I coughed into my hand to clear the awkward air as I took a step towards Alex.

"H-hey. Want a muffin?"

I didn't bother answering his question. In all honesty, I felt that it would get even weirder if I did.

Luckily, it seemed that Alex immediately responded to the temptation of a muffin as his face lit up.

"When did you guys get muffins?!"

I tossed the bag to Alex, who rummaged through it and took out a muffin as he plopped down in one of the seats at one of the tables in the common area.

"I-I figured it would be nice. Something to help everybody destress."

"Destress? Why would we be stressed?"

"..."

I could only sigh as I listened to Alex and Elena. He really didn't register the danger of the situation.

"Can I ask you why you're not worried about any of this? Are you that confident in your strength?"

"Hmm... Well, it is true that I'm pretty strong, but that's not it. The spirits are calm, so why should I be worried?"

"The spirits?"

Though I furrowed my brow, Alex simply shrugged.

"If there were real danger, the spirits would be frantic. Right now, they're so quiet it's like... it feels like those guys aren't even looking for us."

As Alex spoke, he took out a muffin from the bag and tossed it to me, which I caught.

"It feels like they... aren't looking for us?"

It didn't feel like Alex was lying, but how much I could trust his abilities were another thing entirely. It simply doesn't make sense that [Reaper] wouldn't be looking for us, not with how she left things. To act based on that belief would be... foolhardy, at the very least.

However, as my whisper rang out quietly a different sound covered over it. The sound of footsteps heading up the stairs.

A second passed, then another, and soon a glimpse of Amber and Iris walking up the stairs in their towels. The two were holding hands, which was quite apparently due to Amber's insistence. The sight would've made me smile had I not been lost in thought.

"Hey, looks like everyone's awake!"

"Yeah, can't believe I was the last one up. By the way, you're quite bold to wear nothing but a towel, huh?"

Amber's smile turned forced as she glared at Alex whose face was traced with a playful smile.

"Ouch!"

Though it might be expected at this point, Elena smacked the back of Alex's head causing him to exclaim and rub the back of his head with a chuckle.

As for me, Alex's words couldn't help but call my attention to the situation. I averted my eyes, but couldn't stop myself from glancing back every so often.

"Speaking of that, why didn't the two of you change?"

"Oh! I actually wanted to speak to you about that. Iris only has that dirty sack for clothes, so I thought that we could take a trip to the shopping district to buy her some new clothes!"

Amber hummed, seemingly proud of herself for taking the initiative. However, I couldn't return her bright smile.

"I'm sorry, we can't do that..."

Amber froze while Elena looked at me nervously. However, the latter seemed to understand at least a bit where I was coming from. Alex, on the other hand, seemed unconcerned as he bit into his muffin.

"What...what do you mean by 'we can't do that'?"

Amber narrowed her eyes at me as if she were daring me to go on. Of course, I really had on choice.

"Look, we can't put that girl out there. [Reaper] and her gang were pretty clear about the fact that she was important to them. We can't risk them finding out about her. I would've been in big trouble myself if I hadn't hidden my face."

"..."

Amber looked at me in a lingering silence. That silence remained, growing more tense until Elena tried to end it.

"A-Amber, he's not wrong. Plus, if they caught you with her it would be an even bigger issue. And if they managed to track the two of you down..."

"Hey, I think that it'd be fine. I already said that the spirits were calm right now."

"Butt out..."

Though Alex felt the need to interject, I quickly hissed at him to stop.

"Hold on, so you expect me to be fine with keep this girl... trapped here or something?! After all that she's been through?!"

"Look, it's not forever. It's just for now..."

I frowned and looked down at the ground. I couldn't deny that Iris deserved more freedom than this, but it simply wasn't a rational decision.

"Then how long?!"

Iris flinched beside Amber as she shouted.

"I don't know..."

" A day?! A week?! Until we leave [Valen]?!"

"I don't know! I wouldn't want this if there were another way to keep you all safe!"

",,,"

Amber glared at me and went to storm off, but Iris seemed rooted in place. She simply released Amber's hand and looked at me, causing Amber to look back in surprise. I was surprised too, even more so when Iris walked up to me and looked up at me with her large violet eyes.

As she was closer now, I could see that the scars on her body had disappeared. Well, excluding two thin ones that peaked out along her back. For a second, I wondered what could cause this before the answer came to mind: Amber.

Amber didn't use her healing ability much since at its low level it took a lot of energy. For her, the sheer quantity of the scars that she'd had to heal should have made her dead tired. Yet she had still come up excited and cheerful as usual.

How invested was she to have done all that for Iris? Was it just because she was kind, or was something more going on here?

"C'mon Iris, let's go."

I closed my eyes and rubbed the sides of my head.

"..."

I sighed, listening to the footsteps of the two walking away.

"Fine. But if you're going out, I'm going with you. Every time we leave and return, I'll hide you two with [concealment]. Iris will have to wear a hooded cloak, too, to hide her face. Also, if I say we have to return, you do it without any arguing. Is that ok with you?"

Amber stopped.

She turned back.

And there was a bright smile on her face. It was at that moment that I knew i'd been played for the first time in my life.

As I looked around at the others in the room, I saw Alex smiling and Elena giving me a complex yet understanding look. I thought I could see the normally expressionless Iris smiling slightly as well.

If there was one thing I knew it was this: this group was certainly a handful.