<>(Zack)<>

"You didn't mention," Joseph, Prince of Wyina says. "That he was a child, Jesse."

"Oh, I know!" Jesse exclaims. "Isn't he just the most adorable kid you've ever seen? And then Bryce, too! These two children put in a lot more effort than that bully who was in here when you showed up!"

"Would that be the bully who harassed us in Jackson's shop?" I ask.

"Maaay-be!" Jesse answers. "There are a few of them around! Several nobles came to visit with Joseph! They wanted to hear the results of the party themselves!"

"It's a shame," Joseph looks back to the old Adventurer. "That the Council pushed for them to leave, after Nik, Theodore, and Isaac all said it was likely they would lose members down there to Fallen Adventurers. I believe my father will impress upon the Council the importance of listening to the Dark Knights, after this."

"Hopefully!" Jesse exclaims.

"So the kid actually beat a Spook Master by himself?" The prince asks.

"That's what Nik said!" Jesse answers. "And he even did it in its true form, too!"

"Pleasure to meet you, Zack," the prince turns to me. "I expect we'll be meeting again sometime. For now, I have business to attend to."

The prince turns and leaves, and Bryce and I look at each other.

"You didn't tell me there was a prince," he says.

"I didn't even mention the ruling body," I remind him. "It never seemed important," I look at Jesse. "They got here fast after word hit that Nik's party failed."

"There are ways to move fast, Zacky!" He exclaims.

It's a shame there isn't a Spook Master left in the Boundary, now that day's come. Otherwise, I'd recommend you go ask one for a treat. By yourself. Without any weapons or Mana or items or anything. While tied up.

Thinking of treats.

"So what do Spook Treats do?" I ask Jesse. "I can't get a read on them at all with Appraisal."

"Don't eat them during the day!" He tells me. "Otherwise, they'll be nasty! Eat them at night for a tasty treat!"

Okay…

"Can I buy silver tags for Bryce?" I ask.

"He has to buy them!"

I give Bryce twenty silver.

"And twenty copper!" Jesse says. "No skipping!"

I give Bryce twenty copper.

Jesse takes the copper first, then hands Bryce copper tags with his information on it. Then, he takes the silver, giving Bryce his silver tags.

Bryce pulls on the silver tags, then studies the copper ones for a minute before putting them in his Inventory.

"Thanks," he tells me.

"No problem," I say. "You sort of deserve them, being a Dark Knight like you are and having done what you've done."

"I haven't really done much," Bryce says.

"Yeah, you have," I grin at him. "You were a true Dark Knight and thought of others first last night, not even thinking about the risk to yourself to make sure your teammate was okay. To me, that means you've earned it."

"Did you boys need anything?" Jesse asks.

"Do you recommend we keep the Spook Treats?" I ask.

"You?" He thinks for a moment. "Nope!"

"How come?" I ask, and he opens his mouth. "Without the annoyingly high-pitched girly voice you do, Jesse. I'm feeling sore as fuck and not really in a good mood."

"Alright," he says, his voice more 'normal'. It's actually a little bit deep. Bryce jumps when he hears it, looking at the Certified Assessor with shock clear on his face. "Spook Treats are a highly-valued delicacy within the Boundary, as are all Special Monster Boss Food Drops. Spook Treats specifically sell to vendors for five gold, minimum, depending on how close it is to their expiration, which is about two weeks. When sold directly to a customer, they could easily be sold at twenty or thirty gold, especially if it's to nobility.

"If you eat them during the day," he continues. "They will taste disgusting, make you sick, and cause you to turn transparent when light hits you. The brighter the light, the more transparent it is. There's no cure for it, and it lasts for twenty-four hours. If you eat them during the night, you gain nothing, but they taste excellent. It's a unique taste that has never been replicated. It works great as an ingredient in some dessert dishes as well, such as certain types of pies, some cakes, and even ice cream."

I pull one out and stare at it. It's wrapped in a piece of black and orange paper, and is a disc roughly two inches across and half an inch thick.

People pay five gold for a snack, just because of its rarity and flavor. It's not even that big of a treat, either.

"Wait," I realize. "So you're saying I could earn a whole diamond just by selling these?"

"How many did you get?" Jesse asks in the high-pitched voice, then clears his throat. "How many did you get?"

"Twenty," I answer. "It awarded an additional fifteen of them for killing it in its true form."

"Nice!" He says in the high-pitched voice, then clears his throat. "Sorry, Zack. It's hard to break character, especially when I'm behind this counter."

"You really weren't kidding," Bryce says. "It is just an act."

"Indeed," Jesse nods. "It makes it easier to deal with most people. His Highness is one of the few people who is aware it is that I don't break it for when we're alone, and that should tell you how few people I do break it for – and how few even know.

"Zack," he says. "If you have twenty, and sold them all, you could easily earn four to ten diamond. If you sold them to me, you'd only earn five apiece, as I'd have to go by the standard in the System. If you sold them to the General Store, you'd likely find them bought at seven apiece, and the bakery buys them at ten apiece. And as I said – many of nobility would spend twenty gold or more for one."

"Thanks," I say.

You know… if I saved them until, say, spring, I could probably sell them for a much higher price.

"I think I'll hold onto them," I say. "Might want to save them for my future teammates. Plus, I want to let Bryce try one."

I hand Bryce the one I pulled from my Inventory as Jesse frowns.

"What?" I ask.

"Food doesn't keep in the Inventory," he says. "Fresh items will keep for a week, prepared for three days. Special Treats last two weeks."

"Really?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Oh," I say. "My funky Inventory ignores that crap. Food can stay good in there for awhile. Plus – you never know when Big C's gonna drop someone onto my property."

"No, we don't," he smiles.

"Holy shit," Bryce gasps, and I look over to find him having taken a bite out of the dark orange candy. "This is… holy shit. I can't describe it."

He keeps swearing, taking a small bite between them and savoring the flavor. The look on his face tells me it's good.

"Are you going to try?" Bryce asks me.

"Later," I tell him. "When we're not in public," I look at Jesse. "Thanks. We'll be heading home to rest up and recover from that fight. Well, I am. Then, we're gonna celebrate my victory."

"See you," Jesse says.

"I'm back, bitch!" The voice of a kid exclaims from the direction of the door.

Bryce and I spin to face the speaker, but no one's there. At all. I can't perceive them, either. They're making no sound, and didn't when they entered. In fact, I didn't even hear the door open.

And yet…

I can sense a Sacred Crystal. I can't pin it down, but it has a powerful amount of Air merged into the Light. A very powerful amount. It almost matches Nik's fire into his darkness. Whoever this person is, they're incredibly powerful. He also has a lot of Fire and Water merged into his Light, though not as much of those elements as Nik has of his side elements.

Someone that powerful…

Nathan Normar. Shy little guy, isn't he?

"What the fuck?" Bryce asks. "I'm not hearing voices, am I?"

"Nope," I say. "There's a shy Adventurer here who didn't notice us when he entered the Trading Post."

"I don't see anyone."

"He's hiding," I say, then look at Jesse. "I'll leave you and Nathan alone to talk about… stuff. See you. And maybe one day, I'll actually see you, Nathan."

I walk to the door and leave, Bryce following behind me.

"Nathan?" Bryce asks.

"The healer Nik mentioned earlier."

"Why do you think it was him?"

"His Sacred Crystal," I answer.

"Ah."

Bryce and I walk home, the only sound around us the crunching of our boots in the snow. He's thinking about something, but doesn't say it out loud. I know he wants to, but something is keeping him from doing it.

What?

We reach home, and I immediately get to work on my feast, a dinner of turkey, pumpkin pie, potatoes, and whatever else I can scrounge up with my resources. It takes me around two hours to make everything, and by the time I'm done, I'm exhausted.

Last night and today was exhausting. I didn't get much sleep last night, and my body's gotten a bit stiffer and more sore as the day has gone on.

When we finish, we sit down to eat. I gained eighteen percent Chef Experience from that preparation.

As we eat, Bryce and I chat about our plans, and if we're going to hunt the leftover Spook Slimes, or hunt down Goblins and leftover Spook Goblins, as well as whatever other Holiday Goblins are out right now.

We decide, as we wash the dishes, to hunt the Goblins. We can deal with the Slimes some other time, since new ones spawn every day, while Goblins take longer to spawn, even when adding in their live births to their random spawning.

The dishes cleaned, dried and put away, Bryce and I head to the bath to soak, and I close my eyes, allowing myself to sink into the water down to my neck, letting my body relax as the heat soothes my muscles and soreness.

I sigh in relief, and hear Bryce giggle. He's silent for a few seconds, then giggles again. This repeats multiple times, until I open an eye with a glare.

"I'm trying to relax, here," I tell him.

"I know," he looks like he's trying hard not to giggle. It escapes for a moment. "I'm sorry, I'm trying not to, but it's hard."

"What is?" I ask.

"There's a, um…" He giggles. "There's a butterfly on your head."

"There's… what?"

"Yeah," he says. "A butterfly, it's black and orange."

Is it a Monarch butterfly? Why is it on my head? Does it think I'm a flower or something? Now that he mentions it and I'm actually looking, I can sense its small presence. I slowly lift my right hand out of the water, holding it in front of my face, and mentally nudge the butterfly.

A few moments later, it flies into view, gently landing on my index finger. I watch it for several moments, then it flies away. I smile, closing my eye and dropping my arm back into the water, relaxing again.

It's been a long time since butterflies flew to me. I haven't seen any here. It's winter, though, with plenty of snow. Why was it out and about like this? There aren't many flowers around for it to feed from.

There are flowers, though. Winter flowers. None near my home, that I've seen.

"I've been wondering," Bryce says after several minutes of relaxation, and I open an eye to stare at him. "How come, with our healing rates, we still feel sore and stuff?"

"I'm honestly not sure," I answer. "But it may be that just because we're healed, we haven't necessarily recovered? You'd have to ask Big S or one of the other Crystals, though I doubt they'd answer."

The real reason is likely to serve as a reminder that though we've been given a second chance at life and that we'll heal from most anything in under twenty minutes, we're still very much mortal, and we can still very much die.

Again.

"Alright," Bryce says, and I close my eyes. Then, I hear him standing up. "I'm heading to bed, see you when you come in, or in morning, if I'm asleep when you finish soaking."

"Later."