The city isn’t that big, maybe a little smaller than God’s Win. It’s no wonder we could clear out all the requests by working every day these past two weeks.

“Do we just go back?” Kassa asked me.

“Nah, let us at least do a little.” I replied.

I would feel bad if we did nothing today. I grabbed two requests that had as low a floor as possible, since those were more rarely taken and lined up for the receptionist. All of the requests for abandoned dungeons were gone.

As it became our turn in the queue, I tried to make some small talk.

“Seems awfully barren on the board today… You’re not hiding a few good requests for us in the back, are you?” It was spoken in jest, but I received a rather curious response.

“Depends… We have just received a two-month job. Are you interested?”

I know I can’t make decisions without flipping it over with the rest of the team, but I was about to dismiss it out of hand. The two-month part made it sound like it would be escorting someone or something, and I just couldn’t be bothered, remembering how painful the last escort job I took was.

“I’ll talk with my group about it.” I said. The receptionist looked curious.

“You’re not the one calling the shots?”

“I think of it as we make decisions together.”

“It’s usually the highest ranked one, that calls the shots, so I was just wondering.” I probably could force my opinion through. After all, Patir and Yasia is more or less freeloading on my income. Not that I’d need any leverage with Yasia anyway, given how she has voiced her opinion on issues before.

“Guess we are just different that way.” I dismissed the issue.

After an hour, the jobs were already complete as we were somewhat familiar with the dungeon and could rush past many levels by now.

When we arrived back at the inn, Patir wasn’t there. He was probably out buying something or other, most likely more booze. We have all used some money outside the inn fees. Kassa had gotten a new sword, shield and armor. It was much needed as her equipment had not really been upgraded since I acquired some from God’s Win. I suggested she bought a dress too, for casual wear, but she declined. Seems she didn’t like dresses that much.

Yasia, on the other hand, did. While she initially declined getting something specifically for her, I coerced her a little into it. At the end, I had to choose which design of dress at the tailor’s I most liked, and a couple of practical boots, since her earlier ones weren’t really suited for travel.

I got myself a simple pants and shirt set. I was also thinking about getting some new armor, since the thing I was wearing was pretty damn torn by now, but I decided against it. I think armor is pretty pointless for me, since I learned hardening magic and it is a fair bit more expensive than regular clothes.

Patir was probably the biggest spender, even when he didn’t make any large purchases, nary a day passed without him procuring a snack or a drink he fancied. Unlike Yasia, he gladly spends the money he didn’t work for. I have actually become a little annoyed by his conduct ever since we left the village, but I have suppressed the desire to take it up with him. Patir is pretty old and has much less time than any of my other companions, so even though he gets on my nerves the most, sometimes, I let it slide.

Kassa spent the time training in the courtyard. I had suggested we just take a break and talk a little, but Kassa seemed eager to continually improve herself.

I followed her to the inn’s courtyard, where she had been spending most of her free time. She even got permission from Big Mother to set up some additional equipment.

“Being strong isn’t that important, right? I mean, you have me, the strongest guy in the world on your side.” I tried to convince her. But she merely stopped for a second, before returning to her routines, doing reps with a large barrel filled with water. I think it easily weighed 300 pounds.

“It’s just important to be strong, right? I mean… That’s just the way it is, right?” I wonder if it is her Silvestri instinct or something, but she seemed adamant in doing her practices, so I went to mine.

Around dinner, Patir was already there. I hadn’t noticed when he came back, but over dinner, I shared the issues we had and the offer with him.

“Right…” He chewed a little on a soft piece of meat, before swallowing and continuing. “I’ll go with you tomorrow and we can take a look at the details. And besides, if it’s an escort job, we will probably do well to take it, since you are running out of work here anyway.” He said and continued eating. “If it is somewhere and back, we will just ask if we can do one way, if the client can find an escort back at their destination.” I sighed a little inwardly.

“But… If we have to go slow, I am going to go insane.” Heck, even the ten days it took us travelling along the road to this village were painful.

“Oh, excuse us for being pitiful mortals.” Patir replied and looked pretty offended. I felt bad.

“Sorry, it’s just… When you can make the trip in a day, taking two weeks is really painful.” Dinner ended on somewhat of a sour mine.

That night, I left Yasia alone for the first time in a while. I felt like I had gotten as good as I could at this point with levitation magic and sought to put it into practice for flying, something I couldn’t do inside that small room. I brought Dixy, and once past the city’s gates, I started talking to her.

“You can talk now, Dixy. Been a while, huh?” I started carefully.

“No fault of mine!” She sounded angry. “And what’s with that greeting!? You better give me an apology right this instant.” Well, I had slighted her.

“Right Dixy, I am very sorry… It’s just… I am with these people now and they will be gone some day, but we will always be together…”

“Hmph, always, you say? Don’t you know that there are plenty of beings in this world that could live forever, but they don’t?” Huh? Dixy is talking about something other than magic, words and my relations…

“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t they?” I had some suspicions about Dixy knowing more and be more capable that she gave credit for.

“All beings tire of living someday. Going through the same routines day in and day out for eternity. And at some point, they get so exhausted they just stop… living. They stay still and think and do less and less till there’s nothing left. And once they enter that state, none has ever left it again.” It sounded like the way Hannah left.

“What kind of beings are you talking about?”

“For mortals, there’s dragons, aedals, pinctores, dryads, sards, camilliars, pe-“

“Stop, stop, I don’t even know of these. It doesn’t mean anything to me.” I stopped her rant. However, one being and her phrasing of mortals reminded me of another being.

“What of your god?” I asked her. Silence continued for a while. Was she debating something with herself? Eventually she replied.

“There used to be many gods, and due to the variety of actions they can take when compared to mortals, they lasted quite a long time, but now… There is only one god left.” She sounded almost… sad.

“Hey Dixy?” A number of strange behaviors as of late had left me with a weird question.

“Yeah?”

“Why are you pretending to be less human than you are?” Another period of silence fell.