"Come back, then, when you have no more money," Wind had said.

"What kind of request is this...?" Jonathan wondered aloud as they stepped out into the hallway, even though it wasn't much different from the usual strangeness that came from Wind.

"Wait," said Charlotte, stopping. "I have an idea."

Jonathan turned, curious. "Huh? What is it?"

"Let's just drop all the gold we've collected out here, then go back to Wind," the mage said with a grin. Jonathan's eyebrows went up for a moment, but then he nodded.

"Hey, I guess that could work," he admitted, and the two emptied their pockets of all the gold they had.

"It's perfect," Charlotte said. "We can get Wind back for all those other quests he made us do."


"Okay Wind, we have no money." Jonathan said, the two having had returned to his room.

The spirit raised his eyebrows. "Really? I think you still have some."

"Wha-What do you mean?" Jonathan asked, taken aback by Wind's response.

Wind smirked at the hunter's stammer. "As I thought...you dropped it all just outside, didn't you?"

Jonathan was speechless for a moment before he managed to ask, "How did you know?"

"A lucky guess," the ghost replied, his voice lacking any of the humility that usually went with such a statement.

Grumbling, the pair left again and began to pick up the gold they had left outside.

"How could he have known...?" Charlotte asked rhetorically as she picked up a bag of money. "This isn't fair..." Jonathan added nothing as they turned around again and headed past Wind to the makeshift shop in the next room.

There, they proceeded to purchase the useless goods until even the Potions were out of their price range.

"Ugh...that was surprisingly tiring..." Jonathan remarked as they returned to Wind. "Okay Wind, we have no money."

The spirit looked up at them. "Oh? It looks like you still have two gold."

"It's a hyperbole..." Charlotte said, fearing the worst.

Wind looked down again and closed his eyes. "And I wasn't using one. No money."

"What?" Jonathan said, more to himself than anyone in the room. "What are we supposed to spend 2 gold on?"

Wind just stared at him, which by now the two had figured out meant, 'Your problem.'

Jonathan and Charlotte headed out of the room and then looked at one another.

"I suppose we'll just have to collect exactly enough money to buy something..." Charlotte said, not particularly looking forward to it.

Jonathan could only groan as they continued further into the castle.


"Okay Wind, we have no money." Jonathan said to the spirit. It took some doing, but they had finally collected exactly enough money such that they could spend all of it and be left with nothing.

"Ah, good," Wind replied, nodding his approval. "Very well, here you are." From inside his coat the ghost produced a small ring, which he handed to Jonathan.

"What is it?" Jonathan voiced the obvious question.

"The 'Miser Ring,'" Wind supplied. "The more gold you collect, the stronger it will make you."

"Huh. That sounds..." The hunter paused suddenly, realizing fully what the ghost had said. "Wait, what?"

"You had us spend every coin we had," Charlotte continued, picking up on Jonathan's train of thought. "And our reward is a ring that gets more powerful the more money we save?"

"Yes," Wind answered simply.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Jonathan stated the obvious. This was Wind, after all.

The spirit gave the hunter a look that said as much.

"You know what?" Jonathan mumbled, mostly to himself. "I give up. Charlotte, let's go." The red-clad hunter turned and the pair made their way out of the room.

Wind chuckled quietly after the two had left. "I suppose I should wait until they collect some more money to tell them I have another..."


Thoughts? For some reason, this one just doesn't seem as well-written as the two previous ones...

...I feel I'm really making Wind unlikeable.

For those who care, I have plans for at least a couple more chapters here. The only thing is to put words to the plot and hopefully keep everyone in character...