I snapped awake as our carriage out of town hit a bump in the road. I’d been leant against the wall, while Master Owl snored to my right and the Vanguard we’d hired sat with her arms crossed opposite us. Further down the uncomfortable benches of the carriage sat other passengers who were heading in the direction of Hamsel’s Rest, though would probably ride the carriage past the place, as it only lay a hundred kilometres or so outside of Lundia. Given the sort of roadwork one could expect in this world, it seemed that what would’ve been close to a two-hour car ride instead took eight hours by horse-drawn carriage. But then again, we were also making a few stops and detours along the way and moving no faster than twenty kilometres an hour.

“You’re awake,” the woman opposite me stated in her deep voice, then handed me something. I looked down and saw that it was her Guild Card. I blinked in surprise for a moment, then frantically reached into my bag and handed her mine in return.

“Thank you,” she said meekly, which was very much at odds with the image I had of her up to now: a stoic-but-dangerous warrior.

image [https://i.imgur.com/rPiyAgA.png]

“Damn,” I mumbled. I was surprised to see that she had two S-tier Attributes like Harleigh, although her overall layout was very unbalanced. Part of me felt a strange kinship with her, given that she also had several E-tier Attributes like me. Although I didn’t think it prudent to ask, I also wondered what kind of ability ‘War God’ was, as it sounded pretty powerful.

I looked up and saw that Rana smiled slightly, as she read my card. “It’s really true, about the F-tier Luck.” It suddenly struck me how beautiful her face was. She had rosy lips and reddish-brown freckles below her eyes and on her nose, as well as dark-golden irises, with her facial structure soft and charming. I’d been way too focused on her aura and menacing gear and attitude to notice, but now I couldn’t help but blush when she looked up and our eyes met.

“I look f-forward to working with you,” I stuttered, as I returned her Card to her.

“Smooth,” Master Owl whispered from where he pretended to sleep next to me.

My blushed face became even redder.

I thought we were getting close to our destination, when suddenly Master Owl stood up from his seat, stretched his legs, and then went over and banged on the wall I was leant against.

It took a few knocks before the little sliding panel was opened and the driver asked, “What is it? Hamsel’s Rest is still a ways off.”

“Stop the carriage,” the chubby Exorcist said calmly. “There’s an ambush awaiting us around the next bend in the road.”

The message seemed to take a second before it was absorbed, but then the whole carriage rocked to a sudden halt and those passengers furthest down the two benches were asking if we’d reached this-or-that destination.

“What kind of ambush?” asked the Vanguard.

“Goblins,” he replied dismissively. “Go deal with them, won’t ya?”

Rana nodded seriously, then rose from the bench, strapped her shield to her left arm and walked down the length of the carriage to the door at the other end, lowering her head the entire time as she was too tall to stand upright in the narrow space.

I stood up to follow her, but Owl grabbed my arm.

“Bad idea, boyo. They may just be goblins, but you’ve got no way to defend yourself and someone like her is best served not having to babysit a weakling while doing her thing.”

Moments later, the driver stepped off the seat and I moved to the little sliding panel that was still open, staring out of it. I saw as Rana strode past the front of the carriage and the two horses, then, when she was some metres out she shouted a wordless challenge.

I had no idea what a goblin was supposed to look like, though was fairly confident I’d read the word in a few books. Regardless, I wasn’t expecting the child-sized muscular green creatures that came charging in response to the Vanguard’s taunt. They were covered in dark-green fur and the skin beneath was a lighter shade of green, while their eyes were a dirty-yellow with tiny black dots in them. They had large drooping ears like goats that were also covered in fur, as well as large hooked noses that were so big they seemed almost comical in comparison to their child-sized faces. Their hands and feet were, like their noses, also far too big in comparison to the rest of their bodies.

As they screamed bloody murder, they exposed their mouths that seemed far too wide and which were full of blocky molars like those of an herbivore. In their hands were primitive clubs and spears of wood, and they wore simple clothes of woven leaves or hide, with several sporting jewellery such as simple necklaces adorned with teeth or iron and brass piercings in their noses and ears. One of them also had a golden ring on his overlong pinkie finger.

Like a pack of rabid dogs, the five goblins leapt for Rana, but she immediately caught one mid-jump with a jab of her double-edge shortsword through its neck, before spinning around to slam her shield into another one’s face, sending it on a collision course with a tree, where it crashed into the trunk with a loud crack and didn’t stand up again.

Watching through the small panel, it was easy to pretend that I was just watching some kind of movie and that I wasn’t a part of this. But as she continued to battle the crazed monsters, their overwhelming stench of filth and the coppery tang of their spilled blood washed over me. I didn’t look away from the carnage she inflicted on them, nor did I flinch when she severed the arm of one or cut another clean in half along its waistline. I was frozen in place by the sight, but I realised that I felt no pity for these inhuman creatures and I almost relished every kill Rana made with her skilled movements.

The carriage floor under me creaked and rumbled as Master Owl walked down to the door and hopped out. Not knowing what else to do, I followed out after him, massaging my sore legs as I landed on the dirt road we’d been travelling along for hours.

I walked over to the pair, who were in the middle of rummaging through the dead goblins. It was a grim sight I thought, to see them looting the dead just like that. I pinched my nose as the stench really wafted over me as I drew close.

“Look at this one,” Owl said, lifting a necklace he had taken from the one which had been cut in half. The necklace was a simple twine string that ran through six silver coins that had been hole-punched.

“The Adventurers’ Guild take those at face value,” Rana replied. The way she spoke with such confidence made me realise she was more than just older than me. In fact, she had the air of a hardened veteran, even though she was just twenty-three. I supposed that would be the same case for me if I lived to her age in this world as well, though by all accounts that was statistically improbable.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“It’s been too long since I fought normal monsters,” Owl replied.

“What are you doing?” I asked, unable to keep the question to myself.

“What does it look like, boyo? We’re looting.”

“Looting the dead… isn’t that…?”

“What?” he asked sharply, turning to face me.

“Don’t be so hard on him,” Rana defended me. “You’re new, right, Temaru?”

“Yeah. This is all really crazy to me.”

She nodded understandingly. “That’s how this world is. We have to do things we do not desire in this world in order to survive.” I felt like there was more truth to that statement than just encompassing looting the dead.

“I wonder what goblins were doing so close to the city,” Owl remarked. “They’re usually closer to the mountains. I thought they knew better than to get too close to civilisation like this.”

“I heard rumours of a Hobgoblin Lord in the area,” she replied.

“Hm, maybe that’s what Harleigh and his group were sent to deal with,” he ventured.

“Harleigh? He’s around here?” she asked and it was as though she had stars in her eyes.

No wonder she’d be head-over-heels for a guy like him.

Suddenly Owl kicked me in the shin. “What are you spacing out for? Help us out here.”

“It’s okay, he doesn’t need to,” Rana replied, once again defending me.

“Remember your place, sweetheart. This boy’s my apprentice and he’s going to die if he’s coddled and not shown the harsh reality of this world,” Owl said icily. I hated the way fear curled my insides at the way he inflected his voice. He was just a chubby old man, so why did he sound so dangerous like that?

The Vanguard lowered her head.

“I’ll help,” I said, trying not to put her too much on the spot.

I went over to the goblin that I’d noticed wearing the gold ring. Although it was the height of a ten-year-old child, it was still so big up close. Bile rose in my throat as I knelt down on the dirt road, staining the grey trousers Harleigh had bought for me. Despite trying my best to breathe through my mouth, the stench the creature gave off was so overwhelming that it seeped into my nostrils and stuck there like a malign entity.

Swallowing hard, I quickly lifted its right hand, which was somehow bigger than mine. I felt the greasy fur on its finger slide over my skin as I pulled the golden ring off its pinkie finger, then I quickly stood back up and moved over to a nearby tree where I puked my breakfast out onto the grass. Emptying my stomach like that sent a jab of hunger through my chest and up my throat, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten any lunch. I puked again.

“Nicely spotted for your first time,” Owl praised me with a heavy pat on my back, almost triggering another puking convulsion from me. We were back inside the carriage and would soon arrive to our destination. He was holding the dirty golden ring in the air, grinning.

“Shouldn’t that belong to Rana?” I asked boldly.

The Vanguard had been quiet and brooding since Master Owl had scolded her, and had not argued when the man had taken all the loot from the dead goblins. Surprisingly, they had just left the corpses on the side of the road. I wondered if that was common.

“Party rules,” Owl replied. “We are paying Lady Thorn for her services, so the looting rights and distribution falls to us, and, since you’re my apprentice, that means I get the final say.”

That seems unfair when she did all the work and we just watched…

“Isn’t her last name Rana?” was all I asked in return.

Owl grinned and suddenly the Vanguard smiled as well.

“Thorn is my last name,” she replied meekly. “From your reaction, I take it that your name is Ryūta and not Temaru.”

I blushed a deep red. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be presumptuous by calling you by your given name!”

Owl was laughing mightily at this point, finding joy in my embarrassment.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied amicably. “I will call you by your first name and you may do the same.”

I was too embarrassed to say anything, so I just nodded.

The three of us disembarked the carriage and watched as it took off down the dirt road that ran through the vast forest we’d been travelling through pretty much since leaving Lundia. We found ourselves at a fork in the road and a weatherworn sign pointed left, reading ‘Hamsel’s Rest’, while the right-pointing sign stated ‘Ochre’, with one pointing back the way we’d come saying ‘Lundia’.

The road going to Hamsel’s Rest looked unkempt and overgrown, as though it had not been traversed by carriages and horses in many months.

“How far is it on foot from here?” I asked.

“Twenty kilometres or so. I hope you brought proper footwear.”

I looked down at my hide boots. “These are the only ones I have,” I replied.

Owl nodded. “Better than those ridiculous sandals I saw you wearing on the first day.”

I frowned, warmth staining my face. Not like I had a head’s-up about being transported to this goddamn world and could pick the most appropriate outfit!

Then his words fully seeped in and I realised that he’d been watching me from day one…

“Alright, let’s head out then.”

“Do you mind if I get something to eat first?”

“Do you have enough to share?” he asked in return.

What are you, a middle-schooler!?

“No,” I lied, not wanting him to take the food I’d bought to last the next few days.

“A shame. I didn’t bring anything,” he replied.

“Nor I,” Rana admitted.

I looked incredulously at them both.

“How are you planning on getting food then?”

The Vanguard shrugged. “I was thinking of hunting something for dinner.”

I looked to the old man, who just shrugged. “I was counting on her doing that.”

“That seems really irresponsible,” I scolded them both.

“Eh, don’t be so serious,” Master Owl replied lackadaisical, which only irritated me. “The village ought to have some stuff we can take and there’s a river and a well, so we can get water.”

“Are you trying to die of dysentery?” I asked, dumbfounded.

He grinned, exposing dirty unbrushed teeth. “You’re pretty funny, pipsqueak.”

I was about to complain that he ought to take this seriously, considering how much he emphasised the dangers of this world, but then he put a hand on my back and pushed me forward down the left-going road. “Let’s get a move on, we’re wasting daylight.”

I was thoroughly exhausted when we arrived to Hamsel’s Rest. After dealing with the Mercenary Contract and everything yesterday, I had done a bit of practicing for my Meditation and Repel though no physical training. Prior to coming here I’d also never been much of an outdoors person. I was a slow runner and I had no stamina, though I had been okay in sports like baseball, when it came to pitching and batting, since my hand-eye coordination was okay.

Going from my lazy shut-in days, while I studied for next year’s exams, to this sudden twenty-kilometre hike was a bit too tough on me, and I feared that I’d be left behind if I couldn’t keep up with my ‘Mentor’ and Rana. Somehow, even the chubby old man had no trouble walking uninterrupted across hilly forested terrain, while I was wheezing and my vision was blurry by the end. I had been glad to at least have my staff to lean on and wondered if the design was perhaps not designed specifically to work well as a walking stick.

Master Owl had complained about the noise that the bells made, but after a couple of hours they had settled down, apparently no longer responding wildly to my errant soul energy.

The outskirts of the village were idyllic and peaceful, though tall grass grew around the quaint wooden houses and community buildings, with a few places clearly infested with animals and plants within as well. It was clear that the place had been abandoned for a while.

A bubbling river ran around and through the village, and there was even a small centre where stood a few market stalls and a large blossoming tree with off-white flowers that cast a faint spicy sweetness into the air. As I looked around and we explored the place, I struggled to fathom why such a nice place had been abandoned.

We came to a part of the village where crops had been left to grow uncontrollably and where livestock might have been tended, though their stables and pens were now empty. No one lived in Hamsel’s Rest any longer, unless you counted the wild animals nesting in the houses. For some reason, there were also no monsters. We had encountered goblins so close to this place and yet none of them had taken it over, despite it seeming like a great place to settle.

“Oy, pipsqueak!” Owl called accusatorily. “Why aren’t your goggles on? We’re on the job here, buddy. Don’t let your guard drop until we have found a safehouse!”

For our entire trip here he had worn his, but I had taken them off yesterday and just worn them around my neck since. After all, they were quite uncomfortable and the brass fitting was discolouring my skin a faint green, making me worry the metal was toxic. I wondered if his goggles were the reason that he had seen the ambush coming, although that would mean that he had the ability to look through objects…

I frowned, wondering why he was being so strict all of a sudden, but then I pulled the goggles up from where they hung around my neck and when I secured them on the back of my head and opened my eyes, I suddenly took a step back and fell on my ass.

“W-w-what…”

All around me, covering the ground, the buildings, the grass, the stalls, the tree, everything, were glowing white-blue footprints and handprints. I had somehow forgotten that my job here was actually really dangerous.

Only one in twenty-five survive their first Exorcism Quest…