“Rise and shine, Miss Sasna.” Krey’s voice dragged Livia back to the waking world. “You probably want to get dressed before our campsite expires.”

“Ogh… wha…?” Livia saw only a blur at first, but as she rolled over, the world became clearer, shafts of light bleeding through the tent’s entrance, dancing along Krey’s armour. When she noticed Emilie was not beside her, that was when she truly started to become lucid again. “Where’s Emilie?”

“I think she tried to wake me up at some ungodly small our of the morning, but I fell back asleep. She can’t have wandered far.” He smiled down at her before clambering back outside. “If my ears hear true, then I suspect she will have ventured off to the nearby river.”

Livia rubbed her eyes, sitting upright now, clutching her blanket to her chest. “I remember hearing it last night. It was running close to the little wooded area we were foraging in.”

“Then that’s where we’ll look for her first.”

When they got there, Emilie was nowhere to be found… at least, not at first. When Livia peered over the bank and into the gently flowing water, she saw a vague wavy shimmer of red, and shimmers of white extending out from it. “Hey, Krey!” she called. “I think I found her!” she went to reach in, her heart sinking at the thought of the worst, but then she recoiled with surprise when the shimmers burst from the water. Emilie, with her arms reaching up above her head, the wet sleeves of her robe rolling down slightly to reveal her slender arms, stood up in the river. For just a moment, Livia thought she was witnessing a water elemental emerge. So graceful, she thought, awed.

Krey arrived with a surprisingly springy jog, mindful of his armour’s weight, but not impeded by it. “Ah! Our lady thought to bathe before resuming our journey, I presume?”

“Quite right.” Emilie’s voice was surprisingly clear, given that she’d just been holding her breath. “And if you’d gotten up when I tried to rouse you, you would also have had a chance to clean up.”

It was a full twenty or thirty seconds before Krey responded; he wasn’t quite sure. “I think, if I had gotten up, I would’ve been too roused for my own good.” He did not gawk, but he did gaze. Emilie’s figure was defined by her soaked, clingy robe - thin and soft - but her body was not visible beneath, despite the robe becoming translucent with all the water; it was still concealed behind a silhouette of white.

“Hmph! Then I am glad I have my shroud beneath to keep my body featureless and concealed.” The chaste shroud was the same bright white the robe would be again once it dried, made differently so that it didn’t lose its strength or opaqueness when washed.

“And here I thought those shrouds were just a practicality,” Krey smirked.

“That’s not very chaste of you, Krey,” Livia half-joked. “Aren’t you knights supposed to be all… sworn to purity and whatnot?”

“Please, Livia,” Krey droned, “I’m a knight, not a crusader. I’m an honourable man, but that doesn’t mean I keep my cock in a cage.”

“Sir Zoubor! I should slap you!” Emilie finally clambered up onto the bank, accepting a helping hand from Livia. “But I suspect I would spend all my hours slapping you if I punished such remarks.”

“Am I truly so vulgar?” Krey chuckled. “I suppose, to someone from an order that refuses to be naked, a great many things probably seem more vulgar.”

“The disparity between us is not lost on me,” Emilie pouted.

“In that case, would you be able to tolerate more of my curiosity? I’ve always wondered, with that shroud constantly in the way, how you’re supposed to relieve your— OW!”

Emilie left a vaguely palm-shaped mark on Krey’s face. “My my, Sir Knight, try not to forget what curiosity killed, hmm?”

The three of them stayed at the camp for a little bit, letting Emilie dry off until it vanished around them in a puff of purple. Emilie was still a bit damp when that happened, but she insisted that she would be fine, and that they get back on the road. They did, but only on the condition that she sit astride Danu until she was totally dry, even if it was technically Krey’s turn. She’d accepted this condition, though with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. After they’d covered some more distance in silence, Livia spoke. “What about paladins?”

“What?” Krey furrowed his brow.

“You mentioned crusaders earlier. I got the impression that, in this world, they’re a more pious offshoot of knights. Well, I’ve encountered paladins before, too. I was wondering if this world had any.”

Krey pondered this for a moment before responding. “Just one.”

“Really? In a world so closely attached to its own gods, there’s just one paladin?”

“That’s right. The paladin. He’s the current leader of the Knights Berodyl. Crusaders rose in popularity because it was easier to serve the hierophants than the gods themselves. The paladin has had the distinct honour of communing with the gods as a hierophant would, but fulfilling a more knightly purpose; hence the nickname of paladin.”

Throughout the day’s travel, Livia continue to ask questions about Berodyl. Krey and Emilie answered patiently and as best they could; if nothing else, it helped pass the time. They weren’t disturbed by any more razorwolves before the sun began to set. They were about to turn off the road to make another camp, but Krey - now riding Danu after Emilie had relinquished her turn to him after fully drying - spotted the telltale signs of civilisation in the not-so-distant distance: Acrevil. At the sight of the town’s humble silhouette, Livia smiled, a few little bubbles of excitement rising up inside her; she was about to see a town other than her hometown for the first time, and she knew in her heart that this feeling was why she’d answered the call of the adventurer… or, at the very least, knew it’s what would’ve gotten her away from home eventually anyway, even if other circumstances hadn’t.