Stoaway

It was sunny that day. The birds were singing, the wind slowly caressed his skin, and the people of the town greeted him.

"Orano-Kun, Good Morning!"

"Good Morning."

"Oh! Orano-Kun! Can you help me with my work today too? I really can use a second hand."

"I am truly sorry, But I have a ship to catch. Maybe another day."

"Oh! It's Okay! Have a good trip then!"

Orano kept walking to the port. Since his house was located near the castle, he could see the port from above. Both at night and day, the view was truly amazing.

Also, he was happy to see everyone working with fun and happiness. The town was quite crowded, everyone was hanging out with the other people and almost all of the stores were open.

He enjoyed his view and kept walking.

But before going to the port, he visited the potion shop nearby.

As soon as the shop owner realized him walking in he said,

"Oh! Orano-San, welcome! What do you want for today?"

"Actually I need some medical potions. I am going for a long trip and might need them."

The shop owner got the potion from the shelf and handed it to him, and said,

"Alright, here you go."

"Just a single bottle?"

"I'm sorry but that is all I have for now. Since I couldn't buy more due to temporary trade closure."

"Okay, no problem. Have a good day."

After buying some medical potions, he continued his way.

He looked at the potion and said,

"Just a single bottle huh?

And after walking for fifteen minutes, he arrived at his destination.

Today even the port was crowded. Everyone was neither returning from a trip nor going on one. Orano walked out of the crowd and got on the ship.

But before stepping on board, One of the people authorized onboard stopped him and asked him,

"Can I see your ID, Sir?"

He slowly pulled out his ID from his bag and showed him,

On his ID, it said,

"Orano Tatsumi, 20 years old, Creature Hunter"

He saw the ID and with a surprised tone he said,

"Orano Tatsumi?"

He moved out of the way and then said,

"Alright, Sir. You can get on board now."

It was very crowded but Orano found himself a special spot and started resting there.

Then he touched his Zon and said,

"Hey, Yuma. I got on board without any problem."

"Oh great! I think the trip will take a day or so, so rest while you can."

"Don't worry about me. I will take-

While he was talking, he heard some shouting from the back of the ship,

"Hey! Get back here!"

Then he said,

"Yuma, I will contact you again."

"Hey, what's ha-"

He closed his Zon and ran towards the sound.

He got closer and closer to the sound as he ran.

When he arrived where the sound came from, he saw two authorized people and a girl,

While they were holding her, she shouted,

"Let go of me, you jerks!"

She was trying to escape, but she couldn't how much she tried,

Orano shouted at them and said,

"You Two! Drop her off!"

When they dropped her to the ground, he said,

"Why she is making a fuss?"

"Unfortunately, the girl you see here snuck into the boat and doesn't show us her ID. She didn't even tell us the purpose why she got on this ship or how she got in, Sir."

"Okay. I understand."

Then he looked at her and said,

"Okay, I will deal with her, you guys can go now."

When they left, he approached,

She was five and a half feet tall and had short hair like a guy. She had black short hair, black eyes and she had a dark complexion. She was skinny and looked like she was in her twenties. Also, she had cheap villager clothes.

He approached her and said,

"Who are you? And why did you snuck into this ship?"

"Huh? Why would I speak to you?"

"If you don't speak it will be a really big problem for you."

"Do you think I care about that?"

"I don't want to scare you but, In other cases, if you don't know, If you illegally snuck into ships like these and don't show your ID, you can be sent into a dungeon for over 5 years."

"I don't care, I am no-"

Her words got cut off with her cough,

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

Orano said,

"Are you okay?"

"I am fine, leave me alone!"

He then crouched, got the medical potion from his bag, and said,

"Here you go. Drink this, you will feel better."

"I don't need your help! I said leave me-"

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

Her coughs got worse and worse,

He said,

"I know you don't trust me, but please drink this. You will definitely feel better."

She then took the potion and started drinking,

After drinking, she took a deep breath and said with a shy tone,

"Thank you."

Orano said,

"Now before we decide on what we can do, please tell me why did you get on the board."

"What would you do if I told you! I'll be thrown off the ship anyways."

"Actually, if you tell me the reason, I can take care of you snacking on the ship."

He then showed his ID and said,

She got very surprised and said,

"Huh? Really?"

"It would be no problem since Creature Hunters are allowed to carry two people if they are needed."

She looked at the ID with amazement and said,

"Orano Tatsumi, 20 Years Old, Creature Hunter? You are a creature Hunter, huh?"

She then got excited and said,

"So you can take me too! Right?"

He put his ID on his bag said,

"That will be decided, Also I have to listen to your reason first."

She then sighed and said,

"Ok, I will tell you."

She looked at the potion bottle and started talking, but this time her expression was sadder,

"My name is Caitrin Nakahara. I come from a village named "Kamachya", and I have been traveling for a week."

*That explains why she is this sick when she got here.*

"A Long time ago I was peacefully living with my family in my village. Everything was perfect. We had a small house, a nice family, neighbors that helped us, and we didn't worried about buying stuff.

Everything was so perfect, for everybody.

But It didn't last forever.

Do you know "Luroun", the black magic user who was imprisoned in the land of shadows?"

"Yes. It is the most popular legend that has been told among all books."

"Yeah, it was a big event. It was big enough to affect every village around every kingdom. The problem was, After the war, every kingdom returned to their normal life and rebuilt their houses and stuff. Unlike them, we were unable to live properly. Even after some time, the popular and the rich people of our village have left to move on to a better place. Everyone was talking about how other kingdoms were easier to live in and such. And they said it is hard to live because it is not safe like other villages. They didn't listen to others and left. Only some people were left there. The people, who truly care about the village.

But I never believed them. I never believed that If we break our ties, that we can live better. But they didn't listen. After some time, our village got poor and poor. We were like sinking, the more we tried.

I was full of anger. Crying all day. Hoping that they will come back. But they didn't. We even tried to get help from the King, but since Ravaryn is not rich as the other kingdoms, we couldn't get anything. And after all those events, our village has come to its stage as it's now."

She took a deep breath and said,

"In short, my village is poor more than you can ever imagine. And I can't stand seeing them like that anymore."

Then she pulled out the necklace from her shirt and said,

"This is the necklace that my mother gave me. She said it is from my ancestors and has an incredible value. And since I can't sell this on my kingdom, I want to sell this on the other kingdoms and help my village by myself."

Then he thought to himself,

*Looks like she has been through so many things.*

Then he looked at her and said,

"I truly understand your situation. But I want to say, It may be really hard for you to bear those emotions on your own, but you must remember entering ships like these will not help you on your goal, but it will make it much worse for you. Also, it is not as easy as you think to sell something like that. You can get so much trouble for even carrying that."

Then he turned to the door and said,

"So I will handle this situation for once, but after this, you are on your own. So for next time try avoiding this kind of choice."

While he was about to leave she said,

"Actually!"

He turned around,

She looked at him and said,

"Actually, I want you to help me now."

After her asking that so suddenly, He got surprised,

She said,

"You are a creature hunter, right? That means you can help me."

"I can help you, but about wh-"

"I got gold."

Then she took out five pouches filled with gold and said,

"Here this is all of the money I have."

He looked at them shocked,

*How did she got this much gold?*

She said,

"I heard that creature hunters work in exchange for gold. Instead of killing a monster for me. I want you to travel with me. And I thought that this much gold will be enough for you."

Then she said,

"I want you to be my personal creature hunter for a month."

He looked at the gold and thought for a couple of minutes. What was he going to do? What was he supposed to do? It was a hard decision to make. But he did his final choice.

"You must remember creature hunters are not mercenaries. We only serve for a single purpose, and that is to kill monsters and help people."

Her expression turned into a sad one, and she said,

"Oh. I under-"

"But "Personal Creature Hunting" is a thing that I can do."

She got very happy and said,

"Really?"

"I will help you. But only for one month then we will separate our ways. And also I have my own personal tasks to do, so we will move according to my plan."

She looked at him deep in his eyes seriously and said,

"That will be enough."

The agreements were made, and they were ready to travel.