I froze on the spot, glancing from my bed to Lillia, desperately thinking what I could do to avert this potential train wreck of a situation from starting.

“What are you doing here Altria?” Lillia asked, with surprise and little hint of anger in her voice.

So that was her name, I didn’t get chance to ask her the night before…

“Hmm, I’m laid in bed just waking up.” She answered sleepily.

“I can see that! What I mean is, what are you doing in Theo’s bed, at this time in the morning?”

“Oh, right. Well, after our little drink last night and you telling me all about your new summons, I popped over. Seeing as I wasn’t really feeling sleepy, I thought I had better come and check him over. You know, after the last one I wanted to make sure that he was alright.”

“And you just let her in?” Lillia asked turning to me.

“W-well, she said she was your friend and I didn’t really feel I had much choice.” I spluttered.

“I see!” Lillia turned back to Altria. “And so how exactly did you end up in his bed?”

“Yeah that… I was quite intrigued by the special skill that you said he had, and I thought while I was over here, I might as well check it out. Then I decided why not help out with a little training so what happened to you doesn’t happen again.”

“Training! I told you he needed to recuperate.” Lillia furiously looking between me and Altria.

“It’s okay I gave him a mana potion first and he managed very well after that.”

“You did what! I can’t believe you Altria, he is my summons and I should be the one training him!”

“I was only trying to help you out.”

“It’s looks as if you’ve been doing more than that!”

“It’s not like you two have become an item or anything is it?”

“N-no…” “Lillia blushed a little. “It’s entirely a professional arrangement!” She retorted trying to regain her composure. “Anyway, shouldn’t you be trying call your own summons? How long has it been now?”

“I’ve decided to give that a break for now… It always ends so… You know.” Altria answered yawning a little.

“But you’ve decided to interfere with mine?”

“I wouldn’t say I was interfering as such… And anyway, he didn’t seem to mind. It’s not like he fell asleep in the middle like with you.”

“He did not fall asleep! It was a mana drained induced stupor!” Lillia realised that she’d lost her cool again and quickly tried to readjust to her normal demeanour, glancing at me as if to check my reaction. “Anyway, I think it is time for you to leave. Theo and I have important business to do today. I don’t want you tagging along. We’ll discuss this later.”

“Fine, fine, I’ve done what I need to do for now. I guess I’ll head home for now and catch up with some sleep.” Altria said with a knowing smile.

I breathed a slight sigh of relief when I heard her agreeing to leave so easily. Altria climbed out of the bed picked up clothes up off the floor and quickly dressed. She headed towards the door before turning to me.

“I’ll come and see you later, once things have quietened down a little.” She said giving me a little wink, as she left closing the door behind her.

I had been mostly quiet the entire time their discussion had been going on. I looked at Lillia to gauge her mood… She still looked vexed by the whole situation. I felt really bad about the whole thing, even if it was just as Altria said. We weren’t a couple or anything, but we had already slept together, and she was Lillia’s friend. I should have known better.

“Look Lillia, I’m really sorry about that.” I tried to apologise.

“Uh, it’s not your fault. She always just does exactly as she pleases, and I doubt she gave you any room for argument.” She answered a little flatly.

“Well… She did just kind of just barge in here.”

“I expect she did. Huh.” She sighed “I should’ve known better her than to tell her all that last night. I never learn. I wouldn’t even be surprised if it wasn’t just a mana potion that she gave you.”

She obviously knew her well.

“Still…”

“Don’t worry about it for now. Anyway, we have a lot to do today, so we should really get started.” She told me, switching the topic and now sounding back to her normal self, if a little forced.

“What are we doing?” I asked a little surprised at her reaction. I was expecting her to be more off with me about it, but I wasn’t going to complain if she wasn’t.

“Well first of we need to get you kitted out and then we are going to find some low-level monsters for you to practice on.”

Perhaps it really was all a professional arrangement and she was just irritated by Altria interfering as she put it.

“Okay…” I agreed. I did only have the clothes I was summoned here with and the sword I used yesterday. “Hold on how did I end up with that sword? I’m in my normal clothes, but I definitely don’t normally walk around with a sword at my hip.”

“Oh that. The heroes that are summoned seem to appear with the weapon that’s most suited to them and yours is the sword apparently.” She answered without the slightest hint of irony in her voice.

It would be good to get some more clothes and the moment I was still walking around in a partially torn shirt. Starting on a monster hunt already though… I still wasn’t sure that I was really up for the whole thing about fighting this demon lord.

As it was, I didn’t feel like discussing my concerns about that with Lillia right now, especially after what she had witnessed this morning. It just seemed sensible not to irritate her anymore, even if she seemed fine now and besides, it would be a good chance to take a proper look around the town. After I finished dressing, Lillia suggested that we head down to the guild hall for some breakfast before heading out.

“It was still quiet downstairs a minute ago, if we head down now, we should be able to get served pretty quickly.” She told me.

“Sure, I could do with a warm meal.”

We made our way down to the guild hall and took one of them empty tables and waited for a waitress to come and take our order. It wasn’t long before a particularly attractive waitress noticed us and came over.

“Morning are you ready to order?” She asked us with a smile.

The desire to activate ‘appraisal’ to see what she had on offer under that uniform was strong, but I somehow managed to resist the urge.

“One tea and a full cooked breakfast please.” Lillia asked the waitress.

“Gotcha.” The waitress noted down her order before looking at me.

“Oh, I’ll have the same thanks.”

“Okay, two teas and full cooked breakfast coming right up.” She answered with a smile again and left heading towards the Kitchen.

It was just as Lillia had said, the guild hall was quiet this morning compared to how it had been the previous evening. There were still people milling about by the notice board and a few others wating for breakfast like we were, but apart from that it was almost empty. I guess that most of the adventurers had either gotten up early to find the best quests or they were still in bed sleeping off the alcohol from the night before.

It wasn’t long before the pretty waitress returned with our food and drinks. She placed them down on the table before asking.

“Is there anything else you would like?”

“Not for now, we’ll call you over if we need anything.” Lillia answered her.

“Okay then, please enjoy your meal.” She smiled and then left us to eat.

It turned out the food here was remarkably similar to what we have in our own world. The full cooked breakfast looked exactly like what I would call a full cooked breakfast. It smelled exactly like what I needed and we both tucked in without holding on ceremony.

We both quickly ate down our food and after finishing our tea’s we called over the waitress and settled the bill. I was feeling uneasy about letting Lillia pay for everything, she did say that she received expenses for this sort of thing and I guess I would soon be able to pay my own way if killing monsters and taking quests paid, but it didn’t quite sit right with me.

Now that we had finished here it was time for us to hit the town and gather our equipment. I was still quite excited for the chance to have a good look around. All I had seen of the place so far was when Lillia had pulled me through the market area on our way to the guild hall. This was an entirely new world and culture and I was eager to have the chance to experience it.

“You ready to head out?” Lillia asked me.

“I’m ready whenever you are.”

“Good. We have a few stops to make, so we should get a move on.”

With that Lillia stood up from her seat and I followed her lead. We made our way through the tables in the guild hall and headed out into the warm morning sun.