Saving the damsel in distress, killing giant beasts to protect a town, discovering treasures of a forgotten world. Those were the heroic dreams that I read about! So then why was I stuck babysitting a bunch of teens! Sigh. The first thing we did when we left the palace,
"Wouldn't it be a shame if we didn't explore the city more before we left?" said Carl and thus we spent the whole day looking around a place that was just a few minutes from the palace. Thankfully because we were all dressed up yesterday no one recognised us today. I know it makes sense to have a slow start and take your time but we did the whole goodbye thing and everything was shaping up like we'd hit the road. Instead we're at a small inn on the outskirts of the city. Honestly we might as well have just stayed back in the palace… at least their beds were comfortable.
The biggest problem was the man sitting next to me, eating as if nothing was amiss,
"And why are you still here?" I asked the Knight Captain.
"The King asked me to watch over you till you left." He wasn't wearing any armour and instead plain clothing. If anything it made it all the more obvious that beneath his shirt there existed a body rippling with hardened muscle. Curse you. That type of body was unreachable for me, odd considering who my father was. I looked at Carl, he had bulked up in the past few weeks and was set on the path to look like the Captain. Gary however, I smiled, it was nice having another magic user on the team.
"Why are you smiling at me?" he asked a bit taken aback.
"Because we're teammates."
"What?"
"Ahem," I coughed. "Anyway Captain-,"
"Call me Telius," he interrupted.
"… Telius, do you have any connections to the Adventurer's guild?"
"I do, why?"
"Can you get us some mid or high-ranked passes? B should be fine."
"Well, I can but you'll need to come in person with me."
"That's fine."
Gary pulled my arm from across the table. "Hey, hey, what are you talking about?"
"I was thinking of getting some extra identification. Also it'll allow us to take some jobs. The King gave us some money but that's bound to run out eventually."
"So we're going to become adventurers?" his eyes were shining.
I replied in kind, "Of course! That's what travelling is all about!" We high hived, a gesturethat had caught on between the Heroes and I.
"You two are idiots…" Alicia looked at us and sighed.
Sayuri however was more receptive, "So what do the ranks mean? I heard you saying mid and high before in the palace."
I explained, "The ranks are used to separate ability so people don't take the wrong jobs. Low ranks are G to E, Mid ranks are D to B, and High ranks are A, A+, AA and AA+."
Telius placed his own Adventurer pass on the table, it was AA. "Just so you know the Knights you sparred with were B or A, the Knight Commander from Allain is AA+ but if there were higher ranks he would fit there. Most adventurer's sit around C or B."
"If Telius asks for passes on our behalf we can skip going through the ranks and get straight to B."
"Can't we just show them the Hero's symbol?" Carl asked as he pulled the golden emblem from his pocket.
"Not if we're trying to go incognito," I answered. "If we flaunt ourselves too much it'll be harder to move about."
"Then we'll do that tomorrow?" Alicia asked as Gary beside her was getting pumped with excitement.
"Yep, then we should head for the road."
"On that note I'd like to ask where you're heading first," Telius said. The Heroes all went blank and looked at me.
"Well if you don't have anywhere you want to go in particular, let's head to the Klerical Kingdom."
Telius' expression darkened, "The King won't like to hear that."
"I don't like it either," Sayuri raised her hand, "That 'priest'… he was looking at us weirdly."
"Really? I didn't feel anything wrong," Carl said still naïve as usual.
"That's the point though," I smirked and ignored Carl. "We can travel faster than him. By the time we see their King we'd be long gone before he arrives. Besides I like to get the bothersome stuff dealt with first."
"And our King would like your reasoning," Telius smiled.
"Well that 'stuff' comes later," Alicia stretched, "Who wants to go for a walk?" The other Heroes agreed and began to stand. I let out a defeated smile and stood with them.
"Are you coming?" I asked Telius.
"No, I'll check in with the King." He stood as well, "Be careful though, there's been trouble around these parts."
"Noted," is what I said, but I didn't expect anything bad to happen so soon.
Telius left us while we began walking around the streets. The sun had set and the cool night air was very refreshing. After a few minutes I had to admit that Alicia had a good idea. I took a deep breath and relaxed. Elsbeth State was a magnificent city spread out far and wide with the palace in its centre. Manmade rivers coursed through the city and were used to transport people as well as cargo. Covering such a vast space and not having many high rise buildings, it made the ones that were tall stand out all the more. The entire city had a picturesque feeling and when viewed from a distance you could see where people congregated.
As nice as the city was, tomorrow was when thing's would really begin. Just when I thought that I felt a twitch and the Heroes who had been talking joyfully in front of me vanished. For a second I paused confused but then realised what that twitch was. Someone had tried to forcefully pull me into a reality plane. Naturally I was able to resist it subconsciously but the Heroes who hadn't ever faced an attack like that disappeared. In hindsight someone should have really taught them about that.
I scratched my chin. It wasn't impossible to force my way in but that was considered quite hard to do especially if the caster was skilled. The caster in this case was. They had managed to quickly take in four people who had a naturally high tolerance to magic. The question was what to do. I couldn't believe it was someone out for their lives. It was most likely some thieves or bandits who had snuck into the city. The Heroes were pretty strong and Carl was carrying the dimensional chest so they had access to their weapons. If anything I'd like to watch.
My hand reached out in front of me. It had been about a minute of me deliberating so there were high chances that the problem was already solved. I tore the empty space apart and walked inside. The sky was red and in front of me were the hopefully unconscious bodies of about thirty armed men. The Heroes were standing in the middle. Alicia had one of them held up and was shaking him while yelling,
"Who are you and what do you want with us!?"
"Please mercy!" he screamed in fright. Well she could be scary at times.
"Were you sent to kill us!?"
"No we-," his reply was drowned out by repetitive shaking. Eventually he fainted.
"Sayuri hand me another!" Alicia growled.
"Stop… I think you're killing them," I sighed from the side just as Sayuri picked up another.
"Ah Dave, I wondered where you went," Gary said casually.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Well the sky went all weird and then a bunch of people rushed in and tried to hit us. We reacted."
"I see…." Poor thieves chose the wrong targets. The reality plane was still up which meant the magician was still conscious and somewhere inside. There was a subtle click before the wall of a house beside us exploded and sharp metal spikes burst outwards. They deflected off my barrier. "There you are." I reached out and brought him closer. His body flew out from the house and crashed in front of me.
"W-Who are you?" the magician asked.
"The Heroes," Gary said with a gallant pose.
"Yeah, bad luck but you're under arrest now." I collapsed the reality plane and thus our first act as Heroes was accomplished.
Telius came by later and rounded them all up. That day the tale of the Heroes subjugating a troop of a hundred bandits to save the outer district of the city was spread. It was a Heroic tale about how during the parade a poor girl had begged the Heroes to save her home from the bandits. The Heroes were silent but offered a single wink to her and with that she believed justice would be done. The next day the Heroes under guise lured the bandits from hiding and dealt a crushing blow to them and their leader a nefarious magician named One Eyed Joe. Thus they saved the entire neighbourhood from nothing but the goodness of the hearts…. Yeah the truth definitely wasn't as majestic… you shouldn't trust Heroic stories, especially when one of them was about me.
After leaving the Adventurer's guild Telius handed us each a metal plate. The metal plate would display the name and rank of the owner when mana was charged through it. It could only be changed at a Guild building and was the main form of identification for adventurers. To be honest if it came down to it I could change the details myself but then they'd mismatch the Guild's records.
"Okay remember to not lose these," Telius reminded us, "The process to get one back is harder than actually getting one."
"Understood!" Gary saluted as he took it with shining eyes. A loose smile split hit lips, "It begins."
"What begins," Alicia slapped him back to reality, "We're Heroes not adventurers, don't go overboard."
"Sheesh at least let me have some fun, right Dave?"
I gave him a thumbs up, "Right! There's no point in being Heroes if you don't enjoy it."
"See even Dave's into it," Gary and I high fived again.
Telius smiled, "It's good to see you so excited but please note your responsibilities if you reveal yourself as Heroes. The King gave you enough money so that you wouldn't need to receive any rewards from the people. Keep that in mind."
"That's if they know we're Heroes," Gary winked.
This time it was Carl who looked at him aghast, "Gary we can't do that!"
"I was joking. J-o-king," but when no one else was looking I saw him mutter something else entirely.
We made our way to the edge of the city. It wasn't the main road out, in fact it wasn't even a road but a field with a small trail. It didn't matter however, travelling on a cloud the condition of the path wouldn't affect it. I stamped the staff I had received from the King and a large cloud began to gather in front of us. Carl loaded our bags and the dimensional chest from the King on board.
"Well Telius this is goodbye," I shook his hand.
"It wasn't long but it was interesting having you around. Look after the others." He surprised me by pulling me into a manly hug. I had to quickly disable my barrier to not hurt him.
"I will, you can trust me." Haha, yes trust the Demon Lord. I laughed evilly in my mind.
Telius and the Heroes also said their goodbyes and Alicia even got a little teary. Gary laughed at her until she punched him. Sayuri thanked him deeply for his time and Carl bowed to him as well.
"Till next we meet," Telius bowed to us as we boarded the cloud. "I pray that your journey is paved with good fortune. May the sun shine welcomingly and your road be safe. Although as the Heroes you won't be able to avoid all the danger."
"Don't worry, I'll guide them," I waved as the others did as well. Thus we left Elsbeth. Some of us happier than others, i.e pretty much me.
A few minutes later we were cruising much faster than a carriage could across the plains. I didn't accelerate too fast and there wasn't much moving around as Alicia had a tendency for motion sickness.
"Ah, this is so comfy," Alicia relaxed into the cloud, "It's literally like lying down in a cloud."
"But will you be fine Dave?" Carl asked me, "This would consume a lot of mana right? Maybe if you taught Gary or I, we could take over."
"No need," I smiled to them, "Even after a day I'll have enough mana to use in a pinch." Really I could keep this up indefinitely, if I focused my mana regeneration it exceeded the consumption. This I had to thank from the knowledge from the human's magic.
"If you say so."
"I'd still like to learn anyway," Gary chimed in.
"If you don't mind I would like to as well," Sayuri said, "I'm not as good as you and Gary but…."
"No need to be modest Sayuri," I replied, "As Heroes you may not realise it but you have a much much greater capacity than normal people. You can learn this relatively easily" I faced forward and added in a mumble, "So much so that it's pretty much cheating."
"What was that?" Gary who was closest to me asked.
"Nope nothing." I cleared my throat, "Anyway, our next destination according to the map is a small town called Pranx. It's quite a way from the main road and should be an all-round normal place so don't go showing off."
The Heroes nodded.