Chapter 5: Bounty hunting

"I... Don't have any money" Lu said, nervous from whatever may come next. He knew from experience that it was best to admit mistakes early, not just because it helps one grow faster, but also it does not complicate situations that are already enough of a bind.

To his surprise though, the lady merely snorted in an effort to hold back a laugh.

"People make mistakes, but I have no idea how you are to make this one unless this is actually a joke, which I already took it as, by the way, considering your age" she smiled.

He looked to the side trying to hide his face in shame..

"Oh dear... It's not... is it..." she asked out of courtesy, fully knowing the answer. "Then may I suggest ways that you can earn credits?", she cheerfully said, maintaining her professional identity.

"Please do" Lu said. He imagined that if Esther was still here, she'd be losing herself in her laughter, humiliating him even more as he shrank down in remorse.

"I'll skip to the two main ones, which are employment and bounties. Go inspect the townsfolk if they offer regular duties, commonly found in small businesses, or go hunt bounties posted on the quest board over there!" the lady pointed to a board tacked with papers.

"Thank you" he said.

The lady gave him a friendly nod and continued on her papers.

He first headed out of the tavern to avoid the eyes of the people who were now watching his every move.

Lu decided to get a job, or "employment" as the tavern lady called it. He traversed the paths and asked around, not just for a source of income, but also about the zero on his weist which nagged at the back of his head since earlier.

Alas, after a whole six hours of travelling, he had achieved nothing in the direction of any of his goals.

He returned to the town hall and it looked the same since he had left. People chatting and eating like the tavern it was. Except this time, most of them have large chunks of food on the table, and even though he doesn't recognize any of the people earlier, he's sure that at least 90% of them have already been replaced.

Seeing the feast made Lu's stomach grumble. How he wished he brought money, or even anything with him that was worth a good chance at life in the new world.

He resorted to the questboard and browsed the tasks. As he suspected, most of them were only small commissions that paid even smaller than their required efforts. He sighed and took the bait anyway. It was better than starving to death.

From babysitting to running errands, it was all underpaid work. Nonetheless, he took the only option he had.

The easiest and highest paying commission was helping an old man scythe his field for planting season. It offered 200 credits which was enough to keep him temporarily fed and housed for a day based on what he understood.

In comparison, an average meal would be 35 credits, and a stay at an inn would be 30.

He was about to take the page that referred to the work when another hand got hold of it first. A small, white, yet calloused and worn hand.

He traced the source and his eyes met with light crimson orbs, staring back at him.

The girl stood at a height only only a little shorter than his own. The soft shade of her crimson eyes complemented her light purple hair.

The two stared at each other for a silent moment before the girl ripped the commission off the board and made a run for it.

Lu chased after her. "Hey! That's mine!", he yelled.

The nimble girl climbed up to the roof of a house and Lu followed with the same efficiency.

"Tsk", she hissed, likely because she thought Lu wouldn't scale up as well as her and lose him in her trail easily.

They dashed and jumped through multiple alleys, streets, dark tigh turns, and basically around the edges of the city.

The dashing was starting to take a toll on the poor boy who had almost never played outside, while the girl still hasn't broken a sweat. At the very least, he could jump roof to roof, albeit the girl had no issues while doing so, and he had a handful of them.

After a few more minutes Lu conceded and accepted that he couldn't catch up to her at this rate. His feathers were a no-go in terms of options, and his animus isn't exactly the most useful.

The girl then noticed he ran closer to the walls than he did earlier. She grinned at this pitiful attempt, because he has to cover more distance that she has to, rather than if he just tried to run straight at her, and because of this he would tire out even more.

She laughed that her job just became much easier, as she dashed a little more away from the wall little by little. She thought that she can get away soon if she could get away from the wall this if the boy was willing to keep his plan up.

Meanwhile, Lu had gotten exactly what he wanted.

She pulled away from the wall just as he expected and led her straight to the town square, just where he had been earlier. Just her passing by would be enough for him. He did not need her to actually jump down.

Once they reached the square, Lu was already on the verge of passing out, but just as he calculated, he still had breath for one last shout.

"Thief!" Lu pointed at her just as she passed over a building near the open area.

People looked up to see a boy and the accused atop the houses. They instantly started throwing feathers her way and some began climbing up to get her.

Once again, those who hold more answers will thrive more. He acknowledged the innocence of the town to wrongdoings which was told by the houses without walls in between.

He wagered they would immediately persecute someone caught red-handed, even if it just seemed that way. The girl was running away from him, item in hand. Then came he who shouted thief. There was only one idea that the scene portrayed.

Lu sat dropped on his butt on a balcony of someone's house, sitting down with the least effort. His vision was already blurring into shadows, but laughed once as he saw figures coming right at the girl right before he collapsed.

***

Lu regained consciousness moments later and woke up comfortably lying on a sofa.

"Glad you're back" a familiar voice uttered.

Lu turned to the source of the sound and noticed the blonde tavern lady from the official papers work desk.

"Did you catch the culprit?" Lu asked.

She looked aside, having trouble with what to say. "I wouldn't jump to 'culprit', you know?".

Bewildered, he furrowed his eyebrows. "What does that mean?".

"I believe talking to your 'culprit' will clarify things" she told him. "She's right outside".

Lu nodded and followed her directions. He walked out the town hall and found the familiar straight purple head, wondering why instead of meeting her behind bars, here she was, sitting on a bench, tapping her feet anxiously on the stone plated ground.

She noticed his approaching presence so he took the opportunity to speak.

"Why did you steal my bounty?" Lu went straight to the point.

The girl stared at him with irritation. "The bounty wasn't yours, they are for everyone until you actually take it" she explained.

Lu tilted his head. "You know, it's an unspoken rule to be responsible with what you do with something that everyone has access to".

"And It's mine now. Any complains? No? Alright, I'll be on my way" the girl stood up and bowed before starting to walk away.

Lu tried to grasp her hand and she instinctively pulled it away.

"What is your problem! You wasted enough of my time already! They told me to tell you how it is and I did! Now let's move on with our lives minding our own business, okay?" she yelled in frustration.

"No, what is wrong with you! I saw it first and you just drove by and snatched it!" Lu answered back.

"Well you're just slow, so suck it already and leave!"

"Not without my bounty" Lu demanded.

Their eyes met with elictricity and fire eminating from both.

The girl sighed and thought for a moment. "Alright, let's go with a middle ground. We split work half, and we take rewards half. Deal?"

Lu nodded slowly. He was against the idea as he thinks he was rightfully the owner of the bounty, but it was going to be dark soon, and he has nothing to pay for an inn, and food.

Seeing that he no longer has any complaints, she started walking down.

"Follow me" the girl said.

Lu obeiently trailed closely behind her, wondering if she too was against the idea of working together for half the funds.

"Since we're going to be working with each other, let's have a slight introduction. What's your code?", the girl asked, without looking.

"My code?", Lu asked back. He was reminded that it was a question that the old man with pink hair had asked him back in Keirah. The girl in fromt of him asked it just as casuallty as if everyone was supposed to know what a code is, and which one they have.

She sighed. "Okay, If you don't want to tell me it's fine"

"I'm sorry, I really don't have a code. I don't know what it is either", Lu said.

She tilted her head. "Huh. Really?"

Lu nodded slowly. "Mmhmm".

After a brief pause to confirm his sincerity, the girl shrugged in her lack of interest on the matter. "My code is Autumn" the girl took a single glance at him with a generous smile, which turned into a scowl as soon as it had appeared.

Autumn jumped back and assumed a fighting position with sharp violet feathers ready at her side, aimed at Lu.

"Woah! What's with the sudden hostility?", Lu exclaimed.

"If you plan to destroy this town, you can forget it. You'll be going through me first" she threatened, her gleaming purple talons crept closer to Lu.

Lu tried his best to find out what had suddenly come over her, then he remembered a single detail. "Is it my black eyes?", he asked, trying to get away from her approaching feathers but is backed up against a wall. The

"I couldn't see it clearly earlier because of different things, but now that I do, you're not going anywhere, aurum" she glared at him.

Lu tried explaining himself, "What did I even--""

A feather darted at him at a blinding speed to cut his speech. He couldn't think of what to do except to brace for impact. He close his eyes, stuck as close as he could to the wall behind him, and hoped for the best.

After a few seconds, he noticed that he didn't feel anything. He opened his eyes and gulped at the sight of a violet blade a few centimeters from his throat.

"You're... not even going to defend yourself using your feathers?" Autumn withdrew her control over the concentrations of energy, letting them vanish.

"Right, I have those too, I forgot" Lu said, feeling his throat for any wounds, or if it's still even there at all.

His initial reaction was of course, not to summon his own feathers. Back in his own world, nobody had them. Except in a certain game, which at the moment he didn't feel like he was playing. With this he became even more confused, because it was just earlier that he learned that he can't rely on the instincts that he formed through countless days of playing Monitum, and now was just a complete opposite of it.

He also thought that if he had used his feathers, their hue would have caused more misunderstandings anyway, which turned out alright, but nonetheless if another danger would come his way, he knew he had to be prepared.

Autumn put her hands on her waste and tilted her head, "You're not from around here, are you?" she asked.

"In more ways than one, if you'd believe me" Lu said.

There was an awkward silence that persisted between them for a moment. It was difficult to pretend as if nothing happened at all.

"So... I can see you're not from around here either" Lu tried to break the ice.

"Why would I tell that to a stranger? Especially one with black eyes?" she said.

"Hey, firstly, I did not choose the color of my eyes. Second, you asked me too. Lastly, I'm not just a stranger. I'm a stranger you almost killed. Don't you think that's a little too rough for a 'slight introductions?' " he reasoned out.

"I guess I could at least tell you that I'm not from here, but how did you know?" she asked back.

"You're pretty", he said simply.

There was a pause before both of them looked away from each other to avoid eye contact. Also to hide their red faces.

Lu realized what he just said and tried to correct it. "No, I meant that I just noticed when I looked at you nd saw your clothes which are different from the loca--""

Autumn stood up before Lu could finish and pointed at the direction. "Oh my look at that the sun is almost set. We sure ought to go complete our mission soon or else we won't finish before sundown" she forced an awkward laugh.

Lu laughed along with the same amount of awkwardness. It was best to put the matter away at the moment. Though he does wish he could correct his statement to clear any lingering uneasiness.

He meant to say that her teeth were complete and well cared for, unlike the ones he saw from the villagers, most likely due to the fact that dental care products are expensive in this world.

He infers that Autumn must be some sort of noble, which begs the question, why was she digging on commissions if she has enough money to spend on things aside her basic needs?

Whatever the reason was, that was not his concern anymore. He just wanted to shrink and disappear.

"Let's go!", Autumn walked without looking back, and Lu followed not-so-closely behind her towards their current common goal.