Anne
And there he goes again, being his usual indecisive self. Really, why can't he man up and tell her off for once? Hmph, he probably enjoys the attention she's giving to him! Does he think I never noticed all the times he stole glances at that royal brat's large chest? The rumors are true after all, that the nobles of the Holy Empire are all perverts behind their fancy curtains!
I hailed from that place down south, or to be more accurate, from the Holden Earldom which is the northeastern part of the Empire. I was born to a hunter and his wife, thus I picked the bow ever since I could walk.
It wasn't an easy life by any means. Father would risk his life every day going into the nearby monster-infested forest and mountain to feed our family. He always told us that one day, he might just lose his life there, and when that happened, he hoped that our family would be able to go continue on living without him. That was why Mother took up the skill of embroidery, so that she too could earn money for our family if anything were to happen to Father. I too, as their only daughter, swore that I would help our family as best as I could.
In the end though, it didn't matter, as a sudden pour of monsters coming out from the forest killed both of them when I was still just a ten year old girl, thanks to our house actually built away from the village and near the forest instead. Father preferred solitude, and that, unfortunately, led to his and Mother's death.
Adventurers were dispatched to deal with the situation as they fortified the village. There, I met up with Norton, who back then, still had his old party with him. As you might have guessed, the monster horde wiped all of them out except for him, and in the end, we stuck together, forming an entirely new party just by the two of us.
Years passed, and we would join and leave other parties temporarily, never really sticking around much for one reason or another. We climbed up in the ranks, until we became B-rank adventurers. Then, we ended up meeting with the royal brat, who became our party mage, as we were desperately in need of one. To my shame, my arrows weren't enough to handle the monsters at our current level, especially as we now frequently fought off B-rank monsters and even the occasional highly dangerous A-rank. The royal brat had gotten into an argument with her former party and got kicked out as a result. I suppose Norton took pity on her, as she was crying in the most pitiful, pathetic way when we first met her.
It didn't take long until she took us for granted however, and she returned back to her haughty self.
Yet another reason to the list on why I hate nobles.
Back then, the local lord of our region never sent out his knights to fight off the monsters. That's why so many adventurers and villagers died to the monsters back then. The villagers, including myself, had to pool every single coin we had to post a quest to the Adventurers' Guild for help. Even so, we didn't have enough money to attract enough adventurers to come. I was extremely grateful to those who had chosen to come, even though to them, the risk must outweigh the payment. It was another reason why I went with Norton, to repay his kindness and the sacrifice of his party.
They never care about us the common folk. They only care to take our well-earned money in taxes, just to fund their lavish lifestyle.
Which was why when I realized we were going to travel for a length of time with yet another noble, I displayed my opposition.
"He's just some kid, isn't he? He'll just be dragging us down. And that expensive outfit… he doesn't even try to hide the fact that he's a noble." I voiced my complaint to our questgiver.
In the end however, he still insisted on bringing him along.
And now, near the end of our trip, I had to retract everything I said back then.
He was strong. Far stronger than he looked.
Twice he had saved our bums from certain danger. Once, when we were ambushed by a colony of Fire Ants. Our wonderful noble brat's fire magic was naturally heavily resisted by them and their numbers were so many that I couldn't hold them off no matter how fast I shot them. Before I knew it, I already ran out of arrows. As they started swarming around the passenger carriage, with the helpless men and women inside, I decided to do something reckless. I jumped off the top of said carriage and used myself as bait for them, just so I could get them away from the innocents that would get hurt if they were to burn the wooden carriage. I knew it was suicidal, as I could be surrounded by them in no time with no route to escape. Yet I did it anyway, as I couldn't bear to let anyone die on my watch.
And of course, that's exactly what happened.
Just when I thought it was all over however, a series of waterspouts suddenly came out from the ground, annihilating the ants one by one until there wasn't a single one left.
It was Charles. He, who throughout the fight, had been mostly acting as a front-line fighter along with Norton, suddenly was able to cast such powerful magic.
It didn't make sense. He was in no position to do that. To cast that level of magic, a mage would need around a minute in order to concentrate his mana and finish the long chant. And yet, it was as if he did it in an instant, with no chants whatsoever.
When the battle was over, my feelings were thrown into disorder.
I felt extremely grateful to him, as he pretty much had just saved my life. After one of the ants bit me in the leg, I fell down to the ground, bleeding from my injury. I was completely surrounded by the ants, with no chance to escape. I was already resigned to my fate, thinking that finally, I would join Father and Mother in the afterlife. And then, like a knight (or rather, a mage) in shining armor, he swooped in and saved me.
And yet, I was angry as well. Why did he hide that level of strength from us? Afterwards, I questioned him in the matter, but he simply dodged the question, telling how he simply had been chanting while using his sword at the same time, which was a complete lie of an excuse.
I felt hurt. I felt deceived. It's as if he was saying that he didn't really trust us. We had traveled together for two weeks then, and I thought we were already friends. Apparently not.
And that's why I couldn't really like him, even if I wanted to. Maybe if he told off that noble brat more, then my view of him would be more favorable. But knowing how he was a pervert who preferred girls with big chests, fat chance that would ever happen. He didn't even scold the noble brat when she broke down crying just from taking her very first human life.
I suppose I can talk about that as well. That was the second incident, a month after we departed from Grayden. We were ambushed by a band of bandits, who clearly had known we were coming beforehand. It was perfectly planned. It took place in a valley, a smaller one than this, and they sent down giant boulders from the cliffs to the left and right of us, blocking the road on both sides. Then, their cocky leader shouted from above, telling us to surrender, or else he would rain us with their arrows. He even showed us all the archers he got under his disposal. There must be at least 50 of them. It was clear that this was a professional job. They could even be deserters from the Udomia Kingdom's army. It wasn't unheard off for well-trained soldiers just abandoning their posts, taking up banditry instead. Usually, it happened when they weren't paid enough, thus banditry offered a more lucrative, yet less morally-sound offer.
It was a completely disadvantageous situation. If I moved to fire at them, or if the royal brat started to chant her spell, they would attack, and there was no way we would be able to survive a barrage of arrows from that amount of archers.
Our employer was ready to surrender, until Charles suddenly called upon a thunderstorm that shattered their formation into pieces. It gave us the opportunity to strike back, as the bandits, panicking of the series of thunders that blasted them up above, descended down to our place with the intention of killing whoever was casting the spell.
There, the royal brat was forced to take a life for the very first time, burning a number of bandits with her spell, leaving only horrid-smelling charred remains behind.
She broke down, and started crying in the most annoying, high-pitched voice possible. And Charles—that kid immediately came to her and comforted her.
Like, come on, she barely did anything in the fight. I killed most of the remaining bandits. And yet she decided to be a drama queen and clung to him so tightly, there was no way he wouldn't notice the two lumps of fat pressing into his chest.
With those thoughts, I gave him an angry stare, before giving a huff and looking away, not wanting to see anymore of his face or the noble brat who's sitting beside him.
At least, until I heard a screech from the skies.
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Hugo
"Monsters!" I shouted.
I immediately got up along with the others. In a monster attack, we already had prepared a strategy beforehand. The caravan would immediately reorganize itself into a circle formation instead of a line, to minimize the area where us as its guards had to defend.
I looked up to the skies and sure enough, there were three, no, four Steel Rocs circling our position. They were a common monster in this valley. Similar to the Hell Condors we had back home, they were also B-ranked giant bird monsters. They would attack by firing their razor sharp feathers like a rain of knives on their victims. Which meant we would have to draw their attention away from the caravan before the carriages were destroyed by their attacks.
"Everyone! Scatter formation!" Norton yelled as he readied his shield. "Anne! Draw their attention to us! Amelie! Move away and start chanting your spell! Charles! Guard her if any of the rocs decide to go for her!"
Like a true adventuring party leader, he immediately gave out the correct orders in an instant. He might be nowhere as strong as me, but I respected him for that. Compared to his party, the way Fiora and I fought were basically just us doing our own things with barely any cooperation, since the monsters we fought were so weak compared to us. However, for most adventurers, this is necessary to survive most monster encounters.
I ran away with Amelie, jumping off the carriage we were in, and as she drew her wand and started chanting her spell, I readied my sword to parry any incoming feathers.
Thanks to Anne's arrows, three of the rocs flew after her. As expected, they bombarded her with feathers in return, but Norton blocked them all with his shield. The remaining one came after us, but I managed to parry each and every single feather. It was so easy. They were nothing compared to the speed of Fiora's attacks.
"Flame Strike!"
Amelie launched a fireball at high speed into the air. It hit one of the rocs, before exploding in a swathe of flames, spreading the heat in a circle around the creature. It fell down from the skies, as its steel wings melted.
"Yay! One down!" Amelie celebrated.
Too early! I yelled in my mind. The battle isn't over yet!
And indeed it wasn't, as the other rocs, noticing what had just happened to their comrade, immediately moved in to attack the mage instead. Yep, it's just like how in MMORPGs, dealing damage will get you aggro.
She noticed it as well, and immediately repositioned herself to be closer towards Norton. Norton himself responded the same way, running towards our direction with Anne following from behind—the archer desperately trying to either draw back aggro or take out at least one of them with her arrows. If she can land one in one of their weakspots, like their eyes, then that's something she can do. The rest of their bodies however were made out of steel, which, as you no doubt already guessed, were resistant to normal arrows.
"Krraaaahhhh!"
Bullseye! One of the arrows indeed landed in one of the monsters' eyes, taking it out from the skies as well. I would be surprised, if I hadn't already known what an amazing archer she was, from all the time we had spent traveling together.
Two, however, still managed to launch their steel feathers towards us.
"Eeekkk!"
Amelie screamed as she realized what was coming at her direction. However, I stood in front of her and parried every single one of the feathers as well. Even two of them didn't really make me break a sweat.
And then, the final blow was landed by Anne, as she pierced one bird on its throat, and another in what could only be described as its exposed buttocks. Poor thing…
"T-thank you!" Amelie said to me as the fight was over. "If it weren't for you, then I would've—"
"Oh, it was nothing," I replied with a smile, turning to face towards her. "I'm just glad I could parry all those feathers, you know. I swear I must have missed a few."
There's no need to brag. Like I've said, I'm keeping a low profile here.
"You idiot!"
Suddenly, Anne's loud voice entered my ears.
"That was reckless of you! I told you before to use less powerful spells so the monsters won't go after you!"
Oh, it wasn't me she was scolding. It was Amelie. Putting her hands on her waist, she came up to the girl and began ranting at her.
"What would you do if Charles can't parry all the feathers, huh? Your stupidity is risking not only yourself, but the entire party as well!" She now pointed her finger at her.
"Oh, shut it! Charles here is perfectly capable of blocking all those arrows! You just don't trust him, which makes you the problem here!" She fired back, while flashing a smile towards me.
"You know he's only a kid, right? You can't rely on a kid to protect you! Have you no shame?"
"He's not a kid anymore! He's already a perfect adult and a gentleman! Right, Charles?" Once again, she gave the same smile while fluttering her eyelids.
"You're delusional! Just yesterday, he forgot to zip his pants after taking a leak! Can you say that's something a fully grown adult will do?
"Whaaat? You pervert! You peeked at his underpants, didn't you?"
"What?! How dare you even insinuate that?! I have you know that I immediately told him of his blunder while never even taking a single look!"
And so, once again, they returned to their arguments. I could only sigh, with Norton beside me doing the same.
...Oh, and I did actually forget to zip my pants back yesterday after my relief break. That was embarrassing. Pretty sure Anne stole multiple glances down there before she told me about it though.
We soon departed once more. We didn't have time to loot the birds as our employer insisted that we hurried onwards. No doubt he was scared of any more monster attacks.
It's fine though. We were paid handsomely for this job after all.
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Amelie
Sheesh, what's wrong with her?! Why can't she stop being grumpy and be nice for once?!
With a huff, I cut short my argument with the peasant girl as we climbed back up the carriage. I sat beside Charles once more, making sure that I smoothed down my skirt first and not to sit with my legs open like that peasant girl liked to do. Hmph, just because she wore those shorts under her skirt doesn't mean she should sit like that!
Well, it's just what you would expect from an unmannered, uncouth peasant like her. Unlike my dear Charles, who's the perfect gentleman in every sense of the word!
Oh yes, he is simply wonderful. At first, I thought he was just another snot-nosed noble brat who couldn't take care of himself, but he had proven himself well above all those other kids I was unfortunate enough to be forced to mingle with back at the capital. He never cried or whined or complained when our journey got tough, and he even comforted me when I had to do that abhorrent, horrifying thing of defeating those bandits with my fire spells. It was the very first time I had to kill another human being, and the sight of their charred corpses… urgh, even now, it still disgusted me to remember that. Like a true gentleman, he accepted my weakness as a lady, unlike that awful peasant girl who just mocked me for it. He even allowed me to sleep with him (n-not in that way, mind you!) for a few nights afterwards just so I could sleep without being bothered by nightmares from that terrible event.
If only Papa gave me a boy like him to be my fiance, then I wouldn't have to run away from home…
As a daughter of a noble from the capital, I knew from a young age that I would be married off to a boy from another noble house when I got old enough. But I expected them to be as refined and genteel as I am. Instead, the boy Papa chose, that despicable, no-good Richard, was an awful, awful boy! For starters, he was nowhere near as good looking as Charles. And he was not gentlemanly in the slightest! He would lift up my dress and peek at my panties, thinking it was in his right to do so just because he was his fiance! How dare he!
But Charles… Charles is different. Charles is nice and gentle and handsome. And he's really strong and reliable as well! And since he's a noble as well, maybe we can…
Oh, nononono! Papa will never approve of me marrying with some random, no-name noble!
But if he became a famous adventurer, then maybe even Papa would…
Ehe… ehehehehehehehe!