sword hilt in frustration.

“Now that we’ve settled that!” Soriya waved her hands “Let’s go explore! It’s a whole new town, with shops and things to buy and new sights to see!”

I coughed. “And also, it would be a good idea to find a place to stay, and then gate home, yes?”

Soriya flipped her hand at me idly. “Yes, of course, that too. But food! Shopping! Shopping for food!”

Eshaan chuckled. “Miss Soriya, I will bet you 100 zeni right now that Lily’s food will outshine anything we can buy.”

“Oh no bet, not even a doubt!” she replied. “But there’s just something so enjoyable about street food, don’t you think? It must be all the fat and salt!”

We headed out of the docks, and away from the smell of low tide. The port city was bustling with trade and shouts of many different people. Soriya and I couldn’t help looking around like lost tourists, while Eshaan played the part of a smiling tour guide.

“How many cities have you been stationed in?!” I asked, faintly jealous.

“Oh, most of the major cities of the empire, honestly. They’re all interesting, but they do tend to be a bit… samey, after a while.”

“So what’s Eburah famous for?” Soriya asked.

“Professional adventurers, mercenaries… which are really the same thing honestly… and being the inner sea’s gateway to Spyre. Lots of things to buy and sell here, but if you’re traveling, most people just keep heading to Spyre.

I perked up. “Is there an adventurer’s guild?”

“Oh sure, you can find one of those in most any major city you care to name!”

I frowned. “Was there was one in Farna?”

Eshaan nodded. “Probably, but we had no reason to go there. And I sort of assumed you knew already, heh.” He scratched at the back of his head. “I keep forgetting how new you are to this.”

“So, adventurers are mercenaries?” Soriya asked curiously.

“Well, technically no. Technically an ‘adventurer’ is licensed and bonded by the guild, any damage they cause is insured, and they’re supposed to be tested and rated. But in practice…” he shrugged. “Honestly, I’ve heard a lot of shady things they do. Mostly barrack’s gossip, really.”

“Oh, oh!” I clapped my hands and bounced a little, spotting a Monanin merchant. “They have Monanin here! Do you think they’ll have an elf!? I mean, Sylvain?”

Eshaan smiled tolerantly at me. “I very much doubt it, Lily. You would be lucky to spot one in Spyre even.”

I wilted a bit, then shook my head. “Eshaan, do you want to keep Captain Ramon’s cutlass or not?”

He shook his head. “No… I don’t think so. I mean, I know it’s probably powerful, and definitely magical but… no. Why?”

“Well, we’re nearing Merchants Row. Let’s sell it! And we can look for new equipment for all of us!”

Soriya cheered. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” She pointed her finger into the air like a general leading a charge. “Shopping!”

We spent a good hour browsing the market stalls before we found a shop that looked reputable enough. Eshaan put the treasure map on the counter.

“We got this old map-” he started, and the shopkeeper laughed.

“Oh man… you kids… I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “Let me guess, somebody sold you a copy of the real honest genuine treasure map to Pirate King Ramon’s lost treasure?”

I could feel my eyes get wide. Pirate King?!

The shop keeper laughed even harder. “I’m sorry to tell you kids, you’ve been taken for a ride.” He took the map and started to unroll it, chuckling. “Let’s see what it looks like this time.” He nodded approvingly, looking it over.

“Not a bad piece of work, honestly, somebody put real effort into aging this and making it look good. They even remembered to put Ramon’s seal on the corner!” he turned it around and showed us a stylized skull with crossed blades and curious sigil on the skull, then rolled it up and placed it back on the counter. “I feel bad for you, so I’ll give you 5 zeni for it.”

Eshaan took the map from him very quietly, and shook his head. “No, that’s alright.” He looked thoughtful as he tucked it away. “It’s a nice souvenir. Can you tell us a little more about… Pirate King Ramon?”

Stolen novel; please report.

The shopkeeper frowned. “What, you bought a treasure map and you don’t even know about the legendary Captain Ramon?”

Eshaan shrugged easily and grinned. “We’re travelers, it seemed like fun.”

The shopkeeper scratched his chin. “You must be from pretty far out of town if you’ve never heard of the Pirate King.” He shrugged. “Pretty simple, really. Legendary pirate, from a long time ago. Before the Empire, even. Terrorized the four seas, never got caught, supposedly amassed a huge treasure, and then buried it with all his crew on an island somewhere in the inner sea. Supposedly stole from the goddess herself, before she banished him to the Wake for his crimes. Sails the Wake even now, howling about his betrayal.” He smiled and shrugged. “You know how ghost stories go. Lots of blood curdling tales about him, but that’s just your usual legends and ghost stories.”

“All legends are 100% accurate. All rumors are entirely factual.” I murmured to myself.

“What was that, little lady?” The shopkeeper asked.

“Ah, nothing. Just talking to myself.” I said, and smiled brightly. “Eshaan, why don’t we show him the sword now?”

“Ah, right.” Eshaan took the map back and tucked it into pouch. But when Eshaan laid the cutlass on the counter, the shopkeeper’s eyes just about popped out of his skull.

“You… you want to sell this?!” He stared at us.

We looked at each other, and Eshaan hesitantly said “Yes?”

“Where did you even find such a piece?!”

“Urm…”

He narrowed his eyes. “No, oh no! No stolen property in my shop! Out!”

“It’s not stolen!” Eshaan protested. “We won it in a duel!”

I grimaced. Well, I suppose that’s technically true… I thought.

“And I’m the Pirate King Ramon, get out!”

Soriya lifted a finger. “Funny you should mention that-”

“OUT!” the shopkeeper yelled, pointing at the door furiously.

We left, hurriedly.

“Well that was… problematic.” Soriya said.

“We should probably get going, that man looked mad enough to call the city watch on us.” Eshaan said.

“Would he really?!” I blinked.

Eshaan shrugged. “He might. And if you’re wanted by the church, we shouldn’t tarry.”

“Oh.” I deflated at that. “Still… he acted like it was worth an awful lot.”

Soriya shook her head. “We can try again, or we could go back to Breezewood and sell it there. They know we’re simple honest folk.” She grinned.

“Let’s try one more place before we give up. Maybe a little on the seedier side?”

Soriya grimaced. “That comes with its own risks.”

Eshaan patted his sword. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

I burst out laughing. “Eshaan, Soriya just shot a ghost captain and sank a spirit ship. I don’t think…” I bit my lip then shook my head. “You know what, never mind. Thank you, Eshaan.”

He frowned. “I’m not trying to denigrate you or Soriya, Lily! I know you can handle yourselves I just…” he trailed off.

I patted his arm. “I was thoughtless, I’m sorry. You want to protect your friends, of course you do. So, you protect us, and we’ll protect you and we’ll all be a nice wall of shields all around.”

Eshaan looked a little less grumpy about that.

We moved down the street and turned a few corners, moving towards a less upright portion of the city, then entered the second shop.

This time when we placed the cutlass on the counter, the merchant narrowed his eyes, and frowned, then held up his hand and hurried to the front, where he flipped the sign to closed, and drew the shutters before returning to us.

“This… this piece. You know what you have here?”

We looked at each other, and then Eshaan spoke up. “Actually, no. It’s clearly valuable, but… well we don’t want it. We can assure you that…” he stopped. “Ok, look, it’s not stolen, and nobody is going to be coming after it. I’m sure you don’t believe us, but we can definitely swear to you, nobody is going to be coming after that piece.”

“Uh huh. Look kids-”

Soriya slapped her hand on the counter. “Do you want it or not?”

“Course I want it.” The merchant snapped. “But I’ve got to protect my interests, don’t I? I’ll give you 2000 for it, take it or leave it.”

Eshaan’s eyes bugged out, Soriya hastily pushed him aside and said “We’ll take it, enjoy your cutlass.”

The merchant clearly seemed a bit surprised, but handed over a fat purse that clinked. Soriya opened it to check, then closed it and nodded. “A pleasure doing business with you.”

We headed out to the street again.

“Two thousand!” Eshaan gave a strangled whisper.

“And that was his lowball offer.” Soriya said. “Probably worth four times that.”

“Eight thousand?!” Eshaan got out a strangled croak.

“In theory.” Soriya shrugged. “Not worth much if you can’t sell it. The merchant got a great deal and a headache, and we got shopping money!” she declared, tossing the bag of zeni in her hands.

“So, where should we go first?” Soriya asked rhetorically.

A figure in the shadows spoke up “I think you should give me that bag little girl, before you get hurt.”

I glanced over in surprise to see a group of five stereotypical thugs approaching us, knives drawn. I couldn’t help it; I gave a giggle of shock and amusement.

“Oh spirits, you have got to be kidding me.” I giggled again. “Go on, one of you lick your knife blade, I want to see if you’re really that dumb!”

One of the thugs in back holding his knife near his lips hesitated, and I burst out into full throated laughter.

Eshaan looked nervously at me and them, then drew his sword. “Lily… they’re not kidding around, this is dangerous!”

“That’s right!” the one in the lead waved his knife. “We are dangerous! You’d better apologize! If you grovel for us, we might just consider forgiving you!”

I narrowed my eyes at them, then turned to Eshaan. “You are kidding, right? We just took out a boat of ghost pirates, and you think back-alley thugs are going to threaten us?”

Eshaan lowered his blade a bit and looked at me with frustration clear in his eyes. “Lily, I’m trying to make sure you don’t have to fight them! If we fight them, we might not be able to pull our blows properly, and they could get seriously hurt!”

“Hey! Stop ignoring us! Who the hell do you think you are?!” the leader bellowed.

Soriya sighed and shook her head, then pulled Diaboli from its pocket dimension, and cast Glacies with a dismissive chant. The hapless thugs were instantly encased in spikes of diamond clear ice.

“Soriya!” I gasped, turning to her in outrage. There were limits to just how bloodthirsty she should be!

“Oh please.” Soriya flipped her hand dismissively. “They’re alive, just very cold. If they were dead, they would have vanished and left behind drops, right?”

I turned back to the group, and frowned. It was true, they hadn’t vanished… and now that I looked, their eyes were moving.

“The ice will melt soon, and we’ll be long gone.” Soriya added.

Eshaan slowly sheathed his sword, then nodded. I looked back and forth between the thugs and Soirya, then bit my lip and nodded. “Ok. I guess that’s reasonable.” We headed towards the brighter part of town, leaving the group of thugs standing in rapidly melting pillars of ice.

“Soriya, that was amazing!” Eshaan enthused. “I had no idea you had such fine control over your spells!”

Soriya smiled smugly. “I am a great and powerful witch, you know!”

“So, was that from your capstone skill?” Eshaaan asked.

“What? Oh, no, that’s something else. I’m just that good.” She replied.

“Hm. Well, it’s really very impressive! Only the best of the imperial mages can do that kind of thing!”

I looked worriedly back towards the alley. “Soriya, are you really sure they’re going to be ok?”

Soriya grinned at me. “I’m sure. By now, the ice has already melted. Spell forged ice doesn’t last as long as normal ice, they’re fine, likely {Slowed} and shivering, but intact.”

“Will that work on anyone?” I asked

“Doubtful. They were just too low level compared to us.”

“Oh.” I pondered on that for a bit then said unhappily “It seems unfair. We can only be non-lethal with people who are so trivially non-threatening that it’s not a worry.”

“Well, that’s just combat.” Eshaan shrugged. “You have to go all out against a real threat, you can afford to be casual and show off, or try fancy techniques if your opponent isn’t a real threat.”

I frowned, thoughtfully. Truly, I was happy that we’d gotten away without causing any permanent harm, but…

But they might come after us? Isn’t that the price we were willing to pay? Isn’t that what Lt. Isha threatened us with?

I wished I had an answer to that. The question chased itself around in my head with no clear answer.

“So, as I was saying!” Soriya continued. “Let’s go shopping! And then find something to eat, and maybe spend some money at a good inn!”

Eshaan shook his head. “It’s all the same to me. A nice bed would be welcome, but Miss Holly’s guestroom was quite comfortable.”

Soriya pouted. “What’s the point of travelling the world if you don’t live a little?” She groused. “I’d think you’d be excited to travel the world!”

Eshaan shrugged easily. “Sure, of course I am, but I was stationed here for a month. Plenty of time for the new to wear off.”

“Eshaan…” I asked “How many places have you been stationed?”

He stroked his chin. “I dunno, honestly. I’ve lost count. I remember the dig sites of course, those were interesting! I’ve been to six of those. Never did anything more than just stand around the tunnels and entrance though.” He added glumly. “If it weren’t for the imperial archeologists, it would be just like regular guard duty.”

I patted his arm and smiled at him. “If I’m right, you’ll get to see a lot of them with us.”

“And we won’t stick you on guard duty!” Soriya added.

Eshaan grinned a little mischievously. “Oh? But I wind up guarding you two from kraken, ghost pirates, regular pirates, rogue automata, yeti…”

Soriya took off her hat and whapped him repeatedly with the top, while Eshaan laughingly fended off her blows.

I smiled at them, feeling my heart warm a little.

It’s good to have friends.

It is.

I felt the warm glow in my heart of complete agreement from both of me.

With a little help from Eshaan, we were guided to the market district, and soon found a nice inn catering to travelers. As a bonus, it was near the market stalls, and the food smelled decent. It was only ‘decent’ though. Soriya complained about it while Eshaan simply smiled and asked her what she had expected.

Soriya jumped up and exclaimed “Come on! We’re going on a street food expedition! Come on!” and hauled both of us into the street laughing as we looked for a street vendor.

It wasn’t hard, we soon found one selling hot meat pies.

“Don’t ask what the meat is.” Eshaan said to us under his breath. I nodded agreement, the pie could be anything from roof rabbit to pigeon pie. I felt a tiny bit guilty about the poor cats or city pigeons or… I took another bite of the pie and chewed thoughtfully. … or whatever it was that had gone into the meal, but it wasn’t half bad. Hot, savory, greasy, salty… it was perfect street food.

Soriya wiped her lips with her fingers, then licked her fingers clean. “Yes! That was street food!”

“Well what else would it be?” Eshaan asked curiously, still chewing at his pie.

Soriya scowled at him, walking backwards into the crowd and chastising him. “You know what I mean! That was the kind of ‘terribly bad for you but who cares’ food that I’ve been craving! No offence, Lily.” She added.

I smiled at her, and wiped at my own lips. “None taken. I know I couldn’t make this. I could make something like it… but I’d feel guilty about trapping the…” I stared down at the pie then looked up and shook my head. “…the whatever it was.”

Eshaan chewed thoughtfully. “It’s not horned rabbit, that’s for sure.”

“Why would they have horned rabbits in town!?” Soriya asked curiously.

“They wouldn’t. But there’s fields and woodlands not too far from here.”

“Yes, but why go that far, when there’s meat in the city!”

“I wonder if we could sell rabbit meat to the local markets?” I wondered out loud.

Eshaan shrugged. “Easiest way to find out is check the adventurer’s guild job board. If there’s requests for something like that, you have your answer.”

I frowned thoughtfully. “Is that a good way to make money?”

Eshaan shook his head. “Nah. Pocket change for kids.”

Soriya grinned at him. “You realize most of the world thinks we are ‘kids’?”

Eshaan blinked, and then shrugged. “I guess that’s true. I signed up with the imperial legion troopers when I was 16, I didn’t think anything of it. That’s just normal around my home town.”

“Really? You’ve only been a trooper for a year?” I asked curiously.

He nodded. “It feels like longer sometimes.” A dark look passed across his face, and I could tell he was thinking about Commander Khine.

“So!” I said, trying to change the direction. “Lets do some gear shopping!”

Eshaan frowned. “Lily, I really don’t understand, what’s wrong with my sword? Or your staff?”

I blinked. “Well, it’s a new city…” I turned to Soriya, looking for assistance.

She shrugged. “Worth a try. But I think that the memory stones are supposed to be most of the power you gain in this world. Better weapons have more slots for them, not better stats.”

“If that’s so, we should decide what the stones do, and sort those out.”

Soriya shrugged. “Diaboli doesn’t have any slots, it’s irrelevant for me until I can get a new gun. If I can get a new gun.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, Soriya, how can you use a gun? That’s really unusual!” Eshaan asked.

“Oh well…” she gave a sad little smile and related her tale of woe to Eshaan.

“…and so I can’t really use staffs, and I’m reluctant to even get a new gun.”

Eshaan’s eyes were wide. “I had no idea you could do that!”

“So you’ve just always used the weapons that were right for you?” I asked.

“Once I took my first class, yeah. It never even occurred to me to use something else.” He replied.

We did find new gear in the market, and a few soul stones for sale as well. As Eshaan had predicted, they were very expensive, and looked to be much lower grade than the stones we’d gotten from Captain Ramon. Eshaan didn’t find better weapons, though he did admire several different vendors displays. “If I hadn’t bought my current sword, these would be very tempting.” He admitted.

“Oh?” Soriya asked. “It looks like the craftsmanship on these is a little better, are you sure-”

“I’m sure!” he clapped his hand to the sword hilt protectively. “Besides. This one was a gift from Lily.” He said, shuffling his feet in embarrassment.

I felt the tips of my ears heat with a blush.

“So!” Soriya clapped her hands together. “Let’s go to the adventurer’s guild and see what jobs they have!”

I frowned in puzzlement. “I thought you wanted us to do merchant runs between Breezewood and here?”

“I do! I just think if we’re in the big city we should see what a real live adventurer’s guild looks like!”

“So, we’re tourists now.” I grinned at her.

“If you like. I prefer the term ‘professional explorers’” She made her hands into a banner as though it was a marquee.

“Isn’t that just another way to say ‘adventurers’?” I asked wryly.

“Sure, but it’s all about presentation!”

We trooped back to the center of town, and found the adventurer’s guild. It was a sizeable building, made of red brick with slate grey shingles on it, several stories tall. From inside loud and boisterous laughter and boasting could be heard.

We headed inside and looked around. I had honestly expected all the talk to cease when we walked in, but a few heads turned our way and then ignored us. A quick glance around showed me why. Here, in contrast to most of the places I’d been in this world, my white mage’s robes and Soriya’s witch’s costume were very much the boring outfits in the room! I looked around with my eyes wide, as we headed towards the jobs board.

Eshaan caught my eye and whispered “Most adventurers like to dress flamboyantly. It’s a way to advertise. To them, we probably look like an E tier starter party.”

“You think that’s why the thugs thought they could take us?”

He nodded. “Probably.”

Hm. That was troubling. I did not want to dress like some of these women in here! Just for starters, I was hardly built well enough to fill out those costumes like that!

Well, I’m not really an adventurer, now am I? I thought to myself. Just a heroine on her way to save the world from self-imposed catastrophe. Perfectly normal.

The jobs board was filled with flyers and requests, just like any proper jrpg board would be. Horned rabbit requests, horned wolf requests, escort missions, gathering missions, it was all here. But as I scanned the board, I stopped dead, and then frantically tugged on Soriya and Eshaan’s sleeves.

“Look! Look!” I whispered frantically.

There, in one of the corners of the board, a F rank quest with the church’s seal.

“Wanted for questioning by the Holy See of the Crystal Dragon: A young girl of approximately 17 summers. She is wearing a healer’s robe, and has great talent in healing arts. She will likely have the favored mark of the goddess, pink hair. She must be unharmed. Reward, 1,000,000 zeni. By order of his holiness, Pope Yash Innocentus III.”

The three of us stared at the board for a long moment in silence. Finally, Soriya broke it.

“Wow. They must really have a thing for young girls.”

I glared at her. “This isn’t funny, Soriya!” I hissed at her in a whisper.

“Oh come on. It’s a little funny, right Eshaan?”

He looked at Soriya, and shook his head. “Sorry, Miss Soriya. I’ll have to side with Lily on this one.”

Soriya sighed and sagged a bit. “Well shit. There goes my plan of taste testing the beer and food at the adventurer’s hall.”

I took deep breaths to calm myself. “Lets just… head out now, ok?”

“I think that would be best.” Eshaan said, and we turned and headed out the door. I felt the heat of every eye on me, and cringed inwardly, certain at any moment there would be a shout and a demand to stop. Mercifully, after a small eternity, we reached the exit, and stepped out into the bustling market street.

“Eshaan…” I ventured, as we made speed towards our inn. “Is pink hair… unusual?”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and replied “I’ve known one or two people with pink hair, but it’s not what you’d call ‘common’ no.”