"We're back!" Snapper burst through the door.
"Hmph, took you guys long enough," Larg said, while taking another long sip from his tenth round of ale.
I watched as Snapper returned to our table with Amber hiding just behind him.
I could tell that they had gotten closer somehow.
"H-hey… Does it hurt?" Amber shyly asked the Princess who was sitting opposite me, unable to maintain eye contact with her.
Mel only glanced at Amber for a moment before replying.
"There are worse forms of pain that I have endured throughout my life. Compared to that, this—"
"I get it."
"... If you have any regrets, then I'll be happy to—"
"I don't!" Amber snapped at her. "I will never forgive your family for what they did. But I can't give you guys all the credit for every bad thing that happened back then. I know I'm partly to blame for my mother's death."
"Oh? Maybe you have changed since back then, after all?" Mel said as she arose from her seat. "I'll be taking my leave now."
"W-wait, what? That's it? You're just gonna leave like that? What about your Collectors license?"
"You mean this little thing right here." As she said that, Mel summoned her ID card from her star-shaped CCU, which was a different model to most of the others I'd seen.
"Seriously?!" Amber looked at her in shock, her jaw dropping to the floor.
"You were both taking your sweet time, so we decided to start without you. What were you two doing out there anyway?" she asked almost teasingly.
Amber's face lit up with a warm flush. "Th-that's none of your business!"
"Oh? But you both arrived walking so close together. One would even assume you two might have—"
"DON'T YOU HAVE SOMEWHERE ELSE TO BE?!"
"Of course. I'll get out of your way now." As if it was her intention to make Amber mad before she left, Mel shuffled past her and Snapper with a satisfied smirk.
After reaching the wooden doors, she turned around, her eyes targeting me unwaveringly before I averted my gaze.
This is bad, I thought, as I imagined a large grin growing ominously across her face.
"Wolf, my dear, don't forget about what we discussed." She waved her final goodbyes as she exited the room. "Until we meet again!"
The moment the door slammed shut, there was a delay of silence before the whole room went into uproar.
"'My dear'!?" The first one to confront me with a shocked expression was Amber.
"Dude, I always knew you had it in you." Next was Snapper, who gave me a congratulatory thumbs up while patting my shoulder.
"Mhm!" Larg, gulped down his remaining ale, seemingly in a mood to celebrate.
Other people, who heard Mel's endearing goodbye, began to crowd around our table, asking me things like...
"Were you the one the Princess was just talking to? I'm so frickin' jealous, man!"
"What was she like?"
"Is it true she smells like honey and roses?"
"C-can I have your autograph?"
Why me? I thought, sinking into my chair and–once again–waiting for the world to open up and take me.
…
Once the verbal storm had finally passed, there appeared to be less people present within the Collectors Station.
After showing Snapper and Amber the license I had obtained with Mel, they quickly began their registration in the reception room, which didn't take too long. Larg and I joined them in order to finalize the party forming process.
Then, just like that, we had established a four-man squad with me, Larg, Amber, and Snapper as our leader.
"Alright! Let's head to the dungeons!" Larg vehemently ordered.
The giant taught me everything I needed to know about dungeons as a beginner, and from what I gathered, they were abnormal-looking structures filled with various treasures and beasts.
But dungeons can be very rewarding–you can find rare items to sell as well as a random amount of cards that are awarded after clearing them.
"Not so fast," Snapper said, killing Larg's enthusiasm.
"We're gonna need to stock up on a lot of equipment before we actually start collecting." He turned to Amber and I. "You two need to get armored up first."
"What about you?" Amber challenged. "I don't see how that coat's gonna protect you, unless the dungeons have bad weather or something."
"Haha… very funny," Snapper laughed, sarcastically. "Actually, I'm wearing a layer of chainmail underneath it."
Beneath his coat lay a tight mesh of interlocking steel rings, hugging his torso like a second skin.
"Wouldn't something like that feel quite heavy?" Amber asked as she examined his attire rather closely.
"Woah, you're getting quite close there. What else are you tryna see?"
"... You're disgusting." She quickly moved away from him while grimacing.
"Anyway, let's head out to the armory in the city center, and see what we can find."
"What should I do?" Larg asked.
"Oh, right, I guess coming with us will be a waste of time for you, huh?"
Larg was already equipped with good armor and a large greatsword.
"You can just wait for us or do your own thing. Either way, make sure you meet us back here in about two to three hours."
Larg nodded in response.
"In that case, I'll be heading back home to organize my supplies." Larg exited the station before we all exchanged our goodbyes with him.
It was just the three of us once again.
"You guys ready?"
"All set," Amber responded excitedly.
"I'm ready too," I also added, unable to rival Amber's enthusiasm.
"Alright, let's hit the roa—"
"Wait a minute!"
"Huh?"
When I turned to where that loud voice was coming from, I saw a rather voluptuous girl hurriedly approaching us just before we began to exit the station.
From the way her purple bangs hung over her round spectacles, I could immediately sense a danger in her awkwardly impetuous movements.
"Woah!" The girl cried as she collided with a waiter, sending the tray of food he was carrying soaring into the air before they both tumbled to the ground.
The girl's glasses were flung out of her face as she and the waiter hit the floor, then I watched as two bowls of soup began to descend from above each of them.
"Look out!" I heard someone shout, causing the girl to look up.
She seemed to be staring aimlessly at an object she wasn't able to see clearly.
However, I had already anticipated an incident like this would occur, and it was a fortunate thing that I was the closest person to them.
With a strong step of my right foot, I immediately propelled myself forward, catching the two bowls just before they were able to hit anyone.
"Wow!"
"Amazing!"
I heard people cheering and applauding around me as I held the two hot bowls within my palms, managing to prevent any of their contents from spilling.
"He's a hero!" I heard another person say as the applause reached its climax before slowly dying.
I looked down at the dumbfounded girl, noticing a metallic object poking out from under the long sleeve of her pink cardigan.
I then carefully returned the bowls to the waiter, who patted down his formal work uniform after rising to his feet.
"Thank you, sir." He bowed and moved on to complete his duties.
Finally freeing my burning hands, I was able to retrieve the girl's glasses.
I handed them to her and then helped her get back on her feet.
She's quite heavy, I thought. Much heavier than Amber, at least.
"Th-Thank you," she said to me while adjusting her glasses.
I was no longer able to see the metal object that protruded from her sleeve, but I noticed that–for some reason–her right hand remained visible while her left seemed to be hidden somewhere within her cardigan.
"Are you alright…? Your face—"
"M-m-my face? W-what's wrong with my face?" She panicked, holding her flushed cheeks with both hands while frantically shaking her head. "Oh, crap!"
She quickly pulled her left hand back into her sleeve, but it was already too late.
The image that she didn't want to expose was stored permanently within my mind.
"D-did you see it?" she asked nervously.
I simply nodded in response.
"I see…"
After noticing how upset she was, I opened my mouth to apologize, but her words quickly stopped me.
"Don't worry, it's not your fault... y-you did save me, after all."
Once we reached an understanding, I considered an attempt at breaking the awkward atmosphere with a joke of some kind.
Fortunately, Snapper and Amber were able to interrupt before I said something unnecessary.
"Hey, what was all the commotion about?" Snapper asked.
"Who's this?" Amber followed, pointing toward the woman facing me.
"Umm, this is…" I attempted to answer, but I actually had no idea myself.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." The woman bowed deeply in an over apologetic manner. "I-I'll introduce myself now… My name is Maybelle Ferrum. I tried to stop you guys earlier, but I'm hopelessly clumsy, so I bumped into one of the waiters and fell. Umm…"
For a moment, her eyes wandered in my direction.
"I-If it wasn't for your friend, I would probably be covered in hot soup right now."
"Hmm? Our Wolf's already a knight in shining armor, eh?" Snapper teased while nudging me with his elbow. "Maybe we don't need to take you to the armory, after all."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Amber raised an eyebrow at Snapper, who put his arm around me before whispering into my ear.
"Listen here, Prince Charming, you gotta slow yourself down or else Amber's gonna start getting pissed."
"Now you're whispering to him?" she questioned. "Wolf, don't listen to anything he says."
"Hey, I'm tryna help you out here!"
A flicker of anger crossed Amber's otherwise puzzled face.
"How could you possibly be trying to help me?"
"Oh, wouldn't you like to know?"
"You're a total windbag, you know that!?"
"And you're a dirt fox, know that!?"
"Windbag!"
"Dirty fox!"
Their back and forth continued for a while and they began to butt heads again while growling at each other like wild animals.
"Erm..." The girl named Maybelle tried to divert their attention. "I think I overheard you guys talking about an armory?"
She managed to gain Snapper's attention as he swiftly moved away from Amber.
"Yeah, we were just about to head over there now. What is it to you?" he asked rather skeptically.
"I-If you don't mind me asking, which one are you planning to go to?"
"Steel Grove Armory–the best in the city."
"I see..." Maybelle, tilted her head down, as if to search the ground for some kind of resolve. "I think you should reconsider."
"Excuse me?" Snapper replied quite intensely. "Why exactly would I want to reconsider going to the best armory this city has to offer?"
"Because it's not the best," she murmured, perhaps a little too quietly for average ears to perceive.
"I'm sorry, could you please speak up? What was it you just said?" Snapper tightened their proximity.
"Umm..." Maybelle nervously backed away.
"Hey, ease up, would you? You're scaring her." Amber seemed to notice that Maybelle felt intimidated by Snapper.
"Don't blame me. If she has something she wants to say then she should frickin' say it instead of wasting our ti–"
"Steel Grove is not the best Armory in this city!" She suddenly shouted at Snapper, as embarrassment quickly washed over her.
"Hmm?" Snapper's hostility devolved into curiosity. "And why's that?"
"Th-there's another armory that's much closer to the station. It's quite small since it's new, but I can assure you, the quality of the armor and weapons there are much better with fair market prices too."
"'Fair market price', she says," Snapper mocked. "I've met tons of people like you before–you try to manipulate naïve idiots with talk about equitable prices and what not, when you're really just tryna downplay other businesses in order to promote a shittier one."
He stood directly in front of Maybelle, looking down at her face with a terrifying expression.
"DO I LOOK NAÏVE TO YOU??"
"Th-That's not…"
"Look, I think she's had enough of your bullying, alright?" Amber intervened, grabbing Snapper by the arm. "Let's just leave her alone and head on over to Steel Grove."
"Good idea, I'm done listening to this shitty ambassador. I can't imagine how much worse the owner of that armory is. Everything about this just seems like a scam."
"IT'S NOT A SCAM!" A hint of aggression laced Maybelle's tone, causing the world to go silent. Practically everyone in the vicinity surrendered their attention to her at this moment.
"My father owns the Armory. He's an honest man and a hard worker–he would never scam anybody! He's also a very talented blacksmith and craftsman, and if you don't believe me then take a look at this!"
She pulled up her left sleeve, revealing the metal prosthetic attached to her left arm.
Practically everyone in the room bore gazes full of shock. Even Snapper didn't expect to see something like this.
"This was his greatest gift to me, and I would always hide it away in public because I felt embarrassed by it," Maybelle continued in a remorseful tone. "I felt like a monster–like I was abnormal. But my father devoted most of his time and effort to make this out of the pure kindness of his heart–that's the type of man he is. Someone as ungrateful as me doesn't deserve to be his daughter…"
Her tone softened, and I watched the tears start to glisten within her magenta eyes as an eerie silence filled the room.
Then, one person stood up and cried out…
"That hand looks amazing! Your dad did an excellent job!"
Then another…
"Yeah, it's so cool! It makes you look like a total badass!"
People continued to flood the room with compliments about Maybelle's prosthetic, as she stood in the center, shocked into speechlessness.
At that moment I decided it would be best to wake her from her trance, so I lightly tapped her shoulder to get her attention.
"Hey, Maybelle?"
"H-huh?"
"When people compliment you, I think you're supposed to show your gratitude towards them."
The focus in her eyes soon returned.
"Y-yeah, you're right."
In response to everyone's words, she thanked them by impetuously bowing her head in almost every direction until exhaustion.
After raising her head again for the last time, I could tell from the spiraling in her eyes that she was feeling quite dizzy.
When Maybelle approached me, I watched her body stagger before completely shutting down and collapsing toward the floor.
Fortunately, I was able to catch her mid-way through her descent.
"Thank you…" she whispered, seemingly fighting against the weight of her eyelids.
"What for?" I asked, thinking my actions were just common courtesy.
"... For not treating me like a monster." This time her whisper was much weaker, and her eyes finally surrendered as she gracefully fainted within my arms.