The coachman handed the letter back to Mike that received it as a angry yell sounded out from one of the wagon's in the back
"Get that bastard on the wolf over here at once!"
Mike however ignored the call out and simply made Serina tort next to the wagon until the coachman asked
"Aren't you going over there?"
"Hmm..? I have no idea what you mean, do I look like a 'bastard on a wolf'?"
THe coachman quickly shook his head
"No no, not at all Mike"
"By the way have you seen Julie, the [Paladin] from Morkove?"
"She's clearing the way for us and usually returns in the evening on her griffon"
"I see…"
Time passed and eventually it evening and the convoy stopped for the day and began setting up camp, Mike rested with his back against a tree while Serina's head lay on his lap, suddenly Serina's ears lifted before she looked over towards a group of people that walked towards them, as they walked closer Serina let out a low growl while showing her teeth which made them stop, then Mike spoke
"What do you want?"
One of the people, a young man in his 20's showed a nasty smile and yelled
"We want compensation!"
Mike narrowed his eyes slightly and considered just massacring them then and there, but then he remembered that Julie could show up any moment and decided to keep things civil and asked
"For what?"
The man yelled back
"Are you stupid or what? For Kenny's shoulder of course!"
Mike looked to the people over and sat that one of them were bandaged on the shoulder and quickly figured out that Kenny was the one with the crossbow that had shot a bolt after Serina when he caught up with the convoy and narrowed his eyes slight before he stood up and looked at the man with the bandaged shoulder while he asked
"So you want compensation? Fine, how much?"
"Since you're such a fuckhead We'll be magnanimous and only take---"
The man stopped speaking suddenly, before he reached up towards his neck and felt a throwing knife buried in his throat while bubbles of blood and saliva came out from his mouth, then he collapsed while gasping his throat, this of course made the rest of the group get aggressive but they held back as Serina let out a loud bark, then Mike spoke
"Listen here fuckheads, if you want to extort a level 3 and a evolved silver wolf at least get some more people than that"
The people looked like they choked slightly before one of them stammered out
"N-No way you are level 3!"
"Go ask the coachman from the front of the convoy if you doubt me or you could always charge at me, I am a long way from level 4 and I plan to get there within this year so I welcome any experience I can get"
The group of people eventually backed off and walked back to the convoy camp carrying their dead comrade, Mike gave a smile and called out
"Leave his copse here, Serina's hungry"
"Why the fuck should we do that!?"
Mike showed a wide smile and spoke in a chilling tone
"Because I'll kill another one of you if you don't"
After the sun went down and most of the adventures were gathered around the campfires or sleeping like logs, loud flapping was heard as a griffon landed in the middle of the campsite, Julie jumped off the griffon and patted it on the beak while she showed a sweet smile
"Good work today girl"
As she patted the griffon on the beak a coachman walked up to her and called out
"Lady Julie"
Julie didn't look at him, instead she was focused on patting the griffon but still she answered
"What is it?"
"A level 3 joined us today"
Julie stopped patting the griffon and looked over at the coachman before she asked
"...And?"
"Well… He killed an adventure earlier over a dispute, oh and his name is Mike"
Julie trembled slightly before she walked up to the coachman and asked
"What did you say his name was?"
"Mike"
Julie widened her eyes as hope clearly showed in them before she asked with a slightly trembling voice
"W-Where is he now?"
The coachman pointed away from the campsite
"He's resting over there"
Julie gave a nod and immediately walked in the direction he had pointed, soon she could make out something red in the distance, it lifted its head and looked at her, big eyes reflected the light from the campfires behind her with a green tint
'Is that a wolf!?'
She put her hand on the hilt of her sword and walked closer while her heart raced what felt like a million beats a minute as she could nearly make out a person in the dark and softly called out
"Mike..?"
Then after what felt like nearly an eternity of waiting a familiar voice answered
"Hey Julie"
Julie trembled slightly before tears slowly ran down her face and she asked again
"...Is it really you Mike?"
"Yeah"
"...I am not dreaming am I?"
"Hmm… I don't think so?"
Julie gave a sigh to calm herself down before she suddenly blushed and asked while playing with her hair
"C-Can't you pinch me to make sure..?"
"Sure"
Mike stood up while doing his best to ignore his racing heart and walked over in front of Julie before he brought his hand up to her face, but instead of pinching her he ever so slowly and carefully wiped her tears away while he inspected her face, then he spoke
"There, now you're all pretty again"
Julie blushed even deeper and slightly lowered her head as she played with her short silver hair and asked
"W-Was I not pretty before?"
Mike gave a wide genuine smile and quickly answered
"You are always pretty to me"
Julie blushed an even deeper shade of red and lowered her head even more. Mike stood in the silence that followed before he decided to just go for it and put his hand on her chin and raised her head slightly before he closed in with his face and kissed her, Julie stiffened up at first but soon she melted into his embrace, the two of them seared a kiss under the dim moonlight until Serina let out a ruff and Julie broke away and quickly spoke
"S-S-S-See you tomorrow Mike!"
Then she turned and ran away, Mike stood and watched her back run back to camp with a dumb smile on his face as a particular kind of happiness welled up his chest for the first time in his life and he got an increasing urge to yell out in pure joy, the feeling lasted for several minutes until it eventually faded slightly, but the dumb grin he had on his face still persisted until long into the night…
The next morning Mike awoke by Serina's snore which he had gotten used to over the days on the road, as he thought back to what had happened the night before a silly smile crept onto his face before he quickly shook his head and felt his stomach rumble before he opened Serina's saddlebags and took out some jerky and dry biscuits and munched on them before he drank some water from a water skin he also had in the saddlebags, then he took some some jerky and held it in front of Serina's nose and watched as her breathing got a little quicker before she opened her eyes and began licking the jerky along with Mike's hand before he fed it to her and patted her on the head
"Morning Serina"
Serina gave a bark as her tail began wagging, Mike spent a few more minutes petting and feeding Serina before he told her to wait for him and walked into camp and quickly found Julie's tent with a griffon sleeping outside and called out
"Julie, are you awake?"
A few moments passed before a slightly panicked voice responded
"M-M-Mike..? What is it?"
Mike gave a smile
"I was thinking we could eat breakfast together?"
Even though Mike had just eaten he wanted to use it as an excuse to spend some time with Julie
"S-Sure, wait a moment"
Mike waited and looked at the griffon that stared at him with watchful eyes and quickly thought back to his old world and thought
'Bird memes, best memes'
Then he gave the griffon a smile as he imagined it screaming into a plastic cup like a certain cockatoo he had seen on the internet. Soon Julie emerged from the tent, she had a shy look on her face and played with her silver hair twisting it around her finger as she greeted Mike
"G-Good morning Mike"
Mike gave a smile and greeted her back
"Good morning Julie are you hungry?"
"Y-Yeah... "
Mike's smile widened without him knowing as he looked at Julie dressed in her silver half plate armor
"Then wanna grab something to eat with me?"
Julie blushed a little before she gave a happy smile
"Sure…"