章 27: Episode 6: Vacation (2)

Outskirts of Yumin—Yumin Forest [8:01 AM].

Within the forest of Yumin, a woman could be seen walking down the dirt pathway in a delightful manner. Meanwhile, from behind her—Fei and two men—Xander and Damian, paced themselves from behind.

"..."

As they walked, the atmosphere slowly turned into that of an awkward one.

"Um, O-Orelia?" Xander, who was in between the two abnormally quiet siblings was slowly feeling discomfort from the two sides. "—are you going to do something about this, or...?" Thus, he whispered out in a cumbersome voice towards Orelia.

"Mhm~ Mhm~" But, despite his pleas for help, Orelia remained ignorant of the situation—seemingly humming out a tune without a care in the world for the atmosphere. "A vacation~ A vacation!"

"Orelia..." the man sighed helplessly as he turned towards Fei and Damian who had been coated by a gloomy aura, almost as if it was slowly growing out of hand. "...please, help?"

Throughout the entire time after the group had left Yumin, Fei and Damian had not spoken a single word to one another. However, despite that, the two siblings had been giving off an energy of discomfort and awkwardness—not showing signs of it stopping anytime soon.

"Hah..." Stopping at her footsteps upon Xander's final pleas, Orelia took a deep breath as she then turned to look at the back of her—soon eyeing on the two siblings. "Aren't you two excited? Come on! Be happy that we're going on a trip!"

"...no, shouldn't we be asking you the contrary? Aren't you a little too excited?" With a listless sigh, Damian finally spoke out. "We're only going to Brime. So what exactly is so exciting about that?"

"Eh?! Is that even a question!?" Orelia cried out in shock. "I'll have you know, Brime is the city of entertainment! Entertainment I tell you! There's lots of interesting stuff there!"

"...yeah, lots of interesting stuff," Fei muttered out in dejection. "But knowing you, I'm sure you have lots of stuff planned for us. Like... Something something guild matters?"

"Hey! What do you mean by that?" Orelia grumbled. "Surely, you don't think I'm some evil instructor that would let you do all the work whilst I enjoy my time in Brime?"

"...the fact that you even mentioned work is a dead giveaway," Damian scoffed. "But, yes. That is exactly the first thought that came to mind after hearing your announcement that we were going on a vacation."

Damian and Fei were no strangers to the tendencies of Orelia. They had visited Brime numerous times, however—those visits weren't at all relaxing for them. For them, whenever they were on a trip together with Orelia—they always have had their hands full. For she would typically give odd guild jobs despite them not even being a guild ranker at that time.

By Orelia's reasoning, it was all but under the pretence of 'training'.

"—besides," Damian took a glance over towards Fei as in the next moment, he averted his gaze away and continued on with his sentence. "It's far too convenient of a time for us to head out for a 'Vacation'. Especially if you account for the fact that we only just recently became official Guild Rankers."

"Sigh... You guys..." Orelia pouted at the remarks. "Okay, okay! I'll admit. I was thinking of having you do 'some' guild jobs while we're in Brime. But, it's only reasonable! After all, you still need to officially start your guild duties!"

"As if we hadn't already," Damain scoffed. "But, that's to be said. I guess it wouldn't hurt for a change of surroundings. Especially after all that had happened..." trailing off his line of thought, he coughed—quickly interrupting himself.

"..." Hearing Damian's reply, Fei couldn't help but take a glance at him. It was the first time she had willingly done so after that night. However, not long after—she took a deep breath as she quickly turned towards Orelia. "Ahem... Well, you better not shower us with unreasonable amounts of guild jobs like you do every time we're in Brime!"

"Oh my, what do you mean?" Orelia slightly coughed at Fei's comment. "I wasn't showering you with countless jobs for nothing! It was all part of the training! You need experience, after all!"

"...that doesn't exactly help with your case, Orelia," Xander helplessly said.

"Argh... Nevermind that! Let bygones be bygones, alright?" Orelia soon composed herself after an abrupt pause. "Besides, I said it was only a reasonable amount, right? So there's that!"

"SIgh... If you say so," Fei frowned. "If you're not going to be showering us with so many guild jobs—then, I can finally get a chance to take a look at what the city has to offer, right?"

"Yep~!" Orelia clasped her hands in delight. "As the city of Brime is known for its major entertainment hotspots, it means there's plenty of stuff in store for us!" she chuckled. "For one, there's this one show that has been all the craze as of late! What was it again? Ah~ The Dancer of Vermillion Flames!"

"Oh? The Dancer of Vermillion?" Xander raised his brow amusingly. "I think I've heard a bit about her whilst I was out in other cities. If I recall..." he thought to himself. "—the one whose arts manipulate the blazing flames of a Phoenix, she who brings about the Vermillion light for all to see—that was the description of the dancer, wasn't it?"

"Mhm~!" Orelia excitedly nodded her head. "If we get the chance to, I'd like for us to watch the show together!" she smiled cheerfully. "Then maybe after that, we could possibly enjoy the night at one of those pretty big bars in the city? Hehe~ The nights going to be exciting!"

"Exciting for you..." Xander shook his head helplessly. "You know we can't drink, right?"

As of right now, the three was barred from drinking as they had yet reached the age requirement to drink—which was at 18. Currently, Fei and Damian were sixteen while Xander was seventeen.

"Eh~ I get the drinks, you get the food. Win-win!" Orelia reasoned.

"Yeah, yeah... At least we get to enjoy that," Damian shrugged. "But... On that note, wearn't you broke? Where did you get all this money to spend all of a sudden?" he questioned. "You didn't steal it from Roy and Balmar, did you?"

"Tsk... You underestimate my ability to get money!" she pouted. "I'm not called the 'Arcana Fortuna' for nothing! I make business by reading the fortunes of others while I'm out on guild jobs. So double the money-making!"

"...eh, I still have doubts about your readings," Damian muttered out in suspicion. "But, if you say so, then I'll take it at face value."

"Seriously? I gave you reading too, Damian!"

"..." hearing Orelia's response, Damian soon closed his mouth as he recalled the tarot card reading Orelia had given just a few days ago. "...yeah, you did."

"Ahem..." As the atmosphere became awkward once again, Fei slightly coughed. "So... With you saying that you've got money," she tilted her head. "How much is our allowance?"

"Hmm?" Orelia thought to herself as she soon answered. "500 Fiol!"

"...huh? Come again?" Fei blinked in shock. "500 FIOL?! No way! Orelia... You've got to be joking, right?"

"500 Fiol is..." Just as how dumbstruck Fei was, Damain was no different. "...so that's how you're to get us to do jobs at the guild?"

"Oops! I guess my plan's out in the open," she chuckled. "But hey, reasonable, right? Brime's guild jobs have some good pay! So since we'll be there for a while, why not?"

"Hah... How is this even going on a vacation anymore?" Xander sighed. "500 Fiol can't even get you a decent meal at one of the tavern's menu. In fact... I don't think 500 Fiol can even get you anything of quality in the city."

"Jee Orelia..." Fei pouted. "Had I known about this, I would've just brought my savings with me! All I have now is my backpack and some supplies for the journey... Ahh! I didn't prepare enough!"

"Well, to be fair," Xander folded his arms. "You were sleeping in Orelia's room last night. So... You couldn't exactly 'prepare' even if you wanted to, right? I mean, Orelia also did drag you out of the guildhall and had us leave immediately too."

"Well true. I would've gone empty-handed here if it wearn't for you packing my stuff," Fei smiled. "So thanks for that, Xander!"

"Ah... Well about that," Xander uttered out abruptly. When the group was about to leave, Damian had given Fei's belonging to Xander for him to give to Fei and thus he obliged. However, never would he have expected that Fei would've thought that Xander was the one to pack her belongings. "...D—" So, just as he was about to explain himself—a loud gunshot rang through the forest, soon interrupting him.

Bang!

"...?!" Cautioned by the sound, the group quickly turned towards the direction of it. There, their eyes opened wide as they saw that, by the distance, a pack of grey wolves were gathered in a small area. "...huh? Monsters?"