The leaders had already gone to the infirmary, but the old man told us to follow them and give them gauze or medicine to heal them. So we had to obey.
"Hey, kids, we don't need you anymore, go away," Ophelia told us, her whole body already covered in gauze.
Now that both of them had their wounds covered and we had put cream on the deepest cuts, we didn't need to stay much longer. So we left the place with a smile.
"Won't they fight again if they're alone?" asked Anna.
"Maybe not, if they do they'll destroy the whole infirmary," replied Ghislaine.
We really thought nothing would happen. We were already walking away from the infirmary when we started to hear loud banging coming from it. And since none of us wanted to go and see, we ignored it and went to the Elder.
"Oh, you're back. The three wizards, come and help the others with the reconstruction," he said, looking at Oswin, Della, and Thomas.
"What do you need us for?" Della asked.
"Well, wizards can create stones and earth, can't they? You can repair the floor that broke then," he said, smiling as he stroked his long white beard.
The old man didn't say anything about having to help, so we weren't going to. Before he could change his mind, we had already walked away a little when a stone hit the ground in front of us. When we turned around, we saw Oswin and the other two looking at us angrily, pointing small pointed stones at us that were floating near them.
"You will help too," they told us.
We looked at each other, thinking the same thing, before nodding at the same time, turning around, and shouting,
"No!" before starting to run away from them.
Immediately, the stones hit the ground near our feet. I did my best to dodge them, but some almost hit me, and I ended up with a few cuts.
<<>>
The guild leader stayed for a few days, talking to us and offering us to join her guild. She promised us we would become great adventurers and find various treasures. We were about to accept before the cult leader picked us up and took us with her, most of the time kicking Hyeol.
We had asked the older kids, the other kids, and even the elders, but no one told us why they didn't get along.
The leader had let us rest for the first time, and we were bored, so we went outside the sect. We were wondering why the leaders didn't get along when Anna called us.
"Hey, look at this," she said, showing us a piece of paper hanging on a wall.
We turned around as soon as we heard her and went over to look at the poster, surprised by what it said:
["Preparations for the Street Martial Arts competition are announced. If you want to participate, go to the northern neighborhoods of the city."]
"A competition?" I asked in surprise.
"Yes, they even give a prize!" said Anna, pointing to the bottom of the poster.
["Prize of 50 silver coins"]
"Wooooowww!" they said at the same time.
"... Is that a lot...?" I asked.
I knew absolutely nothing about money. I remember doing chores in my village and being given food or candy in return, and if I did several chores, I could ask for toys.
"That's too much! The problem is the entrance fee. None of us have any money," said Anna.
Hearing about the admission price, we quickly looked at the sign, which said in large letters ["Admission 80 copper coins or something of equal value"]. Since we all wanted to go in, we needed too much money.
"Now that I think about it, we never use money..." I remembered, trying my best.
While we were in the forest, we had never been interested in money. We used to eat things we hunted or vegetables we found, even the map we still have is stolen...
"What if we ask an adult for money?" I asked.
"Who? No one will give us money or permission to sign up for these things," said Ghislaine.
That was true. When we joined the cult, they told us not to do things that would "dishonor the place." There was even a time when Goon-woo participated in a food competition without anyone knowing, and he ended up hanging upside down from a tree as punishment.
"I know! Let's ask Mrs. Hyeol," Anna jumped at the idea.
None of us thought it was a bad idea. Mrs. Hyeol was always doing things to annoy Ophelia. We could take advantage of that and, if we got caught, blame Hyeol.
With our plan in mind, we ran back to the cult, to the building where Mrs. Hyeol was resting.
<<>>
"Hmm? What are you doing here?" she asked when she saw us come in.
"Mrs. Hyeol, can you help us get in?" Anna asked, holding the announcement in her hand.
When she saw it, Mrs. Hyeol took it from her hand, smiling at us as she finished reading it.
"This will annoy Ophelia... I like it," she said, smiling as she walked to the door, motioning for us to follow her. "Come on, I'll sign you up. But first, stop calling me 'Mrs. Hyeol,' I'm not that old."
"How old are you?" I asked, trying to think of another way to address her.
"I'm 32," she replied with a smile.
"...Then can we call you Miss Hyeol?" we asked, doing our best to secure our tickets.
"Yes, I like that better," she replied, walking ahead of us.
<<>>
It didn't take us long to register, so Miss Hyeol had taken us for a walk around the city. We were exploring the whole place, following her like baby ducks.
"Miss Hyeol, why are you fighting Ophelia?" I asked, unable to resist the urge to ask.
I thought the others would stop me, but they just moved closer so they could hear.
"It's because of something that happened a long time ago, when we were teenagers," she said, looking up at the sky thoughtfully. "We had both fallen in love with the same boy, so we fought for his attention. We did everything we could to win him over, we even tried to get our families to help us," she told us, laughing.
"And who won?" I asked.
"Neither of us. We found out he was just using us to get things from our families. So we beat him up and left him hanging from a tall building where we lived," she said, smiling.
Her smile wasn't a good one. We even started to feel bloodlust coming from her, so we nervously walked away. The people around us did the same, opening a path through the crowd.
"After that, we started to get along badly, and everything got worse when we both competed to attract talent to our organizations," she said, looking at us over her shoulder.
"How did you do that?" Adhel asked.
Answering his question, Hyeol took out a bag of money and waved it in front of us. It was the same one she had used to pay for our participation in the tournament.
"You see, if you join a guild, it's much easier to get rich. Of course, that's if you don't die first," he said, putting the bag of money away.
We had been thinking about joining a guild, but after hearing Hyeol, we decided not to. We wanted to live a long life, and being in a guild seemed like the opposite of that.