Read In William's Shoes :: [Chapter 3: thank you]

Grégoire woke up from a loud bang at the door.

"Who is it?" he called out in a tired voice.

The door swung open, and a pissed-off Charlie walked in with a stack of clothes in her arms.

"Get dressed, you useless bastard," she barked, throwing the stack at him before quickly leaving the room.

Grégoire put his hands on his face, sighed tiredly, and stood up.

He put on the clothes and noticed a little hole in the back of his pants. He slipped them on, threading his tail through the hole, adjusted everything, and opened the door.

As soon as he stepped out, he saw Charlie arguing with a blonde woman in a chef's uniform.

"Charlie, I told you to go to the market and buy groceries. You told me you'd go buy them," the blonde woman said, tapping her foot on the floor.

Charlie quickly pointed toward Grégoire.

"If it wasn't for him, I would have had the time to go. When he was done with his yapping, I would have been free to do it."

She gave Grégoire a death glare.

"Don't use William as an excuse. He doesn't even talk to us. Why would he want to talk to you after waking up?"

"Don't know. Ask him," Charlie sneered.

"Okay. Whatever. Just go buy them. I have to prepare breakfast in two hours."

The blonde woman waved her hand dismissively, making it clear she didn't want to talk anymore, and left toward downstairs.

Grégoire looked down at the floor as if he had been scolded himself.

"Come with me. You don't get to slug around here all day while I pay for your mistakes," Charlie said, quickly grabbing him by the horn and walking him toward the main entrance of the mansion.

Grégoire whined in pain as she dragged him.

As soon as they stepped out into the courtyard, it was a four-minute walk just to get out of the mansion. Charlie pulled on his horn the whole way.

When they finally arrived at the market, she let go of his horn.

As Grégoire followed her, he saw a group of people surrounding... well, he didn't really know what it was. It had two antennas poking out from the sides of its forehead, a feminine appearance, and wore a dancer's outfit.

As Grégoire stared at her, he felt entranced by her beauty-how graceful and elegant her dance moves were. Grégoire Lemarchand could only focus on her and her alone at that moment. How stunning, how beautiful she looked to him.

He quickly snapped out of it when Charlie tugged at him.

"William..."

She pulled him away from the sight of the dancer.

As she pulled, she grabbed hold of his horn again and yanked hard.

"There is no other way then. Why did I even bring you? I should have known you'd be a pain to bring."

She pulled even harder, making Grégoire wince and whine in pain.

As they kept shopping, Grégoire noticed groups of men in light armor running toward the big walls of the market.

"Which ones do you think look good?" Charlie asked the man at the stand.

"I think all my crops are good and high quality. I put my soul into my work," he said proudly.

Charlie frowned.

"That doesn't answer my question. Which one out of all of these are you the most proud of?"

"I think all of what I'm selling is good-"

Charlie pulled on Grégoire's hand and walked away from the stand, visibly fed up.

As they searched for another vegetable stand, Grégoire kept looking around at the crowded market. It reminded him of the markets back home, but these were a lot cleaner.

They quickly found what they were looking for.

Charlie talked to the merchant and checked the products he was selling.

While Charlie was busy, Grégoire looked at nearby stands so he wouldn't stray too far.

Grégoire's eyes landed on a weapons merchant. He stared at the exotic blades the woman was selling, especially a particularly tall blade that looked more like a thick chunk of metal than a sword.

[Author note: Berserk reference]

"You like? It's yours for only 500 coin," she said, smirking confidently.

"Sorry, I'm just browsing. I don't have any money on me," Grégoire said, shaking his head gently.

"Alright."

She quickly looked away from him as if he had vanished.

Grégoire walked back to Charlie. She gave him an ugly smile, as if she was laughing at his interaction with the woman.

"How did it go?"

"Do you see any food in my hands?" Her smile instantly faded, replaced by a frown.

"Sorry. That was stupid of me to ask," he said, looking down.

As they looked for another groceries stand, a loud crash echoed through the whole market, and everything went silent for a moment. The market crowd stared in that direction, and a loud roar could be heard.

More armored men arrived at the scene. A hole was expanding in the wall, and a tall humanoid creature crashed through it. Its body was slanted and bony, looking malnourished and slimy.

A loud bang was heard-it was a gunshot. As the men in light armor started to shoot at the thing, the crowd quickly began to flee the market. In the chaos, Grégoire lost sight of Charlie.

As the creature started to move, its tall body making it easy to traverse the market, it grabbed one of the armored men and pierced him into one of the shop poles.

It stomped another man and threw the squashed body at a third, knocking him unconscious.

Seeing this, Grégoire ran and hid inside one of the stands, hoping it wouldn't see him. He started to hyperventilate.

Then he saw the dancer girl from earlier. Her antennas covered her face as she hid under the stand next to him. He waved his hand gently at her -that was the only thing he could think to do.

She gave him a terrified look in return-an expression appropriate for the situation, especially as the armored men began to retreat.

As he heard the men start to retreat, he quickly peeked his head out from the stand to see if the thing was still out there. He immediately saw a tall pair of legs a few feet in front of him.

He hid his head back down, but his horns hit the wood, making a loud clack.

The creature heard the sound and started walking toward him. Each step it took made the ground rumble.

It swiped its huge arm against the stands, flinging Grégoire out and making him hit his head on the ground as he landed.

The dancer girl quickly looked through the boxes at the stand where she was hiding.

She found an orange stone among the items, grabbed a rock from the ground, and hit the orange stone with all her strength. She threw it at the humanoid creature. When it landed, the stone shattered, and the creature exploded into flames, making a disgusting guttural sound.

The girl with antennas ran out of the stand, picked up Grégoire's hand, helped him stand, and pulled him toward an alleyway.

The creature, even in flames, started chasing them.

As Grégoire looked back, he saw the armored men returning-this time with a larger number of reinforcements-and they started shooting at it. The creature quickly lost interest in Grégoire and the girl and charged toward the men.

When they lost sight of it, the girl let go of his hand and leaned against the wall, breathing loudly.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Grégoire crouched down, panting. He held his head and noticed he was bleeding.

"What?" she looked at him as if he were an idiot, but quickly let it go when she saw the blood.

She looked in her bag, grabbed a handkerchief, and handed it to him.

Grégoire pressed it against his forehead, holding it tight to stop the bleeding.

"Thank you. For everything you've done today."

"Us common folk gotta protect each other. These are tough times we're passing, so don't mention it, brother," she said, smiling gently at Grégoire.

The girl sat down on the floor, took out a flask, took a big drink out of it, poured some water on her head, and let out a big exhausted sigh.

Grégoire gave her a weird look, wondering why the big sigh when they hadn't run for very long.

"Us jorryna gotta stay hydrated, y'know?" she giggled.

A few minutes passed. She was expecting Grégoire to leave by now, since he didn't really have a reason to be there anymore. She started playing with her flask in her hands.

"Soooo... what's your name?" she tried to lift the mood, since the silence had gotten awkward.

"My name is Gogli Fia."

She put her flask back in her bag and placed her hands on the ground

Grégoire sat down next to her.

"It's nice to meet you. My name is Grégoire Lemarchand."

He extended his hand for a handshake.

"I don't do those," she said, shaking her head fast.

"Oh. It's fine-"

"But I do do these!"

She extended her hand up for a high-five.

Grégoire just looked at her, confused.

"Do what?"