The faint aroma of iron and coal hung in abundance throughout Gronoville, permeating the town with the undeniable sense of backbreaking labor to all those unaccustomed to such a heavy-aired environment. Although it was prevalent, the average person wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary other than the air feeling slightly heavier, leaving the presence of the small particles in the air to elude people's conscious attention. Being especially unaccustomed to stuffy air, Metsu relentlessly gagged, almost breaking into a hacking fit. As the town's air hit the bottom of her lungs, Metsu collapsed to her knees in the middle of the entry passage. Detecting his master's sudden shock, Nero attempted to emerge from Metsu's shadow but stopped as Metsu raised a hand to block the shadow's emergence.

  "I'm alright, Nero," Metsu whispered while patting the buzzing shadow copy's head. Peering around to confirm no threats, Nero slowly receded back into the depths of Metsu's faint shadow with his buzzing fading away as his presence faded.

  "We've barely entered and one of us is already coughing, imagine if Reyu was here right now," Nowa remarked amusedly. With a choked-up chuckle, Nowa recalled the time Kaiyōhara collapsed in a perfume aisle of a supermarket, figuratively dying from the overstimulation of smells. And, his sudden collapse left the shopping Nowa he was accompanying at a loss for words.

  "What are you lot on about? The air's not-," Nagami stated before being cut off when Zalroth placed a finger over her mouth to shush her.

  Nagami wasn't sure how to feel about the sudden physical contact, glaring up at the guy with neither anger nor annoyance, but decided to hold off on reacting until Zalroth made his intentions known.

  "Even without your part-time work at your parents' smithy, your bedroom would give an asthmatic an instant heart attack. So, you're in no position to comment on air quality," Zalroth remarked semi-jokingly, his voice completely unaffected by the air, while he smushed Nagami's lips from side to side. Removing his finger from her face, Nagami pouted at Zalroth, puffing up her cheeks at the accusation that her room was still in such a state from all those years ago.

  "That isn't how asthma works... I don't think," Nagami retorted, her cheeks blushing faintly from holding back a subconscious grin at getting prime fuel to tease Chronia with later.

  "I don't know what's more surprising... Zalroth having been in Nagami's room before or that he survived it," Metsu muttered between mild gasps for air.

  "I know there's no traffic, but can we hurry things up?" Kaze asked impatiently, agitated at having to be the one to carry Kaira on his back. Had it been anyone else, Kaze wouldn't mind carrying them. However, the slumbering Kaira's constant refusal to remain still drove Kaze up the wall, making what should be a simple task exponentially more challenging.

  "You heard him, Zalroth. He doesn't want you wasting time pushing my mouth," Nagami jested while skipping past the guy and into Gronoville with Metsu. Zalroth was left utterly baffled by Nagami's twisting of Kaze's words. Hitting his brain like a critical hit, he was stunned so severely that he elected not to respond and silently follow after Nagami and Metsu. Seeing the effect Nagami's jestful remark had on the guy, Nowa was even more lost than she was when Zalroth shushed Nagami, but was mildly content knowing there were people other than Chronia that could keep Zalroth on his toes.

  In the town, to none of the taller members of the group's surprise, hardly any of the stores were open, leaving Metsu worried she'd wasted the others' time that could've been used setting up a camp. She turned a worried gaze to Zalroth before being distracted by the intensity within Zalroth's eyes.

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  [Activated Skill: Detect(Creatures)(Level: 4)]

  "Is something wrong, Zalroth?" Metsu asked sheepishly, her question catching the other's attention and bringing the whole group to a stop in the middle of the tiled road. Peering at his map, Zalroth crossed his arms as he thought over how to tell the others what he noticed.

  "I'm detecting quite a few common golems in the thirty to fifty level range below us," Zalroth explained calmly. Hearing him, Nagami placed her hands on her sides and tilted her head with confusion.

  "Is that all? It doesn't sound like much of a problem," Nagami questioned perplexedly, pointing out that the golems would likely damage themselves if they took a swing at Zalroth.

  "Their levels aren't my concern, it's the amount of them that is," Zalroth stated, elaborating on his point by pointing out there were over sixty-three of them all throughout the upper most level of the mines, directly below them.

  "Well, given that no one in the town is panicking, maybe that's a normal occurrence?" Nowa suggested. Zalroth nodded, finding the reasoning sound but still feeling something off, even with the townspeople's lack of response and the golems' avoidance of the mine's exit.

  "Indeed, but...," Zalroth murmured aloud, causing Nagami to side-eye him with a smirk on her face.

  "What's with you and wanting to talk with all that suspense?" Nagami teased as she nudged Zalroth in the side.

  "Unlike some of us, I'd prefer to think about what I want to say before speaking," Zalroth retorted swiftly. Nagami giggled playfully while finding great glee at Zalroth's verbal jab at her. Zalroth could only sigh in defeat that his jab had the opposite intended effect on Nagami. He added, "As I was saying, I agree that it could just be normal for that many to be there; but, I find that hard to believe when every other level my monster detection skill can see shows there only being five golems on them."

  "Fair," Nowa and Nagami remarked in unison, speaking with hushed voices and delight. Knowing they were trying to annoy him further, Zalroth elected to ignore them and turn his sights to Metsu, noticing she'd been staring at him for a prolonged time.

  "Yeah?"

  Metsu flinched, her shadow faintly buzzing, but regained her composure just as quickly as she lost it. With a shaky voice from the heavy air, Metsu mumbled out, "Umm... I noticed some people in that blacksmithy over there."

  She pointed to the blacksmith a few buildings down the street, where a faint warming light could be seen escaping through its open doorway and glass panel windows. In contrast to the other building, the smithy appeared to be made out of cobblestone bricks, leaving it to stand out among the other marble buildings.

  "What's the word, leader?" Nowa asked teasingly, oblivious to the grave mistake she had made by calling him by that word once again.

  "Kaze, hand her kaigorou," Zalroth ordered bluntly.

  Kaze didn't even wait for Nowa to register her punishment before he yanked the limp Kaira off his back and slapped him on Nowa's back unceremoniously, causing the girl to eep. The sleeping Kaira re-adjusted himself to his new carrier's back, making himself comfortable as he murmured about a lavender smell.

  "At least someone appreciates my perfume preferences," Nowa muttered, trying to find some solace in having Kaira on her back.

  As the group made their way to the smithy that was still open so late at night, the faint smoldering embers of a hardworked furnace finished for the day caught Nagami's ear. The sound brought a small smile to her face, catching herself getting a little nostalgic as it reminded her of how she felt coming home from school.