"His name is Viron," Elion said. "But I just inquired, and it seems he's not around."

"Oh...that's a shame." I looked at Elion thoughtfully, and back at the Vertvaldenians once more. "It can't be helped. Let's just wait until he gets back before coming over. Anyway, I'm just over at the inner temple. I can come over nearly anytime."

"That's true. Sorry you came for nothing. I'll come and find you once Viron returns. How about it?" he offered.

"Sure can do," I said. "Then, I'm off for now. There are a couple of things over at the Temple that I need to do."

"Alright."

After leaving Elion, I went back to my courtyard to rest. I was tempted to go back to the shop, but I realized last minute that I ought to give some attention to my training more. Now that River End was more stable than before, there was not much need for me to take part in it so much. Accounting and other tedious details were taken over by my mistresses, and I could comfortably focus on churning out the perfumes needed every week--which I could do anytime since it was the same process over and over. In fact, there wasn't need for so much. I was only responsible for the luxury line.

A little lost, I somehow came to stand before my harp and suddenly had the urge to play. With the Abbot's very persistent and patient coaching, I managed to get a clearer feeling of my ability. In turn, I was less afraid of it and came to actually enjoy it to some extent. Of course, it was not without hardship.

To a certain extent, practice was really tedious, and more often than not, it felt like I was not getting anywhere.

Even now, as I sat on the floor and took the harp to my lap, I could not help but feel weary. I really did not want to do this. To be honest, I really preferred making perfumes rather than practicing. I usually had enough playing time every time I was with the Abbot.

Unfortunately, I was going nowhere if I slacked off. And with the tight schedule I had and the Veils wrecking and raging across Vertvalden, I was not in the position to feel lazy. So, despite the resistance I felt on my fingertips, I lifted them stubbornly and positioned them across the harp.

I was a little unhappy and uninspired. This mood might have affected my playing a little. The emotions seemed to have bled into the music and caused the air to be a little more somber around me than usual. The coldness gathered more quickly under my fingertips, while the air around me continued to grow heavier.

Considering the thinness of these walls, I decided to forgo playing as a whole. I realized I could not really force myself if I wasn't feeling like it. So I abandoned music practice and went to the training grounds to kill time.

I was never fond of melee combat. I loathed the sword. Although Mistress Veronika had repeatedly ingrained it into me through continuous training, I did not think that I would be able to advance or master the craft, considering how much I hated it. On the other hand, I liked the idea of hurting people without being near them, so the bow and arrow really fit my taste.

The training grounds were almost always full of people. The system entailed renting a space to avoid conflict with others under an ID card in the form of a waist plate. Although it was an open area, some spots and faculties had to be occupied. In this case, I would be occupying a target in the shooting range.

There would usually be other students around manning the targets—like changing the boards or clearing the debris. But we didn't usually have this, so it was a clean-up-after-yourself policy. I did not have a problem with that, except that my lazy ass self was always whispering to myself to rebel. Especially now that I was not really in the mood to work too hard.

Thankfully, there was someone looking over the shooting range. And this face was very familiar.

"Evy, did you come to practice again?"

"That's right." I picked up the public use bow and arrows from the armory, picking out the size suitable for my current physique. I then glanced over to Erlan, who was busy sorting over the weapons according to size.

"I've just cleaned up the target over there. You can give me your waist plate. I'll hang it up here and reserve it for you," he said.

"Thanks!" I handed over my waist plate, and he dropped it into the slot under the vacant area.

"You can go over to number five."

I nodded to him. I stayed for a while sorting through the arrows, since they were all a bit blunt from overuse. I picked out the ones that were still quite sharp before trotting over to the area number five.

I stood before the target behind the market distance with the bow I'd chosen, along with seven arrows. The idea here was to gradually increase distance between the target and yourself, starting from as short as ten feet upwards two hundred.

What I liked most about the bow and arrow was the peace of mind it gave me. I didn't know about anyone else, but I found this activity similar to meditating. Calculating the wind, distance, and angle—though it sounded potentially overloading, I felt it was mostly instinctive once you learned the ropes. Anyway, I was the type to overthink, and right now I was working on my accuracy more than speed, so I could take my sweet, sweet time deliberating and questioning my life's decisions however much I wanted.

I drew the string of my bow taut, aiming at the center. But with the wind blowing, I had to slightly adjust my angle.

"By the way, Evy," Erlan said, walking up beside me.

I did not turn to acknowledge him just yet, releasing the arrow. It landed near center, a ten-point shot, but slightly off the middle.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I heard you befriended Sir Kaiser? How did you get so close?"

"I did him a favor," I told him.

"It can't be that the issue about his mother suddenly getting better was related to you, right?"

I cast a glance at him before picking up my next arrow. "Oh, I did hear about that," I said casually. "But I wasn't really the one who helped him. He just borrowed something of mine, and we started off from there. Maybe it really had something to do with that. I don't know."

If there was something I learned, saying 'I don't know anything about that' was the most cliched lie that one could tell somebody. Hence, it was rather ineffective. Considering where I was, and how close I was to the family at the moment, there was no way I had never heard of Mrs. Tru being ill and then recovering. However, I could not really say that I was the one responsible for curing her. How would I be able to explain it otherwise? So, the farther away I was from the topic, the better for me.

Erlan looked at me doubtfully, but in the end decided to believe it. "It's really hard to get close to those folks." He sighed.

"Why'd you want to be close to them, anyway?"

"Merchants and mercenaries are like two peas in a pod," he told me. "Naturally, they are the best resource and protection of any merchant when it comes to doing business. Especially if you deal with loads of transactions every day. From transport up to security-related business, they're indispensable. And as far as I'm concerned, the guild that Kaiser's family is running is the most dependable and trustworthy. They are also the strongest."

"So, they aren't the only mercenary guild?"

"They're the ones recognized by the kingdom. There are others, but of course they're the best."

"Isn't that a little unnecessary?" I asked. "Aren't there paladins to do most of their security work?" I naively inferred.

"Paladins are in service to the government, of course, so the common folks can't hire them to do menial jobs. In this case, them being endorsed by the kingdom means they have a satisfactory quality of service. And the people trust them for getting things done—protection, escorting, and all those other things. Also, they're enlisted and hired by the kingdom whenever the paladins fall short of men. They're the best thing you can get from a paladin—the difference is that they're for hire, for profit."

"Ah, I get it now. That was stupid of me to say," I whispered. I then released the arrow and, this time, managed to hit the target square in the very center.

"How come you don't know? It's like you grew up sheltered all your life," he said jokingly.

"Bullseye," I whispered as I lowered the bow and gazed at him with a knowing look.

He gazed at me quizzically. "The target or...what I said?"

"A little bit of both," I replied, then picked up my third arrow and deftly lined it up against the string.

Unfortunately, most of my knowledge about the world outside had been learned through books and what little opportunity I had to go out. It was only after we left and came to Lovarda that I grew more intimately acquainted with...society.

"So, what can I do for you? You can't be hinting to me to speak well about you in front of Kaiser and his family, right? Do you need his help for anything?"

"No...it's just that...it's so hard to get favors from his family, you know?" He then sighed. "So, I decided that if I can't suck up to them directly, I can suck up to you."

I was taken aback by his very straightforward statement that, when I released the arrow, it came completely off the mark and went past the target I was aiming at.

He grinned sheepishly at me. "I mean...if I talk to you, then I can have more opportunities to be friends with them, right?"

"I don't get it. Did you come to the Temple to learn martial arts or did you just come for the sake of networking?" I asked.

"A little bit of both?"

I sighed, then picked up another arrow to take another aim.

"Hey, I can't help it. Anyway...you came and went to that new store down in the main street very frequently. You should be remarkably close to the owner. Is it your family member? Like your mother, for instance?"

"No. If you're talking about my aunts..."

"Oh, your aunts."

"Did you come to talk about business for River End? You seem to be rather enthusiastic trying to talk with me."

"Well, it's just that...it's genius!" he exclaimed, eyes brightening—so much that it scared me a little. He came forward to grasp at my arm, then proceeded to shake me a little. "The marketing, the sales, the products—simply god-class business tactics! Your aunts are such geniuses! You must help out a lot, so please introduce me!"

"Who even said they're the ones who own the business?" I pointed out to him, shrugging off his hands as I repositioned my arrow. "And, you know, I don't think this is the right place to be discussing this? I can't really focus with you hanging around like that."

"Wait...you mean...River End is yours?"

"I make the perfumes. Naturally, it's mine. Now, if you'll excuse me." Feeling a bit impatient at the ten feet distance, I moved on directly to the fifty feet one, hoping to put some space between myself and the dumbfounded Erlan. I was already feeling gloomy when I came to this training ground. If he didn't stop pestering me, I might end up being rude.

Thankfully, although he looked at me with that foolish, jaw-dropped, astonished face, he did not come forward anymore and let me practice in peace. I had a feeling, though, that he would be on my tail for the next couple of days with what he learned just now.