A hooded figure from across the room held a blade soaked in blood. Of course, I just had to see where she had slit the female ninja with it.

It wasn't the first time I witnessed death right as it was happening, but my mind sure still hasn't adapted and gotten used to it. For that reason, I kept my distance and indulged in the eerie silence that lingered in between. She then looked over to my horrified face and finally spoke.

"Damn it… and here I thought I could interrogate in peace, but then this one came along. Oh well. How convenient it is for me to find a dangerous convict's hideout and put her out of her misery." She turned her back on us.

I did get the idea she was mostly talking to herself.

"Mmm- I shouldn't be staying here for longer. I guess I should just…"

"Th-thank you! Thank you for saving us!!" I interrupted and properly bowed with genuine modesty.

She flinched with my response and turned back in front to face me again. I wonder what that meant.

"W-what did you just say?" She muttered but loud enough for me to hear.

"I just thought of doing what was appropriate for the moment. You really do deserve my thanks." I added.

After hearing what I've said, she shamelessly wiped the stains of blood from both sides of her blade on the cold carcass that was beside her feet.

I heard her giggle at some point. A little conscious of what went on in her mind, I asked:

"Umm… is there… something wrong?"

She composed herself and sheathed the blade back into place.

"Nothing, nothing. I had given it some thought and now I seem to be amused with your innocence. So… you're welcome~" She exclaimed cheerfully. "Wow. I never thought I'd be able to say that to someone ever again."

"What? I think you lost me there…" I replied, slightly tilting my head in confusion.

"N-nevermind." She replied, giggling at my confusion as it seemed.

She then approached me to close the short safe gap that was placed in between. I ended up shaking my legs in fear. I didn't even know why, but I just passively sensed something off from her. I tightened my grip on my staff as I used it to balance my stature and my quivering legs.

She noticed my doubts. The dim light faintly revealed half of her face as she went closer. She seemed to be smiling.

"I'm… making this weird now, aren’t I? Hahaha…" She said jokingly.

I looked over to Starflake- she looked as if she’s already anticipating a nasty move. Then, I looked back to my mysterious savior… who was already in front of me. I was startled the moment I turned to face her. The shadows covering half her face still lingered.

"Don't worry about it too much. I'm not trying to be a threat. Although I may look a lot like one." The hooded figure said softly. "I'm not exclusively here for you or anything so loosen up, will you?"

Without saying anything else, she then offered me something. She reached out with an item in her hand. It was the relic that the ninja woman was trying to keep. I hesitated to take it. She sighed impatiently and ended up tossing it over to me instead. I caught it at the last second. Caught by surprise, I even juggled it in my attempts to not let it meet the floor.

"Here’s proof of my interest in you. I'm pretty sure you'll need that more than me. So take it… We just met once and I… already like-- actually, that's too much info. I have this weird feeling that I'd be running into you again someday. Promise that you'll remember me when that happens?" She added.

Promise? Seriously, that's asking way too much of me; but I wasn't too indifferent to disappoint this hooded and presumably dangerous woman. I was already thinking too far ahead that she might do something I'd regret if I wouldn't stay on her good side. Whatever that side even was supposed to be.

"Might you have a name? You know– to umm… remember you better." I tried to stray away from her question, being involved with a stranger who seemed to have taken so much interest in me.

The situation would've ended up getting even more awkward if this hooded figure was a guy. Just saying it now.

"That's information that I'll have to keep secret!- for now… then again, I would dearly have to ask you to keep your little mouth shut about what happened here. You see… I'm quite 'popular' in the land already. Maybe too popular. I do get that you're confused, and I'm kind of… sorry for that but I can't talk about that right now… maybe only… until we meet again." She replied, turning her back at me letting her cloak sway with the wind under it, merging into the shadows of the darkest corner of the room. "… so don't forget about me~"

I noticed something note-worthy before she left. She actually had made a silhouette of… a tail? That should be safe for me to assume she was a half-human. But after realizing that that realization doesn't really benefit me in any way, I shook my head clear. I just gave the whole area one last grimacing look and left it. I went back through the same tunnel and away from that scene, as quickly as possible. I still couldn't get my mind over what just happened there.

"Was she trying to mess with me? Wanted something from me? Wanted… a friend maybe?" I thought to myself as I carefully crawled back to our original location while minding the relic that I held with my free left hand.

I have no idea what went on inside her head. At the very least, even if I can put that memory at the back of my head, for now, I won't be able to forget that she helped me back there… as unintentional as it may be.

Maybe I just missed something, but isn’t that to be expected with first meet-ups with strangers?

Anyway, Aria was already back at our first room meeting when I came back. I then hurried to meet up with her. She seemed to have had a disappointed look on her face.

"Well, that was pretty disappointing." Annoyed, Aria muttered. "As I was taking observations for anything the place can give me to note about, all I ever found were traps. Whoever placed them underestimated me, though. None of them activated due to my natural icy aura. But… even after giving a thorough investigation of the room, I was in, I've found nothing good at all! Ughh!"

I chuckled nervously and tried calming her down.

"I-it's okay! Don't be so hard on yourself. I think I might have found something to compensate for that." I stopped midway after realizing something just then. "Uh… Clyde isn't back yet?" I asked.

She shook her head as a response.

"I haven't seen him. It's already been several minutes. What could possibly have his attention now?"

I started to get worried about what he might be in for there. I got the room with the actual "client" in it. Aria found a room filled with traps. Who knows what else the tunnel he took had to offer!

We both decided to follow the tunnel that was on the left side. Surprisingly, it was just a normal, narrow hallway; it's almost as if it was a… dormitory? It hosted three doors, one on each wall: one from the left, right, and across the hallway. We heard a gradually intensifying and prolonged scream from a guy, coming from the far left door. My worries escalated as soon as that screaming came to an abrupt stop and into a thud of… ruffling fabric? I didn't check if the door itself was unlocked or not. I immediately went to blast the door open with light magic to quickly check on what was going on from inside.

The place was dusty by default so blasting magic anywhere provoked that dust to fly off into clouds of smoke.

"Clyde!-" I stopped myself midway upon witnessing something after the smoke cleared.

It was something… unnerving.

I saw him under a heaping pile of women's underwear. I also saw him with a particular outlandish undergarment held in one of his hands.

"Yep… this has got to be the one to degrade my image of him."

He takes in a couple of seconds and blankly comes to realize we were both staring at him. His face just lit a bright red all over.

"I-its-s not w-w-what it l-looks-s like!" He mumbled terribly in embarrassment.

Then upon realizing he still held on to a pair of panties while rushing an excuse, he quickly threw it away and hopped out of the pile quickly regained his upright position. He looked awfully concerned at me as I instinctively tried to stretch down the bottom part of my skirt with both hands.

"Hey! I'm tellin' you… i-It's not like that! I'm no desperate pervert!!" He pleaded.

Then Aria stepped inside. Her face didn't change as she sequentially looked toward the undergarment pile, then to me, then to Clyde. She giggled, then chuckled, and ended up flat-out bursting into laughter.

"I didn't even c'mere on my own! The rooms s-suddenly shifted and I somehow got thrown into this room! Y-ya' gotta' believe me!!" He pleaded again.

I noticed Starflake moving closer towards him, fixing her focused gaze. After a few seconds, she turned to me and gave me a solid and cheerful nod.

"At least someone believes me! Umm… what's yer name again?" Clyde uttered in relief and patted Starflake.

I still wasn't sure how to react to that so I tried tugging Starflake back to me. The moment I did though, Starflake lit up, along with both hands that laid on her (his patting and my supposed pulling). Then a memory unexpectedly played. Mesmerized by what was going on, I forgot to move my hand away and watched as the memory played itself out (even Aria abruptly shut herself up as soon as she noticed that she too was dragged into the memory rift).

~

Clyde was walking toward a narrow hallway. He seemed to be searching for something.

"Now if I were treasure… where'd I hide ma'self?" He chanted to himself while scanning around the area.

Then all of a sudden, the floor disappeared and the walls rearranged instantly. He fell towards a seemingly empty void. He yelled for his life and stopped only after crashing into the pile of underwear, headfirst. With one hand, he grasped for something to help him get up, only to see a very uniquely designed undergarment in one of his hands as he sat down. I can't say for certain what he was thinking while this happened. He raised it up and extended it in the air slowly. He seemed to have indulged at the moment but immediately became aware of it as soon as we found him with me bursting through the door. Then the memory ended.

~

"So that's what the female ninja talked about when she mentioned 'too preoccupied to help'." I stared blankly at one corner as I thought.

"Ehrr… I didn't even know she could do this. That's pretty cool!" Clyde said with an unconventional smile.

It was obvious that he was shifting the topic away from his case. Can’t say that didn’t work, though.

"Same here. For all I thought, she could only do that through her own memories and stuff." I followed with genuine surprise.

The fact that she's capable of showing memories other than her own is really really great to know. At the very least, I had my assurance that Clyde's panty escapades were just an accident.

Then all of a sudden a tremor was felt. The cave rumbled and I guess I wasn't the only one who sensed something bad was going to happen if we stayed there.

"Let's get out of here. There's nothing more to be done here anyway." I said.

"Gotcha…" He replied while he quietly sheathed his greatsword back into place.

"I sure wish I knew which thoughts entered your head while you raised those panties intentionally~"

Aria gave a smug smile while furrowing an eyebrow at him.

He flinched and replied bitterly with an unforeseen blush on his face.

"H-hey!! It was all an accident! Aaaaah! J-just shut yer trap!!” He averted his gaze and angrily went off.

But before he left completely, I saw Aria gracefully inserting one certain pair of panties into one of his many pockets. It didn't take a while before she caught me looking at what she did. I flinched, but she only giggled quietly and put one pointer finger over her lips while she mischievously smiled at me. I didn't know how to follow up with that so I just slowly nodded, all while keeping my silence. I wondered what that was supposed to be for, but like all things I shouldn't be focusing on now, I pushed the thought at the back of my mind.

After that, we went outside and began trekking our way home.

But I then realized it was already at the dead of night and navigation was becoming way too hard to do.

After recalling passing by a certain town earlier, an idea popped into my head from my uncertainty. We didn't pass by any town after leaving the underground ruins just yet, though.

"Hey, guys? Shouldn't we stop for an inn or something?" I asked.

"Uhhh sure- just as long as I'm not the one who's paying…" Aria replied.

"But I didn't bring any gilzeron on me. I ain't payin' for anythin'!" Clyde followed.

Both then immediately locked their glinting eyes on me. I mentally panicked as I replied immediately.

"I don't even have any Gil, to begin with. I'm pretty much- was relying on the income for this one… supposedly." I replied sadly.

"If only we've found something- well… anything to sell. I'm sorry…" Aria said in dismay.

I suddenly went over the thought that I held a mysterious relic. But since the mission was a total bust, I wouldn't know what it's worth. Maybe I should try asking about it to people more knowledgeable on stuff like it, or test what it even does, all before selling it for any kind of price. Most probably, I should consider throwing it away. It is a dead man's relic after all… well, dead woman’s.

We went over a few moments of silence from our situation.

"We betta' get a move on then. It is night. So always be on your guard from this point on." Clyde directed all of us.

"Of course! But we need to be extra careful!" I replied.

That part was mostly to me but still, it was a fair warning for the others. I have zero experience with operations at night, and I just realized all that, while I was walking behind them. Not to mention I'm a little afraid of the dark. Good thing I have Starflake for that now. Scratch that– it's a good thing that I wasn’t alone anymore!

…

An hour or so after leaving the forest and walking, while feeling uneasy, I called their attention for reassurance.

"Hey, guys?"

Both turned to face me.

"Are you guys sure we're going the right way?" I asked with the same uncertainty as earlier.

"I'm pretty sure we didn't turn in any other direction besides going straight… didn't we?" Aria replied with an unsure look.

"Even if ya' say that we just went straight, we still might as well have to keep goin'. We don't have much'uva choice at this point an’way." Clyde added, following it with a sigh.

With obviously unsure expressions, we both just nodded.

Then all of a sudden, tremors came; the same ones we felt at the underground ruins. The uneasy feeling just got worse.

An ominously long howl from the distance was all we heard, after being rattled by small tremors. It immediately confirmed what we were about to encounter.

Yep. There was no mistaking it. It was a [Great Wolf]. The area we were in was an open field. There were no places to hide. Our only way through was to attack.

"Finally! A real enemy to cut down with my sword!" Clyde exclaimed as he unsheathed his greatsword with a serious grin stretching across his face. His greatsword glowed a striking red aura. "I've been waiting for this all day!"

"Don't get too excited. We didn't come here just for these." Aria rolled her eyes and gathered her icy aura. Her hair and her cape swayed with all the magic she was manipulating. Not to mention her entire person lit up an eerie shade of pale blue.

I immediately stared at both of them with concern. Not because they seemed to be fighting again, but because I was concerned with myself– how I am to show that I am in league with them or just having any use for them; that I can be confident to show what I can do for once. I felt more nervous by the second… and the monster hadn't even shown itself.

Starflake nudged me gently. I could tell she was aware of me and my nervousness. I was able to breathe normally. At least for her, I can try toughening myself up.

I suddenly thought of doing my best chuunibyou act yet… all just to trick the fear that dwells inside me, so I did. I know I'm in a fantasy world so why am I still even doubting it??

I twirled my staff like the pro that I (wishfully) was, then gripped with full strength. I let my free arm sway with the motion. I ended with a forceful slam with my cape swaying behind my back, flowing through the cold, night breeze. The head of the staff lights up with a certain intensity. I added my opening statement to wrap it up.

"The light always conquers. The light always shines. Fear be destroyed by my light… dare to challenge the might that conquers all evil!" I said and raised my voice with the last part.

With that said, my staff lit up and I was ready to cast at any given moment. We heard the wolf howl again. It seemed closer. I wondered why it kept on doing that.

"Wolves howl because of…" I muttered to myself.

Multiple howls confirmed my assumption. By the time the Great Wolf arrived in the area, it also had brought other inferior [Wolf] underlings near and below it. Along with the presence of the mobs, came a disturbing streak of silence as all of us exchanged threatening glares at each other. Aria decided to whisper an idea…

"We should devise a quick plan to…"

… only to get interrupted with Clyde, charging at them with only one clear path of action: Attack.

"Or that! Let's go with that!" She continued with a look of utter disbelief.

She then proceeded to back up Clyde with her powerful ice magic.

With doubts in mind, I immediately grit my teeth, forced a smile to bury those said thoughts, then followed them into battle, with Starflake hovering beside me

————

It wasn't much of a special battle though. My party members were too damn overpowered (that being said, they did almost all of the actual battle)! The wolves were literally just one swing to Clyde's greatsword. Along with his [Sword Technique], his attacks were twice as formidable. They were agile but most of them were held in place with Aria's [Grand Freezing Field] while the ones who do manage to escape end up getting slowed down by the sheer cold.

What was I doing in the middle of all that, you might ask? Weeeell…

I was in charge of keeping the Great Wolf in check. Well- not "in charge" but I just voluntarily stepped in to do it. I stunned it over and over again with my light magic. It seemed to work so I called that "helping them". It was kind of boring, but who was I to judge? Hey– I did "something" at least.

"The second thing this staff did after bursting an innocent door down, is this…? Oh well…"

Clyde was being too carried away with culling the small monsters. Aria was also enjoying it while she let herself loose and gracefully used her ice magic. Both of them seemed so… happy. I wouldn't want to ruin their moment of freedom, so I just let them.

After averting my attention from the Great Wolf– with me admiring their moment of happiness, I just turned back to realize I wasn't actually hitting anything anymore.

"I seriously need to learn how to keep my attention to just one thing…"

I heard a soft snarl and then thick slobber dribbled down on my head. I didn't bother to check what disgusting thing might have caused it, and I took small and quiet steps forward.

It was too late for me though- the wolf reached its head down and already locked its jaw onto my cape. Then as soon as I noticed, I found myself gradually suspending mid-air.

"L-l-let me go!! Put me down!!" I cried loudly.

It was no use. I struggled from its grasp. I only made my situation worse by doing so.

It flung me up and down, then from side to side vigorously.

"HEEEEEEEEELLLLP!!" I screamed in frustration.

I was gradually getting dizzy from the sudden motions. But before that completely took into effect, I directly struck the wolf's face with light magic. It flinched, opened its jaws, and dropped me.

I landed with a roll. It wasn't all bad and I didn't take much damage for that. I recovered quickly and frantically searched for Starflake. I didn't know if she bailed out on me or just got generally separated from me. I instead came to see the Great Wolf turning its attention away from me and shifting onto Aria and Clyde, who were ganging up against it after successfully slaughtering all its underlings from earlier. It howled mightily again. Its howl seemed to have summoned yet another pack of wolves. It was a pack that was so large in numbers that I couldn't count at first glance.

"You've got to be kidding me! It's not even fighting us directly!" Aria complained while preparing another spell of ice magic.

"This one's got spirit– I like it!!" Clyde followed with a pumped-up expression.

"I don’t think that’s good news for us… at all!" She replied, verbally annoyed at Clyde and their situation.

But as soon as I stood up, the Great Wolf noticed me. It suddenly barked happily, despawned its underlings, and wagged its tail in delight. It confused Aria and Clyde, but an immediate thought came to my mind.

I don't think I want to dwell on that… it "wagged its tail in delight". I know that detail because I supposedly love dogs and the message they convey with their tails.

I only thought of doing what was necessary for the moment.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!! GET AWAY FROM MEEE!!" I screamed as I ran for my life, knowing that I abruptly became its target of interest.

It barked proudly and happily while it was prancing towards me over the open field under the moonlight. With that, landing my Triple Light Beam would be close to impossible, given its enhanced agility. I was already panicking, and all I set to do to defend myself was "just running".

It leaped over me and landed in front of me to block my path. It wagged its powerful tail, which caused mini tremors that made me fall out of balance. The wolf almost made itself seem like it was just an ordinary, domestic dog. While I sat motionlessly, I didn't really know which emotion to follow. Well, at least I was positive that it liked me… for some reason.

"Nice W-w-wolf." I stuttered as I reached my hand for its head.

It willingly leaned its head over and my palm found the top of its head. It lessened my fears… and then came my out-of-place sense of curiosity again.

Seconds after, Aria and Clyde immediately called out to me. It alerted the wolf and interrupted our moment of silence. So it stood up and snarled loudly at them.

It seemed too comfortable when it was just with my presence so I came to a quick, general conclusion.

"Wait! I don't think it wants to hurt me. Or anyone at all! Just try not to look like a threat!" I tried to explain.

Aria picked up on my idea quickly and made her ice aura subside and raised her hands slightly over each of her sides as a gesture of surrender. It accepted her sign of peace by grunting and nodding once at her general direction. Clyde, for some reason, didn't comply and still tightly held onto his greatsword, keeping it drawn. The wolf ignored Aria, then approached Clyde slowly and continued snarling in dominance.

Aria just noticed Clyde not doing anything. She then charged towards Clyde while shouting at him with a loud and irritated voice:

"Just put the damn weapon away!!"

I didn’t know why, but she seemed to have tripped over something, and came in too fast, then consequently bumped and stumbled over Clyde. From the distance, she seemed like she fell over him, in a literal sense, and was balancing herself over him.

"Well… that's one way to disarm someone." I thought as I stared at them.

The wolf tilted its head to the right and seemed intrigued with what they were doing and then unexpectedly reverted its attention back to me.

In a few moments, it was the same situation with the Great Wolf in front of me. It dove its big head in front of me. I flinched and closed my eyes for a few seconds. Nothing happened, so I opened my eyes to see the wolf still lowering its head, bowing before me as it seemed.

"W-what?" I asked the wolf, sheepishly.

The wolf turned to its side and laid down on its belly with me just beside its right side. I asked what to confirm what it wanted me to do.

"You want me… to get on you?"

The wolf turned to face me, closed its eyes, and gave me a brief nod. It gave me an impression of a gentleman the first time I saw it. What else was I supposed to do in that situation anyway? The thought in itself shocked me though; it being seemingly feral to domestic, just like that. So I did what the Wolf wanted. I hopped onto its neck and when it raised its head, it slightly repositioned me onto its upper back. Then I felt something doing the same to me (something hopped onto my head)…

"Oh! Starflake!… where have you been!?" I looked up addressing her in a scolding manner.

She innocently looked confused. Her face just made it so hard to stay frustrated with her. I immediately dismissed my doubts. I just reached the top of my head to give her a gentle rub.

"You owe me an explanation later," I mention with a sigh.

I sequentially placed both of my hands on the top of the wolf's head. It felt like fine silk. Too well managed to be a wild animal. I tugged on it to call its attention (doing so definitely didn’t give me any feeling of satisfaction or anything).

"I don't want to leave my friends behind. Wherever you seem to want to bring me, they’ll have to come along too!" I said sincerely, looking into its left eye as it leaned its head over to the left side to look at me, attentively listening to me as it seemed.

It understood me pretty well. My proof for that was that it walked right back over to where it left Aria and Clyde. When we arrived- I just came to see Aria standing next to him, with a burning blush extending on both her cheeks. Aria cleared her face by pacing her breathing upon noticing me arrive (These two really have been really awkward with each other for this entire journey so far and I'm pretty sure they’re expecting me not to know what’s going on *=u=). Clyde also noticed me and immediately apologized.

"I know… I'm an idiot. Sorry…"

"I-it's alright. Just get on the Great Wolf. I could only guess it went here explicitly just to take me somewhere." I said.

"Am I wrong to say that the thought seems a little… sketchy?" Aria followed.

"Well- it sure beats stayin' out here! Any place that could help us last through the night is fine by me." Clyde replied. "But I'm not saying that you guys should think the same way. I'm pretty much out of options to keep going…"

"Then… let's just get it over with," Aria demanded from the wolf.

The wolf complied and laid back down for both of them to reach where I was currently sitting. Aria was behind me, and Clyde was at Aria's back. As soon as they'd reached their proper seating, the wolf stood back up and howled. I then held onto its neck.

"I do hope you know what you're doing." She said almost in a whisper (but not quite enough). "These types of Wolves are said to be of great significance after all."

"I actually… don't," I whispered with the hint of nervousness.

She sighed but smiled right at me as a response.

"Well. If things end up badly- let's just work together to make things right."

I nodded with a small smile back.

There were too many questions to be asked about what just happened and what was to happen. All I hoped before the Great Wolf started sprinting towards the mist that formed in the distance, was for things to be okay even when we're already there—

wherever it may be… and whatever or whoever we may meet.