Alsione stood in front of the large window facing toward the garden. The maid served Jaegar and the others some confectioneries, mostly sweet pastries. Brittanya and Kryllo devoured the sweets. Leonze drank his tea quietly. Jaegar kept quiet as he crossed his arms together and closed his eyes with his brows furrowed.

"As sort of a reward for accepting Leonze in your party, I'll impart some valuable information to you that serves your 'monster hunting' quest."

Alsione stared at the sky that was bright orange and the sun that was starting to set.

"Just so you know, you didn't have to interfere with me! I was well on my way to joining them on my own!"

Leonze glared at Alsione's back while holding his tea cup by its handle.

"No, you weren't."

Jaegar and Brittanya disputed him simultaneously. While Jaegar shook his head, Brittanya spoke with her mouth full of pastries.

"Come on! Don't be like that! I'm losing face in front of this old man!"

Leonze gripped his tea cup handle tighter.

"That may be the case, but as long as the goal was achieved, it really doesn't matter how it was accomplished. Well, as long as there was no harm done. That's one of the merchant codes you live by, am I correct?"

Alsione turned around and slightly smirked at Leonze.

"Fine, whatever!"

Leonze loudly placed his cup on the table and looked away from his father.

"Well, then. As companions of my son, I'd like you to have dinner with us and stay here for the night. I'll have someone inform the inn that you won't be staying there tonight."

Alsione smiled toward Jaegar and the others.

"Might as well take advantage of you, since you blackmailed us into babysitting your son."

Jaegar glared sideways at Alsione.

"Um, sir. Can we also invite one of our friends? It will be our last night together with her, so I'd like to spend it with her, if possible…"

Brittanya glanced at Alsione, still full of pastry in her mouth.

"Of course. I'd have her picked up in the inn as well."

Alsione nodded and smiled at Brittanya.

---

Once Syrenne arrived at the mansion, she was led to the spacious dining area with a long table in the middle of the room. Everyone was already seated there. Alsione sat at the principal seat of long table. On his left side, Leonze sat down. Beside Leonze was Kryllo. On the opposite side, Jaegar sat beside Alsione with Brittanya next to Jaegar.

Syrenne sat down beside Brittanya. The two of them then caught up with each other about what happened. Syrenne then informed everyone that she would be going back to Dosael first thing in the morning, as she found a caravan she could join. She also thanked Alsione for the invitation as well as allowing her to join the Merchant Union.

After dinner, the party and Syrenne were led to a large room that had several other doors inside. Those doors led to separate bedrooms. The large room had couches and tables inside, and it was designed as a room for small gatherings.

The party decided to stay up and talk about things that had happened and what their future plans would be. It was already past midnight when they decided to go to sleep. The guys had their individual rooms while Brittanya and Syrenne slept together in a single room.

---

The following morning, the party went with Syrenne to meet up with the caravan by the gates of Siyetekos.

"Everyone, I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude for everything you've done for me. I hope someday I can repay you. So please… let's meet again sometime… Come by Dosael once in a while, okay…?"

Tears flowed down Syrenne's eyes as she tried to keep her smile toward them.

"We'll surely visit you! So do your best, okay?"

Brittanya held Syrenne's hands in hers, as tears also welled up in her eyes.

"Take care of yourself. And keep your distance from that Captain. He's more dangerous than any monster out there."

Jaegar smirked as he looked at Syrenne.

"Good…bye… I'll miss… your… cooking…"

Kryllo stared at Syrenne with a slight frown in his face.

"Both of you, please don't make Brittanya worry too much."

Syrenne smiled at Jaegar and Kryllo as she wiped a tear in her eye with her finger.

"I'm sure you'll be a great merchant, Syrenne."

Leonze looked sternly at her.

"Thank you for believing in me. Well, I'll be going now. You guys be careful always, you hear me? And maybe you should think about having a healer with you. You always end up in dangerous situations."

Syrenne waved goodbye at everyone. She then boarded a passenger wagon. After a while, the caravan went on its way and exited Siyetekos.

---

The party was now also outside of Siyetekos. While the caravan headed south, the party walked east toward a town called Equasulle.

"Your father said that a lot of adventurers are gathering in Equasulle. Is that why he sent us that way as well?"

Brittanya looked at Leonze.

"Yeah. And the information he got indicates that another strong monster must be involved… There must be a large bounty for this monster. Or you can get a rare item from the monster's body. Greed works that way."

Leonze grabbed his chin as he looked at the ground.

"We just have to kill it. If there are people gathering there, it means that the monster hasn't been killed yet. Which also means it's really strong."

Jaegar grinned as he looked ahead.

"What are you so happy about?"

Brittanya then saw Jaegar.

"We get to kill another monster. What's not to get excited about."

Jaegar glanced toward Brittanya.

"Have you forgotten we just got our butts kicked by that giant minotaur? And we can't rely on Kryllo since we don't know when he'll snap at the monsters or at us!"

Brittanya placed her hands on her waist as she raised an eyebrow while looking at Jaegar.

"I won't… try to… attack you…"

Kryllo spoke up with a low voice.

"You already did!"

The three of them turned around and looked at Kryllo, who was walking behind everyone.

"You know what? Maybe we do need a healer with us."

Brittanya looked up at the clear sky.

"Do we need to protect them?"

Jaegar turned his head and stared at Brittanya.

"Of course, you do! They're the most important member of any party! They will be the factor that decides whether a party could fight and survive longer than they should—"

"Then we don't need one. That will only add to the number of dead weights in this party."

Jaegar interrupted Leonze and glared at him.

"I said I could be useful in other ways! You'll see! One of these days you'll be thankful I'm in this party."

Leonze crossed his arms and looked away from Jaegar.

"Hey, Leonze. I've been wondering. How were you able to get out of prison back in Dosael? Did you use your connections with the Merchant Union?"

Brittanya stared at Leonze.

"Oh, that! I'm glad you asked. You see, before I tried to 'steal' the apple, I already talked to the owner. I told him that the Thief Association requires its members to, let's just say, 'practice their craft' regularly. Someone was watching me from the association, so I made a deal with the owner of the stall.

Leonze closed his eyes and smirked.

"What kind of deal?"

Brittanya kept on staring intently at Leonze.

"He lets me pretend to steal an apple and then get caught. But then after some time had passed, he'd rescind his charges against me and I'd walk free. In exchange, I'd link him up to some potential buyers of his produce."

Leonze smiled at Brittanya with his eyes glittering. Jaegar then loudly sighed beside them.

"What the hell is that? You still got caught in the eyes of the Thief Association. You should get kicked out or something."

Jaegar then shook his head.

"As long as I send them some valuable item every now and then, I won't get kicked out. They'll never know I didn't get those items from stealing!"

Leonze then laughed heartily.

"Isn't it better if you got kicked out of there? Don't you want to eventually join the Merchant Union?"

Brittanya frowned and looked away as she asked Leonze.

"Nah. I really don't care about that. I'll do what I can do best, whatever they call me, whether a thief or a merchant or whatnot."

Leonze smiled and looked ahead.

---

After a day of walking, the party finally reached Equasulle. The buildings and houses were mostly made of wood. There were some stalls of food and adventuring provisions out on the streets. Most of the people walking around the town had weapons and armor with them.

The party then went straight to the tavern to check on the requests posted and to gather some information on the situation.

Once inside, the tavern was bustling with all sorts of people. Most were knights, warriors, archers with some other job classes. Everyone was talking loudly. Some people were moving about in the crowded tavern while others were occupying the tables and seemingly having serious conversations.

The party decided to get something to eat but couldn't find a vacant table. They walked around a bit more before spotting a table with only one woman sitting around it. She was wearing the clothes of the Holy Clergy.

"Hey, maybe we can sit with her?"

Brittanya pointed at the woman.