Ace and Aliza both stood up, finalizing their partnership.

*growl*

Ace’s face grew red in reaction to the sudden stomach growl, ruining the moment they shared.

“Hahaha, you haven’t had breakfast yet? Me neither, let’s go get some.”

She said, hearing his stomach call out.

“But, before that...”

She pulled a sword out from underneath her robe and...

*RIP!*

She sliced a piece off her robe.

“Here, tie this around your head.”

He couldn’t get a full view of the sword, as she put it away just as fast as she took it out, but Ace could tell, it was beautiful.

“Thank you.”

Ace said as he wrapped the piece of cloth around the top of his head.

“Let’s go, I know a good place.”

Ace tilted his head after hearing that she was familiar with the village. She said that she was an adventurer, so he wasn’t expecting her to be familiar with the village.

“—? How long have you been at Furio Village for?”

“I like to stop at villages for at least a week, meeting all the different types of people, eating all the different types of food, just seeing how different each village and city is from each other.”

“That’s what it means to be an adventurer.”

“The meeting people part is a little tough in this village, but I made sure to do all the other stuff before I set out.”

“OK, I’ll trust your word on the breakfast.”

Aliza smiled and grabbed his hand pulling him towards the forest’s exit.

As Ace entered the village for the second time, he realized this time, he wasn’t dying and this time, he wasn’t alone.

He hasn’t felt too many moments of relief in this world but, this was one of the good ones.

Ace put on a small smile this time before entering the village. It couldn’t be seen though, because of his head posture and the hood covering his head.

He whispered really quiet under his breath...

“Thank you... really.”

“Huh? Did you say something.”

Ace looked at the girl in front of him and smiled once more, revealing it fully to her.

She looked back at him and blushed at the sight of him showing his pure happiness to her.

“Haha, nothing.”

Ace responded, brushing off his words of gratitude.

She quickly looked back ahead, Ace getting a quick glimpse of her sky-blue hair.

“You’re strange...”

“Whatever... let’s go before they stop serving breakfast.”

She pulled his arm for a few more minutes before reaching a small shop stand on the side of the street.

It was run by a male demihuman, one who had large arms and a rag on his head.

“Can we get two eggs with bacon?”

“Right up!”

Aliza ordered a dish that sounded all too familiar to Ace, the shop owner responding with a tone that was friendly with his customers as he started preparing the food.

“Thank you!”

“I’ll whip it up right away, sit tight for a few minutes.”

“No problem.. we’ll be sitting on the bench over there, call us over when it’s ready.”

“Will do!”

Ace was shocked at what was happening right in front of him but...

He had no time to think.

Aliza pulled Ace’s arm once again, sitting him on the bench next to her.

“What did I say? They’re completely different when they don’t know you’re human.”

“No way that’s the same species as the ones who left me for dead! No way they’re the same! They can’t be!”

After last night’s events, Ace envisioned all of the demihumans to just be a big ball of hatred, possessing no other emotions.

Once he saw how they normally acted, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

These were the same guys who looked at him like he didn’t deserve to exhale oxygen from his mouth.

One piece of cloth over his head and they become all friendly?

He hated the thought of it.

He knew that they had a war with the humans, but he still couldn’t feel any sympathy for them after how they treated him.

He wanted to get out of this city and never see another demihuman again.

He wanted to leave, he wanted to get ou--

“Mama! Can I get some eggs too!”

“You just ate breakfast.. No more for today.”

Ace saw two demihumans walk by him, a mom and her daughter, hand in hand, living a normal life.

He bit his lip and looked away.

He whispered under his breath.

“I’m scum.”

All these demihumans had families they wanted to return home to.

They all had siblings, friends, parents, grandparents, and kids they wanted to return home to.

Obviously they would hate the people that took away that opportunity from them.

But then, Ace remembered his parents, his friends, his school...

His world.

—I also want to return home!

—So why am I treated like this!

“AAAAAAHHHHHHH! FUCK! I can’t think straight.”

He got stares from all over, the mom from earlier covering her daughter’s ears.

He felt a shoulder jab at his waist, the same spot where he was injured.

It was Aliza, she whispered something to Ace, trying to not draw any more attention.

“What’s wrong with you? You know we’re supposed to be laying low.”

“Ow, ow... Sorry, I was thinking of things...”

“It’s fine, look, the owner is calling us over. Let’s get out of here before we draw any more attention.”

She stood up, pulling him over to the stand.

“Thank you! It looks delicious!”

“Brother, you okay there? Saw you go a little crazy on the bench.”

“Haha.. yeah, I’m fine.”

Ace nervously laughed in response to the shop owner, pointing his head even further down than earlier, not wanting to be seen.

Aliza pulled some money out of the pockets of her clothes underneath her robe.

“This should be enough.”

“Yeah, that’s good. Come again!”

“Haha, I’ll try!”

She said as she walked away from the shop, holding her plate and giving Ace his plate.

“Let’s go find somewhere to sit.”

After walking for a few minutes away from the place where Ace made a scene, they made their way to another bench on the street.

“Let’s sit here for now.”

They sat and Ace took one big bite out of his eggs.

“Delicious.”

“What did I tell you?”

They continued to eat, not talking much because of how hungry both of them were.

“Aaaahhh, that was good.”

He finished up his bacon and slid his body down the bench, stuffed from the food.

“Get up, might as well show you around for the rest of the day.”

“Oh, wait, before we go, where do you keep all your stuff?”

“I don’t carry too much. I only have a pouch for money, my sword, and the clothes I’m currently wearing.”

“I’ve always bought new clothes from every village I’ve visited and threw out the old ones, so I didn’t have to hold clothes.”

“What about a status plate? That has to be pretty hard to carry around.”

“Those are too big; I just check my status once I reach a new village. You can check your status at the nearest Adventurer’s guild whenever you need to. Furio is a smaller village but, they should have one somewhere around here.”

“Oh, ok. What about money, how do you get your money?”

“I’m moderately strong so I pick up a quest or two at every village I go to. You get quests from the guild.”

“Oh, ok... can we stop at the guild? I want to sign up.”

“—? But you already have a status plate so that means you are signed up.”

“Oh... ok... never mind. Last question before we leave...”

He hesitated before asking his final question, having a feeling that he was going to sound dumb.

“Do you know anything by the name of magic?”