The Adventurer’s Guild stood tall. The ground floor made of sturdy, smooth stohe hree floors of imposing wood, each smaller than the previous, like a tiered cake. A handful of adventurers rexed in the field to one side, some shooting their bows towards the targets at the back, while the other side held a smaller field, and aone building ected to the side.

  As Adam pushed open the heavy red wood doors, the smell of the meal filled his heart, that of a stew made of something an adventurer had sily no doubt, as well as potatoes aables. To his right, adventurers drunk eagerly to rex, and to his left, adventurers pyed did card games, the wall of overflowing requests awaiting beyond them with told and untold riches.

  “Good evening,” the tall, young woman called, with long red hair which draped past her shoulders and down her back. Her red shirt disappeared uhe ter. Her freckled face smiled politely towards the oning adventurers.

  “It’s good to see you again, Emma,” Adam said, nodding his head towards her. “Any rooms?”

  “For adventurers, of course.”

  Adam nodded. “I’d like to get…” Adam gnced over his shoulders, ting how many panions he had. “Three rooms, two doubles, if you don’t mind.”

  “Would you like your room?”

  “My room?”

  “The room as part of our deal.”

  ‘Our deal?’ Adam replied. “Ah, well, I guess if Jaygak wants to stay in it?”

  “We do require your services.”

  ‘My services?’ “Oh! Yes, of course, absolutely.” Adam smiled awkwardly towards the beautiful receptionist. ‘I really should review everything before I e out.’

  Emma gnced between the five who had returned, noting how many looks the demons were gathering. ‘…’ Her eyes theo the er, where a young Aswadian adventurer sat, a bde at his side. He reached for it and stood, his panions also standing.

  A figure intercepted them, heavily armoured as she was, a mace at her side. She removed her helmet, revealiender smile. “Good evening.”

  “Step aside, miss, we-,”

  “I am Ray Vonda, of Life’s Rose,” Vonda said.

  The adventurer, his face fshing with annoya first, paused. “You are a Ray?”

  “I am.”

  “You are too young.”

  “I am blessed to have been sidered for the position, and my task is to watch over my panions,” Vonda replied, noting the brorim along his clothing. “I hope you are willing to step back for the sake of the retionship between our orders.”

  The Aswadians eyes gowards the pair of demons, before his eyes fell to the Ray once more. He gowards his Aldish panions, who motioheir heads back, and the Aswadian bowed his head, stepping away.

  ‘…’ Lucy let out a small sigh.

  ‘How annoying,’ Adam thought, recalling how he was in the same pce a few years ago. ‘We should try and pass them off as devilkin, but I guess they feel it due to their abilities?’

  An older man with pale bronze skin, short salt and pepper hair, and dark eyes stepped into the guild from behind the receptionist. He wore a breastpte, stamped with the symbol of the Adventurer’s Guild, overpping initials, and he carried a bde at his side. He he appearance of familiar faces within the guild, and he owards them all.

  “Vice Master Paul,” Adam called, reag out to his forearm.

  “Adam,” Paul replied, his eyes sing across the reeting them politely.

  “What a shame you couldn’t e to our wedding.”

  “Unfortunately, the Guild required me here,” Paul said, letting out a familiar tired sigh.

  “It’s always the Vice Master who o work the hardest, eh?” Adam joked.

  A small smirk appeared across Paul’s lips. “The Guild Master works the hardest.”

  Adam fshed a small smile. “Unfortunately, we’ll be uo assist this year?”

  “Why is that?” Paul asked, as though he didn’t know the answer.

  “We’re esc a very special guest.”

  “Yes?”

  Adam smiled wide, before shrugging his shoulders. “Well, I’ll leave you to your work.”

  Paul nodded, allowing Adam and the others to step away, his eyes gng across the rest of the guild, noting hoard the air had bee. Thankfully nothing had happened, and nothing would happen, for this was the Guild.

  The food at the guild assable, as always, though the baths were much greater. Adam spent a while pleting his task for the guild, casting his spell Identify as a ritual in order not to expend the Mana, though he hadn’t prepared the spell that day anyway.

  Mana: 25 -> 22Spell: Sending

  Adam clutched at his cool obsidian amulet, muttering out the words to his spell as he motioned with a hand to call forth his priestly magic.

  “Manager Dunes. We’ve made it safely to Red Oak. Nothing out of the ordinary to report.”

  “Uood. Nothing out of the ordinary to report here.”

  Adam dropped down onto the bed, sprawled against it as he let out a sigh. “Man, it is really awkward walking around with Lud Mara…”

  Vonda brushed her hair slowly, colleg the falling hairs within a small bundle of cloth. “My title keep many at bay, but there will still be those who will wish to press their cim because I am young.”

  “Luckily we’re strong enough to handle most of them.”

  “You asked Lud Mara to step back…”

  “You know how Aldishmehey attack you and if you defend yourself, they call you a wicked fiend.”

  “…”

  “Not you, obviously, you’re one of the good ones.” Adam chuckled lightly at his joke.

  Vonda y beside Adam, the bed sinking slightly, causing Adam to draw closer towards her, not that he seemed to mind. She reached up to brush along his cheek, her fingers, equal parts rough and soft, brushed all along the tours of his jaw. “It will be difficult once we leave Red Oak.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Once we are withi Aldnd, there are feould challehe authority of a Ray.”

  Adam slowly nodded his head, pressing his cheek against her hand. “It’s not like Morkarai help us either, since he’s a Prince…” Adam furrowed his brows. “Isn’t it bad for him to walk around with a pair of, you know?”

  “He has already calcuted the bes.”

  “The bes?”

  “Would he deny them when he wishes to bee so close to you?”

  “What’s so good about being close with me?”

  “…”

  “Okay, okay, sure, but he’s still a Prince.”

  “He knows so much about you, and he already uands what kind of a being you are.”

  “What kind of a being am I?”

  Vonda tilted her head, her lips f a small smirk. “A father who is a fool for his children, and a lesser fool for his wife?”

  “Oh e on now, Vonda. Are you going to seduce me even here?”

  “Will that ge anything?”

  “No.” Adam kissed along her neck, and the pair embraced one another for the night.

  The five made their way through the market of Red Oak, the noisiness filling the air around them. As Adam procured all manner of tiny gifts for the children of the business, the children of the Iyr, and his own children. ‘I gotta be careful spending so much right now…’

  “This book should be fine,” Vonda said, feeling the paper against her skin. “It would be good for writing and drawing, and some painting.”

  “How much is it?”

  “Two gold,” the mert said, the dark skinned Aswadian grinning wide, the turban c his long hair, though the thick beard did little to hide his wide smile.

  ‘Damn! I remember buying a bunch of books for a quid and now they’re a whole gold? I really should bring a revolution of some kind to this pce, even if it isn’t against the nobles.’ “I’ll take two.” ‘I should have just bought some from the Iyr.’

  Jaygak escorted Lud Mara through the market, allowing them to spend their own as they pleased, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Eventually the group returned back to the Guild, to keep Lud Mara out of trouble.

  Lucy frowned, sitting in their room beside Mara, sighing. "We're not free in the Iyr. We're not free outside the Iyr. Where we be free?” ‘At least the Iyr treats us fine.’

  "They do not uand your majesty."

  "What majesty?" Luced around their small room. "I'm just a dirty demon here."

  "Only a few years and they shall know."

  "Know what? This nd is full of great towns and cities, a huhousand in each town at least. The armies I would need..." Lucy stared at the ceiling. ‘Even if I start a cult, just how much death will I have t? I’m no Iyrman.’ “I just want to live peacefully.”

  “I will endeavour to allow you to live peacefully.”

  “You should live peacefully too.”

  “I will strive to live peacefully too.”

  “Stop talking like that,” Lucy reached out to poke Mara in the side. “Talk like a normal person! You’re not the attendant of royalty any more.”

  “You are from a long line of-,”

  “I know, Mara, but that’s a different life. Here I’m no one. Here I’m just Lucy. I’m Lucy, a demon, who should just die.”

  “I won’t allow ao kill you.”

  “I won’t allow ao kill you either.” Lucy reached out to hold Mara’s hand. “We ’t be beholden to our past life any more.”

  Mara squeezed Lucy’s hand reassuringly, the pair ying down beside one another in the rge bed. ‘We ’t be beholden to our past life any more?’

  Ohey had spent their time in Red Oak, the group gathered themselves, resupplying for their jourward, deg to follow the northern path through Aldnd.

  “I hope your journey is full of blood and wonder,” Amokan said, shaking Adam’s forearm.

  “I hope your journey is full of pead calm,” Adam replied, chug lightly.

  “We eagerly await your stories,” Timojin said, shaking Jurot’s forearm.

  “We eagerly await your stories too,” Jurot replied, shaking the young man’s forearm.

  “I wonder if I’ll fight the Bde of the Tide again,” Jaygak pondered aloud, her hands on her hips, standing casually as though she wasn’t pig a fight with the pair.

  “Perhaps I will defeat her before you?” Amokan joked.

  “You should stick with battling Experts.”

  Amokan grinned wide towards Jaygak. “You are so ceous, standing beside Adam.”

  “I’m ceous standing beside Kitool,” Jaygak replied, her lips twitg into a smirk.

  Kitool bowed her head towards the pair of Iyrmen, who she had defeated iour.

  The group made their way out of the town, while Amokan and Timojin waited at the gates to watch them leave, the pair of guards gng towards the Iyrmen.

  “What will they fight this year?” Amokan asked iongue.

  “A dragon?” Timojin replied, only half joking.

  “Jaygak will kill a Gryn eagerly.”

  Timojin slowly nodded his head. “She has such rights.”

  The pair of Iyrmen watched the party move towards the horizon, with each passing moments their bodies grew warmer and their hearts began to pound with anticipation.

  ‘We will o work hard to match them.’

  At noon, the party took a break to eat, and while Adam mourhe loss of Korin in their party, he checked his book over lunch.

  ‘I’m so gd you’re this smart, Jurot.’ Adam wrote down in his book the additional they had made as the upfront fee of taking in the order for the tess of Red Oak. ‘Should we have ripped her off a little more? I feel like four thousand for each Basihanced on is fine, but she’s a noble, right? robably ask for at least a few hundred, if not a thousand more? The Iyr doesn’t pay quite as much, but it is the Iyr too, so it’s not like I charge them any more than that. Still, it’s pretty good. It takes twice as long to make Basihahan Basic ons, but they sell of for about three to six times as much…’

  Adam slipped his book into his robes once more, before he sipped away at his fvoured water. ‘We o be careful now that we’re down two Iyrmen.’ His eyes fell towards Lud Mara, who were eating their food silently, each deep in thought. ‘We should be fine going through all those forts, right?’

  Poor Lud Mara.