Bab 194: Lands of white guardians (1)
Other members of the guild were hiding behind the fence, peeking at Asura, who was nervously pacing in front of the entrance.
"What are you doing?" I whispered to Vina, and she turned around, startled.
"Oh my goodness, Krito, don't scare me like that! You finally came out! Do you know how much money I lost because of you?" the merchant frowned discontentedly.
"Never mind that, tell me what you all are waiting for here?"
"Just look at her, Asura looks so amusing right now."
I joined the others and began observing the girl's inner struggle.
Asura stood with her back to us, occasionally clutching her head and pacing in circles on the porch. If she wanted something from us, she could have just come inside.
"Hmm, how should I approach them?" the warrior thoughtfully scratched her head. "If I offer my help, they will probably refuse. But if I ask them to give it to me, they won't listen. Hmm."
The girl nervously tapped her foot on the porch. "Vina, how long has she been standing there?" I quietly whispered to the merchant.
"Almost half an hour."
"And she still hasn't figured out that there's no one inside?"
"Well, how can I put it... She would have known if she had bothered to knock on the door even once," Vina shrugged.
Asura raised her hand abruptly to knock on the door, but at the last moment, she stopped herself again.
It was unlikely that she was afraid to ask for something; more likely, she was inventing a reason to come in. The situation looked very suspicious. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed movement in the distance, and the glint of a beautiful spear blade behind the fence.
Well, it couldn't be that Asura's guildmates had been observing us the whole time we were watching her and did nothing to help their leader. I don't like this at all. It could only mean that Asura came to ask for something for herself personally, or she didn't want to endanger her comrades. Either way, we had to put an end to this.
Pushing Katrina gently, I approached Asura and softly coughed to get her attention.
"Kya!" The girl jumped back in fright, almost falling into the bushes. "Uh... I... I just... came to see you... to talk a little..."
Her usually very fair skin turned crimson, and she struggled to put together coherent sentences.
"We only just arrived, and you've been standing here for a while?"
"Oh, no, of course not. I was just about to knock when you approached," Asura awkwardly scratched the back of her head.
"She's lying, shamelessly and very badly!" But I decided not to say that aloud to avoid embarrassing the girl.
After exchanging greetings with the guest, everyone walked together into the main hall, while the ornate blade of the spear lightly glinted above the top of the fence, following from the corner to the entrance. The twins clearly had no intention of revealing their presence.
"So, what brought you here?" Katrina peacefully sipped her tea while Asura awkwardly tried to find the right words.
"Well, I heard that you were offered a personal contract, so I wanted to congratulate you."
"Yes, it's amazing, isn't it? Our guild is finally getting recognition, and we're not far from becoming one of the kingdom's best guilds," Kat immediately got inspired and almost burst with pride.
"I'm happy for you," Asura replied with a sad smile, still revealing a hint of dissatisfaction. "And about this contract..."
"Yeah, we were actually planning to set off tomorrow," Vina looked dissatisfied at me. "And our hermit agreed to go with us?"
"Yes, yes, I'll come along," I leaned back on my chair, closing my eyes.
"May I?" Asura drew our attention to herself and hesitated, "I... thought that you might lack experience in dealing with bandits; after all, you're more used to battling enormous monsters. And we have completed similar tasks several times, so I thought you might need some help, advice, or friendly encouragement. So, I wanted to offer you..."
A never-ending stream of words poured from the girl's mouth, making it difficult to understand what she really wanted.
"STOP!" I interrupted the warrior and took a deep breath before asking again, "What exactly do you want?"
"Take me with you," the girl said, lowering her gaze shyly.
"Are you serious?" Vina raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Have you decided to earn some extra coins on a good contract?"
Vina intended to tease Asura, but the girl took it seriously.
"No, of course not. It's your contract, I just wanted to help. And if you don't want to share the reward with me, that's fine."
"Hmm, just help?" I squinted skeptically.
"Yes... um," Asura tried to hide her gaze.
"And no hidden motives?"
"No, of course not..."
"And you'll go alone?"
"The girls have their own concerns at the moment, and I didn't want to bother them. So, I thought of coming to you alone," Asura smiled lightly, but it was evident she was lying, and the glint of the spear's tip swaying outside the window gave her away.
"Well, I don't think we should trouble you with helping us, and for free," Katrina looked doubtful at me, but I winked in response, hinting that I wanted to draw the truth out of Asura.
"You won't trouble me at all. I'm very grateful to you, and that's why I want to help. Besides, you might need knowledge of the area," the girl hesitated.
"Oh, so you've been to those parts?" I looked at the map hanging on the wall. "Is it related in any way to the fact that in the neighboring lands, there's an ancient clan of warriors renowned for the strength of men and the beauty of women, whose distinctive feature is their quite unusual hair color?"
I looked at the girl mockingly, and Asura meekly lowered her head.
"If you knew everything from the beginning, why did you try to elicit a confession from me?"
"Based on the amount of lies you came up with, it was clear to me how much you wanted to hide your true motives," I smirked maliciously and shrugged, "besides, you were so adorable in your search for the right words."
"Meh, he loves to mock," Ragni threw a disdainful look at me.
"That's for sure," Vina agreed with a nod.
"Hey! From your words, I sound like some kind of villain!" I protested.
The girls exchanged glances and nodded in agreement.
"Okay, fine. What did you really want to achieve with all this? If you simply missed your family, you could have just said so," I said with a hint of annoyance.
"No, it's not that I missed them..." Asura still couldn't reveal the whole truth.
"How could you miss them with such an attitude?" The window finally opened from the outside, and three heads appeared in the room. "The way they treated Lady Asura was unforgivable!"
"Why didn't you tell us anything? Since you heard about this assignment, you've been acting so differently!" Miriam, the calmer one, tried to comfort their leader tenderly.
"We are one guild, it's not right to go on a mission and leave our comrades behind," Werner looked the most irritated. "They treated you like a traitor, why do you want to go back there again?"
"I believe they need my help now, and no matter how they feel about me, I must help them," Asura replied firmly, looking me in the eyes. "Even if my father and sister no longer consider me part of the family, I will protect them even at the cost of my own life."
"Why didn't you tell us? We would have been happy to help!" Vivien was indignant at the lack of trust from their leader.
"I'm afraid the matter might be more serious than you think, and in the end, I might have to stand against Baron De'Grenor himself. If that happens, it will cast a shadow over your families too. It's my personal affair, and I didn't want to involve you."
"We're all one team!" The twins objected in unison.
"If you want to go with them, then you won't get rid of us," Werner smirked cunningly and hugged the twins before approaching Katrina. "Aren't you interested in the services of temporary mercenaries for the next assignment?"
"Hmm," Kat glanced briefly at Asura and broke into a satisfied smile, "I don't mind if you help us. Of course, we promise to share part of the reward with you."
In the morning, we gathered in the Academy stables. There were many more of us this time, so we definitely couldn't fit into one carriage. Besides, Levris volunteered to join us since she wanted to see the eastern lands, and surprisingly, the Rector easily granted her permission.
"We'll need to hire a carriage and a few horses," I said.
"It'll be quite heavy with such a large group," Werner agilely jumped into one of the carriages. "I can handle it myself; let's take just one carriage so we can move around on it when we reach our destination."
"Hmm, that would be much easier. We can put the weapons in the carriage for now to spare the horses," I suggested.
Putting Algo's sword, the twins' spear and bow, and Hilda's axe in the carriage, I carefully hid my own blades under the seats. I had a bad feeling, so I covered them with straw to make them less noticeable.
"It's a bit much," I evaluated the loading of the carriage; Hilda's axe alone made it heavier than a couple of people. "We'll have to reduce the number of people traveling in comfort."
"I'll go; commoners rarely get a chance to ride a horse, and I'll probably just fall off," Vina jumped into the available space.
"The horses don't like me either. Ha, they probably fear a predator," Ragni followed the merchant's lead.
"Alright, then Hilda will also ride in the back," I pointed to the free space, getting an annoyed response.
"Why should I travel like this?! I'm a warrior, and I should ride in the front, clearing the way for you!" Raising her nose to the sky, Hilda confidently crossed her arms.
"You're an armorer," I smirked, pushing the Valkyrie to the edge of the cloud she was standing on, gazing down at ordinary mortals. "And you should take care of our belongings. The job is not difficult, but it's responsible."
"Wait, you're serious about that?" Hilda threatened me with a clenched fist, and I looked at her metal gloves with doubt, followed the chain of her plate armor, and traced the entire chain of her armor.
"And if you've decided to travel in all that armor, you'll have to hire a special heavy-duty horse, and that's extra expenses."
"WHAT?!" Vina popped out of the carriage. "She's trying to spend money recklessly because of her pride?! Tell her if she keeps this up, I'll sell her axe for scrap metal!"
"Hey hey hey! Paws off my beauty!" Hilda quickly jumped into the carriage and sat closer to her axe. "I won't take my eyes off it now."
"At last. Thanks, Vina, for convincing her like that."
"Heh, always happy to help."
Although not very smoothly, the four of us peacefully fit in the loaded carriage.
"Oh yeah, what about disguises?"
"Here, I think this will do," Kurone handed out simple black cloaks with hoods to everyone. "If we change into these mantles, we can pass as ordinary traders."
"Let's all change to avoid attracting attention. We'll be catching thieves this way."
Katrina hesitated as she tried to mount the horse, struggling to touch the animal.
"Still afraid?" I put my hand on her shoulder.
"Huh? Well, I don't know. I was taught to ride in my childhood, but I haven't been able to touch any living being for a long time."
"Everything will be fine; the belt will work, and the horse won't be scared of you."
Katrina timidly touched the horse, and it just let out a peaceful snort.
"You're right; I will never cease to marvel at your skills," I said.
"There's nothing remarkable about it. I just happen to be able to read and write in a few more languages," she replied casually.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone