"Adam, wait." Lily abruptly stops and requests the same of me.
"What is it? Is something wrong?" I stop and question. I've recovered enough energy by now, so she stopped supporting me.
"You shouldn't mention that bear to any of the villagers." Lily says in what could be the most serious tone I've heard from her.
"Why not? Is something abnormal about it?" My eyebrows crease as I ask.
"That was a horned bear, a C class monster. This province is the most peaceful in the kingdom, that monster shouldn't have appeared here. The most dangerous creatures that should inhabit this area are E class monsters, like those wolves we met before. If it gets out that a C class monster is here, the villagers will panic. Moreover, if they learn that you escaped from it and swam across a river while carrying me, they will become far more wary of you." Lily stares into my eyes as she expresses her concerns.
'Wow, Lily gets scary when she's serious. Despite her worries about being mistreated, she seems to care a lot for the villagers.'
"I understand, it would create a panic. But, what does that have to do with us escaping?" I ask about something I find odd about her previous statement.
"Escaping a horned bear isn't normal, otherwise I would have done so myself. For someone to outrun a monster, it's expected that they have a corresponding adventurer rank. You not only escaped a C class monsters, you swam with me across a river afterwards! That would make you comparable to a powerful C class or even a B class adventurer! No adventurer ranked that high would come to this village!" Lily explains as she narrows her eyes at me.
"That's strange! You would think a C class adventurer could defeat a C class monster, but I couldn't even scratch it!" I retort as my eyebrows furrow.
"That's what's suspicious about you! Unless you lived under a rock your whole life, you'd know adventurers are ranked by what a whole party can fight, not just one member! Once or twice would be normal, but you're ignorant of far too many things! And that Newton guy! You can't have thought it was okay to talk about his ideas! If the church heard of it, they would deem you a heretic! Who are you?! Where are you really from?!" Lily marches over and stands inches from my face, her eyes are slightly watery.
**Sigh**
"I'm sorry, you're right. I haven't been completely honest. But, I had no ill intentions. It's true that I'm from a far away place, but I don't know exactly where it is relative to here. I wish I could tell you more, but I honestly don't know much myself. I hope that we can continue hunting together and that you'll still trust me." I say as sincerely as possible. I'm not a 'feelings' person, but Lily is one of the only friends I have in this world and I don't want to lose her.
**Sigh**
"Fine, you don't seem to be lying and I doubt you'd risk your neck for me if you were a bad person. So, I'll trust you for now... Come on, let's go back to the inn! We need to get some rest so we can search for our lost weapons tomorrow!" The light returns to Lily's eyes and she skips toward the inn, motioning me to follow.
'What the hay was that?! One moment she's interrogating me, the next she's back to her joyful self! I'll never understand women and their erratic emotions!'
I give up on psychologically analyzing the fairer sex and follow Lily. Soon, we arrive at the inn and head toward our rooms. I collapse on my bed as soon as I get to it.
'Ugh, today was exhausting! Getting my daggers, trying to put a loan system into place, running for my life, saving Lily and hiking back here... My body aches all over... Whew, and tomorrow I have a lot to do as well... I should get up, wash myself and change my clothes... I'll do that in a minute...'
I drift off to sleep while I consider the things I still need to get done.
The next morning I wake up feeling much better. My muscles have stopped hurting and instead feel refreshed, as if the previous day's activities were light exercise.
'How unusual, my body has recovered already! Perhaps that's normal in this world?'
I rush downstairs and find Lily indulging in breakfast oatmeal with a second bowl sitting next to her. As I approach, she pushes the extra toward me and nods at a chair.
"Thanks" I say as I sit down and dig in.
"Mhmm" Lily grunts in acknowledgement as she stuffs her face.
We quickly finish our food, then walk toward the clearing Lily was attacked in. Hopefully we can find Lily's bow and the dagger I dropped there.
"Aren't you worried the bear will still be in the area?" I ask, curious about Lily's sudden bravery.
"Won't we be safer if we're armed? And, if it appears, we can just run away again." Lily responds in an uninterested tone.
'Didn't she say she couldn't outrun it yesterday?! Does she expect me to carry her?! I've seen how careful she really is, she must have some sort of backup plan, right?'
"Whatever you say..." I give up, I don't understand what's going through her mind.
We arrive at the clearing. Near the spot the bear attacked Lily we find her bow. Lily's arrows are scattered here and there due to her brief fight and her quiver being picked up afterwards. My other dagger takes more time to find, but we eventually find it in some brush a short ways out of the clearing.
"Let's follow the trail the horned bear left behind when chasing you. You said you cut me loose of my quiver by the gorge, right? It probably dropped my quiver once it realized we escaped." Lily motions toward the trail of destruction after we finish collecting the items.
"Are you sure? Can't you get another quiver! There's a good chance the bear's still there!" I object, this is far too dangerous.
"My qiver... has sentimental value..." Lily frowns and gazes into the distance.
**Sigh**
Needless to say, we follow the trail. Along the way, we collect several more arrows which must have remained in Lily's quiver until the chase. After losing the trail many times, we come to the end.
"Well, we're here. There's your quiver, right where I last saw the bear. Can we grab it and leave now? That bear could be near here." I look back and forth, searching for any movement in the greenery.
We walk to the edge and secure the target. Lily ties the strap back together and swings the quiver over her shoulder, then places the arrows we collected in it. Lastly, she stands and waits.
"What are you doing?! We need to leave now! You have your quiver, so let's go!" I panic, what's wrong with her?
Then, the worst-case scenario happens. Small trees and bushes are pushed apart as a massive black bear exits the woods and looks at us. I stare back, then make my decision.
"All right, well, good thing there's this gorge here. Let's go Lily." I say as I turn to use my legendary escape technique once again.
"No!!! We need to defeat it! Otherwise it will attack the villagers! There's two of us this time, we can win!" Lily exclaims as she tries to stop me.
'What?! She wants to fight that thing?! No wonder! Sentimental value?! Yeah right! She was planning this all along! I should have realized when I first saw her being chased by wolves, she's the suicidal type!'