‘Hey Jules!’

Only a couple of minutes at the bar had passed, so you could imagine everybody's surprise at the loud voice of the suddenly reappearing Jos. Oliver let out a deep, deep sigh.

‘Yeah, thanks for this and all.’ The procured four of the five coins from earlier, and placed them in front of Julian. ‘But one gold coin is basically enough to feed me for a week. Its kind and all but I don’t need it. Go buy yourself something pretty.’

Julian blinked in shock at Jos, and quickly placed his coins in his pocket. He had no idea what was going on, much like the other two as well.

‘Uh, Jules?’ He pondered the strange nickname.

‘Yeah, that’s what I’m calling you now.’

Alice wrinkled and face in confusion and looked over to Oliver as if to say: What and who the hell?

Oliver did nothing more than reply with a shrug, also clueless to what was going on. He was hoping he’d got rid of them.

‘The name’s Jos.’ Jos quickly shook Alice’s hand before proceeding to take a seat at the bar beside Julian.

‘Alice… Pleasure to meet you.’ She returned her hand to her pocket, and raised her eyebrows at nobody in particular.

‘Cool, cool. Nice to meet you too.’ Jos ordered a fire whisky from the bar, then noticing the emblem which sat on her armour. ‘You part of the Knights of Esteria? That’s double cool. I’ve heard plenty of rumours about how sexist they are there, so good job with that. Probably due to that Royal Family if you ask me.’

Julian looked away uncomfortably, and Oliver tried hard not to crack a smile at something Jos had said.

‘Yeah, it wasn’t easy.’ Alice smiled, glad that at least one person recognised the prejudice that the humans held. ‘And you’re right, there is quite substantial corruption in the military at this point in time.’

Julian was even more surprised at this than he was at Jos returning. He had never seen or heard of something like that in the military. But, when he really thought about it, it really made a lot of sense. People probably attempted to shelter him from more sensitive situations, considering he was a prince and all.

‘I really haven’t seen or heard that much sexism.’ Oliver finally inputted into the conversation, staring idly off into the distance.

‘Of course you haven’t, you’re a dude!’

‘You’re a guy too.’ Oliver arched his eyebrows at them.

Jos raised one eyebrow back at him, and took another sip of their drink. 'Older sister. She didn't have magic, but was a great herbalist. Wasn't accepted into any medicinal schools because she was a girl.'

Julian fell silent, oblivious to Jos' blatant lies.

'And whenever she travelled, she would get attacked by five different men. They assumed she couldn't fight, and they were right to begin with. But then she learnt, and they would go away with broken bones. If they reported her, which they did most of the time, she'd get in trouble, not them. And when I did travel with her once, we didn't get attacked once. People respect the presence of a man more than the life of a woman.'

The next part of their monologue was much more truthful. When they were presenting themselves on the more feminine side of the scale, they were hassled wherever they went. Though it was the easy, and coward way out, presenting themselves as a guy made it so much easier, at least in the human part of the world. The Elves, Dwarfs, and pretty much any other species, have no gender roles. But still, Jos felt more comfortable travelling presenting themselves as a male, and they had no idea whether that was to do with social standings, or genuinely how they felt.

No one replied to Jos’ rather deep story, instead all taking a long and drawn out sip from their respective drinks.

‘Yeah, I get that. Sexism is terrible, I’m sorry about what your sister had to go through.’

Oliver, yet again, was amazed at Julian’s change of behaviour. He never seemed to admit any kind of faults on his part, but he seemed to be taking the feedback personally. Yet, over the past few weeks they had never really had to interact with other people, and actually avoided doing so. So, with someone as bashful and upbeat as Jos, it was no surprise that his attitude had changed.

‘Not your problem dude.’ Oliver snapped out of his thoughts, seeing Jos leaning on the bar in an exhausted fashion. Even though it was barely past midday, they were worn out. ‘What are you lot to anyways? You were so vague when I asked you earlier, so where are you heading?’