"Hey, did you hear?" A young man setting up his shop with his friend at dawn said.
"What?" His friend asked, his tone filled with curiosity.
"Last night, before I closed up shop, I heard people talking that they saw a bunch of men running around in their birthday suits." The young man said.
"Really?" His friend said Surprisingly.
At a distance across the street, the nice gentleman was carrying some clothes that looked fairly new. He was walking towards the residence that Nanako was renting for the night. He looked a little bit tired compared to the other day when he was with Nanako.
He left the clothes down for a bit to open the door. He pulled the doors open, grabbed the clothes, and went inside while looking at the counter of the residence, where there was a lamp powered by mana sitting by.
He kept moving until he reached a room with the number six or written in the language of this world. He pushed the doors of this room, slowly revealing what was inside. It was the boy from the other day, sleeping on a bed that was twice as big as he was.
The boy just woke up a moment ago after he had heard the footsteps of the nice gentleman. The moment he opened his eyes, he had a lot of questions about where he was and how he got there, but he kept the questions to himself and looked at the nice gentleman as he entered the room.
"Oh, you're already awake?"
The nice gentleman said as he approached the boy, while the open door swiftly closed itself with a silent click.
"Do you still remember your name?"
The nice gentleman asked as he set the clothes next to the boy while the boy continued to stare at him with a confused look.
The nice gentleman noticed that the boy was confused and said to him, "Don't be scared. You're safe here," while looking at him. The boy looked at his sides to try to make out where he was, but still, he had no clue about where he was since he had never been indoors like this before.
"Clean you self-up and change into those clothes."
The nice gentleman said as the boy turned his head to look at the man again.
"...I..." The boy uttered.
He was still confused about what was going on, and he thought that he was in some kind of a dream. The nice gentleman looked at the boy and said, "Will you need any help with cleaning up?" But the boy did not reply and looked down instead. "Oh, my bad for asking." The nice gentleman took a step back from the boy.
The boy quickly raised his head and said in a low voice, "No, you can help me." The nice gentleman stopped for a moment, surprised by what he heard. He stared at the boy carefully and noticed that there were two bumps around the boy's chest. These were breasts, still growing.
"You, you are a girl?" He uttered.
"...yes." The boy hesitated for a second before replying as she looked away from the nice gentleman, while the man looked away from her. A girl who looked and dressed like a boy.
"Oh, sorry, I'll try calling someone else to attend to your needs." The nice gentleman said as they pulled the door open to get out of the room and call someone else to take care of the girl.
"...w-wait!" The girl called out, but it was too late for the nice gentleman to hear her.
The girl tried to lift herself from the bed to stand up, but she failed and fell to the floor. She was too injured to move on her own, which is why she needed help from the nice gentleman.
***
Later, after the nice gentleman had left the room, the girl he thought was a boy was staying. He was heading upstairs to the room where Nanako was staying to ask for her help with the issue at hand.
Before long, he reached Nanako's room and knocked twice on her door, while waiting for Nanako to answer, but in no time at all, Nanako replied, "Enter!" because she was already awake and was just waiting for the right moment to leave and continue her journey.
The nice gentleman opened the door slowly as he entered the room, cool, and came to ask Nanako to assist him with the problem he had.
"Oh, my lady, you are already awake." Said the nice gentleman as he approached Nanako, who was looking out the window.
"Yes."
Nanako turned to face the nice gentleman. She was almost caught by surprise that the man who beat up a band of thieves was looking like he had just seen a ghost.
"What's the matter?" She asked.
"Someone you know needs your help." The nice gentleman said nervously as he started to avoid eye contact with Nanako's bright, crystal-scarlet eyes, which seemed to shimmer in the light.
Nanako noticed the nice gentleman acting strange, but she decided not to ask why he was acting that way and went straight to the question, "Someone I know?"
"Yes, the boy, no, I mean, the girl you assisted the other day." Said the nice gentleman while trying to look at Nanako.
"She's awake?" Nanako asked with a normal expression. This surprised the nice gentleman because he thought that Nanako also didn't know about the boy being a girl.
Nanako stood up straight and started moving towards the nice gentleman and continued, "Show me the way to her room." While the nice gentleman's expression returned to normal as he stepped back a little bit and said with a smile, "Okay then, follow me."
A few seconds later, birds started singing outside, and more and more people started filling the streets of the simple town of Lute, and more shops were being opened to start selling their goods and staff. Meanwhile, Nanako was finishing up helping the girl.
The girl's body was covered in bruises from being beaten so badly by the thieves. The clothes she was wearing earlier were so dirty that when they were placed in a basin full of water, the whole basin's water became dirty.
"How do you feel?" Nanako asked while looking at the girl.
"...I feel a little bit better." The girl replied while on the bed and wearing the clothes the nice gentleman brought for her to wear.
"Hold out your hand," Nanako said while reaching out her hand to the girl. And the girl, without hesitating she gave her hand to Nanako as Nanako requested. After the girl's hand came into contact with Nanako's hand, the bruises on the girl's body healed in an instant.
The girl was surprised to see someone use magic on her. Having grown up in the slums, she didn't know how to control her own magic; almost everyone there was like her. Seeing someone help her with it felt like a dream.
"How do you feel?" Nanako asked again while looking at the girl with a soft smile.
"I feel better than before. What did you do to me?" The girl replied while checking herself.
"I did nothing, that was all you," Nanako replied, with a soft giggle. Then she added, "Try standing up on your own."
The girl lifted herself and stood straight without holding anyone or anything to keep her from falling. "Now try to walk," Nanako said as the girl took a step forward while someone knocked on their door.
Nanako gently opened the door and found that it was the nice gentleman who was knocking. "The sun is up, my lady." The nice gentleman said.
"Oh, that's my cue to leave," Nanako said as she looked at the nice gentleman. Then she added, "Take care of her from now on. I'll pay you for everything she will need to stay here." Then she turned towards the girl with a smile and said, "You'll be staying here from now on, okay."
"Are you leaving already?" The girl asked with a sad look as she looked at Nanako.
"Yes, he is going to take care of you starting today. So don't worry about anything, kay." Said Nanako while looking at the nice gentleman. Then she added, "I'll see you again someday." The girl smiled and said, "It's a promise."
While saying this to her, the girl's eyes flickered for a second before returning to normal.
....
Later that morning, as Nanako was continuing her journey to the capital of Steria, back in the village of Dol, Hajime was refusing to go to training because of what had happened the other day.
"I don't want to!" Said Hajime with a loud voice.
"What are ya afraid of?!" Asked Rica while holding her stuff with both hands, as Reiko prepared another set of daggers for Hajime to use.
"Nothing," Hajime replied as he looked away from Rica and was afraid to say what he really was afraid of.
"Then why are yah so afraid of training right now?" Rica asked, but Hajime did not respond to her question. "Let him take a break today," Reiko said as she moved close to the room where Hajime was staying.
"But why should he take a break?!" Rica asked as she turned to face Reiko. Reiko looked at Hajime, who was still lying on the bed with a bedsheet covering his whole body from head to toes. And then she looked at Rica with a serious expression on her face.
Rica did not say anything else after seeing Reiko so serious, and Reiko placed the daggers near Hajime and said to him, "If you change your mind about today, you know where to find us." As she left the room with Rica.