Well, we got out of the cave rather fast. Getting out of that place was significantly easier than reaching it in the first place, but there sure were a lot of stairs. Once I’d finally reached the top, it had opened up relatively close to the entrance, the staircase sealing off once I exited. It was quite well camouflaged. Looking at it, there’s no way for someone to figure out it was here, and even if they were aware, breaking through to it would be quite a tough endeavour; the stone around here is relatively sturdy. Of course it would be easy if you had a middle S rank shadow at your heel. That guy was tearing up the place like no tomorrow.

I eventually exited the dungeon, being exposed to the outside world yet again. Ahh, sunlight how I’ve missed you so. Thinking about it, we’d been down there way longer than we should of; the original plan was to meet up at the entrance at the end of the first day. I would’ve been able to make that time, had I not had to fight that shadow. My own lack of punctuality was rather irksome as I thought about it, and no doubt I’d have to come up with a good enough excuse… Well, I’ll just say what happened, without the whole forming a contract with the creepy creature. I also told Hina that the elf was an assassin, so I should probably incorporate that into the story as well. So much to do.

I took a look at my companions, giving them a quick glance over now that we’d entered lighter conditions. Hina was looked roughed up, with numerous scratches and blemishes on her attire, no doubt her own fault; I was doing my job of protecting her just fine. She was hung over my left shoulder, and Serenity was perched on my right. Serenity’s body looked no worse for wear, but then again she didn’t really get directly involved with much, although that’s not to say I didn’t appreciate her support against that shadow. Without her, I would have been dead… or have fled and left Hina for dead. I then turned my gaze to the sack I was dragging along the floor. Yep, the bloodstains are a lot more visible in the light, but at least it’s dried up now. I’ll just say it’s the design of the sack.

I gave the surroundings a quick look, and surprisingly there weren’t any heroes around with worried expressions as I’d anticipated. Does that mean they don’t care about Hina? Well, I can empathise but still they’re technically comrades. Just leaving your comrade to die without even trying to help them isn’t heroic behaviour (doesn’t apply to me, I’m not a hero). Even then, I’m still with her. No, disregarding the case of Hina, they certainly wouldn’t have abandoned yours truly. I’m a nice guy after all, they wouldn’t have abandoned me… probably, and at least I think Rin should have been completely against the idea. Did I go wrong somewhere when manipulating her? Something may have happened. I hope it’s interesting.

With that, I made my way through the grassy fields back to the city of Plyan, accompanied by an unconscious girl, an owl and a suspicious sack. The city walls had quickly come into view, it wasn’t that far away after all. I’d given a little thought to giving a convincing excuse due to our tardiness. Basically, it was all a conspiracy by heretic assassins; as an inspector, they can’t really argue against me when it comes to heretics. Pretty much, if I say its’s a heretic, it’s a heretic. How would they know the difference? As my mind wandered back to my companions I started to get the strange feeling that I was forgetting someone… Ok, so there was Rin, Yuki, Catherine, Deane, and… I swear there was one more person. Well I’ll come across said individual when I get back to the inn with all likelihood.

After a short trek, during which I had to explain to the guards at the gates about the unconscious girl and suspicious sack that I was carrying, I managed to reach the inn. Thank Sol that guards didn’t ask anymore after finding out my profession. You’d think you would get loads of people pretending to be inspectors with all the perks, but the church keeps quite a close eye on such things, and if you impersonate an inspector then you’re a heretic. I stepped through the door and was greeted by that same cosy atmosphere from before. It was a sensational feeling after delving into the cold and dark depths of that dungeon. Oh, my companions are over there! Hmm, Deane’s there, as well as Rin and Catherine, but where’s Yuki? The gloomy atmosphere implies quite the tale, I can’t wait to hear. I first slipped past to the stairs.

It was best to put the sack away safely in my room. I tip toed up to my room with adequate stealth before quickly slipping in. Upon entry I was tackled in the side by a sobbing individual who immediately began to rub her tear stricken and snot riddled face into my jacket. This one. This one, was the one I’d forgotten. Yep, these annoying actions by which my clothes end up soiled time and time again. Resist the temptation to hit her. Okay, resisted. Harming her while she’s fully aware that I’m the one doing it wouldn’t do wonders for our relationship. I still need my little accomplice after all. I began to pat the sobbing individual on the head. What was her name again? Melinda? Merissa? Melissa! That’s the one.

“There, there Melissa calm down and talk to me.” I said in the usual gentle and caring tone I used to address her. Although, I must say it’s been easier to address her as such. I guess ever since she got more useful, you could say I’ve grown fonder of her. But this rubbing her tears and snot onto me thing has got to stop. It’s just unhygienic.

She stopped trembling and looked up to my face whereupon I could clearly see her face smothered in tears. When our gazes met she began to let out even more hiccupping sobs as she did her best to speak to me. By this point I’d casually tossed Hina onto the bed at the end of the room and the sack into the corner. Serenity had taken perch elsewhere.

“I-I thought y-you *hic* were d-dead! T-the others s-said *sniffle* that you didn’t come out and t-that y-you were probably dead! I’m happy you’re alive!” she said.

She did her best to give me a smile at the end, and despite obstruction by tears I could see genuine relief and happiness in her expression. Well, she did end up becoming rather reliant on me, this much could only be expected. Although I wonder why the heroes and companions were so quick to assume I was dead (and Hina).

“It’s ok, shhhhh. I’m alright. Look at me, I’m fine.” I said as I cupped her face with my hands, forcing her to keep eye contact with me. She began to tear up more and squeezed extremely tightly. Even with somewhat improved strength and toughness, it still hurt. Just how strong is she? A normal person would have spewed out his intestines long ago.

“I’m actually surprised you were so quick to react to my arrival.” I said, hoping to pry some explanations out of her. I mean, I was pretty confident in my stealth abilities, but as soon as I was in the room, there she was. My ego was actually a bit hurt.

“I-I could smell you…” she said in a timid voice, a deeper shade of red appearing on her lightly scaled cheeks. So she has tracking abilities; her other lineage is almost certainly some sort of canine.

“Listen, I’m going to quickly go and talk with the others downstairs about the situation. I’ll be back soon, but for now I’d like you to keep an eye on Hina and that sack over there. If Hina wakes up, send her downstairs, and also make sure that sack stays in this room.” I said.

Melissa appeared unhappy with the idea of parting for even a moment but once again displayed her impressive obedience, letting go of me and proceeding over to the bed on which Hina was flopped. She started to stare intensely at her, it was more of a glare to be honest. Also, now looking closer at the bed, it was pretty much torn up and almost resembled some kind of nest. I suppressed a sigh, and decided to ignore it for now. Old habits die hard after all. Am I being too lenient? I’ll think of a punishment later.

After getting Melissa to unwrap her tail from my leg, an action she displayed a substantial amount of embarrassment over, I went downstairs for my next conversation, with Serenity once again taking her place on my shoulder. I quickly got back to the lounge area and made my way over to the depressed individuals in the corner. Time to make my return from the dead!

The first to spot me was Catherine. Her senses always were sharp. As soon as she saw my smiling face, her eyes widened and her mouth fell ajar. How unladylike. Deane, quickly followed her gaze to see me and even upon his usually rather stoic face, surprise was clearly displayed. Rin, the poor girl, was the last to catch on. She began by confusedly staring at her companions before taking the initiative to see what had made them so flabbergasted. Her reaction was one of relief. When she saw me, and by this time I was right by their table, she jumped up with tears at the corner of her eyes.

“Cyne!” she shouted.

“Hello everyone, sorry for the delay! Hina and I ran into some trouble down in the dungeon.” I said, quickly getting to the point.

“Hina, is she with you?” asked Catherine hesitantly, almost as though she expected to be disappointed.

“Why, yes she is. She’ll be upstairs and resting in my room. I left her in the care of Melissa. Also, I heard that you guys thought we were dead, I’m terribly sorry to have worried you.” I said.

“No, that’s fine. I’m just happy to hear some good news.” She replied.

“It’s good to see you are alright.” Interjected Deane. Wow, wasn’t expecting him to actually say anything. I’m touched by the effort he just put in there.

“Yes, unfortunately we ran into some trouble. There were a few cultists of some sort who set a trap for us, and unfortunately it delayed our return by quite a significant margin.” I quickly explained.

“You too huh?” said Catherine, gloominess once again dominating her expression. Rin and Deane quickly followed.

“Something happened?” I asked.

“We ended up in a similar situation as you and Hina; some grey robed people ambushed both of our pairs while we were down there. I don’t know how they tried to deal with you guys but, ours incidents were just all-out battles” She said, her voice downcast. Surprisingly, Deane pitched in next.

“Catherine and Rin were able to fend them off without any serious issues. Yuki and I however didn’t do as well. It was my negligence that led to our current situation. Yuki ended up suffering an injury from a poisoned blade.” Said Deane, self-loathing evident in his voice. This story is getting quite dramatic now.

“It’s not just your fault, I can’t get rid of the poison, even though I can heal.” Said Rin, who had been silently brooding for the majority of the conversation. But that’s interesting to hear. She can heal but not cure poisons? So essentially her magic is only useful in immediate combat. She’s surprisingly useless.

“Yuki is upstairs, resting in his room. Every time his condition worsens, Rin repairs the damage done. He’s in pain right now.” Said Catherine.

“Would you like me to try and get the poison out of his system?” I asked. If I could pull this off, my standings would get significantly higher in the party, hehehe…

“There’s no point. A local priest from the church came yesterday and couldn’t do anything for him. The king was already sent a message by bird, so all we can do is wait. Hopefully he’ll send for an alchemist to come and study the poison and hopefully concoct a cure.” Said Deane.

Well, that sucks. The opportunity to make a hero in your debt doesn’t come around every day. Deane just had to go crushing my dreams. I take back what I said about being touched before. The mood quickly sank again. Well, all we can do is wait I suppose. Whether Yuki dies or not is up to fate. Best not to think about it too hard. Anyway, who would’ve thought that they would actually get attacked by cultists? Convenient things like this happening makes me more inclined to believe in Sol and that he’s on my side.

I should probably not mention the person I captured. They’d probably want to meet and interrogate her, and there would certainly be a myriad of problems if such a thing were to occur. I decide to quickly excuse myself, with the reason of being exhausted after the dungeon. Okay! Next steps: get Hina out of my room and into hers, tell her some tale about my heroic rescue of her while she was unconscious, and tell her that I had to leave the captured elf behind to do so.

With this, as long as nobody sees the bag, no inconvenient discrepancies will occur in the story I told. Nobody would want that, I mean all it would do is begin to fracture our bonds of trust and unnecessarily complicate things. Yep, it’s best they don’t know about the elf. In fact, with everyone so depressed, they’ll likely not pay attention to my actions for a while, which means it’s probably a good time to hold a heretic burning, hehehe…