Sheila looked at us in surprise and asked "Are you alright Ren? Are you hurt somewhere?"
It seems like Sheila thought I was injured since Elsie was carrying me.
"No no… I am fine."
"Don't worry! Ren is fine. It was me that insisted on carrying him here. He… he is just too cute!"
"Eh?… oh.. Ok." Sheila looked unhappy about something. She had a frown on her face and bit her bottom lip.
I was just about to get down when Sheila suddenly came forward, bent and grabbed me under my arms. She then simply plucked me off Elsie's back and then placed me on her hip.
I was a bit surprised by the maneuver but before I could say anything Sheila looked at Elsie and said "Yes, he is very cute…."
Elsie also looked surprised and before she could say anything, Sheila closed the door on her face! I didn't know what had angered Sheila but I decided not to bring it up. Sheila turned around and walked up to our bed. I saw that Cleo and Leana were sitting on Leana's bed while Turek was sitting on my and Sheila bed. Sheila sat down next to Turek and placed me on her other side.
"So… what are we doing?" I asked in confusion as everyone kept staring at me.
Cleo cleared her throat and said, "We were just discussing whether we want to join tomorrow's raid. So far we are thinking of joining the raid. I am sure there will be a big reward and since we already know so much about the bandits, it shouldn't be too hard. The guild will also have strong fighters in this raid and we shouldn't have to worry about our safety. It might help us get to F rank right away!"
"Hmm… alright."
"Leana and me think that you, Turek and Sheila shouldn't come because it might be too dangerous for you. But Turek and Sheila are insisting on coming. How about you?"
"I…I want to come too."
While I was scared of this raid, I knew I needed to get stronger. And I had to brave dangers like this if I wanted to be an adventurer. Even if I am not able to fight, I should be able to help out in other ways. I was actually more worried about Sheila. What if there is some kind of control that the bandit queen has on her. What if she attacks us when we get there?
I couldn't really bring this up in front of Sheila. Cleo might have thought about it too but I guess even she couldn't bring it up either.
"Alright. We will all go. But Turek and Ren, you are not going to join in the fighting. You will stay in the back. If it looks like we are losing, you can go back to the city and bring help to rescue us. It seems like a very unlikely scenario but there is no way I will be fine with you participating otherwise." Cleo seemed quite serious as she said this.
"Also, Sheila will stay with you to guard you."
I looked up at Sheila and she seemed fine with it. If we stay far away from the bandit cave, maybe the bandit queen won't be able to affect Sheila. That was my only hope.
"We will need to wake up early and prepare. Thankfully we have already brought the weapons and armor and they should do for now. After the raid, we can buy better ones with the hold we received today. We will pack some food from the inn for tomorrow. They should have some dried meat, fruits and bread that we can buy. I will talk with the innkeeper after this to make sure that we can get the food. Let's go to sleep now. I will be back in a few minutes."
Cleo got up and went down to talk with the innkeeper. Turek got up and went to his bed to sleep. I got up and went to talk with him.
"Hey Turek." I said in a low voice so Sheila and Leana don't hear us.
"Hey Ren. What's up?"
"How do you feel about the raid tomorrow?"
"Eh.. I already said I want to go. How am I supposed to gain experience as an adventurer if I don't go on adventures?"
"But I think it will be quite dangerous…"
"Yeah but that's why we are not going to fighting right? We also have Sheila who can help us if we get attacked."
I saw that Sheila and Leana had already laid down on their beds and pulled up the blankets.
"I was thinking… it will take us some time to get to the bandit camp. If there are any magicians in the raid, maybe you should learn from them on the way."
"That's a good idea. But I don't know if they will be willing to teach me."
"When we go to the guild tomorrow, let's talk with the guild master about it. Maybe she would be willing to find someone to teach you."
Turek nodded and said "Alright, lets try that. Thanks Ren."
I nodded and got up from the bed. I went around and turned off the 3 lamps that were burning plunging the room into darkness. There was only the moonlight that came through the window to light up the room. I carefully walked to where Sheila was sleeping and sat down on the bed. Sheila was quite considerate of me and had left as much room as possible for me. Sadly because of her size, it was still not a lot of space.
I laid down on the bed and entered Sheila's blanket. It was a cold night but it was warm enough inside. Sheila was sleeping on her side since I wouldn't be able to sleep on the same bed if she was on her back. The bed was too small for both of us to be lying on our backs. I followed Sheila's example and laid down on my side as well. I could feel Sheila's gentle breathing on my face and decided that this was not a great position. I was too close to Sheila. So I turned the other way and decided to sleep with my back to Sheila. Thanks to that I was able to relax a bit.
Cleo came back soon and went to her bed to sleep. After a few minutes I could hear her steady breathing. I was sure that everyone was asleep at this point. But for some reason, I wasn't very sleepy. It could be because I had already slept for a long while in the afternoon. Cleo, Leana and Turek had gone to talk with the guild master and probably were more tired than me. She seemed to have been awake when I had woken up. Maybe she didn't sleep all that much either.
I started thinking about what Elsie had said and how she would be training me. If her fighting techniques match her strength, she will be a really good adventurer. She reminded me of Janet and Val. Both of them were quite young but were already D rank adventurers. Maybe Elsie will be D rank in 3 years from now. Janet had said that she too started adventuring when she was 15 years old. Janet and Val had used levelling but Elsie was already this strong before becoming an adventurer. Maybe she will be even stronger than those two!
Soon I fell asleep while thinking various thoughts.