Upon me pressuring him, Grey faced away. The other two’s view snap his way…

Grey takes a deep breath, then asked, “Alright, well… I don’t have a choice, do I?” Upon seeing the other two unanimously shake their heads, he recalled, “I won’t say anything Helen doesn’t already know. But, the weapon I made wasn’t that big of a deal. Basically, I was an apprentice to a forge trying to make a new material. The first, and only, weapon made from it becoming legendary one. That’s… the entire story.”

Hearing his story, I immediately nodded as the others brooded over his succinct story in silence.

Eventually Mask recovered, simply asking, “So, you’ve not told Helen much then?”

“Yeah,” Grey mutters, his eyes darting shyly away from eye contact.

Pondering on something as the conversation died down, Mask continued his questioning, “What happened to the weapon then? It’d be dumb to have brought it all the way here, right?”

“Fine, I sold it before fleeing. Personally not wanting to know how many people I kill by proxy, I don’t tend to keep contact with those using my wares. Before you ask, I used the money to make my previous base in this city, and kept most of it as well as my later profits in the transfer to here,” he explained. Then, he decided to ask Mask something in return, “That’s enough about me, so here’s a query for you mister mask: why do you wear that mask?”

“That’s… personal,” Mask complained, looking for an out whilst unconsciously lowering his posture.

“And ours weren’t?” Grey countered, cracks of a grin revealing just how much he revelled in seeing Mask’s reaction to the same pressure he’d just faced.

“The brat literally had to, and you said nothing about yourself in your story.” Even with his mask covering his face, his body language alone showed his true emotions.

“Okay then… How about ‘why you agreed so rapidly to miss Jacqueline catching you’ then? Can you answer that?” The blacksmith creeped forwards, physically blocking the- actually trained in fighting- rogue from view.

“Fine! You had better delve deeper into your story though!” He takes a deep breath, then continues, “A few years ago I broke from an assassin’s clan of a neighboring country… unofficially. I then slipped back into crime, even though my sister was trying to help me out. When Jacqueline caught me, I just realized how much of an idiot I really was. The only way to officially leave any assassin clan is to die, hence I, on my sister’s request, left the country. I wear the mask as a small precaution to not get caught. It’s to make up to my sister that I work here…” He then snapped at Grey, “Happy? Now, why did you flee Grey?”

With a deep sigh, Grey answered, “I… I need you lot to keep this quiet. This is something I want to tell Helen myself… Do you promise?”

Knowing it’d be bothersome to not, I simply said, “You have my word. I genuinely do not care anyway, and, unless S finds out, I have no reason to say a word. Yours or my own patron god can punish me if I do so.” Charles followed with, “I swear by the church, I shall not betray your trust.” Mask gave a smile, a gesture of brushing himself off, then commented, “I’m not into blackmailing anymore, so no worries.”

“I’ll believe you for now… My old forging guild in a foreign country weren’t the only ones there. And, my invention lead to some competitors hiring a hit. They got the wrong person, my friend from the crafting branch who had a child at home, and died very publicly with me. The father and daughter was then also hunted down, and when I got there, the assassin and the father were dying- the daughter brutally wounded. You can guess the rest from there,” a few tears formed in corner of his eyes, which he brushed away with his sleeve.

Waiting patiently for everyone to take in the story, Charles then said, “You know, I feel bad about this. If you have a question for me, I’ll answer for fairness.”

Mask, although delayed somewhat, offered a question, “Why did you agree to join us? Or were you with the group before miss S and miss Jacqueline?”

“Huh, well I was the fourth person here. When I met the group…” There was a knocking at the door, which interrupted what he was saying.

A few seconds later, the door to the room opened, with a man wearing odd clothes on the other side, “The bath is ready for your group… Feel free to use the robes in the closets, or use your own items of clothing to change out of. Once you’re ready, please allow me to lead you. You have an hour, so please don’t feel the need to rush yourselves.”

With a small delay spent non-verbally asking each other if this was real, we all got prepared and followed him out of the simplistic yet foreign room we were in. We were then lead through some corridors, down some stairs, and ended up in front of a room with the label ‘male’ above it.

Upon going inside, it lead to a small-ish room with numerous shelves with locked woven boxes. It also had two entrances, with one from where we entered, and another with a beaded off door. So, without continuing our conversation, I picked one, grabbed a towel and stripped. Wrapping myself with the towel before heading through the beads.

The bath hiding behind it was… out in the open. A relatively tall wooden fence did surround it, but the open sky full of stars above us made me feel slight conscious. The main area had two main parts, the first being an area with benches and buckets- which I presumed were for washing- and another which was just the bath. The bath itself, rather than the ones in our base, was basically a large pond with steam forming almost a mist around it. Some magic lamps around it lead to an almost out of world experience.

Us four were the only ones there, in a bath which could easily fit ten. I ended up being the first in, so washed myself in an area with stools, using cheap soap I brought. Then heading into the excessively large pond-like bath.

As I step into it, my body parts genuinely hurt due to the excessive heat. It was a struggle to force the rest of myself in, but after a minute of pain, it started to feel relaxing instead. My muscles relieving themselves of their stress.

Charles, Mask and Grey then all followed me in, respectively. And, once they stop complaining about the heat in their own ways, a casual conversation initiated by Grey.

“I must say, I don’t know what I expected from you all… but none you look as I foresaw,”

Charles, not understanding the context, asked, “What do you mean?”

Grey laughed, then pointed to all of us in turn as he explained, “Each of your looks. Like you, Charles. Your build is larger and more muscular than expected, I guess your normal robes and armour don’t give your physique much credit. I genuinely expected you to have more of a conservative, flexible build. Then there’s Sam. Now, I know he was a slave, but the frankly stupid amount of scars he has rivals how extremely thin he is. I mean, I could tell that he was skinny, but he almost challenges S for thinness. Finally, under his mask… looks, kinda good. Although his nose and chin look sharper than his actual blade.”

Coughing to get our attention, Charles then continued his story, “When I joined them, it was only S, lady Jacqueline and Sam. Lady Jacqueline asked me personally to help S regain her real body. For why… It’s a long story. Care to hear it?”

“You’ve heard ours,” Grey immediately countered.

“Fair point. Let me explain then…” Taking a deep breath, he went into a deep explanation, “I’m a cleric who can’t heal. Whereas most clerics spend their time in education focusing on heavily armoured combat and healing magic, I spent mine on heavily armoured combat and purification magic. Which… turns out to be a mistake. Healers are rarer than tanks and paladins, so basically parties and guilds rarely need me. I should also point out, like I’ve explained before, S isn’t a criminal for being forced into being a skeleton. And Jacqueline summons her undead, not creating them from the actual dead. So, basically, because I don’t have much choice of company, I still want to get stronger to dismiss their arguments, and at a high enough level I can indeed help S out, that’s why I’m here. It may not be as dramatic as Grey’s or Sam’s tale, with that, we’re even enough, right?”

We spent some time taking in the scenery. Although I didn’t really understand it, Grey and Charles ended up flushed, with peaceful smiles dominating their faces. And, without his mask, Mask, trying to hide his revealed face behind his hands, his mouth also subtly curled at the edges. And, in a blissful silence, we remained like this for a while before deciding unanimously to leave. When we returned to the room, we headed to the room dedicated to sleeping where I fell asleep on the floor immediately

-

When I woke up, I felt an faltering balance. Unlike what I was used to, the normal firmness beneath me was replaced by an uncomfortable softness. Making me feel like I’m constantly falling, and disorientating me the more I realize do so. I then open my eyes, realizing I was on one of the cushioned mats laid around the room rather than the floor itself. Everyone else asleep as well.

I… didn’t really know what to do, so I ended up getting changed with being quiet prioritized over speed. Then, being as stealthy as possible, I exited the door. Making it to the other side of the room, I see the sun poking from the horizon, making a red and yellow sky. Confirming there was no point in going back to sleep, I just grabbed a few books from my inventory and start reading them.

After the third book the others started waking up one by one. Mask, like me, tried being stealthy, Charles was too groggy to try stealth and Grey didn’t need to, as he was the last awake. Smatters of conversation came from them, before, after bringing out some cards, we casually played some rounds. Using a few silver and copper each game.

Eventually there was knocking on the door, but this time more than one set of footsteps were behind it. After we opened it, the five others raided the room. Somewhat confused to how our relationship had fixed calmed down so quickly.

Seeing some hesitance in their conversations to us, I ended up breaking the ice, asking, “So who doesn’t believe the story? Just ask me what you doubt.”

There was a slight pause, as everyone aside from herself and Helen, looked Serv’s way.

Once realizing the stares, she explained, “I do understand Jessica’s and Jacqueline’s gods trust you, I also know Lithy does as well… The story just makes no sense however!”

She started repeating the questions the others ask, and after explaining it on my side, she eventually ran out of questions. Her expression seeming satisfied enough with the answers.

After that was done, the rest of the trip was casually spent. We waited for the staff, who explained to us the area… and we split up from there. S and I went outside, with me overseeing her general training. Mask and Jacq did their own things individually, and the rest joined the staff member shopping and enjoying what the resort had to offer.

And with one more uneventful night to follow, we left for our guild’s base on the day-long trip back. This time without the heavy atmosphere of scorn towards me, and giving me the ability to actually sleep during the journey.