"The hell are you two doing here?" I murmured in annoyance and pushed myself up from bed. All the pain and heat was gone from my body, as if I was never ill. I could still feel fatigue, but it was probably the remnants from my tiresome sleep. Nightmares were not soothing, after all. I blinked at the two in confusion, awaiting a response, but they only turned to Nila who in exchange lowered her gaze, "I called them…"
"Why?"
Nila did not answer, but her place was overtaken by Faust, who stepped forward and said with an amused smile, "She was strolling around the town in distress, asking for a direction to the church."
I groaned and glanced at the elven girl, "Did you get lost again!? For goodness's sake, you can literally see the tip of the church from the very gates! And why would you even search your way to the church when I needed a doctor?"
"Am I not good enough for you?..." whispered Riaz and lowered his head, seemingly being hurt by my words. Faust patted his shoulder, while Nila finally raised her eyes at me, "Doctors are usually needed to identify an illness, I figured that a faster approach would be to simply cure you with the help of a priest, but it did not go well."
I raised my brow at her words and glanced over at the priest, now Faust was bending his whole torso up and down, while holding him by the shoulders. The book was still in Riaz's hands, I suspected that the glow from the pages of that book was a mere illusion that was conjured by my exhausted mind. Now, however, I was not so sure any more, in the end, it could be a manifestation of magic that Nila was simply unable to use.
I extended my hand towards the book while the priest and the spearman were playfully fighting. Once it was near my face, I snatched it away to their surprise and flipped through some of the pages, but none were glowing. The priest looked at me with his mouth open a little, but then he smiled and leaned towards me.
"Have you not seen teachings of Farhen before?"
I silently shook my head and in my stead Nila gave an answer, "Dusk is not too fond of religion, he is also illiterate."
"Will you say it to every damn person we meet on our way?" I squinted at Nila to which she just shrugged nonchalantly. Riaz extended his hand, silently asking me to return the book with a smile. I didn't really need it anyway, thus I handed it back to him, right before I heard an unpleasant giggle. It was Faust who came even closer to me, his face was bright from the fun he had. Was he mocking me? Mocking my inability to read? I squinted even more once he asked, "You must be an orphan, then?"
My eyes glinted with hostility when I replied, "Do you have problems with that?" But my animosity ceased to exist after he said, "Not at all, we share quite a lot in common, I am not too good at reading myself."
"Only because you are lazy and rarely tried." pointed out Riaz.
Faust gasped in offence and crossed his hands, "Please, do me a favour and count how many times you cancelled our reading session just because you did not feel like it."
"Excuse me, but you should be perfectly capable of reading on your own. I am not your mom." cleared his throat Riaz, to which Faust raised his chin and replied, "Your cooking skills are good enough to qualify you as a mom."
Riaz raised his finger, but did not say a word. He hummed loudly and after a few seconds of thoughtful silence, they both gave off a hearty laugh. It was too much noise for me, I felt exhausted from simply staying in the same room as these two. I tried to seek out Nila in the room, but did not see her anywhere, only a door that was slowly closing gave me a hint of her whereabouts.
"This damn idiot!" I huffed and got up from bed, which took the attention of our visitors. I exited the room with my fists clenched and my steps heavy with mild annoyance. Nila was in the hallway of the hotel, trying to descend the stairs, however, I caught her by the shoulders to which she squeaked in surprise. Then, I dragged her inside the room and slammed the door.
"Where were you trying to leave, goddamn it!?" I asked with a frown, Nila dusted herself off and casually said, "Those two were noisy, so I decided to go for a walk."
I clicked my tongue and raised my voice, "To get lost again!?"
Nila did not reply, only avoided eye contact by averting her gaze, at least she understood her mistake. The four of us sat in awkward silence for a few minutes, as there was nothing else to discuss. Well, the room was not entirely silent as Riaz and Faust whispered something to each other, seemingly their topic of conversation was our relationship. Nila also overheard them, judging by the twitch in her ear. Furthermore, she stared at me, awaiting a move from my side, but I only glared at the two, silently trying to make them leave.
Nila audibly sighed and turned to them as well to say, "Anyway, we are thankful for your help, you are quite a skilful priest to be able to heal an illness without knowing the diagnosis."
The priest nodded politely and put up his book against his chest with a smile, "No reason to thank me for the knowledge that I borrow." Then, one of his eyes and his gentle smile turned into a smirk as he sat on the opposite bed, "Well, then, shall we discuss your end of the deal?"
"Our end of the deal?"
Nila sighed at my question, stood up and took a sip of the cold tea that I never once touched. Faust sat beside Riaz and leaned backwards, supporting himself with his hands. Meanwhile, Nila sat beside me, creating a business-like atmosphere that further increased my wariness through the roof.
"I agreed to help them with the request if the priest heals you…" explained Nila while looking at the ceiling, but then her eyes lowered on Riaz, she asked in a cold voice, "But before we discuss this, could you answer whether it was just a coincidence that we bumped into each other for the second time or not?"
The smile never faded from the face of a priest, he closed his second eye and shook his head before saying, "Who knows? Fate, after all, can be quite ill-mannered and unpredictable, just like Aurora, a pompous gal if I dare to say so."
Nila's ears twitch and her expression was overflown with disbelief, same applied to Faust who straightened up in order to glance at the face of his friend. Did he say something outrageous? Just to be safe, I covered my mouth with my palm and waited for the conversation to continue.
After further consideration, Nila gave off a light smile, "You sure are bold in your claims in front of an elf. If you said it in the fairy realm, you would be fined or even executed. To think you are a priest as well, but I like your guts. Well, then, explain the mission I should assist you with."
Riaz nodded, but before he had a chance to answer, Faust stood up and opened his arms, revealing his light armour underneath his cloak, "Our mission is… to find one old lady's cat!"
"FAUST!" exclaimed Riaz and pulled him down by the cloak. Both my and Nila's jaws dropped, but only she was sane enough to doubt what she just heard, "Could you repeat that again?"
Riaz rubbed his forehead in annoyance, while Faust looked at him in confusion for his actions. He was clueless about how much of a clown he appeared to be, but I would lie if I said that it was not somewhat endearing.
The priest gave an explanation without daring to establish an eye contact, "You see, we got a request from an old woman to find her cat. There were similar pleas that we had to turn off, since there was just no way we could search an entirety of this town. But you are a mage, right, do you happen to know a spell that tracks down animals… I do not know, maybe by the scent?"
These words returned Nila from the pits of lost brain cells. She quickly shook her head and frowned at the two, "There is a spell that allows you to see the trail that an animal or a person leaves behind. But you could as well hire a guide-dog, do you really think we can afford to waste time here in search of pets?"
I nodded in agreement and also squinted at those clowns. We had a great mission at hand, to conquer the god realm and meet the goddess herself. We were certainly not in a position to do public service, especially for people we did not know. For once, I agreed with the course of action that was chosen by Nila, although I still could feel doubt within her eyes, as if she actually pondered over this decision. But, perhaps, I simply did not wake up fully, since the answer to their request was obvious.
"The total pay for a bulk of lost pets request is around 3 Silvas, we are ready to share 50% of this." said Faust with a smile, to which Nila hummed and replied, "Very well, then we will start tomorrow."
Faust and Nila suddenly shook their hands, making Riaz sigh in exhaustion and me gasp in disbelief. What did you mean by tomorrow? Did you not describe this service work as pointless waste of time, Nila? Before I was able to voice my protest, the two of the intruders finally left our room. It was quiet yet again, but not for long, because I was finally able to express my lacking enthusiasm for this quest.
"What did you even think, why are we going to search for these stupid cats? Are you insane!? I am not going anywhere!"
Nila was happily bobbing her head to left and right, certainly imagining the reward on her hands that were holding onto something invisible. After hearing my words, she opened her eyes and faced me with a smile, "You are my student, Dusk, and since magic will be involved in this case, you WILL accompany us."
"No, I won't!" I exclaimed and dropped on the bed, that squeaked loudly under my weight. Nila only hummed at my protest and calmly said, "We will see."