Year 304 of the Saint Fabilaus Calendar, July 14th, morning.
Zenos had returned to the clinic after taking an allegedly amnesiac woman on a walk around the ruined city. “Still nothing?” he asked.
“I’m sorry,” replied the woman in question, Liz.
“Nah, I should be the one apologizing for pushing you.”
“No, thank you for trying. No point rushing things now, though, so I’ll take it one day at a time.”
“That random attack was scary,” Lily, an elf, said with a shudder. There had been an incident in the slums; a lizardman had been stabbed by an unknown assailant.
“I mean, yeah, it would be scary,” Zenos mused. “Things had been pretty uneventful up until recently...” He cast a glance at Liz.
She smiled beautifully at him, an innocent expression on her face. “What’s the matter, Zenos?”
“Oh, nothing. Don’t mind me,” he replied, shaking his head.
“Well, in that case, enough of the doom and gloom! Maybe I should do some cleaning.”
“What?” Lily said. “But that’s my job.”
“It’s okay,” replied Zenos’s childhood friend with a smile. “You’re all being really good to me. It’s only fair I reciprocate. Why don’t you sit down, Lily?” Liz pushed the elf by the shoulders onto a chair, semiforcibly making the girl sit down. Then she rolled up her sleeves, wrung out a cleaning rag, and began to deftly tidy up the place.
In just under an hour, the room was so clean it was almost unrecognizable.
“I think that about does it,” Liz said.
“Whoa, that’s impressive,” Zenos remarked in admiration.
“Wow...” Lily added, similarly awed.
Duster in hand, Liz moved toward the stairs. “I’ll do the second floor now.”
Zenos stopped her immediately. “Oh, no, leave the second floor as is.”
Tilting her head, Liz looked up the stairs. Her expression turned somewhat uneasy, and she muttered, “Right... I don’t know why, but I feel like it’d be a bad idea to go up there.”
Maybe a traumatic memory flashed into her mind, Zenos mused.
In the end, she didn’t clean the second floor. Zenos and Lily went out to stock up on food and medicine, leaving the freeloading woman behind. Though it might’ve sounded surprising that Liz hadn’t come with, she’d had a reason. She opened a cupboard and looked through Lily’s sewing tools—what she was doing wasn’t clear until later.
“Sir Zenos! I brought you some fish!” said the werewolf Lynga as she walked into the clinic with a basket full of fish.
“Oh, hello,” Liz said. “Zenos isn’t home right now.”
Lynga scoffed, somewhat surprised. “You’re the unconscious woman from yesterday. Awake now, I see.”
“Ah, you must be Lynga. I’m told you were the one who brought me here. I’m incredibly grateful. Thank you so much.”
“Hmph. And why are you still here? If you’re all better, then off with you. Chop-chop.”
“See, the shock made me lose my memories, and so Zenos has allowed me to stay with him until I recover.”
“What? Zenos invited you to live with him?” Lynga asked, her eyes wide as dinner plates.
“That’s right. We’ve known each other since we were little, and he seems worried about me.”
“What...?” Lynga muttered, biting her lip and clenching her fist. “Ugh... I knew I shouldn’t have helped.”
Liz chuckled softly. “I’m grateful that you did.”
Sparks flew between the pair, and not the good kind.
“Oh?” Liz approached the basket of fish Lynga had brought as though she’d noticed something odd. “Lynga, what is this?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Look, this fish here.” Liz picked up a fish and pulled something out. “There’s a needle in the gill.” Indeed, she had a fine needle pinched between her fingers. Her tone grew a little more emphatic. “So, care to explain?”
Lynga’s eyes widened. “I-I have no idea what that is. The fish is freshly caught, from this morning...”
“That’s not what I mean,” Liz insisted. “Someone could’ve gotten hurt. Then what?”
“N-No, I didn’t mean to—”
“Actually, there was a needle in a fish we got before,” Liz interjected, upping the pressure. “Lily almost got hurt, and Zenos was quite cross.”
“What? Th-That’s...” Lynga took a step back as if retreating. “Y-You’ve got this all wrong! I didn’t do that! I wouldn’t!”
