The return journey from the Sea of Trees was made in the Light runner and the Magic Powered 2-Wheeled drive. In the front seat of the runner was Ken and Yue with Shia and the dark elf at the back. Yue has been pouting the whole journey because of Ken's reaction when he saw the elf which brought great silence in the vehicle. Shia not reading the room decided to be the first to speak.
"Kenshiro, why am...."
"Why are still angry, Yue" Ken interrupts Shia and poses a question he knew the answer to.
"You know why..."
"*sigh* You know it's a moment of weakness that I brought Riveria along. In my world, dark elves (especially the females) are one of the main fascinations of a world of swords and magic, that's why I and Nagumo acted that way and not because of her beauty" (Ken)
"I know I can't stop you from having other girls, it's just..." (Yue)
"it's nothing... you know you'll always be the first. And you remember my promise, right?"
"Nn~... but you have to pay for almost breaking your promise "
"Anything you want... and she will just be our comrade as I train her to be the strongest as sooner or later she will be your sister "
Smiles Ken as he touches Yue's thighs and slowly move under but she pinches him with a bashful smile.
"… … If you are in a good mood, can you take off the collar already?"
Fixed on Shia's neck was a collar with a black body embedded with a small inconspicuous crystal. It was something sturdy that Ken used as punishment for Shia's verbal slip against his reaction towards Riveria. Because for some reason she couldn't take it off, Shia asked Ken to remove it only to have her words pass through Ken's ears for a few minutes before responding.
"It suits you so keep it on and we're approaching a human settlement... free and beautiful demihumans around humans spells trouble which I want to avoid"
"Hehe~... Ken said I'm beautiful and the cutest girl in the world *giggles*" (Shia)
"I'm also referring to Riveria, you horny rabbit"
They can see a town in the distance. It was a small town enclosed with a surrounding moat and hedges. There was a gate facing the highway, with a hut by its side. It might be the guards' post. Even though it was a small town, there was the arrangement for guards. Because of that, Ken who thought they'd be able to do quality shopping, loosened his cheeks.
Slowly, Kenshiro and his party could clearly see the town, so he put the magic-driven vehicles into the "Treasure Strove", and switched to walking on foot. It was because it'd cause a commotion to arrive with a non animal driven wheels after all. After a few minutes of walking in the scorching sun, they see a hut near the gate that looked like it been set permanently.
The hut beside the gate was a guard's post, with an armed man coming out of it. He was equipped with leather armor and a long sword on his waist, rather than a soldier he looked more like an adventurer. That adventurer-like man called Kenshiro and his party to stop.
"Please halt. Show your status plate and also, what are your objectives coming to this town?"
It might be something like a regulation, because he somehow looked unmotivated. Ken and Hajime pulled out their status plate while answering the guard's question.
"We've come here to restock of provisions and to sell monster parts" (Nagumo)
An indifferent voice, 'Hu~m', can be heard from the guard while he checked Ken and Hajime's status plate. After that, he blinked his eyes, held the plate a little farther, then rubbed his eyes. Having seen the guardsman done that, Ken stays calms as he was prepared but Hajime with cold sweat thought, 'Ah, this is bad, I forgot to hide that'.
Inside status plate, there is a function to hide the numerical value and skills' column. Even for adventurer and mercenary, the leak of combat ability can prove to be fatal. Hajime immediately tried to deceive the guard by telling him a lie.
"A while before, we were attacked by demonic beasts. It looks like it broke at that time"
"I-it broke? That was, well…"
The guard was perplexed. It was no wonder. After all, Hajime's status plate didn't display the level, and the numerical value of his stats, as well as his skills column were all over the place. Even though he sometimes heard of people losing the status plate, for it to be broken (in sense of it being bugged) was something he had never heard of. Normally he would just laugh it off, but something unbelievable was displayed after all, so he didn't understand how to judge it.
To further his attack, Hajime shrugged his shoulders with a manner of someone totally bothered by it.
"If it wasn't broken, isn't that display too strange? It's as if I am a monster. Mr. Guard, do I look like a monster that could destroy a town with just the tip of my finger?"?
To Hajime who used a joking gesture by opening both of his hand, the guard only gave out a wry smile.
"Haha, well, of course I don't see that. Even though I have never heard of any bug in the display, well, there is always a first for everything… … and those three…"
"My girlfriend lost her's in that attack, as for the rabbit-eared girl and the elf, well..." (Ken)
"Ah, what beautiful girls... Welcome to the town of adventurers, Brook Town. The guild is a few blocks ahead of you" says the guard as he allows passage.
The reason the guard didn't say anything about Riveria is because of the collar she is wearing. This world has no knowledge of the dark elves species, so she will be mistaking for a demon –who have reddish-brown skins with a purple tone– and be killed even if she's shown as a slave. Ken imbued the collar with dark magic based illusion spell, so anyone with mana capacity lower than his will only view her as a beautiful blonde elven slave.
They enter the adventurers guild and meet Catherine, the guild receptionist, who for some reason keeps smiling through her eyes and cracking jokes. Ken and Nagumo decide to sell valuable parts of some magic beast from the Sea of Trees which surprises Catherine as they're stronger than the average beast and the demi humans there are unwelcoming if you're spotted.
{A/N: Magic beasts are wild animals that have been influenced by mana which makes them stronger and bigger, so some of their parts are valuable as they've been enhanced by mana whiles
Monsters or demonic beasts (I will be using these interchangeably whiles magic beasts will be the same ) are all animals that have undergone mutation by absorbing the chaotic mana in the atmosphere and so they develop demonstones to adopt to it which gives the strongest and most evolved ones powerful and special magics special to their species.
Magic beasts are eaten especially by the rich and noble whiles monsters can't be eaten but their demonstones have very high value on the market.
This is my theory since the anime and manga didn't explain in-depth}
The party then leaves the guild with some money and a map of Brook Town which Catherine claims to create as a hobby, they can go the Masaka inn which was highly recommended on the the map. They meet a middle age woman instead of the young girl which Ken thought was odd but was interrupted with a question.
"Welcome to Masaka Inn, young adventurers "
"Thank you, we come here as stated in the guide we received " says Ken as he shows her the map.
"Oh Catherine-san, so how long will you be staying?"
"A room for four and only for today" (Ken)
The woman calls her daughter to show the party their room and she looked and acted exactly as Ken remembered except more realistic. Ken start to give out instructions immediately the girl left the room.
"Yue, you and girls are to go shopping for some rations and clothes..." Ken tells her what clothes she should buy for Shia and Riveria's battle attire and turns to Nagumo "All you have to do is information gathering. There's bound to be rumors and stories about the Labyrinth in the grand canyon, so start from there while I make weapons for our new members "
------
In the evening.
"Ta-dah~! Ken-san look!. Does it look good on me?" (Shia)
"Don't get carried away Shia..." (Yue)
"How is there so much exposure when it's an adventure clothing... Did you get what I asked for, Yue?"
"Everything else was tight around the bust..." (Shia)
"Yes, here you go and I bought a few a high quality cloths" (Yue)
"Good job love... anything credible around?"
asks Ken as he looks at Nagumo.
"A few valuable information worth checking out and I've narrowed down a general location... and I'm starting to get frustrated with all these girls, no offense Yue " (Nagumo)
"We'll leave tomorrow afternoon and after this conquest you can go to Koari to release everything " proclaims Ken with a smile as he gives Shia her weapon "Here... since you're talented in body strengthening, this battle axehammer, Shiva, perfectly suits you. It's 5feet long and weighs 200kg with all sorts of gimmicks imbued in it..."
"Urg... Huff huff... it's really heavy" (Shia)
"Don't worry, the next ancient magic will make it easier to carry around... with that out of the way, let's formally welcome our new comrade as she summarize her story" says Ken as everyone's attention goes to Riveria.
"... As you already know, I'm Riveria Collbrande, an elf. And for your information I won't be your slave even if Elder Alfredic gave me to you" (Riveria)
"I wasn't intending to treat you that way... it was a moment of fascination and am sure you'd like it with us since you seem trained"(Ken)
"...I was born to the Collbrande family of the elven tribe as the third child but the second daughter of four children. My parents were one of the most powerful and respected couples in all of Faea Belgaen as well as the main reason I was alive.
As the years went by enduring the looks and whispers of the other demi humans, my father trained me in his personal techniques so that I could decide my fate with my own hides but that all came to an end when they died defending our country from a random raid of the empire which meant I could die at any decided time. Elder Alfredic out of respect for my parents made me a heavy load worker for the elf tribe as protection until you guys come along but don't expect a thank you..."
""•••""
"... So what's your goal and passion, now that you're with us and I've noticed something peculiar about your beautiful crimson eyes" (Ken)
"...I have an innate ability called Point Break which was only known to my parents or I would have ended up like Shia and is why my father taught me spearmanship. All I want is to battle and be strong to decide which species I really am"
"A worthy passion for the strong and now you've earned your weapon... I call it 'Spear of Slaughter', simple and terrifying in addition to your abilities. Welcome to the team" (Ken)
Everyone welcomes her and share stories, experiences and goals(which doesn't bring any major change to Riveria's face but a minor one in her eyes) as Ken with Nagumo's help create battle clothes for tomorrow's training and conquest.