Chapter 4

Just Human

Iruna sipped her apple juice and leaned back in her chair. She had just returned from Juno. Although her induction would not be that early she still had to prepare for it. This was her chance of clearing her name.

Out of all the others in the guild she and Kushana were the ones sitting at their table. The rest were out. If she remembered correctly, Samaroh was out training at the monastery, Nocturne patrolling the forests of Payon, Eni working on an experiment in Al de Baran, Khan on assignments in Morroc, Amaru repairing weapons outside the Battle Arena in Izlude, Emeth teaching in Geffen and Valkron doing whatever he did in the Chivalry.

"Is everyone this busy?" asked the huntress, idly twiddling the cocktail umbrella in her glass.

"Oh, yes. It's where we earn our money."

"A bunch of mercenaries? Doing administration work for money?"

Iruna shrugged. "What else can we do when we're not being mercenaries? We've got to have some money at our hands other than selling loot and getting hired by rich people. Besides, these days with the big guilds around no one needs to hire mercenaries anymore...unless they want a guild leader dead."

"That's true," admitted Kushana.

Iruna took stock of the huntress. She was beginning to like the blonde girl. Kushana had a very pleasant air about her as well as being quite amiable and easily satisfied. Like Emeth she did not look very old - maybe in her late twenties or so.

"Our guild leader seems to be very...sarcastic when he wants to," she said.

"Oh, you can bet he does." Iruna stirred her drink with her straw. "We've all met his scathing remarks sooner or later. Don't worry, though - he doesn't mean what he says. He's always like that."

Kushana took a sip from her glass. "Was it okay, sleeping with him? I hope he didn't try to do anything to you."

"Valkron wouldn't do that," said Iruna, her voice softening. "He may be stubborn, detached and sometimes an idiot, but he'll never mistreat a woman unless she forces him too."

The huntress looked up. "Is it me or are you...lovers?"

The crusader smiled. "You're right. Although sometimes I'd like it if he admits it in public a little more, but then again he's a man. Men don't say what they truly feel out loud in public."

"Hm."

Khan rounded the screen just then. "Hello, ladies," he said tiredly. Behind him Amaru came in, his face covered in soot and sweat. Iruna quickly moved away from him, but the blacksmith just waved his hands at her and went out.

"I feel sorry for him," said Khan, looking over his shoulder at the disappearing blacksmith. "He told me he spent most of his time bargaining. Loudly."

"What did he mean by waving his hands at me?" asked Iruna, mystified.

"Oh, he was just telling you he knows he's incredibly dirty, so he's gone to take a shower."

"Oh."

"I apologize if I'm interrupting, but all of you seem to know each other very well," said Kushana.

"We were together, once," explained the crusader. "What we've gone through has helped a little, I guess."

Kushana nodded. "I see."

"Well, if you're amazed at our level of friendliness then you'd be surprised to know that we think you're not similar to your brother at all," said Khan. "Apart from the face and the accent."

The huntress smiled. "Samaroh's three years younger than me. We came from a family that has five children. They're all out there now, working for life."

"Yes, Samaroh told us about coming from a family of five children," said Iruna, glancing at Khan. "But...he said he never got much attention from anyone in his family. So why are you here?"

Kushana smiled a little. "Well...I don't think our parents were planning for Samaroh, really. They wanted to stop by the fourth - me, in other words. But somehow things followed one another and he came. They considered giving him up for adoption, but then decided against it and brought him up instead."

"You call that bringing him up? He acts like a pompous idiot," said Khan with some disgust.

"Yeah, I know. No one really cared about him. He didn't really have friends he could talk to. Maybe he did talk with some people, but that probably doesn't count." The huntress sighed. "I guess as a result he buried his nose into books."

Iruna frowned. "He said something about not being an exorcist...?"

"Oh, that. Well, he asked our parents when they were going to actually take notice of him, and they just said that if he wanted to become a priest he should become an exorcist. But...look, sometimes you shouldn't think of him that way. He may be self-righteous sometimes but he does care about people. I guess that's what makes him...well, him."

"And you eventually side him as well?" said Khan, raising an eyebrow.

"I realised that he went against our parents' wishes for a good reason," said Kushana. "Even though he doesn't show it I know he's secretly glad that his older sister will stay with him."

Iruna and Khan exchanged looks. Then the crusader said, "It must be a bit tiring to look after him."

"Well, he can be a bit irritating at times, but when all's said and done and you look at the truth he is still my kid brother. Even if he's an adult he still knows it's my responsibility to look after him. He can't say no."

"And you joined this guild to look after him?" Khan sounded as if he was trying to stop himself from laughing.

"No. He'd shoo me off if I did. No, I joined because I wanted a guild that really cared about people, not just the stupid War of Emperium."

"She's got the same thought as Valkron there," said Emeth, rounding the screen. "He thinks it's stupid, too. Waste of money and time."

He sat down with a flump and supported his head in his hands. "Eurgh. I feel sick."

"Well, so do I," said Nocturne, coming into view. "Move up."

"Well, nice to see you all," said Iruna, as Emeth and Khan shifted to make space for the hunter. "How's your d--"

"Don't even ask," said Emeth dangerously, pointing his staff at her.

"Right, right, I get it."

Valkron swung himself around the screen. Everyone jumped at the sight of him.

"Hey, hey, what's this I hear? Threatening a woman now, Emeth?" he asked. There was a glint in his eye that the others had not seen before. "That's something I never expected you to do."

"Yeah, well, we're all--"

"I'm sure it's not because you're tired. I am, and I'm not threatening anyone. Except maybe you for, hah, threatening Iruna."

"Valkron?" said the crusader. "Are you all right?"

"Fit as a fiddle, don't you worry." Valkron sat down next to her and grinned somewhat lopsidedly. "I'm fine."

"Oh, dear," said the crusader.

Samaroh came in just then and wordlessly healed the knight. Valkron shook his head vigorously.

"Thanks, I needed that."

"No problem," said Samaroh tiredly, waving his book at him.

All this while Kushana had been staring at each guild member. Iruna was sure she was starting to think that the entire guild was mad and was about to say something when Eni's voice rose above the usual hubbub of the tavern.

"Come on, this way! Just push through, it'll be fine!"

Everyone looked up, even Valkron.

Eni emerged from the crowd a few minutes later, breathless and smiling. Behind her, his wrist in her hand and evidently being pulled along, was another alchemist.

Everyone stared.

At the sight of the group Eni stopped short. Her companion nearly walked into her, but luckily stopped in time.

"Oh...um...wasn't expecting anyone to be here." She stared emphatically at Valkron, who promptly got up from his seat. He knew Eni's looks when he got given them.

He followed both of them to outside the tavern, since the inside was far too noisy to talk. Once outside Eni turned around and gave him a sheepish look.

"Um...Valkron, I hope you don't mind..."

"Yes?" said the knight.

"...but, uh, well, you see, uh, we kind of met in Al de Baran a couple of months back..."

"Yes?"

"...and uh, well, uh..."

"Do you want to uh till the pecos come home?" demanded Valkron.

"Uh, well, no, uh..."

"Get down to it, please."

Seeing her in trouble, the other alchemist quickly stepped forward. "My name is Aramithar," he said. "I'm sorry to bother you, and I'll leave if you--"

"Hang on, hang on, who said you were being bothersome?"

There was silence.

"Is it me or do people tell each other that I am considerably detached from the human race and therefore humans are bothersome to me? Why does this go around behind my back?" Valkron threw his hands into the air. "Look, all I want to know is why you're here and that's all. And Eni's explanation, if she doesn't mind giving it to me."

They looked at her. She turned red and said, "I met him in Al de Baran while researching and we kind of..."

"Clicked together," suggested Valkron dryly.

"...yeah, thanks, clicked together and, well, I just want to know if he could join...?"

The world held its breath. Eni was gazing anxiously up at Valkron, and Aramithar was looking between both of them, clearly puzzled.

Valkron sighed. "I can't say no, can I?"

At this Eni whooped and threw her arms around Aramithar's neck. The alchemist, who had fair hair and wore glasses, looked taken aback by this. Valkron shook his head and returned to the inn, where the others were waiting.

"So that makes ten of us!" said Nocturne triumphantly, once Valkron had finished telling them what had happened.

"That doesn't make a difference, considering how big the other guilds are," said Khan.

"But for us it does make a difference!"

Samaroh yawned. "Right, I think I'm getting the hang of these guild mechanics. I'm turning in. See you guys." He disappeared upstairs without delay.

Valkron gave Iruna a look that said: you're not sleeping with me tonight.

Iruna gave back a look that said: who's going to stop me from that?


That night Valkron lay in bed for quite some time, wishing that Iruna would get out of the room. It was not that he disliked her to be there. It was that he disliked her to be there in bed with him.

Calm down, he told himself. If I panic this won't get me anywhere.

But no matter how hard he tried Iruna just didn't seem to want to let go of him. She always threw an arm over his waist and ended up burying her nose in his back. The warmth of another person was unnerving, especially for someone who had never really mixed with other people, and every time he felt her soft touch on him he attempted to wriggle out of it. He stopped, however, when he realised he was too close to the edge of the bed to do that any longer.

Until he had hugged her he had never known how it had felt to have a woman's body on his. She probably hadn't noticed, but Valkron treated her as if she was something fragile. Although he knew she wasn't he couldn't help himself. She was vastly different from him. Observing didn't help.

Valkron pondered over this. How could he improve the situation? The only thing he could think of was to get a room with a single bed, leaving Kushana and Iruna to sleep in the same room as Emeth.

Just then Iruna snuggled closer to him. Valkron rolled his eyes and moved his hand onto her arm. He would have to push her off. It was a last resort.

"Valkron..." she mumbled.

The knight froze. After what felt like an eternity he relaxed cautiously and looked over his shoulder at her. She was sleeping peacefully against his back. He took his hand off her arm and turned back into his usual position, cursing himself for being so soft.

But she had said his name in her sleep.

The knight spent some time wondering about this before he eventually fell asleep.

Valkron was up early next day, taking a shower like he did so. What he didn't expect was to see Iruna sitting up on the bed and wide awake when he emerged from the bathroom, still dripping and with a long towel around his waist instead of his trousers.

He nearly dropped it in shock.

"Y-You're up early, Iruna," he said, tightening the knot in a desperate bid to let the damned thing stay in place.

"Why not? I've got to go back to Juno, anyway. I miss practising." She yawned; Valkron took this as an opportunity to whip around behind the curtain that blocked the bathroom from view.

"Yeah, well, at least you could get out of the room," he said.

"It's not like I'm going to do anything to you," she replied.

"Iruna, I am perfectly aware of that. I am also perfectly aware that I prefer not showing my body to anyone else except other men. Now, will you please leave? My trousers are on the chair over there and I don't want to walk out half-naked just to get them. Please."

Instead of doing what he said the crusader got off the bed, gathered the trousers in one hand and handed them over the top of the curtain to him. "Will that help?"

Valkron muttered something about having a woman in a man's room. For a while there was a soft rustling sound, and then he came out drying his hair.

"Okay, now shoo. Please."

He regretted saying it. Iruna was not the kind to be easily moved by men unless she made up her mind to.

"No, I'll stay here. This room is so much bigger than the other one I share with Eni. And besides, it's been getting cold at night. You heat up the bed better than a warming pan."

Valkron nearly died of embarrassment.

"Look, will you please just get out?" he said firmly. "That's it. There's a big difference between us, and that's our gender. Just go. I thought you had something to do."

Iruna sniffed. "Fine, be like that." She got off the bed and went out of the room. Valkron sighed and did whatever he intended to do before dressing himself and going out to the Chivalry.

He spent some time clearing up the mess on his desk before sitting down to finish up whatever he had left from the day before. Somehow the work never seemed to finish...

There was a knock on his door.

"Come in," said Valkron, not looking up from his work. "And incidentally, if it's you, Inigo, the answer is no."

No one came in. Valkron rolled his eyes and focused on his work.

After a while there was another knock. This time whoever it was opened the door before he managed to say anything.

"Sorry to interrupt," came Enriel's voice from around the door, "but we're currently experiencing a--"

"Yes, yes, all right," said Valkron, getting up. "Were you the one from earlier?"

"What? No, I just came."

That meant it had been Inigo who had been at his door earlier. Valkron fitted on his visor. "I'll be down. Give me a minute."

When he got outside the Chivalry there was a merchant girl crying bitterly on the steps while a group of knights stood around her in a ring, looking embarrassed.

"What the hell is going on here? I expect you to be doing something, not just standing around," said Valkron.

"Well, sir...it's just that she won't leave," said one of the knights. "We've told her we'll look for the culprit, but she just won't go."

Valkron looked down at the sobbing merchant and then looked back up at the knights.

"Well, of course she'd stay here if you all stood here like you've been mortared to the ground," he said, his sarcasm whipping the unfortunate knight. "Get going and find that rogue. Or rogues. How many attacked her?"

"She won't say," said the luckless knight.

The knight commander sighed theatrically in exasperation and got to his knees. "Miss," he said softly, "how many attacked you?"

"F-four," sobbed the girl.

Valkron looked up at them. "You heard her. Go."

As the knights jogged off into the city the knight commander extended a hand to the girl. "Here, let's go inside and wait for them to come back. People are still walking around here. I'd rather not have a much trodden on merchant on the steps of the Chivalry."

The girl smiled a little through her tears and took his hand. Valkron brought her to her feet and led her in, where the receptionist and other knights, all of the female persuasion, fussed over the little girl as Valkron stood to the side and watched them.

Once he glanced up and saw Inigo watching him. The younger knight had blinked and moved silently away. Valkron watched him go without any expression.


It took a long time for the knights to come back, but they finally did. They also brought in three rogues, all bedraggled with their clothes torn and covered in mud.

"Humour me," said the knight commander, when they had deposited the three struggling, tied up rogues at his feet.

The knights glanced fearfully at each other. When Valkron used that command it meant that he was not pleased. And a lot could happen when he wasn't pleased, including getting demoted.

"Uh...well...we found them sharing out the spoils in an alleyway and, uh, gave chase." The knight who was speaking looked around nervously at his colleagues; they nodded frantically in agreement. Heartened by this, he continued, "We managed to capture three, and bring back the stolen goods."

"Why did you not get the fourth one?" asked Valkron.

The knights paled. The commander had not uttered the words as if he was threatening them, but even so they were already starting to back off from their representative.

"He ran...a bit...too fast...sir..." The knight's eyes were flickering back; he could evidently feel the gap between him and his friends widening.

Valkron inspected his gauntlet for a while. The knights watched him like baby rabbits with their gaze transfixed on a fox that had just entered their burrow.

Eventually he said, "Choose from between yourselves a person who can go after that rogue. I don't want that man to come back until he's got him. If he does...he'll have to--"

There was a unified scream of fear and the sound of footsteps running.

"--face me alone," finished Valkron. Only once he had finished speaking did he look up from his gauntlet. The knight who had been talking was completely alone and very white.

"Er..."

Valkron reached out and patted him on the shoulder. "I don't mean you," he said reassuringly. "You've done enough facing me already. Be grateful."

"You mean...I'm not the one going to look for the fourth rogue?" said the knight, trembling so violently that his armour was making little clinks.

"Yes." Valkron gave him a bright smile. "You may return to whatever you were doing before you left for the three of them. Leave these guys to me."

The knight fled in relief. Valkron watched him and chuckled to himself. He knew the knight's friends would be watching.

"That was a bit harsh," said the receptionist.

"Nah, it was reasonable. Besides...I know where the fourth is."

Valkron moved. There was a small swish and a rogue appeared in front of him, clutching his bleeding arm.

"How did you know I was there?" he said, wincing.

"Let's just say I trust my instinct," said the knight. "You came to get your friends, didn't you? Thought you could sneak all the way here and maybe untie them while I was giving them what for? Get down on the floor and grovel, or you'll never get out of this place alive."

The rogue growled, but he did what the knight said. Although Valkron had certainly not seen the rogue before he was sure that news about himself had spread around the city. A lot of people were talking about him behind his back already.

"Right." Valkron looked back at the receptionist. "Could you get the merchant?"

She was brought forward. As she stood looking down at the four of them Valkron wiped his bloodstained dagger and reached down. He cut the bonds of the other three.

"Run," he said, "and you'll feel the edge of my sword on your necks. Not to mention the Chivalry doors are closed."

The rogues grumbled, but it was evident they couldn't do a thing.

"Right-o." The knight looked up at the girl. "You can ask them anything now."

The merchant stared at them. Then she said timidly, "Why did you steal my potions?"

"We've got a fallen comrade in a warehouse nearby and we were out of money," said one rogue. "And if you were thinking he got injured because we were ripping off someone you're wrong."

"Some stupid fool broke a dead branch in front of us when we were coming in from Izlude," supplied another.

"And we were in Byalan in Izlude doing some looting, if you want to press anything," said a third.

The merchant blinked at them. Then she pulled her satchel towards her and rummaged around inside before pulling out about five white potions. She put them on the floor in front of them. They stared at it.

"You can have those," she said. "Free."

They stared at her. "Really?" asked one.

"Yes."

This time they looked at Valkron. The knight shrugged. "Go ahead."

"But you just captured us!" said one. "Aren't you going to put us in custody for a night and fine us?"

"I do that to people who commit crimes for the fun of it," replied the knight. "I'll let you off this one. But try this again and you will certainly feel your pouches a lot lighter - and it's not because someone just stole a heck load of it off you. Go. Don't ever let me hear about this again."

The four rogues got to their feet and took the potions. They gave ashamed thanks to the girl and to the knight before hurrying off. Valkron looked down at the girl, who looked up at him.

"I thought you were that strict, sarcastic knight," she said.

He shrugged. "A knight needs the human touch, too. Anyway...I'm just a human."


That night Iruna came back to the inn late, but there was no sign of Valkron.

"Where's our guild leader gone?" she asked Emeth.

"You mean your boyfriend? He hasn't come back yet," said the wizard. He walked off yawning, leaving Iruna to fume at him.

She slept in his bed that night, and he didn't come back.

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Rune-Midgard version of the phrase "till the cows come home", as in "Do you want to gape there till the cows come home?"