Gahh, here I go agaaain. It's been almost half a year since I last updated.

Well, anyway… I hope you like it.

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Chronicles of an Acolyte

Chapter five - Payon

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Well, here I am again. Hey, guess what? I'm actually getting better at healing! I went around Alberta the other day trying to help out as much as I can. I didn't really ask for anything, but they all gave me random stuff, like apples, bananas and… and… resin.

Okay, so I just gave the resin away. I don't really need it. My mom gave me enough money for the trip, anyway. I also do feel a bit embarrassed because Kira gave bought me this muffler which had a card in it. It's so embarrassing! I hate it when people give me things… he said it was nothing, so I accepted it anyway. Even Ysa gave me earrings, two of them. She said they have some kind of spell that should help my healing.

Anyway, we're walking to Payon right now. We stayed a night in Alberta, though. This morning, Ysa bid us farewell. So right now, all I'm with is Kira and Cliff (who by the way, is the most arrogant jerk on the planet. Oh, did I already mention that before?)

Hey, I think we're nearing Payon!

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"Well, here we are." Cliff mumbled under his breath, burying his hands into his pockets uncomfortably. Why was here again?

"Where are your friends, Rumi?" Kira asked the acolyte.

Rumi shrugged. "I'm not sure."

Cliff gave an exasperated sigh. "Can I go ahead? Let's just meet up somewhere later, alright?"

"Meet at the inn before dark." Kira stated, but Cliff wasn't really paying attention. The thief had already walked off. Kira shook his head—the thief was so hard to handle sometimes.

Kira walked off, with Rumi following behind him. They walked around the town square where natives were selling Payon delicacies and various other equipments.

"Kira…"

The assassin blinked and looked at Rumi, who had a sympathetic expression.

"I apologize for dragging you here…"

"What are you talking about?" Kira chuckled. "I like it here."

"But… Cliff…" Rumi started. "He seems so angry."

"You shouldn't worry about it." The assassin said, smiling. He ruffled the top of hair playfully. "He's just too stubborn to admit that he's having fun."

Rumi nodded, but she didn't really look that satisfied with Kira's answer. Kira was about to say more when somebody called Rumi's name out.

"Rumi?" A familiar voice asked. "Hey, I didn't know you were coming today. And you're now an acolyte!"

The acolyte and her companion both faced the direction of the voice to find a knight who was trying to figure out who Kira was. In his hands were bags of groceries. The knight was tall and had flaring golden hair that was mixed with brown. It was unusual, but he and his sister, Mint, were the children of a Pronteran Knight and a Payonese hunter. Payonese natives usually had brown hair, so it was an unusual mix of brown and gold.

"Chent!" Rumi said excitingly. She ran up to the knight and hugged his arm, while the knight protested that his bags might fall. Kira watched with question as the two people acted so casually towards each other.

"Who's this?" Chent asked, referring to Kira. "I don't think I've seen him before."

"This is Kira!" Rumi stated. "Chent, meet Kira, and vice-versa. Kira helped me get here to Payon, along with another friend!"

Chent looked Kira up and down, and Kira stared back at him in an expression Rumi couldn't understand.

"Rumi, is he an assassin?"

Rumi gaped. As usual, since they were out in the open, Kira wasn't wearing his uniform. Still, not a lot of people really wore their uniforms, so it was queer that Chent would predict what Kira was. Rumi opened her mouth to answer, but Kira spoke up first.

"So what if I am? It's not like I harmed her." Kira said bluntly.

"I didn't say that." Chent replied quickly.

Rumi waved her hands, not really understanding why the two seemed so heated towards each other. They had just met each other, after all.

"Mint's staying at our grandmother's." Chent told Rumi. "Her house is in the east part of the village. You won't miss it, it's the one with the red roof."

Rumi nodded thanks, and Chent continued.

"How about you? Where are you staying?" He asked Kira.

"At the inn, probably." Was the reply from Kira.

"Actually," Rumi cut in their conversation. "I'm staying there too."

Chent looked shocked. "What? Just you two? No, you're staying with us."

Rumi tilted her head with confusion. What was wrong if it was just the two of them? And why was Kira blushing? "It's not just the two of us. Kira's friend is with us, we're meeting him at the inn later."

"Him…? Odin, Rumi, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"Okay, that does it." Kira snapped at Chent. "Rumi's perfectly safe with me, so stop it with the discrimination 'coz I'm not some dirty old man, alright?"

Chent's nose crinkled with discomfort.

"Whaaat?" Rumi scratched the back of her head. "Can someone please explain to me what's going on?"

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Cliff was no doubt pissed at his certain situation. He was threatened to take Rumi to Payon, but halfway through the way, Kira had already come. Why then was he still here? He sighed, though. He wasn't in the position to complain, since he owed Kira a lot.

The thief looked at the river that was flowing through the south entrance of the town. There was a hut, which he sat on, and he had to admit, the view was very nice.

"I don't think I know you." A voice of a girl said. Cliff arched his head and saw an archer who looked at him with curiosity. She had long gold hair and a sharp face, and she looked just about as old as he did.

"That's because you don't." Cliff replied bluntly.

"Is this the first time you've seen something like this?"

The thief raised his eyebrows at her. He couldn't understand why some stranger was interrogating him.

"Yeah. I'm from Morroc." He replied. Oh well, there was no harm in being nice to some random stranger once in a while.

"Cool!" The archer smiled. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Cliff."

"I'm Mint."

The thief nodded.

"You know what's great about strangers?" Mint asked, sitting down beside him with a huge grin on her face. She didn't even wait for him to reply. "It's that you won't see each other a second time, so it's easy to just let everything out. What's your problem, Cliff?"

Cliff sighed. She was right; maybe it was nice to just talk to some random stranger once in a while.

"I've been dragged to go along with two people, and I don't see the point."

Mint looked at him, interested. "Really? Who are these two people?"

"Some guy whom I owe my life to, and this girl he's got a crush on."

"Oh."

Silence.

"What's your problem?" Cliff asked her.

"Nothing." Mint replied. "I just got a message from my friend's mother that my friend is arriving here today. I didn't tell my brother, though. You know, it bothers me that he's so obsessed with her… I think he likes her even more than he likes me. It hurts, you know."

Cliff shrugged, not really knowing what to reply.

"Sorry." Mint said quickly. The thief just shrugged again.

Silence.

"What would you do… if…" Mint whispered softly. "There's this someone who's so important to you, but she just gets all the attention, and everybody likes her so much."

Cliff blinked. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing…" Mint continued. "It's just that… she's so clumsy, and she's so stupid at times. She's always acting without thinking, yet I'm pretty sure even my own mother likes her more."

"So…?"

"How do you get people to notice you…" Mint sighed. "Without even trying?"

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"Ruuumi!" The voice of an old lady rang as she hugged the petite acolyte. Rumi hugged her back with a painful look in her face. Chent and Mint's grandmother hugged very tightly. They had met before when their grandmother had visited Izlude, and she had absolutely adored the young girl. Rumi continued to introduce Kira to her.

It was already getting late, and it had been dark for some time now. Rumi knew that Cliff would probably be furious now, waiting at the inn. Even Kira seemed to be getting impatient, but he didn't say anything. He seemed to be upset about something since he met Chent.

Rumi thanked Mint's grandmother and said she had to go, because someone was waiting for them. They would talk in the morning, they agreed, and catch up on each other. The old lady entered the dining room the prepare dinner, and Rumi looked around, confused. Where was Mint?

"Rumi, take care, alright?" Chent said to the young girl. Rumi blinked and nodded at Chent, wondering why he was so thoughtful all of a sudden.

The young acolyte looked even more confused when the knight suddenly hugged her tightly. She fidgeted a bit, and hugged him back uncomfortably.

"S-sure…?" She said.

Chent let go and stared at Kira, who was silently standing from them a few meters away, hands buried in pockets depressingly. "If anything happens to Rumi, I swear—"

"I've been with her for some time now." Kira seethed. "If you see anything unhealthy about her, be my guest and point it out."

Rumi stared at the floor. She wanted to tell them to stop exchanging mean words, but she still didn't understand why they were so angry at each other.

Chent gave a final goodnight and told Rumi that he would tell Mint they were there. He almost wondered why Mint didn't know, since Rumi's mother usually sent out messages about stuff like these.

Kira started walking towards the inn in a fast pace, and Rumi had to run to keep up with his fast strides.

"Kira!" The young acolyte called out. "Kira…!"

The two of them walked in the night in this manner. People were already getting ready to return to their homes, and lights were already illuminating the streets instead of the sun.

They finally reached the inn, to find two familiar faces there.

"Mint… Cliff…" Rumi said, surprised. "You know each other?"

The archer and thief gaped at Rumi, then at each other.

"You're… with Rumi…?" Mint asked, shocked.

Cliff nodded. "Then… you…"

"Oh, Odin." Mint slapped her forehead with her hand. Rumi stood there, confused as ever.

"What's going on?" Rumi asked.

"Why didn't you tell me you were with Rumi?" Mint demanded of the thief.

Cliff backed away, insulted by the question. He looked at the furious face of the archer, not knowing why this was his fault.

"I so screwed up." Mint mumbled. Without even greeting Rumi, she walked away with a huff.

"M-mint…?" Rumi whispered with worry. "Cliff, what happened?"

"Nothing!" Cliff snapped, and he entered the inn, banging the door behind him.

"It's nice to see everyone's in a good mood." Kira said with obvious sarcasm, and he walked away, passing tables of drunkards. Rumi stood there, not knowing what to do. She was so confused. Chent was acting all worried, Kira was being unusually quiet, Mint seemed to be in a bad mood, and Cliff was… well, Cliff was Cliff.

With a sniff, Rumi headed of to the direction Kira had gone of to. She passed the drunkards, who tried to harass her, but she didn't pay attention to them. It took her a while, but she finally found Kira sitting on the grass beside the river.

Rumi hesitated, then she knelt down beside him, surprising him a bit. He didn't say anything, though.

"Kira… what's going on?"

"It's nothing."

It was the kind of "it's nothing" when it was "something". The kind of answer someone who was upset gave,

"Is this all my fault? I'm sorry." Rumi hugged her knees. Kira looked at her, confused.

"Of course it's not your fault."

"Kira…" Rumi started. "Please don't be angry with Chent. He's really very protective."

"It's alright." Kira smiled at her, ruffling her hair with his hand. She gave a yelp of helplessness and looked up at him with messy hair.

"You know…" Rumi smiled at him, trying to hold back tears that she couldn't understand why they were there. "Ever since I was small… or maybe even when I was still in mom's stomach, I've always hurt people around me without meaning to."

Kira stared at her. "I don't think that's true…"

"Mint…" Rumi fiddled with her fingers. "Once told me that she wished she didn't know me… b-because her family likes me more, which isn't true. We were… s-still very young then, and she said she was just kidding. She thinks I forgot about that already, but I still remember it perfectly…"

"Rumi?"

The acolyte buried her face in her knees, tears pouring out. She wanted them to stop. "Mint is always angry at me, yet she's still so nice. I don't think I can live without her… it would probably be easier for her and for everybody else if I were gone, because I'm so useless. Still… Kira…"

Kira looked at her sobbing figure and winced. He had no experience with crying women.

"Kira… I don't want to lose Mint… is it so bad that I keep forcing myself to be friends with her?"

The assassin put his hand on the top of her trembling head. "I think anyone would be lucky to be your friend."

Rumi wiped her tears on her sleeve and looked up at him. Her lower lip was trembling. "Kira, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to break down, especially since you're in a bad mood. I'm so sorry, I'm always such a burden to people."

Kira shook his head and pinched her cheeks affectionately. "Rumi, hey."

"Hm?"

"Listen up, because I'm never repeating this again." He said. Kira pulled her close and wrapped his hands around her shoulders. She gasped lightly as her face was forced to be buried in his warm chest.

"I'm listening…" She said, her voice muffled against his shirt. Rumi felt him shiver and thought it was from the cold, but he actually shivered because her breath tickled him.

"You're actually very special." He whispered to her ear. "It's so difficult to find someone like you, because people like you are so rare."

"T-there's nothing special about me."

"Sure there is. Your ability to make people smile."

Rumi blinked. What?

He hugged her tighter and chuckled. "And the reason people seem upset is 'coz they're afraid they'd lose you."

Rumi blinked again. Why would Mint shun her for a reason like that? It just didn't make sense.

Of course, she didn't know that Kira was only speaking for himself in that last statement.

"Kira…"

"Hm."

"Thank you."

To Be Continued