The pain came instantly, streaking the moment Dallion returned to the real world. Every muscle in his body felt as if it were on fire. The last time he had felt anything remotely similar was after a day of learning how to use his guard skills back in Dherma village. Dallion could barely push all his items on the floor before passing out from exhaustion. When he next came to, it was well into the night. The pain, though, was still there.

“Argh!” Dallion said as he tried unsuccessfully to sit up from his bed. All the leveling up and experience seemed to have melted away.

She told you this would happen, the armadil shield laughed. Don’t worry, it’s all good, though. Now you’ll know for next time.

“Much obliged, shield,” Dallion said through his teeth. Talking helped him deal with the pain better than thinking.

That’s what I’m here for. She’s upset with you, you know. Not enough to have the talk with you, but pretty close. That’s why I’m helping out.

“You’re doing a great job…”

You know, if you want the pain to go away, there are two things you can do.

Dallion suddenly went perfectly still, waiting to hear the words of wisdom the dryad had to offer.

Enter a realm. The pain won’t reach you there.

While that was a nice trick, it didn’t offer any practical advice. Time didn’t pass in the real world and the moment Dallion left the realm, the pain would return as well.

The other is just to ignore it and proceed as if it isn’t there.

“Just that? Sounds simple.”

Yes, it does.

What was supposed to be simple, however, took Dallion ten minutes to partially achieve. At first, he would stop at every shot of pain even the slightest movement caused. Then, he would stop at every two, then five. In the end, he managed to get up from the bed and reach the door without as much as a flinch.

So, I just disconnect the two, Dallion thought. The pain was still there, but now he knew that it wasn’t preventing him from doing anything else. Even so, he had no intention of doing useless motions.

It was at that point that he directed his attention back to the area around the bed. The new ring was nowhere to be seen. Most likely Dallion must have pushed it to the ground while passing out. The problem was that to find it he had to bend, and bending was excruciating. One thing it taught him, though, was to listen to Harp’s advice in the future.

The ring turned out not to be a ring. Instead, it had already transformed into a “key.” It was difficult to see how something so small could have such a powerful effect in the world.

There was a sudden knock on the door. Immediately, the key transformed back into a ring; now that the Vermillion was part of Dallion’s realm, it was aware of most things he was as well.

“Yes?” Dallion stood up. The sudden movement brought tears to his eyes. “Just a minute.” He went to the door and opened it.

Outside, with an extremely somber expression, stood Hannah. One look was enough to tell Dallion that he had done something he shouldn’t have. His mind raced through the possible crimes. He hadn’t eaten in his room, nor had Eury come visiting since the innkeeper had made a point of it.

“Finally awake, eh?” The woman crossed her arms. “I thought you’d spend the entire week sleeping.

“Well, I—"

“And you haven’t been helping out at the inn lately, have you?” Already it was clear where this conversation was going. “Now, I’m a reasonable woman. When you got your stomach twisted with that expedition, I let you recover. I even had Jiroh and Aspan bring you food to the room—something that is strictly forbidden in this inn under normal circumstances. You’re no longer feeling sick, are you?”

In reality, Dallion wasn’t feeling at all well right now. However, that wasn’t what Hannah meant, and there was no way he would share what had really happened. For better or worse, he wasn’t given a chance to respond one way or the other.

“Given all that, do you know what I learned?” Hannah gave him a vicious glare.

“Err, why don’t you come in?” Dallion asked. Despite the anger in the innkeeper’s voice, he couldn’t feel any emotions within her. “There’s no need for you to stand in the corridor and—"

“You don’t want the rest of the inn to hear? Well, I think they should! Do you hear that, everyone?” Hannah turned around, shouting down. Her voice was loud enough to reach the first floor, at the very least. “This here is Dallion Darude, an awakened I picked up from the street and employed him as the inn’s awakened.”

That wasn’t exactly how it had happened. It was Dallion who had chosen the inn, and walked inside asking for a job.

“And do you know how he’s repaid me for this favor?”

The silence was tangible. Even people who were only here for the festival and had no idea who Dallion was or his relation to Hannah were holding their breath, eager to hear the answer.

“I’ll tell you how!” Hannah took a deep breath. “He made it through the preliminary rounds of the arena tournament!”

What? Dallion blinked. This wasn’t something he was expecting.

“That’s right! In a few days, you’ll see him fight at the arena! Well done, Dal!” The innkeeper grabbed him by the hand. “Come, let the people get a better look at you.”

Of all the scenarios that had gone through Dallion’s head, this was one he had expected the least. Too dumbfounded to even react, he let himself be dragged downstairs by Hannah, to the cheers of the crowd. People Dallion had never seen were going over themselves to buy him drinks or give him a tap on the back. The experience was reminiscent of the first days when he started working at the Gremlin’s Timepiece. Back then, he was the new awakened of the area, so people gathered to see him. Looking back, it was a good thing that Dallion went to Nerosal when he did. During the days of the festival, no one would have even noticed. Looking at the crowd, there were more awakened than normal people, the majority were tourists.

The girl has style, the armadil shield said.

She has something alright, Dallion thought. Since she wasn’t getting her money from him serving, Hannah had resorted to other means to earn money from him. Announcing that she had a tournament contestant on staff was definitely one of those things, and would remain such for the next few days, until Dallion lost. Initially, Dallion had planned to continue to reach the quarterfinals, but after his recent experiences, he wasn’t so sure. He was going to have to step up his game. For tonight, though, he was going to endure the muscle pain and let himself be the center of attention.

The celebration continued well into the early hours of the morning. At that time, the people who stayed at the inn retired to their rooms, while the rest left for the places they were staying. Interestingly enough, Dallion didn’t see any sign of the Luors. Only Jiroh was there serving the mass of people, though with her skills that proved to be no problem at all.

“Not bad,” Hanna told Dallion once the place was empty. “I’ll consider this compensation for your lack of work the last few days. You better keep it up.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll do my best to win.”

The woman laughed. That alone got Dallion a bit alarmed for his chances.

“You don’t think I’ll win?” he asked.

“Not a chance,” Hannah replied without hesitation. “Well, maybe you have a chance, but it isn’t large. I’m not only talking about skills here. You don’t have experience. Not to mention you’ve never fought in front of a crowd.”

“Does it matter?”

“That’s why you don’t have a chance.”

“But—"

“Help Jiroh cleanup and go get some rest. Knowing you, you’ll probably try to level up to compensate again. You boys never learn,” Hannah disappeared into the kitchen.

That was rather harsh. Dallion didn’t see why fighting in front of a crowd should be any different from fighting in a realm. The expedition had a crowd. Not to mention that he had played sports in front of crowds during high school. Granted, it had only happened twice, before he was kicked out of the team. Apparently, puzzles were more his thing. Since there was no point in arguing, he went to do as asked and helped the fury tidy up the place. In the process, he even mended a few tables—that was something he hadn’t done in a long time.

“How are things with Eury?” the fury asked as they cleaned.

“Great,” Dallion replied, instantly regretting it. In his experience, when someone replied to such a question with “great” things usually were tense to say the least. “I miss not seeing her, but with the festival going on, I understand.”

“She tends to focus on work more than she should. Don’t think less of her for it.”

“I won’t. I mean I don’t…” he sighed. “I guess I’ve been a bit too focused on work as well.”

“I heard. I’d say congrats, but everyone else already did it.”

The joke made Dallion smile. Jiroh still had it. Somehow, she managed to make people smile in almost any circumstances.

“Have you ever thought of going back?” Dallion asked all of a sudden. There was a whiff of surprise coming from the fury. “I mean, if you had the means.”

“There’s no going back,” Jiroh whispered. “Whatever the reason, this is all we have. All that think otherwise are deluding themselves.”

Harsh words from someone that seemed to have lost faith. On the other hand, Aspan remained in this world as well. Certainly he had access to Vermillion tears and still remained in this realm. Or was that the case?

“What if there was a way?” Dallion pressed on. “Would you go back?”

“No,” the fury replied after a moment’s thought. “Probably not. I value my memories here too much, not only the ones I’ve made after arriving, but those before.”

That was the trick—the real reason Dallion hadn’t considered finding a way back to Earth. In truth, he hadn’t given the matter any thought.

They moved on to small talk as they finished cleaning the room, preparing it for the next day. Done, Jiroh went back to her room to get some sleep. Dallion, though, decided he’d enjoy a walk outside.

All seven moons shone bright in the night sky, making Dallion want to climb onto a roof and just look at them. The city had several places built specifically for that purpose, though most of them were further away than Dallion was willing to go. Besides, he preferred to walk and think.

Are you always like this? Gleam asked.

What do you mean?

Thinking about things.

Sometimes, Dallion replied. Don’t you?

Seems like a waste of time. I just do what I want to.

I’m not like that. I tend to think a lot.

Yeah. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing. It’s what made you free me. Just don’t overdo it, okay?

Dallion was just about to respond, when the sound of slow clapping reached him, coming from nearby. Turning briskly in that direction, he saw three figures standing silently in the street. Two of them were furies. The third was someone who Dallion hoped he would never have to deal with again.

“Congratulations,” the general said. “I came the moment I heard. In fact, I was going to buy you a drink, but the inn was too full for my taste. Too common as well.”

In his mind, Dallion clenched his fists.

“Thanks,” he replied with a smile. After all the deals he had so far, he knew that the best course of action was to keep his cool. “You didn’t have to come all this way just for that.”

“Oh, not to worry.” A glint sparked in the general’s eyes. “I didn’t. I came to you with a proposal. Or rather, with two. I’m sure you’d like to hear me out.”