Their arms locked together, Vee and Luna left the adventurer's guild and headed in the general direction of the post office. Since neither of them were particularly in a hurry, they walked slowly, weaving their way through the crowds and talking of all the small things that had happened in their lives since they'd last spent time together. After all, a little bit more than a week was basically an eternity when you were affected by Infatuation like the two of them were.

At an intersection, the couple paused to let a trio of wild-driving carriages race by, and Luna pulled herself closer to Vee. The warm smells of cinnamon, vanilla, and other spices filled Vee's nostrils, and with a blossoming boldness stirring in his heart he smiled down at the [Pumpkin Witch]. She returned the gesture, and when they started walking once again Vee freed his arm and took Luna's hand instead. Her hand was cool to the touch, and Vee felt his worries falling away one by one when she squeezed her fingers around his own.

The [Poets] had never mentioned this in all their writings, Vee thought. Instead of burning passion that obscured his thoughts and blurred his vision – as was so common in the verses – spending time with Luna brought him a sense of serenity unlike anything else. Spending time with her was peaceful. More than that, it was nice.

"Maybe that's what love really is," Vee mumbled under his breath, watching the pair of little pink butterflies that had taken up residence in the corner of his vision flutter past.

"What was that?"

The [Dungeon Master] shook his head. "Nothing. Just thinking out loud."

Reginald, who undoubtedly had heard what Vee said, huffed and wiggled, but before the hat could make any snarky remarks Vee reached up and gave his brim a warning flick. Thankfully, his [Majordomo] got the message and stayed quiet.

Just as Luna had predicted, the post office was starting to show signs of being overwhelmed by the time they arrived. A bunch of mail carriers were bustling back and forth, slinging great bags of letters over their backs and shouting at one another for all sorts of issues. It was loud and chaotic, and though Vee felt somewhat overwhelmed by all the noise Luna appeared perfectly comfortable.

She pulled on Vee's hand and dragged him toward the back. "Here, come with me. There's a special container in the back for high priority letters. We'll put yours in and they'll be sure to get where they're going."

"Is…that not usually the case?" Vee asked, somewhat bemused.

Luna giggled. "No. We do our best, but there's so much clutter in here –" she gestured to the shelves, many of which were stuffed to bursting and sagging under their weight, " – that some mail invariably slips through the cracks and never gets delivered."

"I see. That's…unfortunate."

The [Pumpkin Witch] shrugged. "It's just a fact of life. My boss is working really hard on improving the system we use for internal organization so that the most common mistakes don't happen as much, but it's a work in progress. That's the special container right there next to the big blue box."

Sure enough, there was a container on the far side of the room that was marked 'Special deliveries only!' and it was so full that it was nearly overflowing.

"Are you sure it's okay if I put mine in there?" Vee asked.

Luna nodded. "It's fine. We employees use it all the time for important stuff. If you're worried about it though, you can go ahead and slip it under some of the other things in there and nobody will ever be the wiser. I promise."

Trusting her, Vee walked over and slipped all his letters into the bucket underneath a hefty package addressed to someone named Georgio Halfscale in New Sally. Feeling somewhat nervous, Vee looked back and forth after he did so, but nobody emerged from the walls or the floor to yell at him or tell him that he'd done something bad.

"You're cute when you get nervous like that," Luna teased when he returned, and Vee did his best to play it off.

From there, he followed Luna down a long hallway until they reached a black wooden door that was heavily dented and in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint.

"This is my boss's office," Luna said. "Wait out here, okay? I'll be quick. Hopefully she can give me some more shifts for my ma's sake."

Vee nodded. "Fingers crossed, eh?"

He stepped to the side while Luna went in, pressing himself against the wall so that the veritable sea of people coming and going could pass by without issue.

While he waited, he watched and thought. The workers reminded him of ants, running back and forth with seemingly no purpose to an outside observer.

"I'm shocked it's so busy," he said to Reginald. "I had no idea that there was so much mail in the city at any given time."

"This isn't even that bad," Reginald answered wistfully. "A long time ago this would have been a slow day. We didn't see them, but there are two more wings to the building and they're both bigger than this one and I can remember a time when they were all totally full."

"That's hard to imagine," Vee said.

The next few minutes passed in relative peace until an elkin with a large bag strapped across her chest who was passing by stopped and gave Vee a funny look. She walked over and stuck her finger into Vee's chest.

"Haven't seen you here before. Are you a new carrier? If so, I have to tell you that your outfit isn't in compliance with our regulations. That's going to be a ten bronze dock to your pay."

Vee shook his head. "No, I'm just waiting for my…friend. She's inside talking to her boss about picking up some extra shifts."

The elkin's eyes narrowed and a dangerous gleam appeared next to her pupils. "A likely story. And who's this 'friend'?"

Her tone made her animosity obvious, and Vee's pulse quickened. "Um…Luna Redhenny."

Snarling, the elkin shook her head. "Of course it's little miss perfect. She's always –"

However, Vee never got to learn what Luna was always doing, because just then the door opened and the [Pumpkin Witch] re-emerged. She was grinning and there was more than a bit of bounce in her step, which Vee thought was cute.

"Hey Amelia," Luna said, her smile growing even wider. "How are you?"

"Hmph, like you care," the elkin muttered. "You shouldn't be bringing your friends into the office, Redhenny. It's a matter of security."

"But Vee isn't going to steal the mail or anything," Luna said. "He's the [Dungeon Master of Crestheart, for goodness sake."

"That's not important," Amelia said. "It's the principle of the matter."

Stolen novel; please report.

And with that, the elkin turned and stomped off, muttering under her breath about "carriers who didn't respect the office itself."

"Sheesh, what's her problem?" Reginald asked.

"I'm honestly not sure," Luna answered. "For some reason she just doesn't like me and nothing I do can change it. Oh well. Some people just aren't meant to get along. Hopefully she didn't give you too much trouble."

"No, not really. She might have if we'd talked for longer, but as it was it's no big deal. How'd things go with your boss?"

Luna's grin widened. "Really good! I'm going to get an extra two shifts a week, which means if I'm fast enough I should have enough fleurs for the medicine by the end of the month."

Vee blinked. "Fast enough? How's that work?"

"Yeah. Fast enough. We get paid three silver fleurs for every bag of mail we deliver. Normally I can only deliver two bags during my shifts, but if I jog the whole way I think I can do three."

"I see. And…how much does the medicine for your mother cost?"

"Three gold fleurs."

Vee did some quick mental math and frowned. The results weren't particularly encouraging.

"That's…a lot of mail bags," the [Dungeon Master] said diplomatically. "Isn't there something else you could do instead? Like surely some of the guild jobs pay more than that, don't they?"

Luna shrugged. "Most of the ones that would require me to leave the city, and like I said earlier that's getting harder for me to do on account of my…responsibilities. This isn't perfect but it's my best option, you know?"

"Well, um, actually, I was thinking I might have another one," Vee said. An idea had been bubbling around his head for the past few minutes, and now seemed like the best time to bring it up. Luna could go through Westown and help him make an updated map with all the buildings that needed to be…taken care of in the months to come. "It's not going to be consistent or long term, but if you're interested there's some work I need help with in Westown."

Luna's eyes sparkled. "Oh? What sort of work is it?"

Vee thought for a moment, trying to think about the best way to phrase what he had in mind. Finally he found the perfect term. "Surveying and…urban renewal. Sort of."

"And the pay?"

This was where things got tricky, Vee thought. Since there was no real market to speak of for what he had in mind for Luna, there wasn't a "going rate" he could compare to and use as a starting point.

Still, it wasn't exactly like it was super complicated either. It wasn't like anyone was going to audit him or anything. So long as he didn't do anything too crazy he should be able to pay Luna as much or as little as he wished.

"How about…hmm, let's say three gold fleurs," he said with a smile.

The [Pumpkin Witch] playfully socked him in the arm. "Come on, Vee. Be serious."

"I am! What I'm asking you to do isn't exactly a walk in the park, you know. It's dangerous! Let's go get some food and I'll tell you all about it."

They ended up at a little place called Finlei's, which was the name of the pudgy green salamander who owned the place. It smelled good and the food was cheap, which Vee appreciated since he was paying for the meal.

Settling down at a somewhat dirty table in a little corner – and wiping the crumbs down onto the floor – Vee told Luna about his situation with Sacre and the work they were doing on the Westown strip.

When he mentioned that they were looking for people to come in and set up shops, Luna's eyes sparkled.

"You should talk to Calico!" she said, clapping her hands together. "She makes the prettiest things out of yarn and string that you could ever imagine. Clothes and blankets and towels and all sorts of things like that. She'd be perfect for the Westown strip. Want me to have her come by and talk to you?"

"Sure, that'd be great. Thanks, Luna."

Their food arrived and the couple spent the next few minutes eating. The food was good, if a bit spicy for Vee's tastes, but he was happy to see that Luna was coughing and reaching for her water just as often as he was.

"Alright, so what's this job you've got in mind for me," the [Pumpkin Witch] asked once they'd finished their meal. She was leaning back and had closed her eyes; she looked totally content with life just then.

Vee smiled. "Well, it kind of ties into my plans for the Westown strip. See, I want you to go out into the rest of the abandoned areas and map out all the buildings that are there. The one I have isn't terribly up to date, and you can get a better look at the space than I can. Ideally, you'll be able to tell me about the amount of fiends present in different areas and the quality of the buildings. You know, if they're crumbling to pieces or just need a bit of clearing out. Stuff like that."

"Okay, that doesn't sound too hard, but why? How does that help you in the next few weeks?"

"It doesn't. This is for my longer term plans. Basically, I'm trying to figure out which buildings can be salvaged and which ones will need to be knocked down."

Luna's eyes grew wide, but she didn't interrupt when Vee continued talking.

"Right now we're only focusing on the strip and I don't know how long it's going to take, but eventually we're going to completely rebuild Westown with the dungeon as its base. Block by block and street by street until it's a brand new place. A place free from all the old problems of Oar's Crest. No threats, no protection money, no scumbags making everyone else's life harder. It's going to be tricky, but I think it's well worth doing. What do you say?"

The [Pumpkin Witch] nodded enthusiastically.

"I think that sounds great, Vee. I'll help however I can."

Main Character Sheets (Unchanged):

Vee Vales:

Primary Class: Ghost Smith (Self), Level 10

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar's Crest), Level 25

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 8

Might: 18

Wit: 42

Faith: 25

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 16

Plotting: 22

Charisma: 18

Devious Mind: 30

Leadership: 21

Guts: 16

Intimidating Presence: 11

Citizenship: 25

Public Relations: 8

Determination: 7

Persuasiveness: 6

Bargaining: 6

Patience: 4

Competitive Spirit: 1

Pragmatism: 1

<3<3 Infatuation <3<3

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Specialist (Self), Level 6

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 20

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar's Crest), Level 18

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 13

Might: 62

Wit: 16

Faith: 27

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 36

Intimidating Presence: 16

Heart of a Champion: 15

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 10

Vigilance: 11

Vanity: 2

Single-Mindedness: 1

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

#$&Q#$)(@#$#@#$%!@#$##%#%()@#$**@@##

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 43

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 21

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 14

Additional Class: Hyperthymesiac (Self), Level 5

Might: 3

Wit: 38

Faith: 17

Ambition: 29

Greed: 24

Deceptiveness: 28

Manipulativeness: 42

$#&*!@!!: !!!

Loyalty: 48

Patience: 11

Irritability: 27

Remorsefulness: 17

Expository Prowess: 23

Pragmatism: #@$%@$

Hop@#!! @#$@!@#

@#$@%%^

#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 10

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