"Is this a fucking trick question?" His brain started thinking quickly. "Someone could have seen me and told Lucie that I was using the restroom. In that case, I'd say Lucie must have thought she could catch me off guard when she approached me, but Lucie is always like that with me, and I'm pretty sure no one saw me. She can't have an ulterior motive right now."
"No? Why?" He pretended not to know.
"Some animal somehow managed to clog the toilet."
"Isn't that a little rude?"
He had never heard Lucie speak rudely. It was the first time he had heard her talk like that and it was against him.
"These are uncivilized people who have not learned to live in society," Yu said. "Animals."
Lucie nodded. "Seriously, we give them food, clean water, a place to sleep, but look what they do."
"And I bet he's looking at our faces and laughing inside."
"Isn't it? That's what pisses me off the most." Lucie spoke heatedly, her breath constantly hitting Yu's face. "Maybe he's the guy we face every day, but he's an animal. The idiot also stuck the broom in the toilet bowl and broke it, we can't get it out... Ouch..."
Lucie rested her head on Yu's shoulder, exhausted. Yu heard her take a deep breath.
"Is she fucking sniffing me?"
"I didn't want to talk to you about something like this, can we pretend we never talked?"
"Mission completed, man, mission completed. No one suspects me. Of course they don't, of course no one would think that a humble gentleman like me would do such a thing! Like a wise man once said, fear the silent one."
He was proud of his success. There was no sign of happiness or stress on his face, it was completely natural.
"Fine by me."
Lucie lifted her head from his shoulder and looked into Yu's eyes. After staring for a moment, she turned her eyes out the window.
"Well, Mr. Valarfin, well... I'm free today-"
"Uh... I'm bored." Yurine suddenly interrupted Lucie. "I'm bored, I want to go out, let's go check with the adventurer's guild to see if there's any news from those idiots."
"Sure. Do you mind if we stop by a clothing store on the way?"
"Why?"
"Because I thought a cape would look really cool on me."
This morning, as he stood in front of the mirror with the blanket thrown over his shoulders, the idea of buying a cloak came to him.
"Why is it that in everything else you say we should save money, we should spend our money carefully, but when it comes to you, you don't hesitate to spend money? I won't let you waste money."
"I'm not wasting money, I'm investing in myself."
"No! Pick up those pieces and let's go."
Yu stood up and stretched. He kept one eye on Lucie as he started to put the chess pieces in the box.
"What were you going to say?"
Of course he understood what she was going to say, she was simply going to ask him out.
"N-nothing... Never mind."
"Are you sure?"
When Lucie lowered her green eyes in disappointment, Yu felt bad, he didn't want to upset her.
"It was nothing, I'll tell you when you're free."
Yu shook his head. He felt sorry for upsetting her.
***
"You seem a little jealous of me..."
"Huh, where did that come from?"
"I don't know, interrupting Lucie when she was about to ask me for a date... You don't want to share your daddy with someone else?"
"SHUT UP!"
Yurine leaped forward, took a few steps and left Yu behind. Her tail swished at a speed that was hard to follow.
"If I have to be honest," Yu said and look at his ring finger. "I'd like to marry with her. Having a wife and children seems great to me. But you know, she is an elf. She will stay young while I'll getting old. Even I really really really want to have an elf anime girl waifu, it's not fair for her."
In Second World, races are really different. Even if international relationships can be tolerated a bit, interracial relationships are not healthy. An elf's body can't age easily, a dwarf's body full of hair, harpies laying eggs, which means they couldn't mate with humans. Most healthy one seemed elf and human relationship but still it wasn't as good as it sounds.
Lucie thought it would be wonderful to be with Yu now, but when Yu became an old man and could no longer satisfy his wife, she would realize the mistake she had made and, at best, wait for Yu to die.
"Wait a minute!" A truth revealed to him. "Half of a harpy's body is bird, half of a mermaid's body is fish, that means they don't have a vagina, they have a cloaca. And even gorgons! Because of their half-snake body, they have only a cloaca. If you have sex with one of them, it means you are having anal sex. Aphrodit didn't just make her a snake, but also banned her from vaginal sex."
Yurine was the first to enter the adventurers' guild as she was ahead, Yu didn't want to leave her inside alone so he sped up and grabbed her by the shoulders when he caught up.
"Stay with me."
The Guild was the most crowded it had ever been. In the center of the guild, many adventurers were celebrating, clinking their goblets together and singing.
"I don't like people singing in public."
Although he had a beautiful voice and the ability to sing, he didn't like it when others sang. He listened to songs on the internet, but it made him uncomfortable to hear it in real life.
"I think it's because I can't shut them up when I want to."
He ignored their singing and walked towards the reception desk.
"Good afternoon," he greeted the receptionist with a raised hand.
"Good afternoon, how can I help you?"
"We were expecting a letter. It should be addressed to Yu Valarfin. Guild number two eight six eight."
The receptionist was sitting in a chair with wheels underneath. Supported by the desk, he pushed himself back and turned around in the chair to stand in front of a cabinet with small drawers.
With the key from his pocket, he unlocked a drawer labeled twenty-eight, pulled the drawer out and started rummaging inside.
"There are two letters, one from Red Chapel and one from the Wizarding Academy."
The receptionist handed the envelopes to Yu.
"Thank you." He took the envelopes and went to the nearest empty table and opened the letter from Redchapel first. "Sivina sent their home address, nothing else." Then he opened the letter from Maron Martin and began to read it.
"What did he write," Yurine asked.
"He wrote something that he claimed would get us out of the city."
Yu didn't think that Maron Martin would actually give such a reference. It would be great if this letter really helped them get out of the city.
"It was the right decision to come here. You should be grateful to have a great being like me by your side. If it wasn't for me, you would never have gotten the letter because you would have been fooling around with that girl. Yes, you should be thankful."
Puffing out his chest, she took the letter from Yu's hand and began to examine it.
"Where do we take this now?"
"To be honest, I thought things like travel bans were issued by the courts, so I was surprised when Floy was the one who said we couldn't leave the city."
He had never had much to do with the courts in the world. His knowledge of law was limited to history lessons and what he had heard and seen.
"Since Floy is the one who gave us the punishment, I say we take the letter to him, and if we need to take it somewhere else, he will tell us where to take it."
***
"You again?"
"To be honest, I don't want to come here either." It was the third time they had been in Floy's office, and Headcommissar Floy was tired of seeing them. "I came here today to bring this letter, to get the travel ban lifted."
Floy took the envelope Yu handed him and opened it.
"Holy shit, how did you convince Mr. Martin to write this? Did he really send it?"
Floy's mouth hung open in astonishment, he didn't think that two ordinary people could get a reference from someone important.
"What did you think bitch..."
Floy was turning the letter over and over, trying to make sure it was true.
"Yes, he did. He gave us a job, and if we don't get out of the city, we won't be able to get it done."
"Look, copying signatures is a serious crime. Did he really send this?"
"How low is our level of credibility in your eyes? Yes, this letter was sent by Maron Martin himself."
The letter must have been more important than Yu had imagined.
"Can we get out of the city now?"
"Do you have a court date yet? Did they send a letter to where you are staying?"
"How will they know where we stay? I don't remember giving residence anywhere."
He did not live in a specific house, but in an inn that he could change at any time.
"Go to the palace of justice and find out when the court date is. I hope the court date hasn't passed, because if it had, the guards would have already found you and taken you to the court by force. Once you know the date, you can act accordingly."
"So... can we get out of the city?"
"You can leave tomorrow."