The Moon Shines Brightly

With those few words, the rest of the adventurers looked like someone had told them their pet had died.

Lorenz pressed his fingers together out of shyness, while Leon looked deep into thought.

'How can he have no money?'

Leon looked up and asked the father and son.

"Does no one have any money?"

The village head shook his head.

"Since we had to pay our taxes recently, we won't have any money to spend until our harvest season."

Looking even more perplexed, Leon ground all the gears in his mind to come up with a solution.

'Should I just give it to them for free or barter to take other stuff of value?.. Oh, I know what I can do!'

Leon took out all the weapons and armor he had scavenged from the goblins and looked at Lorenz.

"Although we wanted money, how about you make a deal with our group. You can take these items for your personal use, while you owe each of us a personalized item."

At first, hearing that they wanted money, Lorenz looked down since he would be in the village for a couple more weeks, but he had run out of materials to forge with and the village couldn't afford to buy more.

Lorenz needed to practice his skills to prepare himself for the capital and the gods gifted him the materials only to be smitten down by money. However, Leon's suggestion brought light back into his eyes.

Hearing this, Lorenz thought it was a no-brainer as a blacksmith assistant to take the deal, as Lorenz would most likely not gain any commissions as a blacksmith's apprentice until he was well known. While Leon's suggestion gave him materials needed to practice and perhaps items to sell if he made anything worthwhile.

Lorenz nodded his head.

Feeling like he gained value, Leon looked at his group who looked like they saw the person who saved their families from a fire. Although Lorenz was still an apprentice, he was still good enough to be sent to the capital, which meant he would at least have a decent future in blacksmithing. This meant although it might be a while for their investment to pay off, the profit they would be gaining would be huge. This would be true, however only till later would Leon found out the jackpot he had secured.

With that Leon and the group headed towards some spare guest rooms, the village head pointed them out too. There were only two rooms so they split two into each room and they did it by gender. When they got to the modest room which had only the bare essentials, Leon put Arwin on one side of the bed as he promptly fell asleep due to exhaustion.

Leon would promptly follow Arwin as he was incredibly tired but decided to take a walk first. Making sure he didn't wake anyone up, Leon sneaked his way out of the room and could hear Tecia snoring, so he just decided to walk outside.

Outside he walked out of the village until he ran into a clearing and sat flat on his back with his hands underneath his head like a pillow. He stared up into the sky, which was incredibly clear, and saw all the stars that shined brightly even though they were so small. Then he saw the full moon which showered everything underneath it with a pale, enchanting light that gave an awe-inspiring aura.

Leon sighed.

'I wonder how beautiful she would have looked under the moon.'

-Elsewhere a group was walking towards Verin from a long distance-

A lady was standing out in a clearing also looking up at the moon whose light was almost magnetized as it bathed her in light. If any man was present they would have gone insane from her looks that were amplified under the moonlight as her silver hair reflected the light with an enchanting shine.

She had a rapier on her hip and black composite armor that only amplified the contrast between her body and the light. Even her skin reflected the light as it was incredibly smooth and glossy like marble or glass. She simply looked like a goddess.

The lady had an expression of curiosity as she looked at the moon, which seemed to be telling her something as she experienced a curious feeling.

Suddenly another girl came from in front of her.

"Sis we have to go if we want to make it by afternoon back and the rest of the girls are already grumpy for having to walk for hours!"

The lady didn't even give a nod but started walking with the girl however the lady didn't even take her eyes off the moon until she gave a slight sneeze which even sounded cute and gentle.

Seeing her idol sneeze, the girl who was trying to get the lady to walk laughed.

"Sis, someone seemed to have been thinking about you! Well, I guess that is only natural for you sister Emilia."

Emilia whose eyes lingered on the moon for a couple of moments before she decided to follow the girl. While she still looked at the moon she talked in a quiet and subdued voice, which was even more enchanting and alluring compared to Tomoe.

"Maybe someone is thinking about me….I wonder how he's doing."

The girl who was facing ahead instead of looking at Emilia stopped and looked shocked.

'Did sis really just talk?!?!'

The girl knew that Emilia rarely talked and only ever did so if it was necessary, even the guild leader could barely facilitate a response, then she realized something.

"Wait a minute, he? Who is he?"

Emilia never answered and merely walked towards the group of girls that could be seen in the distance that seemed to slow down as if they were waiting for the pair of girls.

The girl kept barraging Emilia with questions about what she had said, but Emilia didn't speak again.

-Back in a small village near Verin-

After a few minutes of taking in the beauty of the moon, Leon promptly went to sleep, and when he woke up. He could still hear Tecia snoring through the wooden wall that separates the two rooms and Arwin still slept soundly next to him.

He sat up in the bed and heard the chirps of birds as the light from the morning sun started to shine through the small window in the room.

Leon stretched out his body and took a deep breath.

'This is how life should be every day.'