Chapter 23 - Our Adventure is Just Beginning
Adventurer badges must always be carried.
Yona returned her Evian-specific badge and received a guild general-purpose badge.
One for Yona, one for Alec, and one for Kairoc.
Alec received Yona’s along with his own and handed it back to her.
“Will it be okay with just the three of you?”
At Meri’s worried question, Alec, who was watching Yona hang the badge around her neck, turned to look at Meri.
Kairoc, who had his badge wrapped around his wrist due to his particularly thick neck, also turned to look at Meri.
“Is that a joke right now?”
His large mouth twisted strangely.
That mouth made Kairoc, who was nearly 2 meters tall, look even more intimidating, but Meri quickly realized that this was his smiling expression.
“As a warrior, me, Kairoc. As a guard, Alec, and as a healer, Yona. With these three, you’re not asking if it’s dangerous, are you?”
Kairoc said this while continuously making strange gurgling laughing sounds.
At that laughter, Yona frowned and kicked Kairoc’s bottom with a thud.
“Why are you laughing so weirdly, you lizard? Do you dislike Meri worrying about us?”
“That’s not it. It’s just funny, what danger could there be for a party with these three?”
“Kairoc, don’t be like that. Meri is asking if it won’t be dangerous for Yona, right, Meri?”
Ah, aha, ahaha.
Meri laughed with an awkward face.
That’s because what Alec said was exactly right.
After all, Yona is a girl.
Moreover, apart from her rough way of speaking, she’s a flawless beauty, so beautiful that it’s puzzling why she’s stuck in this backwater Evian. And she’s a skilled healer to boot.
Being a healer is what makes it more problematic.
She can’t hold a weapon with her hand wrapped in the holy cloth, and it happens to be her right hand, so right-handed healers, who are the majority, often wear shields to slightly increase their survival rate rather than awkwardly wielding weapons with their left hands.
Yona was the same.
Yona is a healer who wears a small round shield on her left arm.
And she’s an outstanding beauty.
Around her are Alec and Kairoc.
They’re both men, aren’t they?
“I told you not to see me as a woman, Meri.”
Yona frowned.
Usually, when she growled like this, Meri would smile and say, “I understand, sis,” but this time, Meri didn’t relax her stiff expression.
“Don’t take it lightly, sis. I know Alec and Kairoc are good people, everyone knows that. But still, you never know what can happen with people.”
“Meri, don’t worry. Alec here is more timid than he looks.”
Yona waved her hand and laughed as if it was nothing.
“That’s you thinking too lightly of it, sis.”
“Oh, you don’t believe me to the end? Do you know how much of a wallflower he is?”
Yona reached out and stroked Alec’s smooth head.
A soft, rustling feeling.
“Even when I offered to let him knead my breasts, he didn’t. His intelligence must have fallen out with his hair, I tell you.”
“Ah, that’s not true!”
Alec shouted, his face turning bright red, and Meri looked dumbfounded with an expression that seemed to say, “What’s this?”
“Ah, let’s go already! What are you doing?”
Only after Kairoc finally shouted did they manage to set off.
*
“Here, this is expensive.”
Walking towards Henson’s General Store near the western exit of Evian, Kairoc pulled out a rolled-up parchment.
It was clearly well-tanned and dried, and even from the outside, it looked quite expensive. When he carefully unfolded it, a map was revealed.
“Look, can you see? This is Evian.”
“Can you see anything with that tiny thing?”
-Smack!
Yona staggered.
Kairoc frowned and pointed at the map with his outstretched hand.
“Ow, this lizard with nothing but strength, really…”
Yona, rubbing the back of her head which hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes, looked at where Kairoc’s finger was pointing.
Above a small drawing of a village, “Evian” was written in even smaller letters.
“If you go up a bit from here, there’s the Republic of Marea. Anyway, Marea Republic is also Kapatian territory, but there’s still a border, so it’s better to go around to avoid the hassle.”
The first destination was obviously the mage community.
To get there, they had to pass the end of the Lukasia Mountains and cross the Insturia Mountains.
It sounds easy, but the Insturia Mountains are also called the spine of the continent.
That’s how long, massive, and treacherous they are.
The fact that there’s still no map that completely captures the Insturia Mountains clearly shows how treacherous they are.
“Anyway, it’s certain that we can’t go straight. To think you two were planning to go on this journey alone, I don’t know if you’re stupid or brave.”
Kairoc clicked his tongue and looked back and forth between Alec and Yona.
Yona had said she’d only been in this world for 3 years, and she often showed a lack of common sense that made it seem like that might not be a lie.
And Alec, who should have stopped Yona, must have been crazy about her and agreed to go together without considering the consequences, thinking they could travel just the two of them.
“You stupid fools.”
Kairoc gratuitously hit Alec’s head once.
With a thwack sound, Alec cried out, “Ack—”, and Kairoc clicked his tongue once more before pushing open the door to Henson’s General Store.
“Well, you’re going far.”
As Kairoc’s huge body entered, it felt like the not-so-spacious general store was completely filled.
They bought three new sleeping bags filled with cotton that wasn’t completely dead, and a couple of new flint sets in preparation for making campfires.
For food, they packed mainly dry rations that could be eaten easily, and Kairoc bought a few more chunks of rock salt, which was the most important.
“What are those stones for?”
Kairoc glanced at Yona, who had suddenly interjected, and shook his head as if it was nothing.
It was incredibly fortunate.
It was incredibly fortunate that these two thunder-naked fools were leaving when Kairoc was around.
If not, they would have just left by themselves, and Evian would soon have welcomed two corpses.
“It’s nothing. Let’s go. It’s better to travel as light as possible.”
“Yes, we’re finally setting off!”
Yona stretched as she left Henson’s General Store.
The bouncing feeling was directly transmitted because of that, but she didn’t particularly care.
Three years, she had waited for three years.
Out of those three years, she spent six months living clumsily in the church, and after leaving there, she lived as an adventurer.
She heard that there was a mage community, and that all the world’s mages gathered there, so she thought there might be a way to return home or at least a way to return to being a man.
So she saved money with the goal of going there.
That was finally coming to fruition now.
Yona was in a very good mood.
“We’re really setting off now, right?”
“Yes, we’re setting off.”
Yona, putting Alec in a headlock while being cheerful.
Alec, not knowing what to do as he directly felt the sensation of Yona’s breasts on his head.
Looking at these two, Kairoc somehow felt good.
Because Yona was that kind of person.
An energetic, lively, and cheerful woman.
A woman who somehow manages despite always being in mortal danger as a healer.
Knowingly or unknowingly, Kairoc thought that he too had been greatly influenced by Yona, by her vitality.
Kairoc thought that it must be so, seeing as he had decided to accompany these two on their journey, even making up non-existent reasons, when in the past he wouldn’t have cared at all.
*
“I’ll decline.”
“Oh.”
Rud frowned, his expression darkening.
This was already the second person to reject the invitation to the champion’s party, which he had thought was a very low possibility.
The first was obviously Yona, and the second was this fairy magician, Alebien.
While everyone in Evian knows that Alebien is a famous magician, her eccentric personality is equally well-known, in a different sense.
So he came to recruit her for the champion’s party, but as soon as he brought it up, he was flatly rejected.
“May I ask why?”
“I have someone I need to watch over.”
Alebien left these incomprehensible words and caressed her crystal ball.
The flickering image inside the crystal ball wasn’t visible from where Rud was sitting, so he couldn’t see who was in there.
“My, how unexpected. To think that after the healer, even a magician would reject my offer.”
In fact, it didn’t matter.
He wasn’t sure how great a magician Alebien was, but surely there must be other magicians of her caliber.
If he goes to the Infula Church Territory and then to the mage community, there’s no way there won’t be magicians wanting to join the champion’s party.
But it would look better to have a fairy magician, so he made the recruitment offer, but he didn’t expect to be so coldly rejected like this.
“It seems you were rejected by Yona?”
“You know right away.”
“When it comes to healers, it’s Yona. There’s no healer more famous than Yona in this Evian. If I had to name someone else, it might be Eije.”
“Indeed, everyone seems to have similar eyes for people. That girl Yona seemed like a truly capable healer.”
“Yes, she would be. Truly capable. Capable and more. She’s an extraordinary girl in many ways.”
“Her appearance is extraordinary too.”
Alebien pushed up her glasses that had slid down to the bridge of her nose and stared blankly at Rud.
His appearance, with dark brown hair neatly tied back, seemed somewhat out of place for an adventurer who crosses between life and death.
There was a feeling that some dark corner remained, making him seem not quite fitting as a champion.
“Why do you look at me with such eyes?”
Rud showed his usual refreshing smile.
“I welcome the gaze of a beauty, but it’s embarrassing when you just stare at me without saying anything.”
Rud laughed, “Ha ha—”
Looking at Rud, Alebien smiled slightly.
“Just do it moderately and go to Infula. It would be better to go there and get recognized as the champion first. You know it doesn’t look good to be dawdling here trying to form a party, right?”
“I was planning to leave tomorrow anyway. The church carriage isn’t fully prepared yet.”
“Yes, yes…”
“Besides, the current Saint, Saint Bigrind, also needs preparation for a long journey.”
Alebien glanced at the crystal ball.
Yona’s footsteps, just leaving the city’s west gate and heading somewhere, looked brighter and more cheerful than ever.
“…Take good care of Bigrind. She’s a good child. I hope you’ll look after her true feelings well.”
“Well, I suppose I should. Isn’t that also the duty of a champion?”
Alebien quietly watched the champion Rud.
It was a gaze that seemed not quite trusting.