"Gareth!"
Nicole came running up just as he set Luna down at the base of the tree. She took in the wolf corpses scattered across the clearing, looked back at him, and opened her mouth twice without managing a word.
"You..." she finally managed. "You told me you were a Tier-2 Knight!"
"Grand Knight's still a knight, technically." He crossed his arms, grinning.
Nicole made a sound somewhere between a scoff and a groan. "Fine. You're strong. Happy?" She turned to Luna instead. "And you, what happened to you? Last I saw you, you looked fine."
"Treat her wounds first," Gareth said. "Worry about the rest later."
He stepped around the tree to give them space while Nicole dug out her supply bag and got to work on the bandaging, grumbling the whole time about being bossed around. She'd spent most of the last few days on cleanup and carrying duty anyway, since her strength didn't come close to his.
"Was it a Tier-3 beast?" Nicole asked as she worked, curiosity winning out.
Luna's jaw tightened, sweat beading on her forehead. "There were five of us. Our strongest was a Grand Knight, 6-Star. We could've handled a Tier-3. It wasn't a Tier-3."
"Then what?"
"A Tier-4. The Wolf King itself." Luna shook her head slowly. "We only took a D-rank gathering quest. We were already packing up to leave when the pack hit us. Most of my team didn't make it out. Just me, and the man who saved me."
Nicole's eyes went wide. "Someone stole a cub or something?"
"I don't know. It wasn't only us, either. Every mercenary crew the pack found got hit the same way."
There was real pain under the confusion in her voice.
From behind the tree, Gareth listened without a word, turning it over in his mind. A Tier-4 Wolf King didn't come out personally over nothing, something had disturbed the pack badly enough to provoke that. Missing offspring, stolen territory, something valuable taken. Whatever it was, it was well above his current weight class to chase down. He filed it away and went back to salvaging what he could from the wolf corpses.
By the time Nicole finished with the bandages, Luna's wounds were clean but far from healed, field dressing only went so far. She'd need a proper priest in the city.
Priests were mages too, just specialized in healing. Most people around here didn't bother with the formal titles, mage or knight, they just tagged a profession onto the tier, Tier-1 priest, Tier-1 swordsman, that kind of thing.
"Can you walk?" Gareth asked.
Luna tried, put weight on her left leg, and went pale as pain shot through it. She shook her head, biting back a sound.
Gareth glanced at Nicole.
"Don't look at me, I'm carrying the loot." She held her hands up, unbothered.
"Course you are." He sighed, then crouched down in front of Luna. "Get on."
She hesitated, staring at his back for a moment before leaning in.
His back was broader than she'd expected. Even through the fabric she could feel the shape of real muscle underneath, warm against the evening chill.
He straightened easily, hands braced under her knees, and started walking toward Northwind City without any visible effort.
Luna rested her chin against his shoulder, watching his profile from that angle. Something about him didn't fit into the categories she usually sorted people into. Not his Aura, not his Mana, nothing she could point to directly.
Just a feeling. Something like safety.
Nineteen years old, and she couldn't remember the last time someone her age had made her feel that.
"Mr. Draventhal."
"Gareth's fine."
"Why did you help me?" she asked quietly. "You know the smart thing for a mercenary to do is stay out of other people's business."
He considered his answer for a second, then went for it.
"Four days ago, I came through the south gate. A carriage passed by, wind caught the curtain for a second, and I saw your face taking my heart away with it.." He kept his tone even. "I'm not saying that to pressure you into anything. I helped you because I wanted to. That's the whole reason."
Luna went completely still.
Before she could respond, Nicole snorted loudly from behind them. "Knew it. Should've guessed you were just another guy chasing a pretty face."
"Is that any way to talk to your boss?" Gareth shot back, mock offended.
"You're not my boss. I'm going to run my own mercenary crew someday. Still time to sign on as my deputy, you know."
"Tch. Tier-2 Knight talking about running a crew." He smirked. "I'm the one starting a group. Offer's still open if you want to be a founding member."
"Really? You're going to form a mercenary group? Can you make me the deputy leader?"
"Look, don't say I didn't give you a chance. Call me boss right now, and from now on you'll be a founding member of the mercenary group."
"...Boss."
The wind off the forest picked up, scattering dead leaves around the three of them.
Luna kept her face pressed against his shoulder, staying out of their bickering, listening instead to the steady beat of his heart under her ear. Slow, even, unbothered.
So that was it, then. Love at first sight, apparently, enough to make a stranger risk a Tier-4 wolf pack's leftovers for someone he'd seen for half a second through a carriage window.
Compared to Collins, whose devotion had turned out to be worth exactly nothing the moment it mattered, there was something almost refreshing about a man who just said what he wanted outright.
She kept her expression neutral, but her mind was already running through the calculation on its own. Young. Strong. Talented, evidently. Handsome, if she was being honest with herself. On paper, at least, he checked every box she might have written for herself, and then some.
By the time the three of them made it back to Northwind City, night had fully settled in.
With Nicole leading the way, they found a Tier-2 priest, a middle-aged woman who took one look at Luna's wounds and pronounced them serious-looking but not dangerous, no vital areas hit, just significant blood loss. Two days of treatment and rest, and she'd be back to normal.
Once the priest finished, Gareth brought Luna back to the Drunken Fox. Nicole had already peeled off toward home, her aunt ran a tavern and kept a strict no-staying-out policy. On her way out, she'd shot Gareth a look loaded with meaning and mouthed something at him he couldn't quite make out.
Whatever it was, he doubted it was flattering.