Inside the forest. The four of them ran far from the cave as Saito and Herjar helped the girls as the ran. After venturing deep into the forest and far from the cave, they finally stopped to rest.
The girls slumped on the ground when they stopped and started crying. Saito didn't know what to do so he looked at Herjar, but he gave him a 'you talk to them' kind of look. Saito gave in and said, "Don't worry we should be safe for now or at least that's what I hope and we are sorry for what had happened earlier... It was because we let out guard down.... We are extremely sorry!" Saito bowed and Herjar stood there with his eyes wide.
The girls were shocked as well, they did not expect him to bow to them just like that. He is their savior and why should he bow? That's absurd!
One of the girl immediately said, "No, its not your fault.... It was us who let our guard down to begin with and this is the result of that..... You don't need to apologize for it but.... Thank you once again for saving us!" Now the girls bowed to them.
Saito looked at the girls. They were not bad looking and can even be considered pretty. He decided go ask, "So, who are you guys?".
The girls looked at each other and said, "We are adventurers from the Margna city across the mountain, we took the quest to kill some goblins and we eventually found this place while killing them and then all that happened..." she described how they got ambushed and how the boys were killed and that's how they ended up in that situation.
Saito scratched his head while thinking what to do next. "Well, we can't leave them just like that and go back anyway, what do you say?" He asked Herjar. Herjar thought for a bit and said, "We can escort them till the outskirts of Margna, but that's all we can do and I don't want to run into trouble nor do I want soldiers over there!".
"Both are same you know?" Saito teased him. He looked at the girls and asked, "If that is ok with you girls, then we will escort you to the outskirts of the city". The girls looked at each other and nodded their head, "We will be in your care for now!".
"Well then, let's make haste as we also want to get back soon" Herjar said and looked at the sky. One the girls asked, "By the way, I'm Sana a priest and this is Mana a mage, And you guys?".
Saito said, "I'm Saito, a Samurai and this is my pal Herjar, a Dark elf Assassin, we are Mercenaries from Forgwell! Nice to meet you". The girls staggered and muttered, "Mercenaries? Dark elf? Wait! Are you mercenaries from the infamous Dark Mercenary Guild!?".
The girl's face showed fear, both of them. Saito and Herjar looked at each other and said, "No, you got us wrong! We are not Dark Mercs". The girls still had their suspicion, but nonetheless they were saved by them and were even willing to escort them back to their town, so its not bad to trust then for a while? Is what they thought.
Moving through the forest while chatting to pass time they learned a lot from each other. Saito went on with his eastern country story while Herjar went with "A random guy looking for a place to live in and ran into a weird guy and got paired up" story. As for the girls, Sana is from country side and her family is of farmers while Mana was from a town in the north. Both of them were from normal common families and got to meet up in the adventurers guild in Margna with the rest of their party. This is supposedly their first quest and they completed it with the help from Saito and Herjar and with the cost of their comrades.
By talking with them, Saito got the General idea of the areas surrounding here. Forgwell is a free non-ruled by a kingdom or an empire city, a neutral city with no support to any rulers but they maintain a good trading relation with others.
While on the other hand, Margna is a city under the control of Kingdom of Garcia. Their king is said to be a warrior who is unparalleled in one on one combat and their first prince is also a great knight selected to be one of the heroes being put together by the kingdoms and empires to fight the demon king in the eastern continent.
As far as he learned till now from the information he got, there is a total of seven continents in this world. The Human continent where only humans stay, the Sub-Race continent where a lot of races such as elves, beastkin, humans and demons and a lot of unknown creatures located in the west, the Beastkin continent where the Animal people rule is located in the south, the Mystical continent where the fairies and Ents and lot of Nature Spirits and elementals reside in the north, the Demon continent where the demons stay as the name says and there are supposedly a lot of demon tribes there and the demon king rules over them all is located in the east, the Hell continent where the 9 Lords of Hell live in their 9 Hells is located in the far east, it is rumored that there was 12 Hells in the past but 3 of them were destroyed in the war of Order and Chaos at the cost of few gods, the Heavenly continent where as the name says the Gods stay with their subjects is located in the far west across the Human continent, which is located to the west of Sub-Race continent and last but not least the Battle Continent located at the center of the Sub-Race and Beastkin and Mysticals and the Demon continents and this is where each and every race fight! There was once a great war between the Beastkin, the Humans, the Elves and the Demons in that continent.
War rage now and then over there, loss of lives, violating women and children and selling the as slaves and pillaging villages. Chaos run apparent in that place, Demons own half of the southern Central Continent, which is another name for the Battle Continent.
There is a place for every race in that continent, all of them fighting for the supremacy. Humans fight because of the greed of land and power, Beastkin fight for their honor and dignity that they won't bow down to anyone, demons fight for flesh as always and the Mystics never goto to war as they don't leave their continent and won't allow any.
Not only the humans and demons and others fight over there but there are also a deck lot of powerful and yet at the same time weak monsters live there. They attack anyone and everyone they see. Neutral territories are not rare over there but there is also factions which own territories over there.
Right now, they are in the Sub-Race continent which is located at the west of Central Continent.
Thinking about all those things, he couldn't help but think there will be a lot of work for him to do if he wants to live peacefully. As an old saying goes, "Peace is not something that's earned, it's taken!".
While Saito was deep in his thoughts, Herjar sensed something near in the surroundings and climbed a tree without Saito even noticing him as he was deep in his thoughts. The girls were suddenly taken back by his behavior and shook Saito's shoulders to bring him back to reality.
"What's wrong?" Saito asked Sana who called out to him. "Uhmm... Your friend is being weird" she pointed at Herjar who was on a tree and looking at the surrounding with a serious look.
Seeing that serious look on his face Saito became serious as well, "How many?" he asked. "6 if not 8! Big and heavy! Don't know if we can do it" Herjar replied. "Oii! Which way is that city?" Saito asked hurriedly. The girls knew something's wrong, so Sana pointed where the city is, "It's that way". Saito gave Herjar a look.
Herjar immediately understood what he meant so he looked St the direction of the city. He said, "Its clear! You should make haste! Avoid all the enemies and obstacles on the way and reach the city fast!". The girls looked at each other and asked, "Then.... What about you guys!? You are also coming with us right?" Sana looked a bit tearful. Saito put his hands on her shoulder and said, "Don't worry about us and go, we will get some time for you to escape and finally let our lives leave us" he sounded like a guy who was about to die.
"Eh!? No! You can't! You just saved us and we became friends only now..... You can't....." Sana said with tearful eyes. "Pfft... Hahahahaha! You really think we will die that easy? Come on! That guy over there is a Dark elf Assassin and I'm a Samurai! No matter what, we will live through this" Saito started laughing.
Sana pouted, "Don't do that ever again! For a second I thought you were gonna suicide!". "Don't worry about us and go, we will meet again" Saito said and the girls nodded their head with a smiled on their face which made them look like a blooming flower and left.
Herjar jumped down and said, "Was that really necessary?". Saito's face changed, "They wouldn't leave if I didn't say something like that". Herjar nodded his head lightly.
Saito asked as he turned, "Who is the unlucky ones facing us?". "Trolls" Herjar said as he turned as well. What greeted them was ten Trolls towering like a tree with a club in their hands.