Adam suddenly asked his master, who was walking ahead of him with a fishing rod over his shoulder.
Barn neither looked back nor stopped. He simply kept walking and said,
"What do you mean?"
Adam shrugged with a wry smile and said,
"You know what I'm talking about."
"Then you also know what I'll do. Haha, come on. Leonard is still waiting for us at the Guild."
After walking for a while, they reached the branch on Island 14. Beside it stood Shakuyaku's bar, and a handsome middle-aged man was sitting out front, smiling as he drank alone.
Although Barn couldn't see him, he could still sense that familiar presence.
"Rayleigh, why haven't you gone to the auction house to sell yourself today?"
Barn spoke to Rayleigh with a smile.
Rayleigh smiled, raised the flask in his hand, and said,
"I've still got some booze left."
Barn nodded at that, then continued toward the Guild.
"Heading out?"
Rayleigh looked at Barn and asked.
Barn said nothing. He merely nodded, then stepped through the Guild's doors.
Watching Barn, Rayleigh smiled and poured another mouthful of liquor into his mouth. Then he shook his head and murmured to himself,
"One less person to drink with me."
On the second floor of the FFF Guild's branch in the Sabaody Archipelago...
Adam led Barn to a door and stopped outside it.
Barn pushed the door open, and Adam followed him inside.
"Chirp, chirp!"
"Fitz?"
Barn cried out in surprise. It was Fitz, his companion whom he hadn't seen in ages. Fitz had been staying at headquarters in the East Blue, keeping the young blacksmith Lia company, but this time had come to the Sabaody Archipelago with Leonard.
Barn and Fitz fussed over each other for quite a while. After all, they had been companions