Chapter 23

The next day, they had another supply run. Considering the future foe they would face, there’s nothing wrong with coming in prepared. After pulling the lots, Astill got the task of gathering intel, while Neila and Four would do the supply run. Syorin and Kakashi would go to the guild and try to complete some quests.

“Do we really need to do this?” Kakashi asked. He had registered earlier, finally having his own card. All his money was then transferred in by Syorin and Neila. To put it simply, it was enough for him to stop working for an entire year.

“Hmm? Why not?” Syorin asked.

“Like, don’t we have a lot of money already?”

Looking at the quest board, many of the available quests were far below what they normally make. They’re like NPC quests in video games, while dragon hunting was the main story quest.

“What’s wrong with making some extra cash?”

“There’s nothing wrong with that, I’m just curious if there’s another reason why you’re doing this.”

Syorin took one of the quests off the board. It was a gathering quest. Someone needed the skin of wild boars that roam the forest north of town. Syorin stared at it. Kakashi tried to take a peek, curious as to what was so interesting about that quest in particular.

“That’s a normal quest?” Kakashi asked.

“It was the first quest we took as a party,” Syorin said, the memories flowing into her mind. “How about we take this one?”

“Sure, I don’t mind, but I can’t help much.”

“Okay, it's alright.”

Syorin went to the receptionist to accept it. The forest wasn’t too far north of town. Kakashi and Syorin needed an hour walk to get there. Luckily, a merchant was heading through the same route, and they were willing to take the two on the way there. They’re very grateful to that merchant.

Upon exiting the carriage, they walked for another ten minutes before they reached the area where boars were commonly sighted. The two began their search.

“I just remembered something. You never elaborated on your first quest. Did something happen?” Kakashi asked. Based on the information given to them by the guild, the boars aren’t afraid of humans. They were warned to keep their guard. The boars weren’t scared of voices, either, so they used their conversation as a way to lure them in.

“Ah, right.” Syorin nodded, keeping her eyes on her surroundings. “Well, you can guess Astill’s reaction to that.”

“She complained a lot.”

Syorin smirked, then wagged her finger. “Uh huh, nope. She didn’t complain at all.”

“Wait, she didn’t?”

Syorin was purposely baiting Kakashi to make him think that she complained, but the truth couldn’t be further from that.

“We weren’t rich back then. We weren’t dragon hunters in the first place. We’re just three girls who were headed for the same city.”

Syorin glanced south. They ended up spending a lot less time in that city than they had expected. They couldn’t even call that a visit. It was more like a quick stopover.

“When we first formed the group, I was the only one you could call a dragon hunter. I was the only one of us three who had slain a dragon before.”

There’s a tinge of pain in Syorin’s expression.

It must be a difficult fight.

“Well, anyway, since we’re heading toward the same place, we decided to just form a temporary party.”

“Wait… is that it?”

Syorin turned her head. “Yeah?”

“What if Neila turned out to be an actual spy, for example?”

“Astill will probably kill her, I guess?” Syorin shrugged. “I don’t know about Neila and Astill, but back then, I thought of them as regular adventurers as well.”

The merchant from before did allow them to board their carriage, despite knowing neither of them. They only knew that both of them were members of the adventurers’ guild.

“Of course, the truth turned out to be deeper than that, but that’s how we saw each other back then. Besides, Neila is a lot more meek in the past, while Astill’s less… disagreeable,” Syorin said with a laugh. He could imagine Neila as a meek girl, but he couldn’t imagine Astill as anything but confrontational.

“I wonder why Astill changed?”

“Well, don’t ask me. Personally, I want to think that she’s gotten comfortable traveling with us.”

“I see…”

“Now that I think about it, back then, we scheduled our stops to make sure all of our nights' rest ended in a village one way or the other, so everyone got their own room. And with individual rooms come individual prices, which means we need money.”

“Is that why you decided to go hunting?”

“That’s one of the factors, yes.” Syorin smiled. “But there’s another reason. Can you guess?”

“... Her guilt.”

“You got it right this time,” Syorin said with a pained smile. For some reason, it didn’t look like she was feeling bad for Neila. She was thinking about something else.

“Neila’s guilt for the sins of her country made her want to help people as much as possible.”

Kakashi recalled when they stopped to help the carriage that lost its horse, leading them into the goblins. It was Neila who stopped and offered help.

“So… yeah, this idea of hers isn’t just because of money. The only reason we divide our tasks like this is because of Neila wanting to go questing all the time.” Syorin shook her head. “And all this time, I thought it was just because she wanted to go on a quest.”

“I think it’s understandable you don’t fully get her. You've only known each other for a short while, right?”

“I guess…”

“Now that I think about it, I didn’t know much about you either, Syorin. Do you mind telling me about yourself?”

Syorin reacted with a chuckle, using her eyes to point at their target, staring at them from a distance. “Should we deal with that first?”

“Okay.”

They went against the boar.

•••

“And so after that, Neila got drunk and messed everything up.”

“Haha, that’s so like her.”

“Makes me wonder if her subjects ever have to deal with her drunk.”

“I guess they'd better hope they don’t have to.”

After taking out the boars, they returned to town. Kakashi tried asking Syorin about her past, but she kept bringing up something else instead. He eventually realized that she really didn’t want to discuss it and decided to stop asking. After they reached town, they headed to the guild to claim their reward, but they didn’t immediately return.

“You said you need to look for something, right?”

They had arrived at the town’s shopping street. Various shops line up the road, displaying their wares on their front door. Kakashi went around, looking for something.

“What are you searching for?” Syorin asked.

“Does this world have stat boosting artifacts? Accessories?”

“Huh…? Well, some accessories do have magical properties. Why?”

“In the games in my world, when you don’t cheat, this is how you increase your capabilities.”

“Oh, come on, will you forget about that already?”

Kakashi knew he sounded petty, but he really couldn’t let go of the fact that Syorin tried to cheat against someone who touched the game for the first time.

“What are you planning on getting anyway?”

“A speed boosting thingy.”

It could be a necklace, a ring, or earrings. Anything that would increase Neila’s speed.

“Why do you need that?”

“Because Neila needed to be faster than the three of you.”

Neila’s role in battle is support. Her sword’s boosting properties were on the extreme end. But, as proven by the battle yesterday, Neila’s sword couldn’t reach its full potential if its wielder moved last, so giving her speed boosting accessories would allow her to activate her support before the others.

Artifacts weren't the only thing that affected the turn order or how fast someone moved, though. There was the factor of initiative, who was more ready to fight. There was also how tired someone is, and the more exhausted they are, the slower they go. The fact that the order fluctuates based on the battlefield made Neila’s speed stats much more important. She needed to be a lot faster, so regardless of how the battle went, she would always be the first to move.

“I thought about forcing Neila to train her physical abilities as well, but that would take some time.”

“I don’t mind exercising with her.”

“Then let’s consider forcing her to do that tomorrow.”

Kakashi himself also wanted to exercise. He didn’t get a lot of that back in his previous life, so he would appreciate the chance to do it now, along with his new friends.

After looking around, Kakashi managed to find a shop that specializes in magic accessories. He pushed the door open and entered.

“Welcome, anything you need?” The clerk asked.

“Speed-boosting accessories, if you have them.”

“I do have some in stock.” The clerk showed some of the options to him. They were all beautiful, so they didn’t serve to just increase their wearer's stats, but also their beauty as well.

“This is the fastest one.” The clerk held up one with a dove decorating its center ornament.

“A dove?”

“!”

He noticed Syorin tensing up. “Syorin?”

“It’s nothing.”

Kakashi returned his attention to the necklace. “If this is your very best, then we’ll take it.”

“Thank you very much.”

Kakashi paid for the necklace along with a ring, then returned to the inn.