Third person POV
He waited for over 2 hours until, a young man named Eric Taill, who was a shopkeeper, knocked on the bus door. "Hello?" The sound causes Russell to wake up from his nap and open the door. "Yes?" he looked at him.
"Are you a driver?" Eric asked him.
"Yes, I am. How can I help you?"
"This metal carriage will go to Tanner Town, right?"
"Yes, are you going to ride this?"
"How does this one work?"
To that, Russell explains to the young man how buses work in the vaguest way possible but excludes the part about how his bus's engine works mechanically and technologically since it would be bad if the secret to its technological mechanism were leaked to anyone.
"Oh…" Eric commented while being amazed by how those things work. "That was amazing."
"Yes."
"So, this one is safe, right?"
"Of course, this one is well-maintained."
"Okay, take me to Tanner Town, please."
"Alright then! Get in."
Eric did so and sat on one of the comfy leather seats. "Wow, this is so comfortable."
He reclined on his seat.
"Okay, Tanner Town it is." Russell closed the door and started the engine, before shifting the gear to drive and leaving the secluded area in the village.
The bus then left Hadrianwood and towards Tanner Town in the east. Along the way, the roads were paved and not that busy; the vehicles they encountered were nothing but horse carriages and horse wagons. Luckily, Russell tries his best to man his vehicle using the knowledge he gained from watching his father's driving back in his previous life. In an hour, he was getting used to it and knew its mechanics. All this time, Eric gazed at the view through the window as he sat on his seat comfortably. "Wow, this is so beautiful."
"The view is nice, isn't it?" Russell responded as he looked at him and back at the road while driving.
One time, a horse carriage of a noble was going through the road when Russell's bus went past it.
This startles the noble, who was a duke, and his two attendants as they see the strange fast vehicle passing by them.
"What was that thing?"
"That one looks strange, sir."
Seeing that, Eric looked at Russell. "Man, we just passed by them, sir."
"Yeah, I know," Russell replied back while driving.
He knows the directions thanks to the map.
As Russell drove on his first route, he leveled up to Level 2, much to his surprise.
So, by 6 p.m., the bus arrived at Tanner Town, a trading town in the Southern Plains kingdom. Its presence catches the attention of some passersby. "Sir, we're here," Russell said to him, before opening the door. After arriving here in Tanner Town, he leveled up to Level 3, and Russell was stunned. Nevertheless, Russell accepted it. Eric, who had been awake for the whole ride, then looked around, seeing that he had arrived at his destination in just a matter of hours. "We're here already?"
"Yes, safe and sound."
Because of that Eric grabbed his knapsack and went to the front. "Thank you, sir."
"You're welcome, I'm happy to help you," Russell happily responded back before adjusting his bus driver's cap.
"So, do I need to pay for it?"
That's the thing Russell didn't plan for, so he thinks for a while.
Then, he responded, "That'll be 5 gold coins, please."
Eric was astonished at how cheap the fare Russell was charging him for the ride was, but he didn't say anything about it and just got some coins from his pocket and gave it to him. "Here you go."
Receiving it, Russell responded, "Thank you, sir."
Eric smiled at him, before getting off the bus and went on his day and purpose in this town.
Russell then counted the coins as 5, and he was happy that he had managed to earn some money, even though it was little. But still, he was happy that his first venture was a success despite only having one passenger. But then, the presence of his bus had attracted a lot of people, who had never seen such an amazing, strange vehicle.
"Excuse me, sir, what is that carriage?"
"How can you operate such an amazing vehicle?"
"How does that one work?"
Their questions are too overwhelming for the young man to answer. "Uh…uh…"
But, he decided to explain it in a summary, and he did so to his ability but excluding the part about how his bus's engine works mechanically and technologically. A few minutes later, the crowd gets what he has said and believes him. Before Russell would respond, someone said, "Such a junk you have, peasant." Hearing that, he and the crowd looked at that person, only to see a woman with red hair and brown eyes and her party of adventurers.
"Excuse me?" Russell asked her back while raising an eyebrow for a few seconds.
The woman, a hero named Elai Taqua, then approached him with a smirk on her face. "That carriage of yours looks junkie."
Her party, except for one lowly adventurer, then laughs about it.
The crowd was a bit upset, and so was Russell.
"Hey, don't call it like that, Elai-san!"
"We think it's cool!"
"Yeah, you better cut that out!"
Hearing her name and status, Russell thinks, "So she is a hero, by her attire…and that's her name…right, adventurers and guilds do exist in this world."
He then notices the adventurer in Elai's party who doesn't laugh, who looks ashamed of his party and party leader.
"Hmm…he doesn't laugh," Russell thinks once more, "…he must be a good person."
But Elai didn't care about being told off by Russell and the crowd and just told them to learn their place because she was the daughter of a duke.
Russell was resistant, so he fired back. "Shut up!"
Elai was angered by his resistance to authority. "What did you just say?"
"We are just telling off for making fun of me."
"Then who are you?"
"My name is Russell May, a bus driver."
Elai laughed mockingly when she heard the word 'bus', a word she never heard before in her life. "What is that word?"
Russell tries to explain, but the arrogant, self-entitled hero brushes him off before leaving with her party.
This leaves the adventurer, who then apologizes deeply to Russell and the crowd for his party leader's mocking words to him.
"That's okay, young man," Russell responded with assurance, "you didn't laugh with them, right?'
The young boy, a villager named Adrian Paulton, then nodded. "Yes, I didn't. I'm not like them."
"Okay, good for you."
But, Elia calls him from the distance to come with them.
"R-Right!" Adrian responded back.
Then to Russell. "Sorry, I have to go now. Thank you anyway."
He bowed his head deeply once more before catching up with his hero party, leaving Russell and the crowd there.
"Man, what's wrong with her?" Russell asked after that while disdaining Elai's selfish attitude.
"That person is Elai Taqua," responded one of the bystanders. "She is a Fire Saintess of the Taqua family. She had fire magic. Be careful, she is arrogant and can use her power as the daughter of the Duke of Geran to snuff out critics and those who opposed her."
Upon hearing the warning, Russell was disappointed by Elai's attitude.
"She is calling herself a Fire Saintess," his mind said, "yet she is not a saintess at all. A saint or saintess is supposed to be morally pure and live a life of piety and devotion to being good people."