"I cannot believe you," Nuenala grumbled in displeasure as she watched from the forest trail, her arms crossed ever so tightly across her chest it could crush a bolder with ease. Digging her shoe into the path as she did, Nuenala swiped her feet from side to side as she awaited any form of response from the grimoire maker, who was currently crouched nearby and shifting his hand through the grass.

  With the blades of grass swaying around in the weak wind or the guy's influence, Inkaro raised his head while holding a thick blade of grass with a dark green stripe pattern. "Huh?"

  A vein on her forehead became more pronounced as that huh from Inkaro rang in Nuenala's mind, hammering away at her dwindling patience to hold some choise words. That was the eighth time he'd made a confused noise in the past five minutes alone, all of which from Inkaro being surprised by small critters simply existing on the grass he needed. Having had enough of it, Nuenala threw up and pointed an agressively primed finger.

  "Don't huh me! I thought you were going to use some crazy spell on a monster subjugation quest, but here you are plucking wild grass."

  "It's Ulu Grass."

  Her face scunched up in undeniable and visible frustration, swiftly elevating into a violent stomp of her foot that flung bits of the path into the air. She just couldn't understand why every word Inkaro spat at her when he was in his Focused Mode always managed to trigger the anger centres of her brain. The more she tried to make sense of it, the more it ticked her off. She figured it was intentional, some sort of long-drawn-out plan from childhood to mess with her. However, recalling how even Lizu was a victim of the guy's Focused Mode, Nuenala relented, begrudgingly.

  As she lowered her hand, she uttered under her breath, "Sermantics."

  "True, but are you implying this task is beneath me or something?" Inkaro remarked as he rose from his crouching state on the ground, sporting an expression that could only be described as belonging to an evil dragon. For a second, Nuenala shuddered from genuine terror, like she'd peered into some unknown abyss revealing the true nature of the creature before her.

  However, those feelings quietly subsided as one truth returned to her mind: it was Inkaro she was looking at, the guy who'd dive bomb out of a window of a twenty-storey building to test a slow-falling spell as a first test run. Then he'd have the audacity to act nonchalant about his bones being broken when a broken piece of syntax rendered the spell useless, for the seventh time in a row.

  Nuenala shook her head. Following it up by deeply exhaling to clear any doubt that Inkaro could be scary, outside of his usual reckless weirdness.

  Seeing that sinister grin adorning his face, the girl distinctly recognised it being the same one Lizu commonly sported when she was trying to wind someone up, particularly any noble kids. Nuenala deeply exhaled. She wasn't sure what was more infuriating, Lizu's clear influence on Inkaro or the implication behind the guy's words. The fact that both of the girl's issues were completely unintentional made her anger that much worse.

  Nuenala turned a bright shade of red in the face, whether from rage or embarrassment was unclear to the guy who caused it.

  Shooting up a hand to point it defensively at the grass pincher again, extra fiercely this time, Nuenala exclaimed something, shouting a little too loudly that her voice cracked a little under the strain."Don't go twisting the meaning behind what I said, you word-spinning jerk; I know that this grass is used in medicine and healing stuff. So I know it's important."

  That outburst of a retort answered Inkaro's prior question: It was both.

  The thought of it being from the strain of her shouting never occurred to him for a second. Inkaro lightly huffed. Nuenala grumbled once again, her words were barely tangible to anything coherent, and the only words that could be extracted from them were: stupid, moron, melon enjoyer, annoying, and grimoire freak.

  "And given there's a shortage, it could suggest either the local spirual are performing a ritual in their settlement or there's been an influx of monsters, leading to them venturing out less."

  The complete dismissal of her slights towards him threw Nuenala through a loop and tripping over a mental hurdle. She was so caught off guard her mind turned blank, refusing to let her think for a while, and all the frustration she'd been experiencing simply vanished, completely forgotten.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The very swirl on her body spun with just as much confusion as her eyes.

  "And you know that because?" Nuenala asked weakly, speaking the calmest she'd ever spoken since tagging along with Inkaro. It was almost unnerving how calm she'd become. She eyed him. He, in turn, did not do the same. Without a shred of shame, Inkaro returned his attention to the ground as he effortlessly answered his friend's question.

  "Lizu told me, naturally," Inkaro mentioned, matching Nuenala's calm tone. Brushing off some excess dirt from the plucked ulu grass, he stashed it in a specialised sack and rose to his feet, half expecting a spirual to pop up out of nowhere, saying a monster was attacking. Sadly, no such luck occurred in skipping to a higher rank through unintentionally encountering a strong monster and defeating it. Inkaro slumped his shoulders. His mini grimoire patted him on the shoulder to comfort him, forcing the phone in itself to generate a calming hum.

  "Oh."

  At hearing his friend's lackadaisical response, Inkaro flinched so aggressively he almost toppled over, aided by his posture prior to flinching. But he managed to catch himself by grabbing onto his floating grimoire, which effortlessly remained in place as its creator stabilised his footing.

  Snapping his gaze to his friend, Inkaro hit her with a snappy question, "And why is it not a surprise to you that she knows?"

  "Because you've got grimoire for brains, and she is a well-adjusted lady."

  Inkaro froze on the spot. Had he not already been looking at her, the snarky girl knew for sure Inkaro would have snapped his head so quickly in her direction it wasn't impossible his head might've popped off like a doll. Inkaro's face said it all, the utter disbelief and unreal denial plastered on his face almost caused Nuenala to burst into a mini laughing fit.

  "Now that's untrue— on both fronts."

  Drinking up the small chink in his demeanour and rare chance to get under Inkaro's skin, a wickedly cheeky grin manifested on Nuenala's face. Raising a hand to shelter her grin from being observed, Nuenala announced boldly, "Oh my mistake, I suppose there are two things in that thick skull of yours that aren't grimoire related: two big things!"

  "Two?" Inkaro uttered baffledly as he, and even his grimoire, rocked his head to one side.

  All the bravado she'd amassed from seeing Inkaro faltering melted away. The grin she sported soon spun around into a frown of displeasure, and Nuenala could only hang her head low in defeated shame. She considered throwing herself in a ditch for getting her hopes up. She had the perfect opportunity, and she squandered it by being too particular with the guy whose hobby has an entrance requirement of being obsessively picky about words and their meanings/uses.

  Grumbling something unintelligible, the girl marched up and down the path, intending to cool off before she caused any deforestation from trying to murder Inkaro. Watching her eventually walk away, Inkaro assumed she was off to scout the area for danger, so he resumed collecting the remaining ulu grass without the chance to get sidetracked.

  Over the passing ten minutes or so, thunderous bangs, followed by the earth itself trembling, erupted through the air as wails in the ultrasonic frequency and wet squelching could also be heard. Inkaro paid the sounds no mind while the few passerbys swiftly hurried in the opposite direction Nuenala went.

  Some passerbys wondered aloud if they should inform the guards of the nearby town, while others wished adventurers would be more careful.

  Eventually, the grumpy girl returned. With a dried greenish liquid on her cheek, she didn't waste a single second and resumed right where she left off the conversation: after a quick "ahem" to clear her throat, coughing up some leaves in the process.

  "How are you her fiancé and not dirty-minded by now; those grimoires must be making you inhuman... or at least antisocial."

  "Huh?" Inkaro uttered as he raised his head at her return.

  At hearing that dreaded huh again, Nuenala felt the veins in her forehead pulse and throb uncontrollably, pumping the very rage bubbling inside her through her blood, as her metal-like tail violently contorted and swished behind her, slicing multiple branches off some nearby trees behind her. She'd reached her breaking point. He'd said "huh" too many times for it to be nothing beyond petty gaslighting, in her opinion.

  "Just use that locator spell and finish the quest already!"

  Raising a hand and wagging a finger, making Nuenala click her tongue at him, Inkaro stated slightly pompously, "Ah-ah-ah, if I used a grimoire for such a task on a large scale, it might disturb the spirual or attract a monster."

  Functionally seething at such a bold reflection of her own actions, the girl balled up her fist so tight her knuckles whitened, ready and willing to do a number on her friend for the nerve he showed her. She even considered using her golden mallet. However, even her anger-clouded mind knew doing that was not only excessive but also dumb, because Inkaro probably had made a stupidly specific spell to counter it. In that moment, her brain pulled the brakes on her. A deflated sigh of resignation whimpered its way out of her mouth in a weak fluttering path. All she could do was meekly throw her arms to her sides.

  "Then... just... hurry up..."