"I never envied the upper classes of Elodus," Ryker agreed. "I know Hollow seems crazy from the outside, but I greatly disliked a lot of the traditionalist values that are upheld there. No offense," he said.

"We can put some traction on your shoes, that could help," Delphi suggested.

"And don't run," Rodrick added quietly.

Amelia tried her best not let her anger surface, but she still clenched her jaw before looking up at Kira. "Stop acting like you're the victim here, somehow, for one," she said, more bite to her words than intended. "And stop talking to my brother until he talks to me, if you're serious. You would think he wouldn't be able to handle not talking to me for this long, but, I know he can't handle a cold shoulder from you."

Jenna glanced down, surprised, before backing up against the wall. "The books!" she whispered, gesturing to the books she had dropped. Footsteps echoed from the hallway adjacent.

"We're not exactly in support of the established rules ourselves, if you couldn't guess." Galahad pointed out to Ryker.

"That aside, this does put us on a bit of a timeline, doesn't it?" Percival asked the others.

"Only if the princess's chastity is your primary concern." Galahad spoke rather sharply toward Percival. "I am more focused on achieving proper victory, not worrying myself with the affairs of her wedding night."

Percival sighed quietly, somewhat agreeing with his fellow knight, but knowing he had to stand up for his own morals in this moment. "What I mean is, if we allow the day of her wedding to come and go, she may become more...invested, in remaining there, at that point." He tried to explain without going into particular detail. "I am not thinking on this as a knight hoping to save a princess and earn her hand in marriage, I am looking at this as a man who knows, as well as you do, that turning against family is hard. Especially if that family starts to grow on her, past whatever emotions she holds now."

"It wasn't particularly hard for me, but I'll accept your reasoning." Galahad retorted. "She's a sheltered child, she won't have the spirit or conviction to do what we've done with any degree of ease."

"What's going on?" Camus asked as he approached the group.

"Ken attempted the stairs three times last night, by himself." Sarabella replied to Camus, disappointment clear in her voice.

"Ah." Camus nodded, not speaking further on the subject. He understood immediately what they were discussing.

"I do understand how that works, and I understand that your brother isn't like that." Kira reminded her. "But the only people who know that are the people closest to him." Kira leaned forward a bit and sighed "Just add to the list of reasons why I'm mad at him." She looked at Amelia and said "I'm guessing Will is just as mad at Eric then as the two of us?"

Veronica said "I'm fine, just had a small tumble so I'm putting some books away I knocked over. How are you, Olivia?"

Amelia's nostrils flared as anger struck her again. "I don't care that your mad or if Will's mad!" She snapped. "You're not being married off, and Will gets what he wanted in the end! What do your feelings matter when it doesn't effect you! I don't care that you're mad, Eric still talks to you!" she shouted, pointing a finger at Kira.

"Oh, just fine, looking for Jenna actually. She's been skipping her lessons again," Olivia said.

"You know best," Ryker said to the other two. "Lead the way."

"Least there's no limit to how many times you can try," Delphi offered.

"Or just...lie," Roderick suggested quietly.

Percival and Galahad nodded in agreement with Ryker, heading into the small town. Surely the locals would know if those two were here, Lancelot did stand out rather distinctly if he was wearing his armor still.

"I wouldn't wanna be the guy who gets caught lying about his stair count." Camus replied to Roderick, his elven ears picking up on quieter remarks rather easily.

"I don't think you gotta worry about that, buddy. Everyone knows your stair number by heart, at this point." Sarabella remarked to him with a cheeky smirk.

"Ah man, don't remind me, waaay too troublesome. I thought stopping after the 500 mark wouldn't be too bad, but it feels like that just made people more competitive." Camus deflated, tired of all the duels.

"Yeah, sorry" Kira said admitting it. "I don't know why your brother isn't talking to you. The only thing I know is that he has a reason...don't know if it's a good reason but a reason." She sat down and said "Hey, what did you mean by, Will got what he wanted?"

"Sounds promising," Ryker said.

"They're people not confident enough in themselves, of course they're going to suck," Delphi said.

"I'm done with this conversation, Kira, please leave," Amelia said plainly. "I was trying not to have a bad day, this made sure I would."

"Certainly sounds like the two fools." Galahad replied, heading up to the cabin in a few minutes' walk.

The cabin looked unremarkable, an outright mess if it wasn't in a tent town. It had serious damage patched over it in many places, and looked like it hadn't been cleaned properly in some time based on the amount of garbage present across the ground. Especially various containers that once held alcohol.

"Well, not a good sign." Percival quietly remarked, looking around. "Nothing suspicious about, we should be safe to approach."

"Yeah, sounds about right." Camus straightened back up. "Anyway, what're you all planning to do today? Anything fun?"

(oops)

Veronica said "Well I'm sorry, Mrs. Dare but I've been busy training with mother myself. I'm only on a small break. So I haven't seen her"

Emily stormed in as Kira said "Why is it so hard for you to tell me what's wrong?!" as Emily was about to throw her out.

"Well, alright," Olivia frowned. "If you see her, send her my way, please?"

"Why is it so hard for anyone to actually listen to me?!" Amelia demanded back, stomping her foot. "This is the same thing I got upset about before! No one listens to me! I ask you to leave, and you. don't. listen!! GET OUT!"

Ryker raised his eyebrows, taking in the scene before them for a brief moment before averting his eyes as he realized that was a barely covered woman. This was... not what he was expecting, certainly.

"Don't blame you," Roderick agreed.

"Yeah, the lecture is on familiars apparently," Delphi said. "Someone said that a few lucky people might even get familiars today. I wish I could charm my venus flytrap to be a familiar," she sighed.

"We...came here looking for you, Lance." Percival spoke, slightly taken aback by the situation. It was worse than he had expected, the two were wasting away here from the looks of it.

Galahad slammed his fist against the door frame suddenly, leaning in beside Percival. "You're in a sorry state, commander. Sober up quickly, we have work to do."

Lancelot sighed. "Let's talk inside, at least?" He asked, not wanting to cause a scene here. Putting her hands on the wall above the door and leaning down, Serifna's head peeked down to see who was at the door, her long white hair draping down to partially obscure Lancelot's line of sight. "Oh, hey chiefs, good seeing you." She spoke with a smile on her face before pulling herself up with the door frame, lifting her legs off lance's shoulder and pushing off the wall, landing on her feet behind him. It would be rather graceful, if not for her bumping into the wall after landing, stumbling, then bumping into Lance and pushing him forward slightly before he recovered and helped her stay standing.

"I wonder if my skeleton could be considered a familiar?" Camus pondered out loud.