Angeline figured she should get some dinner and made her way to the usual pub. It was as crowded and boisterous as ever. There were no seats left at the bar, so she looked around for whatever seating she could get, only to find her party members sitting at one of the tables.
That worked out nicely... Angeline walked over to them with a skip in her step.
“Oh!” Marguerite was the first to notice her, and she called out while gesturing with her glass. “Where the hell have you been? We went to your room and you weren’t there.”
“I went to see Granny Maria...”
“Huh? The hag?” asked Miriam. “That’s a long way to go when you’re so sick, Ange.”
“But you look a bit better now,” Anessa noted, pouring a glass of wine for her friend. Angeline drained it in one gulp, even as weary as she was.
Angeline took a deep breath before speaking her mind. “I’ve decided—we’re leaving for Turnera right away. As soon as we’re ready, anyways.”
Her friends looked at her wide-eyed, though none of them were really that shocked.
“Seriously?” Marguerite exclaimed. “Not that I’ve got anything against it...”
“Well, we’re going anyways, so what’s the harm? If Ange can’t go on requests anyways, it makes no difference whether we’re in Orphen or Turnera,” Anessa reasoned.
“Then we’ll need to hurry up and get ready. We should buy some souvenirs to take with us!” Miriam chimed in.
The three girls all knew just how much Angeline longed to go home. It was a bit of a surprise that they were now going to leave so soon, but it wasn’t an outrageous proposition either.
Anessa put in another order with a waitress before asking Angeline, “Did Maria give you some good medicine?”
“Hmm... She did, but she also told me that my dad is my best medicine for me and I should hurry back to Turnera.”
Her friends immediately burst into laughter at that.
“Aha ha ha ha! Of course he is! Bell’s a cure-all for Ange,” Marguerite teased.
“Is that why your complexion is better now?” Anessa observed. “Well, good for you.”
“The hag says some smart things now and then,” Miriam said.
When Angeline was having a hard time making up her mind, it was nice to have someone who would give her a nudge in the right direction. Angeline nodded and reached for her second cup of wine. She still felt a bit glum, knowing another nightmare would strike that night, but the cheery energy of the pub helped to put her at ease even in spite of that. She wished she could spend the entire sleepless night here and not have to leave the buoyant environment, but she knew that wasn’t an option.
“So, what did you talk about with Ms. Maria?” Anessa asked.
“Um... About why I turned out to be human even though mom is an elf.”
“Oh yeah, did you figure anything out?”
Angeline slowly recounted all the details she could remember of what Maria had told her. Anessa seemed convinced by that reasoning.
“I see... That makes sense.”
“Anything else?” Marguerite chimed in.
Angeline mulled that over. “Other than that... Um, something about the ‘flow of events’ that Mr. Salazar kept talking about.”
Marguerite scowled openly at the mention of Salazar. “Ick, I didn’t understand a word of that stuff. I haven’t got a clue what Salazar was talking about... Did you get any of it, Ange?”
“Do you think I would have?”
“Good. Glad we’re on the same page,” Marguerite said, happily refilling Angeline’s glass.
Anessa and Miriam smiled wryly as well. If even Kasim had waved off Salazar’s ramblings as nonsense, they weren’t in any better position to understand it themselves.
The conversation turned to the fiend hunt that the three girls had helped out with, and then to what gifts would be best to bring to Turnera and whether they’d ultimately end up spending the winter there, and then, what would become of their journey to the east if they did. Their enthusiasm seemed to fuel the rapidly shifting conversation topics.
“Come to think of it, what ever happened to Ishmael?” Marguerite asked around a mouthful of steamed potatoes. “Didn’t he say he wanted to go to Turnera too?”
“Oh, you’re right,” Miriam said. “What do you think he’s getting up to? I haven’t seen him once since that time we met him here.”
Anessa put a hand to her mouth in thought. “Maybe he’s working to pay for his travels?”
Angeline had a ready answer to that. “No, I asked Yuri—he hasn’t taken on a single request.” It was because she couldn’t get in touch with him that she had gone to see Maria first. All four of them silently puzzled over what was turning out to be an even bigger mystery than they could have expected.
“And then there’s Yakumo and Lucille,” Anessa said, leaving aside the questions surrounding Ishmael for the time being.
“If we plan on heading east, they’re going to join us, right?” said Miriam. “If they’re not going to Turnera, will they be waiting for us in Orphen, then?”
Angeline folded her arms—she hadn’t considered that. If Yakumo and Lucille would wait in Orphen, then they couldn’t spend the entire winter in Turnera. Though perhaps there was a chance that the duo might want to join them in Turnera and spend the winter there too. The last time she had spoken with Yakumo, she hadn’t seemed too keen on the idea, while Lucille’s opinion was unknown. To Angeline, Turnera was her irreplaceable homeland, but to those two, it was just a cold place in the countryside. Surely Ishmael would feel the same too.
Angeline leaned back in her chair. Though she wanted to set off as soon as possible, this issue was bigger than her own whims. “What should we do...? This is troublesome.”
“Now, now. We’ll have to talk to them first before anything else. Let’s all try finding them tomorrow,” Miriam suggested while poking at Angeline’s cheeks.
Angeline pinched Miriam back. “Merry... You’re getting kinda chubby.”
“What was that?!” Miriam cried out, pouting.
The night passed by slowly. Angeline had already slept a bit, albeit not without nightmares. Now that she had calmed down somewhat, she didn’t feel particularly sleepy. But the rest of her party had gone off to work earlier, and they were a bit tired now.
Marguerite stretched her arms above her head and yawned. “Ahh... I’m tuckered out.”
“Right? It’s been so long since we had a joint request. It was kinda exhausting.”
The job they’d completed was a fiend hunt that had taken several parties working together to complete. The number of fiends in a nearby dungeon had grown to an unmanageable level, and there was a danger of fiends flooding out into the world. Although the fiends themselves were all low rank, the sheer number of them was a force to be reckoned with.
“You should hit the sack early...” Angeline said, listlessly leaning back into her chair. “Let’s meet tomorrow at the guild.”
“What about you, Ange?” asked Anessa.
“I’ll drink a bit more... I’m not sleepy yet.”
The other three turned to each other, and after a moment’s silent contemplation, Anessa spoke for them. “Take care of yourself. Honestly, not having you around...made today’s job a lot more exhausting for us.”
“I know, right? Maggie got in over her head and tried to charge straight at them.”
Marguerite pouted. “I already said I was sorry...”
Anessa and Miriam laughed at her.
With that, the others headed back, and Angeline was left alone at the table. The pub as a whole was a little less crowded now that the dinner rush had passed. For a while, Angeline simply nursed her wine with a distant, unfocused gaze, enjoying this moment of calm. She felt so calm, in fact, that she found it quite peculiar on reflection. She hadn’t felt like this in a while. She was slowly polishing off the food that remained on her plate when she heard a familiar voice call out to her.
“Ah, there you are.”
“Guild master...?” Angeline looked over to find Lionel standing there, seemingly relieved to see her. I don’t see him here too often...
“I’m really glad I found you.”
“What’s wrong? Do you need something from me?”
“Well, not me.” Lionel leaned aside a bit to reveal Ishmael standing behind him.
Hmm? What’s this? “Mr. Ishmael! I’ve been looking for you... Where have you been?” Angeline asked.