Vestia bit her lips, as she stared at Alnea with a complicated expression on her face. She did not wish to force him into making a promise either. But she had no choice. With how quickly he was progressing, she knew that he was bound to overtake her sooner than later. And with more people joining in their team, the time that she could spend with him would only get shorter.
Time… It was the greatest enemy of any and all kinds of feelings. Nothing could stand against time, not even the feelings of love, let alone the vague good impression he had of her. Coupled with how quickly he was growing, she knew that she did not have much time before things would get out of her control. So, she had no choice but to forcefully leave an impression in his Heart.
Manipulating other people’s Heart… That was what the women of the Erwein Forest were best at. As she manipulated Alnea’s Heart though, she could not help feeling a little disgusted with herself. For the first time, she doubted her actions, she doubted her own Heart, wondering if it was worth it… If she could have made a place for herself in his Heart in the normal way… If it was him… If it was the shy and naive boy, then maybe…
There were no maybes. And there were no buts. She had already manipulated his Heart. And with that, she had lost all his trust… Or so she had thought, when she had heard the solemnity in his voice. But… Despite how despicable her actions her, he did not blame her. He did not hold any grudges either. Rather, he took the initiative to comfort her, and even smiled at her. Not the fake kind, but a true smile, from the bottom of his Heart…
“…Then I will try to smile more often for you,” Vestia said, flashing her dimples at Alnea, while subduing the waves in her Heart, and heaviness in her chest.
“…Next, the only one left is you, Yuri,” Alnea said, tearing himself away from Vestia’s enthusiastic gaze. “Why do you want to enter the inner city?”
“…To ensure that a certain someone does not get himself in too much trouble,” Yuri said, giving him the smile that he wanted. The one that could block out his thoughts and make him fall into a daze for a few moments. “And to make sure that he does not have too many flies around him either.”
“…When did the Lost City begin to have flies?” Zain mumbled in confusion.
“…Is there anything that anyone else would like to add about themselves?” Alnea said, changing the topic away from himself to keep himself from being embarrassed any more than he already was. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice his actions. Or maybe they just did not care, focussing on what he said instead, giving their answers with either a slight shake of their heads, or just a simple silence.
“No? Good. Then let us get back to the source of our current problem. Finding the strings that can bind us together. Of course, these strings would not be perfect, but we will have to do with it at the moment. And like Yuri said earlier, I will try to ensure that integrity of the strings… of our team, as much as I can.”
“…Just get on with it.”
“…We believe in you.”
“…Alright then, the first string that I want to talk about is strength. Whether it is to prove ourselves to someone, to gain their recognition, to survive, to seek revenge, to find answers, to be with the people we want to be with, or to just keep moving forward, the most essential thing is having enough strength. Only when we have enough strength can we fulfil our goals. So, as long as we can ensure that uniting together can increase our strength, we should be able to achieve a certain level of unity and understanding.”
“…Are you talking about increasing our strength as a team?”
“Of course not. That is the basic condition of forming a team, increasing our strength as a whole to deal with different circumstances. If we cannot even ensure something as simple as that, then why would you join our team in the first place? And what would ensure your loyalty to the team? What would make you give your best for the team? No, increasing your strength so superficially is not enough. Instead, what we need is a way to ensure that the more we cooperate, and give our best for the team, the greater the increase in our individual strength should be.”
The more that Alnea said, the more solemn everyone—the men became. The girls just looked at him with pride on their faces, as if he was not their Captain but their cub…
“…An interesting idea…”
“…If you can really increase our strength…”
“…I would not mind…”
“…I think that we should not rely on others to increase our strength…”
“… Strength is strength.”
“Still, as Wanderers—
“Have you never received help from your clan?”
“That was different. They…”
“Had an obligation to help you?” Fran said, scoffing at Norren. “No one has an obligation to help anyone. They help you because they expect you to help them back in return.”
“So what? Are we not supposed to help our clans when they need it?”
“…And are we not supposed to help our team?”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“…But…”
“…Naive,” Aren said, frowning at Norren, before turning back to Alnea. “Can you help us increase our strength?”
“No,” Alnea said, shaking his head. “I am just an Intermediate Stage False Wanderer, while most of you are Peak Stage False Wanderers. How can I increase your strength?”
“…A leader should not make false promises.”
“…I never make false promises. Besides, when did I say that I can help you increase your strength? I said that I have a way to increase your strength.”
“…What is it?”
“…Have you forgotten where we are?” Alne said, pointing to the floor below his feet. “We are in the Lost City, a place full of opportunities. Even if we do not consider the Fortune Springs waiting for us to discover in the Black Desert, you have not forgotten about the countless precious resources that we can exchange in the Blood Hall, right?”
“…Most of those resources are worthless, meant for newcomers to the city to try their hands,” Ralph said, with a hint of disappointment in his voice. “Even Advanced Stage resources would not be of much help to us. Only Peak Stage resources can help us a little, but their price… I am not trying to lower your enthusiasm, but such resources are not something that we can afford even if we pool all our Blood Coins together.”
“Who said anything about Blood Coins?”
“…That would be too unfair to you, Alnea,” Vestia said, with a complex look on her face. As expected of Vestia. She understood what he wanted to say before he could say anything. Of course, Yuri and Cecilia understood him too. In fact, they understood him before anyone else, and had been glaring at him ever since he proposed his idea, waiting for him confirm their conjecture.
“…This is what I should do as your Captain. Besides, they will be wasted lying by my side anyway. I might as well use it to bind the team together.”
“…What are you two talking about?”
“…We are talking about the resources that can increase your strength.”
“…Although I do not like the idea of something being given to me, I do not particularly mind it either…”
“…As long as I increase my strength…”
Alnea glanced over everyone in the hall, and said, “There are two kinds of resources available in the Lost City. Of them, the ones everyone is more familiar with resources that can be exchanged with just Blood Coins. It just that though these resources can indeed help you increase your strength, their help will be limited and will come with a lot of side effects, not to mention that you can afford those resources on your anyway. No, what I am talking about are the resources of the second kind. Ones that you can exchange only with Medals.”
“…Medals?”
“That’s right, Medals,” Alnea said, taking out a Martial Style Medal from his pouch. “Although I have only Low Grade Medals right now, believe me when I say that it will not take me—us… It will not take us long to get Medals of higher Grade. By then, as long as you can contribute enough to the team, you will naturally be rewarded with enough Medals. As for what you can do with those Medals, you do not need me to remind you, right?”
“…Rewarding Medals…”
“…When did earning Medals became so easy?”
“…Is it? Why don’t you earn a few yourself then?”
“…Do you think that I cannot earn Medal?” Zain said with disdain. “I have also earned a few Medals. But I did not like how they looked. And if I broke all the records, then what would the Wanderers who come after us do? For the sake of our future generations, for the sake of our juniors, I finally chose to just go through the motions in the Trials. Or else, with my talent, I would have earned more than a hundred Medals by now.”
“…Then you should give me the Medals that our Captain gives you in the future. I will make good use of them.”
“…Forget it. It is our Captain’s goodwill, after all. Giving them away would not make me look good. And it would also defeat the purpose of giving out the Medals… I can only wrong myself for the team.”
“No need, no need. I am sure that everyone will understand. And it will also make our bonds stronger too.”
“Huh? Did you say something? Do not distract me. Everyone is discussing something important right now.”
“…What about the resources that can be exchanged only with Arcana or Glyph Medals?” Ralph said after some thought.
“…Like I said, do not worry. I am holding back now because of the Lotus clan, but when you need those Medals, I will surely get them for you.”
“…Even so, are you not going to use those Medals for yourself?”
“…Using nine or ten of each type of Medal should be enough for me. I will keep the rest for the team.”
“…I can pool in my Medals too,” Cecilia added from his side. “Anyways, I have also exchanged all the Blood Crystal Martial Styles, and I do not want to use the resources of the Lost City to blindly increase my strength.”
“…Thank you, Lia,” Alnea said, hoping that her disdain towards the Medals would not destroy his plan before it could even take shape. Thankfully, the other people were not as disdainful towards the Medals as the three of them were.
“…You certainly deserve to be known as the Wanderers with greatest potential in the Lost City,” Ralph said with a sigh. “Maybe it is also the reason why you have such confidence in yourself.”
“…This not confidence. This is arrogance.”
“So what?” Vestia said, with her lips stretched to their widest, and a dangerous light shining in her eyes. “This is the arrogance that only Alnea can carry.”
“I can be arrogant too!”
“…That is certainly not a thing to be proud of,” Vestia said. “And I am not talking about the indifferent arrogance you carry. I am talking about the arrogance unique to Alnea…”
“You are right,” Yuri said, nodding at Vestia, before turning towards Alnea. “As our Captain, you should lead by example. Think twice before saying anything. And try not to be arrogant.”
“But… I like him more this way.”
“…Now that I think about it, we really should not be proud of being arrogant,” Cecilia said, nodding with a solemn face. Even her voice was solemn, as were eyes. The only problem was… he was never proud to be arrogant. She was.
“…Alnea has never been proud of his arrogance,” Vestia said, interrupting his thoughts. And his heart beats. How did she know what he was thinking?
“And that is also why he looks so charming with his arrogance…”
“…Let us not talk about unnecessary things,” Alnea said, before the girls could into another argument. “Does anyone have any objection with what I said?”
Everyone shook their heads, even Norren. He may have a stubborn Heart, but his Heart itself was set on the path of reaching the peak of Wanderers. With such a great offer in front of him, how could he refuse?
“Good. Then it is decided that those who make enough contributions to the team can get Tokens as rewards. We still need to decide how to calculate the contributions, and how to set the rewards, but we will do that later. For now, let us come to the second strong I want to talk about. Intentions…”