Meste, the leader of the beastkin party sat with the rest of his party in the Adventurer’s Guild. They had gotten a pretty nice haul from the balaboor parts and had decided to lay off for a while. Before the incident, they were on the verge of becoming a B rank party.

The ranking system across all guilds ran the same: F -> E -> D -> C -> B -> A -> S. Though there could be a lot of disparity of power in parties of the same rank, B rank and above parties were respected a lot more than the lower ranks. The balaboor subjugation had been more than enough to push theirs to new heights and now each of them wore a new tag around their necks indicating their new positions in the hierarchy.

They had decided to use the money to buy better equipment and items, and use the rest to live their lives comfortably for a while before they had to go back to do more jobs. They would meet here, in the guild common area, for an hour or two, collecting information and discussing various stuff before they left to go off galavanting again, spending their newly earned cash lavishly. But before they could disperse today, an expected situation arose.

"Meste.. it's him.."

Poochi, the ranger, looked beyond her leader's head dumbfounded. The rest of the party turned around and immediately understood what she meant.

The reason for their newly earned status came to greet them in the same robe, just more worn out.

The leader stood up, facing the man he only knew the race of.

(What does this human think he’s doing, walking in the beastmen’s adventurer guild!?)

Then he remembered the one-hit K.O. to the balaboor.

*gulp*

It was probably the guild that was in danger and not the human in front of him. The human had somehow figured out that they were here at this time and single-handedly picked them in the large guild area. Admittedly, there was not a lot of crowd as most parties had left for their respective quests but it was still worth noting that this man should have never been here before. Or in fact, he could have. What did the party even know of this mysterious man that they found in the woods? Other than the fact that he was strong, the leader only knew that he was a human. And the rest of the party did not even know that.

“You guys wait here.”

The wolf-man leader announced to his party and motioned for the robed man to lead the way out.

“Wait!”

The rabbit-ranger woman shouted before Meste could even take a single step.

“Take us with you.”

The ranger’s face was pale.

As the leader was about to speak, he was interrupted once again as a robed hand pointed towards the rat mage and motioned him to follow.

“You need something from me?”

The mousekin pointed at himself surprised.

“Why does he want Rovango!?”

*slam*

“Calm down Poochi!”

Meste glared at his companion who was causing a commotion in the guild. The last thing he needed was this man's identity be revealed after everyone had seen them be familiar with him.

Meste scratched his ear.

"Rovango, come with me. You two stay here."

"Understood."

At their leader's command, all three nodded and the rabbit woman reluctantly agreed.

The mage got up and followed the two men out.

Meste observed their mystery saviour. Poochi was too wary of this guy and she was their ranger; a rabbitkin known to have one of the best ears among the beastkin races.

(I've at least signalled them to keep on their toes.)

The scratch on the ear was their party's signal to tell the others to be careful if ever in a situation where one couldn't speak.

The robed man led the two beastmen into a back alley, behind a building where a ferretwoman awaited. Even though he knew he had no chance against the man, Meste was just a twitch away from drawing the sword at his back and shouting at Rovango to run away.

"Umm.. I'm Feriana. You two are acquaintances of Satoshi?"

The ferretwoman called Feriana introduced herself to the men.

"Satoshi?", the wolfman asked back.

"Satoshi.", the robed man replied back.

The wolfman was taken aback. He had indeed initially doubted whether their unplanned companion was indeed deaf and dumb but he accepted it when he didn't react to anything they said and didn't say anything during their entire journey together.

"Umm.. he doesn't speak our tongue.."

Feriana turned meek as she wasn't sure of how to deal with the situation and grabbed Satoshi's robe from behind.

"A beastman who doesn't can't talk in our language?"

"..Any more than that is unnecessary."

At his partner's enquiry towards the ferretgirl, the wolfman spoke.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss Feriana. I'm Meste and this is Rovango. We are adventures and were saved by 'Satoshi' from a balaboor."

"Whooooaaaaa! You defeated a balaboor!?"

Feriana ignored the wolfman's courteous introduction and turned to the man beside her with sparkly eyes.

(She seems to be quite close to him even though they cannot communicate. I wonder what exactly their relationship is.)

Meste studied the two people in front of him.

(At least, it doesn't seem like it'll come to a fight.)

Meste smiled internally at the grown woman's child-like behaviour.

"In one hit.", he added.

"Whhhhhhaaaaaaaa!!!!!! As expected of my saviour!!!"

Feriana hugged Satoshi's armed tightly, happily rubbing her cheeks against Satoshi's shoulder.

"Hey boss."

Rovango called out to Meste in a small voice.

"Hmm?"

"Can I blast him with a fireball?"

Meste looked to his comrade amused.

"Which one do you think will happen first, you finishing that chant or him pulverizing your bones?"

"Tch."

Meste was internally glad that the ferretwoman's presence made the environment lively.

"Feriana."

Spoke the robed man finally. As she separated from him, he pointed to her body and then towards then other men, specifically the ratkin.

"Fuu.."

Feriana let out a breath to calm herself.

"Your name is Ravango?

"Ah, um, yes.”

Rovango was taken aback by the sudden change in her demeanour.

“Are you a healer?"

“I am a fire mage but I can also do some healing.”

"Can you heal scars?"

"..I cannot."

"Then.. Can you at least heal his arms?"

As the ratkin shook his head to show indicate his inability to cure scars, she grabbed Satoshi's arm and rolled back his sleeve. The bandage she had done the previous night came into view.

"I should be able to do something about that."

Satoshi nudged Feriana to inquire further.

"Do you.. know anyone who can heal scars?"

She asked again as the two men made covered the few steps worth of distance between the two parties.

"Just to be sure, what kind of scars are we talking about?"

"Whip marks. As old as 8 years."

The ratkin who had reached Satoshi and was taking off the bandage to inspect the wound halted and looked at the ferretgirl surprised.

"As I said, he's my saviour. Any more than that, I'm sorry but I'd rather not say."

Feriana made a polite bow in apology.

"I understand, miss. And I'm sure I can take you to some people in the mage's guild who specialise in healing and are able to heal scars, even ones as.. peculiar as the ones you mentioned."

Rovango started on Satoshi's wound again.

"I can't say about the exact amount since I'm not a part of the Healer's division but it's going to be very expensive."

"...I don't think he cares."

Rovango did not add any follow-up remarks and proceeded to heal Satoshi.

"Oh, signore di curazione. Amabilmente prestite a vostra forza in modu chì questu idiota chì si fece feritu pò esse up è novu."

A green light emitted from Rovango’s hand hovering over Satoshi’s wounds. Over the course of a minute, the wound slowly closed up, leaving not a mark behind. He proceeded to do the same on the other hand.

“All done.”

Rovango declared the conclusion of the healing and wiped the sweat off his brows.

“Thank you.”

Feriana bowed in gratitude and Satoshi just nodded his head.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s the least I can do for the man who saved our asses and helped raise our reputation at the same time. So when do you need to see a healer for the scars?”

Feriana looked at Satoshi and remembered him asking her to collect all the coins in the house.

“Is it okay now?”

“It should be okay. Well then, kindly follow me. Are you going to join, boss?”

Rovango turned to his leader.

“I will.”

Meste answered without hesitation. There was a small chance that ‘Satoshi’ could be revealed a human and he had to be there to pull the unknowing Rovango out of whatever goes down.

Hence, three people, a ferretwoman, a wolfman, and a robed man of unknown origin walked down the streets led by a ratkin.

----------------------

Meanwhile, Satoshi...

(I have no idea what the fuck they're all saying!)