"Hi. My name is Ken. I use a sword." The man said before he even entered the room. In fact, he didn't even walk in.
"Hey, are you going to walk in at all?" I asked him. He peeked his forehead through the doorframe and introduced himself again.
"Ah, are you scared or something?" Ipa asked Ken. We could see his forehead nod up and down from behind the doorframe. With pleasure, Ruby stepped up onto the table, all over the information papers on the desk, and over to Ken. She grabbed onto his head and pulled him into the room.
"Ta-da! Here's Ken!" Ruby exclaimed with a smile. He pulled up a bandanna around his neck and looked off to the side, mumbling some more before standing on his own in the room.
"I'm Ken Pretoria." He mumbled.
"Woah! A Pretorian? Ipa, Anima, we should take this guy!" Ruby said.
"Huh? Why?" I asked them all.
"Well, Pretorians are pretty powerful, and their bloodline allows them to use any stat they have as any stat they want. For example, Shiba Pretoria, the first Pretoria, was in a duel with somebody from Hecate and she ran out of health, so she used all of her mana as health and ended up winning." Ruby explained. What kind of pointless information dump was that?
I guess it wasn't pointless, there was still a lot I didn't know about this world... but I thought royal bloodlines like that didn't exist in this world. Well, whatever. If he was useful, I didn't care.
"So, what is a Pretorian doing all the way over here? Aren't you on the opposite side of the world from us?" Ipa asked him. Huh? Why is he over here then?
"Technically, yeah, but I've been Banished from my home for refusing to live under Kire's rule." He said. I stayed ignorant as Ipa and Ruby had no idea who that was, but I remember perfectly. Kire, Shimeru, and Arthur are a part of a specific group called Prism, introduced to me by Lolo, and if Kire was over there, that gave me high hopes that Joro couldn't get back up if he were to call for it during our fight.
We might be enlarging the size of our party, but could we really take Joro? He froze over a city without saying the name of the skill...
"Sounds like a mean guy. I like him! Can we have him?!" Ruby asked, jumping up and down.
"Ruby, he's not a dog. Yeah, he can join our party. But, you'll have to prove yourself. What class are you?" Ipa asked.
"Swordsman. Ether." Ken told us.
Ipa snapped. "Perfect! That's exactly what we need... but why are you here? Why do you want to fight Joro, of all people?" He added.
"I'm not here to fight Joro, I'm here to join Anima. I'll help your objective, but I'll need Anima after you're done." Ken said.
"You'll need me huh? Fine, but not until Joro is dead. I don't want him defeated, I want him killed." I declared. Everybody seemed to be on the same page, but I had to make sure.
"Why does your arm look like that? And why do you need Anima?" Ruby was asking questions all around the room, and Ken gave me the answer I wasn't looking forward to.
"Anima is the Third Magic Hero, and my nation needs his help to stay afloat. I've done my research on you. You can heal with your skills, but your potions are the thing that everybody likes about you. Your potions are almost addictive... not literally, but anybody can stay safe with a maximum healing potion. If we had your help, then my nation could stay in business and the plague going on there would eventually end. I trade my support in this fight for your support in Toria, my nation across the world." Ken said.
I understood but... I hate anticipating jobs like that. I knew I was a Hero and I would never stop supporting the people of this world, but that was a big task, something way too large for me to handle right now. I should just forget about that for now.
"Deal. If you're an Ether Swordsman, I guess that's for the best in fighting Joro." I told him.
"You're a Magic Hero... why? Why did you have to be a Hero?" Ruby asked me.
"Hm? What's the issue?" I asked, but her tone had changed. Great, was this another problem now?
"There's no issue... I just feel a lot of pressure. That's all." Ruby said. Good, I didn't want that to blow up into another problem.
"Anima, should we go for one more person, or are you confident in supporting our teammates and keeping them alive when we fight Joro?" Ipa asked me.
"Confidence doesn't matter. I want to take every measure possible. You know the most, what should we do? What is our plan?" I asked Ipa in response.
"We need a base... let's set up a home in Dorrendale. Do you know where the mayor is?" Ipa asked me.
[Hey, Soul, are you still with Borealis?] I used [Clairvoyance] to try and talk to her.
[Ah, look who it is, using all of your mana... you must not be busy, good, come to the hospital, we're all here.] Soul told me.
"Sounds like there's trouble at the hospital, come with me," I said. I got out of my chair and started to leave.
"Alright, let's do this." Ipa got up and Ruby stepped over the table again.
"Ruby! Stop stepping on my papers!" Ipa yelled out to her. She apologized, but it was obviously not genuine as we all stepped out of the room. I turned back to look at Ken as we all left.
Ken Pretoria... why was he hiding his face before he walked in here?
"What's going on at the hospital?" Ipa asked me. I explained Soul's request to meet with me and we were off with a new goal in mind. I got to thoroughly enjoy the city this time while walking through, but I figured I should head for the hospital instead. Luckily, the hospital was right around the corner from the guild, so I was able to get there as fast as possible.