CHAPTER R10: REUNION AND PARTNERSHIP

(RIDE'S POV)

I don’t know whether it’s because we were not welcomed or because we look like trouble, but the bartender and his friends were clearly not happy to see us there. They made their point very clear; they don’t want us at their establishment. Not wanting to make a fuss, ‘Providence’ quickly made our way out of the tavern. The big men followed us right until the entrance and just stared at us as we went away.

We walked quite a while before stopping near the park in the middle of the city.

“So what now my kind friend? Do you have another genius plan that we should know about?” Tyle said with a straight face. One can’t miss the tone of intense sarcasm in his voice. “ I would like one that doesn’t involve angry people.”

“Shut up. I didn’t know things were going to go the way it did okay. I’m sorry alright.”

“Well, I think we totally could have taken them on!” Lanarya exclaimed.

“And then what? You mention as if beating them will make the man tell us the info we need,” Tyle berated Lanarya.

“Muuuu, but the man was so rude about it. Get out! I don’t serve outsiders he said. Tch”

“Calm down, Lanarya. He’s just the bartender, he has the right to not serve us” Scorch said.

“Still...” Lanarya pouted.

“Do we have any other leads Kranis?” I asked Kranis about our next move.

All Kranis did was shrug at me. “None. I was expecting the bartender to know something,”

“Maybe he did, but he’s not going to help us,” Tyle said.

“This is the end of the road huh…” I muttered.

“Want to just call it a day?” Scorch suggested.

Kranis just lets out a sigh, “Yeah, why not. It’s about time for dinner anyway.”

Lanarya perked up when she heard the word dinner, “If we are going for dinner, then let’s go to this shop down the main road. I heard from the rumours that this restaurant has a recipe passed down from a Supreme!”

“Are you sure we can trust this one? The last one you recommended had a cockroach in the soup,” I asked Lanarya.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience chewing insects. It wasn’t even unintentional. They just serve cockroach in soups for flavour.

“Don’t forget about the one with the rotten fish.” Scorch added on. “Their speciality was literally rotten fish.”

“Muu, You guys are still upset about that? It’s alright! I made sure to check everything! This time it will be fine!” She said, her two fists pumped in front of her.

“I’m glad to see while we were trying our best to find information about the requestor, you were busy running around the city looking for food,” Tyle peered a hole into Lanarya.

Lanarya did a silent hic, “That’s not true Tyle. Ahahaha. I worked hard you know!”

Tyle just continued to stare at Lanarya. Giving her ‘the look’. Kranis and Scorch followed after.

“Ah, guys look! There is someone at the fountain. The person looks sick! Come on Ride, let's take a look,” Lanarya sprinted towards a fountain in the middle of the park, escaping from ‘the look’.

Tyle let out a sigh and massaged his temple “That girl…”

I only let out a wry smile as I chased after Lanarya, towards the person who was hugging the fountain's edge. It looked to be a young woman who was looking rather pale and was holding her stomach and her mouth at the side of the fountain. She was wearing a robe with a pointy hat on the top of her head. Either a witch or a wizard.

“Are you alright?” Lanarya went up close and put her hand on the woman’s back.

“Yeah… I’m just feeling a little light… I need a few min—urgkkkk,” the woman held her mouth tightly, trying her best not to puke.

Lanarya saw this and started to rub her back. “There there.”

The woman must have been very ill to be in this condition. The others arrived shortly after and all of us observed the woman. Contact with women was never our strong suit, so we just let Lanarya handle it.

“Thanks… I’m feeling better now,” the woman gave her thanks to Lanarya, revealing her the rest of her face to us.

!!!

Everyone, including me, gave the woman an incredulous look.

It’s the woman from the poster! Could it be that she escaped from captivity and ran all the way here?

Without wasting any time, I gave a signal to the others and we all surrounded the woman; double-checking to confirm her features and making sure that she was, in fact, the woman from the poster.

The woman let out a soft gasp and squealed in fear. “Wh-wha-wha-what’s going on?”

“It’s alright, these guys mean you no harm. You are safe now, let’s get you back to the guild house,” Lanarya said to the woman as she softly beckoned her towards the direction of the adventurer’s guild.

“Wait! I can’t leave. I was told to wait at the fountain,”

Told to wait? By whom? Could it be the kidnappers?

“Don’t worry, you’re completely safe now! Those bad guys can’t harm you know. Come come!” Lanarya tugged at her gently.

The woman gave a slight resistance, but it was short-lived as she started to hold her mouth tightly, trying to not vomit. Poor girl, tortured to such a way that she could no longer even walk properly. Even her eyes were baggy and sore. She must have been unable to sleep during the time she was held captive.

"Let's get her to the guild as soon as possible, the receptionist there can check on her condition. Keep an eye out for baddies," I said to my party members.

All of them nodded except for Kranis, who was already scouting ahead to see if there was anybody suspicious around the immediate area. I pretended not to see the money in his eyes.

"No seriously, wait. I appreciate your concerns but I really need to stay here—"

"No, my kind lady! You can't believe anything that bad guys say. All they want is your money!" Kranis said like he’s some chivalrous knight.

"That's tall coming from you," Scorch said to the Greed Extraordinaire.

Tyle held his face in shame, "Ignore him. We are high ranking adventurers from the guild and we are here to bring you to safety. Please relax, we mean you no harm."

"No, wait! The person I'm waiting for isn't a bad person. I won't know how to find her if we get separat—"

"Kids?"

Our actions were halted when we heard a familiar woman's voice.

"Ooohh, it seems you guys are here in Luth E'll as well. That's quite the coincidence eh?"

"Miss Effinshia!" Lanarya yelled out in surprise.

Yes, the person who suddenly appeared in front of us was none other than the azure eyed woman named Effinshia. In her hands was a bottle of sorts.

"Yo,” she casually waved at us. “It's fancy meeting you guys here.” She then walked right up to the ill woman passed her the bottle. “Here, this will help with the motion sickness,”

Motion sickness?

“Sis Effy... I’m glad you’re here. Please explain to these peo—*Bleargh”

The woman unable to take it any longer finally let out the contents inside her stomach. Everyone went back one step in order to avoid the rainbow that flowed out of her mouth.

“You shouldn’t move around so much if you can’t hold it in ya know,” Effinshia remarked.

No… I think that’s our fault.

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“Pfft, you guys actually tried to drag Vomit Girl to the adventurers guild?” Effinshia said to us, trying to contain her laughter. “And you call me the kidnapper?”

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“I’m so sorry, Miss Effinshia. I didn’t know she was your friend. If I knew then we would have at least waited for you to appear,” I answered to the older woman.

“It’s alright, I should have kept a better eye on her. I didn’t think there were people who actually come to this park.”

Effinshia took a glance towards the witch girl who was currently lying on a bench. Her head rested upon Lanarya’s lap. It's been several hours since the incident. The sick witch was in no condition to walk around. We just hung around the park in response, waiting for the woman to feel better.

Looking closely, one could see the woman chatting casually with Lanarya. Somehow those two became very fast friends. I could see a slight smile escape from Effinshia’s lips as she witnessed the scene. Effinshia then pulled out a pocket watch from her back pouch before taking a look at it.

“It’s about to be night time soon.” She said before hanging the watch on her belt.

Has it been that long? I didn't even notice that so much time had passed.

“How you’ve been doing lately kid? Ya been up to something?” Effinshia asked me of nowhere.

“Good I guess? I’ve been trying to perfect the skill crescent slash recently, I could do the normal version just fine, but I wanted to see if I could bring it to the next step," I replied.

“Oh? Crescent slash huh? It’s been a while since I actually used that move. Trying to perfect the basics, not bad,”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to apply what you said in the cave, about using only half the mana on one side of the blade,”

She let out a sigh, “So you heard it as well huh… you aren’t supposed to know that,” She said. “Ah well, can’t be helped. You are wrong by the way.”

Huh?

“I only said to charge one side of the blade. I never said anything about using half the mana.”

The point of charging one side of the blade was not to use half the mana? What?

“There are also a few more tricks to the skill, but I’m not gonna tell you that. You won’t grow if you don’t figure it out for yourself,”

Could one of those tricks be what Aattroo Phia told me? About controlling the flow of my mana?

"Anything else?" She asked further.

"What do you mean?"

"Having any bad dreams lately? Or maybe suddenly feeling tired out of nowhere? Maybe feeling like a chunk of your time was spent but you don't know what happened?"

That's a lot of oddly specific things to ask.

"No, not really," I answer her unable to think of anything troubling at the moment. "Only thing that bothers me is the fact that I can't get the skill right,"

Effinshia just stared at me, studying me, "I see. If you say so." She shrugged, "ya know what kid? Draw out your sword, show me your crescent blade."

"Huh? Here? Now?"

"Yeah, now. Let me give you some pointers. Right over there will do." She pointed at an open space in the park. The others overheard our conversation and stop whatever they were doing to observe me.

This is quite embarrassing.

Might as well do this huh. I swallowed the saliva inside my mouth and drew out my sword. The normal one.

"Hmmm, I see," Effinshia muttered under her breath as she saw this.

?

Ignoring her seemingly random remark, I continued to charge my blade with magic and took a battle stance. One edge of the blade grew red in colour. Following right after Effinshia’s advice, I decided to pour out the full mana cost of the skill.

"Red mana…" I could hear the woman wearing witch clothing muttering under her breath as well.

Why is everyone giving me random remarks?

"Crescent Slash!" I shouted and swung my sword forward in a horizontal strike. In front of me was a red crescent, but only for a short while. It dispersed into thin air as soon as it appeared. A failure. Even with the full mana cost, the crescent slash didn’t fully form?

"That's the best I can do so far," I said to Effinshia.

Effinshia didn't respond. She just put her hands under the chin in some sort of thinking motion. She deliberated for a while, the rest of us just stood there waiting for her response.

…

"So how was it?" I asked, unable to stand the silence.

Effinshia gave me an odd stare for a few moments before asking- "Can I be frank with you kid?"

"Sure, go ahead"

"You suck at this." She told me. "I don’t know where you learn to swing a sword, but it sucks ass. Also, your control of mana is horrible. Maybe spend a bit more time practising that instead. Other than that, you seem to be going on the right path. Just keep at it, you'll get it right one day kid. Maybe in about a year or two"

A year or two?! Wow, that hurts…. At least Aattroo Phia didn't go too far as to say that I sucked that much.

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In the middle of the night, a hearty laugh resounded throughout the restaurant, mixed with other cheerful sounds of people laughing or talking. It was the restaurant that was recommended by Lanarya earlier. A standard restaurant with an outdoor balcony lit up with candles and lamps that gave it a relaxing ambient. We were currently sitting at one such table, large enough to fit the seven of us.

On the table were a whole bunch of dishes surrounding a bigger dish. The famed dish that was said to be passed down by a Supreme. On the giant plate surrounded by other dishes, the famed dish was fried rice served in a very particular shell. The half-cut shell of a giant cockroach. Herbs and spices mixed together with the sticky goo from the shell. It smelled nice, it probably tastes nice too. But as expected, eating something like this is a bit...

“I thought you said you checked everything?” Tyle said to Lanarya, his mouth may curve upward into a smile, but the words that came out of it were not happy in tone at all.

Lanarya slumped down her shoulders and looked downwards. "But the person said… everyone I asked said it was..."

“Ughh,” Tyle let out a soft grunt. “Be more careful next time,” Tyle said as he looked away to the sides.

“Words can be anything, you can’t trust everything you hear on the streets. It’s best to confirm things for yourself, girl. That goes double for the rest of you as well.” Effinshia gave us a word of wisdom.

“Yes..” Lanarya answered in response.

…

“Thanks by the way, for treating us to this,” Effinshia said to us.

“No no, that should be our line. Thank you for saving us at A’bell,” Scorch gave a slight bow to Effinshia.

“Also thanks for saving this idiot at the cave too,” Tyle rested his palm on my shoulders.

“Yeah, this dude has been absent-minded for as long as I can remember,” Kranis said as he rested his palm on my other shoulder.

“Man, you really got to do me like that guys?” I replied to their insult.

Effinshia chuckled at the sight of us bantering, “Ah right, I believe I haven’t introduced you guys to Vomit Girl here yet.”

“Stop calling me Vomit Girl,” The woman gave an annoyed stare to Effinshia, which she shrugged and ignored. Letting out a sigh, the woman then got up from her chair and gave us a polite bow. “My name is Vidya Vis Cezza, It’s an honour to meet all of you.”

Wow, she looks like a very refined and dignified girl. Although, the memories of her puking at the park did bring down the impact of her introduction a bit.

“So your name really was Vidya. I’m Lanarya by the way. Lanarya Lana!” Lanarya stood up and the two started to hold their hands together. “Let’s get along well”

“Um, uh yeah. Let’s get along well,” Vidya smiled back.

Man, girls can be friends terrifyingly fast. Then again, we did become friends with Lanarya in a similar manner. Maybe that’s just her speciality.

“Scorch Shatl,” Scorch gave Vidya a nod.

“Kranis Ordinaire here dear lady,” Kranis gave a very extravagant bow.

“Tyle A’bell,” Tyle adjusted his glasses.

“I’m Ride A’bell,” I just gave a standard greeting.

“It’s nice to meet all of. Let us get along,” Vidya gave another polite bow to us before finally sitting down again. Lanarya right next to her.

“So this the Vidya huh, are you here for the request as well Effinshia?” Kranis asked the azure eyed swordmaster.

“Hmm? No. I’m here for personal reasons, not because of a request.” Effinshia replied.

“A request?” Vidya asked, curious about the nature of the quest.

“Didn't you see it? There were posters of you all around the place” I said as I started searching for a copy of the poster in my pouch.

“The requester was a mysterious woman that went missing suddenly a few days back. And there were even this large underground slave rings involved. The Guild Master of Luth E’ll suspected the case to be connected to each other and wanted any high-rank adventurers to help find more information on the underground rings and the requester.” Tyle explained.

“Here’s the poster,” I passed the poster to Vidya after finding it folded near the end of my pouch.

“One Platinum coin!?” Vidya eyes bulged out as she read the contents of the poster. “Woah, to think there was another person looking for me as well. And one platinum. That’s insane.” Vidya said.

“Another person?” Tyle asked.

“It was me. Like I said, personal reasons. Say this underground slave rings. Do you have any other info about it?” Effinshia answered before asking us another question.

Oh, so it was Effinshia who found Vidya first. As expected I guess. She looked smart enough to do detective work.

“Not really. The guild, the guards, and the rogues network have nothing. We don’t really have anything either” Kranis responded. “Oh, there was this event where this large tornado destroyed and revealed one of the slave trader’s hideouts. But its been picked clean by now.”

“I see. That’s quite disappointing.” Effinshia answered.

“That’s not true Kranis, there was that bartender! He definitely knows something!” Lanarya exclaimed.

“Well… we don’t really know that. Besides, he’s not going to tell us anyways” I said.

“A bartender you say?” Effinshia asked further.

“Yeah, there was this bartender where the rogue's network said knew the dirt on everyone in town” Kranis responded.

“Hmm, Interesting,” Effinshia put her hand under her chin. Thinking about something. “Hmm, I’m quite interested in finding this other person looking for Vidya, mind if we join you on this request?” Effinshia asked.

“You want to join us? I have no problem with it. Rather, I’ll be glad if you could assist us. We are pretty much at a dead-end at this point,” I said.

“Ohh! Miss Effinshia you don’t need to even ask, you are always welcome in ‘Providence!’ You too Viddy!” Lanarya excited exclaimed. “Right guys?”

I looked to the others, only to see that they too nodded and agreed. Each of them give a thumbs up.

“Providence? Also Viddy?” Vidya asked, overwhelmed by Lanarya’s energy.

“It’s our party name, don’t ask,” Scorch replied.

Effinshia gave another chuckle,“Then it’s settled then. We start tomorrow.”

“If that’s settled, should we report to the guild first then? Tell them that the person in the poster is safe? Get the platinum coin while we are at it?” Kranis asked the group. The greed in his eyes.

Wow, he really wants the platinum coin huh.

“Don’t. You’ll just spread unnecessary rumours and you will get the eyes of the authorities. It will just hinder our investigation. Keep it low for the moment until we find the requester. You guys won’t be getting paid until the requester themselves confirm the completion anyway right?” Effinshia gave a sound argument.

“...ohh okay...” Kranis awkwardly responded.

“Oh right, one more thing. I’ll be honest with you all. I’m kind of broke right now, so I was wondering if Vidya could stay with you for the time being? I need to be somewhere else tonight, and I can’t really take care of her.”

“Eh?! You are leaving me alone with them Sis Effy?”

“Don’t worry about it Vomit Girl. They helped me out before. You can trust them. I am a pretty good judge of character ya know”

“But…”

“You’ll be fine. If they do anything to you, just let me know. I’ll smash their backs,” Effinshia casually gave out a threat. The rest of us did a double-take, “Ha ha, I’m just joking with you all. Seriously, they won’t harm you. trust me.”

“Okay…” Vidya agreed although reluctantly.

“Yay! Let’s get along well tonight Viddy!” Lanarya shouted in excitement.

“Ahh... what the hell. Let’s get along well Lana,” Vidya responded with a smile.

Again, these two became friends quite fast.

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After the talk, all of us just stared at the food in front of us. The rest of the dishes were honestly alright, but it’s just that… the big cockroach shell.

Effinshia just let out a sigh. “I can call the waiter to get rid of it if you guys don’t want it ya know,” She said to us.

“No… We’ve paid for it, might as well.” Kranis took a deep gulp before taking a spoonful of the fried rice.

How far are you willing to go Kranis?

He took a deep gulp before swallowing it whole. I was honestly expecting him to regurgitate the food back out, but his expression was one of surprise. “Wow, this is actually pretty good.” He then started taking another spoonful and started gulping it down.

…

“No seriously guys, it’s really good! You should try it!”

“Yeah… I’ll pass on that” Tyle said as he started to eat the other dishes. Seeing that, the rest of us followed and started eating the dishes. Everyone avoiding the famed dish except for Kranis.

Everyone ate, except Effinshia, who just stared at us with a smile.

“Aren’t you going to eat Miss Effinshia,” Lanarya noticed and asked.

“Nah, I’m not really hungry right now. I’ll grab something to eat later.”

She said as she continued to observe us eating dinner. A soft smile on her face, but her eyes were as if reminiscing about something.