Beveous City

“You didn’t know?” Azalea held her hand against her hips as she sniffed the air. “Beveous City is one of the tower’s central hubs.”

Yusato cocked an eyebrow at her. “Central hubs?”

“Yep. Every three floors in the tower has one. A place for people who are undertaking the quest to rest and recuperate.” She threw her hood over face. “There’s also places to eat and shop for weapons.” Azalea prodded at Mira’s shoulder.

“I got it,” Yusato said with an affirming nod. “I didn’t realize there were so many people living in this tower.”

“It’s a pretty good way to make a living,” Azalea said. “Considering how many adventures come here.”

They all started walking in through the city, taking in all the sights. An old lady at one of the stalls was handing a man an apple. While at another stall there was a blacksmith sharpening his wares.

The smell of freshly baked donuts wafted through the air, but Yusato didn’t care. Not like he could enjoy them anyway. In fact, the smell was more of a nuisance than anything.

“But I thought it was hard to get into this quest?” Mira’s head looked from left to right at all the shops as she asked that.

“It’s hard to get into the quest we’re doing. There are others that take place in this tower.” Azalea pointed to a signboard to their right. “Individual quests that take place on each of the floors. Or ones where it’s easiest to take care of here. Like finding Fire Wolf fangs for examples. You don’t see them very often anywhere else.”

“I see,” Yusato said, nodding along. “So this is a place for other adventurers to gather.”

A fly buzzed around Azalea’s head. “For the first two floors, they reset every time a new group enters. But for every one after that, we’ll all be together.” She waved her hand to shoo away the fly and eyed Yusato. “That means we’ll have competition.”

They came to a stop as they reached a round building with a spotted lavender mushroom as it’s roof. Crows sat atop the roof of the building, peering down at the group.

“Here it is.” Azalea flipped her hair over her shoulder as she spun around. “Beveous Inn. This is where we’ll find all the other people taking on quests.”

A lump formed in Yusato’s throat. All the other people taking on quests? That meant there was a chance that Tomoki, Azumi, and Mahina were in there right now.

He scratched at his throat while staring up at the inn. Maybe they had already gone ahead and were further in the tower? He could only hope.

“Anyway, we should rest here for the night. Especially since Saria needs to recover and Little Miss Piggy needs a weapon.”

“What’d you call me?!” Mira shouted, standing on her tiptoes.

“I called you a piggy, piggy.” Azalea pushed the doors to the inn open. “Try not to get so defensive.”

Mira’s face went red, smoke practically seeping out of her ears as she grumbled. “You were eating the cake just as much as me.”

“Not nearly as fast though. I took my time, like an actual lady.”

Chattering and laughter filled the room as the four walked through the halls of Beveous Inn. Azalea led the way until they came to the front reception desk. A middle-aged man with a mullet was working the desk, shuffling through a stack of papers. “Hello. Welcome to Beveous Inn. How may I help you today? Would you like some lemonade?”

“Lemonade?” Yusato raised his eyebrow at that.

“Ooh! Yes please!” Mira jumped up and down, raising her arm in the air. “Yes please!”

“Very well.” The man pushed a glass of lemonade over to Mira which she took a sip of without delay.

She sighed and delight and licked her lips. “So good!”

“See?” Azalea chuckled. “Pig.”

Mira pursed her lips, but kept drinking her lemonade. “How many?”

“Room for four please,” Azalea said, handing the man a pile of gold coins.

“Room 202. Up the stairs and to your left. Thanks for staying.” He took a swig of lemonade and self before letting out a powerful belch.”

“Right…” Azalea took the room and key and turned away. “Thanks.”

“Hey, Azalea?” Yusato asked, prompting her to look his way. “Can I hold onto the key?”

“Whatever.” She tossed him the key and it landed squarely in his hands.

“Could’ve just handed it to me.”

“And you could’ve asked with a better tone.” She waved the back of her hand in front of Yusato’s face. “I’m going out for a bit anyway. Be back later tonight.”

Yusato put the key into his pocket and patted it tightly to make sure it fit snugly inside. He didn’t want to risk it falling out somehow. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t worry about it.” And with that, Azalea left the inn.

Saria tapped her finger against her chin. “Is it just me or does she seem to be in a bad mood?”

Mira huffed, squeezing her spellbook tightly. “Hmph. That jerk’s always in a bad mood. Right, Yu?”

Yusato’s gut twisted at that name. His stomach rumbled and a searing heat filled his head like a balloon. His hands clamped up and legs went rigid.

Yu…That was the nickname Azumi called him by. He used to love that nickname. It reminded him of their childhood days together. She originally started calling him that after he found her crying in the park one day.

She got lost and he tried to take her back home. But since he didn’t know which way to go either, they both got lost and ended up spending the whole night together until the police found them.

During that night, they thought for sure they were never going to see home again. So they started to act like a married couple and Azumi thought it would be good idea to call her pretend husband a nickname.

So, she decided on calling him Yu. And she stuck with that ever since. Yusato used to call her Azu for a while because of that incident as well, but he stopped once they become teenagers since he found it to be embarrassing.

All the sentimental feelings that came with that nickname were washed away on the day he was betrayed. Now, all he felt was bitterness and resentment at hearing that name.

His arms shook while he stared at the neatly polished floor. Not a crack in sight. How nice.

Blood pooled out from his lips as his teeth sunk into them. “Don’t ever call me by that name.”

Mira flinched back.

He didn’t mean for his voice to come out that harsh and hostile. But it was too late now. Besides, even if he didn’t mean it. He didn’t want to take it back. It was something he needed to say. That name brought back nothing but foul memories.

Hesitantly, Mira reached out her hand, but Yusato walked forward, just before she could reach him. “I’m going out for a bit too. Later.”