Nickolaus had thought little of Joshua'Joshua's accusations, the truth would be revealed shortly and... then sapphire spoke up. He had not expected her to react so strongly due to his assumed thoughts on where she came from. She seemed distressed very deeply by Joshua's allegations. She glanced back at him, though he couldn't tell if it was in anger, memory or some other reason. She then turned and looked at the ground... she had frozen again.

Nickolaus was unsure if Joshua would grow angry or not... but Nickolaus always planned for the worst. Nickolaus stepped forward until he was next to Sapphire, "What Sapphire says is true. We did indeed tangle with a man who may have been a bandit... Though I believe he was some form of hunter. He carried the rune blade and was accompanied by a large lion who o assume was his familiar. The blade is stolen, as he fled the field after we defeated him. However, if you wish to punish us I must suggest that it be placed squarely on my shoulders. I am the one who struck both the bandit hunter Nawar, very nearly killing him, and u am the one who killed his familiar. Similarly I risked both my life and the lives of my companions by attempting what was truly an over risky move. It resulted in the death of the familiar, the loss of my weapon, and my very near death as well. If you must punish anyone, do so to me, as I was also unable to attain a familiar."
Nickolaus bowed at the waist to Joshua, his arms at his sides.

He spoke under his breath to Sapphire, "Do not feel ashamed, it was your strategy that led to Nawar's defeat, take pride on your victory"

Alexander was surprised at both Nick's and Sapphire's strong responses to Joshua's accusations. Really the whole thing was being blown out of proportion, though Nickolaus's statement was true at least to some extent. He stood there awkwardly unsure what to say, Nick had already explained the situation and told Sapphire what he thought of her plan. So in the end he did nothing simply awaiting Joshua's response feeling more than a little useless.

"Oh", is all that Joshua could let out while scratching his chin. "Well, that makes perfect sense." He pauses for a few other moments.

"...You all won?", with everyone nodding. "Well, I suppose I can't complain too much. No punishments, for now." "We should just leave Harold in peace so he can do his smithing." "Aye. That'd be good.", the Smith quickly spat. Joshua opened the door for the Aspiring Hunters to go outside and follow him. They all quietly, awkwardly walked for a bit until Joshua snapped his fingers. "Firebombs, Yes!", then continue his quietness for a moment before elaborating. "Yes, your little bonuses, here.", four small bags with three little round objects in them. "Firebombs, genius little invention. Originated here too, quite clever. Little balls, filled with various one-use fire related rune parchments along with an 'explosion' one. Sort of like a molotov, but better in many ways. Definitely not as cheap though."

"Heh, I used to do little tricks with these when I was about your age... ages? Just get up close and personal with a beast, shove this down their mouth. Gruesome, but effective." He then clapped his hands for attention, "In any case! Everyone must be starving, let's get over to that Diner I mentioned." With that, the... quintet soon went into a small establishment, seeing someone wiping away at a counter before noticing their arrival. "Of course it has to be my shift when five people come in at once, eh?"

It's a small restaurant, but everything is immaculately clean and well-made, surprisingly. Perhaps it caters to high-profile people such as Joshua often? In any case, Joshua sits down at the largest table in the place and beckons everyone else to come sit down with him.

Sapphire was relieved at how well Joshua had taken it and even further so when he decided not punish them in any way. As they went outside and received the firebombs Sapphire took one out and inspected it closely. Promptly applications for them flashed through her mind, one of them she found rather amusing and chuckled mentally.
Pinning a firebomb between the two blades of her soon to be forged scythe and using it as a lacrosse stick could be both hilarious and effective at the same time.

As they headed to the restaurant Sapphire couldn't get out of her mind what Nickolaus had done. Admittedly their interactions so far had not been without their rough spots. There had been quite a few actually. That's why of all the people there it was Nickolaus she least expected to jump in and stick up for her.
As they walked Sapphire maneuvered around the rest of the group and continued walking next Nickolaus. "Thanks." she whispered to him, her gaze still fixed straight forward.

After arriving at the restaurant she set down at the table with the rest, afterwards pulling of her hood. It must have been an entire minute that Sapphire kept her head in constant motion as she took in the entirety of the restaurant.

Alexander gave a relieved grin, well that was over with it. His grin changed from one of relief to that of curiosity as he examined the firebombs that Joshua had given them. He stuffed them into his backpack, carefully of course, and thought about using them, Flare would be ideal for opening an opportunity to use these.

Alexander noticed Sapphire swiveling her head like a bird, "Relax its a restaurant not a battlefield." he said jokingly, though on second thought perhaps she was right to do so, not that they had any reason to expect combat but if they did battle for some reason and Sapphire memorized the layout of the room she would be at an advantage. He said with a smile, "Well not yet anyway."

Alex sat down and thought more about the firebombs, perhaps he could launch them with his crossbow? But they might go off when his crossbow hit them, actually, as a matter of fact how did they go off? "Hey Joshua, how do you trigger these runes anyway?"

The Quintet had a delicious meal, and Joshua convinced them to try out the diner's specialty. Everyone had a pretty great time, with the more social members (namely just Alexander) trying to get the others to open up a little, with a tiny amount of success. Joshua also told some interesting stories, mainly him adventuring deep into the Silent Forest to defeat unimaginably disgusting and powerful beasts. He wanted to keep a momento of one, which actually nearly killed him.

Of course, since he killed anything that could be a 'Beast Progenitor' then or later on, there really should be very few, if any beasts in the Silent Forest, he mentions. Which obviously worries him if there really were two sickened creatures so relatively close to one another. In any case, he drops that subject relatively soon. He then asks if the party would disclose any other information on this 'Bandit', and what happened to his 'fire-sword' in detail, while leaving a check and getting up to leave.

Alexander spoke up, "There was one more thing I was curious about. During the battle after we killed him familiar, he retreated and then we saw a dazzling burst of light and then he vanished. None of us were able to find him, by tracks, or by scent. Do you know what sort of Excuis he might have used?" Other that he suspected there was little else to see. He wondered what the plan was after this, they would probably wait in town for their weapons to be complete but he doubted they would just loaf around until then.

"You suspect an exicus spell to be his method of cloaking? That would indeed explain how well he could hide himself, however there is one problem with that: If the rune of an exicus spell is hidden from any detection, it will not work, since the spirits cannot read the undetectable. As such, there is no self-concealing exicus spell. Yes, there are exicus spells to conceal other objects or beings, but the rune cannot conceal itself. If he used an exicus spell, we should have found the rune used to cast it. Either freshly drawn or somewhere where it was hidden during the fight. The other 2 options would be that he used a vitae spell, or that he had help from someone else, who was either observing the fight, or asked by Nawar to conceal him."
Iṃgor reasoned in response to Alexanders hypothesis, when he was suddenly struck by an idea:
"What if he didn't use a concealment spell, but a teleportation or transportation spell?"

Nickolaus was relieved there was to be no punishment for the groups actions or his. As they left the shop and followed Joshua Nick mulled over the fight with Nawar in his head, trying to see if he could glean any further information from his memory. He found none... then sapphire came up along side him,"Thanks, she said quietly. Nickolaus saw the moment he had been waiting for ever since the forest. He leaned down close to her and whispered very quietly so as the others would not hear, "I was only helping one of my fellow hunters, though I would like to have a conversation with you, privately, when we get the chance. We have certain... things to discuss." With that Nick would lean away and interest himself in the explosives. He was certain they would come in handy.

While at the restaurant Nick would listen to Joshua's stories quietly while he ate. At his wish to hear more about Nawar Nick remained silent, believing he had already contributed enough to that particular story.

As they exited the restaurant Sapphire turned to the others and wanted to speak up but felt the urge not. Once again being in the presence of the entire group made her feel uneasy. Despite this she knew she had since apparently no-one addressed an important fact.

"I... was also wondering who that person was who shipped us the starmetal and why one lonely Bandit would try to kidnap her. Kidnappings for ransom are usually instigated by large groups not by one lonely bandit, right?"

Sapphire would stick around just enough for that to get addressed, afterwards walking away from the group around the corner but no before motioning Nickolaus to follow her.

The Quartet would follow their master out of the diner, and hear him ponder Sapphire's question. "Any idea what the persons' name is? As well, perhaps this 'bandit' is going for a more personal, larger goal? Of course, who'd know without an interrogation session...". The day turned into night as Joshua went from shop to shop to get some supplies, and allowed his disciples to get their own little items if they wished. He paid for everything, seemingly having mostly limitless funds. How does he have so much money anyway, apparently?

In any case, at the end of the day as it came to be night, Joshua revealed he had a sort of hideout in Coalstrike, nestled inside a residential area. He showed the quartet around, revealing it to be a simple, 'cute' structure inside. Not all that large, but it will serve its' purpose as a sort of living area for the next week.

The 'hideout' has a small 'entrance' room with a table with four chairs, various books to read, which is connected to a hallway, which further connects to various rooms. Joshua explains, "I actually bought the rights to this when I decided I should stop hunting myself and train a few of the next generation. It's a pretty nice thing, isn't it? There's not all that much to do, but y'know. I have some basic magic-related literature, various close-combat related ones as well, all sorts of things. And a few stories, for giggles. Can't be too serious!"

"Oh, down the hall are some rooms, not all that well-furnished but I think you'll all like them. Directly down the hall's the kitchen.. pantry thing, all the other rooms are your personal spaces. Why not make them your own while you're here?". While everyone takes in the little 'base', Joshua finishes his most recent rant with, "In any case, I'm not going to be staying too long. Consider all this yours, as a group of course. I have some business to attend to."

With that, he shows himself out and leaves the quartet to their own devices. However, he does add a few comments before he leaves. "If Harold needs something, you better well do it. He'd never ask much.", finally leaving with, "And No parties!".

Well, he just blessed the quartet with their own little hideout! What a surprise... and... what now?