- Arthas -
I woke up early the next morning.
Last night, while we did party a lot, Rose made sure that she didn't drink much despite the insistence of the other Knights. Seems like the drunken scene from the last time had left her more embarrassed than we had thought.
All of us were exhausted due to the mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting day we had experienced so we decided to directly go to bed last night.
Seeing them sleeping deeply, I didn't disturb them either and left for the daily training.
When I returned, both of them had gotten up and were getting ready.
I quickly took a bath and then we sat down to discuss the rewards which I had received from the Tournament.
"Skill Books, a Sword, a recipe and a familiar egg."
"And five hundred thousand Gold Coins." I added.
"That's a very good haul."
"What is more important than all this is the connections you made due to this Tournament. The higher ups of the Kingdom including the Prince and finally the position of a City Lord. These things are far better than just a handful of Gold and some Skills and weapons."
"Hmm."
"We will need a Blacksmith to use this recipe. None of us have that class."
"That means we just have to find someone who does. Anyways, let's leave all that for later. You two are going to find the player who helped Rose, correct?"
"Yes."
"Great. Then you two can get ready for your date today too. Greenfrost is a very beautiful city after all." Veena asked with a smile. Her words however made the girl red.
I looked at the girl who nodded shyly and smiled. "I will wait for you outside."
Giving them space, I left the room, waiting for her to get ready, going down to the dining area to get something to drink in the meantime.
While I was eating, there was suddenly silence in the dining area as several people stopped eating and looked behind me.
Turning back, I found my heart skipping a beat.
Rose was standing behind me.
She was dressed in a purple coloured dress. There was a pink ribbon holding her long silver-white hair which was flowing behind her.
Overall, she looked breathtaking.
"Umm are you…" She spoke and I realised that I had been staring at her without saying anything for a while.
"Yes, I am done here too. Veena?"
"She had a meeting with the leader of the Magic Tower and Alchemist Guild so she is getting ready."
"I see." I got up. "Do you know where that girl lives?"
"Hmm, the outer city area. She said that she would meet us at a public park there."
"In that case, let's go." Thinking of something, I offered her my hand.
We were on a date after all.
She blushed a bit but accepted my hand and we left the Inn.
We didn't take the carriage available outside the inn and instead decided to walk around the place.
I had seen several places around the city during my morning runs and decided to bring her to those places too.
The Inner City of Greenfrost was an area for the higher class people, especially since there were residences of the nobles there so the whole place was clean and full of beautiful gardens.
We still hadn't eaten anything so I brought her to a cafe of sorts in one of these gardens that I had seen earlier today and ordered breakfast for ourselves.
I was really hungry so I started eating but soon realised that Rose was quiet, not eating.
"Umm, do you not like this dish? We can order something else if you want to." I offered.
"N..no, this is good. I… I am sorry for dragging you into this." She said after some hesitation, looking guilty.
"You were not the one who dragged me anywhere. I am here because I want to be. You shouldn't blame yourself."
"But, Veena did it because I got drunk and… threw a tantrum… I… I have just caused trouble for you all. First making you lose the Devil Fruit, then holding back your leveling speed, then getting drunk and making a scene and even yesterday, getting kidnapped during the tournament… I have only been trouble for you all and you… I… I am…"
"Alright hold it right there." I stopped her before she could go any further because it seriously looked like she was going to break out in tears. Even her eyes became moist as she kept on talking. "You didn't do anything. Let's clarify all the points one by one."
She looked up at me, but didn't say anything so I continued. "First, the Devil Fruit, that wasn't your fault. We didn't even know you back then. We were there to save Bina and helped you all alongside her. Even if you hadn't been there, we would probably have traded the Devil Fruit. Can we agree to this point?" I asked.
The girl, to her credit, was reasonable enough to give it a thought and nodded in agreement to my words.
"Next, you didn't hold back our leveling speed. Even Suikazura-san, Whistler and Star were slightly higher level than you. Bina and Elaine were of the same level. Either way, we were going to reduce our leveling speed to train a better team. Rather than a loss, it is an investment to get a better team for later, and it was decided by the whole team. You are not at fault there. Is this correct?"
She nodded with some hesitation.
"Getting drunk… well… it could happen to any one of us. You were not in the right state of mind then. As for the words you said, that was most likely the result of the stressful situations you had been under for so long. If anything, it was good that you let it all out rather than keeping it locked inside and letting it fester over that. That… would have been worse. And it's not like you said anything bad back then. So don't worry about it."
By now she was quiet.
"Lastly, the kidnapping. Now, that could very well be my fault. If anything you were the one who got caught up in my trouble. I should be the one to say sorry to you. Why are you getting all depressed over it?"
She looked like she was about to deny so I lifted my hand and stopped her.
"But… "
"No ifs and buts. Lastly, while I respect and like Veena a lot… I won't do something I am truly against. I am here, on a date with you, because I want to be."
She paused and looked at me with surprise and I continued.
"I wasn't lying, just saying meaningless words to calm you down back then. I totally meant every word I said back then. You are a very smart, talented and beautiful girl, Rose. Someone, any guy would be lucky to have as a partner. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Got it?"
She nodded again, this time looking towards her food.
I didn't say anything else and let her take her own time.
We had our breakfast and walked around the garden for some time and then walked towards the outer city.
I hadn't explored the outer city of Greenfrost, mostly staying in the inner city.
The city was… clean although the scale of infrastructure was relatively lower which was to be expected.
We even saw several good shops.
The shops in the Inner City tended to the needs of the nobles and high class so while the items there were of higher quality… the prices were also quite a bit higher than normal. This problem however wasn't present in the shops of the outer city.
And it's not like these people were bad in their skill level.
From the fifteen or so shops we visited, fourteen were run by Level 50 T5 craftsmen. Each of them only needed a bit of push to get to T6 and become people who could be qualified to set up shops in the Inner City.
Rose was feeling much better after our little talk and slowly got back in her game as she stepped into the shops.
I even had doubts that the valkyrie had some kind of bargaining skills, something she couldn't use much in the inner city as the shops hardly negotiated for simple items.
The outer city however was open for all haggling.
She got some armour for herself on my insistence and a new spear too.
Her new armour reminded me of the armour from Magic Knight Rayearth, a white armour with red jewels and golden linings.
She tried the armour on my insistence and looked gorgeous.
Perhaps Veena's was onto something when setting up this date?
Finally, it was the time for the meeting and we asked for the location of the meeting and headed towards the public park.
On reaching there, we looked around and the place had several people there.
Rose looked around and then pulled at my sleeve. "There she is." She pointed towards the chair in the distance?
I looked towards the place she was pointing at and saw a girl sitting alone.
As we walked closer, I could see her clearly. She had long black hair and golden eyes. She was dressed in a black leather light armour and had several daggers. One dagger on her either side and another one behind her waist. There were four more daggers on both sides of her boots and four more tied in scabbards on her thigh.
So many daggers… was she a thief or something? I used my Scan Skill on her and found out that she wasn't a Thief but rather a Rogue Class. I guess that explained her equipment then.
Kurumi, Level 8 T4 Rogue.
She was of a lower level than I had expected.
Did she just skip the town and reach this place?
Rose did say that she had a brother so maybe he could be of a higher level.
As we were observing her, she was observing us too.
Rose took the lead and met her, shaking hands with her.
"Hello, Kurumi. Thank you again for saving me yesterday." She looked towards me and Rose introduced us. "This is Arthas, the Guild Master of my Fairy Tail Guild."
"Oh I know him." The girl, Kurumi, smiled. "It's hard to not know him after the tournament. Almost all of Greenfrost knows him." She bowed slightly. "Hello my Lord, my name is Kurumi, a Rogue."