Hana was humming a melodious tune when Luna came back looking haggard. She was supposed to be getting Edward his dinner, though she hasn’t been quite able to do it yet. She changed so much in the last few years. It took a lot of work, but it was all worth it; Hana couldn’t be more proud. However, her fear of humans lingered still.

Hana had been slowly pushing her to interact with Edward. He seemed like a good-natured person so far and has already helped Luna by simply not pushing her away, though, if that changed, Hana was not sure what she would do.

Apprehension crept up on her as she focused on the anxious girl. “What’s wrong?”

Luna fidgeted, and without looking up, she replied. “Umm… you know how I would leave the tray on the floor.” Hana hummed in acknowledgment. “And then I would knock on the door and leave?” She paused. “Well… today the door was open.”

“Luna…”

“I didn’t spy on him, I swear.” Hana waited for her to continue. “The door was open. I didn’t go in; I only peeked inside.” Averting her eyes as Hana frowned. “He was tossing in bed, mumbling. Something seemed wrong.”

Hana was going to admonish Luna, dismissing what she just said; however, she paused. A pang of guilt hit her as she remembered how he almost fainted in her kitchen not long ago.

“Alright, we’ll go check on him, but this is not over.”

Luna could only nod; Hana won’t forget about this, most likely, giving her more chores.

A minute later, Hana was knocking on the door left ajar, and getting no response, she stepped inside with Luna following in tow. Edward was asleep, and by the looks of it, it was not restful. He was pale and drenched in sweat. Trying to wake him up did not work, neither calling out to him nor shaking him awake.

Hana placed a hand on his forehead, feeling his temperature. Glancing at Luna, standing uneasily, a few steps behind, Hana asked. “Could you see if our resident is awake? I think I saw them both returning together.”

With Luna on her way upstairs, Hana went out and got a few pieces of clean cloth. Soaking one in cold water and rinsing, she placed it on Edward’s forehead, pulled a chair, and waited for Luna to return. A few minutes later, both girls entered the room, greeted by Hana nursing Edward.

Hana spoke first, addressing the young adventurer. “He has a pretty bad fever. You need to call for a healer.”

Valeriana looked startled at first, but recovering, she replied. “I can’t. We tried visiting one earlier, they wouldn’t help him.”

A sigh escaped Hana as she placed a hand around Luna. Almost all the healers work at the adventurer’s guild; if they wouldn’t heal him, there was very little to do. Humans are much more tolerated now, but if there were one place that would definitely disagree, it would be the guild.

Figuring out what would cause a fever wasn’t very hard to deduce; if his appearance when he returned was anything to go by, it was most likely an untreated wound.

Hana stood on one side of the bed and looked at Valeriana. “I will help however I can, but let’s see what we’re dealing with first. Help me take off his shirt.”

Valeriana complied, albeit a bit stiff, and with the shirt taken off, she stared agape at his bare torso. The scratches on both arms had faded, and most of the bruises from earlier today disappeared; small red patches were the only evidence there were any.

The wound on his side had healed as well;  a thin line connected his stomach all the way to his back, a scar hardily unnoticeable.

“This is impossible. Everything is healed.” Valeriana noted as she traced the scar with her finger.

Hana stepped away from the awe-struck girl. She scoured the room until she found an uncorked glass bottle. Picking it up and she placed it close to her nose and took a whiff, the scent of herbs overpowering.

“A health potion.” Hana noted. “Ivan always keeps one at hand, though it’s a bit excessive for this kind of injury. He probably drank it without dressing any of the wounds.”

Sitting back down, Hana placed Luna in her lap; the poor girl was stiff as a rock, though she wasn’t sure if it was for sitting this close to a human or the state he was in.

Valeriana seemed lost. Placing both hands around Luna, Hana explained. “Health potions aren’t a miracle drug; they accelerate your body’s healing, and assuming he didn’t properly clean his wounds before he drank it, they sealed up, absorbing whatever was on the surface.”

Hana waited for Valeriana’s reaction though her face was calm, her voice was not. “And what now? Will he be okay?”

“Probably? I don’t actually know. The potion should take care of everything. Right now, the most important thing is for his fever to break. Someone has to stay and apply these-” Pointing to the wet cloth. “-every few minutes.”

Valeriana paused for a second but nonetheless nodded, and surprisingly Luna chipped in as well. “I want to help too.” A large smile split Hana’s face as she hugged Luna, hard enough to make her grunt.

“Alright, I’ll show you how to do it, but if the fever doesn’t break by morning, you’ll have to get him a healer, maybe even mage.”

Despite how simple it was, Hana demonstrated how to prepare and apply the cloth compresses just in case. Standing up, she kissed Luna on the cheek, but before leaving, she addressed Valeriana.

“I rarely meet new adventurers; most of our residents here are high-ranked veterans; they seldom see eye to eye; however, if there were something they would all agree on, it would be that the difference between life and death is very slim. It’s not all glory and fame, and sometimes newcomers realize that a bit too late.”

---

This might have been the best sleep I have had yet; no muscle aches, no pain, no headaches. And if this could not get more peculiar, Valeriana was standing in the middle of the room with her sword drawn. My heart almost skipped a beat but seeing as she was standing still entirely immersed in, which I’m assuming is training.

Noticing my movement, she sheathed her sword, picked up a cloth, and wiped her hands. Ignoring my questioning look, she placed a hand on my forehead and breathed a heavy sigh. Not a second later, she took her sword and left the room, mumbling something too quiet for me to hear.

My confusion was cleared later on when I met with Hana. Thankfully, explaining how I comatose myself with a health potion. Honestly, I’m just glad things happened in a somewhat safe environment. Though, now I owe her more than I already did.

The kid had also been different, not sure exactly how. I did thank her for her help, and as she clung to Hana as usual, I believe she looked at me for more than a second. Which is progress, I think?

Last but not least, Valeriana, basically staying up the whole night nursing me. I expressed my gratitude which was not positively perceived as she scowled and told me to ‘forget it', thankfully not literally.

I happily acted as if nothing happened, and the following day we were back at the forest for another attempt at the quest. However, this time, things were vastly different. Valeriana was understanding, and if I’m being honest, utterly terrifying. 

I would go through the whole routine of locating a rabbit and pointing it out, then Valeriana would, almost surgically, cut it down. It was like a switch turned on. She was fast, precise, and efficient.

We went back, hauling eight whole rabbits. We could have gotten more if we wanted, but this was already exorbitant for our first quest.

Now, the thing about the rabbits is that you could actually sell their carcass, meat, hide, and most importantly, the horn, meaning much higher profit. The payout was a hefty sum of twenty-four gold coins. I’m almost certain we weren’t supposed to hunt them the way we did. This amount of money for a single quest completed by a two-person party does not seem feasible.

Fortunately, selling the rabbits was not done in public. At the very least, we didn’t stand out any more than we already did. As for the distribution of the money, I got a quarter with Valeriana's reasoning that I sat on my ass the whole time while she did the heavy lifting, which is not entirely wrong but not completely accurate either.

Oh well, I wasn’t exactly expecting a cut, so there is that. Six gold coins are better than none.

And as we were browsing the quest board, we were approached by two individuals.

“Hey there, how is it going?” Said a handsome man with a smile plastered on his face. Standing beside him was a beautiful woman in tight leather pants and a low-cut shirt, leaving very little to uncover, though the most peculiar part was the two large bunny ears sticking out of her head.

The man offered his hand, to which Valeriana accepted while returning his greeting. Keeping his full attention on Valeriana, he spoke. “I noticed you two were new. Are you perhaps looking for a party?”

“Not really, we’re fine.” Valeriana replied.

“Are you sure? Me and Sanne here-” She smiled and waved at us, keeping her eyes on me. “-are both C-ranked adventurers.”

“And?” Valeriana snapped.

His smile strained a bit. “We want to help out, that’s all. Show you the ropes, teach you any tricks we know, and maybe even take you on a few C-ranked quests if you want.”

Narrowing her eyes, Valeriana asked. “And what do you get out of this?”

His smile returned even wider than before. “Nothing, I only wish to return a favor.” Releasing a long sigh, he continued.  “I still remember the first few days. We were lost. We didn’t know what quests to take, which one was the fastest, which paid more, etc. You would be surprised how fast you can rank up if you pick the right quests.”

He paused for a second, gauging our reactions. “Thankfully, the Crimson Wolves helped us.” No recognition dawned on either of us and taking it as a sign, he explained. “The Crimson Wolves? Please, don’t tell me you don’t know.”

Valeriana folded her hands and shook her head, irritation clearly building up.

“Ah, it’s the most exclusive adventurers group, led by Jack the red himself. Honestly, it’s closer to a family.” Spreading his arms. “Jack is the strongest A-ranked adventurer here. He teaches us everything we need to know to survive. You will meet a ton of new people, and undoubtedly learn a myriad of new things. And if you’re lucky enough and Jack notices you, he could take you on a quest with him. You could skip a whole rank or two.”

The scantily dressed woman beside him spoke for the first time, her voice soft and sultry. “We were so lucky to join them. They helped us so much. It’s been only two months since we started, and we’re already C-ranked.” Bending forward. “We wish to help in any way we can.”

I would be lying if I said that didn’t get a certain reaction out of me, but I managed to stay sober. It’s interesting the length they were willing to take, even trying to recruit a human.

I was dreading Valeriana’s answer, but she only glanced my way, opting me to speak. As all eyes turned to me, I had to make a decision. My first intuition was to definitively and politely refuse their offer; however, I halted. I don’t know why they choose us for this stunt. Do they do it for all the newly registered adventurers?  Was the info on the rabbits somehow leaked already?

The second reason, and the most important one, is that I wasn’t just representing myself; I was answering for our party as a whole which ultimately would leave the decision for Valeriana.

Looking away from the temptress, I addressed the articulate salesman. “That’s amazing. I really appreciate your offer, but we had a tight schedule planned. Could you give us some time to reorganize?”

Grinning, he replied. “Of course. I’m Andrew, by the way.” Shaking hands. “I’m Edward, and this is Valeriana.”

Bowing slightly towards Valeriana, they both turned to leave; however, Sanne turned and gave me a wave.  “Bye, Eddy.”

I waited until they out of earshot before asking. “What do you think?”

“I don’t like it.”

“Yeah, neither do I.”

The walk back to the inn was spent in silence. The previous interaction wasn’t the most favorable; nonetheless, I was in high spirits. I had some money in my hand, meaning I could now spend the rest of the points stored. A grin spread as I contemplated the next few steps.