Chapter 47: Back to the City

They were currently in the Guild’s dining hall, and there wasn’t a lot of people due to the fact that they were eating in that awkward time-frame that was too late for lunch, yet too early for dinner. It was early afternoon when they arrived in the city, after all.

That being said, they went to treat themselves with a perfectly good meal of gravy with sliced mushrooms, a well-roasted steak, and a cream stew. Thank goodness the cuisine here was relatively well developed, and the guild cooks knew what they were doing. The only thing that would make this better would be a bowl of rice...

Then again, rice wasn’t exactly something that was cultivated around these parts. Bastille heard and knew that it was more so cultivated from the far, distant east. And not to mention, importing literally anything in this world was relatively difficult due to the existence of monster-infested lands...

But that’s why Bastille was an adventurer to begin with! So that he wouldn’t grow bored with a normal town life out there, and so that he could pay for his own expenses when he wanted to do something. Or something like that, really. And besides, he might need the experience for when he applied for his Magical Academy.

... He really placed too much importance on money, sometimes. (That disposition is formed because of his previous life. Do not blame him.)

“Clara’s terribly bold nowadays, isn’t she?” Jacques whispered beside him, and the Sorcerer’s head tilted in confusion.

Lowering his spoon filled with steak covered in gravy, he idly turned his gaze towards the two party members seated in front of him.

Bold? Where? All she was doing is literally just very not so subtly looking at Tobias with an embarrassed, flushed expression every now and then...

“Not really.” Bastille replied, shrugging. Then he paused.

Oh, right. His sense of what was ‘normal’ would probably be defined as ‘scandalous’ to Jacques, who was raised like a noble.

Bastille could imagine that a noblewoman looking at another nobleman with the same expression Clara was wearing would probably be enough for a scandal at some point.

But on the other hand, Tobias just kept eating his meal, without even a glance towards Clara – never mind, his eyes just happened to subtly flick towards her, and the action made Bastille blink.

That was new. He had never done that before, ever.

“Did you see that?” Jacques asked, and the Sorcerer nodded slightly to answer the question.

And she seemed to have noticed Tobias’ subtle gaze towards her, because her expression changed into a delighted, happy smile.

“Yeah... Woo...” Bastille silently groaned to himself.

He knew that he was teasing her and all for not having the courage to tell him that she liked him and how the village visit might give her an opportunity to learn more about him, but now... She seemed like she took his advice seriously and went for it.

And since she was obviously happy, it seemed like Tobias himself wasn’t that cruel, and didn’t seem to reject her. She was that happy to the point where she didn’t focus on eating, and focused more on Tobias instead.

And that was a minor miracle by itself.

Bastille raised his spoon, and munched on the gravy-lathered steak, chewing it and savoring its flavors.

Well, if they wanted to go for it, then they should go for it. He didn’t really care about it, and he knew that Jacques was probably didn’t care about it...

Actually, he took that statement back.

That’s because Jacques definitely didn’t care about it. The guy was... well... He was charismatic, and definitely normal when it comes to social etiquette but...

He was also uncanny to some degree, but not quite as uncanny as ‘Tobias posing as his dead friend’ level of uncanny.

But then again, Tobias was a great guy to be with now. Not too tense, not fake anymore, and just had the right amount of sarcasm and bite to the point where it was funny, and not aggravating in his opinion.

The only reason why Jacques seemed like he cared about the issue was to see if their (New...? Potential...?) relationship would make things harder for them as Adventurers.

In Bastille’s opinion; Tobias was probably still going to be the same monster slaying machine he always was. As for Clara... That would most likely mean she’s going to be more support oriented towards Tobias now, right?

... And speak of the devil, there goes her face. She’s mildly flushed, and now was looking elsewhere aside from Tobias’ direction.

Why, a person might ask?

That’s because Tobias’ subtle smiles were simply that charming – to her, at the very least. But for Bastille, it only made him groan.

This was fine. This was perfectly fine. Infatuation phase only lasted for... how long was it again?

A few... months... or so...

Bastille groaned again. This was going to be a long few months, then... Especially if Clara decides to be even more bold and upfront with her gestures.

And Gods up above forbid Tobias to begin replying to her with his own overly affectionate gestures. He might actually die from cringe at some point if that ever happens.

A sane person might ask him; why he was so annoyed with this development, even if he wasn’t jealous about it? And he would tell them that it was because they were being subtle, but not covert about it.

Seriously. Just be more open, or something.

But then again, the Sorcerer thought that maybe he was being unfair, because they’re both literally teenagers, so they probably didn’t know what they were doing. Especially not Tobias of all people, at the very least.

...

Yeah. Tobias really didn’t know what he was doing. Bastille wasn’t exactly a master of romance, but even he knows that the way he’s treating Clara right now is like how a stereotypical doting, caring big brother treats their beloved little sister.

... And why exactly does she look like she’s fine with it, even?

He sighed, and decided not to judge, or think about it anymore. Because really, anything that involves Tobias and romance of all things was just guaranteed to be a headache to think about.

***

Clara was happy.

Incredibly happy, and incredibly delighted. She giggled every now and then, and had to suppress her squeals of joy into a high pitched hum instead, otherwise Tobias would look at her way with a questioning expression which only made his dark brown eyes glow with concern for her which made her feel all warm and fluttery inside.

She was so very glad that he was paying attention to her now, even if he was very subtle about it in his own way. She knew that he was strange (and she had come to like him for it), but she was happy that even he seemed to care about her.

And most importantly, she felt like her time with him in the Abyss whenever they had the rare opportunity to sleep close to each other without being overly suspicious was only too exciting.

It was only the two of them talking there, without any sort of distractions or annoying Sorcerer to ruin her fun. And he really did listen to what she had to say with seriousness which made her feel incredibly treasured.

She was glad that for once, she decided to be brave. She had fully come to expect to be rejected, but while he didn’t quite accept her, he did tell her to wait for him, and seemed to like her back to some degree, in his own subtle way...

Well, that’s all she needed to do now, right? So she continued to lie down on her bed, and stare at the ceiling with a smile on her face, as she drifted off to imagine a future between him and her.

***

Jacques sat in their shared room’s desk, as he organized the papers and parchment alike in front of him. To think that a small, almost a pile of papers had been gathered on his desk... He could only imagine what would happen if he left without informing his adopted ‘family’.

But he put aside those thoughts with a shudder, and began to peruse through the paper’s contents in front of him.

The first paper... was a letter from the Countess of House Moonblade. The first part consisted of an inquiry of how he had been, and really; it was only for formality. There really was no reason why the Countess would emotionally care for him, especially since he was orphaned and rescued by her for a very, very specific reason.

Indeed... the second part of the letter only asked him how much [Experience] he had acquired in his Adventuring Journey. At least she got to the point relatively quickly, after he skimmed through the cookie-cutter, oh-so-noble platitudes.

Yes, the reason why he was allowed – or encouraged, rather – to become an Adventurer, despite belonging from a Noble House, was to gather [Experience].

He would draft a letter to reply to the Countess later.

Time to move on to the next paper, then. A quick scan revealed that it was from... his adoptive sister.

What a bother, really... He would rather prefer her disliking or hating him, rather than playing the part of the innocent girl who happened to have a bleeding heart who pitied him.

She’s the reason why he didn’t want anyone to know of his circumstances, really. Because he’d damn himself for letting it spill when those people would only either question him, or start to harass and bully him, or even worse, pity him when they learn the truth.

So with an annoyed click of his tongue, he placed the letter into the read pile, making sure not to tear it apart, so he could read it again later when he swallows his pride to reply to such letter.

Because tearing such letter apart that the idiot had probably spent hours writing... even that was going too far.

...

Next paper, then. The state of his vassal village, was it...? It was recently attacked by bandits recently, but there was not much damage caused. Jacques decided that it really was a great idea to increase the funding for their employed guard defense, after all.

Now, how did he get such privilege from the Countess to do that...?

It was simple. A favor, for a favor.

In exchange for his dangerous, potentially life threatening quest to gather [Experience], he had simply requested the Countess to add around fifty silver coins to his personal vassal village’s budget every month. While fifty silver coins a month might not seem like a lot, the fact that there was twelve months in a year... It only made it add up, if nothing else.

And the reason why his favor was accepted to begin with?

It was because the Countess’ favorite words were something that Jacques himself had grown to love very, very much.

Noblesse Oblige, right, ‘mother’?

Now then... placing aside all of these papers, he still had something he wanted to do.

And with the name of the Noble House Moonblade by his side, he will abuse his authority and priority, if nothing else for this simple request of his towards the Adventurers Guild.

And that was to secure a Tier 4 Magical Dungeon for themselves. How audacious of him, a person might say.

But really... all that person had to do was look at how cohesive their party teamwork was, and they would shut up about it. And not to mention, Tobias...

That was one can of worms Jacques did not expect to encounter. But he didn’t have enough energy or time to think about it, so he only shrugged away the thought. As long as he performed more than optimally, then everything should be alright.

He idly stretched his arms, and cracked his fingers, as each of them let out a satisfying crack. Then he retrieved his quill and inkwell, and sighed to himself, as he dipped the quill, and raised it over the blank paper in front of him.

That Magical Dungeon request letter wouldn’t write itself, after all. Maybe he could ask Bastille if some sort of letter writing magic existed somewhere...

***

They were in their shared room, all gathered around while each one of them sat by their beds. Jacques himself was the only one standing, although he was positioned right next to his bed.

He had just finished talking about their plans for now, and as expected, his party members all let out concerned, somewhat confused faces to each other.

“A Tier 4 Dungeon, huh.” Bastille hummed, thinking to himself. “I don’t about this one, chief. This is kinda... dangerous, don’t you think?”

Not that Jacques could blame him. A Tier 4 Dungeon was definitely a step up in difficulty – or so he heard. But at the same time, the rewards they would get from such a Dungeon, and more importantly... The [Experience] that he would be able to earn from it would be definitely helpful.

And that would also benefit Tobias, would it not?

“I don’t know.” Clara said, and her gaze darted between Tobias, and Jacques. “If Tobias wants to go, then I’ll go.”

And now, the decision lied with Tobias. All of their gazes flicked to him, and he only seemed to gaze back without any sort of hesitation on his face. But he was frowning, and his eyes were narrowed as he thought about it.

“Alright.” Tobias nodded, and his approval was met with mixed reactions. Clara only nodded back solemnly, as she was no doubt duty-bound to his side, while Bastille let out a nervous sigh.

Jacques walked up to their Sorcerer, and gave him a pat of assurance to his back. “Don’t worry about it. You’re the damn finest Sorcerer I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, Clara’s really good at drawing attention to herself when we need it,” Those words were met by a pout from said Archer, but he mostly ignored it. “And Tobias... is Tobias, I guess.”

His words elicit a wide grin from Bastille, and Clara only let out a subtle nod. The person being referred to only gave a hum, but said nothing else.

“So we’ll be fine, if we do this carefully.” Jacques finalized. “So are you guys ready?”

“You got that right.” Bastille huffed, and his face was set into a grin – one that said he was ready with any challenge.

That was a quick 180 personality flip. Then again, Jacques expected nothing less from Bastille when it came to facing challenges, after all. It was his own sort of pride, after all.

“This is still really dangerous, I think.” Tobias said, with a tone of seriousness that he rarely used. “We should all take our time to prepare for it, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what we’re gonna do.” Jacques replied. “We won’t be going to the Dungeon until tomorrow, after all. Plenty of time to get prepared.”

“Alright, I’m going to go to the Archives, then.”

His words made everyone pause, freeze, and slowly turn to him, with varying degrees of shock and surprise.

It was ironic; terribly ironic. Jacques had just finished saying that they had plenty of time to prepare – but nobody was prepared for what Tobias had just said.

“... What?” Tobias asked, after a short while. Because really, everyone was just literally staring at him. His question made Jacques blink, and snap out of his small trance.

“I didn’t take you for the type of person who reads.” Jacques replied, with a polite cough. “Pardon me, I was just surprised. I didn’t mean any offense.”

“That’s alright, no offense taken.” He shrugged. Then his gaze idly flicked towards Bastille, and they let out subtle nods to each other.

Of course Tobias would be the type of person who liked to read, even if it was a second-hand, acquired habit. He hung out way too much with the Sorcerer, after all.

“Clara, you wanna go with me?” He turned towards their Archer, and the mention of her name made her snap out of her trance. She looked at him with a surprised, half-dazed expression, and wordlessly nodded.

“Okay.” The Leader clapped his hands to capture everyone’s attention once more. “Now that it’s settled, make the best preparations that you could. See you again later, this night.”

And once again, with nods, Tobias left the room, while being trailed by Clara.

Something really did happen between them, did they not?

But he didn’t really care about it, so long that they were still focused, and would fight with everything they had tomorrow.

Bastille remained, and with a nod to Jacques, moved towards the desk. And there, he pulled out a book of some sorts that Jacques had no energy to try to figure out or read, and only collapsed in his bed. His bed creaked slightly from catching his fall, and he looked at the ceiling.

He just wanted to sleep right now. He’ll prepare for tomorrow later on, when he wakes up. Drafting and finalizing those letters actually burned out most of his time last night.

Why, a person might ask. That would because of his adoptive sister who wrote too much to him, and was way too concerned about him when she had no business to...

How stupidly naive.

And that was only the first part. The second part was actually running to the Guild, requesting the old Taskmaster about it, and dealing with the red tape of such paperwork involved with securing a guaranteed Magical Dungeon for themselves.

He wondered if Tobias thought that Jacques was just that efficient of a leader to the point where he could secure Magical Dungeons whenever he wanted.

Well, whatever.

It was pleasantly warm, and the breeze was just right. It was the perfect temperature for a nap, after all. Even someone like Jacques deserved that much, at the very least.

***

The streets of Ordbridge City was surprisingly vacant that day, and Tobias had a faint idea why that would be the case. It was probably because of the glaring summer heat, cast overhead above them. It was currently noon, and nobody seemed to want to step outside of the comforts of their own homes, or places were people worked.

While he was mostly unbothered by the heat, he did feel sweat begin to trickle down his forehead and neck, and he idly raised his hand to wipe them away.

And then he turned around to see how his companion was doing.

Clara was slouched, and raised her hands to her face, protecting her squinted eyes from the almost hazy bright glare of the sun. Her forehead and neck were moist, and they seemed to glisten under the sun’s gaze. But when she noticed him turn to face her, she only gave a weak, lethargic smile to him.

Yes. She was suffering under this intense heat, to say the very least. But she still somehow tried to assure him that she was alright.

“Now that I think about it...” Tobias carefully began, and she slowly looked up to face him. Her expression was somewhere between pure suffering, and confusion. “Why did you even agree to go with me?”

“I would be terribly bored doing nothing...” She explained, panting every now and then to help cool herself down. “And... uhm, you already know why, anyways...”

And there it was, that slight flush in her face darkened slightly, and she turned away from him.

“I see...” He said, nodding to himself. He already understood what she meant, anyways. “You wanna visit the tea house first?”

Her eyes lit up from his suggestion, and she eagerly nodded. Not that he could blame her, because he also wanted to drink something cold this day.

So with that in mind, their newfound destination was set, and they turned left instead of the usual right towards the Adventurers Guild (and its Archives, by extension).

But Tobias thought that it would be really quick, and once they were done, they would head out for their original destination again.

***

So there they were, seated across each other on a small table after Tobias had requested to gain access to the Guild’s Archives (which really was just a fancy term for Library). In his hands, he held a book, and seemed to take his time with reading it.

Clara thought that Tobias really was kind. Because with how that receptionist named Eva eagerly accepted his request to access the Archives, then she could deduct that he seemed to treat everyone with respect... that, or his polite indifference just made it seem like so.

His own elder (twin? How?) sister had all but confirmed that even though he had some rough facets to his personality, he never seemed to show them to her in particular...

Or was it because he still wasn’t comfortably close to her, yet? Catherine did tell her that he tended to act incredibly politely when dealing people who he wasn’t familiar with. When asked why, she didn’t give an answer, and only told her that it wasn’t her place to say.

Well, that was alright. Because she had all the time in the world to get to know him better. And from what she understood about him... He wasn’t naturally violent, nor did he have any tendency to snap. So she wasn’t really afraid that he might be one of those fabled wife beaters –

W-wife...?

...

“Hey, are you alright?” Tobias asked, which made her flinch and get interrupted from her thoughts. Seated at the opposite side of the small table, there he was, with that neutral, yet concerned expression that he wore. “You’re terribly flushed. Is the day too hot for you? We can always go back if you’d like.”

“I-I’m fine!” She squeaked out, and when she saw him flinch at her sudden outburst, she shuddered, and took in a deep breath to calm herself down. “I’m sorry... I’ve just been thinking to myself.”

“I see. Let me know if you’re not feeling good, alright?” He seemed to give a nod to her, and then his attention was drawn back to the book he was reading.

“Mhm...” She nodded back, and raised the book she was holding. But she only hid the lower part of her face, and still peeked over the book to look at him.

She held a particular dislike for scholarly, studious types of people (thanks to a certain Sorcerer out there), but looking at Tobias study and read books by himself was simply... awe inspiring.

Like she could probably just sit in place, and watch his eyes as they read each word with apt interest, and flick to the next page after a few minutes of deep reflection within himself, no doubt absorbing the information presented to him.

... And really, that was probably what she was doing right now – watching him read and absorb knowledge.

It did make her feel good to know that he was really beginning to care about her, to the point where he would notice subtle changes about her.

He really was that one kind of person who was far removed from one’s own convention of normalcy... And that’s why she liked him, especially with his ever softening stone-like visage towards her....

That shouldn’t make any sense... and yet, it only did. She thought about it, and the only thing she could come up with was; How very Tobias of him.