“So, on the behalf of the Merchant Guild, we will go to Asteria Village to deliver products to its inhabitants?”
As far as my knowledge permits me, there is something odd. I mean. What I heard made me conclude that Asteria was a simple and ordinary village. Likely… the only goods they might import would be food coming from the farms? Unless the farms made a deal with the Merchant Guild?
Nonetheless, it remains odd. Unless I check the goods… which would be a breach in the contract and a clear transgression towards unspoken rules… I cannot know for sure. So far, I can make out some hypothesis.
Either the goods are farm products and thus, for some reasons, they have a deal with the Merchant Guild who serves as an intermediary. Perhaps, is it to control the price so they follow the fluctuations of the currency? Or to regulate the prices. It is plausible enough. It is even highly likely if--
--the wagon is indeed transporting alimentation.
Then, what if it’s not food? Mmmmm. Something peculiar about Asteria? It could be related to the village’s traditions or festival… or the parish church? Or… am I being too paranoid? If I just take it this way-- it may not be related to the village, but simply a rich individual. It could be anything.
“Yes, we’re going there… I am likely overthinking it. But, I feel like there is something odd.”
It could simply be me seeking justifications. After all-- I heard the word Asteria from who? The inmate in Scribel Prison. Thus, I need… a rational motive to find something peculiar about Asteria.
Unfortunately, there are too many factors that can dismiss all of my thoughts.
“How troublesome… they advised hiring guards but…”
Let’s admit it. The reward is 30G. Likely, they count the guard costs in it. First, let’s think about food! A common meal in the Tavern costs 5G, the round trip lasts… 2 or 3 days? Then, the cost of hiring the guard itself…
Admittingly, the prices of the tavern are likely too high. If you got the tools and ingredients, you can likely cook the same meal but at a lower price. Nonetheless, I do not have these tools.
Anyway! It’s better to try without guards once, then, we will see how it goes. In the worst case--
“Eh! That’s fine! Paul, you will protect me and the goods, right?”
His eyes sized me with a hint of reluctance. I suppose I have to drop a hint. Or… money. It’s still cheaper than hiring guards!
“You are going to follow me and not let me die anyway. May as well protect the wagon at the same time, don’t you think? Ah, and I can offer 5G for that. And… something you may find interesting”
Another issue with hiring guards… I need to know where I can find skilled and trustworthy guards, don’t I? I don’t. I admit I could ask the Merchant Guild. Nonetheless, they may find me guards that are similar to speculated products. Wasteful for the customers.
“Haaa… you just want to take advantage of me, don’t you? Then, go on!”
Bah! Of course!
In any case, I remember that he always seemed to detect creatures dozens of meters away even when he could not see them. So, getting ambushed seemed unlikely… on top of that, bandits can just be scared off. Burn one of them to death while he is screaming, the rest flee-- usually, they are just normal people who turn vicious because of poverty.
Silently, we began travelling towards Asteria. Honestly, the beginning will likely be peaceful due to the presence of farms. After a day, we should have done around three-quarters of the trip.
“Paul, you can sleep. We should be safe for around… six hours. Only the two last hours before we get to set up a camp for the night may be troublesome.”
This friend of mine simply nodded and lied down in the wagon, just beside the goods. Good thing he understood. In the meantime… I have to think about camping.
Four hours later, nothing happened. I stopped the carriage to feed the horses and let them rest for a bit… I may be pushing it a bit too much. I should take a break every two hours, don’t I?
Six hours later… Huh. So they will attack at night? Should I wake up… no. Not yet. Although, I am surprised. He slept six hours straight! Anyway, I ate a jerky and fed the horses once again. Eight hours later. We stopped and I woke up this sleeping beauty.
“Paul. Wake up, it has been eight hours…”
Excluding the breaks. It has been eight hours… to be able to sleep eight hours in the wagon, I wonder how exhausted was he? Or was he awake but did not want to speak?
“Give me… five minutes. Can you prepare… a campfire? Unless you’re not capable of doing such a thing…”
I let out a sigh. How difficult could that be? Picking up wood and burning it… oh well. It was easily done after a little dozen of minutes. Surprisingly, I did not meet anyone. Were they waiting for me to turn my back?
“Oi, ye bastard! Come back here!”
Ha? That’s… unlike Paul. Yet it is his voice? At least, I do not think I ever heard him insult him blatantly. Thus, he probably did it on purpose… does it mean that something happened? No. He noticed something. Ah. The bandits, he likely felt them arriving!
I came back with the wood I picked up and began setting the campfire while I waited for him to whisper what was the current situation.
‘Five people. On the other side of the road, likely, they will try to enter into the wagon, take what they need and leave.’
Alright. If we ambush them, it is likely to turn out in our advantage. They are not bandit… let’s just threaten them. If they were real bandits, there would be no question, nor mercy…
--While I think that. I do not think we would be able to win against bandits when only two of us are guarding our wagon. However… if I maintain my composure, take one of them and burn him to death while holding him. That may ward them off…
If that does happen!
“I will try something. Just to scare them off.”
That’s simple. I was going to throw a fireball I would prepare for one or two minutes, and shout--
“Who is there?! Show yourselves or you will burn!”
My aim is purposely off, towards the sky… I don’t want anything I cannot see to burn because of my carelessness. Thanks to his--
“They are fleeing, hurriedly.”
You did not have to say that. I can even hear them running, one of them even fall on his way. The advantage of this act is that-- they will not resent me, because they did not see me. If we did ambush them, they would remember how I look like… while in this situation, half-hidden behind a wagon, nearby a barely lit campfire at night. They will overthink and think that they were careless!
“Phew. It worked. Although… how did you… determine that they were not gonna attack us?”
I have a few guesses but I was able to make them only after they fled, thus discovering that they were not accustomed to such situations.
“They were not on the right side of the road… on the road, they would have less means to stay discreet.”
...Simplistic but believable. If we met bandits, they would kill us. I mean, between silently robbing and, perhaps, being ambushed when we would discover their acts-- and just straight out eliminate the unknown menace. The latter was much more practical.
Although… in all honesty, that is not something you should determine by only this. For example, what if they had weapons and armours? Yet still came from the other side of the path.
“You fool. But… your ability’s just too useful.”
That is the only thing I could mutter. Even if his thought-processing was not impressive. The way he can pinpoint creatures even if he cannot see them is terrifying yet--
--he could not see it. That shape he wishes so much to know about.
Could I assume that this is a hallucination? Right, he did mention that only I could see him because of our blood ties. Nonetheless… it does not make any sense. Unless if he were to speak about it by using the concept of a ‘guardian angel’. Then, perhaps, with the already-made theories, we could make some sense of it…
However, it seemed to be unrelated to it. It seemed much more… primitive. As for why? He asked about ancient or tribal magic. The keyword to my ears appeared to be ‘tribal’. Usually, this kind of spells… does not accord well with the current concepts and so-called rules of magic. As if they functioned on a completely different plane.
--or people, in my previous world, wished to conceal how it functioned. Which may make sense. I would need to investigate it but before that… I need to go back to my world to investigate it, ha. So, I shall never know. Like so, so, so many things.
Right, I should get a notebook to organise my thoughts and… not forget them as well.
“Take a jerky from my backpack if you want to eat something… I will sleep.”
At least, try to.
Once it was morning, a delicious scent invaded my nose, my eyes immediately darted toward the fire camp and saw that… the meat was being roasted. Paul… I hate to think about it, but everything about him except his looks and personality is attractive. Hunting? Yes. Detecting enemies ahead? Yes. Fighting abilities-- actually, I don’t know?
“How lovely, I can eat meat right when I wake up.”
Admittedly, he could refuse and not let me eat anything. More seriously, can he eat everything? Probably not. Thus, I shall help him…
“Don’t touch, it’s mine.”
Too late. He seemed to be slightly annoyed but I didn’t mind and simply indulged myself into eating this delicious breakfast. I suppose I will need to find a way to calm him later on… these things happen I suppose? In any case, we never have any interesting topic to speak about.
Near evening but not quite, we arrived at Asteria, for some reasons, guards were waiting for us. I proved my identity and then gave them the packages to the guards..? Wait, it must be noted on the crates… I checked quickly and noticed that the receiver were the guards of Asteria…
“I have a question, what was exactly in the package?”
One of the guards frowned in surprise, likely because I transported packages without knowing what these were. However, he quickly regained his composure and replied to my question without flinching.
“Food and weapons… some bandits somehow succeeded at robbing both of these resources.”
I see… isn’t that worrisome that bandits could attack Asteria-- wait, robbing? Ah. They did not fight. Otherwise, the guard would not be so relaxed. If someone died, there would be a hint of emotion in his voice, yet there is none. Mmmm. So rather than bandits… they are thieves? How did they get it without getting noticed… no.
To make a wagon come-- how could they rob so much yet not be caught? That is… interesting. If possible, I would like to know more about that… But eh. That sounds more trouble than it is worth.
Before leaving, we got the guard’s captain to sign the receipt given by the Merchant Guild.
“Alright, see you for another time.”
Of course, I want that Merchant Guild’s license. Thus, I will come back in Asteria at least twice… then, I can begin an investigation. Work first, personal reasons later. I need all of my preparation to be properly set up. First… a stable income! Research later!
For now, let’s just hurry and get that licence. No time to rest. And thus, with that thought in mind, we immediately left after delivering the packages to the guards of Asteria. Once again, hours later, evening came and we were going to set up a camp when…
“...Bandits? True ones it seems. Six of them. That’s… gonna be difficult.”
That is… troublesome. Although, also a good thing since it will permit me to see Paul’s fighting performance. Alas, it seems like he cannot handle this alone!
“We have thirty seconds left.”
Unsure about whether I should participate or not. I wished to observe his skills. Nonetheless, I suppose this is an opportunity I cannot take… let’s just prepare for the fight. Likely, the only thing I could do was to prepare a spell. Fire can easily cause irreparable collateral damage, lighting would be great but I cannot use it. Mmmm. I suppose I can try to use the wind. In any case, Paul had already drawn his sword and seemed ready to fight.
“Bah! They already know we are here! Let’s just go!”
The six bandits immediately appeared on the other side of the campfire we were going to set up. First, I need to disrupt their formation. I could try to trip them so we can kill them… Alright, just earth suddenly sprouting out of the soil should be enough! With their footing disturbed, they should be easier to deal with.
‘I am gonna make the fall. Finish them.’
I whispered to Paul before casting a spell, the six of them were coming, four on the side, two on the other. A few seconds later, one fell, I was in a hurry and failed. I planned to make the first one fall, but instead, it was the second… who pushed the first one while falling. Leaving out an opportunity for Paul to kill him.
“Back down!”
“Alright!”
After one of them was down, Paul ordered to retreat I assume. Likely, to come back later and attack them once again. That was much better than fighting all of them. Seeing that one of them died, they let out a sigh to express their annoyance but, at least, it meant that they will have fewer goods to share--
“It’s empty!”
Now that they had their back turned, we decided to return. I assume that each of us will be able to take down one while they were enraged at trying to rob a wagon that had nothing in it. What I did was simply put my hand at the back of the head of one of them, and froze it… at least, I tried. That would, at the very least, incapacitate him for a while. Meanwhile, Paul killed one of them.
Only three were left. I assumed he would handle two of them while I will take on the third one. Since we still had the element of surprise… It was doable-- I punched my enemy into the throat. All I had to do was to finish him up… once he was down, I tried to snap his neck.? I often heard about that, but never did so… since I heard the bones cracking, it should be fine?
I turned my head and saw that Paul was fighting with one of them, the last. Phew. I can take a break and observe-- at this exact moment, my ‘friend’ received an injury on his shoulder. Immediately after… his opponent died.
“That went unexpectedly well?”
My mouth could not help but let out these words as I looked over the corpses and a thought came into my mind. We could just bury them. That would avoid us thinking about how to deal with these.
“Not quite… my injuries are rather troublesome.”
I looked over another time and noticed that his thigh seemed to have a slight wound while his shoulder was a deep wound. Admittedly, I have seen worse, and people still fought with these injuries… however, it seems, Paul is no warrior. He is likely a scout, a hunter or anything similar.
“Alright, sleep, I will clean up everything.”
The ‘scout’ immediately laid down and fell asleep. While I did find that it was strange for him to fall asleep so easily. It is easy to feel jealous of such an ability. If I could fall asleep every time I want to, life would become easier.
In any case, using magic, I dug a common grave for the six bandits and threw their bodies inside. I could have taken their weapons… but it’s possible to be asked their origin. Saying that it comes from bandits is a typical excuse.
Once I was done with that grave, I lied down on the ground next to the campfire and stargazed I suppose. It did not cross my mind that we could be assaulted a second time and tried to fall asleep. Unsuccessfully. For next time, I need to find a way to hire bodyguards without it exceeding fifteen gold… no. What is the true reward of this quest? The gold does not matter, only the Merchant Guild’s License is significant enough.
Right, next time-- each time, I will use, at most, thirty gold! Fortunately, we were lucky this time. Six bandits? It’s relatively a small number… Or actually, I suppose it depends on the region you’re living in. At least, six bandits seem like a low number to me. On top of that, while they were willing to kill, they did not seem experienced.
As I was in the middle of thinking, my ears caught on something, the whisperings of a certain shadow. Unintelligible words I could not understand… a sort of lost dialect I suppose? My eyes drifted towards its direction and saw it.
“Do you mind saying something I can understand?”
It stopped speaking. However, this time… I heard something, a word I could understand. No. I cannot understand it, but I already heard it-- with a slightly different pronunciation. However, the essence remains the same.
‘Ed--ax.’
Its voice was chilling as if it came straight from hell. It is like a mercenary trying to speak while he was choking on his own blood. Whether that voice was terrifying or not, it meant that this word was related to that creature thus…
“Are you Edax?”
No replies. It simply raised its hand and pointed at me before disappearing like fumes spiralling above a cauldron. A conclusion to this exchange would be either-- I am Edax, or… I am an Edax. I wish I could find some books… Aaah.
In any case, after this sleepless night, we rode the wagon back to Scribel City. When we arrived it was night. And Paul just woke up, there must be a reason to why he sleeps so much… something else than fighting exhausted him I suppose? While it is none of my concerns, I am curious… perhaps his ability to detect people ahead is exhausting?
Once we arrived at Scribel City, we went to the Merchant Guild and confirmed that we indeed delivered the merchandises.
“Ah yeah, Paul, take this.”
I handed over ten gold to him. He seemed to be surprised at first and planned to give me back five gold-- but I decided to leave towards the Adventurer Guild before he does so.
"I guess... that's not half-bad."
