A few hours after we had left the Klerical Kingdom's Capital, we were eating lunch by the side of a river. The menu consisted of sandwiches and freshly brewed tea.
"What kind of place is Rentolt?" Gary asked as he took another sandwich.
"It's the third largest country on the human side and led by a Queen who goes by the name of the Red Beast of Rentolt," I answered.
"Beast?" Sayuri looked at me slightly concerned.
"She's called a beast because she can be quite un-lady like… or so I've heard. Out of the royalty on the human side she's considerably young and the only one who is directly involved in the military."
"How young?" Gary leaned closer to me.
"Don't even think about it," Alicia gave his forehead a flick.
Gary recoiled from the strike rubbing the now red spot, "It was just a question…."
"She's twenty five," I replied for Gary anyway.
"Wow, running a country at that age. Must be hard," Carl nodded in admiration. I smiled with empty eyes. He had no idea how hard it is and I was even younger than her.… though right now I had chucked all my duties on my father. I should buy him a present.
"That aside, Carl it's your turn to ask something from Dave," Alicia earnestly looked at him. Damn it, they still remembered my promise.
Carl rubbed his chin in thought, "I don't really have anything I want from him at the moment."
"Then can I go next?"
"Sure."
Alicia immediately turned to me expectantly, "Is that alright?"
I sighed, "What do you want?"
"I want to go to the beach!" she cheered.
"Huh?" It wasn't just me who reacted like that.
"The beach! You know ocean waves, relax on the soft sand, swimming and sun bathing."
"But there may not be anywhere like that in this world. It's not like our world and even monsters exist here," Carl said and looked at me for an answer.
"Hmmm, there kind of is," I replied in thought. The Heroes looked at me surprised, Alicia clapped in joy. I knew of a few towns on the demon side but as for the human side… "We're pretty far in land but we can head north to a port town in Rentolt. There is a place where people spend time at the beach but at this time of year the place may be crawling with monsters."
"Then we'll just have to kill them!" Alicia pumped her fist.
"But what about the Queen?" Sayuri asked, "Shouldn't we visit her first?"
"Nah, she can wait. Rentolt's capital isn't that far from it anyway." I stood up, "As the Heroes we have the right to play around if we want to!"
"…."
"It's fine," I said to Carl and Sayuri's dubious stares, "though it will take a few weeks to get there."
"I don't mind!" Alicia cheered again. She was getting more excited than Gary did. Was there something special about going to a beach?
"Is there a reason why you want to go to one so much?" Carl asked for me.
Gary answered for her, "We haven't been to a beach since we were kids. Now that we have some time I think it'll be a lot of fun."
"Exactly!" Alicia gave him the thumbs up.
"Well it's not like we're pressed for time right?" Carl looked at Sayuri.
Her eyes flickered. That's right she wanted to go home as soon as she could. Killing me and going home was her purpose in this world. To my surprise however she smiled,
"Let's go." And with that we headed north to the beach.
Aside: Sibling Heroes:
Navi Tailor:
As adventurer's go my name is quite well known, Navi Tailor, A rank adventurer. Around these parts I'm one of only less than thirty high rankers. Yes at the tender age of twenty two to already reach high rank was a great achievement. Right now I was staying at a large town near the border between Rentolt and the Klerical Kingdom. The town's name, Pentel, and one of the major routes between the two countries. Why was I here? Two reasons, one, to earn money, and two, with any luck I'd meet the Heroes. From what I heard they were in the Klerical Kingdom's capital, which meant if they decided to head to Rentolt they'd most likely pass through here. Of course the chances of actually seeing them was tiny but a girl can dream.
Today however I was trying to recruit people for a job. As such I was waiting inside the town's adventurer's guild for potential partners. So far two of my buddies had joined me but another two to clear the job would make it way less risky. A magician and someone who could be the vanguard or stay in the mid ground.
The door opened and in walked a girl and a boy. They didn't look all too strong but then again neither did I. From their appearance they could have been lovers but the way they walked next to each other they were more likely to be brother and sister. The boy looked like a magician and the girl I couldn't quite tell.
"Oh she's a looker," my buddy Garlton smiled.
"Don't even try it you old man," my other buddy Kyle laughed.
"Tch, I'll have you know I'm only twenty eight."
"But you look like you're forty."
"Why you-,"
I glared at them, "Shut it, I can't hear them." The pair quietened down and we focused ourselves back at the two newcomers. None of us had seen them before.
"Garr what are we doing again?" the girl said to the boy.
"I need money," he replied.
"Can't you just ask Dave for some?"
"Not for this, I can't let him catch on to what I'm doing," he let out a sinister smile.
The girl sighed, "You're still trying to get revenge for that."
"He shattered my innocence Sis, my innocence!"
"Right, right, let's just get this over with. We need to be back by tomorrow morning."
They headed to the counter. It wasn't just me who had their eyes on them. I could see other parties sizing them up.
"How may I help you today?" the guild assistant asked.
The boy Garr replied, "We're looking for a job." He handed over their identification.
"B rank, I'll see what I have," the assistant began to search a pile of papers.
Score! I stood up as did a few other people in the hall. Being an A rank however I glared at them all to sit back down. These two we're mine. To be B rank and so young was amazing.
"Excuse me," I called to them as I approached with my most winning smile, "If you're looking for a job how about joining us?"
The girl was suspicious, "And who are you?"
"You must not be from around here. I'm Navi Tailor, an A rank adventurer."
Garr however seemed to be much more welcoming, "A rank? Wow, you must be quite the something." Was he hitting on me?
The girl however slapped him across the head, "Sorry about my brother, ignore him."
"No it's fine," I continued to smile, "So how about it? My friends and I are doing an A rank subjugation on basilisks. It's a bit above you're level but with us you'll be fine."
"How much is the pay?" the boy asked.
The guild assistant answered for me, "One gold per basilisk, proof of subjugation will be judged by its eyes, so don't forget to gather them."
"Like she said. So how about it?" I gestured towards them.
The brother and sister looked at each other and then turning back to me nodded.
"Why not, I've never killed a basilisk," the girl said.
"Awesome, follow me. I'll introduce you to my friends." I lead them back to our table. Kyle and Garlton stood up and shook their hands.
"Garlton, I'm a vanguard."
"Kyle, I'm the support."
"And as I said before, I'm Navi, an archer on the back line."
They greeted us happily, "I'm Alicia, I guess I'm usually the vanguard and this is my brother Gary, he's a magician."
"Oh, you have the same name as two of the Heroes," I couldn't help but say.
She laughed awkwardly, "Funny that."
Gary stepped forward, "So how does this usually work?"
"What do you mean?" I replied confused.
"Well this is our first time fighting with different people."
"Hmmm." This could be quite hard then, but if they reached B rank they should be capable enough. "Well, usually we head to the forest, do the job and then split the money between us. Since we're fighting basilisks it may be pretty hard but we can hunt something smaller first to get used to each other."
"That's fine with us, when do we head out?" he was quite eager.
"If you're ready we can leave now I suppose but do you have glasses for protection?"
"Glasses?" Alicia asked.
"Basilisks can petrify people just by looking at them. Magicians can usually resist them but if you're not so good with magic it's better to wear some. We have some spares if you want them."
"Ah, thank you very much," she accepted them gratefully.
"Then meet us at the town's south exit in half an hour."
"Okay, see you there," they smiled.
Half an hour later we gathered with all our equipment at the south exit. It was still before midday so we had plenty of time. If we were lucky we could probably hunt two or three of them before sunset.
"Are you ready?" I asked everyone. They nodded in response and the siblings even gave a little cheer. "A reminder that basilisks can be very dangerous so don't let you're guard down especially as it's the Demon Lord season. We'll head into the forest now. The location is the clearing outside their nest, our job is to get rid of any that have strayed too close to town. Garlton take the lead, Alicia protect our backs, Kyle be on look out, Gary you and me will be in the middle."
"Understood!" Garlton and Kyle replied. The siblings did as well after a short pause.
Like this we made our way through the forest without seeing any other monsters. Unfortunate as I had wanted to see what our two new hires could do but it did shave down a lot of time. At the very least however they did have the endurance for the job. We'd been walking for nearly an hour and the pair hadn't complained or tired at all.
As we reached the clearing I had everyone stand by just at the edge under the cover of the trees. The clearing was large enough to be called a field and was purposely made outside the basilisk nest so that they could be hunted easier. A set up like this was common for many monster nests. Lure any wondering monsters into the field and using the open ground, dispatch them.
"Kyle do you see any nearby?" I asked.
He quickly climbed a tree, "Nope, but I can see fresh tracks on the left side."
"Okay, stay on look out and make sure none sneak up behind us. We'll try lure it out, when it does, you know what to do."
"Umm excuse me," Gary tapped my shoulder. "If you want, I can find them using magic."
"You can do that?" I let out surprised. I didn't expect him to know any tracking spells. Form our conversations on the way here, he seemed more like the straight destructive type.
"Sure just wait one bit." He tapped his staff on to the ground. There was a fluctuation of mana. "Hmm, I can feel one to the left maybe fifty metres inside the forest. There's another one about a hundred metres ahead of it. I can pick a few more further away but about one and half kilometres ahead there's a bunch of them." My eyes widened. I had to remind myself not to judge people to quickly, his specialty must have been tracking. To pinpoint them so quickly and even detect them as far as the nest was a rare ability.
"The far ones don't matter, that's the nest. They shouldn't leave from there. We'll target the closest but watch out for the other one, we don't want to grab its attention."
"Roger! Would you like me to grab it?"
"Huh?" I unconsciously raised my eyebrows at him. "It'll be safer for you if someone else does it. As a magician you should stay at the back. I'll go with Kyle and lure it to the clearing, just wait here."
"But I can do it from here," he said blankly. From his hand a small needle of light appeared. It shot off through the trees. Again I was surprised. He certainly was a good tracker, the only other time I had seen someone use a spell like that was when I was with another A rank magician. A few seconds later he nodded, "Alright it's coming."
True to his word a large basilisk sprang from the forest chasing the needle of light. I could never get used to their appearance. I used to have a pet lizard as a kid but these were much larger at five metres long. Covered in the thick black and green scales they had a mane of scales around their head. A red tongue poked from its open jaws and two large violet eyes watched for its prey.
"Glasses on!" I yelled. "Garlton get its attention, Kyle set up a snare, Alicia wait for an opportunity to strike, Gary and I will attack from afar." They did as I said and we ran into the field. Garlton leaped at the monster with his mace and shield, giving it a nice clobber. It glared at him but the glasses prevented any affect. Realizing its eyes weren't working it snapped at him instead. I shot an arrow into its nose as Garlton blocked it. Arrow after arrow I began to snipe at it.
Tension passed through me. I loved this exhilarating feeling. A life and death battle, but together we could do this. Garlton kept its attention while Alicia waited patiently behind him with her fist cocked. Gary was beside me watching intently for an opportunity to unleash a powerful spell.
"Done!" Kyle yelled.
"Garlton!" I yelled to him and we shifted position. I closed one eye and let mana flow into my arrow as sweat lined my brow. It flew straight with a red trail and pierced straight into the basilisk's eye. It reared up in rage and locked its remaining eye on me. Ignoring Garlton it charged towards me and straight into Kyle's snare. The rope wrapped around its leg and pulled it aside.
"Now Alicia!"
There was a boom. Dirt flew everywhere and a powerful gust of wind rushed past me. By the time I managed to look forward there was a girl standing with her gauntlet punched forward and in front of her half the body of a basilisk.
"Ewww," she stepped away, "I put a little too much power into that one."
"Holy hell!" Garlton exclaimed. I would have said something as well but my mind was still trying to process what just happened. I had never seen anyone kill a basilisk so easily.
"Damn it Sis, you killed it too quickly," Gary groaned.
"My bad, my bad," she just laughed. There was no tension between either of them.
"K-Kyle, harvest the eyes…," I managed to say eventually.
"Sure..." he began to cut out the eyes. The scales we're also quite valuable but the monster was already beginning to dissolve and a burst of mana was released signalling its death as monsters did.
Garlton rushed Alicia, "How did you do that?"
"Hmm? I punched it," she replied simply.
"That was just a punch?"
"Was it too much?"
"No, not at all but wow. I'm a B rank as well and I've never seen that much power before."
"Tch," Gary grinded his teeth. His reaction was justified, with a sister like that anyone wold be jealous. He looked at me and I stared back at him but then his eyes grew large and at the same time I felt a vibration behind me. "Navi look out!"
I turned around as I jumped back. Another basilisk! That explosion must have got its attention and we were all too shocked to notice it approaching. Its jaw opened and reached closer towards me. Damn it, I couldn't get back in time. There was a flash and something appeared beside me. A hand grabbed my arm and the world shifted strangely and suddenly I was ten metres away watching the basilisk close on empty space.
"Teleportation?" I gasped as I looked at Gary beside me. That was a skill only magician's A+ rank and above could learn. Just who were these two? And to make matters even more surprising an earth lance appeared near us and shot towards the basilisk. It was far larger than any earth lance I had seen before and it pierced straight through the basilisk. Impossible! For a low rank spell to be able to break through its scales.
Gary frowned, "Hmm they really are weak. Sorry Sis, I guess I can't blame you for killing it."
"Weak!?" I snapped, "That's an A rank monster!"
"Hmmm," he scratched his head, "Dave did say that we were getting strong lately." Who the hell was Dave?
I managed to calm myself down and we harvested the other basilisk as well. Afterwards however Garlton, Kyle and I stared at the two siblings.
"Who are you?" we asked.
They shrugged, "Just people passing through."
"But with that strength you could easily get an A rank if not A+!" I said.
"Really?" they just looked at us surprised and I sighed.
"Well whatever, with you two we should be able to hunt a few more pretty easily."
"Great," they smiled.
That's when a monstrous shriek broke through the clearing. Our hands immediately tried to block out the noise. From the far side of the clearing a figure began claw its way through the forest towards us. One look at it and I realised what it was. A King basilisk. While basilisks were already five metres long, this one was twice the size and ten times more deadly. A true monster. I froze with fear. There was no way I could be this unlucky. Why today of all days would it come out of its nest. Garlton and Kyle stared at with terror filled eyes.
"Don't look at it directly!" I screamed but it was too late. Its eyes gleamed and Garlton's leg turned to stone. He fell down yelling in pain. If it hadn't been for the glasses his entire body would have been gone.
"Whoa!" Gary yelped. "Are you okay?"
"Just leave me and run! That isn't something you can just kill," Garlton stared at us desperately.
"No!" I yelled back and tried to pick him up but he was much larger than me. "Kyle go warn the town." He stood still shaking at the sight of Garlton and I.
"I said leave!" Garlton pushed me away.
"No!" I grabbed back onto him desperately, I knew this job was dangerous but I didn't ever want to see a friend die. "Kyle I said to go warn the town! If this thing gets close who knows what will happen." He snapped out of his state and began to run away. "You two as well!" I called to the siblings.
Gary and Alicia stood in front of us. They were both looking directly at the oncoming basilisk but their bodies weren't turning to stone. Even if they cloud resist it, there was no way for them to win.
"Hmmm," Gary pointed his staff at the monster. A volley of earth lances barraged towards the King Basilisk but they broke apart on its scales and only succeeded to make it angry. "Wow, it's tough."
"See even for you two it's impossible. Just run! If we make it to the forest we might be able to escape."
Alicia ignored me, "I'm going to try punch it." She shot forwards and her fist impacted against its head. The monster was forced back a step but with a flick of its tail it smashed Alicia away. She crashed into the forest breaking trees in half.
"…." Gary was silent, the shock of his sister being hit must have been too much.
A yell burst from the forest, "Breaker!" Alicia appeared beside the Basilisk. Her punch caused the earth to tear apart but the King Basilisk remained standing and skidded to a halt from the impact. She retreated back towards us.
"That thing hits hard," she said while rubbing her side.
"It's probably stronger than that warbeast," Gary replied.
"Do you think we can handle it?"
"I'm not sure." The two of them were getting serious.
"Should we call the others?"
Gary's expression grew painful, "I don't want Dave catching on but this isn't the time to complain." He pointed to the sky and a flare went off above us. There was shift beside him and a young man appeared.
"What's up?" he asked. Gary pointed at the King Basilisk that was starting to rage. "Whoa! A King Basilisk? Nice catch. Hang on I'll go grab Carl and Sayuri." He disappeared and a few seconds later appeared with another girl and boy.
"Dave! What the heck?" the new boy said in surprise.
"Dave don't just suddenly do that… I feel sick now," the girl wobbled a little.
"Stop complaining more fighting. You were the ones who were asking for a stronger opponent before," the young man named Dave happily pointed towards the King Basilisk heading towards us now. The other two yelped but immediately drew their weapons.
Gary, Alicia, Carl, Dave and Sayuri. These names, could they be the Heroes? Before I could ask they charged forwards and before my eyes I saw something amazing. The monster was powerful but before them it was merely something to practice their skills and one of them didn't even really help. Instead the one called Dave walked up to Garlton touched his leg and returned it to normal, all the while just smiling.
Finally the King Basilisk shrieked its last call and fell to the ground dead. The ground was covered in holes, the clearing had grown even wider and four people approached us triumphantly.
"Are you the-?" I began to ask.
Gary let out a grin, "Yeah, we're the Heroes."
"C-c-c-can I have your autographs!?" I bowed towards them. Best day ever.
Aside End:
Davarious First Born Light of the Autumn Wind:
I need to keep a better eye out on the Heroes…. One week had passed since we left the Klerical Kingdom Capital and we were now officially inside Rentolt. Yesterday however I left to go check on the village I had created during the slavery spat in the Klerical Kingdom. It was doing better than I expected and the construction work was already well underway, as expected of Sebastian. The thing was when I returned, I immediately felt a pulse a pulse of energy and in the sky was the emergency flare signal Gary and I had set up. And what do I see when I arrive? A damn King Basilisk, that's not a monster that you just happen to find! That's a disaster level event for most humans and demons. Of course I just used it as a training exercise and the Heroes performed admirably but that could have gone bad fast without us. Just what was that King doing letting such a strong monster develop! Then again he did know we would be in the area…. Regardless if it had just been one of the Heroes alone, they'd have probably lost their life against something like that. Sure, they were definitely stronger than those adventurers we saved and could handle themselves but I was still worried. Seriously, if one of them died now it would ruin all the fun of travelling, they'd probably get all moody and serious about killing me.
"You okay Dave?" Carl asked me from across the fire.
"Ah, just having some thoughts," I replied coolly. We had set up camp for the night after leaving Pentel.
"Hey, how much longer till we reach the beach?" Alicia asked while stretching tiredly.
I pulled out a map. We were currently just within Rentolt's Borders. Going how we had been travelling lately we'd make it in about three days. If we wanted I could probably shorten that to a day but travelling that quickly took the fun out of the journey.
"If we don't go through any more towns, we'll arrive in three days. That's the direct route."
The Heroes started to discuss. Camping was quite comfortable with all our equipment and we were able to train without having too much interference. Monsters and wild beasts in the area weren't a threat to us even if we were caught sleeping but the topic that everyone was struggling with could be said to be the most important. Food. None of us were particularly good cooks. Sayuri was the best out of all of us but she wasn't used to the ingredients from this world. Gary and Alicia had the basics down. Carl was no good and I… well as the Demon Lord cooking was something that hadn't really been on my needed skills list.
"Three more days…," Alicia pondered. "Let's do it. We can splurge on food when we get there!"
And with those words we travelled north for three days towards the ocean. The trip was like usual and we progressed I as had planned. In the afternoon of the third day we reached the port city of Sasren, one of the major trade routes for Rentolt. The city was large and a solid wall surrounded it ending by the water. Even from far outside the city we could see tall masts from the ships in the port.
Alicia was visibly excited and as usual we headed to the main gate on foot. It was only the early evening so the gate should have been open but instead it was firmly closed. Strange, from what I heard it was a bustling city and even from the outside there should have been many merchants but it was suspiciously quiet. I scanned the city for life and came back with a heavy response as it should but the movement in the city was stifled and there where odd large clumps of people.
We reached the door,
"Hello?" Carl called, "Is anyone here? We're adventurers looking for a place to spend the night."
There was a twang and in an instant Carl drew his sword cutting the approaching arrow apart.
"What the hell was that for?" he yelled in the direction it came from. The other Heroes readied themselves.
A man in armour showed himself on top the wall. I grabbed the Carl and Alicia in front of me and pulled them away from the gate. I had never seen that armour before. It was made from white iron and covered majority of their body. The knights of Rentolt focused on movement above defence, their armour wasn't as thick but the most concerning factor was the crest imprinted on their clothes. A cross made from curved lines surrounded by a wreath. No Kingdom on the human side or tribe on the demon side had that crest.
"This city is now under the control of the Miltis Empire," the man looked down at us. "We are currently not taking in stragglers. Leave."
I stared at him coldly as I guided the Heroes away. They were confused but not as much as I was. There was no faction on this continent called the Miltis Empire, just where had they come from?