It's really surprising just how much Aura looks like a guy with all of her armour on. Female knights are hardly rare, but their armour is made completely different from a guy's. I dunno if there's some reason she wears a man's armour, and it's not my place to pry, nor does she seem to care whether or not people get her gender wrong.
Still, she certainly cuts an imposing figure, striding through the town in full armour, a Greatsword strapped to her back. Man, it's starting to make me jealous. No mage could ever hope to look that cool outside of a fight.
"Alright, our next quest is a simple monster extermination." Aura explains. "A swarm of slimes have been spotted around the plains.
"Just to make sure, there's not, I dunno, a queen slime hiding around the corner, is there?" I ask.
"The Ogre was simply an isolated incident." Aura defends. "Besides, if there were a queen, I doubt its presence would remain undetected."
Sure, you say that, but I can't see how anyone could've missed an Ogre making camp in the forest, either.
"I'm surprised you're not more excited about this, Darius." Emerald probes. In the short time she's known me, when have I ever been excited about anything? "All that stands between us and staying in the Guild are a bunch of the weakest monst-" I quickly cover Emerald's mouth with my hands.
"What the hell are you doing?!" I ask. "Are you trying to activate my bad luck? You can't just say things like that out loud, everyone knows that!"
Emerald tries to speak through my hand, coating my palm with spittle. A quick punch to the hip convinces me to remove it, and Emerald immediately begins complaining. "Oh, come on, I didn't take you for the superstitious type, Darius."
"With luck like mine, you can never be too careful." I explain. "Anything that could invite any negative repercussions is completely off-limits in this party.
"And what makes you the leader?" Emerald tries picking a fight with me but is stopped by Aura.
"We're here." She says, pointing out a group of slimes a little way in front of us. With a single motion, she takes out her sword and begins running towards them. Yep, looks like she can handle this, no problem, and after tricking me into taking down that Ogre, she owes me a little downtime. Not unexpectedly, Emerald disagrees, and heads after Aura, dragging Claire by the hand.
"Darius, are you just gonna stand there?" Come to think of it; I haven't had a chance to take in the scenery around these plains. I never really saw any point coming here before becoming an Adventurer, but it undoubtedly is a beautiful place.
"I seriously can't believe you sometimes!" The fresh air away from the hustle and bustle of town life, the green fields and blue skies. There's only one word to describe it, idyllic.
"Miss Claire, please heal Miss Emerald! You fiend, how can you assault an innocent girl without even a shred of remorse? I shall punish you with this blade!" If I listen closely, I think I can hear a stream off in the distance. I wonder if that's where the town's water comes from. You just don't think about these simple things when life is stressing you out.
"P-Please, let yourself rest for a moment, Emerald." Maybe when this quest's been reported, we can come back here and have a picnic. I'm sure our reward can cover something like that, and it's nice to just get back to nature every so often, y'know?
"I cannot believe that you just stood around looking at trees while we fought!" Needless to say, Emerald was less than impressed with my perfectly well-deserved rest.
"You guys had it handled perfectly fine." I say. "Besides, I carried the first three quests we took."
"What?" Emerald begins.
"He has a point." Aura defends. "I mean, he certainly took out that Ogre with hardly any input from us."
"Don't just go along with what he says!" Emerald argues back.
"If anything, I was helping you guys. You'll never get stronger if I just do all the heavy lifting."
"We did all level up from that fight." Aura adds. Finally, somebody in this party had my back. Aura, I've decided, from this point on, you're my favourite!
"Gah!" It seems Emerald is using every ounce of her willpower to keep herself from punching me over the row of buildings. For some reason. No idea what it could be. "Don't act like you were trying to help us! There isn't an altruistic bone in your body!"
"You really think you know me that well after two days?" Granted, she's completely right, but I'm not going to let something as ephemeral as the truth get in the way of winning this argument.
Emerald yelled at me all the way to the guildhall, where we finally reported the two quests and received a hefty sum of gold for the trouble. And with that, I could go back to coasting on minimal effort for another month.
"Darius, there's been reports that some scouts from the Night King's army have been spotted near town." Aura says, looking at the quest board.
"Have there now." I respond, heading out towards the merchant's district.
"H-Hold on! This could be serious!" Aura calls after me. "What if he seeks to conquer Larit?"
"Why would he care about this place? He'll go for Inesrov first." I wave off her concerns. "Besides, I'm off to get better gear, so if this place does get attacked, I'll handle it." Larit falling under the Night King's control would cause a problem for me, I suppose, so if it comes down to it, I'll be forced to put in some effort.
"Ah, I see." Aura nods, before she, Claire and Emerald follow me outside. "Yes, it would be prudent to spend our reward on better gear."
"What are you planning?" The ever mistrustful Emerald questions me.
"I'm planning on getting some new spellbooks." I say, though it's clear she doesn't trust me one bit. For some reason.
The market district of Larit is set up into two distinct districts. One is for general purchases, food and amenities and the like, whereas the second is for Adventurers, and provides us with gear for taking on quests. Claire and I make our way to the book store, which exclusively stocks spellbooks, while the muscle heads are checking out the blacksmith. Starting equipment is supplied by the Guild, so this'll be all of our first times buying our own gear.
"I think the healing spellbooks are down this way." Claire tells me, heading down one of the aisles, though it'd be more accurate to call it a corridor, seriously, this book store's huge! Part of me's worried that she'll get lost and freak out if she can't find me, but Claire's a big girl, even if she is a little timid, it's not like she needs constant supervision. Yeah, she'll be fine. As for me, I could bump up my Elemental magic to tier two, but I want to be versatile, so I head over to the section for summoning magic. I mean, if Emerald's gonna kick up a fuss every time I let her gain some experience, it's smarter to learn some summons instead of arguing with her all the time, this way I can say I contributed, but really just let my familiars do all the work. I take my purchases up to the front desk, and wait for Claire to finish up with hers.
"Excuse me for asking, sir." The shopkeeper, a young looking elf woman with short blonde hair who seems as bored as I am. strikes up a conversation while I wait, and I already know what's coming next. "You wouldn't happen to be the new Unique I've been hearing about, would you?"
"That's right." I say, really not wanting to have this conversation again. What is it now, the fifth time?
"Kay. Just wondering." She says, before leaning back in her chair. Wait, was that it? I know I just got finished complaining, but seriously? That's all she's gonna say?
"Sorry, were you waiting long?" Claire asks, carrying an assortment of spell books. "I got a little caught up in deciding what I wanted, so..." She trails off. "Oh, hello Emily. I didn't know you were working here now."
"Sup Claire." The elf, Emily, nods in acknowledgement. "Yeah, Vhe said my energy was out of whack and that I should find somewhere else, or something like that. Put in a good word for me here though, so I can't complain."
"He was always a strange one." Claire giggles. "We were actually just headed for his shop."
"We were?" I ask.
"Vhe owns the item shop." Claire tells me. "He's a little odd, but he's nice enough."
I can't help but wonder what Claire considers to be 'a little odd'. Between Emerald's fervent belief in heroes, Aura's accidental cross-dressing, and my... well, I guess I'm kind of normal barring the whole 'Unique' thing, Claire's the closest to normal out of the three of us, and she lives in a mansion for some reason.
Honestly, if I had things my way, I'd be power reading my new spellbooks at home right now, but the girls had pre-emptively insisted we also head to the item shop to stock up on potions and the like. I'll admit I'm somewhat intrigued by this Vhe person, but not so much that I'm gonna, y'know, make any effort to interact with the guy. Although the person who greets us when we enter isn't a guy at all, but a girl with odd eyes and cat ears.
"Welcome!" She says, grinning at us the instant we enter. "Feel free to purr-use our wares."
"Is this Vhe?" I whisper to Claire.
"Oh, no, this is his daughter." She responds, before heading over and petting the girl. "How've you been, Callie?"
"Seriously, what happened to the nervous shut-in we recruited?" I ask. "You're like a completely different person. Am I that much of a good influence?"
"I doubt that." Emerald drawls.
"Me, Callie and Emily have been friends since we were kids." Claire explains with what I would previously have called an uncharacteristic giggle. "It'd be pretty weird if I was still shy around them."
"I keep telling you not to pet me when I'm at work!" Callie snaps, batting Claire's hand away. Man, she really is a cat, huh? "Seriously, have a little decorum."
"Ah, dearest Callie!" A man's voice comes from behind me. "I see you've been holding down the fort perfectly while I've been away."
"Ah, there you are, Vhe." Claire smiles at the owner, who walks forwards, straight through myself, Emerald and Aura, to greet her.
Dressed in a dapper suit and top hat, the owner of the Item Shop turns to face us after saying chatting with Claire for a while, and I'm not too proud to admit I'm taken aback by his appearance, I'd already noticed his smooth, salamander-like tail, and expected him to be a beast-kin, like Callie, but his face had no reptilian features at all, or any other animal traits for that matter. Instead, his face was almost human, save for the glaring fact that he had five, bright red eyes. Despite this off-putting feature, there was nothing threatening about the man, he actually seemed pretty friendly, in fact.
"I'm glad to hear that dear Claire has finally found a party. She was so excited to get her qualification. It came as quite a shock to hear she'd holed up in her bedroom after only taking on a single quest."Vhe explains, and I notice another oddity. His hands weren't attached at the wrist and seemed to float around as he gesticulated. This dude gets weirder by the minute, but I can't bring myself to point any of it out for fear of offending him; something I never normally care about, which makes things even weirder.
All we really came for was some potions, but it was kind of nice to meet some of Claire's old friends and get a feel for the town.
"So, I never asked where you guys' home towns were." Claire mentioned as we headed back to the guild hall. "Sorry, I probably seemed super rude-"
"I'd really rather not talk about it." I grumble. The last thing I need is for these guys to know where I came from. "This place is my home now. I guess."
"Yeah, same." Emerald adds, which is honestly kind of surprising. I figured she'd be the type who loved her hometown and everyone in it, since she was the opposite of me in every other way.
"I am from Ghalytorm." Aura says. "My family have been knights in service to the high noble houses there for generations."
"So why'd you leave?" Emerald asks. "That's not the kind of duty you can just walk away from."
"Ah, my apologies for the confusion. Only the eldest child goes on to serve the nobility. My elder brother is the captain of Lord Kanarad's personal guard." She says with a notable air of pride. "I was given the opportunity to serve under him, but I chose to hone my skills as an adventurer first, as my uncle did before me."
My, how noble. But Ghalytorm has it's own adventurer's guild, doesn't it? Why come all the way out to the sticks? Not that I intend to ever ask her that. I'm not one to pry. Or care, for that matter.
"Is Ghalytorm nice?" Claire asks. "I've never visited."
"It is not much of a tourist destination." Aura admits. "There is little reason to make the journey, other than to enlist as a Knight."
From what I've heard, Ghalytorm is right on the Inesrov-Physonym border. Back when the two regions were at war, they were the first and last line of defence, and they've kept that militaristic ideology into the modern, peaceful age.
"I don't mean to pry, but why don't you two want us to know where you're from?" Aura asks. "I mean, I've had pride for my hometown drilled into me from an early age, are the two of you not the same?"
"Absolutely not." Emerald scoffs, subtly pulling ahead. She almost seems as embarrassed by her past as I am. It's honestly kind of impressive.
"What of you, Darius?" Aura turns her attention to me. If she's so desperate to know, I guess it's better if I just tell her, rather than her finding out some other way.
"Ta'ad Village." I mutter.
"Pardon?"
"I'm from Ta'ad Village."
"Wait, you don't mean..." Aura gasps. "You said your last name was Crowley, did you not?"
"Agh! This is why I didn't want to tell anyone! I already have too much attention on me, you think I want people to know I'm the heir to a freaking cult!?"
"My apologies, Darius. I did not mean-"
"I swear, you tell a single soul who my parents are and I'm marching straight to Ghalytorm and yelling from the rooftops about my friend the cross-dressing knight!"
"I have to wonder whom this cross dressing knight you refer to might be, for I certainly have no idea! The difference between armour labelled as 'for men' and 'for women' is arbitrary at best, and I see nothing wrong with a person choosing one over the other for a matter of comfort."
"Comfort!? Don't tell me it's about comfort, how can you breath when your armour's squeezing those things so hard I'm surprised they haven't relocated to your back!"
"And whatever might 'those things' be? Hmm? Are you so childish you cannot say the word breasts without breaking into a fit of giggles?"
"Oh, so you know what I'm talking about? Guess I hit the nail on the head, right? Doesn't seem so comfortable to me!"
"Would you two shut up!?" Emerald bellows from ahead of us. Thankfully my loud companions haven't amassed a crowd this time, but I do have to admit, we were probably cutting it a little close. Besides, we're at the Guild Hall now, and it's best to leave any bad blood at the door. We make our way inside, and are greeted by a frantic looking guild attendant.
"Oh, thank the gods you're here." She says. "A small garrison of the Night Army have been seen outside the town.
Great. What wonderful timing we have. I really need to find a way to buff my luck.