33. Intruder

When Kiandra woke Waldina up for the night’s last guard duty, Waldina had already gotten more than enough sleep for one night. She stretched her arms and legs with satisfaction before she sat down on the wooden bench. There had been no notable incidents during the night and Waldina was beginning to have doubt in her intuition. At moments like these she tried reminding herself that it was better to be safe than sorry. Especially in a world where one’s life was easy to lose at any moment.

While on guard duty she went through her bracelet in silence. The fourth stage-exam was located at a meadow area after the town of Drittio. However the level requirement for the stage was 35. A level she had yet to reach. But right now she couldn’t afford to focus on leveling up. She gritted her teeth with displeasure. In Adventurous Online the fifth stage-exam was the one in which the player was rewarded with the ability to see better in the dark. That was often one of the most crucial skills for ninjas as it gave them an advantage over others. Yet before she could attempt the fifth stage-exam she’d have to go through her fourth. Right now she’d have to make do without those skills as she had neither the time nor capability for those stage-exams. Sigh.

The scar left behind from her fight against the gray bears kept still reminding her of its existence ever so often. Though it was mostly healed and didn’t bleed any longer. Still it told Waldina everything she needed to hear: she needed to level up more and become a better ninja. She needed to adjust to her new role better. And she’d need to buy new weapons soon. She didn’t want to toy with neither her own nor Claudia’s lives.

Sigh. Again.

Waldina looked at the map on her bracelet, once again going through the route to Xunte Sintra. Claudia had been right about the fact that Jimdar’s town would lie on their route. To be precise, it was about a week and half away from their current location, if their journey continued as it had been going so far. During that time they’d pass-by a couple of smaller cities which they mostly likely would avoid getting closer to. They still had some of the food leftover from Claudia’s knights. After all, they had been given a notable amount of the food after hearing Kiandra and Waldina had a ‘magic back’ for storage. And thanks to Waldina’s bracelet’s inventory the food was edible even after longer periods of time. Thus they now only needed to move forward until they’d reach their destination.

Waldina closed her eyes, letting her mind wander between all-sorts of thoughts. If they wanted to avoid the towns they’d likely have to cross some semi-dangerous areas. She really needed a higher level. Their current schedule allowed for a bit of relaxing meaning they’d have time to fight the monsters and level her up but…

All of a sudden the ninja stood up and glanced around the room. Nothing had visibly changed yet she was sure something had changed.

“Kiandra, can you stay on guard while I step outside for a bit?” Waldina reluctantly woke up the small fairy. Kiandra already had the worst guard duty in terms of sleep but Waldina still chose to wake her and not Claudia. At least Kiandra could sleep while they traveled.

After Kiandra managed to get up and away from the bed, Waldina headed towards the door of the inn room. With almost soundless steps she left the tavern. The front of the tavern was silent. Most of the villagers appeared to still be sleeping. Still the ninja kept her gaze tightly on her surroundings, looking for any signs of danger. Yet everything seemed to be the same compared to the evening. She went further away from the tavern and headed to the stable, where their horses were kept. She checked how the horses were doing. They were resting peacefully and nothing seemed to be wrong, not in the slightest.

After ensuring everything was alright, Waldina turned around to go back to the tavern. It was then that she noticed a figure of a person standing in the middle of the village’s main road. A man dressed in a dark purple cape turned his emerald eyes at Waldina, and grinned.

Kris. Waldina cursed silently. She had no idea how the leader of Jaspis had reached them so fast, but it was an undeniable fact that here he was. Standing around, in the middle of the night, like it was the most natural thing to do.

Waldina gave a polite nod to Kris before heading towards the tavern. Kris squinted his eyes at the sight and ran after her. He reached to grab the ninja’s hand, but she swiftly evaded to the side. She gave Kris a disapproving look.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t chase after a ninja,” Waldina began, all high and mighty. “If you don’t happen to have highly agile skills unlike for mages, of course.”

“Haha, you’re right in the fact you could most likely run away from me. I mean, it is after all the only special skill ninjas have,” Kris laughed, relaxing a bit seeing the girl didn’t try to run away from him anymore. “Though the same can’t be said about your companions.” His words stiffened Waldina and she swore she could feel all color draining from her face.

“What do you mean?”

“Just that if I really wanted to play cat and mouse with you, I could always use your companions,” the man noted and Waldina sighed in relief. At least he hadn’t done anything to her friends. Yet.

“What do you want?” Waldina demanded and took a step away from the mage. The mage followed her movements with one huge step, closing the gap between them a bit.

“Tell me who your companions actually are,” Kris’s words didn’t surprise Waldina. It was no wonder a B-grade adventurer such as Kris had seen through their plan. Though knowing that didn’t make the situation better at all.

“I told you about it already. Kida is a water fairy and David just a boy from the countryside,” Waldina smiled, completely ignoring the oppressing gaze from Kris.

“And I know that’s not true,” Kris noted once again reaching for Waldina’s wrist. The ninja flinched further away from him yet again and kept her stern gaze at Kris’ eyes.

“Think what you want. There’s no other truth in here,” Waldina rolled her eyes and grabbed one of her daggers from her thigh belt. She held it in between her fingers while keeping her gaze at Kris.

“I can offer you some interesting information if you tell me the truth about your companion. You see, I’m looking for a certain person, as I told you earlier,” Kris noted, reminding Waldina of the first time they’d met in the forest.

“And what could it be that interests me?” Waldina was almost hundred percent sure that the man wouldn’t be able to offer her any valuable information. At least without knowing her goals and for that he’d have to be a stalker. Which she really hoped he wasn’t.

“In Xunte Sintra there is a man looking for a woman quite like you. Her name is either Cyril or Waldina, the man wasn’t exactly sure what name she would go by,” Kris gave little attention to Waldina’s nonchalant attitude. He was almost certain that the information would be valuable to the ninja in front of her. Full of confidence he took a step closer to Waldina who in exchange scratched him with a dagger. Kris managed to evade the oncoming hit just barely.

“What?” Waldina finally let out whilst her heart was racing like crazy. Someone who knew both her name and the name of her character, was looking for her. Hope lit in her eyes as excitement coursed through her veins. She wasn’t the only summoned being in this world. Someone, other than Oziel and Waldina, had been summoned to this world. Someone who actually knew her.

“I knew you’d like the info I had,” Kris said, voice full of satisfaction as he kept her gaze on the dagger pointing at him. “Now I think you should tell me the identity of your group or take me with you. And then I might offer some info on this mysterious man looking for you.”

The offer was difficult. Claudia hadn’t yet quite adapted to her role as Diaz. Yet Waldina couldn’t exactly tell him Diaz was actually the daughter of viscount Aminoff. For a minute she thought through her options.

“Kida is indeed a water fairy, who was locked in a magic grimoire for who knows how long. Her name’s actually Kiandra,” Waldina began with the easy part of the story. She lowered her dagger and shifted her weight from one foot to the other before continuing: “David on the other hand is called… Diaz. He's a completely normal countryboy who didn’t want to work for his father’s farm and thus joined me on my journey.”

Kris’ eyes were filled with suspicion: “And you?”

“I’m a ninja who uhh wants to get better at being a well ninja,” Waldina let out a laugh telling as little as possible.

“And Cyril is your name?”

“One of them, yes. My other name’s Waldina. I like to travel under different names, for you know, safety reasons,” she nodded. At this point there was no use in hiding such details. Kris knew far too much and they’d have to figure out a plan as to how to ditch him.

“Then, I take it I may join you?” Kris’ question was more of an announcement than an actual question.

“So you refuse to believe me,” Waldina snorted, annoyed.

“Yup,” he admitted without giving in a bit. For a moment Waldina calculated her chances of winning against Kris one-on-one. If she hadn’t been injured a couple of days prior, she might have better chances now. A few more days and she’d be as good as new. Even her arm was beginning to feel normal again. Yet after thinking through she ended up taking a different kind of risk with Kris.

“I can’t exactly keep you from joining us. Though mind telling me where’s your team?” Waldina changed the topic abruptly, attempting to figure out what kind of company they had.

“We scattered. You know, we’re looking for one measly noble lady. Surely we’ll be enough against her even without our whole group,” Kris’ tone was amused though his eyes were serious. Waldina felt a sting in her heart as she heard the words ‘one measly noble lady’. It sounded so degrading coming from Kris. At that moment she regretted greatly the time she’d disapproved of Claudia’s skills and will. Biting her lips she gathered herself to focus on the man in front of her. She swore she’d be better in the future.

“I understand,” Waldina replied with similar amusement filled seriousness. “Good luck in your search. Here you can’t find neither nobles nor ladies.”

“Hmm? Although there’s such a wonderful lady standing in front of me?” Kris changed to flirting mode, closing in on her again, and she in turn didn’t hesitate to fall back.

“Call me a lady or girl one more time and you may experience what it is I can do,” Waldina rolled her eyes while playing with one of her daggers. As she closed her mouth she glanced sharply at Kris and it was clear where her dagger could end up if he continued. She didn’t care for his way of treating females. It was as if he saw all of the members of the opposite gender as fragile beings, always falling for his arms and charms. Waldina definitely wasn’t one of those and she was sure there were many others just like her.

“Easy now, no need to go on the offense,” Kris muttered, giving up flirting as the ninja clearly couldn’t see his charms, unlike other ladies. “When do we leave tomorrow?”

“Figure that out yourself,” Waldina stated, flinging her dagger up in the air sharply before opening the door to the tavern and stepping in. Kris stayed behind, smiling victoriously. He was sure that the ninja and her company were hiding something and he was going to find out what. He grabbed Waldina’s dagger from the ground and left the scene, spinning it on his finger.