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Chores were always the bane of everyone\'s existence. Nobody I even knew enjoyed doing the bare minimum they had to do in order to survive. Hell, nobody loved working jobs just to have money to buy food for the next, so what more for even the most basic of tasks such as sweeping the floor or cleaning the dishes? Sure, it kept everything neat and tidy, but that was supposed to be its own reward. You didn\'t get paid to do such things unless it was your job, and even then it paid little unless you worked for some kind of rich oil baron. Sure, doing some chores also had some kind of meditative effect on them, but it didn\'t take away from the fact that they were just plain boring.

"Moriya, can you please tell me again why we\'re out here in the woods instead of being in the city?"

I could only groan at Guidance\'s rightful complaints as made our way through the nearby forests of Centrax. Somehow, I just knew that my girlfriend was just planning to tan my hide somehow for this error, what with me having decided to just let the two other pairs choose which job they wanted instead of claiming one for ourselves first.

Then again, my selfishness really should\'ve kicked in during that time. I blame my lack of initiative on that one.

"I was just trying to be fair, okay?" I weakly replied. "We wouldn\'t want our party to be dissatisfied with our leadership, right?"

"Isn\'t that exactly why Shizu is still the nominal leader of our group?" Guidance quickly pointed out with a pout beside me. "As much as it\'s a scummy thing to do, I was pretty sure the only reason why you\'re not our true leader is because you planned on making Shizu your scapegoat."

"Hey, that\'s also your modus, right?" I fired back. "You\'re our second-in-command, which means you\'re practically the leader as well."

Guidance scoffed at my reasoning, and I just knew that her spite would allow her to ignore her own raging libido for tonight.

"T-There\'s a difference, alright?" she stammered out, her cute blush being brought out more by her annoyance than anything else I\'ve done in the past minute or so. "Anyway, let\'s just get this over with. I\'m pretty sure we won\'t discover anything noteworthy in these woods, what with this also being an afterthought after I made the city below."

"Aye aye, ma\'am..."

With the city below us, we kept our trek short as we finally made it to a certain neck of the woods that contained the specific wood we needed for the fetch [Contract]. Sure, the [Contract] said that we only needed to deliver three Wood, which still sounded laughably ridiculous, what the reception lady left out was that it also called for a specific kind of it, one that wasn\'t readily available like the planks I bought from the nearby market.

Silently, we stared as we stood in front of what looked to be the same species of tree that we found back in the Island Sanctuary. It had a white trunk, but it was considerably smaller than the Wanderwood that almost dwarfed any other skyscraper that we found in Centrax.

"This is it, yeah?" I asked aloud.

"It should be," Guidance nodded. "This is still Wanderwood, but it\'s an offshoot of the real thing that can be found out in the [Grand Abyss]."

"So... I guess we just chop it down and get three of these things," I wondered out, my hands absently moving to my [Manifests] as I drew them. I stared at them, my mind moving slower than expected before I actually realized something. "Uhh... Guidance?"

"Yeah?"

"How are we supposed to chop these things down?"

...

....

"Did you seriously not think about that before you dragged us out here in the wilderness?"

I sighed at Guidance\'s words. "I\'m sorry, okay? Besides, it\'s not like there are any monsters here. Or anywhere else, for that matter."

Then again, that was a flimsy excuse at best. I just implied that I needed an axe to defend ourselves from any possible enemy, all while knowing full well that we had [Manifests] on us that could do the same thing but better.

Also, there was also the case of there not being any enemies out in the overworld anymore for some reason.

"I feel like you\'re taking a shot at me again," Guidance correctly pointed out with a pout.

"I\'m not," I lied. "Anyway, think you can conjure something up that can do a clean cut with your [Manifest]?"

Guidance sighed as she shook her head, hands already on her keyboard as she typed aloud. "I could, but without Shizu here, it\'ll take some time to properly implement it into a [Move]," she explained. "How about you? Surely those guns of yours can do some damage."

"Unless you want me to shoot this thing down, then I don\'t have a lot of options either," I sarcastically chuckled. "Or maybe I\'ll do just that. I just hope that they\'ll accept this thing even if it\'s full of holes."

"They wouldn\'t care either way," Guidance scoffed. "It\'s just three wood, which is weird to think about even for me. Like, what does it even mean?"

"I\'ll just assume that it\'s three trees worth of wood," I shrugged as I aimed my pistols at the base of the tree. "Well, here goes nothing."

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SHADE

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In another part of Centrax, Shade could only sigh as he led himself and Maruki through the ridiculous maze that was the city\'s Downtown area. Already, he was starting to get dizzy with just how uniform and symmetrical everything looked. It almost looked like everything was a glass rectangular cube with how the buildings were designed, and the way the roads all patterned themselves into a grid didn\'t help matters either.

"This [Contract] better be worth it," Shade grumbled as he stared at the piece of paper Moriya had given him. "I almost wish we just took the wood gathering one as opposed to letting ourselves get lost in the city."

"Hah! But this way, we\'ll be able to see what Centrax has in store!" Maruki loudly declared, his loud voice visibly spooking some of the locals away from them. "Being out in the woods would do little for our cause!"

"That, it is," Shade sighed. "Still, can you keep your voice down? I still feel like we\'re being watched somehow."

It was an eerie sort of feeling. Ever since they entered the city, it was as if the very air was hovering over them judgingly, discerning whether or not they were there to cause some kind of ruckus. It had eased off somewhat after they took the jobs back in the administrative building, but the intrusive feeling remained, reminding him that they were still technically within the heart of the enemy territory.

"I feel nothing except for the-"

"Don\'t even think about saying what you\'re about to say," Shade growled, his [Manifest] glowing red as he pointed it at Maruki\'s mouth. "I know you Kattleynans don\'t like not seeing dirt beneath you, but keep it down. Even the Princess is doing her best to do so."

"Very well!"

Sighing to himself, Shade took another look at the piece of paper containing the details about their job. It was the escort [Contract], one that detailed them leading a family of three throughout the entire Downtown area. Details were sparse after that, with the only piece of information he got being the starting location of their current job.

"They should be around here somewhere," Shade grumbled as he squinted his eyes. "Damn these identical-looking buildings... Would it kill these Marqueans to add some individuality in their designs?"

Walking forward, Shade was about to give up on his search when he spotted what looked to be a trio looking completely lost. The three consisted of a man and a woman, with a young girl sandwiched in the middle of them.

"That\'s them, I think."

Without wasting any time, Shade led themselves towards their job targets, only for his legs to almost give out on him as he recognized the three people now staring at him. The supposed family, having seen him approach, also visibly recoiled at the sight of them.

"You... What are you three doing here?" Shade couldn\'t help but ask in confusion.

"I should ask you the same thing, Shade," the man glowered. "Do you have any idea what you did to us?"

Behind him, Shade could feel Maruki about to ask a question that he really didn\'t want to answer. He quickly raised his hand, stopping the tank from uttering out the words he didn\'t want to hear.

"I didn\'t do anything wrong," Shade coolly answered. "In fact, I helped you all become a proper family."

"That doesn\'t mean we wanted it to happen," the woman sighed. "And while Gem here is happy to be our daughter, you made us into criminals."

Shade sighed at the woman\'s words. It was true after all.... Somehow, he had made two of Vestyge\'s premier troubleshooters become fugitives from their own governments out of sheer coincidence.

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