The night was quite short; taking turns is fine, but it’s been over two weeks since I had a proper night’s sleep, so I really need to sleep properly soon. Leims and Abbia seem to be coping much better with the situation. As for the cat… I’m praying for him. He wakes up often, only to pass out the second he sees Abbia. Animals really cannot stand Dark Elves.

  According to Leims, he struggled like crazy whenever he got close to us. I almost want to put him in Abbia’s arms, just to see his reaction when he wakes up.

  Well, that's not all, but we have work to do. We are currently in a high spot, and we can see the streets and their layout below. How can we prevent Leims from getting lost? The best thing would be to have a map. Unfortunately, they are rare and protected.

  After a few minutes of thought, I propose a plan, "So, here's what I suggest. I'm going to go see the location of the animals myself, then I'll mark my path on a piece of fabric from that spot, towards the guild. That way, once you have the path, you'll do as we planned yesterday, agreed?"

  Leims assumes a relaxed posture, "If you want."

  Once agreed, I set off, following the lowing and barking of animals in the distance.

  It wasn't complicated to find; the smell and the sounds naturally led to this part of the city. Cows, dogs, cats, pigs—all kinds of animals are here. They fill every free space; passersby are quite annoyed that they can't get through.

  I realize I have neither fabric nor charcoal to write. I'll have to do it the old-fashioned way. I tear off a piece of fabric from my outfit, which I will really have to change quickly. I pick up a stone from the ground—trying to write with dirt would be too approximate—so I use it to pierce my finger. The pain is quite sharp, but I have no choice.

  I trace the path back to the guild. Once in front of it, I slap my forehead. I could have taken the opportunity to bring back the cat and take a sure quest. The path is finished being traced; I heal my finger with my magic. I return to Leims and Abbia.

  An unknown grunt is heard. Hardly had I arrived when I stumbled upon Leims, in a fighting stance against three strangers. All seem bruised. Abbia is behind Leims; she seems to be discreetly watching the fight, without being as scared as when she first met us. A fourth stranger is behind Abbia, a bag in his hand.

  "Abbia! Behind you!" I scream and run towards her. Leims notices me but doesn't turn away. The man's bag strikes Abbia's head. I concentrate my magic in my legs, but I stop. Abbia has just struck the man in the stomach with her stick. Having been hit by one myself before, I know it hurts. Especially since she was weaker then than she is today. Unsurprisingly, the man falls to the ground, groaning. A few seconds later, I am standing beside her. We hold him down so he doesn't run away. Well, until Abbia knocks him out with a blow from her stick.

  Leims, meanwhile, seems to be having a harder time. He is fighting three at once. He dodges a blow before landing one. One of the men seems to lose patience and pulls out a knife. Strangely, Leims doesn't seem any more hesitant. In fact, he is even more confident. The man with the knife attacks, and Leims deflects his blow towards his comrade. Leims is really strange; it's as if his hands glide over the knife blade. He takes advantage of the others' confusion to fight the last one. Poor him, he is completely overwhelmed. I can barely follow Leims' movements, but I can see that he has just kneed the man in the jaw before sweeping him to the ground. He dodges a knife blow from behind—I don't even know how he managed to see it. He disarms his opponent with a kick to the hand. The scene repeats itself, and in an instant, all three strangers are on the ground, unconscious, with one bleeding profusely.

  I'm not the only one shocked by the performance; Abbia is also looking at Leims with the same incomprehension.

  "Well, are you going to hurry up and heal the one who's bleeding?" Leims says to me while picking up the knife from the ground.

  Unfortunately, I forgot a detail. "I probably should have warned you before, but I don't know how to heal other people."

  Leims looks at me as if I had just killed someone. After a moment, he removes the man's tunic and makes a makeshift bandage.

  "Weren't you supposed to be a Saint? If I was able to fight with such confidence, it's because I thought you were going to heal me after the fight." He says this to me in a reproving tone.

  "Sorry. It's true, Saints are the best healers that exist. That's why I survived the troll, by the way. But I don't know how to heal others. I don't know why, but as soon as I try, it does nothing."

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Leims says nothing. Instead, he searches the strangers and takes their purses. He also takes their clothes. "Here, put these on. They'll cover you more than your torn rags."

  Abbia immediately complies. I take the clothes he hands me. "Are you stealing them? I thought you were against all that."

  "This is different. They came to me and attacked me, and even wanted to take my life. I'm not stealing from them; they simply lost their bet."

  Abbia and I put on their clothes. They are too big, but it's better than our old ones. At least we don't look like homeless people. Leims also changes; he must have been tired of his charcoal-covered clothes.

  Unfortunately, we lost the cat in the fight. I still give the map to Leims. After that, Leims pools the different purses into one, before putting it in his pocket and throwing the others near the four unconscious men. He looks at us with a serene smile, "Shall we eat?"

  I look at him, taken by surprise, "Right now?"

  He looks at the sun in the sky, "Well, yeah… It's already noon. And we're not going to wait for them to wake up, are we?"

  Abbia and I look at each other before following Leims into the city.

  After a few minutes of walking, I finally ask Leims, "So? How much did they have on them?" Leims takes out his purse and begins to count the coins by hand. "Don't you want me to do it? It will be faster."

  He gives me a cold look, "Tsk No. You'll count YOUR money when YOU'VE earned it."

  "But you took Abbia's guy's money too."

  He doesn't budge, "Yes, but that's because she doesn't know how to use it. I'll manage her accounts for now. As for you, you know how to read, count, and negotiate; you don't need my help."

  I then turn to Abbia, "Are you going to let him do that?"

  "Well, he's not wrong; I don't know how to use it. But I want to learn as quickly as possible. Otherwise, I risk ending up like you."

  Ouch, that hurts a lot.

  Nevertheless, despite pooling our strengths, we must remain independent of each other.

  "Well, then… where to start?" I think about how to approach the problem. Leims breaks his silence, without taking his eyes off the road, "Start with the different coins, then move on to their subdivisions."

  I look at him for a moment, shocked. How can he be so illiterate yet so well-informed on this subject?

  "You really consider me a brute, huh?" Leims sighs, "Well, for starters, you should know that there are four metals for coins. In order of value, there's copper, silver, gold, and platinum. Each coin of one metal is worth a hundred times the value of the inferior metal. Except, since it's annoying to haul dozens of coins to get the superior metal, there are coins of different values. Three types of coins exactly. Still in order, there's the sou, commonly called the coin, stamped with a tree, the denier which is equivalent to five sous, stamped with a human, then the crown which is equivalent to ten coins and is stamped with a dragon. So I used to receive my salary in five copper crown. Got it?"

  I almost want to applaud his presentation. Abbia replies with a loud "Yes!"

  "Good, let's continue then. Each metal is recognizable by its weight, and every merchant worthy of the name has a scale and a weight chart to verify the authenticity of the metal. However, I have never seen gold or platinum coins, so I don't know if they also have the same shape, a truly different weight, or what."

  By the time he finished his explanation, we found ourselves in front of a stall, held by three large bearded men with skin tanned by the furnaces. They all wear a white garment stained with flour and other cooking ingredients. The counter presents several dishes that I don't recognize.

  "What is that?" Abbia asks.

  "I don't know the name, but in any case, it's meat with potatoes wrapped in a grilled wheat pancake, all with a cheese sauce."

  Abbia and I contemplate the stall. The smell seriously threatens to make me drool in front of everyone. My stomach growls louder than I've ever heard it. Apart from the apples, which I ended up vomiting, this is my first real meal in two damn weeks.

  One of the guys turns around, "What do you want?", Leims replies, "That, for three."

  The guy raises an eyebrow, "What kind of meat? We have beef, chicken, and mutton."

  Leims thinks for a moment then says, "Two beef and then…" He looks at me, I have to choose apparently. Mmmh… And why not chicken?

  "Chicken for me." Leims turns back to the guy.

  "Thirty coppers."

  Leims takes out the purse but doesn't pay immediately. Instead, he gives it to Abbia. "So? What is thirty coppers?"

  She looks at Leims with a perplexed look, then searches, muttering "one dragon, two dragons, three dragons…" She ends up taking out three copper coins, stamped with a human, before giving them to the guy who weighs them.

  Leims smiles proudly like a father who has just taught his child something.

  After a few minutes of waiting, we finally receive our dishes. Which we have to eat without a table or cutlery… Are we still among the barbarians or what?

  We finally find a bench and settle down. Leims and Abbia devour their meal with stars in their eyes. I bite into mine, and…