~ Elaria's Pov ~
I thought it was all over. We discovered a large Orc Camp, while investigating the forest for the recent anomalies, and just when we had discovered the camp and were returning, we were ambushed by a group of Orc and was chased all over the forest, resulting in Theodore getting severely injured from the relentless attacks of the Orcs.
Just when I was losing hope, we discovered a camp, hope relit inside me, only to be extinguished upon realizing that the people in the camp wouldn't be able to provide help, "and they're kids?!" I heard Sheryl say in shock beside me. I was without hope now, but I didn't want to drag the two little kids into this fight. "Hey, you two. Run away now!" I shouted; at the same time I heard the rustling sound coming closer.
My Party and I immediately got into formation, with only 3 people capable of fighting, 1 severely injured and needed to be protected. Turning my gaze away from the two little girls, I was hoping that they would immediately runaway once they saw the Orcs, but to my surprise, one was running towards the muscular Orc, while the other one was gathering an immense amount of mana and never before seen magic.
What was even more surprising was the amount of power the short girl in black had in that strange magic, not only was it able to cut through the Orc Mage's enhanced [Fireball], it didn't lose power nor momentum and defeated the Orc Mage by cutting off its head. Even her companion was also very strong, she was keeping the muscular Orc at bay, inflicting injuries of varying degree.
They had even defeated the berserking muscular Orc, with a mysterious chantless magic for the little black robed girl to restraining the muscular orc, a swift and heavy attack from the other girl, where I could barely follow her movements and attack with my eyes. The two little kids were far stronger than I had anticipated.
Not only had they defeated the Orc Mage and Muscular Orc, which was apparently an Orc leader, according to the black robed girl's glasses. Not only were they strong, they also had artifacts. The little girl who seemed to be the leader even handed us some supplies, even a tent for us.
I didn't want to ask anything anymore of them, since they have already given a lot. I can heal Theodore with the amount of mana I had. "Theodore, hang in there I'll heal you up." I said to Theodore, placing one of my hands on Theodore's shoulder, the other hand holding the staff towards his head.
I started chanting, as a magic circle full of runic letters, I prayed and light slowly enveloped Theodore, before fully disappearing after a few seconds of glowing. "There, all healed up. Do you feel better Theodore?" I asked, and to my surprise, he still hasn't woken up.
It seemed that while he was healed from his severe injuries, there was still other injuries, and if not healed in time, he'll be back into a dire state. "What's wrong Ela?", Turning to my side, I saw Cliff standing beside me with a worried look on his face. I told Cliff, Theodore's state and a complicated look appeared on Cliff's face.
I could understand why, I had truly ran out of mana to fully heal Theodore remaining wounds, and if not healed, the wounds would worsen, putting him back into a dire state. "Let's ask the kids, if they can use healing magic or have any mana potions." said Cliff, as he turned to look towards the camp of the little girls.
"We can't, they've already given us quite a bit of supplies, and we can't ask for more. Let's just wait, I'll be able to recover my mana to use [Healing Magic] once, after recovering a bit more mana." I replied to cliff. I didn't want to impose on the children anymore, and we couldn't just be on the receiving end, especially since they're kids, and we're adults after all.
"I know what you're worried about, Elaria. But you don't have to worry, we'll be paying for anything we get. I still have my emergency funds with me." Cliff said, with a resolute tone. I had thought we had lost most of our money, when we had dropped our bags to run away faster from the Orcs. After a few more back and forth, Cliff and I went to the two little girl's camp.
Afte a few discussions and introduction from the two little girls, we had gotten a mana regeneration potion, and a rare Recovery Potion. It was a [Potion] that was almost at the ranks of artifacts, and we had bought it for the lowest possible price. These [Potions] were different from regular potions, as they were invented way before our time, and the only way to get these [Potions] were from Dungeons, Ancient Ruins, and Advanced Alchemist Class, or unique potion brewing classes.
Upon coming back to our camp and tending to Theodore, he had finally woken up... Sitting by the campfire Mirelle had set up, Me and the other party members were silent. Theodore had gotten the whole story, and now we were deep in thought. Who were these little girls, where did they come from, and what were they doing in the forest.
"Why are they in the forest..." said Sheryl with a deep look on her face. After we exchange a few more words with one another, Cliff who was quietly listening to us speak "Celeste is likely a noble, and Mirelle might be her knight from a neighboring kingdom." Cliff said as he continued to look at the fire, deep in his thoughts. I agreed, the way Celeste was behaving was like how some noble children were, especially given how she had sold the Recovery Potion without much thought.
"What Cliff said is right, isn't Drakonir Empire, currently having a fierce fight for succession while having a civil war?" Theodore added, as he continues to say, "Just beyond this forest is the Drakonir Empire, if they wanted to run away from the Empire's inner turmoil, they'd have to go to another Kingdom, which the closest is Eisenwald which belongs to Velmorin Kingdom.", we were all stunned for a moment, it made sense.
They most likely ran away from the empire's turmoil, wanting to avoid getting dragged into the fight, and the nobility of the Drakonir Empire were mostly warriors or people with strength, which makes sense why kids like them are that strong, and were a bit different from what we were used to. The more we thought about it, the more it felt like it was the truth.
"I want help them..." I said in a low voice, hearing this Cliff replied, looking at me with an understanding look on his face, "I understand where you're coming from, I also want to offer some help, but from the looks of things they don't really need our help...", noticing my disappointed look, he quickly comforted me "if it makes you feel better, aren't we returning to Eisenwald tomorrow with them?".
"Why not ask the guild master for help, aren't we going to report our findings to her?" Cliff added, as he turned towards the campfire again, thinking for a moment... I decided that I'd talk to the guild master about their circumstances, and if possible, provide support for them.
.
..
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~ Celeste Pov ~
When the sun rose, Mirelle and I quickly tidied the camp up after a light breakfast and readied to leave for Eisenwald with Elaria and her party. Footsteps could be heard from behind me, and a voice rang out from behind, "Are you ready to leave, Celeste, Mirelle?" turning my head around, I saw Elaria standing there, with a enthusiastic smile on her face.
"Yes, we just finished tidying the camp up. We can go anytime." I replied, putting the last of the items inside the dimensional pouch by my waist. "Okay, we'll leave in a minute.' Elaria said as she walked back to their party's camp, cleaning up their camp.
After a while, we were all set to go to Eisenwald. "Okay, let's return to Eisenwald." Cliff said, looking at all us, before turning to look towards the front and walked towards Eisenwald in a direction, with a steady pace... Walking for a bit, curiosity won over me, I asked Elaria, who was behind the others along with Mirelle and I.
"Elaria, -" I said, but "You can just call me Ela, Celeste." Elaia interrupted as she turned to face me. "Ela...Cliff said that you were all here to investigate something. What were you investigating?" I said to Elaria, and Elaria responded "Well, we were investigating the movement of monsters in the Dark Forest.", I took a book out and took note of the forest's name, and continued to ask Elaria another question.
"Movements of monsters in the forest?" I asked Elaria with a confused look on my face, "Yes, monsters have been coming out of the forest lately, some were seen near Eisenwald." replied Elaria, and Theodore, who was near us turned to look towards us and added, "We were sent here to investigate why the monsters are acting the way they are in the forest."
"Did you ever find out the reason for the monsters' movements?" I responded to Theodore, and Sheryl was the one who responded, "Yeah, it was a large Orc camp. Those Orcs from yesterday, was just a small part of the camp." Sheryl said without looking at us, continuing to walk onwards. Cliff quickly added, "Once we return to town, we'll be reporting to the Guild Master, so we'll separate once we get into town. However, Elaria will show you around town." I nodded and thanked Cliff and Elaria.
As we continued to talked for a bit and walked, Cliff's voice rang out, "We're near, you should be able to see the town from here." said Cliff, as he looked over towards a certain direction, and in that direction a wall could be seen with lines of people coming in and out.
"This is Eisenwald." said Elaria, as she patted my shoulder and added, "Come on, let's go inside."