Sunlight came warmly through the window through the curtains, slightly illuminating the room and Erina's tender face. She rolled over in her bed rolling over avoiding the light.
"Heh... hehe" giggled Erina with her lips forming a small smile even within the dream world.
Suddenly, her eyelids twitched slightly, and she slowly began to sleepily open her eyes. She lay still lying on her side looking at the pillow she hugged both with her arms and legs.
Erina blinked a couple of times before she woke up completely, then her face began to redden rapidly. She hid her reddened face between the pillows and screamed lightly. What have I done?!"
Remembering how she had asked Nathan to take her back to her room. She remembered how he had carried her all the way and remembered how she hugged him to hold on so she wouldn't fall.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Erina startled slightly.
"Are you awake, Lady Erina?" one of her maids asked from outside the room.
Erina rolled over in bed and looked at the window, slightly hesitating whether to answer or not. Finally she sighed and let go of the pillow stretching her arms.
"Yes"
A while later, Erina came out of her room already dressed up. She felt slightly nervous as she walked to the living room, however, when she got there, she stopped and looked around the place looking for him.
She almost lost her breath thinking of all the possible scenarios why Nathan was not present. He was always there when she arrived. Already after three weeks, Erina had become accustomed to his presence, now it simply seemed strange to her that he was not present.
"Lady Enarys notified me that he would not be coming for the rest of the week. She said he was ill" said the maid at his side with a teasing smile on her face.
Erina looked at her quickly with a slight twinkle in her eye but seeing her smile she frowned and puffed out her cheeks. "Don't tease me like that"
The maid laughed softly covering her mouth and urged her to go to breakfast.
***
Meanwhile, in Nathan's room the sun was also starting to break through the curtains. But he was already wide awake and stared at the ceiling with dark circles under his eyes.
He had been awake most of the night and could not fall asleep at any time. At midnight he had woken up feeling awful and from then on he couldn't go back to sleep.
As much as he wanted to go to work, his body simply did not respond properly. So he had no choice but to tell Enarys, only to realize that Amelia had already warned her in the night.
His stomach growled in pain from his hunger, but he was simply unable to get up.
'I can't remember the last time I had a fever' Nathan thought, ignoring the moaning inside him.
'Normal, it's rare for us to get sick' said Amelia referring to those who had essence. With stronger bodies than normal, their resistances against colds and other minor illnesses were much higher. So it was not normal to see someone with essence as sick as Nathan unless it was a serious illness.
In any case Nathan was not going to be able to go to Erina, so he simply closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep, just before his stomach growled again, making him simply unable to fall asleep.
***
A few days later, on the weekend. Nathan was walking around with a smile on his face. He was fully recovered and more importantly he had already been paid.
'Is it really too much?' asked Amelia skeptically.
'I've never had so much money in my account... I guess it makes sense. Being close to Erina is already harder than many other jobs'
For being a cadet in Khan, Nathan was paid some money for completing missions, but nothing as absurd as being Erina's guard.
'Was it worth it?' asked Amelia again.
'Totally' said Nathan without even thinking twice. 'With this money I can buy the things I couldn't buy in Radford'
'What things?'
'Relics. I need useful relics, especially a weapon' he explained as he touched his necklace. 'I may have Adam's knives, but that's the only thing. I lost my other relics, and they destroyed my katana'
Nathan continued walking towards the place Enarys had told him about and finally after a while he finally arrived.
'It's incredible...' Amelia murmured seeing the large street full of stores with all kinds of relics on display.
'The gold street... I can see why' thought Nathan also amazed by everything he saw.
Dozens of people were walking down the big street, going in and out of stores where most of the things they sold were relics.
Although in Radford it was possible to buy relics in the city itself, their price was completely inflated. With the existence of mercenaries, most of the relics ended up on the black market also at a high price.
But in Kalioed this was not the case, mainly because the government, or rather the Shraon family allowed the free trade of relics.
Even though the price of relics had increased lately because the rifts were becoming less and less visible, there were still hundreds, if not thousands of relics circulating in the market.
Nathan walked through the shop windows trying to find something that interested him. Underneath each relic there was a small piece of paper with a description of what they did, although to verify the truth it was necessary to study it by imbuing it with essence.
It was regulated by law that it was necessary to show all the characteristics of the relics, but there was a small problem with this law.
Some higher-level relics could have additional effects that were only activated under specific circumstances, which were very difficult to determine just by using it a couple of times.
These relics were classified as hidden treasures because you could get lucky and buy one of these relics without knowing that they were special.
Nathan read the descriptions of the relics in various shop windows without really being interested in any of them. Most of the relics on display had colorful effects but were not as useful for Nathan's needs.
The people who bought relics used them for everyday life and most of them did not fight and needed them, so combat relics were not so popular among the population.
All this with the exception of the military, which did need them. For this reason there were stores specializing in weapon and survival relics.
Finally Nathan came to a store like any other, only this one had a sword logo on its sign. Nathan opened the door and rang a soft bell indicating that a customer had arrived.
"Coming!" shouted a man from inside a room behind a counter.
There were no customers and most of the relics on display seemed to be gathering dust. This meant that not many people came to this place.
Nathan waited patiently reading the description of some of the relics on display until a young man with a face smeared with some kind of liquid material came through the door behind the counter.
"Well, what can I get you?" asked the young man with a beaming smile. His blond hair was completely disheveled, also stained with the same liquid that was all over his face. His sapphire blue eyes had a passionate gleam in them, and his hands were completely dirty.
In an instant Nathan realized why there was no one in the store, because the young man was not exactly the right person to be a salesman.
But Nathan didn't care about appearances, he just needed relics.
"I need relics useful for survival and some weapons" Nathan said as he looked at some relics inside the glass counter.
The young man's eyes sparkled slightly before the request. "Of course, that's what we specialize in!"
The young man walked around the counter and approached the wall on the other side of it. Nathan followed him and looked at the relics.
"These are all handmade mainly with the intention of aiding survival" explained the young man. "This one for example, allows you to create any kind of sauce just by entering the corresponding materials. This one on the other hand---"
"Wait!" shouted Nathan slightly stunned.
"Y-yes!" exclaimed the young man slightly startled by Nathan's shout.
"You created these relics?" asked Nathan.
The young man nodded his head slightly. "Well... not all of them, I'm not a blacksmith like my father, I'm a craftsman"
Nathan covered his mouth slightly hiding his smile.
'Nathan?" asked Amelia seeing his strange behavior.
'Boreas taught me many things. How to fight, how to survive... how to kill. But he also gave me advice for later on' Nathan remembered Boreas' words. 'People who can create relics are few and even if they are more or less talented they are exceptionally unique in the whole world'