Battling my own fatigue I sat clutching the dagger as Dirius slept, each minute rolling by slower than the last. 'A few hours have gone by now right?'
My hand extended to Dirius to lightly shake him awake when suddenly the nearby bushes began shaking.
"Dirius. Wake up."
"Mhm."
His groggy groan irritated the shit out of me and the prospect of whatever the source of that suspicious noise being dangerous skyrocketed my already rising anxiety.
"Wake up!"
I shouted causing him to jump up and the bunny from the bushes to hop out. I was completely mortified, my red eyes mixed with fear and the embarrassment of knowing what was the source of it.
"You're being dead ass Orphy? A FUCKING BUNNY!?"
My voice croaked slightly by his sudden yelling and my knotted voice from my unexpected scare. He then busted out laughing and clutching his stomach.
"It's not funny Dirius!"
"Oh yes it is, you let clover scare the shit out of you. Blue ribbon bunny tooo scary for you?"
He coughed through his laughter from choking on his own saliva. I found myself scowling even more at his incessant laughter. 'I'm so going to get you back little shit.'
"You seriously couldn't let me sleep more than an hour?"
He said deftly, almost as if he expected to be woken up so abruptly.
"An hour!? It's been like three."
His face dropped from his previous playful grin as he held my shoulder and pet my head like if he was feeling sorry for me. 'What is this prick getting at?' I dusted his hand off me and eyed him unamused.
"What was that for? You know I don't like that shit."
He held his hands to his mouth and shook his head slightly almost like a concerned mother. However I knew he was about to be a sarcastic asshole.
"I'm sorry, I just can't help it. You're honestly cute when you're being stupid as fuck sometimes."
"...."
"I mean Orphelia, I only got to sleep for forty minutes. Your perception of time really is horseshit."
***BANG
***
The morning couldn't come any faster, thankfully we made it through the night without injury. We headed back into town after storing the luggage we left the estate with in the magic item bag. 'More roomy than I expected.' This worked to our favor as we'd be a bit more inconspicuous now.
With it being light out now, the town was more lively and I could see just how happy most of the citizens were. Despite this being a smaller town there were many vendors lining the streets even outside the designated merchants area that mistress Trevejo told me was located at the heart of town.
"Fresh bread! Fresh bread! Made this morning!"
I turned to Dirius to inquire about the breakfast situation.
"Thinnnk we should get something to eat before we look for transport?"
"Yeah we should. Let's get something simple though."
We got to loaves of bread from the man who was selling just a few feet away, and surely enough the bread was fresh and tasty. 'First me-'
"First meal in a fantasy world. How fitting."
I laughed softly to myself, that was my exact thought. We continued on as we casually talked to passersby on the street. Everything seemed so chill in nature, the overall vibe and atmosphere a gentle breeze unlike yesterday. 'That was until..'
Bump
"Hey kid watch where you're going alright."
Dirius reached out to help the fallen child that had run into him when he suddenly grabbed at his coin purse and made a run for it.
"Hey that's half of our money dumbass chase after him! We're broke now so we can't let that shit slide!"
We began sprinting after him, this kid really had a lot of speed and was oddly athletic. 'Are all kids in a fantasy world built different?'
Little dude was jumping over carts and sliding under tables like a pro. I was impressed but for our bodies to be keeping up these twins surely had something going for them aside from looks and a pedigree. 'This snot nosed twirp led us into an alleyway.'
"Oh great."
We said in unison looking at each other then behind us to see that we were surrounded.
"Orphy, don't tell me this is the first time we're going to get jumped and it's by little kids."
"We are brokies so it can't be helped. We should go easy on them though."
"Easy on them? These little walking fetuses could take the chuunin exams, didn't you see how lil bro was moving?"
'He's got a point.'
"So what are we doing?"
He smirked at me and nodded.
"You know what."
As I balled my hands into fists ready to school these little punks Dirius turned the other direction and began running.
"NIGERUNDAYO!"
"What the FUC-"
***
Just narrowly escaping the hoard of gremlins we made it to the town square. Dirius was sweating profusely, and I, panted like a dog.
"You -huff, are the absolute worst!"
"If you wanted to fight against the kindergartners from hell I wasn't going to stop you Orph."
"We needed that money!"
"We'll figure something else out."
I sat on the ground exhausted when suddenly a sly like sultry male voice spoke above me.
"Well that isn't any way for a lady to be sitting darling."
'Hottie alert!'
This guy had long blonde hair and red eyes, he was dressed in a simple white robe, he smelled amazingly sweet, like honey and pomegranates.
"Probably but I'm a bit tired and annoyed at the moment so I don't particularly care."
"Annoyed? Why?"
"It's embarrassing."
He smirked at me and reached out to my hand.
"Here."
He placed what I assumed to be Satura tablet in my hand.
"Wait! I can't take this mister."
"Mister? What an amusing woman you are."
He shook his head and laughed before letting go my hand and turning to walk away.
"Hey wait!"
"I saw what happened darling."
An amused grin played at his lips as my face became redder.
"Next time use my name okay."
He waved then snapped his finger and disappeared. I was completely dumbfounded, Dirius was so silent I forgot he was there until his stifled laughter began to leak out.
"What the fuck was that!?"
I reached to shaking him as my hands were trembling.
"A wattpad moment."
He was cackling with a goofy clown like grin.
"Seems like he knew the old 'you'. What kind of relationship I wonder~?"
A devious teasing smirk creeping on his already annoying face.
"Not helping!"
"But he is~. He got that bag sis, dude must be rolling in it to casually give you so much money, and isn't he one of your types. Take one for the team."
"Yes he was hot... but I'm not pimping myself out like you! Besides, I don't know him."
"My poor sweet sister with the mind of a deviant but resolve of a wimp."
Bang
***
With the help of the mysterious sexy man we now had a lot more funds at our disposal so now we just to find someone to take us there. We walked into the adventures guild of this town. It was smelly, there were all kinds of races in the building, unlike the pub last night. There were beast men, lizard men and even some dwarfed giants.
The building's interior was mostly stone with a few wooden pillars and posts. The overall atmosphere was rigid. 'Not- what I was expecting.' There was talking but not many loud conversations, they were mostly grouped between their various parties and seemed strictly professional in nature.
Nothing rambunctious overall very organized. Dirius also remained silent, not even making any jokes or pointing out attractive women he spotted like he usually did. This made me all the more aware that this guild wasn't a safe space at all.
We made our way to the front desk where there was a woman who I assumed to be the manager.
"Good day miss I'd like to put in a request."
From the knowledge I gathered and the structure of fantasy worlds I read I was winging this whole interaction. Hoping that this writer didn't get creative and finally develop some sort of originality.
"Yeah sure thing. Name?"
I looked to Dirius, he gave a knowing nod of approval.
"Alice Strahl. I'd like to request an armed guard transport to Sarion as soon as possible."
"Alright. What level of security, D, C. B or A?"
Cheapest would be D, but we should at least go with C.
"C rank should work."
"Alright, that works perfectly, a few C rank parties should be available right now. "
She handed us a written up document and showed us where to go. All the C ranked adventurers were to themselves, same went for every other rank.
"Stuffy."
Dirius commented and I agreed.
'Now where's the most normal looking guys?'
Dirius held my hand before gesturing to a group way down in the back.
"Bingo."