The next morning, Alphard left her room quite early in the goal of finding a relatively empty restaurant to eat breakfast in before she and Jason continued to explore floor 26. Upon reaching the ground floor of the inn, however, Alphard found Jason sitting at a table off in the corner of the room nursing a wooden mug. Alphard sighed, realizing that she couldn’t just slip by and go off on her own, and approached her teammate. When she got closer, Alphard realized that something was amiss with Jason. He looked tired. As if he hadn’t gotten enough sleep. But it went deeper than that. He seemed… Weary. Not just in body or mind, but weary all the way down to his soul. Alphard dragged a chair over opposite of Jason and slouched down into it. “Sup, J-man? How’s it hanging?”

Jason looked up at her with bloodshot eyes and just glared. “Many things are up. First of all, I know that I have sworn myself to you, body and soul. You are my lady. My sole reason for existence is to serve you. But never, [i]never[/i] try to do the American slang again. It brutalizes me to hear it from Americans, I can only hope that it hasn’t spread to infest this part of the world too. Also on the list of what exactly is up, did you know that you cannot get coffee in Tarbinal? Well, it just so happens that the one floor that I got it from is the ONLY KRIFFIN FLOOR THAT HAS COFFEE! I was so overjoyed at the time that I bought much more than I needed. I have just now run out of my supply. This mug of bitter tea is all that is keeping me together. Alphard,” at this, Jason gazed deep into her eyes. She felt a soft flutter in her chest at the sheer intensity of that one look; it was like he was staring straight through her into the deepest core of her being. “Alphard,” he repeated.

“Y-yes? What is it Jason?” Heart pounding, she took his extended hand tenderly in her own.

“Alphard. I need my coffee.” 

She froze. Looked down at their clasped hands, and thought of the strange surge that had gone through her when he looked at her like that. “Baka!” she growled under her breath, cursing her own stupidity. She dropped Jason’s hand and glanced calmly at his disheveled appearance. Alphard let out a sudden peal of laughter, bell-like and pure, and drew him up out of his chair. “Well then, sir knight. As your Lady, I suppose it is my job to see that you are properly outfitted. Where might we find this great and powerful coffee?”

Jason’s face broke into a brilliant smile and he embraced Alphard wildly. “Floor 20, eastern side. Unlimited quest. Kill some scary birds for a vendor and he opens up his shop to you. Thank you Alphard, thank you.” 

The two teleported out to the approximate area of the twentieth floor for the quest and began to walk the rest of the way to the vendor. As they walked, Jason told Alphard what he had heard of the previous night’s fight between Kazaro and Suto. Alphard shook her head sadly at the news. “Suto’s not a bad fighter, but he rushed headlong into a fight with a katana-user. I spent enough time training with my late husband, Kenshin, to know that katanas are unpredictable at best. I’m sorry to hear that Suto lost, but he’s not in our team anymore so we shouldn’t worry about it. It’s not like we can change anything now anyways. By the way,” Alphard glanced at Jason inquiringly, “What are we going to do now? After we get your coffee, I mean. What’s our goal?”

Jason’s normally carefree and open expression turned serious. “We’re going to do exactly what I said we were going to last night. We take on enough side quests that we are decently leveled in comparison to the monsters of each floor. And then we push. We fight alongside the clearers and help to be rid of this hellhole.” Then the goofy grin was back and Jason was quirking an eyebrow at Alphard. “That is, if the plan is ok with milady…” She chuckled and nodded her head in a courtly bow. 

Shortly, the pair had arrived at the quest location. An old man sat cowering next to wooden cart. Above, three great rocs circled. Jason ran up to the man and began to converse with him, eventually sorting out what the quest was and accepting it. Scant moments later, the rocs dove down and set upon the two warriors. Alphard sprang up and hooked her scythe in one’s wing. Twisting, she threw the beast to Jason who activated the Sword Art <Skullcrusher>. His hammer lit up blue and drove the beast to the ground. Then he stomped his right foot down into its head before performing a standing front flip and smashing his hammer into it once more. Even as he finished the beast off, Alphard was bust beheading the next roc with a sword art of her own. As always when this quest was taken, the final roc attacked the first person to land a blow on one of its brethren. In this instance, the target was Alphard. She was unprepared for the attack, though, and the roc actually managed to land a series of powerful blows. Jason roared in outrage and sprang to her defense. He spun in a tight circle and activated the <thrown weapon> skill. His hammer lit up gold from within and flew forward to crash into the final roc, killing it. Jason left his weapon where it lay and instantly rushed to Alphard’s side. He whipped out a healing potion and held it to her lips. Forcing her to drink, he watched as her health slowly built back up to full. Alphard opened her eyes and saw genuine concern in those of her comrade. Her heart did that strange little flutter again. She wrapped her arms tight around him and whispered softly into his ear. “Thanks for the assistance, but it was unnecessary for you to waste such a valuable item on me.”

Jason smiled and lifted Alphard off her feet. “That’s what I’m here for milady. I will always be here to guard you. You needn’t fear.” He set Alphard down tenderly by the vendor’s cart and completed his purchase of as much coffee as the vendor would sell him. Then, as the rocs re-materialized in the air, he picked Alphard back up and carried her all the way back to town.