The group passed by the bush, completely unaware of the presence of the duo hiding behind it. Liam got out first, followed soon by Melissa. After a sigh of relief, he started to walk towards the familiar walls of the city again. She yet again stepped into rhythm beside him. The rest of the journey back was uneventful, much to Liam’s relief.
The two crossed the threshold of the city gates into the safety of civilisation. Immediately, his posture relaxed as he no longer needed to worry about a rogue higher-tier adventurer deciding whatever meager coin and cores they had was worth more than their life.
“Let’s go get paid.”
He smiled as he spoke. He was quite happy with himself, with today’s haul of four cores each.
She returned the smile and nodded in agreement.
Soon the guild building was in sight, its frame looming over the rest of the modest structures around it. Liam pushed open the ornate doors and made his way inside, his stride more confident than yesterday. The usual stench and noise were present yet again, but he didn’t care; what mattered was that he was about to get paid and that the woman beside him somehow managed to lightly drown out the scent even after spending an entire day in the wilderness.
The day-old party came to a halt before the guild receptionist. This time it wasn’t the imposing figure from before but a scrawny lad who, by Liam’s estimation, was probably around fifteen; a full half-decade younger than him and probably just starting the academy. The change was a welcome one for Liam; he really didn’t want Melissa to subconsciously compare him to the larger man from yesterday.
“We are here to cash in four cores each.”
He gestured to himself and then Melissa before laying out the eight cores he had been carrying in his backpack.
“Can I see your cards?”
Liam was already taking out his card before the question; Melissa, however, seemed like she was surprised; still, she reached into a pouch dangling from the side of her robe. The young man looked over Liam’s card first, then turned towards Melissa to take her card. He stopped. He was looking at her properly for the first time. His eyes widened, his mouth left slightly agape. Liam cringed slightly as he remembered he wasn’t far off when he had first met her, yet there was a prickling annoyance bubbling under his skin at how the lad was staring at her. He coughed pointedly.
Finally, the boy managed to snap out of his trance and took Melissa’s card. He looked over it, barely paying attention as he was still stealing glances in a way that he probably thought was subtle, while being quite far from it.
Liam also glanced at the card; he was curious about what her rank was.
E-rank? That’s… weird. Being without a party meant low rank; a healer without a party should be F-rank. Did she use to have a party but left it, or did they die?
He was confused. It would have made sense if it read F-rank or something like D-rank, given her ease of managing healing on the high floor they were on. E-rank wasn’t what he expected at all. Being E-rank and having no party was one of the rarest combinations, as E-rank usually meant the person was better than being left behind as utterly useless but still weak enough that a healer of all things shouldn’t wander around by herself. You are reading on novelping . com, the official source.
He didn’t question it out loud, though he did make a mental note to ask later whether she had a party before and what had happened when they had gotten closer. He felt a flicker of jealousy at the idea that she had a party before him; a completely irrational thought. He was hoping that if she did have one, they were now dead. He didn’t want them coming back to try to take her. The thought process would have been unthinkable just a day ago, but now came to him seamlessly.
The receptionist returned her card, his hand lingering longer than strictly necessary.
She took back the card, almost snatching it away; the temperature around them felt as if it had dropped a few degrees. He should have felt unease; he felt the opposite. For a reason he couldn’t figure out, he felt a strange comfort from her looking at the boy with an icy gaze that was the opposite of her expression when with just him.
Liam watched as the boy processed the cores, inspecting them as was the procedure. Soon enough, they both were holding out coin pouches fuller than Liam had done in years, ever since leaving his family house behind to pursue this calling.
There was an awkward silence between the two as they made their way towards the door, a silence that he desperately wanted to break but had no idea how he would do so. He wanted to offer to take her to that fancy meal as promised before, but even though the money was better than before, it still wasn’t exactly enough for the meal he wanted to buy for her. What he wanted wasn’t just a nice meal; he wanted to give her the best.
“Should we go get some drinks to celebrate our first successful outing as a party?”
The words that came out of her mouth were practically a lifeline he was mentally begging for without realizing it. He nodded far too eagerly for his liking, but it was too late to temper it now; his body had acted before his mind could fully give its input.
“Yes! Drinks sound great!”
The realisation of how eager he was led him to go silent awkwardly again, looking at the ground for a few moments to try to calm himself before looking back up at her. Her height meant he had to tilt his head up slightly to match her gaze; her frame was practically dominating his vision.
“Same place as the last time then?”
She smiled, and for a passing moment the world faded away.
“Oi, dipshit!”
A voice called from behind Liam as he was about to open the door for her. The world rushed back into his vision.
He didn’t need to turn towards the source to know what it was about. He didn’t care. He opened the door and stepped outside while holding it for her. Right now, the idiot shouting didn’t matter; the threat was pointless while they were inside the city anyway, while laws protected them. At this moment, all that mattered was the idea of getting drinks with the woman accompanying him.
“Ignore them, Liam.”
She joined him outside, her face betraying almost none of the annoyance he was hoping she felt. He hated the fact that he couldn’t retaliate, that he was weaker than them.
I’ll show him, show them all. I will make them see she didn’t pick me out of pity.
In his mind, the harassment wasn’t because he broke the arm of that guy; that guy had deserved it for trying to bother Melissa after all. It was because the guy wanted to ridicule him in front of his saviour; they were trying to take this new guardian angel of his away from him by trying to make her see him as incapable.
“Liam. I told you to ignore them”
Her voice cut through the hammering of his own pulse in his ears from the mounting rage he felt towards them, towards the world, in a gentle yet authoritative tone. Her ruby eyes held his brown ones without compromise, and he felt his anger slowly melt away as if it was a cube of ice thrown into lukewarm water. It wasn’t an aggressive dismantling of his rage, but the effect was definite.
“Let us go and have those drinks. There is nothing else to do here”
He didn’t argue back. He simply started to follow the taller woman, his eyes squarely locked on the way her hips swayed with every step. He had already forgotten about the men in the guild, the anger, and frankly everything else. He could barely keep track of the faded background moving around them as they made their way towards the small tavern they had drunk together last night.
She told me to ignore them, and they just lost importance… She told me that we’re going for drinks, and I just followed. It felt like I couldn’t even refuse; this is wrong. So why does it feel so right?
His mind was hazy, as if caught in a fog ever since their eyes had locked, ever since he had beheld that very faint glint in her crimson eyes that he had attributed to a trick of the light. His mind tried to play back the moment to see if anything was out of place, but he could only think one thing.
Her eyes are so pretty.