Liz's Motivation

“Then, what’s the plan?”

At my question, Liz spread a map out on the table.

Shortly after finishing dinner, she had taken Lui back to her room while I cleaned the kitchen. Now it was time to plan our route to the capital.

“Look, this right here is my village, the one we’re in now,” she said as she pointed to a small dot on the map. “If we want to reach the capital, we’ll have to go through at least two more villages to get supplies along the way.”

I figured the journey would be long. If it took us two days just to get from the ruins to this village, then traveling all the way to the capital should take at least a full week. It’s only natural that we’ll need to resupply along the way.

“Sounds good, but what about money?” I asked.

In theory, the plan wasn’t bad, but the problem was money. If Liz had been struggling up until now to get by, then the journey wouldn’t be so simple.

“We still have some left from what they gave us for the pendant,” she replied, then set the bag of money down on the table. “If we leave a little for Lui, we’ll be able to buy supplies before we go, and maybe in the next village too, but after that we’ll have to take guild missions to earn more.”

Sigh

Damn it. I wanted to reach the capital as soon as possible, but it looked like it would take longer than I thought. Frustrating, but there was no other choice.

“I see. Then everything’s ready,” I said.

“Not yet…” Liz added as she stepped closer to me, pointing at me. “You stand out too much!”

“…You mean because of my clothes?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes! While we were shopping people wouldn’t stop staring at you!” she exclaimed, poking my chest with her finger. “If we want to travel peacefully, you’ll have to change your clothes!”

“Fine, fine! But using the supply money on clothes is kind of annoying…” I retorted.

She had a good point. If we didn’t want to attract attention and wanted a quiet trip, it would be best if I wore clothes from this world so I wouldn’t stand out. I understood that much, but what really bothered me was spending our limited budget on clothes.

With the money we’d spend buying me clothes, we could easily afford two extra meals, and since we’d be traveling for quite some time, that was an important thing to keep in mind.

“Don’t worry. This way,” Liz said as she grabbed my hand and led me through the house.

We went upstairs and entered one of the rooms there. It looked like a couple’s bedroom.

It was spacious, with a double bed and some furniture. Could this be her parents’ room?

Liz let go of my hand and went straight to a wardrobe to search for something.

A few moments later, she pulled out an outfit consisting of a long-sleeved white shirt, black pants and vest, brown boots, and a belt of the same color.

“These clothes belonged to my father. You can use them,” Liz said.

“Wait! Won’t your father be angry if you give away his clothes to someone you just met?” I questioned. If my daughter gave away my clothes to some guy she barely knew, I’d be furious, no doubt about it.

“Don’t worry. My parents died a year ago,” she answered with a sad look. “They went to look for mana crystals for Lui, but were attacked by bandits on the way…”

I see. I hadn’t thought about it, but it’s true Liz had never once mentioned her parents all this time.

“I’m sorry for making you remember that…”

“It’s fine, it was a while ago. I have to move on if I want to take care of Lui…” she said, lowering her gaze. “She’s the only family I have left, and I don’t care if I put myself in danger or lose sleep to watch over her, I’ll do everything in my power to help her,” she added with determination.

Now I understood why she couldn’t stay awake during the night the Stalkey attacked.

Even if she manages to get some sleep, the accumulated exhaustion is no joke. Athletes always take that into account.

She’s a strong girl.

Taking care of her sick sister all on her own, working as an adventurer, exposing herself to danger and all kinds of problems, and still being able to dedicate her time…

I walked over to the bed and picked up the shirt Liz had handed me. It was the clothing of the father who died trying to do the best for his daughters.

I felt a little guilty about wearing it, but I had no other choice if I wanted to travel to the capital.

“Alright, I’ll take it,” I said firmly. “I promise I’ll return it in good condition before I go back to my world.”

“You’d better!” Liz replied, pointing at me with her finger. “That’s expensive, high-quality clothing, so you’d better take care of it with your life!”

“Y-yeah!” I answered nervously, caught off guard, but Liz just let out a laugh.

Looks like she only wanted to tease me.

Having no choice but to accept that she had gotten me this time, I laughed along with her for a while.

I’ll get my revenge later…

“Ah! By the way, I need you to do something tomorrow,” Liz said as she tried to stop laughing. “If we’re going to work as adventurers, you’ll need to register at the guild first.”

That’s true. If we were going to take missions, then I should register too, so I could accept them.

“Alright, what do I have to do?”

“You just need to go to the guild, pay the registration fee, and they’ll test you to determine your abilities and rank,” she explained.

It sounded quite similar to the tests in some fantasy stories. Depending on how they tested me, it could be a problem.

“And what rank are you?” I asked out of curiosity, but Liz began sweating nervously.

“I-it’s not important…” she replied. She was hiding something.

“Come on, if we’re going to be partners, I should at least know, right?” I argued.

Liz stayed quiet for a few moments, as if wanting to refute my point, but in the end she seemed to give in.

“I’m…”

Or at least that’s what I thought, but she whispered so faintly I couldn’t hear anything.

“What did you say?”

“I’m rank…” she whispered again.

“…”

Her constant attempts to avoid the question weren’t getting us anywhere.

“Liz…” I said threateningly. It was the only way I could think of to put an end to this.

Liz looked into my eyes when I called her, but her face turned pale when all she found was a gaze that judged her mercilessly. She quickly averted her eyes, but the fact that she knew I was judging her did its job.

“Tell me your rank.”

Moments later, no longer able to withstand the pressure, Liz finally spoke.

“Fine! Fine! I’m rank D! Happy now!?” she shouted before dropping to her knees, surely feeling humiliated. “The instructor was way too strong and I wasn’t used to the sword! Damn it!”

If the reward system worked like the ones I’d read about in different stories, the higher one’s rank, the better the rewards. That explained in part why Liz had so much trouble earning money; rank D rewards couldn’t be very good.

From the way she spoke about the instructor, it was likely she had to fight him.

“So I’ll have to face the instructor, huh?” I muttered to myself.

Liz overheard me and wanted to explain more about the test, her eyes still a little teary.

“Yeah… But don’t worry. You’re strong, I’m sure you’ll get a good rank,” she added.

It was good to know she had faith in me.

Not long after that, we both went to sleep. She went to her room, and I stayed in the living room.

Liz apologized for how she treated me, but I didn’t mind.

For now, I needed to rest. Tomorrow would be an important day.