‘’The sewers, how?’’ Clous asked Hiona as he listened to the sound of the rain running on the rails. ‘’And why do you always wait until now to explain this, master? It’s not productive, if you haven’t noticed,’’ he added, slightly under his breath. ‘’See, the way to get the blood pumping is to annoy your companions until their blood starts to pump and boil in rage!’’ She explained in her own way, unsurprisingly talking about Clous specifically. ‘’Master Hiona, I wanted to ask this a while ago, but why are you doing this; trying to get out blood pumping?’’ Yohiro asked, flipping through the pages of a picture book given to him by Bernie, specifically without any words. Bernie imagined it would be a good practice in understanding context through visuals, and Yohiro also couldn’t read. That was also a factor. ‘’Because, young one, ‘a warrior with hot blood is the strongest warrior of them all,’ is what I’ve heard somewhere before!’’ She smiled, wagging her finger in front of his face, sitting beside him to the left and Rosa sitting to the right, with Clous across the three of them.

‘’You seem to have forgotten, but we’re not warriors; we’re thieves and murderers…,’’ Rosa tilted her head towards Yohiro and Hiona, since she had been looking the other way, dozing off since she stayed up late, drinking red wine so she could push away the stress from having to attack the castle of the king himself. ‘’All of that aside, yes, we’ll be traveling through the castle’s sewage system this time, following the map I drew yesterday in my free time,’’ she pulled a folded piece of paper from the pocket of the unsurprisingly tight pants she was wearing, which were accentuating her thigh line and the rest of her legs, paired up with the black dull-green colored jacket she was wearing under the black robe, which of course made her invisible to people who had never been in contact with the material it was made out of.

The other three gathered around their master, taking a peek at the map, confused to find an elaborate map, describing the entire composition of the sewage system of the castle. ‘’Why...do you know this layout, also, you’re good at drawing,’’ Clous looked up at her with suspicion.

‘’I’ve been to the castle before, unlike you plebs, i’m more experienced than you can imagine, kiddies,’’ she mocked the three of them, frustrating Rosa and Clous, and motivating Yohiro who quickly went back to looking at the picture book, letting out the occasional ‘’Ooh’’ and ‘’Wow’’ as he flipped through the pages. ‘’We’ll be sticking together for this one. But believe me when I say this, and i’m serious, the chances of dying are so fucking high, you better have a shield spell memorized by the time we get there.’’ She said without even flinching, filling the two of them with fear as she pointed at the map with her pinkie finger. ‘’We’re gonna enter through here, then proceed through this passage before getting to the hatch leading to the first floor,’’ she began explaining, giving them an elaborate visual show as well, running her finger along the map, while her eyes concentrated on Yohiro, who was listening to everything with concentration in spite of his ignorant appearance.

‘’We’ll be arriving soon, so prepare yourselves, you three. Ponchos might be necessary if it turns out bad, so i’m going to repeat: don’t get caught and protect your teammates while you’re at it,’’ she told them, staring them with narrowed eyes in a way that made her look like she hadn’t slept for a long period of time, minus the bags under the eyes. ‘’Got it, master!’’ Rosa raised her hand unwillingly, gulping loudly followed by an annoyed raise of Clous’ own hand, no words spoked. ‘’Good, now sit down until we make it there; you might need the rest for this, after all,’’ Hiona warned them, proceeding to lay her head on Yohiro’s shoulder right next to her, whispering something quietly in his ear as she began to doze off, causing for his eyes to twitch in a sudden motion, continuing to scan his book as Rosa picked up the map from Hiona’s hands, folding it three times before putting it in her own pocket. ‘’Hey Yohiro, what’cha reading?’’ Clous tried to talk to the concentrated boy, seeing as he hasn’t been very communicative to the boy, which wasn’t new for the sly fox, but for some reason he felt it necessary. ‘’Oh, it’s this really interesting book, Clous!’’ Yohiro turned his head, raising the book’s cover, revealing the title ‘’Every Step To Building A Gun From Scratch,’’ smiling as he did. ‘’What the fuck is that gun maniac trying to do here…?!’’ Clous thought to himself, turning around and sitting on his previous spot, giving up on talking to Yohiro and leaving him saddened.

The train arrived at its destination in a few, seemingly quick hours. Rosa, Yohiro and Hiona were fast asleep at that point, leaving the job of waking them up to the more than capable of staying awake Clous. He was lost in thought, ‘’Will I fail like last time,’’ ‘’Will I not be strong enough,’’ ‘’Will...they get hurt?’’ But those thoughts quickly faded away as the loud screech of the train stopping reached his ears, along with the voice through the intercom. ‘’We have arrived at the 1st district. I repeat; we’ve arrived at 1st district! Please depart from the train as quickly as possible if this is your stop. Thank you. ‘’ Clous jumped off his seat, walking over to the three of them. He could’ve poked them and woke them up, but… ‘’Ah-hem… YOHIRO IS GETTING SHOT AT BY THE KING’S MOST ELITE OF SOLDIERS THIS VERY MOMENT!’’ Clous yelled loudly, not even being able to react as he blinked, finding the Hiona’s hand next to his neck, the tip of a knife she held in her hand at that moment poking it. By the time he realised what had occured, wind kicked in after Hiona’s quick movement, causing Clous to shake to the point of almost vomiting from the murderous aura he felt around him. Rosa and Yohiro opened their eyes, along with Hiona.

‘’The hell was that just now?! It felt like she didn’t kill me just because her arm was slightly cramped under the kid’s! I feel like i’ll die from a heart attack…!’’ Clous thought, not being able to hear the three of them talk to each other as they stood up, watching them begin walking off the train, with Hiona waving for Clous to hurry, carrying a smile upon her face. ‘’This woman is...really not human at all, but I can’t call her a demon either! I still feel it, as if it was a slap and the pain’s fading away. But she didn’t touch me!’’ He wondered, realising the train was about to leave the station, proceeding to walk out after the three of them at last, firmly jumping off the few stairs that you would use to climb into the train and jumping on the ground next to them, his hearing going back to normal. As he stepped out and watched the three of them begin to walk forward with their robes on, he realised something vital which he couldn’t explain: Hiona wasn’t carrying a knife anywhere on her. Had she triggered his sense of fear so much, he imagined it? That was the only thing possible for him. He was a firm believer of ‘’If your mind tricks you into ‘it happened’ it doesn’t matter if it actually did happen, because you saw it that way.’’ In the end, Hiona’s bloodlust at that very moment was so powerful, it nested the idea of a knife in his little head. He reluctantly continued moving forward, catching up to them, continuing to fret over the thought of him almost dying back then.

‘’Master, are we going to meet another weird man before going to the king’s castle?’’ Yohiro asked his master curiously, having given his book to Rosa, who had put it away in the backpack she was carrying. ‘’Fortunately, nope, we won’t. Last time, we only talked to that old man because he was actually involved with the mission that time as the guy who’d confirm our being there, but this time it’s just us, cotton,’’ she answered, giving him yet another nickname he couldn’t understand the meaning of. ‘’I wonder, master, are there gonna be people who could be considered people this time around?’’ Rosa said nonchalantly, speaking like a spoiled child suddenly. ‘’Yeah, you won’t be dealing with the usual warriors this time. They won’t be a problem for me or Clous there, but don’t use your magic too much, you red-headed dumbass!’’ She gave her discouraging words of encouragement as they took a turn at a street filled to the brim with people, walking around and doing their everyday business. Yohiro raised his head, his eyes getting filled with a sudden stream of happiness and amazement as he witnessed a castle, extending high above the other buildings, straight ahead of them. ‘’Would I be able to fight, too? Can I help you, too?’’ Yohiro whispered, trying to keep his voice down for the most part, enough so people wouldn’t really look at him. ‘’Yohiro, listen, using you to fight would be a mess, so--’’ Rosa began, suddenly getting nudged by Hiona. ‘’He’ll be fightin’. That’s that!’’ Hiona shocked them all with her words. ‘’Impossible; we can’t have out ‘treasure’ dying!’’ Clous strongly disagreed, shaking his head. ‘’He won’t die. After all, this child that is almost one month old is strong enough,’’ she explained in a calm voice, making it even clearer to them that the whole thought of it was ridiculous. They couldn’t say a word at that point. Even if she looked as calm as a happy child, they felt she was as tense as your average stressed worker. Together, keeping their heads down, proceeded to the castle.

(Meanwhile, Bernie was continiously playing Edno with Sebansio, beating him for the fourth time.)