The next day was filled with groaning and puking. Almost everyone was drunk out their minds due to the heavy drinking they did the day before.
"Why did I even join in your feast? I tried declining hundreds of times," Elliot grunted, his face was on the table, cheeks squishing as he laid on the cold wood. "We need to go to the Grass Palace today. And we're running out of time."
"I'm here!" a small female voice croaked. They all turned to the door and saw a petite woman running inside the guild. She was wearing red robes with white strips that ran from her shoulder to the tip of her sleeve. She also wore a small hat that was shaped like a square.
"I'm the Healer," she said to Mindight that was comforting a a Ed on the counter. "My name is Iris. I'll heal everyone from their hangover."
"Please do it now," Midnight said. "A lot of these boys have to be somewhere."
"Okay," Iris said with her cute voice and raised her staff. Her staff was almost taller than her. It had a maiden as its spear who was closing her eyes and looked like she was praying. "Cerulean Cure!"
The maiden on the tip of her staff moved, opening its eyes and extending both hands forward. A large pale blue magic circle then appeared on the ceiling, slowly rotating while small specks of blue dusts rained upon them.
This went on for over a minute until everyone couldn't feel their headaches anymore. No one else felt like puking too, making Iris stop her cast.
"Everything is done," Iris said. "That would be 3 gold per person."
Midnight nodded and handed her a bag of money, "Thank you very much, Iris."
There was a hesitation glinting in Iris' eyes before she nodded and smiled. Iris then bowed and walked out of the guild, only for the men to cheer for her.
"Thank you as always, Miss Iris!"
"Thanks, Iris!"
"Iris, you're the best."
The small girl turned to them before she walked out of the door, bowing and smiling at them.
"I swear to the heavens, that woman is so sweet," Ed said as he walked to their table. "Where's Dustin?"
"He's still in Midnight's room. Midnight didn't want the little boy to see that," Ed shrugged. "And I can't blame him. Speaking of blaming, thank heavens for Iris."
"You seem to know that girl," Elliot turned to the door Iris just walked out of. "Is she popular?"
"Apart from her cuteness? Yes. She's can heal most Curses and effects like hangover," Ed explained. "She's actually been here a couple of times before. And the last time she was here, we were on a mission."
"Do you get drunk often?" Connor smirked. "Why do you need to frequently call her?"
There was a sudden seriousness in Ed and Lance's face. The mood suddenly went grim and the atmosphere became dense.
"W-What Did I just say something wrong?" Connor stuttered. Him, Elliot and Hope were waiting for the two to call everything a joke and that they were kidding, but a few moments had passed and the atmosphere was still thick.
"Well" Lance trialed off and took a deep breath. "Sometimes, not all Campaigners would make it back. The shortest Campaign would be three months. And in those three months, there's only battles, fights, and wars in every single day of the Campaigners."
"Drinking after a campaign isn't just for fun," Ed said. "We're celebrating life."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Connor said. "I shouldn't have said those things."
"It's okay," Lance said, raising his arms and smiling. "We didn't told you about it anyway, so it's kind of our fault too."
The mood lost some of its heavy tension, but they still knew that there's still a bit left there. The topic left a sour taste in everyone's mouth and it was making them uncomfortable.
As they ride through Hope to the Grass Palace, the tension continued. Apart from the occasional small talks, no one has actually said anything.
"I don't like this," Elliot finally said. "Us avoiding the topic is okay, but us not talking to each other means that maybe we're not as close as we think we are."
"And what do you mean by that?" Lance quirked his brow up. "Like, we're not really friends?"
"No, I mean ugh," Elliot groaned. "Can we just go back?"
"Yeah," Lance said and sighed. "Let's do that."
And as they agreed upon, they indeed went back to the way they used to talk to each other. They started their jokes and started their laughs and teasing, waiting to arrive at the Grass Palace where they'll slay a Knight along with the guards.
"We're finally here," Hope said. "We're finally here. The wind was tough today, what was that all about?"
"Maybe a storm is coming," Lance said. "We won't be able to make it back even if we hurry now. We need to finish this and got to the village near West. It has taverns and inns there, a perfect place we can spend our night on."
"Okay," Elliot said and walked inside the border first. The Grass Palace, was as they said, ironic. The entire domain doesn't have any other living plant there. The ground was blackish green and there were no trees unlike the other Palaces.
"What is this place?" Connor pouted. "How can we sneak when we don't have anywhere to sneak on?"
"The Grass Palace Phantoms are almost blind," Lance said. "If we limit our aura output, we can conceal ourselves from them."
The group continued walking deeper into the grounds, nearing the castle without seeing any Phantoms.
"This place looks so barren," Elliot said. "It's even more barren than the other two, what the hell is wrong with this place?"
"I don't know too," Lance confessed in a whispered voice. He was the first one to enter the castle courtyard, brandishing his swords as he prepared for any surprise attack.
"Why do you have your swords out?" Elliot asked, brandishing his own and the others followed.
"I could sense"
Lance wasn't able to finish when a Guard leaped from a wall. The wall was camouflaging him, his dark green armor complemented the blackish green bricks.
"Stand back!" Lance yelled and raised his hands to the side.
The Guard moved like a doll with strings, twitching as it had trouble lifting its spear. It was screeching incoherent words, just like a normal Palace beast would do until it said something that was completely audible to them.
"Help me."