Kapitel 4: She Runs Away

Having been naturally distracted by her weeding job, Robin didn't notice when someone quietly entered the courtyard behind her, and moved over the the pavillion, sitting down on the bench there. Naturally, it was the disguised Prince, in merchant's attire.

Of course, it made sense, since Robin had been working away for several hours, and was just about finishing up with her work. There had been plenty of time for the prince to disguise himself, and catch a carriage to Kinsward Town. As soon as he arrived, he hastened his steps to that courtyard to see if he might find the hero. But the sword was still there, it's golden hilt shining in the sunlight. There was no one there other than him and the local gardener.

Robin hummed a small song to herself, realizing that she was almost finished. The weeds had all been carefully placed in a sack that had been handed her for her job. While Robin was working away busily on the last few dandelions, the man simply sat there, staring at the sword in the stone, deep in thought.

'One more and I'm done!' Robin thought as she reached for the last dandelion and gave it a tug.

"UWAAAH!"

The prince was disrupted from his thoughts to see the gardener beseiged by a Monster Plant.

It's stem had suddenly grown as thick as a tree, and Its yellow petals had peeled back, revealing a mouth full of toothy thorns.

The young man, suprised by it's sudden growth, had stumbled back into the cobblestone area, his back against the large stone centerpiece. The Monster Plant momentarily ignored him as its attention was drawn to the bagfull of weeds that had been dropped. It began extending its large, thorny tendrils out towards the bag.

When Robin realized that the Huge Monster Plant was going after the weeds, she felt upset. She had spent all this time harvesting them, only to have all her hard work go down the drain to some plant monster!? She began to see red.

"Oy! You! Let go of my dinner!" She cried out, grabbing the sword out of it's stone, and brandishing it menacingly towards the Monster Plant, sucessfully re-routing its attention towards her.

Unseen by her, the Prince stood up in shock. But, before he could gather his thoughts together, Robin had sliced the thorny tendrils apart. This made the Monster Plant shriek in pain, before its main body was also swiftly diced into oblivion.

She waved the sword forcefully to dispel the last of the plant juices off the blade, as the pieces of shredded Monster Plant fell to the floor. The pieces quickly withered away to nothing, leaving behind a small clear blue gem.

"Hmm?" Robin picked it up. "A gem? But why would this be inside a plant? Moreover a plant monster?" Then she remembered something. She looked down at the sword she was holding.

"Wow, this is a really great sword! Even though it's a longsword, it's sharpness and slicing power is even better than a japanese katana." She admired it, swinging it around a few times. Even though it was sizeable, the wind resistance was minimal, making it feel like she was swinging around a foil instead of a longsword.

She swung out with a few butterflies and reverse butterflies, before turning around quickly at the sound of someone clapping. Noticing there was someone present, she froze.

"Masterful handling!" The Merchant (*cough* Prince) said. Robin examined him. Perfect blonde hair, mischievous brown eyes, and a handsome masculine face. just the kind of people she couldn't deal with. Then she thought of something.

"Um...this sword-I'm not going to become the king or something just because I pulled it out, right?" She asked, remembering King Arthur.

"Huh? No, nothing like that will happen." The merchant replied.

"Whew! Great!" She felt relieved. Then she froze again. This courtyard obviously belonged to someone, and everything in it, too. Obviously, this sword belonged to someone too. Perhaps it was even placed there as a decoration, or a remembrance of a great battle.

"Um, sorry! I used your sword without permission!" She apologized with a bow. "It was in this stone, right? Here you go!" She shoved it right back inside the stone. "Good as new, right? Okay, I'm going-to-go-now-bye!" She grabbed her bag of weeds and fled the scene before the man could understand just what was happening.

He walked over to the sword, staring at it, hard. Then he grabbed it, trying to pull it out of the stone like the youth had. It didn't budge a bit, even with the man's full strength.

'So the problem is not the sword...but the person!' He realized, turning swiftly around, and dashing over to the courtyard entrance. He looked around. But, unfortunately, the strange youth was nowhere in sight.

"That was the hero?" He muttered under his breath.

-----------------

"Your job has been confirmed as finished. Here are your five silver." The receptionist said, after receiving eyesight confirmation from a magic eye. These magic eyes were available due to a local magician's tower. Robin found it was something similar to a localized, current time Google-maps.

"Thanks." Robin replied.

"If you really want to thank me, you can bring your weapon in tomorrow so we can confirm it's in proper working condition." The receptionist replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Right. I'll definitely keep that in mind." Robin smiled politely. Inwardly, she was panicking.

'That's right! I'm going to need to get myself a weapon, too! Oh, how stupid of me!' Wracking her brains, she realized she also had no idea of the money values in this world.

"Um...actually, could you help me out with something?" She asked helplessly.

"As long as it's within business regulations, I am at your service." The receptionist elf yawned.

"You see, I'm not from around here."Robin began. "And my guardian, who was usually in charge of handling money, got separated from me. Thus, I have no clue on what the value of money is, here. Could you give me a rundown on what the values of the different coins are?"

This made the receptionist pause. 'Ho? Interesting...' She thought to herself. "You mean to say that you don't know how much you currently hold?" She asked.

"Completely clueless." Robin smiled shyly in embarassment.

"Understood. Hold on an minute." The receptionist said.