23. Together

After leaving the Adventurers’ guild Waldina inquired the wishes of the others in her group as to what they should do next. She was mainly waiting for Claudia’s opinion, because she was the one most likely having one. Kiandra surely had an opinion which was closely related to the fire magic grimoire. Lidia on the other hand would likely be too shy to voice her opinion.

As Claudia admitted she mainly wanted to explore Twande’s streets and enjoy her day as an ordinary commoner, Waldina decided to look for grimoire shops. Or in other words: ordinary antique shops, which might hold grimoires as well.

The first three shops were a complete bust - they didn’t have a single grimoire and the shop owners had no clue as to where she might find a shop that would have grimoires. At the fourth shop there were a couple of grimoires, but the shop owner was rather apologetic because they currently didn’t have any fire magic grimoires. Though they did have plenty of possibly useful books which Waldina kindly - somewhat desperately - declined buying. Every time she said no to one, Claudia had fixed her attention to another interesting looking book which didn’t go unnoticed by the shop owner.

When they finally exited the shop, Kiandra was practically begging for lunch time. Waldina gave in after sighing loudly. At this point Claudia and Lidia were already heading towards the restaurant street which they passed by earlier.

Against all odds, Claudia kept in her mind the tips Waldina had given her, and didn’t disapprove of more than half of the available restaurants before settling on one that seemed fairly popular. This Lidia kindly recommended one of the dishes to Claudia and their lunch went by without much difficulty. A few times Claudia kept wondering about the dish she ordered; beef with a couple of potatoes. According to her, the dish was far too one-sided. Lidia desperately tried to explain that it was actually common. At last, Claudia shut her mouth and ate with a content expression on her face. Experiencing common things was after all what she wanted to experience.

After lunch Waldina tried suggesting they could go their separate ways for now and meet later on back at the inn. Her suggestion was instantly trashed and they continued their search for the fire magic grimoire together.

Without much luck.

It seemed the whole town didn’t have a single fire magic grimoire left. Kiandra was pissed, for obvious reasons, but she cheered up a bit when the evening came.

“So is there anything you want to do or see in Twande? Any goals?” Waldina kept asking as they were waiting for their dinner at a small, atmospheric restaurant. Lidia had first suggested a tavern but changed her mind after seeing Claudia’s reaction. Thus they were now seated at a small Italy-inspired restaurant’s corner table.

“Just getting to know the culture and meeting common people. You know, all that stuff any noblewoman would like to experience,” Claudia voiced and glanced around as if to check no one had heard. Waldina suspected it was also meant to ensure she wouldn’t notice Claudia’s uncertainty and fear of being spotted.

“And where are you headed after Twande? When?” Waldina continued asking, although she knew she sounded a tad bit too curious. She was somewhat interested in traveling from Twande together with Claudia and her knights. Though she didn’t want to risk messing up with her own plans.

“Uhm probably towards Drittio,” Claudia turned to look at Lidia with a question mark plastered all over her face. The ladyknight nodded approvingly. Kiandra glanced at Waldina curiously, but the ninja just shook her head.

“If you want and have space, we could travel together for a little,” Waldina suggested carefully and felt a surprising amount of shyness within her. The words got an absolutely endearing smile to surface on Claudia’s face.

“Oih, I’d like that a lot,” she exclaimed and turned to Lidia once again. “When are we leaving?”

“The day after tomorrow would be good,” Lidia stated going through her prior plans - which she had locked with Simon days ago.

“Is that okay for you?” Claudia asked, worry clouding her voice. Waldina couldn’t help but smile shortly: “Of course. We could go for a quest tomorrow with Kiandra, do some Adventurers’ quests for a change.”

“I want to join you,” Claudia was starting to sound so excited and loud that even the waiter leaning on the counter raised his eyebrow, curiously. Waldina signed for her friend to calm down before turning down her request. After a long debate Claudia gave up and Waldina was content.

The next morning Waldina and Kiandra went straight to the Adventurers’ guild. They chose a quest located a short, walking distance away from the town and kept moving. The quest consisted on defeating the green goblins camping closeby. The quest would be relatively easy for them, and wouldn’t affect their traveling plans tomorrow.

The goblins’ camp wasn’t large. There were a measly six goblins in there and Waldina defeated them swiftly, without even needing any help from Kiandra. Thus, Waldina decided to use her newly acquired ninja skills for fighting - so she could test them out nicely.

One of her new skills was using rope for fast climbing - the skill was called cast rope. At the other end of the rope was a dagger which when thrown would stick to a tree’s trunk or branch. After the dagger was nicely placed Waldina just needed to leap a little from the ground and then the rope would pull her up effortlessly. It made it quite easy to escape quickly and on the other hand, jump down for a surprise attack.

Waldina used the skill mostly for the latter. The green goblins weren’t exactly smart and they didn’t know how to evade the ninja coming at them from above. It made the situation feel more like child’s play than battle. Waldina enjoyed feeling like she was on top of the situation.

For the last remaining goblin she used her new, less lethal skill: Stun. In stun she first pressed a cloth at her target's face; the cloth had mild poison, enough for losing consciousness. After a while the goblin did indeed lose its consciousness and Waldina knew she’d succeeded. With that achievement in mind she quickly finished the goblin with her dagger, before leaving the camp behind.

“I think Claudia’s hiding something,” Kiandra stated as they were making their way back to the town. Waldina glanced at the fairy, raising her eyebrow.

“Like, maybe she’s not doing what she says she is,” Kiandra continued, trying to reason her thoughts

“Oh yes, she isn’t. She has most likely ran away from home, but doesn’t want to worry her parents too much. That’s why she sometimes shows her face for the town guards,” Waldina shrugged nonchalantly. Claudia was acting way too obvious for her not to notice it.

“Wait, what if she is running away?” Kiandra tried to ignore the fact Waldina had already figured this out, after all she went through to figure it out.

“I don’t know. Maybe she will tell us later. Maybe it doesn’t matter,” Waldina laughed and Kiandra stuck her tongue out at her, discontently. The fairy deemed the matter rather important whereas Waldina didn’t.

But perhaps everything would come to light in time. After all, they'd journey towards Drittio together. And Waldina was looking forward to it.