As we leave the guild, Rayla seems tense and pissed off. She doesn't even look at me as she leads the way.
“Are you mad at me, Ane? I’m sorry about that.”
“I’m not mad at you, I'm mad at the situation. Thoma, I understand why you attacked him just…Next time when someone starts insulting me like that, let me handle it and don’t intervene.”
“Wait…He was insulting you? I thought he was just stupid.”
She looks at me completely flabbergasted, “I…You…I see…Next time I’ll tell you, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Do you want to go to the bathhouse now?”
“No, I need to do my training first.”
“Where are you gonna train?”
“In the guild training area of course.”
“Bu-You’re gonna train here after all that just happened!?”
“Yeah. I don’t know another place with an archery range around here.”
“Can’t you just not train archery while we’re here?”
“Nope, Uli said I have to train everyday.”
“Sigh Fine…But only the archery stuff, you can train the ritual somewhere else.”
“Alright!”
I then go to the training grounds together with Rayla and do my moving archery practice. There seem to be a lot of people watching me and shouting things like, “You sure got balls training here like nothing happened” or “Don’t think you can impress anyone with your shoddy archery” but I just ignore them and finish my training in silence.
“Alright, ane I’m done! We can go now.”
“Finally! These people were staring daggers at us, how can you be so chill and just train like that?”
“Hmm…I guess I just don’t really care as long as they don’t threaten me.”
“That’s a nice skill to have. Sorry for being annoyed, you're just doing your best.”
Taking her hand, I bump my hip into her and say, “Pfft, don’t worry about stuff like that, ane.”
Still a little annoyed but also amused, Rayla asks, “You still gotta do the dance and mana absorption right? Maybe we can train mana absorption together.”
“Hmm…That’s not really going to work. I need to focus on the dark element first and that’s going to interfere with your earth, wind and fire absorption.”
“Don’t you eventually need to learn how to absorb all six anyways? Why not train the same ones I do?”
“It’s because I need to do it in a specific order. But after I’m done with the darkness element I need to start with fire, so you can help me out with that when I get there!”
She puts her hands on her hips, “Kekeke, don’t worry. Your amazing big sister will teach you all about it when that time comes!”
“Have you had any breakthroughs yet, Ane?”
“Hmm…Yes and no. I can absorb the mana now but it’s not as fast as I’d like it to be and I haven’t found a way to store it yet. ”
“Have you tried your tails?”
“What?”
“Your mana comes from your tails right? Can't you store it there?”
“...”
“You might just be a genius after all Thoma! That’s a great idea! I’ll try that next!”
We then go back to the inn to do our respective training and afterwards head to the bathhouse together.
“What do you mean you don’t have private baths?”
“It’s like I said Ma’am. The only thing I can offer you is a family room for five Big Copper.”
“Gaaaah…One second. Thoma?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you mind if we bathe together? Otherwise we’ll just get the family bath for you and I’ll go to the community baths.”
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“I don’t mind us bathing together, I just don’t like bathing with strangers.”
“Alright, we’ll take the family bath, also I need you to be careful with his clothes, they’re made from silk.”
“Of course Ma’am.”
We then clean ourselves and relax in the bath.
Leaning back at the rim of the bath, Rayla lets out a sigh of relief, “Uwaaa~ That’s nice…I finally got that built up sweat off. Alright…It’s the early evening now so let’s go eat somewhere after this, do you have any preferences?”
“Hmm…We’ve eaten mostly meat recently so I think I’d like some fruits and veggies.”
“Gotcha, let’s go somewhere where they have good veggie dishes. After that I need to go to an apothecary and then we can head for a bar.”
Concerned I look her up and down and ask, “An apothecary? Are you sick? Did you get hurt?”
“No no, nothing like that. Hmm…How do I explain that…So you know when a man courts a woman and gives her a magic seed? I’m gonna buy a medicine that makes it so if he’s a bad guy that tricks me into swallowing the magic seed it still won’t grow. It’s kind of like a weedkiller.”
“I see. Yeah that sounds like a good idea, any guy that tricks you into having a baby would be a bad husband and father anyways.”
“Right!? That’s why whenever you become interested in women in that way you must always be cordial!”
“Of course.”
“Also whenever you do get a girlfriend I want to talk to her. I need to make sure that she’s a good person before I give my approval.”
“Sure.”
“Also, don’t get blinded by beauty! The prettiest ladies are the ones with the worst personalities!”
“Pfft, you mean like you?”
“Hey!!! I’m the exception of course!”
“Uhuh~”
“Hmph whatever! I’ll just take it as a compliment and ignore the part about my personality.”
After we talk a bit more and get dressed again, we go to get something to eat and the weed-killing medicine for Rayla before entering into a bar. It does have a few non-humans in it but it’s mostly full of young humans.
“Alright, we do it just as planned, you sit down somewhere comfortable and don’t order any alcohol!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I sit down at a table where I have a good view over Rayla and the rest of the bar. It doesn’t take long for men to approach her but she shoots most of them down after a bit of conversation.
Then suddenly, two women approach my table and sit down next to me. They look quite pretty.
The blonde one snuggles up to my side and says, “Hello there, mr. tall, handsome and mysterious~ Are you here to have fun?”
“No, I’m here to keep an eye on my sister in case a creep doesn’t take no for an answer.”
“Oh wow…You’re a real gentleman aren’t you~ If you’re on duty tonight we won’t bother you any longer but are you interested in going on a date tomorrow?”
“No thank you ladies. I’m flattered but I don’t feel the same about you.”
“Daaaw, I see. Well then have a nice night~”
“You too, I wish you luck with finding a kind gentleman.”
“Daaw, thanks~”
I have a few more women approach me over the next hour but I answer all of them more or less the same way.
Then, a young beautiful man with curly black and silver hair approaches my table and sits down next to me. His hair seems really well taken care of and it looks a bit strange since one side is completely silver and the other side is completely black. I wonder if he dyes his hair to look like that.
Sitting down right next to me, he brushes over my arm and says, “Hello there, I couldn’t help but notice that you were sending a lot of women away. Is there a reason for that~?”
“They were trying to get a date with me and I didn’t feel the same about them.”
“Is that because you’re already in love with someone?”
“No, I simply wasn’t romantically attracted to them.”
Getting a smile on his face, he comes a little closer, “Oh~ Is that so? Well…Would you perhaps like to go on a date with me?”
“Ah, no thank you. I’m flattered but I don’t feel the same way about you.”
He looks perplexed, “Huh…That’s it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…Usually when I approach other men that aren’t xxx they get quite offended.”
“What does gay mean?”
“It means a man with romantic interest in men.”
“Ah, why would I be offended by that? It’s clearly a compliment that you tried to court me.”
“Huh…Are you gay?”
“No.”
“And you’re not disgusted by me?”
“Why would I be disgusted?”
“Because I like men?”
“So? My sister likes men too.”
He looks at me stunned for a bit.
“Say, forget the whole romance thing. I don’t mind just finding a friend today either. Do you mind if we talk a bit?”
“Sure, I don’t have any friends besides my sister. So, I don’t mind making a new one.”
“Alright! My name is John, nice to meet you.”
“My name is Thoma Ahad. Nice to meet you too.”
Cogging his head, he looks me up and down, “Are you…An elf?”
“No, I'm a human.”
“Huh, were you raised by Elves then?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know who raised you?”
“Well…To keep it short I was cursed. I don’t remember anything before two years ago when I was taken in by a fish merchant in the slums. The only thing I could say back then was ‘Jara Shahom’, I didn’t even speak Uni. When I started working for the adventurers guild the guildmaster told me it’s not a real name and gave me a new one. Apparently Jara Shahom means-”
Looking down at his glass, he solemnly answers, “It means I want to go home…”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“I’m actually a Half-Elf. I wasn’t raised by the elven side of my family but I still learned the language. Do you speak Elvish then?”
“Me? No. Though I do seem to remember some elvish words from time to time before forgetting again.”
“Huh…What rank are you in the guild and what is your position?”
“My sister and I just got promoted to E-Rank. We’re actually here because we escorted some people. I’m a frontliner but I’m learning to become a ranged fighter right now. My sister is a Frontliner specializing in dealing a lot of damage in a short period of time. We currently live in Rostock.”
Thinking for a bit he replies, “I see, actually Thoma Ahad, my sister and I are adventurers too. I’m an E-Rank and my sister is a D-Rank. I am a support caster specializing in healing and status ailments and my sister is a front liner specializing in protection. Are you perhaps looking for more party members?”
“Hmm, we actually are but my sister is the one that makes these decisions, not me. So why not come by tomorrow morning at the Wolf House inn? We can discuss things there.”
“The Wolf House inn? Sure we’ll come by. Is there anything we need to bring with us?”
“Hmm…Probably your equipment and your guild cards.”
“Sure we’ll do that.”
A slightly tipsy Rayla then walks over to my table, “I found one let’s go,” before returning to a well dressed slightly muscular man with slicked back black hair and locking arms with him.
“I’ve got to go now. See you tomorrow John.”
“See you tomorrow Thoma Ahad!”
