Managing to return back to the town with no other incidents, Cassandra and I went to the guild to report the mission a success. I'm met with the forever mischievous grin of Garth at the door, as if he knew I would return. Seeing Cassandra move to the desk, I follow her and end up receiving payment, 30 coppers, enough to get a meal and room for a night or two.

*Contract Complete: The Apothecary

Rewards: Healing Ointment

I look for Cassandra but find she has made a quick escape. I hear a stifled laugh to my side and see Garth once again there.

"You have pretty bad luck with women don't you? I mean she practically ran out of here."

I frown at the bluntness of his words and choose to ignore him and leave to look for an inn.

"Wait a minute! I didn't mean it I swear, i'm sure your great with women!"

I grit my teeth and feel a vein bulge on my forehead as I look towards him, a dark glint in my eye.

"Now that's a scary look, sorry if I hit a sore spot but I was just gonna recommend an inn to you, it's the same one my company uses." I nod as he leads me out of the hall and towards the inn he was talking about, it had an odd name, 'The Scarlett Paradise'.

Upon entering, a cheers resound through the room. The modestly sized inn is packed with mercenaries of all shapes and sizes, all with the insignia of a sun burning brightly. Between the tables run maids with varying features, catering to the needs of the large party. Garth immediately joins the fray, seeming to know everyone by name as he happily takes drink after drink from them. Realizing he won't be any help in finding a room, I look around and find a lone old man, the only calm one in the whole room cleaning glasses off to the side.

Squeezing my way past the men barring my way, I take a seat next to him and wait for him to finish cleaning. He looks over to me,

"I assume Garth dragged you here to get a room right?"

"Yes sir, I only got to the city today and Garth paid for me to get in, so I owe him one." He only smiles in response.

"Well that's nothing new I suppose, most of the company is made up of people he just picked up off the street. I guess you could say they're all his kids, one big family."

I look over among the crowd and see Garth enjoying himself with the others. Them laughing together makes me wonder what my own family is doing right now, my eyes gloss over at the thought of them at my funeral, leaving my mother and sister by themselves was heart wrenching, I couldn't even savor the feeling before I was forcibly calmed down.

"Well then kid, how about you hand over a few coppers for the room and chat with me a little bit. Those hooligans probably forgot all about little old me anyways so it's nice to have some company."

"Sure, I don't really think I'd fit in with all the racket over there anyways."

So the night turned short and I talked the night away with the old barkeep. I found out his name was Ed, and he used to be a Mercenary before he retired. He told me stories of his many adventures, of wars he'd fought in, the bloody battlefields, the people he'd met, and even an encounter with an S class, though he only saw from a distance. Though when I told him about my repeated run ins with wolves recently, his eyes got sharp, almost scarily, before they turned back to normal.

"You might want to be more careful around that forest. If my instinct is right, a monster may have been spawned. It's not often that you see wolves attack people so desperately unless something is taking away their food supply."

"I'll remember that next time I go out, but I don't really know what a monster is in the first place."

"I'm not surprised considering their rare around here. Think of it as a mutated animal, though it doesn't always have to be an animal. Anything can end up a monster depending on what it did while it was alive. When things die, they release their spirits back into the world and are recycled, monsters reject that cycle, and usually go mad in the process. All they want is to preserve themselves by taking the spirits from anything it see's. So if you find one, you should run, not even Garth would fight one carelessly."

Nodding my head in understanding, we make some more small talk until eventually, weariness overtakes me after the long day, I get the key to my room and part ways with the rambunctious group to return to a blissful sleep, wondering what else this new life has in store.