The team woke up when the sun rose, but not every team member was pleased with that decision.

  “Where’s my fucking coffee?” Carla’s muffled scream rang out from behind the door.

  “Lang-... Nevermind,” Rodrick wiped some nonexistent sweat off his forehead. “Not worth it.”

  The door slammed open and Carla came through, Ciel walking behind her with a generous gap clearly intended for her own safety. The ice mage’s normally straight brown hair was messy and her eyes were red with irritation. She had not slept well.

  “I’m not taking you to my parents’ house in that state,” Rodrick said. “We’ll get you a cup of coffee right now.”

  Carla’s mumblings were inaudible to everyone but Ciel, whose resulting expression told a story of many curse words, insults and things that weren’t meant for human ears. The young woman rushed downstairs right after, closely followed by Ciel. She glanced back and whispered to the rest of the party.

  “It was a bad night…”

  “Yeah, I gathered,” Rodrick muttered. “Go get her coffee and then we can get going.”

  “Yeah. I’ll do that.”

  The rest of the team including Valar followed Carla and Ciel to the inn dining area but didn’t head to the same table. Unlike two months ago, Ciel didn’t dare annoy Carla when she waited for her morning coffee, and opted to sit silently instead. It was a wise choice, as the brown haired woman looked like a bomb that was ready to explode.

  Blessedly, the coffee arrived in only a few minutes, and Carla swigged it down as if it was the sap of the world tree, promising immortality. She didn’t fully recover from the obviously harrowing night she had experienced, but the evil witch killing puppies turned into a less evil witch killing… humans?

  Is that better? Logically, it doesn’t seem better, but it still feels like it should be better. Puppies are always good, while people like Thomas Dremen and Konrad Wendir exist. Why am I even thinking about this?

  “We’ll have to walk for a short while to get to my parents house, but that shouldn’t be an issue. I left a note with the guard yesterday, so my mother should be expecting us,” Rodrick said. “Carla, are you ready to move out?”

  “Mmmh…”

  “Carla?”

  “Oh… You were saying something?”

  Rodrick sighed. “Are you ready to move out?”

  “I… think so?” Carla muttered. “I’ll brush my hair and use the toilet and then we can go.”

  Those small tasks ended up taking over 20 minutes.

  “I swear,” Arthur started. “Why is it always a wo-”

  Ciel coughed. “What were you saying? I think my hearing is getting worse, could you repeat what you were about to say?”

  Even Valar could understand the danger the blonde man had tossed himself in. So did Rodrick, and so did Arthur himself.

  “I didn’t… I mean my intention was to… There isn’t any issue really…”

  The stare he got could have probably killed a lesser man. “Really?”

  “Really…”

  Luckily for Arthur, Carla arrived just then, saving him from imminent disaster

  “I’m ready to go,” Carla’s tone was by no means bubbly but it had improved significantly from the growl that had filled the room just 20 minutes ago. “Ciel, whatever that idiot said is not worth killing him. Let’s go.”

  “Yet I still feel like it,” the rogue murmured.

  “As do I, but freezing his dick off would just give Valar more work.”

  “That’s why I would just kill him and be done with it.”

  “Hey, stop plotting my death in front of my face!” Arthur shouted.

  Carla shrugged. “Do you want us to do it behind your back?”

  “Yes… No! I don’t want you to plot my death at all!”

  Ciel chuckled. “You drive a hard bargain… Let’s go eat breakfast.”

  As the team moved out, Arthur's numerous complaints about Ciel and Carla rang out through the busy street, only leading to laughter from the rest of the party. Even Valar joined in with quiet giggles. He felt more like an actual member of the team now, and he was, but… It hadn’t felt that way before now. It was nice.

  They walked through the smooth stone streets of northern Lyndale in search of Rodrick’s parents’ house. The northern district was quite similar to the eastern one with one caveat—it was significantly more relaxed. Facing towards Rhondell, the eastern district was full of wagons, businesses and overall busy people that just didn’t visit the northern district as often. And while the northern gate was the most efficient way towards Thornton and the smaller cities on the way, the business was much slower than the massive import and export rolling through the eastern gate.

  That made the area significantly more expensive than the eastern district. While the central district remained the costliest because it was the city center, the northern district was the best place for those who wanted to live a more peaceful and calm life. There were a lot of people who wanted just that.

  What made things even more difficult was the danger present outside of the city walls. Idyllic villages outside of the city walls were few in number, and even then they were less safe than anything inside of a city. The other villages… They were less idyllic, and only those who didn’t have the money to live in the city dwelled in them.

  Pretty much the only way to live in a ‘safe’ village was to have a retired gold or peak silver ranker as your neighbour in a low risk area. There were a couple villages just like that in the kingdom, protected by some enigmatic individual who wanted to live a peaceful life after their adventuring career, but the costs of living in a place like that were astronomical. That meant that people like the Steelhearts needed to be happy with what they had inside the city.

  “They aren’t exactly rich, but father is a well paid captain of the guard,” Rodrick explained. “My parents have a nice house, but I suspect that they would have to live in a large apartment instead if they lived in Rhondell.”

  “The cost of living is that much higher in the capital?” Valar asked.

  “The difference is like night and day,” Rodrick laughed. “A regular worker earning less than 20 silvers a month wouldn’t even get a paltry shack in the capital!”

  “Other than the underground,” Ciel muttered. “But who wants to live there?”

  “Underground? What do you mean?” Valar asked in confusion. He hadn’t heard of any underground areas within the capital.

  “It’s not actually underground, but a small district of the city is called the underground because of the criminal activity in the area,” Rodrick explained. “The apartments in that area of the city are understandably quite a lot cheaper.”

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  “They mostly sell drugs,” Ciel said. “But there have been talks that the Forbidden Utterance is planning to start weapons- and even slavetrade in the near future.”

  “How do you even know this?” Rodrick asked.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “What’s the Forbidden Utterance?” Valar asked. He had never heard of such an organization and it sounded like something interesting.

  “Nationwide criminal syndicate,” Ciel answered before Rodrick could even open his mouth. “They’re based in Rhondell, but the interesting thing about them is their leader. Nobody really knows who he is.”

  “Goes by the name Vox,” Rodrick grunted. “We don’t even really know if he’s a man, woman or even a human, just that he’s the leader of the organization. Normally the kingdom would have found and killed him already, but to my knowledge, no person of a sufficient rank to be the leader has shown up.”

  “I’m betting that person will make some stupid mistake and show himself to the kingdom pretty soon,” Arthur said. “No high ranker will stay completely undercover for that long.”

  “Willing to put money on that?” Ciel asked.

  Arthur got a strange look in his eyes as he looked up at the morning sky “Now that you say that… No, I actually don’t. Strange.”

  The rest of the way was spent in meaningless smalltalk as the team wandered through the mint coloured streets, the smell of freshly baked bread and coffee permeating the city. Eventually, they reached their destination.

  The Steelheart home wasn’t anything special, but it was a nice house nonetheless. They had an admittedly small yard in front, but the quaint patch of grass had been filled with beautiful flowers and even a small brush of orange berries that looked absolutely delicious.

  “So that’s your childhood home?” Carla asked. “It looks nice.”

  “It is,” Rodrick gave Carla a small smile. “Although we didn’t always live here. My early childhood home was much smaller than this.”

  “Smaller? Isn’t this quite-”

  “Your nobility is showing, Carla,” Ciel said. “This is pretty big for a house in the city.”

  “Is it?” Carla blushed deep red. “Maybe it is…”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Rodrick said. “It’s fine… Now let’s go have breakfast.”

  The warrior walked towards the door, knocking on it without a sliver of hesitance. He was walking towards his home, why would he? The group didn’t have to wait for long either, as the door opened in only a few seconds.

  Out of the door stepped maybe the tallest woman Valar had ever seen. Ciel was tall, sure, but this lady—Rodrick’s obvious mother—was gargantuan. She looked almost unnatural, towering over everyone but her own son. She was even giving him a run for his money, standing almost eye to eye with her son.

  “Welcome, welcome! Come in kids!” Rodrick’s mother had short brown hair and kind features. Her form was quite possibly even more muscular than her son, but the silver rank aura she exuded explained that particular detail fairly well. In short, Rodrick’s mother was a warrior just like him.

  The attire she was wearing didn’t reflect that background at all. The woman, who looked like she was in her late 30s at most, was wearing comfortable woolen pants and a shirt with flower patterns dyed on it. She looked upon the group of adventurers with curious blue eyes that were almost identical to her son’s.

  “What are you waiting for? Breakfast won’t be hot forever!”

  As the party walked in, a bellowing shout came from the second floor of the house. “Erin, did Rodrick and his friends arrive yet?”

  “Just walking in!” Rodrick yelled back. “Come down here so I don’t need to introduce everyone twice!”

  “Yes, yes!” Alistair rumbled as he descended down the stairs, his shirtless form bare for all to see. “I’m coming…”

  “Put a shirt on, dad!”

  “What? Why?”

  Rodrick’s mother, Erin, responded to her husband with a tired tone. “We have visitors, dear. You should wear a shirt when we have visitors.”

  “Do I really?”

  “Yes.”

  The grumbling giant of a man went back up the stairs. For the next ten or so seconds, there was only silence.

  “Second drawer from the top!” Erin yelled with a smile on her face.

  “Oh, thanks!” Alistair’s voice echoed down to Rodrick’s great embarrassment.

  Alistair Steelheart descended back down to the entryway, this time with a loose grey shirt made from fine woolen thread. The pants he was wearing were brown linens, creating a surprisingly relaxed and stylish look with his black hair and full beard.

  “Now, let’s go to eat some breakfast,” Erin beckoned the others inside. “Leave your shoes at the door, please!”

  The Steelheart home was a two story building with a kitchen, small dining room and living room on the first floor. The small dining room fit the 7 people inside just barely, and Erin had to even get an additional chair from the living room as she hadn’t expected a group of five, but four.

  “We’ve not met, but I thought my son’s team was only four people.” she commented as she moved the chair for Valar. “Is your young friend a new addition, Rodrick?”

  “We hired Valar yesterday as an intern, yes,” Rodrick grunted.

  For the first time in the few minutes they had been in the house, Alistair seemed to look down, and when he saw Valar, he froze. “How…? Aren’t you the panther boy? You awakened just over a couple months ago…”

  Valar blushed in embarrassment. I don’t know if I like that title. I’ll have to get a better title in the future. “Yeah, I’m Valar. We met just after I awakened when I visited the guard with Viktor.”

  “But weren’t you supposed to go to the royal academy?” Alistair wondered. “Did the onyx ranker lie?”

  “No, I graduated already,” Valar couldn’t hold the small grin as he spoke. I can be a bit smug about it… I graduated really fast after all.

  “Graduated already?”

  “Onyx rank?” Valar’s team’s collective shout overpowered Alistair’s befuddled question.

  “Viktor is an onyx ranker?” Carla practically screamed. “Gold I could’ve understood, but onyx? Valar, did you know?”

  “I shouldn’t have said that, should I?” Alistair muttered to his wife. The rueful shake of her head he got back was answer enough.

  “Yeah, I knew,” Valar scratched the back of his head. Alistair had managed to put him in quite a pickle. “He didn’t want it to be public though.”

  “No wonder he dusted that bandit,” Ciel nodded to herself as she spoke. “I was trying to figure out how even a gold ranker would manage such a clean kill.”

  “Looks like you’ve got a lot to tell,” Erin smiled down at the party. “But let’s start by eating. Sit down, everyone.”

  Rodrick’s mother’s idea was widely accepted by both her husband and the team visiting for breakfast. Who could say no to ravager bacon, scrambled eggs from something that was clearly not a chicken, freshly baked bread and a cheese that was native to the city of Lyndale? Valar didn’t know if Rodrick’s parents ate like this every day, but the mere thought of such luxury felt ridiculous. He could’ve died, moved onto the next life, whatever it was, and still wouldn’t probably have gotten anything remotely comparable to the greatness that was this breakfast.

  And it didn’t end there either. When everyone had managed to stuff themselves full off savory breakfast, Erin went back to the kitchen with a devious grin on her face.

  “Oh no…” Rodrick muttered. “I’m full already, not that!”

  “What? You don’t want pancakes?” Erin’s gleeful voice rang from the kitchen. “I can toss them aw-”

  “By the gods, no!” Alistair shouted. “Shut your mouth, son! I’m already full, but I need those pancakes! She put sky berries in them…”

  Rodrick looked like he had seen a ghost. “No, mother! I’d love to have pancakes!”

  “But you just said that…”

  “It was an error in my judgement, I swear!” a pleading tone entered Rodrick’s voice. “I’ll eat as much as you bring!”

  “What are sky berries?” Valar asked Carla, who was sitting right next to him.

  “As the name suggests, they are berries that grow in the sky,” Carla said wistfully. “Really tasty, but only mages who can fly can harvest them from the clouds. They’re really tasty…”

  “I think I want to taste some then,” Valar nodded to himself. “They sound exotic.”

  Rodrick’s prayers seemed to finally get an answer, as Erin walked out of the kitchen with a giant stack of thick pancakes with sky blue berries baked in them.

  “Sky berry pancakes with sky berry syrup coming right up!”

  The introductions could wait…

  The pancakes would have been delicious on their own, but the tangy yet sweet flavour of the sky berries made them irresistible. Valar was halfway sure that even Ciel let out a small moan of pleasure, but he couldn’t be sure. If she had, she had hidden it well. The others didn’t hide their enjoyment, expressing their enjoyment of the dish with mixed sounds of pleasure, words of adoration and total focus on the meal.

  However, the stack of pancakes wasn’t infinite, and soon everyone had empty plates in front of them. Erin gave the team a wide smile. “Now that we have eaten, maybe we should find out who I’ve made food for in the first place?”

  “Of course,” Carla said. “Thank you for the meal, Mrs Steelheart. I’m Carla Thorn, and I’m the team’s ice mage.”

  “Nice to meet you Carla,” Erin said. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you all, but if I remember correctly, you’re an accomplished mage for your age?”

  “I don’t know…” Carla blushed. “I was at the top of my class in Thornton, but…”

  “No buts!” Erin’s smile turned into a grin. “I’ve heard enough. I’m glad that my son has you on his team. What about the rest of you?”

  “Arthur Gladstone, nice to meet you,” the archer extended his hand and shook both Alistair’s and Erin’s hands before continuing. “I’m the team archer and one of our scouts. I have no grand accolades like Carla here, but I think I’m pretty good with my bow.”

  “Gladstone… Where have I heard that?” Alistair muttered. “Kilras? Casino?”

  Arthur frowned. “Not anymore, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t ask again,” his frown turned upside down and he continued speaking. “Thank you for the food, Mrs Steelheart. It was absolutely delicious.”

  Erin swatted at the air shyly. “Oh, stop… My food is getting way too many compliments today!”

  “I wholeheartedly disagree,” Arthur grinned. “If anything, it isn’t getting enough compliments.”

  “Stop trying to woo my mother, Arthur,” Rodrick muttered with his face buried in his hands. “She’s like triple your age and married…”

  “I did nothing of the sort!” Arthur took on an affronted expression. Then he looked around and noticed that nobody was buying his obvious lies. The archer’s grin didn’t falter. “Well, the food was good nonetheless.”

  After that, the only ones yet to introduce themselves were Ciel and Valar. And that meant deafening silence.

  As the silence continued, Valar sighed. I guess it’s me next then… but what do I even say?

  He would have to figure it out fast, as Erin was already speaking.

  “And who might you be, young man? Valar, was it?”