As the next hour approaches, one by one each group arrives, and finally the few guards that are accompanying us arrive with several horse-drawn carriages. At the centre is a well-decorated black carriage, which I presume holds the coffins of the Marullinus couple. Surrounding that is four other carriages and while not as fancy as the centre one they are larger and seemingly designed to carry large groups of people.
"Good, everyone is here," Drusus says while looking over everyone, "here is how we are going to group. There will be two members of the City Guards to drive each carriage, while I will be in charge of the centre one. There are eight adventurer parties, as such, you will split into two groups for each of the surrounding carriages. How you form your groups is not of my concern, so just sort it out yourselves. Just make sure you're all done within ten minutes."
Reacquainting myself with the composition of the other parties, other than Lia and I, there is only one other party of women. Most of the others are a mix of men and women, and then there is Julius and one other that consists of only men. Seems like everyone has the same idea as Julius goes to talk with the leader of the other male only party and the mixed parties group up together. Likewise, a heavily armoured woman, the leader of the other female only party walks over to us.
"I'm sure you two have noticed the trend here, so how about it?" she asks.
"I don't mind, although from the looks of it there isn't much of a choice at this point even if we didn't want to group up with you," Lia says.
Together with the other party of four, we head to one of the carriages in the front, taking a seat inside as we reintroduce ourselves.
"We briefly spoke earlier, but once again, my name is Lia. A pleasure to be working with you."
"A pleasure, I'm Valeria, a Legionary and the leader of this party," she says, then pointing to the three behind her, "over here we have Vorenia, she's a Sagittar. This Fulvia, our party's cleric. And then we have Livia, our mage."
As she finishes everyone turns towards me as I am the only one that hasn't introduced themselves. "I'm Cordelia, try to avoid touching my wings or tail, they're toxic and will hurt if you come into contact with them", I say while pushing my tail against the walls of the carriage leaving burn mark, "see, so try to be careful."
"I see, I'll keep this in mind. So what are your classes?" Valeria asks.
"I guess it's not much of a secret since it can be found easily with inspection skills. I'm a Dragon Rider. As for Cory, is you were to look her class would show up as Dragon Element Master, and while that's not wrong, it's not right either. Just try not to pry too deep into the matter."
After a couple more minutes the five carriages set out and we begin our journey. Looking at the guards, they seem to be a little nervous, while on the other hand, the adventurers are calmer, but are still keeping a watch for any suspicious activity. As for Lia, she isn't worried in the slightest, rather, she is completely relaxed. Although we shouldn't have any reason to worry since we know the full story behind the deaths of the Marullinus couple, being the ones responsible for it, I can't help but be a little worried.
Our journey for the day went by with relative peace, much to mine and Lia's expectations. Other than a few wandering monsters, there weren't any disruptions. We had arrived in a new city a little past noon, but it was decided that we would just pass by since we arrived ahead of schedule. But now we have to camp out on the roadside for the night since we weren't able to make it to the next city before the sunset.
Although, having to camp out isn't anything new for adventurers so we manage to get things settled quickly. And with it being our turn to keep watch, Lia and I use our Soul Connection to communicate.
{As a direct result of our less than honourable methods, we got the escort quest we've been wanting, it's quite a nice turn of events. So why are you so worried?} Lia asks.
{It's precisely because of that. It's way too lucky for someone like me, something bad is going to happen, I'm sure of it. Something bad always happens.}
{... Damn, you're right, this is weird. Stuff like this doesn't usually happen to us. We should be on the lookout for something dangerous, I've been too relaxed so far.}
~~~
As a surprise to everyone, the entire journey to Ugernum went by with almost no issues. Other than a few monsters showing up then and again, there weren't any problems. Although the danger that we were expecting was different from what everyone else was, nothing happened. No giant monsters, no legendary class brigand, nothing happened at all. This whole time we were on edge for the entire past week and a half. But as we pass the city gate of Ugernum, both Lia and I get a message from the system.
[You were expecting a normal notification, but it was me Akkre! So, How was it, spending more than a week being suspicious of anything that moved. Losing sleep over the worry something truly dangerous might show up. Too bad! Nothing happened, anyway, I have things to do and rollercoasters to ride, later.]
{Ok, I completely understand why you want to slug this guy in the face,} Lia says through the Soul Connection.
{See, isn't he just the most annoying piece of shit you've ever met!}
And before long we receive the proof of completion from Drusus and all the adventurers head off to the Guild. Still, nothing happened. Damn, we really did spend all that time worrying for nothing.