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“You’re younger than me and able to use magic like that?!” Reno let out before coughing and correcting herself, “…Anyway, just because you’re a kid doesn’t mean I won’t hold back on you! You’re younger than me, so do the same!”

“What?! You’re still going on about that?! One year! You’re one year older than me!” He contested.

Before he could get any further words out, Reno sprung towards him again with the nimbleness of a cat, springing forward and attempting to swipe at him with the sharp silver held in her hand.

“Gh!”

He managed to lean back to avoid it, feeling the reflexes carved into him through his time with the red-haired swordswoman kicking in as he watched the dagger miss just above his gaze.

When it came to close-quarters combat like this, there was no question that it’d be safer to rely on swordplay himself, but against a girl like this–he certainly wasn’t up to the task.

Instead, he retaliated by manifesting a pillar of stone that rose up beneath the girl’s feet, hoisting her high into the air to create space between them.

“Wah!” Reno let out, balancing herself as she waved her arms around.

It was tall enough to create a few meters of distance, giving him an opening as he ran across the alley, hauling straight towards the bag of money that was stolen.

Reno noticed this after regaining her balance on the narrow pillar, glancing down as she watched the boy with blonde-and-black hair running past the column of rock.

“Hey, wait–!” Reno yelled out.

Is he trying to get his stash back without a fight?! Reno thought._.

–That was exactly his plan as he rushed towards the sack of coins that was left on top of the dingy, water-damaged crate near the back of the alleyway.

Using a burst of wind at his heels, he propelled himself forward while extending his hand, straining himself as his fingertips grew near the bag of money.

Come on…! He thought.

But, the girl wasn’t playing it easy, either, as she ran down the magically-manifested pillar of stone, using it as a foothold to leap towards him.

“No, you don’t!” Reno said.

The girl landed right on his back, causing him to fall just short of retrieving his stolen coins. Though she was surprisingly light–there was no pain on his back, but he did fall pretty harshly against the paved stone.

“Gah!” He let out as his chin landed against the ground below.

As Ren used him as a bridge to jump towards the bag of coins, he reached up, using his staff to trip the girl as she fell over in front of him.

“Wah!” Ren let out.

It was anything but elegant, their battle.

As the blonde-haired thief collapsed in front of him, he used a gust of wind to knock himself up to his feet, rushing towards the coins.

“…No!” Reno yelled out.

Just as the girl scrambled to her feet, he grabbed hold of the sack of coins with one hand, using his other to aim his staff towards the girl–invoking the same spell he used to ensnare the thug from earlier: “Water Bind.”

“–“

It was just mere inches from his throat–the dagger held in the girl’s fingers.

The blade was only stopped because of the limbs of water that restrained the girl; her fingers quivered as the steel was only a moment away from having sliced his neck.

What went through his mind was a mixture of relief, fear, and confusion: somehow, he believed the girl wasn’t actually trying to kill him, but his eyes told him differently.

“Ghh…” Reno winced as the bands of water had restrained her limbs.

As he stood himself up carefully, he picked up the bag of coins and looked at the girl, who was just a few hairs shorter than himself, “…You were really going to kill me? Over coins?”

A look of guilt and frustration was present on Reno’s expression as her sapphire eyes were contorted with a spectrum of conflicted emotions, “–“

“..If you’re asking me that, then…I need them a whole lot more than you do!” Reno screamed.

He looked at the girl for a moment as he straightened himself off, brushing the dust off of his black vest and his green cape as the water bindings still held the girl in place.

“Just because you might need something more doesn’t mean you have the right to take it from others,” he told her.

“Shut up…” Reno said bitterly, averting her gaze as she mumbled, “…You’ve probably lived an easy life–you wouldn’t understand the struggle at all…”

“–“

Those words caught him as something inside of him was rubbed the wrong way by those words, but he stopped himself from lashing out.

She’s just a kid, don’t get heated…Well, I’m a kid too, aren’t I? Sorta? Anyway…I do feel kind of bad, still, he thought.

He chose to ignore her words, instead asking something else, “What do you need this money for, anyway?”

“–” Reno seemed hesitant to talk, though it looked more like pouting to him.

“You seemed pretty desperate to get your hands on this,” he said.

Holding it out in front of the girl like a carrot on the stick, he crouched in front of her while bounding the jingling bag of coins before her, though she wasn’t able to do anything about it with the water ropes restraining her on the ground.

“…What’s it matter to you? You won. Leave me alone,” Reno huffed.

“I won so I deserve an answer for my troubles,” he responded.

“–” Reno gritted her teeth in frustration before sighing, looking up to realize the amethyst-eyed boy wasn’t backing down, “…You’re annoying, you know that?”

“I have a knack for that,” he smirked.

The look he got from the sapphire-eyed girl was one that said “I’ll talk, but you’ll have to get these restraints off first”–to which he was hesitant as he raised one of his dirty-blond eyebrows to her.

“I’m not going to do anything–promise. I swear on Aerium The Great,” Reno told him.

It was something he hadn’t heard personally before, but he was familiar with the promise as he had read about it in books.

‘Aerium The Great’ is some sort of deity-like figure in this world. I think he’s the ancestor of a large chunk of humans and demi-humans–it’s a bit weird. It’s a religion based on heritage. I guess it’s the same as swearing on God, he thought.

He looked at the girl for a moment, inspecting the look in her eyes to make sure there was no ill-intent present before letting out a sigh and tapping his staff against the ground. The small gesture caused the bands of mystical water to disperse, releasing the girl from its bindings.

“…Jeez. Who knew water could be so rough?” Reno mumbled, gathering herself.

As the girl stood up, he made sure to keep the bag of money out of reach, which she noticed as she furrowed her eyebrows and averted her gaze.

“…I told you, I’m not going to do anything!”

“Well, you kind of have a history of robbing me, and…trying to cut my throat,” he said wryly with a sigh.

“The past is the past, okay! Move on from that already,” Reno waved her hand.

…That was a couple of minutes ago, he thought.

Before he could get an explanation from the girl, the call of a stomach was heard–and it wasn’t his.

A pink tint came to Reno’s slightly tan cheeks as she froze for a moment before covering her stomach, “You didn’t hear–”

“Want to grab a bite?” He offered with a smile.

The girl seemed surprised by this invitation from the boy that she just tried to steal from for the second time, but she stared at him for a moment as if gauging whether or not he was pulling her leg before nodding.

“…Sure,” she said quietly in almost a whisper.

“What was that?”

“I said alright!” Reno piped up.

In all honesty, even he was surprised that he was doing something like this. Helping out the person who not only tried to rob him for essentially all he had–twice, and nearly cut his throat, was certainly as close to “sainthood” as he could get, in his mind, that is.

There wasn’t much of a good reason as to why he decided to take things easy and try to make friends with the scarf-wearing girl, but he just felt it was the right thing to do.

…I guess I just sorta get it. She seems desperate–there has to be a good reason why she did what she did. I just want to know why. Plus, if she was a dude, I would’ve totally knocked her out! He thought.

–Of course, the young boy was definitely nowhere near such “sainthood”, in reality.