Alexander the great

We were at our 5th mission, we just needed to serve as guards for a carriage from a town to another, it seemed that it was the first time for the driver to be a merchant and needed some confidence to finally do his job, after having the sheet marked, we rush to the guild and hand over the five quests.

“We did it, here are the five quests”

“Wonderful, just give me a moment and I will back with your identifications”

We went to a table and ordered some food while the receptionist was working on our documents. We ordered some salad, mashed potatoes and steaks. After finishing our meal and drinking some juice, the receptionist approached us and gave us two metal plates with our names on it.

“Congratulations, Ryuzaki Hikari, Elizabeth Roselia, you are now official adventurers, and with that, I opened the new bulletin for you, the advanced missions, I would recommend that you take it slow but if you want a special quest-“

“We will take it now!”

Both of us smile and the receptionist only laugh awkwardly, she then hangs over a paper where it said “Explore and clean the dungeon in the old forest”

“The old forest?”

“The old forest is located in the middle of the closest city, is a two-day journey with carriage”

“I see, we then need to have our equipment as good as possible, Liz”

“Correct, Ryu”

“And when do we part?”

“…”

In the middle of the conversation, the guy in the armor from a few days ago was standing up in the middle of us, I couldn’t see his expression but I was assuming he was smiling, I stand up and took the paper

“We took the mission, thanks”

“Yeah!” —the guy in the armor shouted.

I looked at him and pointed to a table that was empty, he let his head go down and walk slowly towards it.

“Ryu…”

“We cannot accept him, Liz…”

“At least…”

“…”

“Ryu~…”

“I thought you were with me on this”

“Maybe we are being too judgmental about him…”

“Let’s go first to buy stuff…”

I got out of the guild and Elizabeth followed me making a pout, I sigh and we went to the blacksmith to have our armor and swords repaired. While we were waiting, Liz was looking at the floor while I was looking at the ceiling

“Do we really need to have him on the team?”

“He’s been insisting on it every time we came to notify that we accomplish a mission”

“Insisting isn’t a way to let people do what they want…”

“I know but, he hasn’t been disrespectful or anything, I said we give him a chance and if he is not good with us, we can tell him”

“Are you willing to give a person the hope to be part of something and then grab that person’s hope and throw it in the trash?”

“You are being too negative again, Ryu… Can you be positive at least this time?”

“I am realistic, not negative”

“Yeah, yeah, hey… look at me”

I look at the other side and Elizabeth lets out a “Huh?” with a sigh.

“Why don’t you look over here?”

“Because if I look at you, I will agree with your proposal”

Elizabeth laughed and I laughed along with her, our equipment was ready and we went back to the guild, the guy in the armor was on the table and we went and sat with him putting the quest sheet in front of him.

“You win, what do you know about this place?” —I said.

The guy in the armor didn’t say anything and I could only hear him sob while he took the paper.

“I don’t know anything!”

“Huh?... Well… We’ll see when we get there, I suppose…”

“Are you guys really taking me?”

“What’s the deal now? You were insisting this whole time and now you don’t want to?”

“I WANT TO!”

The guy stood up and hugged both of us while crying, Elizabeth laughed awkwardly while I stared at the ceiling.

“Don’t make me regret this…”

We were talking with the carriage but nobody wanted to travel that long since the routes for merchants went into a different direction.

“What do we do?...”

“What are you guys trying to do?”

“Oh, we are searching for someone to drive us near the forest where the dungeon is but nobody wants to drop us nearby”

“Oh, you need a carriage? I have one with me!”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes! Come with me!”

The guy in armor ran and we were left there, he came back running again.

“Come on!”

“Can you slowly? We don’t even know where you’re heading?...”

“Oh, sure, sorry”

The guy laughed loudly and we started walking. While we were walking the guy was stopping from shop to shop and talking about different stuff, meals, the day, the stuff that he saw in the store, he didn’t buy anything but we were listening.

When we got out of the commercial district, we went to the east, Norwin’s house was in the north, in there, the houses were different, it was the poorest part, in there the houses were made of wood and there was a ton of animals, and in one of the houses, the guy went to the backyard and there were two horses in there.

One of them was black and the other dark brown.

“This beauties in here are Sebastian and Renala”

Sebastian was the black horse, Renala the dark brown one.

“Have you two rode?”

“No… you, Liz?”

She moved her head from left to right.

“We are not riding them, right? We need a carriage”

“Of course not, my carriage is in here, but I need help to put it outside the house, it is in that part, covered with the leaves.

I approached the leaves and branches and there was a carriage, big enough for the two of us, I took both shafts and put the carriage in the street, then the guy took the horses out and after an hour or so, the carriage was ready, it was big, a bit dirty for the leaves and dirt, but it smelled nice, the guy was in front and he drove to the exit.

“Where do you want to go?”

“I think so, or maybe I don’t… do you know the coordinates, how about if we ask the guys over there… oh, but maybe we annoy them if we do that, what about just going with the instinct? But I don’t want you guys to feel bad and then-“

“J-Just leave it to us, ok? Stop near the exit” —Elizabeth said.

When we were about to leave, Elizabeth went down the carriage and ask for directions, she gave 5 silver coins to a guy for a map and then she climbed the carriage, I help her get in, and she approached the guy and show him the directions

“I see…”

“What is it?”

“This route… the route is not made for fragile merch, that’s why they are avoiding it, it’s rocky, the mud in rainy days gets really bad”

“Do you think we can go another route?”

“No, the circle that you marked was the forest, right?”

“Correct”

“This is the path that we need to follow, you see these little rectangles on the map? That means that there is a dead end”

“Are you okay taking your horses out to that?”

“These two? They were made to be adventurers too, right guys?!”

The horses neigh and kick the floor.

“See?”

“Okay, then we leave it to you!”

“Sure thing, ma'am!”

“I’m not old for that but thanks!”

Elizabeth sat down next to me and I was looking at the road, thinking about a lot of stuff

“Already worried?”

“Something like that… but first, hey”

“What is it, mister?”

“Don’t call me that, what’s your name?”

“I am Alexander Silver”

“Silver, huh? My name is Ryuzaki Hikari”

“That’s an odd name, but I have heard names as odd as yours, Yuki, Yun, Hito, Yasu-“

“Are you serious?!”

I took Alexander’s shoulder and I looked at him with a gaze that made Elizabeth worried.

“Ryu…”

“Sorry, I am so sorry, Silver…”

“It’s okay, you may have your reason, Mister Hikari”

“Are you okay, Ryu? I have never seen you like that…”

“Yeah… yeah I am okay… sorry… I need to sit down for a bit”

“You need water?”

“Yeah, please… sorry”

Alexander turned around to look at us and he seemed worried, he didn’t speak more for a few minutes, but this wasn’t anything new, I already knew that people from my world came here, but… could this guy be a different clue… in that case… Do I want to go back?

I took Elizabeth’s face and looked her deeply in the eyes.

“Ryu…”

She turned around blushing a bit and I looked at the back.

“Sorry… I am just spacing out, forget that, please…”