Chapter 7

I heard a familiar voice while I was laying on my bed playing a game.

Right now I’m at the beginning of the story, where the main character is about to set off on an adventure.

“Come on, the meeting is about to start and we agree to get there extra early”

Looking around the room to see that it was relatively messy with all sorts of gaming devices, from the new to the old, spread out around the room.

It was my room that was in a military base I shared with my sister Norn in my past life.

I saw her getting ready to leave.

“Hey, are you listening”

“Okay, okay”

A bit annoyed from her pestering, I put down my game.

Man, I really want to continue playing, I just started the story.

Norn opens the door to our room to have two very familiar people walk by the door.

“Hey you better get going, yall always are late coming into meetings”

The voice was really familiar. It was Fred, who is another named pilot like us. Next to Fred was Emily, Fred’s co-pilot and wife.

“Ya, we know. Unfortunately it’s my turn trying to not make us late this time since we both agree to not get yelled at from the Marshal”

“At least it's a start. You two are becoming shut-ins these days after you went out of control and got banned from the training room again, just like James and Lupin”

“Hey, don’t compare us to those two!”

We shouted in annoyance at the same time at Emily for calling us the same as those two idiots.

“I mean it’s kinda true. You two really like fighting, just like them”

“Oh, shut up Fred!”

We shouted at the same time again, in sync, but this time toward Fred.

Compared to us, those two are always fighting with each other. Honestly, after a while of dealing with their constant bickering and fighting it gets annoying trying to stop them.

“Oh please, you are equally as bad”

Those two are love birds. When they are separated, they can’t even function properly. And when they are together, they sometimes are in their own worlds.

“I don’t see a problem with that”

Right now, they are doing it again. Fred began looking deep into Emily’s eyes, all lovey dovey, and Emily doing the same like there is nothing in this world but those two.

“This world is meaningless without you”

“I could say the same, dear”

I could practically see hearts in the air sparkling, as they began flirting with each other.

Relatively speaking, out of all of the other named pilots in the base I knew that had something wrong with them, they’re relatively tame, so I shouldn’t complain that much.

Speaking of the other named pilots in this base, they are all weirdos that have a screw or two loose. Henry and Kate are extreme shut-ins. Mat and James have muscle for brains. Mia and Noah are straight up yanderes. Kai and Oliver are mad scientists.

Honestly, why are me and Norn the only normal ones here.

“Anyway, when are you going to see the kids in the nursery, especially Felix.”

“Hmm… maybe tomorrow”

“Oh look at the time, we better start going, were going to be late”

Fred notice that the meeting was about to start in a few minutes, so both of them started running

“Come on, let’s go. We should get going”

We ran, following Fred and Emily to our meeting.

Waking up from the morning sun shining at my face again like most days.

I rub my eyes and yawn after getting up from bed.

So… I was dreaming about a memory from my previous life that was before the war. I thought to myself if Norn was really in this world, is she going on her own adventures like me?

I got up and went downstairs to order my breakfast, the same one as yesterday and went directly to the guild.

Unlike the days before, I’m going in the morning so there are going to be a lot of adventurers in the building.

When I’d entered the building, it was already filled with adventurers looking at the quest board or discussing with their party members on what quest to take today.

This is going to be a pain. There are a lot of people here, let's hope I blend into the crowd.

I managed to get through to the quest board, I decided to take a F rank gathering quests for some herbs.

F rank quests are always non-combat jobs, something along the lines of finding someone’s lost pet, cleaning the town, helping in construction, moving crates, and etc.

The quest I decided was a gathering quest, specifically gathering bittercress grass that paid a large copper coin per bundle.

I went to Emma's counter where other adventurers were waiting in line to register for their quests for today.

Emma treated me with a high amount of courtesy when compared to the adventurers waiting in line similar to yesterday and the day before for some reason.

Leaving to the east gate, which I entered into this town when I came here, I followed the directions the quest instructions told me to go.

I said hi to the gate guard I first met when I got here and went outside of town, going in a different direction than where I came from.

Around 30 minutes of walking, I eventually reach a meadow where the bittercress grass should grow.

There were other adventurers, one boy and two girls together, I’m guessing they’re a party doing the same quest like me. Additionally there were around 5 more adventurers, on their own, also doing the same quest.

I choose to not go near them for two reasons. One, which was to keep my interaction with other people at a minimum, the less the better. And two, since beginner adventurers come here to gather herbs, it's likely most of the herbs are already taken.

I keep a good distance away from the meadow, and look around through the forest that was surrounding the meadow to find any places where they might grow.

Luckily after about an hour of searching, I found a small clearing that had the herbs I’m looking for.

Bittercress grass grows together in clusters in normal grass and has blades with repeated half circles on each side.

I gather 6 bundles of bittercress grass, leaving the rest the chance to grow back so I could pick them up again for another gathering quest for tomorrow.

Should I go back? No, looking at the clearing, this place is pretty secluded. I think it’s a decent place to do some training, no one to see me.

I started my training, first I did some body training to start building some muscle, then I ran to build up some stamina.

After I exhausted myself, it was late in the afternoon. I exited the forest and was back to the meadow to find the same adventure party still gathering herbs after the other adventurers had left.

I’m surprised that they only managed to gather 6 bundles of bittercress grass by the time I got back, they must be hard to find.

When I went back to town, I went to the guild and exchanged my bundles of bittercress grass with Emma and received 6 large copper coins.

Alright then, let's go to the library and continue where I left off yesterday.

Meeting Mable downstairs, I silently read with her till it got dark and went back to the inn.

I continue this routine for the next 3 days, waking up, taking the same quest, training myself, going back to the guild to complete the quest, then the library to read, and back to the inn to sleep.

Also with the money I’m getting from the quests, I pay the inn for another 7 nights.

However it changed once I was approached by the guy in the adventuring party I saw doing the same quest as I did for the last few days. While the others had given up, finding it hard to gather some bittercress grass, for some reason they still continued doing the same quest.

“Hi there I’m Alex”

Turning around while I was waiting in line to register for my usual gathering quest, I saw a brown-haired boy that was a head taller than me.

“I was wondering if I can ask you some questions”

Immediately I said “no”, turned back around and continued to wait in line.

He had a shocked look shown on his face by how fast I said no.

“Please wait, I just want to ask you about where you get all the Bittercress grass because we can’t find any of them anymore as of lately”

He had a really pleading look on his face, I again immediately shot down his question with a no.

With a resigned sigh he said “I understand” and started walking away.

Then I saw a group of 4 girls approaching us, 2 of them I recognized from Alex’s party. The ones I recognized were a girl wearing a robe who looked to be a cleric and another girl looked to be an archer.

However the other two are the ones I don’t recognize. Both were really surprising, one was a white haired wolf beastkin and a red haired girl who looks like a mage.

Interesting, it's uncommon for mages to be an adventurer and judging from her demeanor, she probably isn’t a noble. She probably has some noble blood in her. Though rare, nobles occasionally have relationships with commoners, sometimes it results in them conceiving children, meaning that some commoners are able to use magic.

However I’m more interested in the wolf girl. It’s the first time I actually met a beastkin.

Beastkin are people who have animalistic traits in all shape and form. They are stronger, faster, and have better senses than a human, however they can’t use magic.

Looking at her fluffy tail and ears I really have a strong urge to touch them but I have to remind myself that I have to limit my interactions with people.

“Hey! Alex just asked you for something and you just turned him away”

The red-haired girl scowled, then pointed her finger at me.

“Lucia, please calm down, it's okay that he doesn’t want to”

Alex tries to calm down his party member.

So the red-haired girl, Lucia, really has a temper.

The other girls, they look like they are used to it and rather not get involved.

This is going, no already is making a scene in the line and people are already staring

I guess I don’t really have an option if this continues. I gave in and said yes because I’m guessing this won’t stop.

“Thank you. I’m really sorry, she tends to be a bit bashful but she means well”

Alex was bowing in apology for Lucia..

In addition, he manages to calm her down. Lucia, with a pout, turned her head away, in the opposite direction from me.

Once I finish waiting in line and register for my gathering quest, I lead them to my gathering spot.

“Alright, follow me”