After two hours of endless wandering around the city, there was one thing I was now sure of…

That I really suck at directions.

At first I thought it was because it was an unknown place, or the labyrinth-like layout of the city. But now that I can’t even find my way back to the gate we entered at or the beginning area, I was confident that my sense of direction was horrible.

It’s not like I’ve ever had the chance to properly test and develop my sense of direction before. After all, I don’t remember the last time I ever headed somewhere without using google maps. Even the train and bus times were written in there. So to expect a girl like me to be proficient in travel is just a bit too much…

Nonetheless, we were currently in quite a pickle. While the city looked quite beautiful when we first entered it, once we started getting a bit deeper inside, the reality of the situation became more apparent.

At the moment, the two of us were walking through a decrepit part of the city. Everything around us looked worn down and neglected, even the people themselves. While I was tempted to ask for directions, the truth of the situation was that everyone around us looked too frightening and suspicious for me to feel comfortable in approaching them. After all, the two of us were merely two young girls who weren’t even over level 15. If we rubbed someone the wrong way for whatever reason, there was a chance that something could end up happening to us. And since I was responsible for Ailya, that was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.

Although the situation seemed hopeless, when Ailya and I entered a new street, a young couple that was well dressed and of a noble bearing that was of great contrast to our penurious surroundings, crossed our sights. Deciding that it would be our best opportunity to get ourselves out of this mess, I decided to walk up the couple to ask them for directions as I said:

“Uhmm, excuse me-”

However, before I could even ask for directions, the woman pushed a few coins into my hand before saying “Excuse us” and pulling the man along. Though I was a bit stunned by the situation, I still wanted to turn to the man to ask my question. However, the man simply gave me a wry smile before trudging along with the girl, not even bothering to pay us any of his ‘valuable’ attention.

Following this interaction, I stood completely stunned for around a minute before I began to be filled with indignation at the way we had been treated. I felt that it would have been even better if they had simply ignored us. However, by giving us some coins to ‘shoo’ us away, I felt as if they were treating us as though we were a pair vagrants and we were beneath them. With angering welling up inside me, I allowed the hand that was holding the coins to tighten before I threw the coins to the ground as if It was it who had done wrong to me.

As soon as I had done this however, Ailya bent down and began to pick up the 5 coins that we had been handed. Seeing the small girl picking up after my mess and acting in a mature way, I began to feel guilty and stupid for allowing my feelings to get the best of me and acting like a brat as I told the dutiful girl “Sorry, Ailya” before bending down and helping her.

After Ailya handed the coins back to me with a compassionate smile on her face, I gave her an awkward one back in return before counting the total value of the coins and putting them in the purse inside of my shirt. Seeing that a few people had been paying careful attention to the show I had put on, as well as the undisguised greed on their faces, I grabbed Ailya’s hand and quickly got the two of us out of the place before anyone got any troublesome ideas…

After another 30 minutes of walking, I began to become aware of a new problem that the two of us would be facing in the city. And that was the lack of killable insects for us to properly replenish our vitality. It was not as if there was a lack of insects, not at all. The issue was however, that unlike the pastures and the forest, there was a dearth of easy to kill insects simply lying in the streets for us to kill. There were still a few insects the two of us could kill, but their size and frequency were not sufficient for the amount of vitality we needed to sustain ourselves. What there was in abundance however, was a vast amount of flies flying around everywhere. Seriously, it was to the point that it could drive a person mad. And unlike normal ground crawling bugs, flies weren’t exactly easy to kill. Nor were they something I wanted to kill, since it would involve me using my hands to crush their dirty disease ridden bodies.

With the realization that the two of us would probably need to include food in our daily expenses, unless we could find a sustainable source of vitality, I released a sigh as I began to think about the 50 renets we now had in our possession. I didn’t know how much it cost to pay for lodging, but part of me was regretting having spent those 28 renets earlier considering we could have had 78 and possibly enough to pay for a room for the two of us.

Turning to look at Ailya that was following me without any complaints however, I decided not to worry about what I had already done. Since I was already starting to feel hungry, it was most likely a good idea that the two of us had gotten something to eat earlier. Deciding it was time for the two of us to finally get out of this mess I had fabricated, I took Ailya inside of what appeared to be a restaurant to see if we could ask for directions.

When we entered the restaurant, I noticed that just like the surroundings, the restaurant also appeared to be in a rundown state. Despite it being afternoon, I could only see an old man and a couple that were enjoying a meal inside this restaurant. Not finding anyone behind the counter, I took a seat in one of the tables with Ailya and waited to see if a waiter or someone else would come out.

Not even 30 seconds after we seated ourselves, a tall tanned man wearing a blue bandana on his head, brown sweatpants, and sporting a white apron on top his black shirt came out from a door inside the counter. Walking straight to our direction, the old man looked at the two of us as he said:

“You two here to buy food?”

At his question, I swallowed a bit of saliva after feeling the surprisingly intimidating aura coming from the man in front of me, even though he wasn’t acting in a threatening manner. Deciding to be upfront about our visit, I spoke up saying:

“No… sorry about that, all I wanted was to do was ask for directions. Do you happen to know where the guild building is at? And maybe a cheap inn too?”

Despite not being there to purchase any food and just wasting his time, the man didn’t seem to mind as he simply replied:

“Certainly, do you know your way around this city?”

“No sir.”

“Then I take it you must be new. Give me a second and I’ll draw you a map to get there. I’ll make it simple enough that anyone could use it, so don’t worry even if you can’t read.”

With that said, the man went back inside the room behind the counter. Waiting for the man to come out, I looked around at the other guests in the restaurants and stared at the scrumptious looking food that they were eating.

Without me noticing, the man had returned at some point as he called out to me saying:

“Here you go young lady, the big star in the middle is the tower of the library. Once you start getting close enough to here, you should be able to see it even over the buildings. Although it’s unlikely, in case you get lost, walk to that tower and then use it as a reference point before moving towards the guild or the inn.”

After I gave a nod of understanding, the man gave me a smile as he looked to his customers and said:

“Are you hungry?”

Before I could reply however, I felt my stomach grumbling before feeling my head heat up in embarrassment.

Giving me a gentle smile, the man simply said “Wait a second” before he disappeared behind the counter. Sitting on the table a bit stunned with Ailya, I just hoped that whatever the man brought out wouldn’t be too expensive for our poor pockets…

After about 10 minutes, the man came out holding two plates of what seemed to be yellow rice with a rather large piece of meat and two potatoes.

Seeing the two large plates, a feeling of dread was beginning to come to me. However, before I could say anything. The old man simply said:

“Don’t worry about it young lady, despite appearances, I’m not such a miser to deny two hungry young girls a meal. Here, eat this before you head out, you’re still quite a bit away from the guild building after all.”

Accepting the food from the man, I continued to stare at him until his figure disappeared behind the counter before starting to eat.

As soon as I began to eat my meal, Ailya too began to dig in her meal as the two of us let out slight expressions of surprise at how delicious the meal was. Remembering the kindness from the old man just a while ago, I felt myself getting more emotional as I continued to eagerly eat the meal in front of me.

With tears streaming down my face, I told myself that regardless of what happened in the future, I would try not to harm or inconvenience these two men who had shown so much kindness to me and Ailya, despite not having a need to go out of their way to help us and our clearly dubious appearances…

Once we had finished our meals. Both me and Ailya gave a heartfelt thanks to the man before the two of us began to head out. The map the man had given us was truly easy to follow, and in this manner the two of us began to make great progress in our way to the guild building.

It was in this way that the two of us navigated through the streets of Dene. However, as we were getting halfway to our destination, I felt someone tap my back as I turned around and saw a girl dressed like a mage with a large hat as her two dark green eyes covered by two round glasses stared deeply at the two of us. After a few seconds of staring at us in which I felt a cold sweat trial down my back, the little mage said:

“Hello there you two, would you mind having a chat with me?”