I walked up to my target from behind and surprised him with a tight bear hug. He jolted up startled by the sudden attack but quickly regained his composure after releasing it was me behind him.

"Stop that!"

A big hand tried to push my face away.

"Awww... Soft as always" I said, feeling the fluff of his hair on my face.

"Look at these long fluffy ears" I released my hug and grabbed the long white ears that were perked up in the air.

"How many times have I told you not to do this in public!?"

"Does that mean you're ok with it as long as it's not in public?"

"NO!" Eugene shouted wrestling away my hands off his ears, " And stop calling a grown man a 'BABY'"

"Why are you being so mean to me Eugene? I'm your mother" I pouted and took a seat next to him.

"Mother?" Eugene's face twitched, "I'm older than you!"

"No matter how mean you are to me baby. A mother will always forgive her child" I put my hand to my chest and looked down depressed wiping the imaginary tears in my eyes.

"Stop teasing him" Jade put down his beer jug seemingly fed up by the act in front of him.

"You're no fun as usual. Those good looks are such a waste"

I rolled my eyes and took back my beers from Noah and Oliver. They sat next to Jade and beckoned Liam, one of the taverns waiters, to place their orders.

Jade and Eugene were also part of the Nero mercenaries that I joined nearly two years ago.

Eugene, despite his cute teenage boy appearance, was a twenty-seven-year-old full-grown rabbit beastmen. He had greyish white hair with matching eyes bearing an uncanny resemblance to Chirpy, the love of my life. That is, in his beast form, but I'm ok with it either way.

It was his house that has become my new home. With Eugene and his little sister Bea we were a family of three. I was serious about adopting them as my children, but Eugene dismissed the idea as absurd. But I'm not going to give up so soon.

Jade on the other hand, was a leopard beastmen with brownish yellow hair and brown eyes. He was the second most mature and rational member of our group.

The first place belongs to our leader Raeden, a mighty black wolf. He was kind of like the father to a bunch of immature children rather than a leader. Also very handsome in appearance. In fact, I'm surprised that he is still single.

The Nero mercenaries were comprised of:

Raeden the wolf - 27 years old

Eugene the rabbit - 27 years old

Jade the leopard - 24 years old

Noah and Oliver the twin foxes - 21 years old

And last but not the least, Me the human - 21 years old

Raeden was away on business at the moment and will not be back for two more days. Which was also the reason Noah, Oliver, and I, the youngest of the bunch, were able to unleash chaos as we pleased.

And how I joined a mercenary group exclusive for beastmen was a story for another time.

"Just look at this beautiful fluff" I extended my arms and presented Eugene's face in an extravagant theatrical manner.

"Don't you want to hold him in your hands?" I asked with utmost sincerity.

"Eugene!" I caught Eugene's arm with a serious expression on my face.

"Beastify!"

"Show him what you got"

"No. I'm not going to beastify" Eugene bickered back.

"You're being immature again, Ann" Jade sighed.

I averted my eyes and took a sip of my first beer.

"And you Eugene. Stop reacting to her. She'll only do it more if you keep responding"

Meanwhile, Noah and Oliver were snickering at the image of the two of us getting lectured by Jade, in the midst of ordering their drinks.

"You two are not innocent either" Jade turned towards to his right. He was not going to let the accomplices walk away even if they feigned innocence.

The twins flinched. But pretended to continue ordering like innocent puppies.

"The three of you" He pointed at Noah, Oliver, and then me, "colluded together and scammed the money off the Golden Lion mercenaries whose leader is coincidentally with Raeden at the guild headquarters. What do you think will happen when they find out?"

"It won't take much of an effort to tell Raeden what happened before he finds out himself" Jade smiled slyly.

*thud*

"You'll be dead body number one if you tell him Jade" I put down my empty beer jug with a thud.

"Then I'll tell him" Liam interfered instead of taking drink orders.

"And you'll be dead body number two!"

Liam laughed off my threat and went back to his job

"Two ground beers and one ginger ale right?"

"Yes" Answered Noah.

Why the ginger ale though? Hmmmm.... Suspicious.

"Umm... excuse me"

"Huh?"

Somebody tapped on my shoulder.

"Would you like to have a drink with me?" A young man around twenty years of age asked me while fidgeting with his hands.

Contrary to his shy appearance, it was rather bold of him to ask me out for a drink after everything that went down a few minutes ago.

Did he perhaps miss the fight?

By the way, this was exactly how the fight started. The only difference is that this guy is being polite while the former one was arrogant.

"Come on man!" The young man's friends cheered him from behind and laughed.

"What's your name?' I looked behind him to locate his friends and asked him.

"It's Ko-Kobe" He replied and scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

"Ok Kobe. How long has it been since you entered the tavern?"

"Umm.... about fifteen minutes?"

He totally missed the fight.

"So you entered the tavern, spotted me almost immediately, and came out to ask me, a complete stranger for a drink?" I raised my eyebrows quizzically, but still could not help but smile at his dorkiness.

"..." Blushing till the tip of his ears, Kobe nodded hastily.

"Really?"

"No-Uh. I've seen you a few times before" He said looking down on his feet.

"I say that's worth a shot" I grinned at the sight of him blushing over every word.

When I accepted his offer and got up from my seat, Noah and Oliver followed suit and got to their feet.

Kobe's eyes went wide at my reply. He seemed surprised like he did not expect me to accept his invitation.

"Don't" Jade said without looking at my face.

"I'm not going to do anything" I felt a bit guilty from my own words.

"..." Jade stared at my face without uttering a word.

"Maybe something like a......... teeny bit maybe"

I tried to persuade but failed.

"Look. We already have enough money to fix our village's walls and restock the food storage. So I'm not going to 'scam' them like you are imagining"

"..."

"I was being good for once. And I just wanna play. Nothing else. I promise" I pouted but crossed my fingers behind my back.

"Hah" Jade sighed and went back to drinking.

'Now's the chance to run away' I signaled the twins with my eyes.

Otherwise, the next person to interfere would be Saint Eugene, who was busy fighting with the cherries on his plate with a fork.

The four of us made our way to Kobe's table for drinks.

"Oh! One moment please" I suddenly remembered something important and stopped.

It was the second jug of beer that was yet to be finished. I strode to the table, chugged and beer in one go, ruffled Eugene's fluffy hair, and ran off before he yelled.

"Now, let's go!"

"Hey!" Eugene huffed while fixing his hair.

When we arrived at Kobe's table a bunch of guys was having a drinking contest, with a bulky guy in the middle on a winning streak.

"Haha..... Gotcha!"

The bulky guy patted the back of his opponent, who was already passed out just from a few drinks.

"Can I join in the fun?" I asked politely.

"Ah! You're the girl Kobe was interested him" The bulky guy heartily laughed and patted Kobe's shoulder.

"Ho ho.... He's such a nice lad isn't he?" He continued to praise Kobe like a proud father.

"So can I join?" I maintained a constant smile and asked again.

"You're most welcome to join. But can you stand against me drinking?" He asked in disbelief.

"Just look at this man. Six drinks were all it took to knock him out.... Haha"

"We'll see about that"