After the beast’s death, the other monsters, even the newcomers attracted by the blood and the beast’s final cry, had become easier to deal with, even when Garan was doing minimum.

It was more of an issue of pride. After all, two people they had thought were dead weights ended up carrying majority of the fight. They naturally had to balance things out!

Meanwhile, the target of their protection, Anna, was staring at the man who was slashed in the arm, her eyes red with tears. The shield’s durability was already very low because of the mobs, and it seemed like it broke during the last attack of the intelligent beast.

However, only Anna saw—or cared for—the man’s injuries. In fact, she looked like she was the one injured instead. However, while worried, there was also a lot of confusion in her eyes.

"Wilem...what are you doing here?"

"Don’t get married." Wilhem told her as he grabbed her arms. It had the tone of an order, which made Anna temporarily forget about her worry for him.

Anna pursed her lips. What was he planning to do? Even if she was a bit tempted—she loved this man too much—but she didn’t want that kind of life.

"I...I can’t share you."

Wilem’s eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Anna looked at him in despair, shocked that he was even asking this! 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Did he just assume she’d be fine with him taking in other women? Other men were like this, but she thought he was different!

"If you’re gonna be with my sister, I don’t want you!" she screamed, standing up, but it was sudden and she was weak and she ended up falling into his arms anyway.

Anna felt dizzy in humiliation, then she felt extremely annoyed when the man’s arms that crept around her waist, keeping her in position, didn’t budge.

Hearing her previous words, Wilem understood her concerns. "I never wanted to marry her. I don’t even like her."

This made the poor bride pause. "Didn’t you...aren’t you marrying Vanya?"

"They wanted more elementalists in the bloodline," he said. "And I...I don’t care about that at all."

There was also a rumor that Vanya had a bit of elven blood. It was very diluted and didn’t manifest at all, but his parents were a bit obsessed with that lineage.

A lot of nobles in this area tended to be.

"But...you...why didn’t you just tell me?"

"I wanted to! But they imprisoned me."

"Vanya said—"

"I haven’t even talked to her! I never touched her that way. I swear!" His eyes were filled with purity and determination, and Anna knew he was not lying.

Anna covered her mouth, feeling like the biggest idiot for believing all those things Vanya said.

Her body softened, and she found herself resting against her fiance.

"Ok, I won’t get married to another man."

The man nodded. "I won’t get married to anyone else but you."

Althea jumped down from a nearby branch, looking at the couple with a complicated expression. She looked at her husband.

This was the first mission they took and they already witnessed this kind of drama. Were they lucky or unlucky?

Sure, it was fun to gossip about, and it gave a bit of good feelings to see a couple reunited, but...so what?

The two of them must complete this mission. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to take another mission from the Hall for another month.

What to do?

....

"Let’s go back." Wilem said and Anna nodded.

Althea sighed. "We will still go to Acero Town," she said, tone of certainty and it made the employers frown.

"What?"

First of all, weren’t they hired? Is she really ordering him around now?

However, he also knew that they owed their lives to her and her husband, so he was still polite.

"We will still pay you, as per agreed upon," he said. "No. We will add 50% more."

This could indeed be done, and normally they might agree. The rest of the mercenaries probably would.

It was just that...if the client paid the mercenary team for their troubles—even with the assumption that it was completed—the system might not necessarily record it as such.

What the couple really needed was the right to use the Mercenary Hall’s arrays, not the money.

Not that they could be so tactless to point that out directly, of course.

Garan knew his EQ was negative, so he could only look at his wife to handle this.

Althea looked at them with a solemn expression on her face. Her tones was akin to a concerned friend. "For your sake, I don’t recommend you do this," she said. "What will change if you go back now?"

She looked at Wilem. "Do you think you’ll have more say back home if you broke a deal that involved the entire territory? Even if you’re the heir, it is doubtful you have that face."

Considering what already happened to him, it was fairly certain he didn’t have much of a voice back in Illyan.

"Nothing will change. It would’ve been better if you just eloped," she said. "If not, then I recommend accomplishing something elsewhere and coming back when you can have a voice."

While Althea’s insistence to continue on was for selfish reason, she was not lying. They would likely just be imprisoned if they went back as they were now.

The woman—powerless, thrown away by her own family—could even be killed outright. She has seen how this world treated women.

The two were silent. They did not deny it.

After a bit more thought—after they calmed down and claimed the rationality dulled by all the emotions— the couple realized what she was saying was true, and it felt like a bucket of cold water was thrown to their faces.

"I can almost guarantee that the girl will suffer an even worse fate," Althea said. She let some a introspective pause pass by, before her furrowed eyebrows loosened up.

"We can help you get set up," she said. "But it would have to be in our destination."