Three little bars of bloodstone clearly marked “thousand” on every single one of them sat snugly at the bottom of the handbag along with a few other lesser bars. The amount nearly gave Camilla a heart attack. Well, an undead couldn’t have heart attacks, but the sight of the bloodstone made Camilla forget to keep her heart beating for a moment.

Unable to believe her eyes, she took another look, catching an eyeful of the handbag in the meantime. It was a pretty little handbag made of some kind of leather that was dyed a dark, rich purple, a color that really fit Kagriss. When Kagriss held that bag out in front of her with one strap dangling from two long and slender fingers, wearing a smug smile, she looked so alluring and mature.

When did Kagriss even buy that handbag? Camilla would have remembered seeing Kagriss with them before.

No, that was missing the point. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about when Kagriss bought a new handbag. The real question was where Kagriss got those bloodstones from, and Kagriss wasn’t telling her.

While Camilla didn’t want to think badly of her, the secrecy was suspicious.

She remembered how Kagriss left the room in the middle of the night when Lucienne came. She had gone somewhere, but where exactly did she go so late at night? All sorts of things both good and bad came flooding into Camilla’s mind, most of which she dismissed out of hand as something all too unlikely.

But one activity stood out among the others.

She hesitated and stared at Kagriss with tentative concern. “You didn’t rob something or steal this from somewhere, did you?”

It was mostly a joke. Well, most of it was a joke, but part of it wasn’t. No doubt that Kagriss knew that both robbing and stealing was wrong from her books, that was common sense, but Camilla didn’t think it was impossible that Kagriss was pragmatic enough to resort to… unorthodox methods.

The smug smile on Kagriss’s face disappeared, replaced with a stormy look full of disappointment. “Of course not. Did you think I did?” The handbag slammed shut, hiding away the contents, providing ample clues about Kagriss’s present mood in case it wasn’t clear enough from the stormy expression on her face. “Even I know what things should not be done.”

Right away, Camilla knew that her half-joke had not been well received. She quickly sidled up to Kagriss side and grabbed her arm with both hands, holding them close to her chest fawningly. “I’m sorry. Please don’t be angry.”

But Kagriss just glared at her. “I see. So you really did think I got this illegally?” She huffed with no sign of mirth in her voice.

Camilla’s heart dropped. Kagriss set up a trap for her and she fell right into it, admitting the truth. While she could keep trying to please Kagriss, but considering she was the one that hurt Kagriss in the first place, it felt a bit cheap to try and regain Kagriss’s favor that way. In times like this, it was best to be straightforward.

She dropped Kagriss’s arm and her idle fingers met, twisting with each other uncomfortably.

“I’m sorry, Kagriss. Since you didn’t want to tell me, I thought it might be something that you didn’t want me to know for… various reasons.” She left the last part of her explanation vague to avoid digging herself a deeper hole.

Hearing the sincerity in Camilla’s voice, Kagriss did her best to keep strict, but her anger quickly faded. She sighed. “If only you could be this open all the time.”

“Huh?” Camilla tilted her head, confusion momentarily overwhelming the relief she felt from managing to diffuse Kagriss’s temper. “What do you mean?”

“You know; that matter with Lucienne could easily be solved with clear communication.”

“Please stop reminding me… I’m not ready yet…”

Kagriss nodded in understanding, but she still put in a word of warning. “I think time might be running out for an amicable parting, so you should still do it as soon as possible. Some matters don’t really wait until you’re ready after all.”

Those were all things that Camilla knew, but the advice was given by Kagriss, so she just nodded and took it as a reminder that she was nowhere near perfect. Her lover’s words once again reminded her of just how far Kagriss had come since they first met at the dark fortress, now that Kagriss was teaching her common sense that she should know.

When she smiled to herself at the irony, Kagriss gave her a strange look before she opened the bag. “There are almost four thousand bloodstones in here,” she said.”

Camilla snapped herself out of her memories and stood up straighter, giving Kagriss her full attention. She couldn’t help but let her jaws drop a little at the amount.

Four thousand bloodstones was four times the amount that Lavitte gave their party, an amount that had dwindled over the past two days, and more than half the price of one teleporter ticket. It was the amount gained from a difficult C-ranked mission, something not many people had the chance of completing.

Basically, it was a significant sum and Kagriss had somehow pulled that much out of nowhere. There was no way that Camilla would not be curious about where it all came from. She leaned forward in anticipation.

But Kagriss pushed her back as she moved closer. “Calm down. Although it’s a lot, where it comes from is risky and unreliable.”

Camilla furrowed her brows in worry. “Risky and unreliable?”

Unreliable was fine, but she didn’t want Kagriss to get up into any risky business. That said, being a hunter was risky business in itself, but it was calculated risk with a high chance of turning a profit, which meant it was at least reliable as a form of income.

Something that was both risky and unreliable wasn’t what she wanted Kagriss to be doing. In her mind, she was already furiously coming up with various methods to somehow convince Kagriss to stop.

“That’s right. I got the money from gambling.”

Camilla’s mind ground to a stop as she dumbly repeated after Kagriss again. “Gambling?”

Out of all the things that she imagined of Kagriss, gambling wasn’t one of them. It didn’t even cross her mind, and she didn’t even realize that Dianene had a gambling scene.

Due to the Church’s heavy influence in Moltrost, gambling wasn’t allowed, so it only existed in shady, underground circles. She once helped with busting a den while visiting Arvel during her tenure as a templar. Thanks to what she found, a place full of addicts that can’t escape both drugs and gambling, she didn’t have a good impression of it.

Gambling was everywhere so in hindsight Dianene should be no exception, but she didn’t think that Kagriss will get exposed to it so soon. It’s only been three days since they arrived after all.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Isn’t it illegal?”

“Illegal?” Kagriss looked taken aback by the thought. “I don’t think so. It seemed like a pretty popular place and there wasn’t any sneaking around. In fact, they were pretty open about the whole thing. They even gave me a probation pass, see?” She took out the wooden card from a pocket in her handbag and showed it to Camilla.

Carved into the card at the top was the words “Carnesia’s Gambling House” and right underneath was “Probation Pass.”

Camilla stared at it and felt a bit silly. This definitely wasn’t the same kind of gambling place as the place she helped bust. But it still wasn’t a good idea, since the risk of addiction and getting exposed to all kinds of bad influences was very real.

Despite how mature Kagriss acted, Camilla had to remind herself that in terms of experience, Kagriss was less than a year old. She was like a sponge, absorbing things without a filter. Most of the things that Kagriss learned came from traveling with Camilla and the rest came from her books.

While that was a lot of information, it might not be enough to counterbalance bad things that Kagriss might pick up in such a shady place.

Seeing her look of concern, Kagriss patted her shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry. I know you don’t want me to go there, but I won’t go very often. Besides, I know my limits. I’ll bring a little bit of money and if I run out, I’ll leave. I’m not like most people after all.”

But the fact that Kagriss was not like most people was exactly why Camilla didn’t want her to go, but since Kagriss was so insistent, Camilla decided to not push the matter. She could only nod, reluctantly agreeing to Kagriss’s decision. There was still something she could do though. “Fine, but I’m coming too. Take me with you when you go.”

“But gambling is bad. You shouldn’t go, Camilla. Also, I don’t think they’ll let you in.”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? And if gambling is bad, don’t go gambling yourself!” The hypocrisy from Kagriss was so intense that Camilla couldn’t help but retort on it. She also had a sneaking suspicion that she was being insulted.

In the end, Kagriss agreed to take her next time. However, she needed to go by herself three more times to end her probation period and trade in her probation card for a permanent card. Entry into Carnesia’s Gambling House was only allowed with one type of card or another, and probation cards were only granted when a permanent member as a guarantor of good behavior.

In order for Camilla to go, Kagriss had to first become a permanent member.

As she learned more about the system that the gambling place used, Camilla realized with horror that she was actually agreeing with their methods. But she couldn’t help it since the system really was good for rooting out bad apples and keeping the place safe and orderly. A lent the place credence.

Although she was still suspicious, some of her hostility subsided. Even more went away when she remembered the four thousand bloodstones in Kagriss’s handbag.

 

———

 

By the time Kagriss created a temporary holding account at the bank and deposited most of the money, dawn had come, and the sky had become a pale light blue, a pretty pastel-y color that faded into the still-dark ink on the night side of the sky.

It wasn’t until after they left that Camilla realized that they visited their destinations out of order.

“If I had known that we were going to the bank, I’d have gone to the guild first,” she grumbled. “After I submit the report, we get the money from our commission and we can deposit the money along with the amount you had.” She sighed with regret.

“Well, I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“I’m not blaming you,” Camilla said quickly, looking up toward Kagriss’s face. She was a bit afraid that Kagriss might get defensive, but the latter’s expression was as unreadable as always. There wasn’t any dissatisfaction coming through their bond though, so she was probably overthinking things.

Kagriss merely explained her reasoning. It wasn’t meant to be an apology or an excuse. Kagriss was like that; if she wanted to and it wasn’t too rude, she simply said what she thought. She never really bought into the false courtesies that Camilla was used to. Another way that Kagriss was different, and Camilla loved her that way.

It was so uniquely Kagriss after all.

The walk to the guild wasn’t too long. By the time they arrived, the guild was already full of people who woke up at the crack of dawn to snatch the best commissions. As long as the commission wasn’t urgent, the guild published them at sunrise the next day.

The booths were filled, but since Camilla was here to submit a report of completion, she didn’t need one. A desk filled with guild aides had plenty of empty seats since most people who completed commissions tended to turn them in at night along with a hastily written report, and then went to sleep with the security of a full coin purse.

People like Camilla were exceptions after all. Due to her time as a templar, Camilla absolutely could not tolerate bad reports, so she spent hours that night detailing everything she could remember. Since she remembered almost everything, she was limited only by how in depth she was willing to go. Naturally, she left out personal matters.

When she placed the report that was several pages long onto the table, the guild aide did a double take.

“Is something the matter?” she asked.

Although the aide was surprised, he was still a professional at his job and quickly recovered. “Pardon me. I’m not used to seeing such a detailed report,” he said with a bright smile at Camilla, and then began to flip through the report. He was an exceptionally quick reader and with a pen, he underlined several things in the report after comparing it with the original commission.

When he finished, he made eye contact and smiled again. “This is an impressive report. Everything looks right. Excuse me while I process everything.” Then he got up and disappeared through a door behind the counter while with the report.

Camilla leaned to the side and put her head close to Kagriss to whisper. “He’s so nice and friendly, isn’t he?”

“It’s his job after all,” Kagriss replied, her voice flat. Camilla looked at her face, only to find it expressionless as usual.

Although she was a bit confused about why Kagriss was upset, Camilla decided that now wasn’t the time to ask, since the guild aide returned with a stack of bloodstone bars tied together with cord. It was a larger stack than expected, which means the denomination of each bar was small.

However, seeing the bar set down in front of her still filled Camilla with excitement and she instantly forgot about Kagriss’s mildly sour mood.

Half the money was given to them immediately, and the other half upon the guild receiving notice from the commissioner, which should be in a few days.

The total reward for the mission was a little over three thousand bloodstones, and Camilla and Kagriss walked out of the guild with Kagriss’s bag a little heavier, although they still had to make a trip to the bank again.