It was one of those few times where Jeralt's Mercenaries had a little time in between jobs; they were well enough off that, provided it wasn't spent on things they didn't need, they could afford to take a quick breather. Jeralt described it as a 'vacation' of sorts—father-daughter bonding outside of battle, he called it.

The mercenaries circled back to Remire after a job in the Kingdom. The only thing that's changed since then was that Byleth went from dreaming about a girl to actually hearing one. The girl herself—Sothis, she recalled—stayed relatively silent until she felt compelled to make a comment, often about something random or out of boredom.

Byleth followed her father around the village, only engaging in conversation when prompted. A village couple had waved Jeralt over—both mercenaries were treated fairly nicely in Remire, recognized by a majority of its residents—and the three currently had a conversation about some thing or another. There were opportunities for Byleth to add a word or two, but she chose not to take them.

"Will you not talk more?" Sothis asked, impatient. "These people are not strangers, as far as I can tell. You've been here many times."

Byleth tensed at the somewhat-unfamiliar voice, but knew better than to look around; the girl wouldn't be there. Jeralt, standing to her right, noticed and cast her a glance.

"Everything all right, kid?"

She looked at him and nodded. "I'm fine."

Some way she said it must've made Jeralt doubt it, because he gave a quick look around them before resuming the conversation. That continued for a little while longer until one of the mercenaries came over.

"Captain Jeralt."

Jeralt paused his conversation again, and both father and daughter looked at the mercenary. "What do you need?"

"Someone's looking for you," the mercenary reported dutifully. "He looks kinda…Empire-ish? Didn't look that rich but had a fat bag of money on 'im. Figured I'd let you know."

Jeralt nodded. "All right, thanks. I'll handle it." He looked back at Byleth. "Kid, do you—"

Byleth murmured agreement before he went very far into the question, causing him to chuckle.

"Right. Don't know why you wouldn't follow me at this point." He looked back at the mercenary. "Where is he?"

The mercenary gestured somewhere behind him. "Around there, assuming he hasn't moved much."

Jeralt gave some thanks, and Byleth followed after him without much comment nor complaint. There was a man talking to a few villagers, the latter of which pointed out Jeralt and Byleth once they were close.

"Are you Jeralt?" The man asked. He didn't exactly look like he wanted to be there; he kept one hand on a large pouch while the other was constantly moving, toying with the edge of his sleeve. Byleth guessed he wasn't armed—not visibly, at least.

"Yes," Jeralt replied. "Do you have a reason to be asking for me?"

"I work for an Imperial noble," the man explained, "And that noble wants your mercenaries to do a job for him. There's a specific group of people causing trouble for my lord, and the last few men that had been hired were…inexperienced. I was asked to give Jeralt's Mercenaries that job."

"We don't get a name?" Byleth asked.

The man simply held out the pouch towards them. "Could payment be enough? And more is promised after a job well done."

Jeralt took the money and sifted through it for a moment. Looking back up at the man, he nodded.

"We'll look into it," Jeralt said. "Are we just talking about thieves here, or something a little different?"

"They're…'pests,' if nothing else," the man replied uncertainly. He took out a piece of paper and gave it to Jeralt as well. "The finer details are included in this paper. You should receive some help when you get there."

As soon as Jeralt took the paper, the man left. Byleth managed not to show any signs of Sothis talking this time.

"My, isn't he in a hurry? You'd best be careful on this new job of yours."

Byleth gave a small nod as her answer, and the girl fell silent again in response. Jeralt looked over all the finer details of the job as the paper stated, then gave it over to her for review. It clarified the amount of payment if they did well, what qualified as 'doing well,' and a few other things. A group of mages would come by to show them exactly who they would be up against.

She didn't see any problems with it, so she handed the paper back to Jeralt. Their little 'vacation' had ended, just like that. They had until the end of the month to prepare.

(A/N: I feel a little bad for the short chapter, but there's not much I can really add on since I want the rest to be separate. I hope you're enjoying the story so far, though!)