“So, are you happy now, Amelia?”
“Absolutely yes! Thank you so much for coming with me, Persephone-chan!”

“No problem. Now let's catch up to the others.”

Once again, I found myself in darkness, and I couldn’t see a thing because the bag was tied shut. Still, all of this movement was unnecessary. Amelia was swinging the bag with reckless abandon, and the other rocks were loudly clattering and crashing with each other and me. At the same time, she was skipping merrily, her footsteps pounding all around me, and all the while she was humming an upbeat tune. To call this noise unpleasant would be an understatement.

But still, I noticed that this girl seemed to possess an unwavering degree of childlike innocence, to the point where it was genuinely disturbing. If even being an accomplice to murder didn't faze her, then what could?

“Hey Amelia! Wait up!” I heard Persephone shout.

Amelia stopped. “Oh! I’m sorry, Persephone-chan! I didn’t know I was so far ahead.”

“It's fine,” Persephone replied, breathing heavily. “By the way, you should be far more careful with what you’re holding. You might break them by accident."

“Oh, oops. My bad. Speaking of which,”

Suddenly, light began to shine into the bag. I could see a rock in front of me that had been dislodged from its pendant. However, since I could only see in one direction, I knew the same had not happened to me. Things around me began to blur as I was met with even more light.

“Wait, you’re putting that thing on now?” Persephone asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I just can’t wait to show Arthur-san!” Amelia giggled as she placed the necklace around her neck. When the dust settled, I was able to see part of a wall and roof. It looked like I was now facing at a somewhat upward angle, though that did not last long because this girl couldn’t seem to stay still for even a second.

“Ooo, it fits perfectly!” Amelia exclaimed.

Persephone sighed. “If you insist.”

“Oh no!” Amelia gasped, looking down at the bag. “Sophia’s necklace broke! What am I gonna do?”

“Amelia, you should have been more careful.” Persephone said.

“But she’s going to be so disappointed,” Amelia cried.

"She’ll probably be fine. After all, Sophia has tons of jewelry already.” Persephone spoke in a comforting tone. “Besides, we can get it fixed later, right?”

“I guess so,” Amelia responded as she put the rock back in the bag before closing it up again with some string.

“The others shouldn’t be too far away.” Persephone mentioned. “The guild should be just around the corner.”

Oh goody.

But her comment seemed to be enough to cheer Amelia up, who started to run again. And when she did so, everything in front of me began to shake.

“Slow down!” Persephone shouted.

“Oh, right!”

While the two continued to walk, I took in a little more of the town. There seemed to be rows of houses on each side of the street. And in my periphery, I could see part of what looked to be a towering castle. However, I wasn’t able to observe things for long, as I was interrupted by the girls turning a corner. My view was shifted to another street, where the rest of their group was waiting.

It was the catgirl who seemed to notice the two first.

“Ami-san! Sephie-san! You’re back!” She exclaimed, running towards the two.

“Awww Kit! I missed you too!” Amelia replied, bending down to pet the little catgirl’s head.

From the angle I was at, I could’ve sworn that I saw a pair of human ears peeping out from behind her hair. And this was in addition to her pair of cat ears, which I could see twitching.

“Hey, we’ve only been gone for a few minutes!” Persephone chimed in.

“A few too many, as far as I’m concerned,” the princess retorted.

“What matters now is that we’re all together.” The boy stated, “Right, Myrtle?”

“Yeah, yeah,” the elf girl responded. I heard her footsteps getting louder as she walked over.

“Hey,” she said coldly to the two girls.

“Sorry about the wait, guys,” Amelia apologized. “We got a little distracted. Did we miss anything important?”

“Don’t worry, you didn’t miss much.” The boy replied, “We were just seeing if there were any good quests.”
“And did you find anything?” Amelia asked.

“We’re going to the mountains.” Myrtle responded monotonously, “The chilly and icy and bleak and freezing-cold mountains.”

“I was about to say that!” The boy shouted, “But yes, we’re going to the Eastern Range. Remember that hotel we stayed at?”

“Don’t remind me.” Persephone groaned.

“You mean that hotel?” Amelia asked.

“Not exactly.” The boy clarified, “The receptionist told us that another one opened up nearby. Our quest is to keep watch over this new hotel for the night. In return, we can have a room of our choosing that we can visit at any time we want. For free...”

“Well, the other hotel never rewarded that,” Amelia remarked. “And if it also has the hot springs, then that's even better!”

“I don’t think this one has them,” the boy said. “Just a sauna.”

“Oh poo!” Amelia exclaimed, “Well, I guess that’s ok too.”

“Can’t we just stay at the mansion?” Myrtle suggested. “It would be great if we could just do nothing for once, you know?”

What she said really irked me. Yes, it would be great to just sit and do nothing—that is, if you had a choice in the matter!

Additionally, these guys lived in a mansion. How? Pretty much everyone else I’d seen seemed to be struggling to even afford food—trading and working desperately to even get a single bite of food to eat. How did these people get a mansion? From adventuring? If that was such a lucrative job here, then why didn’t all those people at the street market just become adventurers rather than continue to trade for scraps of food? It seemed that such a question had never crossed any of their minds.

But I didn’t get to stay inside my thoughts for very long, as the conversation resumed.

“My apologies, Myrtle-chan,” the princess said in a condescending tone. “But Arthur-san has already made his decision! You wouldn’t want to disappoint him, now would you?”

“I guess not,” Myrtle responded softly.

“Excellent! Now let's get going!”

“So what if he decided?” Persephone interrupted, seemingly to everyone’s shock. “We certainly haven’t.”

“What are you saying?” The princess retorted.

Persephone let out a sigh. “I just think that we should be able to have a say in what we’re going to do. We’re all adults here—well, most of us are anyway. We can make our own decisions.”

“But Kit wants the sauna!” Kit blurted out. “Kit wants the sauna!”

“Persephone, are you listening to yourself right now?” The princess asked.

“Yeah, and honestly, Sophia,” Persephone said, “I think I can ask you the same thing!”

“I beg your pardon,” the princess, Sophia, asked.
“Have you ever thought for a second about how any of us feel?” Persephone asked, “Or are you too self-absorbed for even that?”

“Well, I’ll have you know that I—”

“What gives you the right to treat everyone the way you do?” Persephone's voice began to rise. “Why do you think it's ok to be such a jerk to all of us?”

Everyone gasped.

“Persephone, that’s such a harsh accusation for you to make." Sophia responded, "I’m just trying to make sure things go as they’re supposed to.”

“And how would that be? for all of us to be humiliated and degraded over and over again! Each and every time, you just let that happen.” Persephone's voice trembled. “And Sophia, you're telling me you’re okay with that, right? Well, I’m not!”

Not okay with what? What were those two even talking about?

As they spoke, the skies quickly clouded over, and thunder began to boom.

Sophia let out a nervous chuckle. “Be careful with what you’re saying, Persephone-chan,” Sophia said, her confidence seeming to waver. “You’re making me very upset! And you’re making Kit upset!" She gestured towards Kit, who must have been starting to cry. "And worst of all, you’re going to make Arthur-san upset! And no one wants that!”

“Who wants what, Sophia?” the boy interjected.

“Nothing, Arthur-san! Haha!" Sophia replied with another anxious laugh. "Just take the others with you to the gate. We’ll catch up!”

“Ok,” Arthur responded, seemingly unaware of the previous conversation. “Myrtle! Amelia! Kit! Let's head over to the gate!”

They all replied at the same time, so I couldn’t understand what any of them had said. But regardless, we started to move again.