The group entered one of the rooms, and Clyde explained the situation to Rein, with Xenia listening in.

“To put it simply, there’s a thief who’s stealing from the second-hand market,” Clyde informed.

“A thief huh? Doesn’t sound like a hard case to crack,” Rein remarked.

“Yes, I thought so too at first… but apparently his methods are far more complicated than we thought,” Clyde said, which piqued Rein’s interest.

“How so?”

“How the second-hand store works is that you turn in your unused goods for a certain amount of money, and the market gives them away to the needy,” Clyde began explaining. “This person uses their Spring to disguise some items as real and sells them to the store. It’s impossible to tell real from fake, and he sends a different person each time,” he finished his retelling of the situation as Rein took in all of the information.

“I see… That is pretty troubling,” Rein thought out loud. “For anyone except me, of course,” he added, which lit a smile in both Clyde and Xenia’s faces.

“Really? You think you can catch it in the act tomorrow?” Xenia proactively jumped up, Rein smiling and nodding in affirmation. “That’s what I’m talking about! Thanks, Rein,” she cheered.

“I would expect nothing less. We’d be in trouble if it weren’t for you,” Clyde complimented, putting his hand on Rein’s shoulder in a gratuitous gesture.

“You guys can head back to the gulf if you want. I’ll be fine on my own here,” Rein offered, which excited Xenia once again.

“Really!? You’d do that?!” She asked in a surprised tone.

“Yeah. No offense, but there’s really no point in you guys being here,” Rein remarked. “To be honest, you’d kinda get in my way,” he jokingly laughed, however, there was some seriousness to his words.

“I know you said no offense, but that kinda pissed me off,” Xenia stated with a bewildered smile. “But okay, if that’s how it is, I’m going back home!” Xenia exclaimed.

The group exited the inn, and Rein walked the 2 to the path to Almes, which held the teleporter that instantly lead back to the Hasbin gulf. Xenia readied her supplies, and was ready to depart, standing on the path as she waited for Clyde.

“Hurry up, Clyde!” She yelled, to which Clyde looked down in shame.

“I think I’ll stay with Rein,” Clyde said, which instantly brought Xenia’s mood down, overriding her excitement with loneliness and sorrow.

“Huh..? Why..?” She uttered.

“Well, this is our commission. It wouldn’t be right if we just left it all to Rein,” he uncomfortably spoke.

“…”

“I’m sorry Xenia, but I’ll be stayi—”

“Fine. Stay then. Like I care,” she coldly cut him off, gazing at him with an icy glare as she turned around and began walking on the path.

“…” Clyde stood there, speechless as he watched her leave, gritting his teeth painfully, Rein shaking his head beside him.

Suddenly, he felt a forceful punch ram him on the side of the head, making him fly down to the ground swiftly. The grass shuffled as he impacted between it, the sound of the impact making Xenia turn back around. Clyde looked up, seeing Rein’s clenched fist floating where his head used to be, with an angered expression on his face. Rein reached down to Clyde and lifted him by the collar.

“Doesn’t this scene feel familiar? Remember when you did this to me?” Rein spoke as he held Clyde up to his face.

“…” Clyde stayed silent with his teeth grit.

“You’re going with her whether you like it or not.”

“It’s okay Rein. If he doesn’t want to come, he doesn’t have to. I can defend myself,” Xenia interjected, defending Clyde, which bewildered him.

“That may be true, but what if you start feeling anemic again?” Rein reminded, which made Xenia go silent, having no retort. “Clyde, you’re going and that’s final, you understand?” Rein let go of his collar, dropping him back on the ground as he coughed to regain his breath, Xenia rushing to his side to check if he’s okay.

“The roads are dangerous at night. Both of you be careful,” Rein left them with those words as he entered back into the city, getting out of sight from the 2 standing outside the gate of the town.

“Are you okay Clyde? Can you breathe okay?” She made sure with a concerned gaze in her eyes as Clyde ran his fingers on his neck, still coughing slightly from the tight hold Rein had him in.

“I’m fine…” He said, followed by another cough.

“Oh, thank goodness…” She let out a sigh of relief.

Clyde looked at the worried girl with a confused and guilty expression, feeling bad for the words he said to her earlier.

“Well, we should get going,” she helped him up, clearly no grudge held against him, which further perplexed Clyde, though he didn’t know how to react in that situation.

The 2 began their way to the Almes teleporter, with a slightly awkward air between them as they walked into the darkness of the night.

Rein returned to the room he booked and checked in for the night, flopping down on his bed from an extremely tiresome day.

“Menu,” he uttered, which, as usual, opened his system menu.

He checked the skills and experience he received from the 3 guards that he defeated in front of Zane’s cell.

[1 New Skill!]

“Huh? One skill? But I killed 3 of them?” Rein thought, to which Versys chimed in.

“It looks like all 3 kills combined to form 1 skill. Even I didn’t know that could happen,” Versys explained as Rein checked what the skill was.

Mystic Skill – Sharpened Attacks [I]: Attacks have a small chance to ignore armor and buffs gained from Springs afflicted on the opponent. If this effect activates, the enemy’s defense is also halved

“Holy shit, now that’s a good skill.. And it has a [I] beside it, so it can probably level up. Interesting…”