Thunder struck. Aerin dodged to the side while holding onto me tightly.

I gritted my teeth. ‘N-No, not now!’

“Aerin, let me down.”

“B-But—”

“We can’t beat the crazy bitch in this state. Let me down and I’ll handle things.”

With great reluctance, Aerin disappeared and turned into Kirion. I grabbed her and staggered toward the crazy bitch, Eclair.

“That sword….! Hand it over!”

I knew this was going to happen the moment I decided to scam here. All I could do right now was to surrender.

I dropped Kirion to the ground and kicked her so that she slid toward the crazy bitch.

“Before you pick the sword up,” I spoke, watching her intensely. “Know that it’s not an Artifact. It’s my Gift.”

“Your…. Gift?”

Eclair picked up the sword; confused. Her eyes widened as it disappeared in a bright flash of light and reappeared back in my hand.

I threw Kirion back to her and spoke.

“Now try attacking me.”

For the first time, the bitch displayed hesitation.

“Come on, it won’t hurt me. No one but me can wield my Gift.”

Eclair slowly nodded and approached me. She grabbed my hand and tried to slowly dig Kirion into my palm. 

Nothing happened. It was like trying to push a branch against a brick wall.

“I….”

“Now that you understand will you— Huekk!”

Pain suddenly rose in my chest. I staggered back and covered my mouth and coughed. Blood leaked through the gaps between my fingers and dripped onto the floor.

{Master!!}

‘D-Dammit! Not now!’

S-Shit, who knows what this bitch would do if I fell unconscious here? I had to stay up! I had to stay up! I—

—

 

“Nghh….”

“M-Ma’am, you’re up!”

I woke up with a terrible headache. By the rocking of the floor, I was probably inside a wagon. Was everything… a dream?

‘No, I have two tails now.’

It was reality. The last thing I remembered was me passing out on the street. Just how….

“A-A-Ah! D-Do you remember Miss Eclair? S-She brought you here and patched you up.”

“...Is that so?”

Jeanne had no reason to lie, so I believed her. In any case, I thought I’d recovered enough by now. Not enough to fight, but I could still at least walk around without having my entire body scream in pain.

“S-She also left this.”

Jeanne handed me an envelope, which I accepted. Inside was a single letter stating,

-Sorry-

One single word. I chuckled at the absurdity of it. This bitch nearly killed me once and all she gave me was an apology that she didn’t even deliver directly? Well, my Ihwa did it once to me, and I found it kinda cute. But this bitch wasn’t Ihwa. I’d never forg—

But then I heard something clinking against the floor. The envelope distorted and several Golds fell out. There were 50 Golds in total. 

“I love you, Eclair.”

—

 

The wagon stopped. It seemed to be time for dinner. Jeanne helped me outside and I accepted it.

Instantly, what greeted me was the cool smell of grass and fire. I saw Smith, Dinva, and our client sitting around the fire. They all had beer mugs in their hands. For Dinva and Smith, the mugs were wooden. It was porcelain for the noble.

Well, it was unusual in the first place for a noble to act all chummy with Mercenaries like this, so I didn’t judge much.

“Look who it is!” Smith shot up and dashed toward me. He slung his arm over my neck and pulled me to sit on the ground. “My favorite fox-girl! Thanks to you, our group’s reputation has skyrocketed mwahahahahahaha!”

I let myself be rocked by Smith’s laughter and asked Jeanne to pour me some beer.

“I simply did what I had to do.”

“Haha, just remember not to overdo it in the future. Mercenaries don’t usually work for free.”

I nodded. From the corner of my eye, I saw our client raising his mug up.

“How about a cheer?”

Dinva raised her mug without a word. It seemed that she was still not ready to talk to me.

“O-Okay.” Jeanne quickly poured herself some beer and lifted her mug.

I also raised mine up, and there was nothing needed to be said about what Smith did.

“”Cheers!””

I gurgled the beer down. It still hurt a bit to have something in my stomach, but it was fine. I could handle it.

“Fwahh!”

I pulled myself from the mug with a gasp, and before anyone could do anything, our client spoke.

“I know this is not… appropriate for the current occasion, but I need to tell you something,” he looked at me, “seeing as we’re only a few hours away from the port city.”

The atmosphere suddenly grew serious. I looked to my teammates to gauge for their reaction, but they all had the same stiff reaction.

It seemed that the client had discussed this with them first.

“...What is it?”

“I’ll keep it simple. I want to hire you as a servant. As a personal maid for my youngest daughter.”

My hands trembled. I looked at my teammates again.

Smith scratched the back of his head with a sigh. 

“What are you looking at me for? It’s your choice. It’s not like we’ve stayed together for a long time anyways. But we would obviously prefer it if you stayed.”

‘No attachment, huh?’

To be honest, I was a little bit sad. However short it was, my time with them was mostly enjoyable.

“How much is the pay?”

“500 Golds per year. Of course, you’ll also get bonuses from time to time. You can negotiate other things if we get to the point of drawing up a contract, but the pay is fixed.”

I gulped. 500 Golds per year. That meant I could afford a trip to the other continent within 4 years, and that wasn’t even considering the possible bonuses.

‘...It really shouldn’t be a hard choice.’

It wasn’t like I could just come across more cities to save and be rewarded. It really, really shouldn’t be a hard choice.

“Let me add to what I said earlier. It’s true that our time together was short, but I enjoyed every single moment of it.”

Smith glanced at Jeanne, who nodded fervently. As for Dinva, she sighed and also nodded.

“You’re not half-bad for a savage. I’d rather have you than another savage here.”

‘A-Aerin, what do you think?’

{I’m still mad at you, master, but I have no opinion on this. You have to decide for yourself}

Now that Aerin refused to give her opinion, I was fucked.

I couldn’t blame it on anyone if I ended up regretting my choice later.

“I…. I….”

“Let’s end it here.”

Smith clapped his hands. He stared at the client, who also nodded.

“I agree. This isn’t a decision to be taken lightly.” He stood up and made his way toward his carriage. But he turned back toward me just before he entered. “After we return to the port city, I’ll stay there for 3 more days. Meet me at the Southern gate before the 3rd day’s dusk if you want to take up on my offer. I’ll assume that you refused me if you don’t show up.”

—

 

We arrived back at the port city just as dawn broke.

Our client went his own way and we booked our room at an inn.

My teammates all went to their own room without giving me a word. It seemed that they respected me and didn’t want to influence my decision by nagging.

But they needn’t have done that, for I’d already made up my mind.

{Are you sure about this, master?}

“Yes.” I buried my face in the pillow and groaned. “I’ll follow the noble. It wouldn’t be nice to leave Ohjin, Ihwa, and Mom waiting, haha.”

The noble gave me 3 whole days, so I could use today to rest and go to him tomorrow.

‘Everything’s going to be f— …!’

A familiar heat was building up in my body.

“N-No way…! This fucking dogshit timing!”

It was my fault for forgetting about it, but regardless, fuck my luck! 

I had less than 3 minutes to decide what to do. After much deliberation, I quickly grabbed a Gold coin and threw it toward Aerin.

“M-Make sure I’m no longer in Heat before the deadline….” 

I locked the door and laid comfortably in my bed. Despite my relaxed position, my body was full of sweat. I spoke to Aerin with the last of my rationality.

“Do it by any means necessary.”