The four of us set off from Turmeric Village under the blue sky and yellow sun. The road out of the village is flanked by the various greens and browns of the plants. Yellow flowers, red berries, white clouds.
The world we live in feels colorful. It's not a dreary symphony of grays, greys, light blacks, and dark whites like Japan was. This world is beautiful. I want to explore it.
These are my first steps on the journey to become an adventurer. The road to Romero is painted with a myriad of colors.
In this world, I've fallen in love, killed a deadly monster, and formed a party with the great hero.
Back home in Japan, every day was the same. Go to school, talk with Kenji, study, go to work, eat, sleep, repeat. It was bland, and what it took to spice up my life was just some Turmeric.
Once we get to Romero to register as adventurers, we don't have a goal besides improving ourselves. I think that's a fun way to live life. We'll go where life takes us, like dandelion seeds floating on the wind.
"Life is beautiful, isn't it Kenji?" I say, feeling poetic.
"How so?"
"Ever since we've come here, the world's been so colorful. Even though I'm a ghost, I've never felt so full of life." I chuckle.
"Aria, would you being so full of life have anything to do with a certain foxfolk big sister?" Meeka says as she tries to jump on my shoulders. "Gah, I forgot I can't touch you." She says as she falls down, laughing. The three of us who are still standing laugh.
"I suppose it might be, fu fu fu." I chuckle, looking at the aforementioned certain foxfolk big sister that I love so much. Miss Charlotte flashes me a large smile. "Miss Charlotte, can you explain what kind of place Romero is? Me and Kenji have never been anywhere besides Turmeric Village, and I assume that's probably the same for Meeka."
"Yeah I've never left the village except to go hunting! So Charlotte, what's town like?" Meeka asks with wide eyes.
"I would imagine that towns here are very different than they are where Aria and I are from, so I'm curious too." Kenji says, with a pose looking like a standing version of Rodin's Thinker.
"Well, Romero is a large town in the Heartwen County. It has approximately 50,000 residents. There's a large merchant population, as it's the largest town in the entirety of Heartwen County. It's where the Count's Mansion is, so it acts like the capital of the county.
The reason Turmeric Village gets so many merchants and adventurers is because of its proximity to Romero. It's only a three day trip walking, and a little over a one day trip by carriage.
It'd really be fair to call Romero a city, as it houses almost half of the population of Heartwen County's 120,000 people. But in Sagelith, an area can only be called a city if it has a large scale industry that produces finished goods as well as a population over 40,000. Very few places outside the capital territory qualify as cities, but Romero comes close.
Since Romero is a frontier city that relies on merchants and adventurers rather than a large scale production industry, it can't be called a city.
Romero's Adventurer Guild branch is one of the largest on the continent, as 10,000 adventurers have Romero Guild established as their home guild. So about a fifth of the town's entire population is adventurers." Miss Charlotte explains like a teacher giving a lecture.
I suppose one could say I'm hot for teacher, but now's not the time.
I suddenly get a headache and yelp in pain.
"Aria are you okay?" The three ask.
My mind is suddenly shown a vision of danger to me. Is this [Foresight]? I've never had this happen before.
What I see is in an area near here, as in this vision I can see landmarks I could see from where I'm currently floating. It's a group of bandits attacking a merchant family and their escorts. A 40 year old man, a mid thirties woman, and a boy who looks about 14. They've got two tough looking guys with swords and a magey woman in her mid twenties as guards.
This must be one of those escort requests Miss Charlotte was talking about. And this must be the bandit encounter that occurs in every hero's story.
The bandits seem to outnumber them quite significantly. Maybe about five to one.
My current rank of [Foresight] is quite convenient, even if it's only F rank. The reason it's so useful is that it only allows me to see a very short time into the future, so this bandit attack is probably starting to occur as we speak.
As I recover from the vision, Miss Charlotte, Meeka, and Kenji are looking at me concerned.
Ignoring their looks of concern, I pick up a palm sized rock with my [Telekinesis] and float it out in front of me. My perception ability has detected where the bandits are.
I hold up a finger gun, pointing right at where I sense the bandit to be, and flick my hand up.
"Bang." I say, using the full force of my [Telekinesis] to launch the small rock at a speed of hundred meters per second. A few seconds later, I hear the screams of a man hundreds of meters away. I smile. "We've got bandits to deal with, what a great opportunity to see how we fight together."
The other three are dumbstruck, but they follow me as I start flying at top speed towards the scuffle. All three of them are significantly faster than me, which is bullshit. I'd rather not be the last person to arrive at a fight I started, so here we go!
"[Pseudo Possession]! Let's go Kenji!" I yell, possessing his body.
(Approximately sixteen hostiles up ahead, Kenji. Three unknown combatants. Two swordsmen, one mage. There is a non-combatant family of father, mother, son ahead in a carriage.)
(Understood Aria. Earlier you had a headache and immediately knew this was happening, was that [Foresight] or something?)
(I would assume so yeah.)
"Excuse me Kenji, but where did my Aria go?" Miss Charlotte asks, slightly concerned. What a cute reaction.
"Don't worry Charlotte, my sister's just using her [Pseudo Possession] skill to possess my body. It's so we can share our minds and fight as one. Aria gets to pump her commands right into my brain instantly, so it's helpful. She can also influence the way I move in case she needs me to act instantly."
"I see, that's interesting. (I wonder what would happen if Aria possessed me. Maybe I should ask her?)" I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear that second part. Now is not the time to think about things like that! But maybe, it would feel nice, wouldn't it? No, no, no, nevermind! Not important right now! What's important is fighting off those bandits!
"Charlotte stop having impure thoughts." Meeka says, acting as the straight-man, a perfect role for the straight woman.
After a couple of minutes, we arrived at the scene of the battle. Sixteen bandits, one with a fucked up hand, look at us in anger.
"Oi, are one o ya the bastard who threw that rock that broke the boss's hand?" A particularly gruff bandit growls at us.
"What if that's the case?" Kenji says, drawing his sword.
"Well if ya are, you'd've fucked with the Rocky Rangers, the toughest bandit group on the frontier. Yer done for kiddo." He says.
The man who I presume to be the boss of the bandits steps forward. "We'll kill ya and have some good ol fun with the foxy ladies. Yer from Turmeric Village arn'cha ladies?" You've said some words that have provoked my anger sir. I activate my [Telekinesis] and pick up the now bloody rock that broke his hand. I slowly float it towards his head, keeping it there until he sees it. I send it hurtling through his skull.
Don't threaten to do those kinds of unspeakable things to Miss Charlotte especially when I haven't even had the chance yet. And Meeka too! She's just a child. I'd rather her not learn about what they were implying yet.
(Kenji, that one doesn't count. Fight them normally now. Show them zero mercy. They are scum. I hate them.)
"Aria says that didn't count and to fight them as a group. Her exact words are, 'Fight them normally now. Show them zero mercy. They are scum. I hate them,' so let's take that to heart."
"WHAT THE HELL DJA DO TO THE BOSS YA BASTARDS?" The bandits yell.
"Heh, maybe it was a ghost who got a little angry at your words. The ghost I know wouldn't take too kindly to you doing those kinds of things to this other fox lady here." Meeka taunts.
No! Why does she know exactly what she meant. She's supposed to be thirteen, what did her parents teach her? Or was it Miss Charlotte? Guuu I'm going to have some words to say to you after this.
(Kenji, engage them by running to the forward-left, so you can link up with the escort guards, have Miss Charlotte and Meeka do the same. Have Miss Charlotte use her magic tools to provide cover as you move.)
Kenji follows my command. "Meeka, Charlotte, let's go link up with the guards. Charlotte, Aria says use your magic tools to provide cover."
Charlotte nods and starts running, summoning the wind and fire weapons from her backpack. They float around her like drones, which I suppose they are. The drones start to launch small fireballs and blades of wind at the bandits, who are forced to guard. They seem to be damaged by the onslaught.
Strongest bandits in the area my ass. My [Mana Sense] skill is telling me that would barely be enough to tickle Kenji.
Meeka pulls out a bow from her bag as the three arrive next to the guards who are protecting the merchants.
"Hello misters and miss. We're here to help you, so don't worry. We'll protect you from these bandits." Meeka says, looking at the now confused carriage guards.
"Who are you guys? Are you adventurers?" The woman asks.
"The woman with the machines is, but the other three of us are on our way to register in Romero."
"Three plus the other woman? But there's only three of you total?" One of the swordsmen says.
"That's not important right now just so you know, just know there's four of us." Meeka says indignantly, preparing an arrow in her bow.
(We're all in position now. We've got our two man vanguard and our backline. All fifteen hostiles are accounted for. Let's go!) I yell at Kenji.
(Understood) "Aria says to attack now, let's go!" Kenji says, running towards the bandits with Miss Charlotte. Meeka fires an arrow from the back, slaying one of the bandits right off the bat. He falls to the ground, and the people behind him trip over his body.
"[Golden Draw]!" Kenji booms, launching the opening attack with his sword. A shockwave of Blessed Magic strikes four other combatants.
(Two dead, four critically injured, nine in fighting form. Keep going) I say, shifting my view towards Miss Charlotte.
She's expertly dancing around the bandits, firing at them with the magic drones to create opportunities to strike. It's quite incredible how she's fighting, creating extra pressure allowing her to turn a four versus one fight into a series of one versus one interactions. She quickly kills all four of her adversaries. In this time, Meeka's sent two more arrows into the heads of bandits, and Kenji has cut down three more. We've completely wiped them out now.
(Eleven dead. Four critically injured. All hostiles subdued.) I say to Kenji, releasing my [Pseudo Possession] and immediately activating my [Tangibility] so it seems like I've just appeared out of nowhere. "Good job you three, especially Miss Charlotte and Meeka. Your fighting styles seem to synergize well together." I get on my tippy toes to pat Miss Charlotte on the head. She blushes and gives me a look that says 'I want to spoil you with affection.'
I silently communicate to her that we should save that for later as I turn to the guards and the merchant family. "Hello, I'm Aria, the rumored fourth member of this merry band." I say with a smile.
The merchant's son looks at me, and I smile at him. He blushes. Ok bro. He gets a look of fear on his face and looks away as I sense a dangerous aura rising from the other three in my party.
One of the swordsmen looks incredibly angry right now. "If you're part of this crew, then why didn't you participate in the fight. Hiding while your comrades risk their lives is incredibly cowardly."
"I did participate. I'm the one who threw the rock. I also acted as a shot caller and I was the one who found your sorry asses." Don't assume I didn't participate, you prick.
I had a feeling that this guy had a less than stellar personality but to think he'd be so blatantly rude to one of the people who saved him.
"So why didn't you do anything else huh? Were you too scared? If you were, adventuring isn't the job for you kid." He seems to be either immune or oblivious to the killing intent of Miss Charlotte and Kenji. Nevermind, he just took a few steps back with a look of fear.
"Look mister sword guy. It would be impossible for a single one of those bandits to ever hurt me. Our group is mostly new to fighting as a four, but we've fought in pairs before, so I wanted to see how we would work together. I'm also capable of taking responsibility and protecting my teammates mister." Yeah, eat that.
His mage companion tries to calm him down.
The merchant father comes up to us and offers us a ride to Romero in his carriage. "If we have more guards, that's better! My name is Lonnie by the way, this is my wife Alicia, and my son Robby."
"Oh great, another Robby in love with a lesbian." Meeka mutters under her breath. Is there something I should know about?
This situation is perfect. With the carriage, we'll all reach Romero tomorrow, which saves a lot of time. I thank Lonnie for his hospitality and the four of us along with our new travel companions set out towards the merchant city.