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[indent][indent][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=#98A9B1][b]Location:[/b][/color]The Laughing Warg Tavern - The City of Thorinn, Aetheria[/right][/sub][/color]
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He let Kazuki lead. It felt good, actually, having the heavy weight of leadership off his shoulders. It felt good to depend on someone else and lean on them. As they entered the tavern, there was a sense of tense calm. People had been drinking, been breaking down and talking. No one paid them much mind as they entered. Kazuki noticed Alex, and walked over to greet the man, while Benkei noticed Sif wave. 

[i]Sif.[/i] She’d been a good player when he’d run dungeons with her. Siegfried, the lazy older brother had been the problem. Hotheaded, loud and fussy, but also not as gifted at the game as his sister. She was someone that Benkei could depend on in a dungeon. 

He walked over to her. 

[color=#98A9B1]“Hey,”[/color] he said in a low voice. It carried a hoarseness with it. He didn’t notice it until now; and it made him sound older, sicker even. It shocked and scared him a little, as it reminded him of his own mortality. His pallid complexion did not help his image. [color=#98A9B1]“How are you holding up?”[/color]

The irony was lost on him, of course, as he’d been the one who collapsed. He’d been the one to show weakness. But here he was attempting to appear strong to someone who saw him at his weakest moment. If Kazuma could float away from his own body and watch himself as someone watching a television show, perhaps he would have laughed with gusto at the scene. 

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