The path to Lune had been progressing smoothly for Adelyn and her friends. Though, despite the city being closer than Asana was, it was still quite the trip. That is why the carriage had set up a temporary camp near the woods. They would rest up, and continue after their sleep.

  Adelyn and Edward also figured it would be a good time to monster hunt while they were here. Knox was a lot less charitable with money than Custos was, and they had used a fair amount of their lunar already. So, they agreed that it would be the best for them to stock up on some change.

  They asked Cozy to come as well, but she seemed to be in a poor mood. So, it was just the two of them on this hunt. And this time, they found a swarm of beasts. There were at least five quadrupeds, each the size of two men combined. Their horns angrily ran at the duo as they stood tall.

  “You take three, and I take two,” Ed said.

  “Only if you’re the one that cuts them apart,” Adelyn responded. They were feeling pretty confident, considering the entire mission with Pugna.

  “Sure,” Ed said, before launching to deal with his own pair. Adelyn had the slightly harder task, but really, she didn’t mind. The first beast charged directly at her, which Adelyn casually jumped over. Her chainsaw was driven through the beast’s head as she ran it across its body. The hide would probably be damaged a bit, but she just wanted to feel cool for a second.

  She then clashed against the next beast’s horn. If there was one thing, it was that these beasts were pretty physically strong. They could topple the carriage with a good hit, so luckily they didn’t run into these things on the road. Adelyn’s chainsaw revved as it cut through the beast’s tough horn.

  However, she took a leap back as the beast shook its head. The second one began to charge at her, but she summoned Golus, the spirit of Earth to strike it head on! This rattled the beast’s mind, before the spirit grabbed the creature by the head and put it down with a quick twist.

  The last one was charging at her already, but Adelyn was prepared. Her chainsaw let her clash against the beast’s horns freely, and Golus immediately came running over to help. He used his physical might to smash into the beast’s side, greatly damaging it. The earth golem then pinned down the monster on the ground as it flailed for freedom, allowing Adelyn to finish it off with a strike of her chainsaw.

  With a wipe of her brow, all of the slain beasts lay next to her. Golus faded away, leaving the girl alone with her spoils. She didn’t get dirty this time, only her chainsaw. She could wash that later, as she looked over to Ed’s side of the battle.

  It seemed like he finished before she did, which was expected. He had one less enemy to deal with, after all. With a wave of her hand, she used her telekinesis to drag the slain beasts across the ground and towards Edward, who was waiting amongst his slain beasts.

  “How much are these worth, anyways?” Adelyn asked.

  “If I cut them correctly, probably one-fifty lunar each,” Ed answered. “We got lucky with this haul. It’ll definitely give us a good buffer for Lune.”

  “Yeah, don’t get too stinky,” Adelyn said. “Cutting things can easily get super gross, like, eugh.”

  “You would know, Miss Chainsaw,” Ed said, picking up one of the beasts and summoning a blade to begin cutting through it. “Though, Lune is a pretty expensive city, if we could hunt some more I definitely would.”

  “Pugna was a recreational city, no?” Adelyn said. “It can’t be that much more expensive than there.”

  “Well, Pugna was all about fights, no? Lune is definitely about festivities, celebrating the moon that gives us all life. Of course, a fair amount of it is commercialized… but I think the Governor is working on striking a balance.”

  “Commercialized… I wonder what that’s like,” Adelyn said. “It is people’s… beliefs, right? It feels weird to apply that term to them.”

  “I dunno, I’m not an economist. But money does need to flow somehow,” Ed said. “Maybe they just figured out the option that worked for them.”

  Adelyn sat next to Edward as he cut through the beasts. These things were certainly pretty tough on the outside, and Ed was having a little bit of difficulty getting perfect cuts from each of them. She figured they might be here for a while.

  “Do you know why Cozy might be so opposed to going to Lune?” Ed asked. “You’ve spent more time with her than me. I mean, she surely must have figured out that we need to go to all of the cities in order to get the approval of each governor.”

  “I’m… actually not sure,” Adelyn shook her head. “She’s generally pretty pragmatic when it comes to these kinds of things. She just said she didn’t like arguing with religious people, right?”

  “It’s not that bad, I think,” Ed said. “People who put their faith in the moon are doing it for comfort. It’s just nice to have something… or someone to rely on or talk to, even if they don’t necessarily do anything in reality.”

  “I suppose. I read a lot about gods back at my library, they’re weird. Honestly, just as weird as us people are, ahah,” Adelyn laughed a bit.

  “I dunno if we’ll ever meet one,” said Ed. “If we do, I hope they’re nice. I don’t think I’ve done anything that bad to deserve a mean god…”

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  “Hey! If it’s mean then we can take it on together. You, me, Teddie, and Cozy,” Adelyn reassured her. “That way, we can show that god that we’re the best!”

  “Sure, I suppose that works too,” Ed rolled his eyes. He had just finished butchering the first beast and placed it in a container that they had brought for this case. “Can you use your ice girl to freeze that for me? And also get me the next one.”

  “Got it!” Adelyn said. She began to summon Eira to freeze some of the meat. The cool air chilled the container into a more sustainable condition, before Adelyn reached to grab the next beast.

  Then she realized something. The beast wasn’t there. Her magic wasn’t grabbing onto anything at all.

  “Did I misplace it?” Adelyn was a little bit confused for a second, looking around. There were still three other beasts on the ground around them, but there was one missing.

  “Huh?” Ed stood up. The boy looked around in confusion alongside Adelyn. Did a monster take their haul without them noticing? However, Adelyn suddenly noticed Edward turn in a direction, into the darkness… a faint light was in the distance.

  “Someone’s taking our stuff!” Ed said. He immediately put on his mask and dashed towards the sight. Adelyn quickly stored all of their beasts in the container before rushing off behind Edward.

  The two of them ran after the figure, carrying the heavy beast above their head like it was nothing. Adelyn decided to summon Viridia in order to catch the thief, and Ed created similar ropes to throw at them.

  With that their combined throw gripped the thief by the legs, causing them to trip over. The person fell over just before they escaped into the nearby woods, and the vines entangled them quickly.

  Now that they could get a better look at them, they looked familiar. The cloak was a similar color to one they have seen before, and…

  “Joyce?” Ed said, suddenly. The girl’s hood was pulled off, revealing her golden hair and red eyes. In a quick motion, a glowing sword sliced through the vines and the rope, freeing her from captivity. She immediately took off again.

  “Hey! Wait, Joyce!” Adelyn said, running after her. “Wait up! You don’t have to run!”

  “What?” Joyce coldly responded, stopping for just a second.

  “Ed,” Adelyn nudged the boy, who just caught up to her. She was hoping Ed could deliver an apology for the false accusation, considering she wasn’t the cheater.

  “Right…” Ed said. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, and took off his mask in front of her. “Joyce. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions and accusing you of being a cheater. I should have waited for more evidence to be certain.”

  Joyce stared at the duo for a moment, not responding.

  “What are you doing out here? Are you travelling again? If you want we could explain the situation to the guards and arrange your transport! You can… you can keep the beast, even. We already have others!” Adelyn suggested. She figured it would be best to offer Joyce some material evidence of an apology, especially when they might have hurt her this bad.

  “Yeah. I hope you understand that it wasn’t anything personal…” Ed awkwardly shuffled. “It’s just… you know, uh…”

  Adelyn watched Ed try to formulate this apology. It was pretty clear he was trying to find a different word other than “suspicious” to describe Joyce, considering his previous accusations. He seemed to stumble over his words a bit, but then he finally found an answer.

  “It’s just… I wasn’t thinking straight. I found clues that weren’t there. I’m sorry. I was so focused on the cheating stuff that I didn’t consider how it would affect you. If you could accept our apology… and help… then that would be great…”

  Joyce took another step back, looking to the side, and then looking back at Adelyn and Edward. Her facial expression seemed to be one of guilt, even though the girl hadn’t done anything wrong.

  “Thank you… Adelyn… Edward. I know you didn’t mean any harm. But… but, I think I’ll continue travelling on my own for now,” Joyce said. “It’s better than forcing you guys to extend your favor to me.”

  “Huh?” Ed seemed confused. “But wherever you’re headed, we can help. Come on, we owe it to you.”

  “I said I’m fine. What I’m doing is better suited alone, anyways,” Joyce said. “You don’t need to worry about me. Congratulations on your win.”

  “You can at least take the beast, money is tight so… it’s the least we could do,” Adelyn suggested. “Why are you out here alone, anyways?”

  “That’s my own business, don’t get bogged down with me. I’m just hoping there’s maybe something in Lune-”

  “Lune?” Adelyn said. “We’re going there too! Are you sure you don’t want our help?”

  Joyce stiffened, as if she said too much. However, she regained her composure and shook her head.

  “As I said, no. Just, it’s fine. Thanks for the beast,” Joyce said. “I’ve learned it’s better to do things quietly rather than make a show about it. I hope you can understand that too.”

  “But…” Ed was about to interrupt further. However, Joyce turned away and began to head into the woods with her spoils. The two of them watched as she vanished into the trees by herself.

  “We’ll see you in Lune!” Adelyn shouted, though no response was given. The two of them were simply left, alone with their own meat to butcher.

  “Man,” Ed said, sitting down. He reached into the container and grabbed a carcass, creating a knife to cut through it one more time. “Stuff doesn’t feel right.”

  “What do you mean?” Adelyn asked, sitting next to him.

  “I dunno. I still have questions about that girl. If she wasn’t the cheater, then why did she match with so many symptoms? Why isn’t she accepting our apology? It’s just, so weird,” Ed complained.

  “That’s fair. A lot of stories don’t answer those kinds of questions either, and I especially can’t get a read on her,” Adelyn responded.

  “I’ve just been feeling off since Pugna,” Ed sighed. “I think she’s a the main reason for that.”

  “Well, we’ll help her if we can. I obviously want to as well. But, let's keep moving forwards, okay? Lune is a brand new place, and we have a brand new governor to deal with. At least, we can keep going until our questions have answers.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Ed said. “We can’t do anything about her until we know what’s going on. Until then, we have our own problems to worry about.”

  “Mhm,” Adelyn nodded. “Like cutting that meat. You need to cut with the skin, not against it.”

  “Agh-! Man, this stuff is harder than it looks.”