After some preparations, the sun is finally setting with Mina and Roth sitting on the steps of the adventurer's guild. A whole caravan is lined up as many adventurers were loading supplies and equipment. Roth took a moment to look at all the people running around quickly to head out to Ezhine. Mina on the other hand rests her head next to Roth. Footsteps slowly shuffle behind Roth making him turn slowly not to wake Mina, it was Saudia. She sat next to him on his right side and huddles herself up watching the hustle of everyone.
"So you really going to be going after all?" Saying in a soft worrying voice.
"Yeah... I guess I am. If you're worried about me like last time don't worry, I have something to keep me safe." He pulls out of his shirt the crystal pendant Saudia gave him. She looks at him with watery eyes and looks back at the other adventurers.
"I didn't realize you still kept my necklace. That makes me happy, truly." They both sit in silence for what felt like an eternity, but Saudia broke the silence first.
"Please come back... I... I worry for you sweetie. Seeing you all mangled and bloodied to fighting the most vile crime syndicate in less than a week. And bringing your little sister no less. Please don't do anything rash...okay?" He looks at her with a surprised expression but smiles reassuringly to her.
"I promise to be safe. I won't let anything happen to my little sister too; you have my word." He gentle head pats Mina and Mina still dazed and asleep smiles nuzzling against his arm feeling the head pat in her sleep. He smiles and looks back Saudia as she smiles towards his caring personality. Saudia gets up and hugs Roth before entering back inside the guild. Roth just blushes and accepts her hug without restraint.
"Alright! Mount up everyone, let's move out!" Shouted Tobias. Roth gentle wakes up Mina and slowly her eyes begin to open and jolted straight up embarrassed she fell asleep on Roth. "You're fine haha we're getting ready to head out let's go sit up with Tobias in the front of the convoy." She rubs her eye and agrees. As they head to the front of the convoy Yoseph walks towards their way and bumps Roth's shoulder hard, "Outta my way kid..." He stares at Yoseph angry but composes himself and continues to their wagon.
"Hey kid, you looking to join my little humble wagon? Hop in hehe."
"Thank you, we both appreciate it."
"Nonsense, It's the least I can do. I had a feeling you would since... you know." He giggles at the situation but Roth awkwardly laughs and heads to the back of the covered wagon.
"Sorry if it's a little cramped but they're harmless."
Roth helps Mina into the wagon by lifting her up and as he takes his turn, he sees a huge beast of a man. He had his arms crossed and eyes closed and look to be about seven feet tall. He was extremely muscular and the veins around his arms were the size of his finger. He barely fits into the wagon. Another was a teen girl who had a lot of scars on her face all varying sizes. She was slumped back and snoring like a grown man. She had two bandoliers with several knifes attached to them. She even had a long dark blue pixie haircut.
Her boots were all scuffed and muddy and her outfit look almost modern as the shirt look exactly like a flannel. Next to her was a man with a long bow and wore a cloak. He had wavey blonde curly hair which shine in the dark. He was half asleep and was chewing on a piece of thin bark. As he turns to the last person he was even more shocked and cautious. Sitting with her arms and legs crossed as she were in a tantrum was none other than Shiana. She looked over for a glanced and noticed it was Roth and quickly looked away with an attitude.
He thinks to himself out of all the wagons she could be on she chose to ride in the front. Mina sat on the bench while Roth sat on the floor with his arm resting out the gate of the wagon. No one seem to notice them except for Shiana. Soon the wagon moves abruptly and setting off to the city of Ezhine west of Galobethrogga. A total of eight wagons were in route with a total of fifty adventurers. This was the biggest operation the guild has ever taken and has taken every precaution for their plan to succeed. In a steady pace they made their way to the city as fast as they can without exhausting the horses.
Both Roth and Mina had their few talks with the group they were traveling with, but they never really talked to the two of them. And during the nights they ate and slept away from the group isolating themselves. After the rude and belittling they both experience they didn't want any more inner conflicts. Finally on the third night they once again sat away from the group. Tobias sees this and is fed up. He approaches the two that were slowly getting ready to sleep in their tents.
"This whole time we were traveling on the road you guys have been nothing but quiet. Spit it out have we done something to upset you?" He kneels down making it a joke.
"No, it's just, we want to get this mission over with. Trying not to get too attach is all."
"Oh that's right, you're the only one who survived from your former party." Roth looks down and feels the sting in his heart once again. Mina notices this and sits next to Roth.
"Listen, we handle ourselves with pretty dangerous situations before. There's no need to worry about us, alright? C'mon, you haven't even gotten to know them."
"Well I assumed since they haven't tried to engage with both of us that much. It just felt really awkward."
"Oh that. Yeeeeah that's my bad. Hehehe, you see they really wanted to talk to you, but I told them to wait until you were more comfortable. They can be a bit... eccentric." Roth squints at him as if to say, "you're kidding". Roth turns towards Mina waiting for her say in it.
"I don't mind big brother. I think it would be pretty nice to talk to them for a little bit." He sighs and reluctantly agrees. Tobias gives a joyous smile and leads them to their spot. A fire pit was in the center as they sat on logs that circled around the fire. The biggest one was eating out of a soup bowl but since he was so big it looked like he was drinking out of a cup. The pixie hair one was on the ground leaning against the log and was cleaning out her nails with the tip of her dagger. The curly hair bowman was making several arrows and was precisely fast at making them.
"Hey everyone Roth agreed to hang with us a little bit before getting some sleep." Tobias said cheerfully. They all looked up and Roth waited for the snarky comments to commence.
"Well finally I was going insane being quiet all the time in that chicken coop!" The pixie hair girl jumped up and came towards Roth wrapping her arm around him.
"The name is Jeune. You finally got out of your shell? Hey, hey, hey, you ever played pinfinger? I'll bet you some money for it."
"Calm down Jeune you're going to scare our friend away. I apologies my dear friend, my name is Ganzo. I'm quite relieve that you didn't hold some type of grudge against us for some reason." The muscular brute was surprisingly calm and refine.
" Ifani here, want a strip?" the bowman offered Roth a piece of bark from his pouch.
"Erm... no thanks I'm good."
"Geeze nobody likes your stupid bark you beaver! It's so weird!" Shouted Jeune
"You know certain trees actually give you some benefit of food. It is quite resourceful in a survival situation."
"DiD YoU KnOw tHaT CerTaIn TrEEs! You will catch me dead if I ever have to eat from a stupid tree." Jeune mocked Ifani. The two went back and forth arguing on the bark situation and Mina couldn't help to laugh at their bickering. Tobias sat down across from Roth as the two sat next to Ganzo. "I have to admit I did enjoy the silence while it lasted, oh well." Ganzo said disappointed as he took a sip from his stew bowl. Roth was curious and did appraisal on all of them. Ganzo was level eighty, Jeune was seventy five, Ifani was eighty and Tobias was ninety.
Roth was impressed to see high level adventurers. "So how did you guys become adventurers? must've been difficult to reach at your rank."
Tobias took a sip from his bowl and commented, " Well, we're technically not adventurers, we're mercenaries. We are the fox fang mercenaries."
"Isn't it the same thing?" Mina chirped in.
"Adventurers do a lot of odd jobs like collecting herbs or something of that sort for low ranks but for us mercs we do a lot of guarding, muscle work, dangerous stuff you see." Said Ganzo.
"Mhm, in fact a lot of the people here are from our group. About thirty of them you see, the rest are from the other two parties. So that makes it a total of...fifty people in this operation." Said Jeune as she was counting from her fingers.
"Wow... look at that, the rat can do math." Said Ifani antagonizing Jeune playfully.
"I will stab you in the ass!"
"Bring it on bitch!" They started to wrestle each other trying to punch each other in the gut. All while laughing at each other.
"well, well, well, I can see you all are hanging out with this fraud."
The two stopped fighting and turned towards the voice. Roth turned around and behind standing above him was Sillo. Roth's mood now turned sour.
" I don't know what little trick you used on Aufnier, but It won't work on me. There's no way anyone could use more than one attribute. And the ability to use light magic as well." Roth was fed up with Sillo's prideful mouth. " If I can prove to you I can use light magic, will you then leave us alone?"
Tobias interjects, " Roth please you don't have too-"
" Very well then on one condition."
"Oh? And what might that be?"
"Injure yourself. If you can injure yourself deep enough to leave a scar, then I might consider respecting you."
Ganzo Interjects as well, "Roth you mustn't, this is insane." But Roth ignored his plea and turned towards Mina, " Can I see your dagger for a moment?"
"Oh no you're not going to do that are you? It's so gross." But Roth insisted. She reluctantly agreed but looked away. Sillo was curious as to what she meant by that. Roth takes out the dagger from its cover and showed it to Sillo. The rest of the group looked in pure anxious tension. Then Roth placed the tip of blade onto his right eyebrow and slide down across his face leaving a deep gash that was gruesome to look at. Sillo jumped back in horror not expecting him to cut his face. The others screamed in panic all talking at the same time.
"WOAH WHAT THE FUCK!"
"Wowza! Freaking gnarly!"
"My goodness Roth!"
"What in Theanita's name! The Hell!"
Sillo felt queasy on how hard and deep his cut is. Sillo looks at Mina as she is looking away not reacting how the others are. "God damn that freaking hurts. Relax... just... watch." He closed his intact eye and the deep gash begins to glow bright. Slowly the wound begins to close up and the gash was gone. He leans forward and puts his hand out and lets a stream of water flow out and uses it to wash the remaining blood off his face. His face was visible again and there is no scar left as if his face was never touched at all.
He hands the dagger back to Mina and she accepts it but feels awful. "Now you believe me?"
He is in total shock and can't find the words to put together. "Y- I- This is a trick! I'll figure it out you'll see!" He storms off as he said he would. The others looked at him with so much intense curiosity. Now he feels awkward again.
"Amazing, I heard about your powers, but to see it." Said Ifani
"That's so cool! You gotta play pinfinger with me now!" shouted Jeune
"So this is why Aufnier sees you in extraordinary light, fascinating." calmly said Ganzo.
"I knew it. This is why I said never to judge someone before you truly see what they are capable of." Said Tobias proudful yet still queasy.
They all had so many questions to ask Roth surrounding him, mad but glad that he wasn't hurt permanently. He's surprised that they didn't cast him out like a witch hunt and instead embraced his "unique gift" all having a fun night before heading to his tent. With this operation, he prays that nothing will happen to those good people.