“Cheers!”

“Hey, don’t steal my booze!”

Wanderers raised their mugs high as they shouted in glee. The light brightened the room, increasing the celebratory mood of the wanderers. The food and music were both great. The tavern was full of life.

All of the wanderers that participated in the hunt were in a tavern, celebrating our “victory” during the battle at the tower. Thankfully, a few wanderers only got injured, a few of them were serious but with the ability of their priests, they weren’t in a life-threatening situation.

All of us had received our reward for participating in the hunt. Since Kihana and I would be helping Takana pay for his new shield, Takana immediately spend a bit of his money to eat and drink at the tavern. Well, I wasn’t going to blame him since he pretty much did a good job yesterday.

“Spill it,” Takana drunkenly furrowed his brows. “Why was that stupid kid there?” Takana pointed at the smiling child. She was happily eating the specialty of the tavern, a steak that was covered with thick, gelatinous crimson sauce, as she sat beside me. The sauce was a bit sweet, perfect for the steak.

“Risa’s not a stupid kid! How long does it take for your ugly head to get that, huh!?” Risa replied with a fork in her mouth. It was quite dangerous.

“I told you, she has a fear of people.”

“Do you know the reason why…?” Kihana asked. She was seating in the middle of Takana and Fuyuki.

“I really don’t know. All I know is that she’s scared of people.”

“So that’s why she doesn’t want to talk with us.” Fuyuki said. As usual, she was eating a fish but this time, the inside of the fish had vegetables in it. This woman was really crazy about her fish. She then went to Risa. “But don’t worry, I won’t stop bothering you! Doctors often say that to naturally build immunity against diseases, you have to be often exposed to the disease!” Fuyuki then embraced Risa and placed Risa’s head on Fuyuki’s chest.

What? That’s new.

To our surprise, she didn’t get angry, which was a very big surprise. “What are you all looking at?” Risa said as she calmly rest on Fuyuki’s chest.

“Dude, he literally just said you’re afraid of people. What, is this a character development or something? You have to be consistent! That’s why you’re still a kid.”

“Shut up, monkey! Onii-chan is wrong! Risa’s not scared of humans, Risa despises them!” Risa then looked away, straight into Fuyuki’s chest. “But this…this is Risa’s reward to you people for saving Risa out there. Also because this feels nice…” Risa said as she rubbed her face into Fuyuki.

Well, as long as she’s getting along with them, I’m more than happy for her.

Fuyuki’s mouth turned into a smile as she looked at Takana complacently. “W-What?” Takana blinked.

“Did you hear what she said?” Fuyuki’s complacent face was still there as she smoothly ran her hands through Risa’s hair. “She said my chest feels nice.” I was more amazed by the fact that Risa wasn’t shouting or pushing people away. I guess she would keep her word.

Takana quickly rebutted. “S-S-So what? I’m a man that likes it bigger! If you have a small chest, you’re nothing in front of me!”

“Onii-chan,” Risa looked to me. “Is it true what that monkey said? Is having smaller chest bad?” she asked, her eyes were so pure, it was practically blinding.

“I think having a small one or big one doesn’t matter…”

“He’s right, Risa,” Kihana intervened. “What matters is the heart. If you have a good heart, someone out there will truly love you.”

“Huh…so that’s how it works.” Risa whispered.

“And you,” Kihana crossed her arms as she looked at Takana. “You shouldn’t be saying things like that.” Kihana chastised him.

“I-I’m sorry…” Takana lowered his head.

Then suddenly, Fuyuki clapped. “Whoa, Kihana actually made Takana apologize! That’s amazing! She made a miracle out of this hopeless monkey!”

“I’m not that hopeless!”

As the others were talking, I stood up.

“Where are you going, Onii-chan?”

“I’ll be right there, just going to talk to someone. Stay with Merry, okay?”

“Hmmm, okay.”

I went to a table and asked the only other person sitting there. He was smoking and drinking and he had that atmosphere that he didn’t want to be bothered. “Um, Captain, may I take a seat…? Kris?”

The captain blinked. “Oh, Terrin, didn’t notice you there. What do you want?”

“Nothing, really…I just want to ask you something.”

“Take a seat.”

I sat down. “Um, are you okay?

“I couldn’t be better.” He said as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

“Then would it be all right if I asked you about those people…?”

He placed his cigarette on an ashtray. “You’re the leader of your group, right?”

“Um, yes, I am.”

“I, too, was once a wanderer.” He drank his booze. “Ah, that’s good. Where was I? Oh yeah, wanderer. I was a young fool once but I enjoyed my time there. I met my party when I pleaded to join their party. They let me in and together we hunted at that old witch’s base up there in Roq.” He stared at his mug wistfully as if he was reminiscing to his relishable youth. He then lighted another cigarette and smoked it.

“What happened to them?” I coughed as he released another cloud of smoke. The smoke made my eyes hot and my throat dry as I coughed.

“They died.” He leaned on his chair and looked up. “They died because of this dumb leader of ours. He took a mission that could turn the battle and allow us to get close to the witch up north but it was basically a suicide mission. He thought we were strong enough to take the mission.”

“What was the mission?”

“We were supposed to hold down a ground that was near to the witch’s place and there were only forty of us. You can basically imagine it in your head. Near the witch, more enemy and since there were a lot of enemy, the guild couldn’t back us up and left us to die. It’s hard to blame them, though, as we went there knowing we could die.”

“But how did you escape…?”

“I watch other wanderers betray others and my own party by doing whatever they could just to live. I have seen the nature of humans when death was in front of their face. I tried my best to save them but one by one, my party died. And with that, I experienced it, too. Death was in front of me and just like everyone else, I had to do everything just to survive.”

That’s messed up but I guess I can slightly relate. A human knows no bounds.

“In the end, the mission was a failure. As compensation, they gave me these Shaina famen that is only powerful to the undead. Imagine this dumb spear for my party? It was enough to make me laugh every day. There was nothing for me there, so I left that town and listed as a soldier. Overtime, I became a captain and you know what happens.”

“But how does that relate to my question?”

“Weren’t you listening?” he sighed. “When you’re a leader, you carry the heaviest burden. One wrong decision could be fatal. I killed those people because if I didn’t, they could kill more people. Since I was the one who killed them, you and the other wanderers can sleep peacefully while I’m the one who takes all the pain.”

Was it like that for Hashi? I don’t like that.

“Don’t give me that look.” He said as he laughed. “Well then, thanks for listening to my story. I don’t know why but whenever I get drunk, I pretty much tell my story to everyone. Gotta go. There are a lot of people I have to apologize to.”

“Apologize?”

“Well, they’re already here.”

Suddenly, the door to the tavern banged loudly. A lot of people entered and one of them shouted, “Where’s the captain!?” and as he looked towards the giddy and drank wanderers, he looked towards our direction, or more specifically, to the captain.

The crowd rushed to the captain. The captain told me to go back to my party and I complied.

One of the people that were in the crowd was a soldier, just like Kris. He was young and he looked relatively new compared to the other soldiers that I had seen. When he got near the captain, he punched him in the face and threw him on the floor. He then punched him again and again and again as the crowd watched with tears and frustration in their eyes.

“Why did you kill him!?” the soldier cried. “How could you kill him!? I trusted you to bring him back but you brought him back dead!”

The captain stayed silent. He didn’t try to move or show any hostility. He just lay on the floor, looking straight at the eyes of the soldier.

“He was my son! He was just ten years old! You played with him many times at the station! How could you kill him!?”

“Yeah! How could you kill my father!?”

“You don’t have the right to kill my mother!”

“You deserve to die for killing my husband!”

One by one, the angry mob threw each of their reason why there were here. Needless to say, they were the relatives or families of the people that Kris killed. But I couldn’t recall any other boy there except for that one.

Could his son be the one that Pokkun took hostage?

“Have you ever considered how the captain feels!?” I shouted, my voice echoed out through the tavern. Everyone looked at me.

What the hell am I doing?

“Huh? Who the hell are you!?” one man from the crowds came to me and snatched up my shirt. “You’re not from here, don’t talk like you know shit!” his hand tightened into a fist and was going to punch me.

“That’s enough, mister.” Takana stopped the punch for me. “Are you really going to let him do that?”

I ignored Takana. “Yes, we are not from here but we know that the captain is a good person. He single-handedly killed those people just to spare us from killing them! Did you ever consider how he felt when he killed those people!?”

“Good grief,” Kris gently pushed the man who was punching him away and stood up. “You know, you’re embarrassing me, right?”

“Hey, he was just trying —“

Kris faced the crying and frustrated crowd. “As for you people, I am truly sorry. If there was any way I could have save them, I would have done so but a famen holds tremendous power that came from gods, a mere human like me wouldn’t be able to overpower it. If you want me to be hanged for it, please report me to the authorities. Let’s not make a ruckus in this fine establishment.” He stood tall with his left arm on his back and his right arm on his chest with his face was beaten up.

The staff escorted the angry crowd away, as for the man who beat him up, he stayed and Kris talked with him. Based from the conversation earlier, the captain knew the kid. Not only he knew him, he spent time with him.

How could he do it? If I was in that position and I had to kill someone that I knew, it would probably break me. Yeah, hundred percent will. How could he do it?

*

We return to our inn after that messy event in the tavern. Takana passed out, so I had to carry him again. This was nothing new. Whenever Takana get drunk, I would tuck him in bed like a father tucking his child. If I really could, I’d like to throw him in the street and let him sleep there for once.

Besides Takana was Chance. He didn’t join our celebration since he was tired delivering mail. Being a mailman in this world was surely a busy job. It felt like I hadn’t seen him forever.

“Where are you going?” Risa was holding her pillows and blanket as she casually walked to the door.

There’s something wrong with her today. Well, it’s not really wrong but I guess she’s just different today.

“Shakna’s going to the girls and sleep there.” She covered her mouth as she yawned.

“…You’re going to sleep there?” my brows knitted.

“Yup! Have you ever heard the rowdy snore of that monkey? Shakna could barely get enough good rest!” I understood what she was saying because Takana was indeed noisy. If I could punch him while he was sleeping, I would have done it a long time ago. “What?”

“Nothing. Enjoy your time there.”

“What’s this?” Risa smirked. “Are you jealous because Shakna’s going to sleep with mommy?”

“You know, as much as you hate Takana, you’re the same when it comes to your jokes. Also, don’t call Merry your mother. She’ll get angry, you know.”

“Shakna’s not the one mommy’s angry at, remember?” She shook her head.” And of course, Shakna knows what you’re thinking. This is only Shakna’s reward for them today. It’s not like Shakna’s starting to get comfortable with them. Shakna hate humans and that will never ever change.”

“I know, I know. Just enjoy the softness of your bed as we’re going to the next town starting tomorrow.” I paused. “Also…there’s something we have to talk about tomorrow.”

“Hmmm, okay. Well then, Shakna’s off!”