The first quest, well, it had given him a chance to relax by mowing the lawn. The second, a chance to help a good person, or at least a girl who had been unjustly betrayed. Yes, better to put it that way; regardless of whether she was a good or bad person, it was a worthy act.

  It had been a worthy act, but as for the third, well, that provided him with nothing. More than just the duty of killing a certain number of monsters on the outskirts, it was about population control. Something undoubtedly important, but it didn't feel much different from mowing the lawn. Except, of course, there was nothing relaxing about it.

  In fact, he even ended up in the stomach of one of those monsters. The walls of flesh were closing in on him, slowly suffocating him. It was capable of digesting him as if he were just another piece of food. But he wouldn't let that happen. He wasn't going to wait for Tara to pull his chestnuts out of the fire. He didn't need her to. Vincent held his breath and waited for the right moment to attack. Exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. He had to attack when it was exhaling. That would make things easier. His sword slashed through its stomach and came out the other side, accompanied by a shower of blood and entrails.

  Vincent came out that way too, crawling. It was like a macabre birth canal, and he was covered in filth from head to toe. He definitely felt reborn, though not in a good way. He crawled out from under the corpse and managed to get to his feet. One of the beasts used the fresh corpse as a springboard, leaping directly at him. But it was sent flying. It died before it hit the ground, and for the same reason, of course. An arrow in its eye, driven so deep it reached the brain. Tara hadn't pulled his chestnuts out of the fire, but she had his back.

  He desperately needed a shower after this. It wasn't the time to think about such things, but he thought it with complete sincerity anyway. No matter how tired he was, as soon as he got back to the room, he would get in the shower. Even if he ended up falling asleep in it, it didn't matter, he needed to get this filth off him.

  He looked around; there weren't many monsters left standing. What was left, what remained to be done, wasn't a battle, but more of a cleanup. The battle itself was already over, and the conclusion was obvious. All that remained was a cleanup that resembled mowing the lawn, so that's what they did. Together, they mowed the lawn until nothing was left.

  [Quest Complete: Atonement (3/5) - Population Control]

  There, fifty monsters of various types, dead. He'd almost been digested in one's stomach because of a stupid mistake, but he'd gotten away with it regardless. He had undoubtedly won. He didn't feel like he'd accomplished anything truly important, nothing that contributed, but he had to be content.

  “One Quest down,” Tara said. “It's getting late, we should head back now, so you two will at least have a chance to talk.”

  “Right, I wasn't planning on sticking around to watch the sunset.”

  Vincent nodded and started on the path back to the academy, more specifically, back to Elizabeth's office. It wasn't certain she'd be there, but he had to present proof of his success. Indeed, she wasn't there. He wondered what kind of problem had made her react. What was she busy fixing now? It wasn't just a duty for her; she enjoyed it, that was obvious. He supposed it didn't matter; it didn't change the fact that she wasn't present and he had work to do too.

  [New Quest Received: Atonement (4/5) - Errand Boy]

  “How many more are left?” Vincent asked. After reading the fourth quest, another tedious job, he dared to ask. Rather, he didn't have the same familiarity with the girl who looked back at him; he didn't even know her name. She hadn't bothered to introduce herself.

  “One more.”

  “Only five?”

  “That's what I said.”

  Vincent nodded and left. There was nothing more to say. He thought he would be paying for weeks, maybe, for the crime of being insolent to a faculty member, no matter how much Verona had deserved it. No matter how much the damn faculty had sent them into the lion's den without proper protection. And what had almost happened should never have been stopped by them in the first place. But in the end, it was only five quests; it wouldn't even take him a week.

  He didn't have time to do the quest today, even though there were still plenty of hours left in the day. But at most, he would do the fourth tomorrow, and he supposed the fifth the day after, at the latest. Then he'd be free, as if nothing had happened. He should feel relieved, and he was, but mostly he felt confused.

  Just as she’d promised, they found Ayame sitting on her own bed, legs crossed, reading a book as she waited for them.

  “Wow,” she lifted her head slowly. “Wow, I didn't expect you back so soon.”

  “Yeah, well…” Vincent left the quest paper on the nightstand. “I'd have to be up all night doing it if I started now, so I'd rather wait until tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Let me see,” Ayame said. She didn't sound very curious, but he supposed she said it out of curiosity.

  Vincent shrugged, handed the paper to Tara, and Tara passed it to Ayame. The vampiress scanned the paper in a tenth of a second. “Aha, it's a tedious task, but I can help you cheat.”

  “Are you sure? If I get caught, I might get expelled.”

  “I know, Vincent. If I weren't sure, one hundred percent, I wouldn't have said anything. I would never risk that.”

  “Well, that's true. Okay, I'll listen, but not today. I don't feel like talking about that shit today.”

  Ayame nodded. “We should talk about this morning.”

  Tara coughed a couple of times. “Well, I'm going to take a shower and… No, maybe a bath. Take your time.” With that transparent excuse, she slipped into the bathroom. Soon, the sound of running water reached them.

  Ayame stood up, walked over, and plopped down on his bed. “I'm sorry I made you feel uncomfortable. I thought it would be okay. Will you forgive me?”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  It was a pure and innocent request. She was seeking forgiveness, but the poor girl didn't even know what had affected him so much. She had surely spent hours turning it over in her mind while she read, but still hadn't come close to the answer. What a thing. What that said about the place where she had grown up, the way she had been raised, he didn't like. There was a gap between them. Maybe it had always been there and nothing had changed. He had no idea how to bridge that gap, no matter how desperately he wanted to. Maybe he should put his cards on the table, even though it could very well cost him everything. Vincent lowered his head, thoughtful.

  “There's nothing to forgive.”

  “If that's the case, why are you making that face?”

  “It's not you, it's me,” Vincent winced. “Fuck, what a stupid fucking cliché.” He couldn't believe he'd said that out loud.

  “No, I don't understand,” her voice trembled slightly. “Please, just tell me plainly. I don't understand and I'm starting to get scared.”

  Vincent clicked his tongue. No, not all the cards. That would be too much, but maybe a little common sense would suffice. “Ayame, you're my friend, but I'm not gay. A girl as beautiful as you, in bed with me, barely dressed… Well, that awakens feelings far from friendship.”

  He couldn't hold her gaze for long. He was red to the tips of his ears. It was the most obvious thing in the world, but it felt like he had just confessed a great secret. For Ayame, it certainly was.

  “Oh,” she said softly. “It's not like I'm stupid. I know how all the boys and men look at me.” The professors too. No, she was speaking generally, not just about Runehaven, but surely the professors too. Fuck. “But I didn't think you…”

  Vincent shrank even more. “Look, you don't have to say anything. I already know you're too good for me.”

  “Huh?” She sounded even more confused, not the other way around. “No, that’s not it.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “I—I don't know. Don't pressure me like this. This isn't easy for me.”

  “It’s true. I'm sorry. Vincent, about thirty people. In my whole life. Thirty people. I don't know many things. I just know I don't want to hurt you.”

  Thirty people. My God. That was an even smaller number than the population of the town he had lived in. But it was even worse than that, wasn't it? “In my whole life,” she had said. So those thirty people included the people she had talked to since she arrived at the academy too. It included him and Tara. Only about thirty people. Vincent licked his lips. That was a suffocatingly small world. The size of a handkerchief.

  “You haven't hurt me.”

  “But I screwed up, right? Let me fix it. Tell me how. Don't… don't leave me so lost.”

  You've hurt my fragile, hypocritical feelings, he thought. I keep telling myself you're too good for me, that there's no way you'd say yes. But when I heard "we're just friends," I still felt rejected and hurt. Yeah. He couldn't say that. Obviously.

  “I already told you,” Vincent finally replied, taking her hand. Squeezing it. He felt the urge to kiss her knuckles. Like some stupid knight from a storybook. But fortunately, the urge passed. He already self-sabotaged enough. “It’s me. Not you. I'll get over it. You don't have to do anything. And you're not to blame for anything.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes. Of course I'm serious.”

  The sound of the water stopped. Tara probably stood listening behind the door for a while, judging whether she should turn the faucet on again. When they gave her no reason to, she came out as if nothing had happened.

  “Well,” Tara said. “Back to the grind tomorrow.”

  “Yes,” Ayame said. “And this time, all three of us.”

  They hadn't exactly discussed it. But it was decided. He trusted that Ayame knew what she was doing. He wasn't afraid of being expelled.

  ——

  Ayame accompanied them, mostly in the form of a bat. She cleared the way for them, leaving no trace that they couldn't have left themselves. It was the perfect crime.

  Anyway, Elizabeth wasn't there to watch them, so it's not like they had much supervision. He shouldn't have worried so much about getting caught cheating. Well, he hadn't worried. He had trusted blindly that Ayame knew what she was doing, but he shouldn't have needed that faith in her. Because it hadn't been that risky to begin with. That's what he meant.

  They started in the morning and finished before two o'clock. Very efficiently, in fact.

  [Quest Complete: Atonement (4/5) - Errand Boy]

  When they returned to the room, Vincent had convinced himself that the best thing he could do was put his cards on the table. That it was either that or give up on her completely. Because the alternative—silence, letting Ayame go on with a mistaken idea while his own dreams and hopes rotted inside him, perhaps turning into something unpleasant—well, that wasn't an alternative at all. Or so it had seemed while they were working.

  Now, in their room, looking at her, he didn't dare. He was frozen like a statue. Ayame looked back at him curiously, but she wasn't worried. Or at least she didn't seem to be. But Tara was. Tara looked at him as if she knew what he was going to say.

  Ayame began hesitantly. “About yesterday morning…”

  Tara tensed, bracing for the fallout.

  Yeah, he thought, I totally get it.

  “It didn't just bother me because you're an undeniably attractive girl,” he said. “It hurt because... because I love you.”

  For a moment, he thought Ayame would say innocently, Of course, I love you too. But she just nodded, serious. Good sign, bad sign. How the hell was he supposed to know?

  “I came to the academy to escape my fate, to try to be something more. But before I knew it, everything became about you. You've always made me feel special, less small. Always.”

  “No, it’s okay,” her voice trembled. “You don’t have to… okay.”

  “Think… think about it,” he continued. “If you want to or can give me a chance, or, well, you can reject me now. I’m just saying you don’t—I’m not demanding an answer. Just being honest.”

  Ayame nodded again. She didn’t speak.

  Fuck, that’s probably not a good sign, is it?

  “I don’t know what to say,” Ayame admitted at last.

  “That’s fine. I told you. You don’t have to know. Not yet.”

  “Escaping your fate,” Tara repeated. “That’s how you’ve felt this whole time. Vincent, you are a Knight. This is your destiny.”

  Vincent looked back at her. Yes, maybe it was time to put all the cards on the table, regardless of the consequences. No, rather, it was time to trust. This was his life from now on. The other option was to dig a hole and hide in the dark. Even if opening his heart brought him pain, he had to believe it would also bring him closer to them. He had to believe that Ayame, at least, would still be his friend. And that Tara wouldn't betray him, not even for his own good, out of concern for what might happen to a simple blacksmith.

  Vincent took a deep breath. “That’s not true,” Vincent said. “I’m so sorry, Tara. I’m not a Knight. I’m a blacksmith.”

  Tara didn’t hesitate at all. She slapped him across the face an instant later.

  It was probably the most pain he’d ever felt in his life. He stared at her with wide eyes, practically bulging from their sockets. It hurt, though it was the least he could expect. After all, he had just told her that he had carelessly risked her life on a whim. That she had entrusted her life not to a Knight prepared for combat, but to the blacksmith who was supposed to forge said Knight’s equipment.

  However, there was no anger on Tara’s face. Her expression was much more complicated.

  She hugged them both. “Okay, okay. You should—you should have told me sooner, but okay.”

  That easy? No, nothing was that easy.

  “Vincent,” Ayame murmured, her face pressed against his shoulder. “I don’t know what to say to you, but it’s not because I’m too good for you. On the contrary. I don’t know what couples do. Not really. I don’t know what I can offer you, what you see in me, besides my body. So I don’t know, but I promise I’ll think about it seriously before I answer. I just hope nothing has to change between us. Even if I say no.”

  Vincent shook his head. “It won’t, I promise.”

  She nodded at him again, entrusting him with her fragile hope. Vincent returned the hug, pulling them both close.

  Okay, this—none of this was what he had expected before he began this journey. It couldn’t be. This was what he never knew he needed, what he had always been searching for. It was warmth, it was a family, and with that as his sword, he was sure he could face whatever the future held.