After walking for a half hour or so, Burchard and Kizuna finally make it to castle town. Burchard carefully scans the area for any sign of that rich idiot's guards while Kizuna couldn't help but look around with wide sparkling eyes and saying, "look at all the people and shops!"

Though he tried his best, he had a hard time keeping up with her as she more or less bounced around the whole market while he shouts, "slow down! You're gonna get lost!"

While still smiling with glee, she comes to a stop in front of a fruit stall and looks back at him while shouting, "how can I slow down? It's been years since I've even seen one person let alone this many!!!"

He walks up to her while saying with annoyance, "yeah but what if you get in trouble?"

To his annoyance, she starts to laugh at him then with a smug smile responds, "awe…. I didn't realize you cared so much about me?"

She pretends to wipe a tear off of her cheek while continuing, "I am truly touched."

Annoyed by her mocking act, he could only scoff at her while saying, "I couldn't care less if anything happens to you but if you get in trouble then I could be guilty by association."

Though she felt insulted, she decides to ignore him and instead turns her attention back to the fruit stand and with a smile starts asking the shopkeeper questions. While this happens, Burchard could only rub his temples in annoyance while thinking, "she's gonna drive me crazy isn't she?"

As he looks up, he becomes surprised when he sees Kizuna holding up what appears to be an apple while looking confused. Unsure of what was going on, Burchard walks up to her while asking, "what's up?"

While still sporting a confused look, she looks over at him and shows him the apple while saying, "they said this was an appel?"

Unsure as to what she was confused about, he responds, "uh…. Yeah? That's what apples are called here?"

To his confusion, she shakes her head then responds, "it shouldn't be called that. It should be called an appa?"

He was surprised to hear this but as he thinks about what she meant, he notices her eyes starting to dart around the whole market while saying, "wait…. none of this is familiar?"

Again he was confused to hear this but before he could ask, she starts dashing around from stall to stall and asking each vendor about There products. With every answer she got, she seemed to fall deeper and deeper into despair until she comes to a stop in the middle of the road and stood there wide eyed and silent. Becoming concerned, he walks over to her while asking, "Kizuna, what's wrong?"

Her head slowly cranks over and starts to look at him but instead of answering his question, she asks, "what's this place called?"

Even though he was a bit nervous to reply, the fear in her eyes made him not want to lie, so he replies, "Melromarc."

She goes quiet until suddenly, she falls to her knees with her hands just barely able to catch herself and while staring at the ground, she mutters, "this…. this isn't my world."

Becoming quite concerned, he takes a knee next to her and gently puts his hand on her back while asking, "Kizuna?"

She doesn't move which only adds to his concern but before he could ask any further questions, her head slowly cranks over and was now glaring at him which sends a cold chill down his spine due to her icy gaze while she mutters, "this is your fault."

A bit caught off guard by the accusation, he looks back at her confused while asking, "what? How is it my fault?"

She pushes herself up but was still kneeling while snapping at him, "of course it's your fault! All of this started when I got teleported to you!"

A bit thrown off by her strange reasoning, he becomes annoyed while saying back, "but it's not my fault that you got teleported to me? You were the one that decided to use that spell?"

Undeterred, she snaps back, "so? When I used that spell, I was expecting to be teleported to someone in my own world, not you! So it's your fault!"

She crosses her arms and looks away while demanding, "now take responsibility!"

Again, he was shocked to hear this but before he could try and defend himself, he becomes horrified when he notices everyone in the area glaring at him with cold, judgemental gazes which causes him to panic while blurting out, "okay fine! I take responsibility!!!"

She remains silent for a moment, then glances over at him while asking, "really?"

With everyone's still judging eyes on him, he looks back at her with as sincere of a smile he could muster while replying, "really."

She continues to glance at him for a moment until in an instant, she jumps to her feet while saying almost joyfully, "okay!"

Caught off guard by the sudden outburst and change in demeanour, all he could really do was stare blankly at her while muttering, "huh?"

Unfazed by his question, she continues to smile gleefully at him while saying, "I'm in a world I've never been before so I need someone to rely on! So thanks for agreeing to help me!"

Again, all he could do was stare blankly back at her but before she could say anything else, she gets distracted by a delicious smell that wofts through the air towards her and after taking a deep breath, her smile only grows as she says eagerly, "that smells amazing!!!"

She starts marching down the road while continuing, "that settles it! Let's eat!"

Before he had a chance to even get out another word, she takes off in whichever way the restaurant that aroma was originating from. While watching her disappear down the road, he could only continue to stare at her while thinking, "what did I just get myself into?"

Though he was annoyed, and feeling deceived, he couldn't help but smile a bit while continuing his thought, "well I'm glad to see she's in better spirits now."

After a few minutes of looking and having to follow the same smell, he finally finds her inside a small tavern and sitting at a table and eagerly looks at a menu. A bit annoyed, he sits down in front of her while saying, "you didn't have to run off yah know."

With an innocent smile, she responds, "sorry but it's been so long since I've had a meal that I didn't make, I got too excited to wait!"

Though he was still annoyed, all he could do was sigh then asks, "can you even read the menu?"

With a smile she looks back at him while replying, "nope!"

Not exactly surprised to hear this, he becomes a bit surprised when she hands the menu over to him while asking, "what does it say?"

He looks at the menu but just like her, he had no idea what the menu said. When she sees the look of embarrassment slowly crossing his face, she becomes intrigued while asking, "you can't read it either can you?"

After staring at it for another moment, he finally sighs in defeat then mutters, "no."

A bit surprised to hear this she puts a hand to her chin and thinks out loud, "well this is a problem…"

With an idea coming to mind, she waves over a waitress while asking, "excuse me? Do you guys have some kind of sampler platter?"

After thinking for a moment, the waitress smiles back at her while replying, "we do! It's actually pretty popular with adventurer parties!"

Kizuna was happy to hear this, though she becomes a bit confused when the waitress leans close and whispers in her ear, "and for dates."

All Kizuna could do was blink a few times until the waitress's words finally click in her head which causes her to go bright red in a poof while blurting out, "this isn't a date!"

The whole tavern goes quiet, save for a red haired woman who's only attention was on the man in front of her. Meanwhile, Burchard sits there wide eyed and stares at a bright red Kizuna who sits there embarrassed and quiet while the snickering waitress steps away while saying, "alright, one sampler platter coming right up!"

With that, the tavern more or less goes back to normal, though that can't be said for one table since Burchard and Kizuna continue to sit in awkward silence while she basically refuses to make eye contact with him. Desperately wanting to change the subject, Burchard coughs a bit then says, "so…. I guess we'll have to learn how to read and write in this world's language huh?"

Relieved to have a way out of this awkward moment, she nods in agreement but continues to look away while responding, "yeah…. we can only get so far without reading and writing."

With something coming to mind, he reaches into his bag and pulls something out which catches Kizuna's attention enough for her to look back at him while asking, what's that?"

He places a book on the table then replies, "someone gave me this book, it's supposed to help you learn this place's language."

Intrigued to hear this, she picks up the book and starts flipping through the pages. She is fascinated by what the pages were showing but with an odd question coming to mind, she looks up and over the top of the book while asking, "who gave you it?"

Not thinking anything of the question, he replies, "her names éclair."

For some strange reason, she was surprised to hear this and while putting the book down on the table, she says with a raised eyebrow, "really? This looks pretty expensive so why would a girl give it to you?"

A bit caught off guard by how she asked the question, he couldn't help but think, "that's a weird way of asking that? Seems like she's a bit too surprised?"

Deciding it wasn't a big enough issue to bring up, he simply replies, "well I did technically help her escape from prison, plus she knew that I'd have a hard enough time on my own and figured this would help."

Again, she was surprised to hear this while seeming to go over his answer until finally, she just shrugged it off while saying, "fair enough."

Still a bit confused by her strange reaction, he was going to ask but before he could, the waitress walks over with a large platter in hand while saying, "alright you two! I have your food."

Though he still wanted to ask her, the smell of the food quickly reminded him of how hungry he was and quickly forgets about it when he sees the large platter of food in front of him which forces him to stop himself from drooling while muttering, "it looks so good."

It turns out he wasn't the only one that thought this since he notices the glimmer of Kizuna's wide open eyes while she mutters, "look at all this yummy food."

For some strange reason, neither of them moved, it was almost as if they were both in some sort of trance until Kizuna finally snaps out of it while almost shouting, "I can't wait anymore!"

She grabs what appears to be some sort of fried chicken leg while continuing with joy, "time to dig in!!!"

With that she chomps down on the chicken which intern brings Burchard back to reality and while smiling, he uses his fork to grab what appears to be a small steak then starts to eat while thinking, "it's so tender, and It tastes just like a regular steak!"

After ten or so minutes of them both chowing down on all the delicious food in front of them, they now found themselves leaned back in their chairs while groaning in discomfort, with what little strength he had left, he was able to just barely lift his head and looks over at a defeated looking Kizuna while saying, "i think we ate to much."

Not having enough strength to move, she simply continued to look up at the ceiling while responding, "I think you're right."

They both go quiet again though after a few minutes of this, Kizuna seems to realize something and asks, "so what do we do now?"

After thinking for a moment, he replies, "well we can't stay here forever but I don't think we have the ability to go to far either…."

His head slowly rolls to the side and when he sees the setting sun through the nearby window, he simply sighs disheartedly while looking back up at the ceiling and continues, "it's also getting dark out."

Disheartened to hear this, all Kizuna could do was sigh then responds, "then I guess where staying in town for the night."

With all his might, Burchard was able to slowly sit upright while saying, "I think this place has an adjoining inn so we don't have to go that far."

For some strange reason, Kizuna seems disappointed to hear this and whines, "but that's such a long walk!"

A bit annoyed to hear this, he decides just to brush it off and while struggling to his feet, he responds, "then I guess you can just stay here for the night, I'm sure the wait staff won't mind."

She sits there silently while seeming to think over her current options until she finally sighs in defeat then struggles to get to her feet while muttering, "fine."

Satisfied with the response, Burchard turns and walks towards where the reception should be and saying, "come on, the sooner we get a room, the sooner we can sit down again."

She begrudgingly drags her feet behind him while responding, "they'd better have a comfy bed."

With a head start, Burchard was able to get to the front desk first and asks the innkeeper, "hello, I'll take two rooms for the night please."

He becomes a bit confused though when the innkeeper responds, "sorry, but we only have one room at the moment."

Surprised to hear this, he asks, "really?"

The innkeeper simply nods which causes him to think until Kizuna finally makes it to the counter and noticing the silence, she asks, "is something wrong?"

He looks back at her while replying, "they only have one room."

All she did was blink back at him a few times until finally her cheeks start to turn red while blurting out, "are you serious! I barely know you so I can't share a room with you!"

A bit caught off guard by the outburst, he looks back at her confused while saying, "relax, I wasn't planning on forcing you to share a room, we can just go find another inn."

Hearing this causes her to sigh with relief though she wasn't able to enjoy this for long since she hears the innkeeper chiming in, "sorry to say that you're unlikely to find another room in town."

Surprised to hear this, they both slowly look back at him while simultaneously asking, "huh?"

A bit surprised by the response, he replies, "well the hero summoning has brought in a lot of people from out of town and they've booked up all of the rooms. In fact, the only reason we have a spare is due to a last-minute cancellation."

They were both equally shocked and a bit confused to hear this, all Burchard could do at this point was look over at Kizuna while saying, "well that's just great, what should we…."

Before he could finish his question, Kizuna seems to come to a decision then looks back at him with annoyance and saying, "then I guess we have no other choice. We can at least push our beds as far apart as possible."

A bit surprised by the fact that she didn't need any convincing, he decides it was best to not focus on that point and instead nods while responding, "that'll work."

Now at an agreement, Burchard looks back at the innkeeper while saying, "alright, we'll take the room."

The innkeeper smiles back at him happily while handing him the key and responds, "excellent! Though there is one more thing you should know."

Now in the relatively small room, Burchard and Kizuna stand silently while staring at the rooms lone bed. Though he was silent, he was able to think, "are you serious! Why is there only one bed!!! And if they only have one bed per room then they could at least give us a cot or something?"

While still silently staring at the bed, he glances over to see Kizuna's reaction and isn't exactly surprised to see her standing there wide-eyed which causes him to think, "she must be pretty uncomfortable…. I should at the very least let her have the bed."

With as innocent of a smile as possible, he looks over at her while saying, "well I'm perfectly fine with sleeping on the floor so why don't you…."

He wasn't able to finish his sentence since she interrupts him by jumping onto the bed and shouts with glee, "look how soft this thing is!"

All Burchard could really do at this point was just stare blankly at Kizuna as she bounced on the bed with joy while shouting, "it's been so long since I've actually seen a real bed, let alone been in one! And it's as comfy as I was dreaming it was!!!"

Though she wanted to continue to enjoy her fun, she gets interrupted by some laughter that wasn't hers which causes her to stop bouncing and looks over to see Burchard laughing at her. Becoming a bit embarrassed, her cheeks turn a bit red while snapping, "hey! Don't laugh at me!"

Realizing that he was caught, he was able to stop laughing but continues to smile while responding, "sorry, you were just acting pretty adorably."

Caught off guard from being called adorable, she suddenly turns bright red and after getting to her knees, she stammers, "d-don't call me that! It's embarrassing!"

Though he tried his best to hide it, Burchard wasn't able to stop smiling while saying, "sorry, it just sorta slipped out."

With his response not helping her embarrassment, she crosses her arms and looks away with a loud humph then responds, "I don't care if it just slipped out! You shouldn't ever call a girl adorable without warning!"

Again, he tries not to smile but before he could say anything, she suddenly lies down and while pulling the covers over herself, she snaps, "I'm tired so I'm going to bed!"

A bit surprised by this turn of events, he decides it would probably be best to just keep quiet. He lies down on the hard wood floor and tries his best to get comfy while using his bag as a makeshift pillow, but no matter how hard he tries, he couldn't find a comfortable position. Hoping that she was in a giving mood, he asks, "hey Kizuna? Can you spare a pillow?"

He isn't exactly surprised that he doesn't get a response while thinking to himself, "not exactly surprised that she'd ignore me."

Though when he hears soft snoring radiating from the bed, he realizes that she had actually fallen asleep. Realizing now that there was no way to get a pillow, he decides to just close his eyes and after a few uncomfortable minutes, was able to doze off.