Inside, it was quite large and surprisingly empty. The opposite of what you would expect from a tavern. A woman behind the bar noticed them come in, alerted mainly by Kai's condition.
"I don't want blood on the floor," she said curtly.
"He's injured," Rin said.
The woman shrugged. "Yes, I saw. And injured people bleed and make bloodstains."
The Gilded Fang token appeared as if by magic in Rin's hand. She tossed it onto the counter.
"That's payment," Rin said.
The woman picked it up, glanced at the fang-shaped stamp, and her attitude changed instantly. Not necessarily friendlier, but professional.
"Second floor," she said. "Room seven. The bathroom is right next door, number eight. We'll bring you food."
Rin narrowed her eyes. "Just like that?"
The woman put the token away. "Just like that."
Rin muttered, "I hate this."
Kai managed to say, "I love beds."
They slowly climbed the stairs. Rin's shoulder bore most of his weight. She didn't complain; that would be for tomorrow. It looked like the best thing a camp tavern could offer when the biggest guild paid for it and expected results.
The wooden door was thick with a clean latch. Two beautiful beds with real mattresses were carefully made. The table between them was set with a few pieces of bread. A window overlooked it with folding shutters. Kai entered and stopped as if his legs had hit a wall.
For a moment, he forgot about the camp, the recruiters, the Verdant Cradle breathing underground. He just stood there watching. The room was almost as big as his old house. The space where his whole life had taken place, where he had eaten, fought, argued, existed.
Rin's throat worked once.
"Okay," she said carefully. "This is… clean."
Kai managed a rasp of a laugh.
Rin stepped in, boots still on, and pressed a hand against one of the mattresses like she expected it to bite. When it didn't, she sat down slowly. The bed dipped like it was welcoming her.
"Oh."
Kai watched her, amazed. She caught his look.
"You look happy," she accused.
"I'm seeing a bed," Kai said. "I'm emotionally compromised."
Rin snorted and shifted, testing the comfort. Kai lowered himself onto the nearest bed and felt the mattress cradle him so well it almost erased the pain for a heartbeat. But his illusion still tugged on his skin. The constant, quiet drain. Rin peeled off her gloves, then froze like tomorrow had suddenly appeared in the room with them. Her voice dropped into planning mode, a little too fast.
"Okay. Tomorrow we…"
Kai blinked at her. She kept going, pacing once, hands moving like she could organize the world by force.
"We go to Elronde. We figure out what guilds are sniffing around. We get a party, or we create one, and officially start our new life as adventurers."
She said it so naturally, as if it were a fact, a path. Kai's heart warmed. He stared at her a second longer than he should have.
Rin noticed and faltered mid-sentence. "What?"
Kai swallowed.
"Do you trust me?" he asked.
Rin blinked hard, caught off guard by the seriousness. Then she exhaled through her nose and folded her arms.
"I trust you in a fight," she said. "Which is more than I can say for most people I meet on my birthday."
Kai's eyebrows lifted. "It's your birthday?"
Rin made a face. "It was. Yesterday. That's why I'm here. Remember?"
"Oh yeah, the Renewal, that's right. But what about outside of fights?"
"…I'm working on it," she said. Then, quieter, more honest: "I want to."
Kai let out a slow breath he'd been holding since the dungeon.
"Okay," he said. "Then I need to tell you something before tomorrow happens."
Rin's eyes narrowed immediately. "That sentence never leads to good things."
He looked down at his hands, then back up. His voice came out careful.
"I owe you an apology."
Rin blinked. "For what?"
"For lying," Kai said. "And for not stopping."
Kai swallowed.
"I didn't plan to," he said. "At first it was… survival or panic, I don't know."
Rin's gaze didn't leave his face. Suspicious, and focused.
"And then the longer it went on, the harder it got to tell you. Because every hour I didn't say it made it worse."
Rin leaned forward, elbows on her knees. "Kai?"
He flinched a little at his own name. At how serious she sounded.
Rin's voice stayed controlled. "Say it."
Kai hesitated, then forced it out.
"My face isn't my face."
Rin froze. "Well, of course, that's part of the Renewal shit."
"I mean, yes," he said quickly. "But mine reset."
Rin's brows knit. Kai's chest tightened.
"You just planned a future and I was in it like it wasn't even a question," he said. "So I'm not doing that with a mask on."
Kai took one more breath.
"I used an Illusion Skill," he said. "I picked it when you woke up this morning."
Rin's brows shot up. "You picked it today?"
"Yes, this morning."
"You sure you didn't mean yesterday?"
Kai hesitated. Of all things, that wasn't what he thought she'd latch onto. "I mean this morning, because I can borrow Skills every day."
Rin stared. Her hands curled into the blanket for a second like she wanted to strangle something soft. Kai rushed the next part, because he deserved whatever came after.
"I'm going to drop it now," he said. "I'm warning you so it doesn't freak you out. And if you want me to—"
"Stop talking," Rin snapped.
Kai shut up instantly.
Rin pointed at his face like she was about to punch it. "Just do it."
Kai reached up and rubbed his jaw. The illusion felt heavier now that the room was quiet, like he could finally feel how much it cost.
The blond drained away. The sharper lines softened. The clean jaw he'd worn for one more day snapped back into something older and more familiar. Dark red hair fell messy into his eyes, where it had always belonged.
Rin stared. Kai didn't move. Didn't speak. He let her have the silence.
Rin blinked once. Then again.
"…Oh," she said.
Kai waited for the anger to hit like a blade. Instead, Rin exhaled hard and rubbed her face with both hands.
"So," Rin said, voice sharp on purpose, "you hide your face because you panicked."
"Yes."
"And then you kept hiding it because you're an idiot."
"Uh… yes."
Rin pointed at him, eyes narrowing. "And you let me call you Blondie."
Kai winced. "Yes…"
Rin grabbed the nearest piece of bread left on the table. She threw the bread at him. It bounced off his chest and fell onto the bed. Kai flinched anyway because pain was now a lifestyle.
Rin stared at where it landed. Then she looked back at him. She wanted to stay mad but her brain was losing it. She grabbed a pillow with both hands and looked like she might throw that too.
Kai held up a hand quickly. "That one is expensive."
Rin's eyes narrowed. "I'll throw it gently."
The pillow hit his shoulder with all the force of a tired threat and fell. Rin didn't look satisfied. She looked like someone trying to decide if being angry was worth the effort. Rin stood up too fast and paced once, like her legs had to move or her brain would explode.
"So why does it refund your face but not your personality?" she asked. "Because you're still as annoying as yesterday."
Kai let out a breath that almost became a laugh. "I deserve that."
Rin stopped pacing and pointed at him again. "Explain."
Kai sat up carefully, one hand on his ribs.
"I didn't want Renewal," Kai said. "I didn't even know it was an option for me."
Rin's eyes narrowed. "Uh-huh."
"I didn't choose Renewal on purpose. I… woke up, tested my new Blessing, then I heard a Presence. I made a choice without understanding it. And the world treated it like a real Renewal."
Rin stared. "So you really did fall into this by accident?"
"Yes, that's my blessing," he said. "Thalior."
Rin's posture changed instantly. Not fear. Recognition. And the shadow of a reputation.
Rin clicked her tongue. "I knew it. You have that vibe."
"What vibe?"
"The "I'm about to do something everyone says is a bad idea" vibe."
Kai stared at her. Then, because he couldn't help himself, he said, "So… we have the same vibe?"
Rin pointed at him like that was ridiculous. "No, I chose my Skills knowing it, I didn't end up in a dungeon by accident."
Kai huffed a small laugh. Rin's anger finally shifted into something else. Pure interest.
"Anyway," Rin said. "You picked that blessing just to borrow... an illusion and a free trip?"
Kai nodded. "Everything. The fire too. That's why the dungeon wasn't happy, I guess."
Rin straightened like she'd caught him in a lie again. "You can't."
"The fire thing," Rin said, jabbing a finger toward him. "Fire Mastery is epic. Thalior can't borrow better than Rare. Everybody knows that."
Kai's mouth twitched. "People say that. But I did."
Rin stared like the room had tilted. "How?"
Kai hesitated. Then he said it anyway, because the whole point was no more masks.
"I saved my points," he said. "Since I was ten."
Rin blinked. "You can do that?"
"Looks like."
Rin's expression broke, surprise first, then something bright, almost childlike.
"Wow," she breathed. "Thalior looks… cool."
Kai sighed. "Most people don't like it."
Rin snorted. "Most people don't like lightning either. That hasn't stopped me."
"So you're not a fire mage," she continued. "You're… a whatever-you-can-afford-today mage."
Kai's mouth twitched. "I'm not even a mage."
"Okay," she muttered, counting on her fingers. "So you were blond, and then you weren't, and you didn't tell me, and the dungeon tried to drown us because you decided fire was a good idea."
Kai opened his mouth.
Rin held up a hand. "Don't."
"So," she said, "what else?"
Kai hesitated, then shook his head.
"That's it," he said. "That's the whole secret. The illusion and Thalior."
Rin squinted. "And the thing where you freeze."
Kai blinked. "You noticed that?"
She lifted her chin, pleased at herself. "I can connect dots."
Kai rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't really know how it works," he said. "I don't think it matters. But time seems to stop when I want to borrow a Skill. I can't hit anything in that moment. I can't really move. It's not a combat trick. It's just… me and the Presence. Choosing."
Rin watched him, skeptical.
"And then you trip," she said, like she was putting the last piece in place.
Kai sighed, defeated. "And then I trip."
Rin huffed a laugh, then shook her head like she was trying to reset her brain.
"You know what's insane," she said. "That you think I could be mad about your choices."
Something in Kai's eyes lit, small and sudden.
Rin stepped closer, just enough to make her words matter.
"Promise me something," she said.
"What?"
"No more lies," Rin said. "Not to me."
Kai didn't flinch. He didn't negotiate. He didn't want to.
"Of course. I promise."
Rin stared at him a second longer, making sure he meant it. Then her mouth twisted into a grin that was half relief and half weapon.
"So," she said, voice lighter on purpose, "I guess that means you're not Blondie anymore."
"Rin…"
Rin pointed at his dark red hair. "Look at you."
Kai glanced down at himself and sighed. "It's just hair."
Rin's grin widened. "Sure, Bloodie."
Kai stared.
Rin nodded, satisfied, like she'd just named her new pet. "You're welcome."
Kai leaned back and let his head hit the pillow with a soft, defeated thump. "That's horrible."
Rin's eyes gleamed. "It's perfect."
Outside, the camp kept breathing. Distant shouting and boots on dirt. The world that wanted to buy them didn't sleep.
Rin glanced at the window, then back at Kai, and her voice slipped into planning again, softer this time.
"Tomorrow," she said, "we go to Elronde. We find a party, or we build one. We start for real."
She said we again, like it belonged there.
Kai swallowed around something warm in his chest.
"Yeah," he said.
Rin yawned, sudden and huge, like her body had waited for it since Renewal.
She stood, kicked her boots off with a clumsy little struggle that would've been funny if he wasn't watching her like she mattered, then flopped back onto her bed with the kind of exhaustion that didn't ask for pride's opinion.
She pointed at him without looking. "Now let's sleep, Bloodie. You look like you just got hit by a tree."
Kai closed his eyes, smiled, and murmured. "I did."
Rin made a small sound that might've been a laugh, might've been a sigh. "I know."