Maxine continued to step towards the counter at the inn and she expected things to go poorly. So far no one had confronted them and to her, this was a good sign. However, this could change in an instant and she quickly glanced back to look at Charles and the others. They too looked a little worried and she knew that she would have to defend them if need be. She just hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

"Excuse me," said Maxine when she had reached the counter. The innkeeper standing behind it was having to look practically all the way up so that he could see her face. "My companions and I require a couple of rooms for the night. Do you have any available for us to stay in?"

"D-Do you have the coin to pay for it?" replied the Innkeeper. His response was definitely a lot more positive than the last one that they had visited but there was still a chance that things could take a turn for the worst.

"Of course." It was Asla who stepped forward and placed some coins onto the counter. What she placed down was more than enough to rent out a couple of rooms for the night. "Is this sufficient?"

"Indeed, it is, allow me to show you to your rooms."

For the group, this had gone far better than any of them could have hoped. None of them thought that things would go this smoothly. Although there was always a chance that things could take a turn for the worst.

As they had been asked, the group did begin to follow the Innkeeper as he took them upstairs. There they were taken to a couple of rooms that were unoccupied. One could house two people while the other could house three. This was ideal for their arrangements and the Innkeeper stood near the group as they examined their rooms. They were a little small but they were certainly better than sleeping out in the elements.

"Are these rooms to your liking?" asked the Innkeeper. He was somewhat nervous but he seemed to hide it well. Over his time as an innkeeper, he had seen many people come and go. Some of them, he thought most likely had prices on their heads. But as long as they paid, he didn't mind who stayed in these rooms.

"They are thank you," replied Maxine. She was disappointed with the low ceiling but it wasn't anything that she hadn't been expecting.

"That's good, but there is a request that I'm going to ask you. I don't want any trouble downstairs so can your companions there stay up here?" He then pointed to Charles. "You and he are fine but those three, it's best for them to not be seen. Do we have an agreement on the matter?"

Maxine could feel some rage within her as this was similar to the previous tavern that they had tried to stay at. But she tried her best to not allow her anger to get the better of her and she glanced over to Asla who stood close by. The short woman gave her a nod and she knew what this meant.

"Yes, we have an agreement," answered Maxine although she wasn't pleased with the situation.

"Good," replied the Innkeeper. "One of you pair may come down to buy some food or drinks, but it's best for you to eat it up here. I have nothing against you or your friends personally. But I just don't want any trouble taking place downstairs."

"We understand, thank you for allowing us to stay."

With that the Innkeeper went back downstairs as they went to their rooms. There was a brief discussion about who should stay in which rooms. There was some talk of them be split up by gender but in the end, it was decided that they should stay within their initial groups. This was something that Maxine didn't mind. As far as she was concerned, it was just as long as Charles wasn't sleeping in the same room as Asla.

She didn't want him to be spending too much alone time with Asla. In her mind, she said to herself that it was because she didn't fully trust the foreign woman. Although at this moment in time, Asla had done nothing to make Maxine feel like she shouldn't trust her. Instead, there was something else that was causing it. Something that she didn't fully want to admit to herself.

Once the arrangements had been made, both sets of travellers went to their respected rooms and sat down on the beds. After sleeping on the ground and out in the elements for the last few days, being in a warm bed was something that they all looked forward to. It was still too early in the day to go to sleep as it wasn't quite evening just yet. Instead, they merely became comfortable in their rooms and they could afford to relax for a while.

Maxine in particular was able to take off her armour and she felt like a great weight had been taken off her body. She knew the importance of her armour and she did wear it practically every waking hour. But she felt like she could be a little more laidback now and she made sure that her armour was in the corner of the room, right where she could see it clearly.

One thing that she was sure to do was to keep her sword within reach. The situation might be calming, but there was always the chance that danger would rear its ugly head within a moment's notice. Because of that, she wanted to be sure that she was prepared to defend both herself and Charles. Being inside of a room like this didn't mean that she could drop her guard.

When Maxine glanced over to Charles, she could see that he was writing something down in his book. It was beginning to look a little more tattered than when she had originally seen it. This was an obvious thanks to their journey so far together, but then again, she didn't think it was brand new when they started.

"What are you writing down?" asked Maxine as she looked over to Charles. He was sitting on his own bed while she sat on hers. She felt like stepping over to him, but with the low ceiling, she felt that it was best to stay where she was for the moment.

"Just a couple of financial stuff," replied Charles. "I'm still making sure that we don't overspend." He looked towards her while he was sitting there. "Probably nothing that you'll be too interested in unfortunately."

"I see." She gave a small sigh. "It still amazes me that you're able to read and write. Normally it's those stuck up high borns or officials who can do that. It's nice to be able to find someone who can do that and doesn't have their heads shoved up their ass."

"Well, such a skill is extremely valuable in this world. As you've seen, it definitely has its uses." An idea appeared in his head as he began to write something down on a blank page that he was able to find. Once he was done, he looked over to Maxine again. "Maxine, do you mind if I sit next to you for a moment?"

"Y-Yeah sure." This caught Maxine by surprise but she didn't mind him coming to sit next to her. She watched as he got up from where he was sitting and then sat down right next to her. She was surprised once more when she noticed how close he was sitting next to her but she didn't mind this. Instead, she watched as he opened up the book and then placed in on her lap. She looked down at it with confusion as she had no idea why he would be doing such a thing. "What are you doing?"

"I'm thinking of helping you with your reading skills." He pointed down to the page and when Maxine looked at it, she could see several letters but she didn't really know what they meant. "You might have been through this before, but I think it's best to begin with the basics. This is the alphabet; every single word is made up of these letters. Put them together in order to make up words and phrases." On the page was every letter in the alphabet and he made sure that they were large letters so that it was easier for Maxine to see and understand. He pointed towards the letter A and used the shortened punctuation for it. She looked at him for a moment before she repeated the letter after him.

With that they began to go over each letter of the alphabet and there were a couple of things that confused her. Like how the shortened punctuations of C and K sounded identical to one another. Even so, she did try her best as they went through the alphabet numerous times. But from what Charles could see, she was simply repeating what he said and he wasn't sure if she was truly learning.

It was around the tenth go through when he decided that he wouldn't say the letters. Instead, he would simply point at a letter and wanted her to read it back to him. As expected, this was much more difficult for her. For the first few letters, she didn't do too badly but when it came to some of the others, she really struggled.

"Come on Maxine, I know that you can do it," said Charles as he gave her words of encouragement.

"W-Was it T?" replied Maxine as she was trying to remember what the letter sounded like when they went through it. She couldn't help but feel a little stupid during this time but she knew that Charles was trying to help her. The fact that it was only them in the room did make her feel a little better about the situation.

"No, that one is S but you were close. You're not doing bad considering that this is your first lesson."

"Thanks." She looked at him and began to smile a little. He was being patient with her and she did appreciate what he was trying to do for her. The ability to read was likely going to be a skill that was more valuable than any kind of fighting technique or even a title. Being able read would open more doors to her than she could likely think of. "I'm just finding it a little difficult."

"Well, I didn't expect you be able to fully read and write after just a few minutes. It is going to take time, but don't worry. I'll be here to help you with it every step of the way."

"Charles." She wasn't sure what she was about to say. More than anything she appreciated what he was doing for her and the fact that he still remained by her side. She was sure that once his life debt had been paid to her that he would go on his way and they would never see each other again. Instead, he had remained with her and she was sure that he had saved her more times that she had saved him. In all of her years, she never thought that she would meet a man who was actually willing to spend time with her who wasn't a member of her family. She wasn't sure what she was going to do but she felt her arm lower towards him.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and this quickly got the attention of Maxine and Charles. He went to get up to answer it, but she placed her hand on his shoulder and she got up instead. A part of her was expecting trouble so she thought that it was best for her to check it out.

Quickly, the towering woman opened the door and she thought that she was going to see someone who wanted to cause trouble. Instead, she could see that it was Jinshu but she couldn't remember his name. She did recognise him immediately and quickly relaxed but she couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. She had been enjoying the lesson that she was having with Charles and he had interrupted it.

"My apologises for disturbing you," said Jinshu. Although he had been travelling with Maxine, he was still quite intimidated by her. Seeing her without her armour was certainly different but he could see how muscular she was and the fact that she was too tall to stand up straight in this room.

"What do you want?" replied Maxine in a tone that showed him that she didn't really want to be bothered.

"M-My companions and I are hungry and we do not wish to use the supplies that we've obtained. Do one of you mind going downstairs and buying some warm food. Asla has ensured that you'll be properly compensated."

"Fine whatever, we'll pick something up for you." He still sounded like she didn't have much patience and she didn't even ask him what they wanted.

"Thank you, anything will do. We are not fussy."

"Yeah, yeah. We'll go down in a minute."

With that Maxine closed the door on him and began to step back towards the bed. She was still stooping down so that her head didn't strike the ceiling. Charles watched as she did this and sat back down where she had been before. There was a groan from the bed as it seemed to be struggling to support her weight.

"Ok, shall we continue?" asked Maxine as she was eager to return to the lesson that she was being given, even though she was struggling with it.

"Actually, now that Jinshu said, I'm actually pretty hungry as well." This was not the answer that Maxine wanted to hear but she had to admit to herself that she too could do with some food in her belly. "Why don't we have something to eat and then we can get back to this? What do you say?"

"S-Sure." She was still disappointed but she knew that she couldn't force him to continue on with the lesson. If he wanted to stop for now, then she could only accept it and wait for him to be ready again.

It was also Charles who went downstairs to the main area of the inn so that he could order the food. He had to wait for several minutes until it was ready and it did take him a couple of trips for him to take them all upstairs. Asla and the others were very thankful to him for retrieving the food for them. They would have much preferred to have gone themselves but they had been told to stay where they were.

To the Innkeeper, he didn't really care too much about where a person came from. As long as they could pay for what they needed from him, then he would accept them. This was somewhat positive but money was the main factor in this but they were just glad that they could stay in the inn.

Eventually Charles did return to the room with a chicken dinner in his hands. He was also able to carry in a very large pie that Maxine instantly knew was for her. Although she was very excited to eat it, she was able to contain herself and when she was given the pie along with a knife and fork. She simply thanked Charles for it and then began to dig in as quickly as she could.

Maxine didn't really care what kind of pie it was, as long as it didn't have onions in it, she would eat it. There were other ingredients that she would likely not eat either, but onions were the main one. As she dug in, she could find chunks of meat and when she ate them, she couldn't help but smile.

For as long as she remembered, she had always enjoyed eating pies. Her first recollection of eating a pie was when she had gone to a tavern with her father. She had gone with him as he ran an errand and they had gone to a tavern on the way back. She had been quite hungry so he had bought her a pie.

When she had first seen it, she didn't really know what to make of it as she had never seen anything like it before. Sir Tucker cut a piece of it for her and when she tried it, she was completely taken aback by it. A feeling of bliss had completely overtaken her and she still felt the same whenever she ate a pie.

Now she was eating it with Charles by her side who sat on the other bed as he thought that she would want a bit of space while she ate. He just concentrated on eating his own food as he wanted to finish it before it went cold. The fact that they didn't have to pay for this was something that was nice as far as he was concerned. Although a small part of him did feel a guilty about it.

The next time he looked over to Charles, he could see that she had completely devoured her pie. For a pie of that size, it would normally have been impossible for a person to eat it so quickly. The fact that Maxine was no ordinary woman was the reason why she had been able to eat it at such a speed. There was barely a crumb left when she was done and she gave a small sigh once she was done.

"That was lovely," said Maxine. She patted on her stomach once she had finished and gave a small smile. "But I think that pie could have been bigger."

"Have you ever eaten a pie that you thought was big enough?" replied Charles as he was genuinely curious about this question.

"I think you already know the answer to that."

Charles did think that it was a somewhat stupid question that he had just asked. He didn't feel foolish about it and just carried on with his own food. It was several minutes later until he had finally finished his own. It was a nice feeling to have food in his belly but he did feel like he had overeaten a bit. Because of this, he began to feel bloated and a little sick but he didn't feel like he was going to throw up.

For the moment, he didn't want to get up and do anything as he wanted his food to go down a little before he would do anything. Instead, he looked over to Maxine who was taking a small drink of water. She would have much preferred it to have been drinking ale but she didn't mind this right now.

It didn't take much for her to remember what happened the last time that she had been drinking ale. She had been very disappointed about being knocked out of the tournament at such an early stage. Charles had tried to talk sense to her and in response she had grabbed hold of him and almost caused him serious harm.

This was a moment that Maxine still felt very guilty of. This man was her friend and she had almost hurt him simply because she was angry. Although it seemed that Charles had forgiven her over this, she had yet to forgive herself. It would take time and she knew that she still had plenty to learn.

"T-That was nice," said Charles as he did get up to his feet. He still felt bloated but he wanted to pick up the plates so he could take the plates back downstairs. "Do you want me to get you some ale when I go downstairs."

"Hmm..." replied Maxine. She was going to say yes without giving a second thought. But then she thought about the incident and found herself unable to say yes. "Actually, I think I'll be alright. I'll just stick to water for now."

"Ok, if that's what you want." He was very surprised by this as she hadn't drunk any ale for several days. He would have thought that she would have some kind of withdrawal symptoms. Instead, she seemed to be the same as she was before. She just didn't want any ale. "I'll go and see if Asla and the others have finished yet, I'll be back in a minute."

Once Charles had picked up the plates, he stepped out of the room leaving the nine-foot woman inside by herself. She picked up his book that had been sitting next to her and she turned back to the page that had the alphabet written onto it. She tried to continue on the lesson by herself as she attempted to go through it by herself.

The first few letter she could do quite easily thanks to memory but the following ones after the first half a dozen were more difficult. Despite this, she tried her best but without Charles there to tell her whether she was right or wrong, she could only guess whether she was correct or not.

Outside, Charles made his way to the other room and knocked on the door. He wasn't rude enough to simply burst in as he thought that they could be doing something that he thought was strange. This wasn't truly because they were doing anything wrong, it would likely just be a simply a difference in culture.

A small amount of terror overtook him as he thought about this. He couldn't help but think about the inn that he had a nightmare about the night before. Because of this, he imagined that they were doing some kind of ritual that he had witnessed in that inn which would likely haunt him for the rest of his days.

With some care, Charles did knock on the door and he wasn't sure what he was going to see once it opened. He didn't need to wait long before the door was answered and he saw Taiyun standing there. The door wasn't opened wide enough for him to see what was taking place inside the room but he was sure that it wasn't really any of his business. Instead, the man from the East seemed to have a somewhat annoyed look on as if he had interrupted him from doing something important.

"Is there something that you want?" asked Taiyun. Due to his thick accent, it was difficult for Charles to fully understand what he was saying.

"I-I was just wondering if you've finished with your plates," replied Charles. He gestured the plates that were in his hand so he was sure that Taiyun could understand the reason for him being there.

"Is that Charles?" asked Asla who had been able to tell the voice of Charles from where she had been sitting.

"Yes my..." It seemed like Taiyun was about to say something in addition to his statement but had quickly stopped himself from doing so. "You are correct, it is our companion." The fact that they were speaking to each other in a language that Charles could understand did surprise him somewhat.

"Then invite him inside, don't let him stand out there by himself."

"As you wish."

With that the door opened fully and Charles was allowed to step inside. There he could see Jinshu sitting on a nearby bed and just finishing off what he was eating. Asla instead was simply standing there and looking over to the door. It almost seemed like she had been standing there the entire time, most likely she had only gotten herself up to her feet when she had realised that Charles was at the door.

He had expected to see something that he would consider odd but instead everything looked to be normal. This was somewhat surprising for him but he was just glad that he hadn't seen anything that would give him the wrong idea about the situation. But she did seem genuinely happy to see him.

"I'm glad to see that you've come here," said Asla as she took a couple of steps towards the door. By this point in time, Taiyun had stepped aside as both he and Jinshu watched what was taking place.

"I-It is nice to see you again as well," replied Charles. He still had the plates in his hands and a part of him thought that he wouldn't be going downstairs for a while. "And thank you very much for paying for the room and food. Miss Martel and I greatly appreciated the food that we had."

"Don't worry about it. Call it a bonus for your services. Now why don't you have a sit down for a minute?" By this time, she had sat herself down on a bed and patted down onto it to indicate where she wanted him to sit. It was a short distance from her where Charles didn't feel like he was being too close.

He did as he was asked as he stepped forward and sat down on the bed. For the time being, he places the used plates on the ground as he knew that he was likely not going anywhere in the near future. He couldn't help but feel a little uneasy with what was taking place but so far, he didn't feel like he was in any danger.

As he was requested, Charles did sit down on the bed relatively close to where Asla was sitting. A part of him couldn't help but feel like he was intruding on the group, even though they had invited him in. He watched as Asla looked towards him and he couldn't help but be a little nervous.

"I'd just like to thank you again for agreeing to accompany and my companions over such a long distance," said Asla as she looked over to Charles. "Did I mention that we had requested the services of four others before you agreed to help us?"

"N-No you didn't," replied Charles. He could think of a reason why others would have turned it down. It was the reason why they had been worried to come to this inn and was something that he didn't want to admit was common.

"I was beginning to think that no one was willing to help us and then you came along. I'm sure that the money that we promised did entice you, but it still takes a man of some honour to accept. You can also imagine my surprise when the companion that you mentioned turned out to be a woman of such stature."

"Y-Yeah, Maxine is a pretty tall woman." This was probably the understatement of the century as the only women that he had seen larger than her was members of her own family. But that was only when they were using their own size changing abilities. If they weren't using them, then Maxine would most likely still be the tallest amongst them by around half a foot.

"Maybe I should do something else to show my appreciation for your actions."

This was when Charles began to realise what was happening, this caught him completely by surprise and he was trying to think of a way that he could get out of it. But he thought that if he did then it could cause a negative reaction from Jinshu and Taiyun. Not just that but they could also decide that his and Maxine's services were no longer needed. One thing that he did know was that right now he was between a rock and a hard place.