We brought Simon and Emily up to their room. Evidently, they had slept on one of the bar tables the night prior. Neither of them was capable of vocalising much more than grunts and exhausted moans. However, Emily tried to nuzzle her face against me, upon which Rebecca decided that I should pick up Simon instead, as if I had planned on picking up the six-foot-five horsegirl over the three-foot nothing bunnyman. I may have been a gentleman and all that, but there were limits to my abilities. Many, in fact, but that was besides the point.

  After various miscellaneous purchases over the last few weeks, we had a pooled account of 432 Rentrae. Neither Rebecca nor I were too good at the whole “saving” thing, so a lot of our money had been spent on extra jerky or dried fruits for on the road, but a good amount had been spent on useful things, a thicker blanket against the dropping temperatures, a waterproof tarp, bigger canteens, etc. A lot of things that, had either of us known more about adventuring, we′d have already had.

  “Looks like we are going to stay for a bit longer.”, Rebecca said.

  “Yeah, no chance we′re leaving today. Wanna see the city?”

  “Last time we left them alone, Simon got taken.”, Rebecca reminded me. Then her eyes fell on the twins.

  “I'm sure you two are still tired.”, Rebecca said, looking at the two. “Why don't you stay with Simon and Emily, no reason to rush behind us all day today.”

  Robin began chirping what was clearly words of complaint before Nico nudged his sister and began tweeting at her, which caused her to sigh, then grin at her brother. Then the two of them gave us a feathery thumbs up.

  I wished I knew what they said. Not for the first time either. But I had enough on my plate already in terms of learning. Regardless, now Rebecca and I could make our way through town without any guilt at leaving our charges alone, which was also very nice.

  We started our day by spending five Rentrae on a fresh loaf of bread, along with some cheese and slices of liverwurst that I convinced Rebecca to get.

  Then we sat on a bench, ripped the bread in half, and began eating breakfast.

  “So…. is that good?”, Rebecca asked curiously as she saw me spread the soft sausage on the bread. “It's offal, right?”

  I took a bite, the crust crackling in my mouth as the savory flavor spread on my tongue. I closed my eyes as I chewed. “It tastes like home.”, I whispered.

  Rebecca pressed her lips together in curiosity. “Can I try?”

  I handed her a slice of liverwurst.

  “My home country is really big on sausage.”, I explained. “And I like this type especially.

  Rebecca sniffed the sausage before putting on a chunk of bread. “Hmm.”, she said, through a mouth of bread. “Interesting. I′ll be honest, I didn't think it would be good.”

  “Happy to hear you like it.”, I said.

  With breakfast settled, we went wandering the streets. We were mostly unbothered by others, if not for three hooligans, that quickly reconsidered after being snarled at.

  Sene was perhaps the biggest town we had been in so far, bigger than even “Roamiken, City of Commerce” as our employer had called it. I had, to be fully honest, not seen that many shops in Roamiken. Then again, my ability to find stuff was apparently horrible.

  “Anything you′re on the lookout for?”, I asked Rebecca, who shook her head.

  “No, I'm happy enough just wandering the streets with you. Are you looking for anything?”

  Why did that make my heart beat faster?

  “Skill books, I guess. Enchanted Items.”

  “Always trying to get more skills. You mentioned there′s no Grace back where you′re from. Is that why?”

  “I mean thats part of the reason, yeah.”

  “Part of it?”

  I hesitated, focusing on dodging a rock that stuck out between the rest of the cobblestone. “Yeah. As I said, I don't exactly feel useful next to you. I'm kind of just tagging along.”

  “You can make fire, and you recently learned how to make emergency food. In the entirety of the kingdom, there is no perceptive skill as strong as the bloodline skill of the Vide family, and so on. Believe me, Henry, I appreciate having you here, even if you call it just “tagging along.” She smiled at me. “You′ve done a lot for me already. Ok?”

  “Anybody could′ve done that. Minus the Vide family thing, maybe. But even then, I only got the spells because I belong to that family.”

  Rebecca placed a hand on my shoulder and led me into an alley before pushing my shoulders to a wall. She brought her face close to me and said, very patiently and very clearly:

  “If it wasn't for you deciding I could take it, I would still not have a sword. Had you not insisted that the guy at the guild see what he could do, I wouldn't have a Grace. I wouldn't be out here now, closer to fulfilling my dreams than ever. Simon and Emily both were able to purchase more wares, which might not sound big, but for merchants like them, even a one-time increase in income is huge. If not for you, Robin and Nico would still be slaves, which is something nobody would have expected you to do for them or anybody, for that matter, and I would be no further from figuring out how to improve my Water Core Technique than I was a decade ago. And I told you when we tried to get registered, no? There is one fighter and one support. Yes, I'll admit, you didn't have much to do for now, but once we get registered, we′re gonna need those skills more than just another sword. Also-”

  Rebecca got a bit quieter, her voice softening as a sad tinge came to her. “Do you think anybody who could′ve done even a fraction of these things, like… let's say the real Henry Vide or maybe even another Rolander….. would′ve stayed with me? After how we met?”

  She looked at me, deep into me. “Don't answer that.”, she added, taking my hand before standing up again. “Let's look around a bit more. If getting more skills would help you feel better, we can do that. Who knows, might save our butts one day.”

  I walked beside her, feeling the warmth of her hand around mine. The cobblestone path led us towards a building with large glass pane windows that showed rows upon rows of books. Memories of bookstores in my past life flared up. Pleasant memories of rummaging between aisles, checking out blurbs, talking to the salespeople about preferences, and what books they had read-

  The gentle buzzing of [New World Mental Block] filled my head, and all the nostalgia vanished. That was new. Would the thought have turned negative? Did it just kill off ANY thought of my past life if it was too intense?

  I tugged on Rebecca's hand. She stopped and turned. “You wanna check out that one?”, she asked.

  As we entered the store, we were greeted by an elderly woman. A pair of triangular ears broke through the top of her whitened hair while her tail stood up straight. “Hello.”, she purred. “How may I help you two?”

  Her eyes fell onto our intertwined hands, and her ears flicked. “A book on human-demihuman relations, maybe?“, she asked. Rebecca's tail wagged, slapping against my back.

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  “Do you have one on the history of the topic?”, Rebecca asked eagerly, much to the lady's confusion.

  ”Ma-aybe in the history section.”, she said and pointed towards a row of books at the back end of the store.

  “History section?” Rebecca′s ears perked up. “I'm gonna look around a bit, if you don't mind.” She shivered in excitement, and now it was my turn to smile at her. “Sure you ca-”

  Rebecca had already bolted off, speedwalking as fast as was reasonably allowed in a store towards the section the cat-woman had indicated.

  “Well thats a surprise.”, the woman said, tail slowly moving from side to side as she watched the canid woman rummage through the aisles.

  I could hear her mutter to herself. “Read that one, read that one, oh, there's a second volume?”

  More comments like this followed as she made her way through the shelves with surprising nimbleness.

  Turning to the cat lady, I said, “I'm looking into skills. Do you have anything on that?”

  Tapping her nails on the table, the woman thought for a few moments. “I have some books on the core techniques. Does that count? Some alchemical texts, a bit on herbs. A bit on rites too… I′m not big enough to have skill scrolls here Im affraid”

  I laid both hands on the counter. “By all means, show me those books.”

  I placed a piece of cloth onto the table, and Rebecca and I placed our purchases onto it with a Thump, before I held the Moonstone above it. “Racecar.”, I whispered, and the bag closed before shrinking down. Apart from two books, we had managed to fit everything into a bag formed by [Simple Transportation Magic].

  Rebecca picked the bag up, and I took the remaining books. “One of us should have held back.”, she said sheepishly as she looked at the heavier bag and our lighter purse. We stepped out of the store, the owner sending us off with a purr in her voice.

  “Before or after we spent 256 Rentrae on books?”, I asked.

  We silently thought about our purchases.

  “Probably when the price reached triple digits.”, Rebecca suggested.

  “I don't regret anything.”, I said.

  Rebecca chuckled. “Me neither. Lunch?”

  My stomach growled at the thought of foo and I looked up. The sun was already high in the sky.

  “Lunch.”

  We had some well-seasoned meat skewers and no conversation. Rebecca was flippnig through the pages of “History of Canid Culture” From time to time she snorted and made comments like, “But of course, that's not an reputdable source.” or “Why is there a whole paragraph on this, the guy hasnt even been NEAR the territory.”, the latter sometimes followed up by a meeker: “Oh wait that was before the borders changed. That still belonged to the human territory back then.”

  I was reading through “The five core types” half martial arts guide, half lifestyle book. According to the book, the ability to perform the [Steel Core Technique] was required to create and forge steelbreath like my gauntlets. Were I to learn the technique myself, I could use a necklace to forge my skin to be as hard as the material of the necklace. Some steel core masters were fully unarmored except for a bellybutton piercing made of adamantite or a piercing of similar material somewhere else on their bodies, to allow themselves to become near invulnerable for as long as they could keep up the technique without wearing any visible armor. It might be worth looking into next. Perhaps once I had a ring or two in [Basic Core Technique].

  That only lasted till I flipped a page, however. “The fire core, possessed by Felids, allows the body to charge energy comparable to the energy stored in Moonstones.”

  In that moment, a bunch of things clicked for me. First, it explained how my magical items worked. Harpies possessed the basic core, yet Rebecca and I could still learn how to use it. Rebecca also said I'd be able to learn the water core. By that logic, it would make sense if the items drew their energy from wherever the fire core would stem from. It also made me wonder if that meant I could improve the power of these items by acquiring a fire core and being able to give them more energy.

  It also allowed me to revisit a few ideas I had had regarding some of my spells, now that I potentially didn't need to rely on the Moonstones to use them. And if that wasn't enough of the good things, the book also contained a crafting guide for creating a training mask for the correct core breathing.

  “You′re excited.”, Rebecca said. “Something good in there?”, she had looked up from her book, leaned on one arm, watching me.

  “Yeah.”, I said. “If this all works like I'm hoping, I'm finally gonna be of some use.”

  “No.”, Rebecca said sternly. She closed her book.

  “No?”

  “No, you are not. “Finally gonna be of some use.” Henry. I told you, didn't I? You′re already doing all you can, and what you can do is helpful under normal circumstances. By all the hells, even your little flail is more than a bunch of people in your position would be willing to do. Repeat after me.”

  “After me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Smartass.”

  “Sorry.”, I closed my own book. Rebecca laid hers on top.

  “I'm gonna be MORE useful.”

  “I'm gonna be MORE useful.”, I repeated.

  “Good. I don't wanna hear you talk down to yourself again. Now lets go on, that waiter has been giving us side-eye for half an hour now.”

  She shouldered her bag, and I took the books. I tipped the waiter before we left.

  We continued walking through the streets side by side, as we rambled to each other about what we found in our new books.

  We made our way back to the inn shortly before nightfall. We didn't get far before stumbling across Simon and Emily, neither of whom looked good by any stretch of the word, but at least they were vertical again.

  “You look much better now.”, Rebecca told Emily, which earned her an annoyed look from the smaller woman. Robin and Nico, almost as soon as they saw Rebecca, got up and began flanking us again, without any comment made by either of them.

  “Are we gonna continue tomorrow?”, I asked Simon, who nodded tiredly.

  “If I stop throwing up, yes.”

  I found myself patting him on the shoulder, to which he sighed. “Next time I drink, someone strike me down before I get a beer.”

  Emily looked at her father, then at us. “Strike him down twice before he gets me one either.”

  Rebecca and I excused ourselves for the night, making our way upstairs before lying down in bed. Rebecca insisted we scoot together so Robin and Nico would have enough space to join us later, and I didn't mind.

  “Today was a good day.”

  “Agreed.”

  Rebecca extinguished the lamp, and darkness claimed us.

  I thought about Rebecca's words earlier today, feeling warmth rise in my chest at the thought of how highly she thought of me after all.

  The last thing I saw before drifting off to sleep was my open Grace and the message displayed on it.

  Your disposition towards yourself is improving.

  _________________________________________________________________________

  Current Status:

  Stats:

  Power: 2

  Agility: 1

  Toughness: 3

  Mental: 2

  Perception: 3

  Mana: N/A

  Effects:

  Night Vision  Lvl. 1

  Overlapping Protection  Lvl. 1

  Poisonous Blood  Lvl. 1

  Protection against Natural Poison and Venom Lvl. 1

  Skills:

  [Basic Core Technique]  Lvl. 1

  [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] Lvl. 2

  [Emperors Gaze]  Lvl. 2

  [New World Mental Block]  Lvl. N/A

  Known Ritual Spells:

  [Basic Healing Magic][Determine Value]

  [Filth to Food]

  [Ignite]

  [Liquid Equilibrium]

  [Rite of True Death]

  [Simple Transportation Magic]

  [Trigger]