Foster sat in the back of the carriage, looking at the small porcelaine mask. And ‘small’ really meant ‘small’ right now. Over the past few days, the original mask that was on Aster’s body started crumbling away around the edges, shrinking bit by bit. It had stopped changing when it reached the size of his thumb’s nail.

It was so small that Foster was kind of worried he was going to end up losing it somehow… Although he still really wasn’t sure if this was really supposed to happen. But for now, he just made sure to pay extra close attention to it. Since him, Lynol and Octer had been amongst the most injured people after their fight against that extremely huge wolf, George allowed them to just take a break for the next few days, so he didn’t really have to get out of the carriage at all and could just focus on recovering while being healed by that mage a little bit every day.

While Foster sat there inside of the carriage, looking at the tiny porcelaine mask, he noticed that the carriage was slowly coming to a halt in an unusual way. That usually just happened when something was going on outside, but Lynol seemed surprised as well, so it didn’t seem to be monsters again.

To see what exactly was going on, Foster leaned out of the back of the carriage. In the very front, he spotted George talking to a few people that had come from the opposite direction. They were all heavily armed and some of them were wearing thick armor.

Sometime in the middle of the conversation, Foster noticed George point right toward him, and a young woman, who seemed to be the leader of that group, came rushing toward them. Of course, he immediately sat back down, because he really didn’t want to deal with it, “Lynol, put your mask back on. And Octer, wake the fuck up.” Foster groaned as he lightly kicked Octer, who was laying on the ground, just taking a nap in the middle of the day. He drank quite a bit of alcohol yesterday, so he was trying to sleep off his hangover.

“Who here fought the Colossal Wolf?!” The woman yelled out, and Foster looked back at her while rolling his eyes, “Who wants to know that?” He replied, and she crossed her arms with an annoyed frown.

“So it was you three? Who do you think you are to steal someone else’s prey?” She asked with an annoyed glare, “We’ve been preparing for this for months!”

“Eh? Months for that thing? You seem decently strong, though? What, were you too scared to actually come out here to get rid of it before it fucking attacked our caravan?”

“Even if that happened, you don’t-”

“Shut the fuck up…” Foster replied in disbelief, “You weren’t just about to tell us that we still shouldn’t have killed it? Are you fucking with me right now? No, you know what, I know you aren’t fucking with me, because I know people like you. Get the fuck off your high horse and listen to me, you stuck-up bitch. If we’re attacked, we’ll fight back. Next time, just do your job better if you don’t want someone else to do it for you!”

The woman looked back at Foster absolutely perplexed, “Y-You could have just run away! Just because-”

“I just told you to shut it.” Foster was done, and stepped out of the carriage. He stood in front of this woman, this utterly stuck-up adventurer, and glared down at her. She took some steps back, and Foster pointed at the rest of the adventurers that were waiting at the front of the caravan, “Now go back to your friends, turn around, and leave us the fuck be.”

The woman in front of Foster slowly stared down at the ground, and a moment later, the young man realized that he maybe, just possibly, was a bit too harsh talking to her like that. After all, considering that he just made a grown woman, even if she just seemed to be around 19 or 20 years old, cry like a little kid, it was Foster that seemed like the bad guy in this situation. Even though she was the one that acted like Foster, Lynol and Octer were at fault for literally saving everyone in the caravan.

Noticing that she had started crying, another member of her group came rushing over, glaring at Foster in the process, “What have you done to her?! She just came here to talk to you to confirm whether or not you killed that beast!”

“…What?” Foster replied with a deep glare. This guy was wearing things that seemed to be extremely expensive, with shining armor and a decorated sword on his hip.

“What do you mean ‘what’? She came here to confirm if what the leader of this caravan said is indeed the truth!”

“…She told us that we’re thieves for killing her prey before her, and judged us for defending ourselves and the other people in this caravan against it.” Foster explained to him, more than just annoyed at this situation. The man turned his head and looked at the woman next to her.

“Silvia, is he telling the truth?” The man asked, and the woman, Silvia, kept staring at the ground silently, tears still running down her cheeks. He squatted down in front of her, and looked her into her eyes, “Silvia, answer me please.”

Slowly, Silvia nodded her head in response to this man, “B-But… We’ve been preparing for this for so long! It… It’s unfair that they just-”

“Alright, just stop talking. And apologize to him right this second.” The man said, while Foster turned around to look at Lynol and Octer. The three were all in just in utter disbelief right now.

Silvia carefully raised her head and looked at Foster, rubbing the tears out of her eyes, “I’m sorry… I just felt really frustrated…”

“Good. Now go back to the others, I’ll deal with this.” The man said, and Silvia silently nodded and walked away with her head hanging low. When she was gone, the man looked back at Foster.

“I sincerely apologize for my sister’s behavior.” He said with a genuine expression, “And I of course also apologize for snapping at you like that. I am somewhat protective of her, but it is still inexcusable.”

“…You’re good, don’t worry about it. I was probably also a bit too harsh.”

“Probably? You fuckin’ yelled at ‘er.” Octer said from within the carriage, and Foster quickly swung his hand behind him and held his middle-finger toward his friend, while his face was still concentrated on this guy in front of him.

“Erm, anyway… If you prepared for this that much, I kinda get being frustrated… But again, we couldn’t just ignore it, you know?” Foster pointed out while scratching his cheek, and the man in front of him smiled back

“Of course. But if I may ask, did you harvest anything from its corpse? Because even if we aren’t the ones to beat it, it is still necessary for us to prove that it has been slain. Just to show that it is no longer a threat to worry about.” The man explained, and Foster slowly nodded his head as he turned around, looking past the carriages, “Yeah, just go over there to that third carriage in the caravan. It’s where the materials from the different monsters hunted during the trip are kept, I think. Just talk to George about it if you need anything like that.”

“I see. Thank you for the advice.” The man finished speaking with a smile, and although Foster thought that was it, the man just kept standing there for a while longer.

“Can I help you with anything else?” Foster asked with a wry smile, and the man quickly shook his head, “Sorry, I was just… surprised. You three have slain that beast on your own?”

“Yup, what about it?”

“Oh, nothing! But I was wondering, you three… Are you a member of a guild right now?” The man asked, “I mean, even if you are…. I think you three would grow quite well within our Lost Sparrow guild.”