[b]“If the spirits gave you reprieve, merchant,” [/b]Tsukiko found herself saying automatically, [b]“Then it is your duty to thank them properly for that period of grace, with offerings of food and dance, lest they retract their mercy.”[/b]

After that little quip, however, the raven-haired woman listened in properly. Though it may be a blessing for this merchant that he had been able to find able-bodied adventurers so easily, it was also a blessing for Tsukiko, and she had no intention of missing out on a single word. Shipments missing as they pass through the jungle? No doubt, thieving monsters were plundering the goods, killing noble guards while they were at it. How savage. They deserved an execution after all. Tightening her grip on Tsukimi in anticipation, she paid no mind to the merchant’s comment about sword-wielding madmen, or did she pay any mind to the fact that there was no actual promise of a reward. After all, her first mission was to kill monsters, not to make money.

Satisfied with what she got, Tsukiko nodded as well, assenting to the mission. Placing her right fist, clutching the Phantasmal Blade, into her left palm, she bowed down, and said, [b]“Yozakura Tsukiko humbly accepts your request. This servant of the Great Spirits shall see that justice is done.”[/b]

After a few moments of thought, however, she added,[b][/b] “Where is the jungle anyways?”