It's late at night. In the room that they usually rent at the guild, Lyle enters, trying to make as less noise as possible, but Ascalon's words quickly make him notice of the futileness of his attempt.
"Lyle, where have you been?" The axeman asked. After finishing their evening training, Lyle kinda just went off on his own.
And this wasn't the first time it had happened, this is something that Ascalon had noticed some days ago, at first he tried to give Lyle his space, but the curiosity of knowing what the hell he was doing and why he wasn't telling him won him over.
Lyle looked at his friend with an awkward smile. "Sorry man, I didn't want to bother you with it. I've been going to the bar where Stella took us the other day". Ascalon seemed a bit surprised.
"Why have you been going to that place? Last time we went you barely finished the beer you drank there" Ascalon asked, but before Lyle could give him an explanation, Ascalon connected some dots in his brain.
"Wait… is it because of the bartender?".
The swordsman seemed a bit surprised, not because he felt like he had been caught, but rather because it was surprising to him that Ascalon of all people could figure something like that out.
"Well… yes" He responded. "She is a very nice person to talk to. I know she can seem a bit creepy for her lack of… life, but I think she really doesn't have anyone, and I'm not really sure she likes her job as a bartender".
Unlike Ascalon, Lyle had always been a very friendly person, not really caring much about traits aside from personality, but again, this was a thing of Lyle. Ascalon seemed to not be able to comprehend how his friend had befriended a depressed woman who seemed to be like 10 years older than him, but, talking with that woman seemed to make Lyle happy and to not think about what had happened to their town less than a month ago. So not understanding the situation really didn't matter to Ascalon.
"Well, it seems like you and that woman really get along. But, I don't understand, why didn't you tell me?" Ascalon asked.
"You didn't ask", Lyle replied. Seemed fair to Ascalon. "Besides, you tend to be a bit… suspicious about everyone and I didn't want you to begin stalking that woman to verify she isn't into any weird shit".
"Hey! When have I done such a thing?!" Ascalon exclaimed, remembering something that happened years ago.
"Do not bother to answer that!" He added, already knowing that Lyle would bring in the time he did exactly that.
Lyle stared at him with a look of incredulity. Ascalon cleared his throat and continued talking.
"And anyways, I wouldn't do something like that with her. From what I saw of that woman, I barely doubt she even goes out of her house during the day. I mean, look at how pale she is".
"Yes… Mistia has said that she doesn't really do anything during the day, she works during most of the night during the day she either sleeps or just stays at her house… It's a bit sad actually, being almost 30 and not having anyone…" Lyle said with pity.
"But do not misunderstand me! I didn't befriend her because I feel pity for her, well I do, but that's not the reason. I became friends with her because I genuinely like her, I had never met someone who liked dragons as much as I do before!" He added, this time with a bit more enthusiasm.
Ascalon let out a little chuckle. "Alright man, I can understand that and I have no issues with it, just wanted to know what was going on" He said with a smile.
Lyle sighed in relief and looked at Ascalon once again. "Well, I really appreciate that Ascalon. You're a good friend".
Ascalon let out a pretentious sigh. "I know I am".
With everything clarified, both friends got into their respective beds to have a good night of sleep.
The next day was a seemingly unamusing day. The trio had decided to not take on any missions that day. Stella had expressed her desire to go to church and pray to the goddess of life, which was surprising to the pair of Lyle and Ascalon, people who do that kind of stuff usually do it once per week, not per month. But this was Stella so it really wasn't much of a surprise. Lyle and Ascalon decided to spend their entire day training on the outskirts of the city as usual. Well, they first ate something, but after that it was all training. The training was intense, they were using their real weapons in order to work better on their control of them and during the training Lyle had been making a consistent use of the Dark Boost without tiring up almost instantly.
The axeman was surprised by the improvement his friend had shown in the past few weeks, with his motivation having skyrocketed. Lyle had not only really improved his usage of the Dark Boost but also his combat skills as a whole. He always had known that Lyle had the potential to become a very capable warrior in a short time but this was overwhelmingly impressive.
Near the end of their training session, something that had never happened before had finally occurred. Lyle managed to take down Ascalon. This is something that surprised the axeman, the most surprised no doubt was Lyle himself, his friend had always been so much stronger than him. A month ago he couldn't even contemplate the possibility of landing a hit on him, but not only he had done it, but he had also managed to take him down. Lyle bursted out in immense joy, this was incredible to him. The blonde was feeling like he was on top of the world. Ascalon stood up as he shaked off the dust from his clothes.
"Impressive! I must admit that you caught me off guard. But don't get over yourself too much. I was holding back" Ascalon declared "But even though, you really have improved this last month"
The swordsman shrugged a bit, he couldn't deny what Ascalon said. Lyle had been using the Dark Boost while Ascalon wasn't and yet taking him down was something he just barely managed to do, but also he couldn't deny that it was still a huge improvement for him.
"Thanks man, I couldn't have done it without your help" He said looking at his friend.
"You don't have to thank me Lyle. What are friends for?" Ascalon replied with modesty.
"And you see? I told you that you could become strong, you only needed to actually focus on it!" He said with more enthusiasm.
"Yes… I guess you were right on that, I just… would've liked that… the source of my motivation was different…" Lyle said looking down as a sad expression was drawn in his face.
"Oh fuck he's thinkning on it again" Ascalon said to himself in his mind, worried by his friend.
"Hey! What about if we go grab something to eat? My treat!" The axeman said to his friend while putting his hand on his shoulder in an attempt to distract his mind.
Still a bit toned down, Lyle accepted his friend's offer, himself trying to dismiss his thoughts about the attack on their village. Better to focus on what was ahead, in this case, a meal after a long day of training. The friends went to a little restaurant that was near the guild. In the time it took them to go back from the outskirts of the town to the restaurant, night had fallen over the city. They walked through the seemingly always full streets of the town, illuminated by those poles whose source of light was still a mystery for the pair. They had a nice meal that Ascalon paid for. That place didn't have the most exquisite food in the world but it was at least decent enough to make someone prefer to starve, which was enough for them to enjoy the meal and to put aside bad thoughts for a while.
After they finished eating, Lyle told Ascalon that he was going to pay a visit to Mistia at the bar. Ascalon told him that he was gonna go to the guild and get to the top of the roof to enjoy the sight of the night sky. With them both having their own separate plans, each of them went on their own way. Lyle walked towards the bar, it only took him a few minutes to get there, once inside he immediately spotted Mistia at the bar as usual. The place wasn't very crowded yet, there were 10 people at the moment, not even drunk yet, which for this bar was very few people. He waved at his friend, who waved back at him with an unsettling smile that Lyle was already used to.
"Greetings Lyle, you came earlier today" Mistia said with her emotionless voice, a small expression of surprise on her face. Lyle walked to her.
"Well, yes, today we didn't go into a mission so I was unoccupied a bit earlier than the previous times" Lyle explained with a smile as he was about to take a seat, but Mistia interrupted him.
"I was actually about to take my break, mind accompanying me?" The bartender asked.
Lyle got caught off guard by the proposition but of course he accepted without doubting it much. They left the bar and sat on a bench near the place. While in the bench, they both looked up at the sky to contemplate the stars, even though the light of the light poles was a bit annoying for them, it was still a nice view of the stars. Lyle looked at the bartender while she continued to look at the sky, she seemed a bit less lifeless than she used to.
"Do you like looking at the stars?" He asked with curiosity for a slight improvement on the mood of his friend.
Mistia continued to stare at the sky for a while, without answering the question of the swordsman, who kept his silence, waiting for a response. Eventually the bartender stopped looking at the stars and looked at him, making it more noticeable for Lyle that she was in a better mood than usual.
"Not really, I rather like not being at the bar", Mistia said.
Lyle had been suspecting that Mistia didn't like her job at all, and this seemed to confirm that, but that just brings up the question of why she had a job she disliked.
"You don't really like that job don't you?" He asked. Mistia shrugged. "Why do you work at that bar if you don't like it?"
Mistia looked away for a moment, thinking on how to respond to that question. She then turned to look at Lyle again.
"I just needed a job. There aren't many things I know I'm skilled at. I'm 29 and the best thing I've learned to do is to serve drinks. I took this job because it was simple and I didn't have the will to go for something more. So for years I've maintained this job with the sole purpose of having an income… But I really hate it, at least the environment is good but the job itself… it's just not for me" She vented her feelings on Lyle who heard with attention each word that came out of her mouth.
He felt pity for her, a woman whose only drive in life was to keep herself alive, with nothing else that inspired her to continue besides her own natural desire to survive. It was just sad. Lyle put a hand on her shoulder, he wanted to try and say some comforting words to his friend, but he didn't get the chance to. The moment Lyle had put his on her right shoulder, Mistia's only visible eye opened wide, her pupil extremely dilated and a darkness surrounded her body. She slapped his hand with a speed that Lyle didn't even notice that she had moved until after his hand got slapped, and the strength of the slap, it hurted him, it hurted him a lot.
The bartender quickly noticed what she had done and began to apologize, showing genuine emotions for the first time ever since Lyle had met her.
"Oh god! Lyle, I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to! It's just… I… I'm just…!" She tried to come up with an excuse but she couldn't so she continued to just apologize.
Nevertheless, Lyle was not paying attention to her words, but to what she had done, the slap that she had given him not only hurted a lot, she had dislocated his hand. This was the point where Mistia noticed the damage she had actually done to him, causing her to apologize even more and to almost drop a tear.
"Hey, calm down. It's ok" Lyle tried to comfort her, this time without making any contact with her. But the sight of his dislocated hand did nothing to help.
"Hey, uh… let me…" Mistia approached her hands to Lyle's dislocated hand with the intention of putting it back in its place. But she didn't seem to be able to bring herself to touch him, and when she did, it only lasted a second before she backed off. "I'm… I'm sorry… I just… can't touch a man…" She said, looking away from him.
Lyle was a bit surprised by this declaration from the bartender, it gave him so many questions, but he thought that it would be better not to ask, at least for now. With not too many options, the swordsman had to put back his own hand. Which was fucking painful, but he held back his scream of agony.
"I-I'm sorry Lyle… I…" Mistia tried to explain the situation, but it was clear that whatever the problem was, it wasn't a topic easy for her to bring out.
"It's ok, it's ok. I'm fine now, see?" Lyle said, showing her his put back hand while forcing a smile to hide his pain, and even though the hand had been put back, it was still red from the slap.
"To be honest, I'm really impressed by how strong you are! Also, that bit of dark aura, you know how to use dark magic?".
Mistia seemed a bit flustered. "Uh… ye-yes I do… I practiced when… I was younger", She said. "Well, I still practice a bit… during the day… I don't really have much else to do".
"Well, I'm really impressed, you are so… strong", Lyle said, caressing his redded hand.
The bartender was nervous, she wasn't used to showing off her power, and the few times when she had done this was not the kind of reaction she had received.
"T-Thanks… I guess…" She said, blushing as she looked away.
Silence prevailed for some moments. While Lyle caressed his hand, an idea was born in his mind. He looked at the ashamed bartender, who looked back at him upon noticing his gaze on her.
"Do you want to join my team?" He asked.
"Eh? Eh?! EH?!" Mistia was beyond surprised.
"W-What? Why? What do you-? I mean… You…" She didn't know what she should say.
"Well, you said that you hated your job and that the only reason you are still on it it's that you need income, right?" Lyle said.
"We do get a fairly decent income by doing missions at the guild, how does that sound? Besides, with your strength, you are gonna be a great help!".
Mistia looked at him in the eyes, indecisive. She didn't have an answer, she took a deep breath, she considered her options, reject or accept. Rejecting would mean she'd continue her empty life as a bartender, while accepting would mean going in for something that she herself saw as something way more exciting and interesting than spending every night at a bar serving drinks and then spend the whole day doing nothing but feeling pity for herself. When put like that, the answer seemed obvious, but deep inside her mind, Mistia knew what accepting could also mean… being exposed to violence, one of the reasons she had stayed at the Firewood Bar was because of it being very peaceful in comparison to other bars. But it's not like seeing violent things grosses her out or even horrifies her, it's something else, something she wants to keep buried inside her. However, the temptation… being in an environment that most surely would require her to be involved in violent acts… she began to hyperventilate, Lyle tried to calm her down with his words and after some moments she did.
Mistia looked him in the eyes. "A-Alright, I will…" She said, still a bit doubtful.
Lyle gave her a warm smile and a thumbs up. "I'll promise you won't regret it!".
Mistia gave him a little smile back, a very creepy and unsettling smile. The bartender told Lyle that she'd be going home now, she'd like to sleep well at night for the first time in a while. Lyle accepted that so he went back to the guild not before telling Mistia to meet them at the guild in the morning.
Minutes after that, Mistia found herself walking back home, still wearing her bartender uniform, she had just quit her job, doing it gave her a sensation of relief she hadn't felt in a long, long time. Although she had to remember to return the uniform tomorrow, she didn't have any change of clothes so her boss allowed her to walk back home with the uniform still on. The ex-bartender walked through the streets filled with people, she wasn't used to this sight, she'd always turn back home so late that no one was in the streets at those hours, this was a nice change.
Mistia thought on what had happened just minutes ago, she would be joining an adventurer party, something she was still doubtful about, she had spent so much time working at something she hated, she had lied to Lyle when she told him her reasons, well, not completely, she was in fact working at the bar to have an income, but her main reason to be in a job she hated so much was that she felt like she deserved it, just the mere idea on thinking of that… on what she had done… but it's been a long time, maybe she deserves to spend some time with something that doesn't make her feel so empty, after all, she is a good person.
She stopped walking, thinking on that last bit, that she is a good person… she thought of it a bit but then suddenly she began shaking her head in denial as she repeated to herself in her mind that she is a good person. But… was she? She decided that it was not the moment to think about that, but rather to think on how she was going to sleep before midnight after so many years.