Stormkeeper Inn. It was too unique of a name for Ega to forget. He found it quite easily with a few leading points from a few people of Ashier and here he stood, ready to pay back his debt.

  “El? Something wrong?” Before he could enter however, he noticed that El was shaking a little.

  “N-no…” Despite her words, it was obvious that she was scared of entering the inn again after what happened.

  “It’ll be fine.” Ega grabbed her hand, hoping that it would help calm her down a little. “Are my hands too rough?”

  El shook her head, steeling herself to enter the inn as she clutched his hands. Opening the door, they were quickly greeted by a waitress.

  “Welcome! Are you here for—”

  “I’m here to return the keys and pay back my lodging fee.” He held up the room keys in his hands. “Ega is the name.”

  The waitress tensed up at that name. “Right, I can get the owner to sort this out, just give me a second.”

  She went off into the back, but unlike st time, the innkeeper didn’t come out instantly. Ega and El stood there for a few minutes, waiting until he’d finally greet them with those sunken eyes.

  “I’d never thought you’d return.” He spoke in that same monotone voice.

  “I always pay back my debts.” He handed the innkeeper the keys and began to search his bag for the three copper coins. “I heard some sort of monster broke into here not too long ago.”

  “Yes, it was quite unfortunate. The repairs cost me quite a bit.”

  “Repairs, huh.” Ega had scanned the entire inn with his sharpened eyes, and nothing seemed to have been “repaired” at all. Either the carpenters he hired fixed everything down even to the grain of wood, or there wasn’t as much damage as he was making it out to be.

  “Ah, right. Do you mind if I come back to the room one final time? I think I may have lost something inside of there.”

  “Unfortunately, we’ve already rented out that room to someone else. It would be quite awkward for you to suddenly barge in and search.”

  “Can’t you ask them for permission? It was quite important to me.”

  “I can ask them to return it if they find it. What did you lose so I can ask them to keep a look out?”

  “I don’t think that will work, see, I’m leaving Ashier in just a few hours. So if I could—”

  “No.” It was the first time the innkeeper spoke in such a defiant manner. “I apologize, but it seems you’ll have to look elsewhere. You should have come back st minute to search for this ‘important item’ of yours.”

  “Hm. That’s unfortunate.” Sharpening his eyes even further, Ega gnced at the hallway with all the rooms. “By the way, I never caught your name.”

  Ega turned back to the innkeeper, meeting his sunken eyes. There was a few seconds of silence between them before he finally revealed his name.

  “Vin, that is my name.” He spoke slowly, as if to make sure that Ega would remember it well.

  “Well, it was a pleasure, Vin.” Pulling the coins out of his pouch, he handed Vin the three copper coins. “I’ll be taking my leave.”

  Turning around, Ega took one final look at the hallways with all the rooms, noticing not a single door having been repced on the first floor. There were no marks of anything being damaged, and even if repairs were done, the pattern of wood was the same as when he had walked in st time.

  Ega couldn’t investigate any further than this, in part due to Vin’s suspicions of Ega and another part being that he would have to take off for Purgo soon. Still, he could at least have He look into it a bit deeper.

  As the two of them walked away from the inn, Ega began to notice that El was still stricken by fear, her hands still a bit shaky as they walked. Looking around, he tried to find something to help her shake off that fear.

  “Hey, El.”

  “Yes?” There was a futile attempt to hide shakiness in her voice.

  “Why don’t we get you a dress? You’re going to need some proper clothes since we’ll be meeting a noble.” Ready to pay back on his promise, he suggested looking for a dress for their remaining time in Ashier.

  “Okay.” Although there was still some fear on her face, it seemed like excitement was beginning to take over. “How expensive can it…”

  Ega couldn’t help but ugh at her concern over money. “Just choose some dresses and I’ll tell you if it's too expensive or not.”

  Hearing that El began to scan her surroundings, using her sharpened eyes to find the perfect dress. For the first time, she was the one leading Ega along to their next destination.

  “Hey, hey, slow down a little will you?” Still holding onto his hand, she began to run around.

  Seeing her so excited, Ega couldn’t help but grin. For some reason, he couldn’t seem to wipe it off his face no matter what he tried, and so, he kept it on as El continued to drag him along to find the perfect dress.

  …

  There was something Ega learned about El on this quest for a dress, and that was that she was surprisingly very picky. Maybe seeing that purple dress on dispy when they had first entered Ashier had set her expectations too high, but it had taken them two hours before she could finally decide on something.

  She had chosen a frilly blue dress, and though it wasn’t as fancy as that first dress that she saw on dispy, she was satisfied with her choice. Her face was practically glowing as they walked back to Al’s Carriages to depart for Purgo

  Ega spotted a loaded carriage right outside the store alongside Paul standing next to it. Supplies were loaded onto the back and enough space was made for El to sit in there.

  “Is it ready to take off?”

  “Yes sir, you can take off right now if you’d like.”

  Sir. The word irked Ega, though he tried his best to hide it. He’d have to get used to people knowing him and possessing a strange level of respect.

  “Great,” Making sure that everything seemed to be in good condition, he handed Paul the rest of the coins. “Is there anything special that we need to do once we arrive at our destination? Or will your business be handling all of that on their own?”

  “No need to worry sir. A few of our men will be by the front gate when you arrive. They’ll give you a seal just like this and you can hand the reins over to them.” Paul showed off the symbol of their business being a winged horse.

  “That’s a unique symbol.” Ega would have never expected a pegasus to represent a carriage business.

  “If you do forget what it looks like, we have it carved on the back of the carriage.” Paul pointed at where it was located.

  Usually merchants would have the symbol of their group carved into that spot, but since Ega was only renting it for his trip, they held the symbol of Al’s Carriages.

  “Don’t worry, I don’t think I can forget it even if I wanted to.” Helping El onto the back of the carriage, he moved towards the front.

  Jumping onto the front seat, he began to man the reins, shifting around in his seat to try and get used to controlling horses again. Usually, he’d just hitch a ride with merchants who needed some extra protection, so it had been a while since he was the one holding onto the reins.

  “Safe travels to you sir.”

  “A pleasure doing business.” Turning his attention toward the horses, he shook the reins. “Come on! Let’s move!”

  The two horses kicked into action and began to walk, clopping their hooves against the stone pavement at an even pace. As they moved toward the front gate of Ashier, Ega began to take one final look at the city.

  He watched as people came and went. He admired the tall buildings which loomed over him. He lost himself inside the noise of the hustle and bustle, letting his mind wander alongside the messy, yet strangely beautiful blend of sounds.

  It would be a shame to see it all disappear, for the Outers to raze it to the ground. Ega found comfort in life, and though he understood that death was an integral part of it, he hated to see the Outers be the ones to bring it to them.

  Those monsters gave no regard for life. They simply destroyed for the sake of destruction, mindless beasts that only knew how to consume. As much as he feared those things, he also hated them to an even higher degree.

  Ega was beginning to retrace his fingers over old memories and feelings as he drowned himself in the sounds of city life. Part of his desperation was to try and survive this camity, but another part of it was because, in all honesty, Ega loved life.

  He was so deep into his own head, drowning in old thoughts and emotions that it wasn’t until they had arrived at the front gate that he noticed El having climbed to the front and taken a seat next to him.

  “When did you…” Seeing the guards by the gate had finally snapped him out of his thoughts.

  “A while ago. Am I not supposed to sit up here?”

  “No, it's fine…” Ega was surprised to have let his guard down so easily to the point that El was able to sneak up beside him.

  Stopping by the gate, the guards instantly recognized Ega’s face. Still, they needed to conduct a search of the items on the carriage to let him through. After the inspection was finished, they finally left Ashier behind and ventured out into the autumn wild.

  Ega hoped that the trip would be an uneventful one just like the trip from Vitir to Ashier. But two weeks was a long time, enough time for things to happen on the road. Life always found a way to screw things up one way or another, and with recent events, he had to keep his guard up for the entire trip.

  “What do you want to do? You can start studying the book He gave you or—”

  “Eye training.” Before he could even present all the options, El had already decided on the activity for the rest of the day.

  Recalling what He had said before about teaching El the basic things, he decided their activity for tomorrow. “Alright, eye training today, but we’ll start reading that book tomorrow.”

  “Okay…” She seemed less excited about learning how to read and write than training.

  Although he appreciated her enthusiasm for training, he needed to get some other knowledge into her brain before she became a muscle head.

  The season was perfect for training the eyes. It painted the leaves orange, yellow, and red for El to catch. There was an abundance of leaves falling, and as a gust of wind brought down a torrent more of them onto their carriage, Ega gave her a goal.

  “Two yellow, one red, two orange.”

  Hearing that El reached out, trying to grab all those colors in one motion. As the wind settled, she opened her hands to show it off to him.

  “Four out of five, pretty good.” Seeing her improve so fast was scary. It was like seeing a genius suddenly break down all the walls that took you years to overcome.

  Rather than envy, Ega felt a strange sense of pride. Maybe because he was the one guiding her growth or maybe it was because she was traveling with him, but seeing her progress was enjoyable. It beat traveling in isotion, seeing faces come and go before moving onto the next target possessing Mithril Blood.

  “One red, three orange, one yellow.” Ega said as a gust of wind passed by them.

  They repeated the training method again and again, though El couldn’t seem to break past the limit of four correct leaves. Still, he knew she would overcome it in due time as they watched autumn slowly pass by in front of them.