The silence covering the room continued until Sryine finished her food and returned to include herself in the room. The others might not have anything to speak about, but Sryine wasn’t interested in a false sense of tranquility.

“Vwyx, that was cruel, and you know it! Leaving me in high hopes like that, it practically left me in tears as I struggled to eat every last bite. Now you tell me that dinner is going to be more of the same? Riyxia, why are we being tortured again?” “Before Vwyx tries to say anything about being tortured for information and having us spill all of our secrets, this is actually the regular food available to the Hunters.” “Well then, I can see why so many Hunters flocked to the Cafe, in that case. The cafe was really actually well placed.. ready to receive anyone hungry for actual real food. It just probably didn’t stand out well enough, and people free to visit probably went to places with more than just food to offer, such as the mall. Stuff that stood out better, at least. No wonder we got so many hunters after adding some basic entertainment. .. maybe we should have charged more?” Returning to financial matters was actually enough to distract Sryine from the food she had eaten, giving Riyxia the opportunity to start talking about some of the things the others had missed. She was still unsure if anyone was listening to them, so she only covered things she was expected to know, mostly the entire conversation she had with Ayzherie.

“Wait, that was a leader around here? Really? No one is pulling my leg this time, right?” “Remember, Dhyinze mentioned having a leader with the same name before, while we were doing that mall trip?” “He did? No, I don’t remember this. Did that really happen? Why does even Vwyx not seem surprised? Am I the only one who did not know this?!” “Relax, like I said, I almost didn’t remember either.” “By the divine, no wonder she was flooding me with so many questions.” “Wait, did you tell her anything?” “I told her that questions are free, but answers could cost her. Then I told her we could negotiate prices later, though she seemed inclined to throw in a bunch of questions so that I could be aware of what prices I needed to come up with. Seriously, with the food on hand like that, I thought talking money would put everything into a ‘not going to happen’ category. Hey, do you think we could make some good Qeld with…” Sryine stopped at Riyxia’s serious expression frowning up at her. Sryine took that moment to recall that much of the day’s events had occurred simply in the interest of making some extra money. In that light, they had actually made nothing from either of her two earlier projects, and had instead landed in a pretty complicated situation.

“Oh, well, you always were better at the organized approach.” “I was? Since when?” “Since.. actually, I guess you kinda just picked up on it last night, but haven’t done such since…” “... Since…?” “Well, let’s just say it’s been more than a lunar cycle, and leave it at that.” Sryine’s reflection left Riyxia speechless too. More than a lunar cycle, that could only imply that was how her predecessor had been. Also, it implied she had been unlike her predecessor in this regard, all the time she had neglected such a planned and efficient approach. It explained where such originated for her, and why she might have such a talent for it. After all, they weren’t exactly the same person, but they technically almost were. It was some of the first insight she had been seeking about herself across this entire journey.

“Speaking of long stories, anyone else keeping track of how long we’ve been stuck sitting around here for? No? Me either, though I’m starting to get hungry again. If we’re going to be.. tortured for information until we spill all of our secrets.. and we don’t exactly have room to plan much more than this, maybe it might be time to get things over with. Hiding isn’t going to make things go away, instead that might give us more things to worry about. Just like the food, probably best to just face it and get it over with, so that we can move towards something we might actually like to worry about.” Vwyx was mostly speaking from hunger, but had a good point. The three of them made their way from the room they had been resting in, and returned to where they had been given food. There, they found Ayzherie waiting for them.

“Nice, right in time for dinner. Was pondering if you three would be needing a bit more rest, or if you might be joining us. Of course, dinner won’t be served here. I’ll show you three where we’ve hid the dining hall and which seats will be your own. Please excuse the crowd, the room gets rather full in the worst of times.” Ayzherie led the three girls down the corridors until eventually reaching a large set of doors. Opening the doors lead into a gigantic room, filled with tables and people, even with three other symmetrically placed large doors around the room, one opposite them and the other two flanking it. Everyone in the room wore the same identical uniform, slate charcoal gray with a matching beret. However, there was an assortment of emblems decorating the room, all the same golden stitch, but with its own design. Ayzherie however still had the same winged longbow as they had seen before for an emblem, but in her case it had two white triangles flanking it, with the smallest angle at the top, the inside being a perfect vertical line, and otherwise being reflections of its other. Somehow, this left it appearing like two raindrops to Riyxia. She also found it suspicious that this was nothing like the plain gray Ayzherie had been wearing earlier, an obvious disguise back then or something.

A lot of commotion just settled the moment Ayzherie walked in, the room silently watching its guests take their seats. The table they were being offered was actually really close to the middle of the room. Four unoccupied chairs waited at a table with otherwise familiar faces, including the two hunters they had seen before, the reporter, and the storekeeper of all people. Both hunters were taking this as a bit of a matter of fact, while the other two were visibly uncertain about their meal. They had in fact partaken of their own portions far earlier in the afternoon, having both also missed lunch. Both hunters had missed lunch as well, though they were used to this sort of meal at this point. Food had already been served for everyone, looking like replicas of the food they had just eaten earlier. Ayzherie ensured the three girls found their seats and got their own portions before taking a seat for herself.

“Somehow, this just feels like a fitting way to end a disaster of a day. I can’t believe it.. everything's ruined. My cafe is gone, and now I have nothing left but .. this.” “Like I said, I’m terribly sorry, Hyusziq. While I’m certain you’re thinking of this as our fault, and while I do personally feel there are several of us here who deserve to feel responsible for this problem, accountability would claim that your disaster had natural causes, and that such is the reason why few businesses open near the Irongate bridge.” “Ah, I guess it was inevitable anyway. The Qeld was drying up pretty quick, it was just thanks to these three girls that things were starting to look up. In such circumstances, I might have had better hopes in helping to provide entertainment over food. In fact, I think that little projector box survived the whole ordeal, didn’t it?” The merchant might not have gotten the best of news from Ayzherie, but he’d had a while to think about it. Honestly, his current grumbling was more food related than anything else. A lot of the Hunters in the room were following the same train of thought, catching on to the direction of the conversation.

“Oh, yeah, we could setup that thing in this room, and enjoy some dinner-time entertainment!” “Ah, yes, that would be the.. entertainment.. that had driven away almost the entire defense from the bridge. After putting our guests through such peril with such neglect, how any hunter could even consider the thought is beyond any form of sensibility.” The hunter of the adjacent table went silent at Ayzherie’s casual scolding. The room as a whole started to feel a lot darker in that moment, as every hunter in the room realized they might be in for a rough period soon. Repercussions would still be pending, having their guests present like this was in fact only an introduction to instil the room with a feeling of guilt.

“I’m sorry, really. Making such an instrument was my idea, and because I didn’t think everything through well enough, it caused a huge distraction leading to problems for everyone else. Riyxia was right, I really was making too much of a scene and getting carried away.” “Relax, you did nothing wrong. In fact, I could only thank you for having demonstrated just how lacking our hunters are in proper training, something we should certainly be making good use of over the next set of days. But on the subject of proper training, it seems you three have been making use of some considerable talent without any real training, trying to find a good place to fit in and the like. Strong talents in instrumentation, an ambitious business sense that can come up with creative ideas to deliver practical advantages, and a critical mind with a strong feeling of efficiency and planned design. That’s not even including gifted combat potentials in areas such as material shaping and repairs, textural illusions and invisibility, and even the still not fully explained gifts of your otherwise healer, who even managed to heal herself somehow despite losing consciousness. Such talents are in high demand around here, very valuable, even if unrefined. I mean, as you’ve seen our own have shown they too need some training, so maybe there would be room for a few more in some of the exercises. It would in whole depend on how much we could depend on your conviction to the part, to actually desire a future for yourselves in a place of such high risk, a place designed to secure a future for others, to prevent any more disasters like you had witnessed. I should warn you, nothing here would be ordinary, you had best be ready to achieve the remarkable.” Sryine’s eyes were almost sparkling at the end of Ayzherie’s speech, quite a turn from the guilt she held before it. The room was instead quick to take up that same guilt, realizing that things really were going to get rough.

Riyxia didn’t miss exactly how things had been calculated. The entire groundwork for Ayzherie’s proposal had stemmed from the details she had in fact shared about their past ambitions, presented as a solution that they had been craving this whole time. Vwyx was even balancing out how this opportunity could make the most of her own upbringing in an otherwise unfamiliar environment of a city, while Sryine was considering how skill training would involve learning even more high-demand and valuable financial pursuits. Riyxia however was not so easily convinced. She personally had that side of her that craved the opportunity to help out, to make a difference that bettered all of society, that saved lives even. However, she could also see how everything was carefully constructed bait. It would be up to her to discover the true measure of this offer.

“Well, I wouldn’t say nothing would be ordinary. I’m sorry, while your hospitality is respected, I can’t personally think of food that is more bland than what’s provided. The idea of having more of it every day.. that could only be considered the epitome of ordinary. So something tells me things wouldn’t be so grand as you’re making things sound. It’s rather clear by the atmosphere, there is a strong expectation for excellence, which only makes sense when people's lives could be at stake. I assure you, we aren’t naive to the idea about bringing service to people, and the sort of system and methods that are applied in the process. Things will be done only one way, the way things are expected to be done, with no room for originality. The chain of leadership is absolute, after all. This room rings exemplary of what it could be like every day going forwards.” Riyxia indicated the room around, an organized and cramped setting which was currently resounding silence with a layer of fear. When it came to convincing arguments, Riyxia had a lot more of an advantage with the two girls she knew so much better. Starting with food got both of their attention, but reflecting on some of the least loved parts of their growing up in the village, the lifestyles they had chosen to flee, that hit them even harder than Ayzherie’s original offer. Suddenly, things weren’t looking quite as much of a grand opportunity than it had originally.

“So I heard my associate made an offer to you earlier, for any questions you asked, an answer would come at a price. While your offer to pay for our devotion with lessons might seem nice, I’m certain she’s perfectly aware that such doesn’t have a strong.. profit yield, the costs are still greater than the gains. We talked earlier about how things were appearing a bit reckless with my group, but it seems that you aren’t so ignorant to recklessness yourself. Trying to gain our service with such little information just seems to me as a very high risk gamble, a move I’m reluctant myself to make in reverse. You’ve shared so little about what responsibilities would be expected of us, most of what you would have us do, it would be impossible to properly express our devotion if we didn’t fully grasp what we were to be devoted to. So we should be instead investing upon all the details, clearly defining the agreement you want to form, and with it my companion here will determine a suitable cost for such a project. Please be aware, the final form of this agreement will need to be in writing, and anything missed from such an agreement can not be then expected or enforced. I should warn you, she is very good at fiscal negotiations, so making any undue expectations will merit a suitably substantial increase in costs.” Riyxia at this point had even Ayzherie suddenly off pace and uncertain. Ayzherie had prowess tactically in areas of combat, but Riyxia’s talents extended far beyond such limitations.

“Oh, but certainly we could figure out some measure of suitable deals. Instrumental crafting and repairs, medical support, information research, fundamental gift usage in your respective fields along with combat. It would be all focused entirely on the defense of the city from any beastial threats, just following the simple rules and principles already in place.” “Let me guess, sunrise to dinner, with the occasional day off? Even at 8 days off per lunar cycle, such blind authority, with no personal autonomy, and all the strict expectations.. if you’re expecting something so open, I would say it would cost you 15 thousand, per lunar cycle, per person. That is agreeing to having all of the pay expected at the end of the lunar-cycle, with room to negotiate new pricing at the end of the same period. If you want a longer agreement, I might have to further ramp up the costs, as having such a long term blind devotion would be far harder to guarantee. Annually, I don’t think I could accept anything less than 40 thousand, also paid per lunar cycle and per person.” “You.. that’s..” “It’s insurance of course. Without proper protection, we would only find ourselves as denied of circumstances as our previous cafe owner over here. Some of what you're asking is to put our lives on the line, and I have some pretty important people counting on me to come back to them. Oh, on that matter, I forgot to mention that in the event of our demise, you would still be expected to pay for our continued service for the complete duration that is agreed to, so that there is something to send back in compensation of not being able to return to them. Anything else changed would have to be agreed to by both parties.” Ayzherie was simply speechless, Sryine having utterly destroyed all of her composure. 45 thousand per lunar cycle for the three of them, or almost 1.5 million annually for the three of them. Riyxia managed to hide her smile, it implied that they had some pretty important people backing them up, making any substantial agreement rather challenging. The reporter, also present at the table, did not miss that impression either.

“Ah, yes, well, I wasn’t aware of the.. terms.. of your.. absence. Clearly the enforcement of any expectations would be impossible without the disclosure of any further information, and it appears there isn’t exactly enough grounds of trust to establish enough merit for such a move. Maybe a matter such as this would be best taken in strides. Rather than having any formal expectations now, we should focus on the training by itself, nothing more. This will give us an opportunity to better explore what each of us has to offer, to get a better idea of exactly where your skills and abilities reside after some refinement, and to show you exactly what the others experience in their daily lives as hunters. Maybe exploring such in detail would give enough information to refine your current prices to something more.. rational.” Ayzherie was thus sacrificing any advantage she could gain behind an offer of training simply to find a way to discover the information she was craving so much. As she had phrased it, she was buying trust. Sryine was smiling at this, knowing herself, if left responsible for such, she could have put a pretty nice price on most forms of training, even regardless of the rest of the details. They were really getting free services as a result of this negotiation.

“I just ask one thing of you. If a Beast does appear, please either listen to instructions or withdraw from the conflict completely. Having chaotic elements in such dangerous situations would only increase the risk to our operations. I ask you this for everyone’s safety, including your own.” “That’s a reasonable requirement. By the looks of expression from both of my companions, we seem to be in agreement of your overall request. For now, we should probably simply finish dinner, and try to find accommodations for the night before sunset. Something of this nature would be better to schedule after a good night’s sleep.” “Sunset? That already happened a while ago. We start dinner at around sunset normally, it’s when everyone had started gathering here.” Ayzherie got her turn to surprise Riyxia, who only then realized that they had missed their deadline for booking their room for the night.

The three girls remained fortunate that Ayzherie remained feeling so generous, letting them stay the night in their previous room in order for them to begin with adjusting to the environment right away. As dinner concluded, the three girls returned to their room for the night, somehow once again exhausted.