Around me I saw a familiar visage. The familiar sound of the nearby birds’ song harmonically tuned to the wind that whispered many tales without stop reverberated in my ears. In front of me laid the Handbook of the Master Adventurer Schnell Douglas, and was opened on the 58^th chapter titled “Great Undertaking”. It told of his exploits in the continent of Sulfury, The World’s Terminal Point.

In this particular chapter he spoke in a noticeably more calm and melancholic manner. Indeed, it was in this very chapter where we learn of his unnamed friend’s passing. This is a friend who had accompanied Schnell across the majority of his journey, but even still Schnell didn’t mention his name even once in the entire book so as to protect his privacy. This man was the backbone of Schnell’s motivation to keep exploring, so with him gone it is here where Schnell begins to ponder settling down somewhere to live out the days his friend could not as he quietly reminisced about the good times they shared.

The chapter was emotional, to say the least. So emotional in fact, that I had noticed tears falling on the Handbook I was reading. Seeing as Books weren’t that cheap, I hastily started trying to rub off the tears from the pages so as to minimize the water damage. Alas, the letters from the Book were scrubbed off along with the tears.

I panicked as I started fretting over what my parents will say to having ruined their gift to me, but before long I saw two figures standing in front of me. Mother was weeping heavily, to the point of breaking down at any second, and father gave me a stern look that showed nothing but disappointment in his eyes. I started feeling a sense of guilt as they kept on shaming me for running away and abandoning them, but ultimately remembered why I even did so in the first place.

I want to be proud of myself, and prove to the world that I am somebody worthy of attaining my goals. Staying in Whitehood isn’t gonna allow me to spread my wings the way I want to, so heading off into the vast world is the only logical option to get to that point.

With such a bold proclamation, I respectfully declined their outstretched arms and turned my back towards them. I had realized I was dreaming a while ago, but I didn’t mind. I wanted closure, sure, but more than that I wanted to see my parents’ faces. I hope that one day I get to see them in real life once again, and that when that day comes they will have forgiven me…

***

“….ke up….wake up….” A soft voice rang out.

In a minute, mom.

“… Psst, hey Grim, wake up…!” The voice called out once again.

Mnnn… Nope, not in a million years… This bed… is way too comfy…

“WAKE THE HELL UP, JACKASS!” The voice dropped the formalities and shook me wide awake.

“AAAAGH! SHIT! WHAT IS IT, ED?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!” I answered his calls with a grumpy tone.

I can’t believe I actually thought my mother was talking to me, how embarrassing. God Prylos, please tell me I didn’t murmur anything weird in my sleep!

“It’s high noon already, Grim, we have to go find some food.” He said as a matter of fact.

“Right, I am a bit peckish. How much money do we have?” I asked whilst clenching my rumbling stomach.

“Well, the money we got from selling our unneeded tools gave us about 50 silver coins and 89 bronze coins.” He calculated our net worth.

“That’s…not gonna be enough.” I answered back honestly, ”Let’s check the plaza for any cheap stalls.”

As we made our way to the plaza, our stomachs growling with each step, we we’re appalled to see the prices the stalls had set up.

“AN ENTIRE GOLD COIN?!? FOR JUST A SINGLE MEAL?!” We stood with our mouths agape as we looked at the menus the stalls advertised.

Now here’s the thing. A hundred bronze coins give you a single silver coin, and a hundred silver coins gives you a gold coin. Essentially, our entire savings were just over a single meal’s worth. Of course, if you were travelling solo, no issues would arise from this, but there’s two of us and we’re both pretty much starving, so sharing is out of the question.

“We can’t go on like this! The plaza’s too expensive!” said Ed all panicked, ”We gotta find some place, and fast! My stomach’s killing me!”

“Wait…That’s it!” a flash of inspiration suddenly hit me, ”Think about it: The plaza is the first place tourists visit in a town, right?”

“Well yeah, even we visited it first, after all.” Ed confirmed my hypothesis.

“Exactly! That’s why the street vendors will make the prices crazy high! It’s to get naïve tourists like us to overpay!” I proudly exclaimed.

“Ooh, Grim, you’re a genius! Then that means all we have to do is go to some run down part of town and we’ll be able to eat to our heart’s content!” He started praising me as he figured out the rest of my plan himself, “But do you really think the vendors here would be that devious?”

As he posed this question, both of us imagined the face of that devilish travelling merchant who scammed us out of our golden ticket, the snair, for just a couple of ordinary rocks. Needless to say, we both spit on the ground as if we were spitting on him, before quietly agreeing that the world of bartering and merchantry is a cruel one.

Even still, it looks like Ed’s finally getting into it now. Back when we were still in Whitehood, he was always so timid and scared to make the first step, but he feels like an entirely different person now. It’s as if the shackles chaining him to his home village have finally been broken off. What a relief.

We made our way past the plaza, and headed off to a ton of back alleys with little to no results, though. I had thought we’d at least find a stall or two willing to sell us enough food to sustain ourselves, but no matter how far we went from the city’s plaza, the prices stayed just as expensive as ever. Ed wasn’t doing so good, his stomach was making an almost constant noise, indicating he was pretty starved by this point.

“Grim…wait up…-” He said quietly, as if devoid of all strength.

“Ed?” I turned to ask if he’s doing alright.

I heard a thunk, so I went to check up on him. What I didn’t expect was that Ed had collapsed on the floor from starvation.

***

“ED! WAKE UP, MAN! SOMEONE HELP, QUICK!” I started lightly slapping his cheeks as I screamed out for aid.

After a few more attempts at screaming out for help, though, I was getting restless. No one was showing up, so I had to take matters into my own hands. I went to pick Ed up, and intended to carry him out to a viewpoint above the main street. That way someone could hopefully help over there.

As I was picking him up, I caught a glimpse of a few men standing near the alley we were in, chuckling at our pathetic state as they mocked and jeered at us from the sidelines. They just looked on as the situation unfurled, unfazed from how dire it truly was. I was so angry at their lack of action that I had actually considered spitting on them right then and there, but thought they might be dangerous so I ultimately walked past them. Getting into trouble would only make things more difficult...

“Just… a little… more!” I said as I looked in front of me to see the rays of sunlight peeking out from between the surrounding buildings.

With the last of my strength I had successfully brought Ed out to the viewpoint, but there was a large crowd and a ton of traffic. No one would even hear me if I yelled for help, I needed to garner some attention and fast.

As I pondered what to do, Ed opened his eyes a bit. A huge wave of relief made my legs wobble, as I myself was running on fumes.

“Ugh…Grim?” He slowly opened his eyes, ”What’s happening?”

“Ed! Oh thank Prylos, you’re awake!” I clasped my hands together in a prayer motion before explaining the situation to him, ”Listen, you collapsed from starvation, man.”

“Oh… Makes sense why my stomach hurts so much now… Can’t move a muscle…”

W-what did you just say?

“I’m weak, Grim, I can’t move anymore. I’d kill for some food, ugh…” He whimpered some more.

Nonononononono, you can’t give up. Fight! Don’t let hunger best you this early on! Ah come on, I gotta think of a way to draw these people’s attention to you!

Just then, an idea flicked in my head.

“Ed, this is gonna hurt a bit, but…” I said as I hoisted him up on the railing.

“W-what are you doing? NO WAIT STO-”

I threw Ed over the fence onto the street below us.

Don’t worry, there were trash bags underneath, but the scene, as well as his genuine scream of fear allowed for the people to look his way and tend to him. Nice going, Lune! Six star play, right there!

He was immediately taken care of, as I said, but as for me though…

“That kid above us! He pushed this kid off! I saw it with my own eyes!” A civilian pointed up to me as everyone else followed his finger’s direction.

I uhh… I didn’t account for this scenario.

***

Hello there, this is your friendly felon Lune speaking, and I’m currently in an interrogation room waiting for Ed to come pick me up. Hmm? You accidentally skipped a few chapters? No, no, you’re on the right page, I assure you. But to completely prove my point, I’m gonna have to explain what happened after I pushed Ed off the platform.

As people went to call the local doctor and tend to Ed’s wounds, some heroic vigilantes took it upon themselves to try and enact justice.

“I can explain!! It was all part of my plan!” I yelled back at them as I hastily ran through the city’s alleyways once more.

“All part of your plan? So you DID do it on purpose!” The bulky men started catching up with me after I made the misunderstanding worse.

For fuck’s sake, can you really be this dumb? Muscleheads these days have no time to listen to you at all, I swear…

“I’ll hand you off to the authorities…” the dumbass exclaimed smugly.

Wouldn’t that be good, though? I thought as I quickly shot back.

“Do it! At least they’ll listen to m-”

“…but not after I beat the shit out of you.” He finished the previous sentence.

...oh, it appears my days are already numbered. I quickly ran into a dead and and got cornered. There had to be a way to get out of this predicament somehow… Wait, that’s it!

“Hey look! A mother snair and her children!” I stopped to point to the side.

“…Phah! Idiot, snairs are indigenous to the western side of Secundis onl-UNGH!” He suddenly yelped in pain.

The bluff was a success! He was too preoccupied to notice my fist going straight to his crotch.

As he laid there in pain, another onlooker stepped in, but he had a fatal flaw.

He too, had a crotch within punching distance.

***