After the group returned to the surface, everybody decided to split up and do their own thing. Stain elected to wait for Hornet to return, while Snow, with Rex's permission, was allowed to check the lord's treasury, provided that she did not… reappropriate anything. Rex, meanwhile, still had some administrative issues she needed to deal with, so she returned to the lord's study room promptly after their meeting.
Left alone with nothing to do, partly because he wasn't interested in joining Snow to gawk at gold, Rain elected to go to his room and get some rest.
By the time he woke up, it was already well past dinner. He didn't even realize how tired he was for him to sleep so deeply. Fortunately, Rex had ordered the servants to leave a good portion of that night's meal for him, which they had wrapped nicely in large leaves.
It was already close to midnight by then. So, Rain decided to enjoy the moment and go outside. He took a bottle of ale from his cupboard and went to the ramparts from earlier.
Along the way, something caught his eye as he walked down the beaten path between piles of rubble. It was a piece of paper caught underneath a broken hoe. On a whim, he decided to pick it up and read…
"It's another season of bad harvest. That's already the third one in a row.
Kendrick, the old man next door, had already sold all his chickens just to buy enough food to last through the winter. Nelly, unlucky chap… the man was arrested by the lord's men for trying to steal food from the manor. Now, his family's even worse off than before.
We've decided to sell both of our cows. Some money needs to go to old man Russo as payment, but hopefully, we'll have enough money to buy some food and warm clothes.
Over at the tavern, there are rumors about the neighboring country Solycis preparing for war. In the middle of a famine? Scary. The madwoman who rules that place is undoubtedly insane.
I just hope that we don't get involved."
Rain folded the piece of paper and stuffed it inside his pocket. Quite a coincidence that he could pick up a continuation of the earlier one he got.
The village must have been poor, judging from the two passages he'd read. Famine was part of the norm, but it did not strike everybody equally. Some countries like his had very fertile soil, so seasons of bad harvest did not hit particularly hard, even among the poor. His country suffered from an infestation of monsters that roamed even on the roads that people traveled, though.
After giving it a passing thought, he proceeded towards the walls where a few unfortunate sentries were stationed to keep watch through the long night. He greeted them, and… after thinking about it, he turned around and looked for an empty space where he could eat alone.
The soldiers on vigil looked visibly worn out. Most of them struggled to even keep their eyes open. He thought about sharing his food with them but didn't have enough to give any meaningful portion to everybody there. And so, since eating there amongst the weary, hungry soldiers was a terribly insensitive idea, he decided to look elsewhere.
"Oh? Hey, uhh, "Rain.""
At a small clearing beside a small storeroom, Rain saw Snow sitting on a small piece of rubble. She was still dressed in baggy mage clothing, with her staff strapped to her back.
He quickly walked up to her and placed his hand on her forehead before asking, "Are you alright? What are you doing here?"
"I'm fine. I woke up an hour ago. Couldn't go back to sleep since. Lord Rex caught me trying to open a locked door at the treasury earlier, so I had to sit through a long lecture," she sighed.
Despite her words, her face betrayed a lingering sense of excitement. It wasn't every day that people like them could spend time with individuals like Stain, Hornet, and Rex. Rain understood that by experience.
"Aren't they amazing?"
He had explained to her earlier that day what Coin had told him about different kinds of heroes. Understandably, she was tentative at first. Like Rain, she had only known about the weaker types of heroes who were only marginally better than most people. She did not expect to meet people who could replicate feats that were only told in legends.
"Too bad they can't."
"What do you mean?"
"I asked that Stain guy," she explained. Rain immediately recalled when the person in question looked like his soul had left him after being bothered for over an hour straight. "They only take commissions from the master of that underground. I wonder what that person's like? Maybe she's powerful? She even has the monarch of that scary country Solycis under her call."
"Oh, right. You haven't met her."
"You did?"
"Well, yeah. Why do you think those three are out here, anyway?"
"True," she laughed.
As Rain opened the parcel to eat dinner, Snow immediately shoved her hand into the bag and snatched a piece of bread.
"You… didn't you already get dinner?" Rain spitefully asked. In response, Snow simply shrugged.
"I'm hungry again."
They stared at each other with contrasting expressions. There was a palpable tension between them, but it was nothing alarming. Eventually, they just gave up and laughed.
"So, did you actually behave inside the treasury?"
"Of course I did," Snow pouted as if insulted. "I only stole one thing from the coffers. Did a good job controlling mys–"
"You did what?!"
"It's true!"
She sounded almost indignant that Rain doubted her "sincerity." But her tone only caused him more headaches as she pulled something out of her pocket.
"Look! Ain't it pretty? I recognized it at a glance. It's a Padlum Amber. Extremely rare, but not very expensive, depending on who you ask."
"... I know what that is."
Padlum Ambers are stones used as catalysts for witchcraft and almost exclusively for it. That was why it was a pretty paperweight for most people but precious for the very unpopular profession of a witch. Rain had no idea if that village had a witch, but it was more likely that it didn't. After all, the few witches that maintained the practice mainly had moved in together on the swamps to the far south and created their own coven. So, if it was true that Snow "only" stole that one thing, it was her way of being "considerate" while simultaneously feeding her own greed.
"You still stole from a lord. Give it back and apologize later."
"Huh? Why?!"
"Because you stole it."
Snow puffed her cheeks in protest. But Rain didn't budge at all. He maintained a stern glare for a minute before Snow gave up and sighed in surrender.
"Fiiiiiiiine…" she coughed and stuffed the stone back in her pocket. "I'll return it after breakfast. Killjoy."
As retaliation, she elbowed Rain hard on his side, which caused him to drop the bread on his hand. The half-eaten bread made a splattering sound on the soil as it spilled its contents all over.
Unfortunately, only two pieces of bread were inside the parcel in the first place. And Snow had taken the other one, leaving Rain with nothing.
They stared at the ruined pastry on the ground with mixed emotions. But the one thing they shared was a feeling of regret. While they were relatively better off due to their work as mercenaries compared to commoners, neither of them had the financial means to just spend as they wanted, so they weren't the kind of people who liked to see food being wasted.
"Err… sorry."
They kept staring until one of them, they weren't sure who, laughed. The other soon followed. The quiet of the night was disturbed by their sounds of merry… which was strangely devoid of any actual feelings of mirth. In a way, it was like they were simply recreating the sounds.
Snow recovered first, and she reengaged them both after wiping a tear from her eye by saying, "This feels like that time several years ago, huh?"
Though she seemed eager to talk about it, Rain immediately went quiet.
He knew what she meant by "that time." And, it was something he preferred not to talk about. Snow was aware of it, so that was as far as she went.
"... I heard that Lord Rex said that the stone exists? The Purging Stone.
That's great. Once we sell it, we'll be set for life. We can buy everything we want and live without working ever again. Isn't that sweet? Oh, right. We do need to pay them as well. But even with a fraction of what it would sell for, we'll still have a fortune on our hands. Did their master state a price?"
Rain didn't reply. In the first place, he had nothing to answer with. Coin only mentioned some cryptic words regarding payment. There might even be a chance that she would demand the stone itself. But that wasn't the real reason why he couldn't say anything.
He looked at Snow. Even under the darkness of the night, her skin still looked as white as snow. That was one of her defining characteristics. And despite her line of work, the body hidden underneath her loose robes was petite and beautiful. Since female mercenaries were relatively uncommon, there had been no shortage of men who pined for her attention because of her complexion and figure. But Rain saw those characteristics in a different light.
He hated how pale she looked. He hated how small she was.
She used to be slightly tan from all the time she spent outdoors. She used to be taller than him and gloated about it all the time.
"Don't you want to be cured?" he asked sincerely. "Rex said it herself. You can be–"
"We're selling it. Right?"
Rain's eyes widened. He watched as Snow twisted her face into a peaceful smile.
"We'll sell it to some wealthy king… or queen. Then we'll use the money to buy land away from everything. Far away. Somewhere the corrosion hasn't reached yet. Oh, after we pay those heroes' master, of course. We'll buy as much stuff as we can before moving. Every penny. Then, we'll live there, just the two of us, until the final day.
That's the plan. Right?"
…
"I…"
He couldn't answer her. He wanted to tell her otherwise, but… he just couldn't. Snow was utterly convinced of what "they" should do. She had already given up. The only thing he could do was murmur some words that the wind carried away. Continuously, until Snow closed her eyes and stood up.
"Rain washes away the snow, huh? I like it. Very poetic. Matches the theme, too. Then, good night, my "rain.""
With that, she leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead. Then, she left the bread she took from him on his lap and walked away.
She never even took a bite out of it.
********************
"Not 'ere. What th'hell? There's only nuts… well, a'least there are nuts. Ack! How 'bout the meat?"
The warehouse door opened. A head with bright, blonde hair peeked out of the gap. Then, a massive lance stuck out above it. The two looked around in opposite directions almost comically, as if they were criminals on the lookout.
"Good. Stain ain't here. Rex, too. Nice, nice..."
The figure darted inside the warehouse again and came out a short moment later with a bag of food on her back and a bottle of wine in her mouth.
It was Hornet. And she had just finished raiding the village supplies for food to match booze.
She shut the door gently behind her and tiptoed toward the manor. A broad grin on her face told whoever might see her of her victory at that moment. She had even started humming to herself, albeit as silently as possible.
But then, she stopped. She saw Rain's figure from across the street, alone and dejected. She saw how he was handling a piece of bread on his lap as he stared at the ground aimlessly.
There was a half-eaten pastry there, with its fillings scattered.
"What a waste of food," she thought.
Thinking nothing of it, she turned around and headed toward the castle again.
And then she stopped.
The two broken moons caught her eye. A faint memory resurfaced within her. And, with a sigh, she opened the bottle of wine in her mouth… and turned around.