It was early in the morning, in the lobby of the guild, Lyle and Ascalon were sitting at one of the tables while Stella was also sitting, but on top of said table. They were waiting for Mistia to arrive. It was around 9 AM and both Ascalon and Stella were getting a little impatient.
Ascalon was not really ok with Lyle's decision to include Mistia on the party, even if she was as strong as he had told him, the axeman thought that their team was getting too crowded, he had never been a fan of numerous groups, and just include Stella had already been something difficult for him, even if now he is ok with her, he still would prefer Stella to not be part of their group.
Meanwhile, Stella was getting hungry, she hadn't had breakfast yet and it was already getting late. She liked the idea of Mistia being part of their group, she had always found her hot and this would mean more time to look at her without being called out as a perv or a creep, it was great for her.
Lyle was a bit nervous, mostly because of Ascalon, he knew him very well and perfectly knew what his opinion on this situation was, but he was also beginning to worry for Mistia, it was getting late. Maybe she had misunderstood when she should come to the guild? After all he had said in the morning but didn't specify an hour, or maybe she regretted it? This thought made Lyle realize that maybe he was overthinking too much, it made more sense that she was late because she wasn't used to waking up at these hours, at least that is what he wanted to think.
"*sigh* About time" Ascalon said, confusing his partners, who looked around confused.
About time, what? They were wondering. Not too much after Ascalon's words, Mistia entered through the entrance of the guild, her hair looked the same as always but a bit messier than when she was at work, instead of the emotionless and lifeless expression she usually had, her face showed a ton of nerves.
This was the first time the trio had seen her, without her bartender attire. Mistia was wearing a large blue dress, however, it could be noticed a kilometer away that said dress was old, not only was the fabric worn, but also it was really ragged.
"H-Hi" Mistia said upon noticing the trio looking at her, she looked like she was about to faint because of the nerves, this was weird, mostly for Lyle and Stella, to not see her being that emotionless bartender, they say that jobs suck the life out of you but this was ridiculous.
"Hello Mistia!" Lyle said as he waved back at her with enthusiasm for having her there.
Similarly, Stella waved at her but with her characteristic sexy tone on it. And then there was Ascalon who just looked at her with a suspicious look.
Mistia approached them slowly, she was still very doubtful about all this. "Ummm… I'm sorry for my clothes, when I got out I usually just wore my uniform from the bar, so this was the only thing I had in my closet" She confessed.
Lyle told her that she didn't have to apologize for that. Stella stood up from the table and approached the nervous ex-bartender and wrapped an arm around her neck, pulling her closer and pressing her own chest against hers.
"You don't have to worry about that, because I will buy you some new clothes!" The healer said with a smile on her face, Mistia was stunned by it, she began to repeatedly say that she did not have to do that.
"Hey! Consider it a welcoming gesture from my part" Stella said.
"Wait a minute we agreed to let her try, she's not in yet!" Ascalon reclaimed.
"Shut the fuck up" Stella said pointing out at Ascalon with a disapproving look to then turn back at Mistia with a smile "Besides, I think it's a fair compensation for never leaving any tip for you!".
Mistia's expression slowly turned into a one of slight anger upon realizing that, indeed, Stella never left a tip for her. Sometimes she would pay more than she was charged with but those were accidents because of Stella being drunk.
"Come on now!" Stella said as she dragged Mistia out of the guild. "I know the perfect place to get you some clothes!".
Lyle and Ascalon walked behind. "What was that with the rudeness?" Ascalon asked, looking at his friend. "Stella was rude to me, wasn't she?".
Lyle scratched the back of his head, not really knowing how he should answer that. "Well… she has known her for longer than you, and maybe they do have some sort of preestablished… I wouldn't call it friendship but it's some sort of relationship at the end of the day" He managed to come up with.
"Also it may have something to do with the fact that Stella seems to want to…" Lyle blushed "Do stuff with her. That might have something to do".
"You know, forget it, I'll just pretend I understood that and roll with it. I just realized how little I care" Ascalon said, annoyed.
The four of them walked towards the clothing ship Stella had mentioned, which turned out to be the same one Lyle and Ascalon had visited when they first arrived in the capital of Lisbea. Inside the shop, Margaret, the dependent, greeted them.
"Margaret, dear, my friend over here needs a good dress, something that lets her move as swift as the wind", Stella said while severely disrespecting Mistia's personal space, who pushed her away.
"A large and comfy blue dress is ok" Mistia said to Margaret.
The dependent nodded and took Mistia with her to show her some dresses that might fit her. Stella got upset by Mistia pushing her away so she decided to look at everything that was on exhibition in the store just like Lyle was doing at that moment. The swordsman was fascinated with the store, just like the first time he had entered. Seeing all the new pieces of clothing that were now instead of the ones he had seen the first time he had been there, it was a delight for his eyes.
After some minutes of waiting, Mistia and the dependent returned. Mistia wears a long blue dress with some yellow details that looked very good on her. Stella gave her a good look from head to toes while Lyle seemed a bit flustered.
"How do I look?" Mistia asked, a bit nervous.
"You look really nice!" Stella said with a seductive grin.
"Uhhh… yes… you… you look good" Lyle said looking away.
Mistia blushed a bit at the compliments from her companions. Stella took out her money to pay for the dress, she and Margaret went aside to proceed with the payment while Lyle was left standing there alongside Mistia. They both stayed in silence, not really having any idea on what they could talk about, it was getting a bit uncomfortable.
They looked away from each other for a bit until Stella returned having paid for the dress, for the expression on her face it seemed like it had been a bit more expensive than she had expected, but she quickly brushed off that expression from her face as the three of them made their way out of the store. Wait… three?
It was until this moment when they noticed that Ascalon was not with them, Lyle and Stella wondered where he could be, but Mistia pointed at the blacksmith in front of the clothing shop. "He's there"
But they couldn't see him until some minutes after when he came out of the blacksmith, having acquired a pair of iron shoulder pads. He waved at them.
"Uh? I mean, that does make sense but… how did you know?" Lyle asked, it was no surprise to him that the answer was the blacksmith, but Mistia didn't know anything about Ascalon and he was not in plain sight for her to have just noticed before.
"Well… I actually can feel people's presence, and I felt him there" Mistia responded, surprising both Lyle and Stella while Ascalon walked towards them, not having heard anything.
"Hey, sorry for leaving so suddenly, but I thought you were gonna take too long on that thing of the dress, so I went to the blacksmith for these" He said while knocking on his shoulder pads "Don't they look cool on me?".
Both Stella and Lyle responded affirmatively to Ascalon's question while Mistia had gotten distracted looking at her new dress. Ascalon didn't mind, he gave a shit about her opinion, although in general he doesn't give a fuck about anyone's opinion, just Lyle's a little bit.
The squad walked back to the guild to pick their daily mission and also to prove how good could Mistia perform as an ally. Once in the guild they went straight into the board of missions to look for a good one to pick.
They looked at the missions for a while until one in particular caught Stella's attention.
"What about this one?" She said pointing out at the announcement of the mission that had caught her attention.
Her companions looked at what the poster said, it was a hunting mission, the objective was to hunt as many wild red boars as possible.
"Wild red boars?" Lyle questioned, unaware of the existence of said creatures. "Never heard of those before".
"They are like, well, boars", Stella said "But they're also bigger, their fur is red, and they have these…these… things on their necks that are like, like those things the fishes have to breathe… you know… uh…".
"Gills?" Mistia said.
"Yes! Those! They have these things that look like gills but they're not like the fishes' because they still have normal noses. Oh, and they can also spit fire" Stella finished describing the wild red boars.
These animals sounded really dangerous, but Ascalon didn't seem to be afraid of facing such creatures, while Lyle was a bit nervous, but with the improvement he's had on his abilities in the past few weeks, he feels confident enough to not be scared.
The group decides to take on that mission and go talk with Lady Ladia to do so. The woman tells them some extra details about the mission, in which includes that their payment will increase the more boars they hunt and that they must deliver them to the butchery that requested the mission, giving them a paper with the address of the butchery.
"Oh, and I almost forgot!" Lady Ladia exclaimed.
She made the squad follow her to the back of the guild, the requester of the mission had left a cart for them to put the boars on. It was a big cart that would let them carry many hogs, although its appearance made them doubtful of how much weight it could actually bear.
Now, with everything they need to take on the mission, they embark on the way to hunt those boars. Stella guides the group, she knows where to find red boars. Ascalon is the one to pull the cart, it has four wheels and nothing inside so it's easy to pull.
"May I ask, how's the red boar meat?" Lyle asked without looking for someone in specific to answer him.
Mistia is the one to look at him in order to answer his question. "Well, aside from normally coming in bigger chunks, the red boar meat is naturally very spicy and although a bit more expensive than other meats, it is very delicious." The ex-bartender said, biting her right index finger as she thought of the red hog meat. "I remember sometimes saving some money to eat it at least once every two months".
"Do you like spicy food?" Lyle questioned, it seemed like Mistia really liked that meat.
"Yes, I do, it is… enlivening" Mistia said with a little creepy smile.
"Considering your lack of life, that makes sense", Ascalon said without thinking twice.
Ascalon gained a disapproving look from Lyle and Stella. Mistia looks down, clearly hurt by the comment.
"Did I say or think that?" Ascalon asked as he noticed his companions' expressions.
No words were needed for him to understand.
"Shit… uh… hey Mistia, I didn't mean to say that out loud". That horrible apology gained him a slap in the back of his head from Lyle.
"Mistia, please ignore what my friend said, he can be very… imbecile, when it comes to social interactions" Lyle said as he continued to give his friend a disapproving look. The ex-bartender didn't say anything and just continued looking at the floor.
They continued walking in silence, Lyle and Ascalon stayed a bit behind, or rather, Lyle made them go a bit behind so he could have a little chat with his best friend.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Lyle whispered, angry at his friend's insensitive words. "I know social interaction isn't your thing but this is ridiculous!".
"I'm sorry, alright? I'll think of something to compensate for it later, I think you want me to think about it very well, right?" Ascalon replied, a hint of annoyance in his voice. The swordsman sighed.
"I hope you do" The blonde said, worried about what his friend could come up with to apologize.
The squad reached the north access of the city, from where Stella continued to lead them through some hills until reaching the top of a hill from where they could see the entrance to the forest where the red wild boars could be found.
"How does a fire breathing creature live in a forest without burning it down?" Lyle questioned.
"It's magical fire, it doesn't spread" Mistia replied, feeling somewhat better after Ascalon's insulting comment.
The squad walked down the hill with precaution for the cart to not roll down hill. Once they were at the forest, they looked a bit around for wild boars, Mistia could feel their presence so it didn't take long for them to find a group of red hogs. They were everything Stella had said, they were considerably bigger than other kinds of boars, they had red fur all over their body, their tusks were very large, the look on their face seemed to display a permanent expression of anger and in the back of their necks they had something that looked like the gills of a fish.
The group kept their distance, according to Stella, red boars are really aggressive, and they had forgotten to think on how they would do this.
"I think Mistia and I should take care of this", Lyle said looking at Ascalon, confusing him.
"Why do you not want me to partaken?" Ascalon questioned his friend.
"Well, I'm not really sure if delivering them with axe wounds will be of the requester's pleasure. That axe of yours can give some really deep cuts, besides I think it will give Mistia a better window for her to show off her skills" Lyle declared, pointing out at Mistia who seemed flustered.
Ascalon decided to accept his friend's plan, Stella and he would stay away and just intervene in case of emergency while Lyle and Mistia took on the boars
The swordsman and the ex-bartender got closer to the wild red boars, the creatures immediately went aggressive mode. There were 5 of them, preparing to charge at the pair..
"Oh god, what should I do?" Mistia questioned herself in her mind, her nerves were carved in her face.
"I want to do it… but if I do… I could…" She began sweating.
Lyle noticed his companion's nervousness and tried to assure her that she would do it great, unaware of her real worries.
The five boars would charge at them, more specifically, at Mistia. The boars surrounded themselves in flames as they charged against the woman, who would dodge their attacks without problems but with a noticeable preoccupation and fear in her face.
Stella and Ascalon looked from a distance. Stella was worried about the boars attacking Mistia, however Ascalon was looking at the situation with a more serene expression, impressed by Mistia's reaction capacity.
"It seems like these creatures target their foes based on how strong they are…" He thought.
"Why are they attacking me?!" Mistia screamed as she continued to dodge the boars' attacks with an expression of desperation in her face.
Lyle looked at the situation, the boars were faster than he had expected, he tried to attack them but their speed would not allow the swordsman to land his hits, as if it wasn't enough that they continued targeting Mistia, it also seemed like the boars became faster with each flame charge.
With no other options, Lyle activated his Dark Boost to try and keep up with the boars, he managed to do so, landing some superficial cuts on the boars, but despite this, the speed of the red boars continued increasing, Mistia was somehow still dodging their attacks. Lyle was getting desperate trying to figure out what to do, when suddenly, he felt a burst of power going through his body, he looked at Mistia who stood still, pointing her arms at him as darkness emanated from them and went into him. Due to her now having stopped to move, Mistia was being hit squarely by the boars, showing off a surprisingly high resistance to their attacks.
Lyle locked in, and attacked the boars with the power of the Dark Boost and what Mistia had given him, now that he was faster than them, and they weren't moving so much, killing the boars was easy task, as fast as they were, their strength was way behind Lyle's boosted power.
Once all the boars had been killed with a single attack from Lyle's sword, he and Mistia stood there, both tired because of all the movement they had done.
From away, Stella clapped at the victory of her friends. Ascalon looked at them with a little smile that quickly was deleted from his face as he rushed towards Lyle.
"Watch out!" Mistia yelled at Lyle pointing out behind him.
Out of the woods, a burst of fire was about to hit Lyle but Ascalon got in between, tanking the hit.
"You ok?" He asked his best friend, who nodded, the axeman then turned back at what had tried to burn Lyle alive.
From the shadows of the forest, another wild red boar emerged, but this one seemed to be bigger, tougher and angrier than the ones Lyle had killed. The beast let out a primal roar that made Lyle flinch, out of the nose and gills of the boar flames emerged as it roared.
"I'll take care of this one" Ascalon declared, cracking his knuckles. Lyle stepped back alongside Mistia.
The giant boar prepared to charge at Ascalon who would activate his Dark Boost, before the creature could charge at him, Ascalon was surrounding the beast' neck with his arms, exerting a pressure that was asphyxiating the boar who tried to get Ascalon off him by turning itself on fire, which didn't work, and by exerting a bit more of strength to his grip, Ascalon cracked the boar's neck, killing it.
"I think that with these will do" Ascalon said as he let go of the corpse of the boar.
The other three were astonished by Ascalon's feat, how he had done that and acted as if it wasn't a big thing. Lyle was really impressed by how strong his friend was, he targeted to be strong like him. Mistia was just surprised and Stella was a bit turned on.
The squad put the dead red boars into the cart, even though at first it seemed like the cart could not resist the 6 boars, but after having put them all into it, it looked like it could resist the weight. They embarked on their trip back to the city to deliver the red boars to the address they were given. Ascalon pulled the cart, despite now having 6 red boars on it he was still pulling it with relative ease.
As they walked through the hills of the lands near the capital, Mistia stayed a bit behind, she was feeling a bit insecure on what the other three would say about her performance during the mission. Yes, she did boost Lyle's power, but on her own she just dodged and received hits, but didn't show off much of herself, not that she actually tried to. She thought that they would very likely boot her off the team once they had completed the mission, but at least this day had been a nice change on her monotonous life. She wondered what job she could look for next, blacksmithing, maybe?
Lyle and Stella looked at Mistia walking behind them, they noticed that her mood wasn't the best and they wanted to give her some comforting words, but before they could, suddenly, a numerous group of bandits surrounded them. They seemed like they came out of nowhere, they were 15 and wherever they looked there was one of them.
Ascalon and Lyle got into a combat stance while Stella stepped behind them. However, Mistia, because of being way too behind them, wasn't close enough to search for refuge alongside her companions and furthermore she stepped back, getting her closer to the bandits than her teammates.
Three bandits jumped at Mistia, one of them put his arm around her neck to hold her hostage while threatening her with a knife to her face.
"Mistia!" Lyle yelled upon noticing his friend being held hostage.
"Don't do anything stupid or the bitch dies!" The bandit holding Mistia said while the other two who had jumped at Mistia also pointed their knives at her.
Lyle and Stella were preoccupied as hell for Mistia's well being, meanwhile Ascalon seemed very calm despite the situation, for what he knew, none of them were in danger.
And he would be right, in an act of reflex and desperation, Mistia grabbed the arms of the bandit holding her and ripped them off with an ease that surprised everyone but Ascalon, even Lyle, who was already aware of Mistia's strength, was shocked by the scene.
The bandit screamed in pain and agony for his arms, Mistia stood before him, her back facing him as she continued to hold his arms in her hands. The ex-bartender was hyperventilated, she slowly turned back to face the armless bandit, the arms of the bandit fell to the ground after Mistia had let them go. The bandit looked in horror how the woman who just mere seconds ago was nothing but a damsel in distress now stared at him with a smile that creeped the fuck out of him.
In less than most of the presents could even react, a punch from Mistia was going right into the armless bandit's face. The bandit barely had any time to notice what was about to happen when the fist hit him right in the middle of his face, causing almost the entirety of his head to be blown off, his eyes, brains and blood falling into the grass behind him, he falls into his back, now both armless and headless.
Everyone looked in horror at the scene, Mistia turned back to look at the other two bandits who had jumped at her, the cold and hateful expression on her face horrified them both, one of them tried to run away but not even two steps in he felt Mistia encrusting her hand inside his back, grabbing his backbone and ripping it off in one go, causing the bandit to fall to the ground as he experimented an enormous suffering in the final moments of his life.
Now, Mistia turned back to look at the third and last bandit that had jumped at her. He was paralyzed by fear, he had wetted his pants out of fear, the sheer expression of terror on his face, the tears falling down his face, seemed to delight the ex-bartender, who gave him a disturbing smile, worthy of a psychopathic serial murderer.
Still having the backbone of the second bandit in her hand, Mistia quickly positioned herself behind the third bandit and used his companion's backbone to strangle him. The bandit was desperate, crying, attempting uselessly to get rid of his torturer. The bandit fell to his knees, which Mistia took advantage of to press his back with her right foot to exert more pressure on the strangulation process. Her psychotic grin did nothing but get even wider, the passion and life that emanated from her only visible eye was just creepy. The bandit, in another futile and desperate attempt to stop this torture, tried to stab Mistia on the stomach with his knife, but every stab he landed seemed to not even be able to penetrate through her clothes until the knife just broke into two parts.
The hopes of survival of the bandit disappeared as he looked at the broken knife in his hand, he began to lose consciousness and he was almost completely out of air. It was just a matter of seconds until he finally fell dead to the ground.
The backbone fell to the ground on top of it fell the corpse of the third bandit. All of the others present at the scene were surprised to say the least, not to mention the sheer terror that flooded most of them. Stella felt like she could puke. Lyle was stunned and a bit horrified, but not as much as Stella. And Ascalon, he was surprised but didn't seem horrified at all.
One of the bandits was able to get out of his shock state and ran away as fast as he could away from Mistia, the other bandits followed shortly after, all of them just running away in a straight line from where they had been standing.
Stella took a deep breath, she needed some time to process what she had just seen. It had been horrifying, not that she thinks that those guys didn't deserve it but it had been gross to look at that.
"Well, Lyle, I must admit that you have a good eye to choose teammates", Ascalon said in complete calm, looking at his friend.
Lyle ignored Ascalon's words as he slowly approached Mistia.
"Mistia? You… you ok?" He asked as he moved very slowly towards her.
Mistia stood there, looking at the corpse in front of her, and then at the other two. She looks at her hand covered in blood after encrusting it on the back of the second bandit, she begins shaking. As Lyle got closer, Mistia turned to look at him with her lifeless expression, scaring off Lyle a bit, but he didn't step back.
The ex-bartender begins walking, seemingly ignoring what she had just done as she cleaned the blood from her hand.
"Let's go, we don't wanna be back too late, do we?" She said with a lifeless voice.
Ascalon began pulling the cart again pretty smoothly, as if what he had just witnessed was not horrifying. Lyle followed close behind and Stella kept her distance while walking.
Silence remained between the squad during the way, it was a really awkward silence. Once they were close to entering the city, Mistia turned back to her companions to ask something.
"Where do we have to deliver the boars?" She said with her lifeless voice.
Lyle pulls off the paper with the butchery's address that they had been given and gives it to Mistia, who recognizes the place and says that she's gonna lead the way. No one was against the idea.
Once they had finally entered the city, they walked down the streets, led by Mistia. The group got some glances as they walked, not really a surprise since they were pulling a cart with many dead red boars.
Upon reaching the butchery where they had to deliver the red boars, Lyle tells Ascalon and Stella to watch over the cart while he and Mistia went inside to talk with whoever they had to make the delivery to. None of them had an issue with it.
Mistia and Lyle entered the butchery, the place felt pretty cold in comparison to the outside. They rang a bell that was on the counter and from the back of the butchery an old man limping came out and greeted them.
"Welcome to my store, how may I- Wait a second, Ms. Mistia?" The man said, recognizing the ex-bartender.
"Hello Mr. Karl, it's been a while" She responded, still with her dry voice.
"Hah! Almost didn't recognize ya with that outfit! What brings you here?" Old man Karl asked with a smile.
"Me and my… companions" She said with doubt in her voice "Took on the mission you had put a request for in the guild".
"Oh, so you've brought me some fresh wild red boars?" The man asked with enthusiasm.
"Yes sir, they're outside" Lyle responded.
"Well, what are ya waiting for? Bring them in!" Karl exclaimed with a smile.
Lyle went out and told Ascalon to help him enter the boars. The friends collaborated in getting the boars' corpses inside the butchery, into a room that was even colder than the main one. While doing so, Mistia and Karl watched them get the boars inside. Stella stayed with the cart outside.
"Ms. Mistia, I must admit I'm surprised to see you at an adventurers party! How's it been?" Karl asked.
"It's been fine… although it's my first day…" Mistia said, and upon noticing both Lyle and Ascalon were not in the room at the moment, she continued talking "I'm not very sure I'll stay longer, I'm afraid I might have given them a bad impression".
"Well, I can't say much because I don't really know you, but even though you are a bit weird, I don't think you are a bad girl", Karl affirmed.
Mistia shrugged.
"And maybe you just have to give them some more time, there are some people that take a while to accommodate with new pals" He added.
Mistia let out a light creepy smile. "Thanks for the words but I doubt that's the case here…" The ambience got a bit depressing.
It took just some minutes for Lyle and Ascalon to finish getting the 6 boars into the back of the store, Karl thanked them and asked them to wait for a while to get their reward. They decided to wait outside because it was really cold inside the store.
The squad was now waiting outside for Karl to bring them their payment. Silence remained, until Mistia finally decided to speak up. "So.. I guess this is it, I don't blame you if you don't wanna be around me after what happened today".
"What are you talking about? If anything you showed to be totally competent!" Ascalon said. "The way you beat up those bandits was really impressive, I don't really support the killing part but to be honest I don't care. I'd also like to apologize for my words earlier, it's a problem of mine that I tend to be a bit harsh with new people".
"I must admit that it was a bit shocking, but… I guess that as long as you only do it with… bad people, there is no problem with it? But if you don't want to, that boost thing you did on me was pretty awesome anyways!" Lyle declared.
"I must admit that what happened sort of put me off, but… I guess it's not that bad, I mean, I would prefer if you… were not so brutal, but… if you're an ally… that can be… good?" Stella said, nervous, Mistia's display of violence had been really gross to her. "I suppose I can tolerate being your companion if you turn it down a bit".
Mistia let out a little creepy smile that slightly scared Stella. She wasn't expecting to be accepted despite having shown that part of herself, but that wasn't a part of herself, just… a trauma residue, it wasn't truly a part of her, because if it were, that would mean she is a bad person which she is not. Those were the thoughts that went through her head, thoughts that she really didn't want to have.
Before the conversation could continue, Karl walked out of the store, with a bag of gold and a chunk of red boar meat. "There you have it! And since you brought a good amount of boars I'm also gifting you this chunk of meat!" He said as he gave both items to the group, them both being picked by Ascalon.
They thanked the old man who went back inside the store.
"Well I have never cooked in my life, and you?" Ascalon said.
"Me neither", Stella declared.
"Just a bit but I'm not sure if I could handle a meat like this" Lyle affirmed.
"I have" Mistia said, raising a hand. "If you please you can come to my place and I could make something for you" She proposed as she toyed with her fingers.
The other members of the squad decided to accept, Stella hesitated a bit but accepted anyway.
They went to Mistia's house, it wasn't the big thing, it was a small house in the middle of a suburban area, almost a hut, it had only one floor and the inside wasn't anything too impressive, there was a kitchen, a table, an old looking couch, and three doors that leaded to the only other rooms in the house. One of them was Mistia's room, the second was a closet and the third one was a sort of restroom.
Lyle, Ascalon and Stella sat on the couch while Mistia prepared something for them. It was something simple, the red boar meat, some rice and pieces of carrot. Mistia insisted on doing it all by her own, which she ended up doing, and despite it being a bit unnerving for the rest of the group to see her cut the chunk of meat like some sort of maniac dismembering a body, the final result was satisfying.
At the end of the day, they had a good dinner as a squad.