Redstone was a city that looked too grand to be a mere 8 day’s worth of foot travel away from a small village like mine. Though it was relatively isolated from the rest of the Astrantan cities, it was an important source of one of Astranta’s main sources of export, redstone.

It wasn’t a very creatively named city, but I suppose I couldn’t say much, being from a village called Plainswood.

I didn’t know much about Redstone, only having been there a handful of times and only when I was much younger, but one thing I did know about it was that it was a booming metropolis. Redstone wasn’t just one of the most important cities for Astranta’s economy as a whole. It was the only city in the entire Eastern quarter that had a significant impact on the economy.

That meant that the entirety of the Eastern quarter of Astranta was driven by the economy produced in Redstone. The redstone miners, refiners, and exporters still needed to eat, drink, and be entertained, after all.

Though the land around Redstone was somewhat arable, aside from the redstone mountain range about a day’s walk away, the land around there was so expensive that a simple farmer’s pay wouldn’t be enough to keep it profitable. As a result, food and other essentials were produced outside of Redstone and a constant stream of imports were needed to keep the city supplied, and a constant stream of exports were needed to maintain the city’s revenue. Redstone city was a metropolis that stopped for no one.

Not even an Otherworlder, apparently. I couldn’t help but worry that the messenger from the village had run into some problems on the way. Had they not reached the city yet?

“Excuse me,” a man’s voice droned behind me. “Carts coming through.”

He was at the head of a large convoy, and with how much noise the horses and carts were making as they caught up to us, I hadn’t needed the warning, but I suppose he was just being careful. I nodded at the driver and walked off the road.

Ryuji followed me dutifully, and openly stared at the carts passing by us.

The trade convoy was a pretty impressive one, made up of about eight carts and two horses for each. Most of the carts were built in a way that it seemed that they could just set down in any marketplace and act as a portable kiosk to sell the trinkets and accessories that dangled inside them, but others were closed off, either to act as mobile homes for the merchants’ families or as general storage for their goods. Likely both.

Each cart in the convoy had at least one driver, and there were three armed guards walking alongside the convoy, looking bored and weary, but relieved to finally be reaching their destination. I wondered how long they’d been travelling for, until I noticed one of them glancing at me.

It was a roguish looking man who looked to be in his thirties. The leader of the guards if I had to guess. He gave me a smile and a wave, and I turned away, embarrassed to have been caught staring. The man laughed and walked up to the leader of the convoy, spoke briefly to him, and jogged to the side to approach us.

“Ho, fellow travelers,” he said, talking way too loudly for how close he was to us. “You seem like you’ve had a few long days’ worth of travel. Would you like to tag along with us for a while? Rest your legs until we get to Redstone?”

I was surprised by the sudden offer, but we had been walking for several days now. Though it hadn’t been strenuous, with us taking as many breaks as needed, I could admit that my legs were getting tired.

“How’d you know we were going to Redstone?” Ryuji asked from beside me.

The man laughed. “Where else would you be going?” he asked. “No need to be so tense, my friend. I wish you and your sister no harm.”

Ryuji frowned, despite the man’s friendly tone. The sight sent a shiver down my spine.

It had been a good eight days of friendly travel, where he’d been smiling the entire time. How was it that the moment we talk to someone, I found myself worrying that he would casually commit murder?

“We’re not siblings,” I said quickly, before Ryuji could say anything else. “And we’re fine. We wouldn’t want to trouble you, sir. We’ll get to Redstone at our own pace.”

I wasn’t sure why, but it was obvious that Ryuji seemed to hate the man on sight, and I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to foster that hatred. Though the atmosphere between me and Ryuji had been good during our walk through the forest, I’d never lost sight of the fact that he could easily kill me or anyone else he wanted to.

The man just laughed, clearly oblivious of the danger he could be in if he wasn’t careful.

“Nonsense!” he said. I was afraid he would reach over and clap me or Ryuji on the shoulder, as a gesture of friendliness, but at the very least he didn’t seem oblivious of the fact that he wasn’t entirely liked. He just didn’t seem to mind. “Rest your legs. It’s only a few more hours until we reach our destination. No point in tiring yourselves out when you don’t need to.”

I was about to decline his offer again, when Ryuji spoke up.

“We’d be glad to,” he said, a bit of an edge to his voice. When I looked up to see him smiling, I couldn’t help but shiver even more. For some reason, the sight scared me more than him frowning.

“Excellent!” the man said loudly. “It’ll be wonderful to have a few new faces to talk to, even if it’s only for a little bit. My name’s Medric,” he said, extending a hand.

Ryuji smiled again, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I imagined the eager flash in his eyes. “My name’s Ryuji, and this is Lena,” he said, reaching out to grab Medric’s offered hand. “It’ll be a pleasure getting to know you.”

I wanted to stop Ryuji from taking Medric’s hand, getting a bad feeling about it, but I was too slow to react. When Medric grabbed Ryuji’s hand, he winced slightly and let go.

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“Phew that’s one grip you have, son,” he said, shaking his hand once before flashing a smile at Ryuji and laughing once more. I couldn’t remember if he’d said a sentence so far that hadn’t been punctuated by his laugh. “You’re a lot stronger than you look! What sort of meat are you hiding under that strange shirt of yours? You ever think about becoming a hired guard?”

Over the past few days of talking and walking with Ryuji, I had gotten to know some of his strange quirks. One of them was that he often got confused by seemingly random comments. The shift between Ryuji’s veiled anger and his confusion was surprising to me, but one that gave me relief. His confusion was often followed up by an equally random bout of giddiness and happiness.

“Oh,” he said, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment for some reason. “No, not really. I’ve always wanted to be more of an adventurer.”

“Oh really?” Medric said, clapping his hand against Ryuji’s shoulder again. “That’s a noble thought, son. I’ve always regretted not exploring the world more at your age. So much to see in the world, and I’ve only seen the tiniest portion of it!” He shook his head and chuckled under his breath, as if he was telling some sort of inside joke. “It’s a good dream to have when you’re young.”

It sounded a bit patronizing to me, but I was glad Ryuji didn’t seem to think so, beaming as he took the praise at face value.

“Now.” Medric clapped his hands together. “Why don’t we stop standing around? I’m sure your friend wouldn’t mind giving her tired legs a rest. We all benefit, don’t we? I like my coworkers, but they’re harder on the eyes. Having the company of a beautiful girl like you would definitely be a nice change of pace,” he said, directing his attention back at me.

Even if my mom was right in that I’d never been interested in romance, it didn’t mean I was completely clueless towards it. I knew enough to know that Medric wasn’t seriously flirting with me. He looked about twice my age and was smiling in a way that made it feel more like a friendly joke than anything else. I almost smiled at the compliment until I noticed Ryuji’s face out of the corner of my eye.

Though his mouth was still smiling, his eyes were not. Narrowed and sharp, I could see anger in them. Why? What happened? It was all going so well!

“Uh, yeah,” I said, a little too panicked to accept Medric’s compliment with any sort of grace, while I struggled to figure out the cause of Ryuji’s anger so I could fix it. “Thanks.”

There was a long awkward pause between the three of us before Medric coughed into his hand.

“Well, shall we?” he asked, gesturing to the carts.

I followed behind him with Ryuji, taking subtle side glances to see whether he was still angry. When I saw that he still was, I panicked, but I didn’t know what I could do or say to fix it when I didn’t even know what was wrong.

When reached the convoy, Medric nodded one of the cart drivers, who waved at me and Ryuji, but didn’t say anything before turning his attention back to the road. He didn’t stop, so I was a little confused as to how I was supposed to get inside, but was surprised when I felt someone tap my shoulder.

“May I?” Medric asked, gesturing to the cart.

I nodded, assuming he wanted to help me up.

I yelped when I felt my feet getting swept out from underneath me. Feeling myself falling, I grabbed onto the closest thing I could, which happened to be Medric’s neck. The older guard chuckled as he lifted me up in a princess carry.

“Sorry for that,” he said as he casually jumped up on top of the cart with me still in his arms. My eyes widened in surprise at the casual display of his strength, which he clearly enjoyed as he laughed at my expression.

“Show off,” the driver mumbled without turning back to look.

“Bah, everyone’s a critic,” Medric said as he laid me down on a sack of what felt like potatoes. Looking around me, I could see the cart was filled with similar-looking sacks. This must have been the cart for the convoy’s food supply. It made sense that they wouldn’t want me sitting in a cart with their wares.

With me looking at my surroundings, I didn’t notice Medric’s face coming closer to me until he was close enough to kiss my forehead. I froze at the suddenness of his proximity, but he continued to lean closer until his mouth was right next to my ear.

“Is he hurting you?” he whispered.

What?

“What?” I whispered back, voicing my thoughts out loud.

“I’m not blind, girl,” Medric said, his voice serious. It was a stark contrast from his usual jovial tone. “I see the way your face goes pale whenever he so much as twitches. You want me to send him away?”

If my face went pale every time Ryuji moved, I was glad that Medric was too close to see my face now. I couldn’t imagine what I looked like while imagining him starting a fight with Ryuji. When I was twelve, accidentally set my own hair on fire when I first started to practice magic. The memory resurfaced suddenly, as I remembered the acrid scent of human hair, burning to a crisp.

“No, no,” I said, a bit louder than I’d wanted. “Ryuji’s good to me! It’s fine!”

Medric stood up, looking down at me as I sat in the cart. I’d only known him for a few minutes and the sight of a deep frown on his face already looked odd to me. He stared at me for a few more seconds before he clicked his tongue.

“I won’t get involved in your business if you don’t want, girl. But you should ask yourself if your boyfriend truly makes you happy. If you ever need help getting out of whatever your situation is, ask around for me. Hopefully I’ll still be in Redstone by the time you realize.”

Before I could say anything, he hopped off the cart.

“Oh sorry, son,” he said. His voice had shifted back into its usual loud and jovial state so fast that I couldn’t help but wonder if I imagined our entire conversation. “Turns out there isn’t as much space in that cart as I thought. The little lady took up the last spot, so you’ll still have to walk. But you’re a strong guy. I’m sure you can handle it.”

“Oh that’s fine,” Ryuji said. I was still sprawled out over a sack of potatoes, so I couldn’t see what he looked like, but his voice was tinted with a tinge of annoyance. “I actually wanted to talk to you a bit.”

“Oh really?” Medric asked. I’m not sure if I imagined it, but I felt like I heard his voice taking on a bit of an edge. “What for?”

“You mentioned that you thought I could be a guard right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, since you mentioned it, I started to get a little curious about how I’d do as one. You think we’d be able to spar a bit, just to see how I stand against someone already in the business?”

My eyes widened in fear as I scrambled off my ass and crawled over to the edge of the cart. When I peered over, Medric glanced at me, locking eyes with me for a moment. Before I could nonverbally convince him not to commit suicide via Otherworlder, he shook his head and turned back to Ryuji.

“Well, son. While normally I would refuse to start any unnecessary fights while I’m on the clock, I’m feeling pretty generous today. You probably think you’re a scary guy, right?” he said, his eyes flicking towards me for a moment.

I tried to send him a nonverbal signal that he should immediately stop talking and beg for forgiveness. Unfortunately, it seemed like my strategy of standing still, frozen in fear wasn’t as effective at conveying the message as I’d hoped.

“Word of advice. The most important thing I’ve ever learned during my career as a guard is that, at some point, you’re gonna have to realize that you’re not that scary after all. You may think that you’re the strongest, most dangerous person to walk this earth, but one day you’ll learn that that’s just not true.”

I could tell Medric was a good guy. The look in his eyes was telling me that everything was going to be okay. He wasn’t actually talking to Ryuji. He was talking to me. Unfortunately, everything he was saying was completely and utterly wrong.

I made one last final attempt. I willed myself to move, to mouth the word “Otherworlder” to him before he burst into flames.

Medric nodded, as if he understood, but turned to face Ryuji with his fists up in a fighting stance.

“Maybe I’ll be the one to humble you today, maybe not. Either way, let’s make this a friendly little match, shall we?”

The calm smile that spread across Ryuji’s face made me shiver.

“Yeah. Let’s.”