Chapter 12: Cautionary Action

The next morning, and Yuu and Lyo had already gotten dressed.  They had eaten breakfast, but the two had room to spare as they walked down the street.   They felt some strange pressure though as they walked down the street.  Perhaps it was that no matter what stall they went to for food, they "mysteriously" could not serve them, and no shop would give them the time of day.

It seemed that those who wanted Yuu gone would do more then sell assassins.  It seems every merchant in the city would refuse to do business with Yuu.  Even Lyo seemed to be excluded.

"I suppose they are not being half hearted about this" Yuu said as he ate a skewer of meat, passing one to Lyo.  Lyo looked puzzled about where he got them, but accepted the kindness.  That said...

"...you did pay right?"

"...Yes".

Yuu answered while averting his eyes.  He did pay...but, as he did not know the price, he payed conservitively.

That is, if you count taking them using magic and then leaving money behind as "paying".

Lyo was a bit less clingly then before after last night, and although he looked relaxed, one might notice a shine in his eyes from time to time.  Still, he was showing more maturity, learning things from watching rather then asking non-stop questions, or annoying Yuu to no end from those questions.  He was less like a kid in a candy store, and more like a kid on a field trip.  His mannerisms were calmer, at least relative to before, and he was properly soaking in the city atmosphere.

That said, it was getting thoroughly ruined by the glares and antagonism of the shop keepers.  Not only that, but there appeared to be a group of priests that were following them, from a different church then the one Yuu had seen before.  He vaguely remembered them, he sometimes saw them in the Red Light district when he was here before.  Sometimes spreading words of purity, sometimes...doing other things.

Incidentally, Yuu could also feel the sharp gazes from people hiding within the crowds.  It was getting annoying to him, he was used to just outright confronting and killing his enemies, but if he made a scene in town, then it would give his enemies an excuse to rally the city against him.

In other words, politics were annoying.  So, Yuu was currently devising a way to stealthily kill them all.  After all, if there was no evidence or scene to link him to the events, then they could not rally against him, right?

Although, they did blame everything on my "curse".   So, even that is not entirely guarenteed....

As he was thinking of that, someone seemed to come racing by and had a full on collision with Yuu.  Yuu and the other figure fell to the ground.  The figure was somewhat taller then Yuu, reaching above Lyo's height by a bit.  His white hair covered by a dark hood, and his red eyes practically glowing.

"Ah!  Sorry!  Excuse me, gotta go!" he said, picking up "that" from the ground.  A hilt, that appeared to have no blade in it.  Yuu could feel a powerful magical aura from the hilt.  

Lyo reached down with his hand, and Yuu reached out to grab it, letting Lyo pull him up.

"Some people are so rude...well, at least he apologized" Lyo mentioned, pouting.

In the meantime, Yuu thought of an idea.  And so, he began his operation to deal with his tail.

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Suddenly, in the middle of town, a dense fog rolled in again.  Although it was not terribly common during the day, it was not uncommon either, so people did not think it was strange.   However...in that moment...

"Where did he go?!" A muffled voice yelled angrily, as they rushed to check on their targets from the rooftops.  However, no matter where they looked, there was no evidence of their targets, Yuu and Lyo, anywhere.  Indeed, the fog seemed to be disorienting too, as one of them knocked into a man.

"Hey!  What the hell are you doing?!" the man said in a drunken state, punching the guy in the face as the fog began to clear a little.  This discheveled, drunken man now looked at the group that was previously invisible to everyone's attention, and seemed like he was not going to let them get away.  "Seems like you guys need to learn how to respect people!"

And thus, the brawl between a large drunken man and the spies commenced.

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"...they cant blame me if there is someone else to blame" Yuu said with a smile.  If they just disappeared was one thing, but if they got beaten up by a drunk?  That was something different.   Although, the fact there was a man drunk so early in hte morning was concerning in its own right.

"Yuu has a mischevous face this time....much better then creepy smile face!" Lyo exclaimed.

"...shut up.  Anyways..."

"Yo, peoples.  Want to go on a quest with me?" James asked from behind them, startling them both.  Neither Yuu's sensory magic nor Lyo's Elf Senses were able to pick up James, but it seemed to work on everything else.  As a result, they were still not used to it.

"Would you stop doing that?!"

"...how did you even track us in that fog?"

"Sec-ret~"

The two boys glared at him.

"Now now.  Hey, how do you feel going on a quest?  I hear if we are really good, we might be able to pick up a bonus".

"A bonus...huh..."

"Yeah...tell me, waht do you know about the current tension in the city?"

"You mean aside from the fact there are people actively working against me?"

"Yeah, aside from that.  Apparently, there has been a bit of a ruckus inside the Red Light District.  People disappeared apparently...anyways, not sure exactly what is up with that...."

"...liar".

"....but, I heard something interesting.  There is a quest to slay some Elder Drakes in the nearby canyon north of here, but...who knows what else we might encounter?"

Yuu narrowed his eyes, but James did not budge no matter how much pressure he exerted from his body.  James seemed to resist such things like they were nothing.

"...fine.  Let me guess, you want us to come with right?"

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"Yeah.  I asked some other people I know to meet us by the gate.  Since we have valid Adventurer IDs, we should be able to go through without being hastled".

"Do you really need us for this though?"

"Well, the Elder Drakes may be operating alone, but there also might be a Dragon leading them.  Not an ancient one like before though, something much weaker and easier to manage.  Still, it is a Dragon.  Furthermore, we will have to go through Orc Territory, since Orcs recently set up there as well.  Anyways, because of all that, to make sure it gets done, a lot of high ranked adventurers have been summoned.  Since your both C-Rank, no one should complain".

Although realistically, after all the training you two did in the past two years, you are probably more in the upper B-Ranks now....

Either way, the group decided to set off for the gate.

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At the north gate, the trio arrived to meet the others participating.  

Among them were the familiar faces of the Daysparrow party, with all four members there.  Argen, Verona, Cassor, and Lysander.

There was also two other boys a bit older then themselves there talking.  One had a staff and a red and white cap, and the other was wearing a blue hood that covered his head, but some of his white hair was standing out.  He also had that strange hilt with him.  He was the one who ran into Yuu before, and helped give him the idea of making the people following him "accidentally" run into a drunk.  Well, part of that depended on luck though.

There was also a party of five women, wearing white and red armor, and all carrying powerful looking weapons.  Even though they were adventurers, they looked beautiful and had exceptional features.  Yuu contemplated on if some sort of magic was used, or if this world just had weird genetics like that.  That said, their army covered their bodies, and was like normal knight armor just well fitted to them, so there was no exposed skin that was pointlessly made a vulnerability just for looks.  They were the Whiteblade party.

"Oooh, does Yuu have a crush on them?  Just too bad you cant 'clash swords' with women like you and Lyo did last night" James mentioned, causing Yuu to turn bright red as he understood what James meant with his tease.  He almost instinctively tried to freeze James solid inside a glacier, but Lyo was able to hold him back and stop him.

"Die, you perverted old man!"

"Now now, come on.  Lets get to work!~" James mentioned, with Yuu fuming behind him and contemplated all the ways he could try to kill James later.

There was also another group of adventurers as well, the Stormcallers.  It appeared to be made up of a female warrior, a male dark elf mage, a female dwarvern shieldbearer, and a high elf male archer.

Argren had a bit of a wry, awkward smile on his face, which was quickly adopted by the rest of the members once they saw Yuu.  Cassor nearly flinched when he felt Yuu's current magical levels.  He was aware Yuu had trained in the past two years, but he couldnt help but be amazed at how fast that child could grow.

Verona and Lysander however were a bit worried about how it would turn out.  Certainly, Yuu and Lyo exceeded their expectations the first time they met, but at least they listened to reason.  it took them two years, but they did eventually come to the city.  It seemed a bit...sad, and like a bad idea, to just leave them out there after all.

However, the other adventurer parties had different reactions.

The white haired boy in the hood was a bit embarrassed to see the person he ran into appear.  The boy looked like he was three or four years younger, but seeing him here probably meant he was older.  He had a bad habit of making assumptions based on appearance sometimes, and scolded himself mentally.

The mage in the red and white cap seemed amused at seeing them, and observed Yuu and Lyo with interest and curiosity.  He had a strange atmosphere around him, and Yuu felt like he was a bit familiar?  Was he at the guild yesterday?  Maybe the one who ran out of the guild right before they entered?

His cap seemed rather interesting though.  Or rather, it was of higher quality then Yuu's handmade clothes.  Of course, given Yuu was self taught in this world, and self learned how to fix his own clothes as Yuuki, that was not too surprising.

The Whiteblade party, particularly the leader, gave James rather annoyed looks, and then looked at Yuu and Lyo.  It was obviously they were being looked down upon, likely since they not only were young, but even appeared younger then they were.  The Whiteblades looked at James and wondered what sort of prank, joke, or maybe he ended up annoying some noble and that noble forced him to babysit his kids, or something like that.  Although, Yuu and Lyo were of two different races, but they didn't mind that all that much.

Rather, they were scowling, so they seemed rather annoyed.

And the other party, Stormcallers, also seemed to be wary of the two's pressence.  They had confused looks on their faces, and some tilted their heads as if it couldn't be helped.  It seemed like they had experienced James' whimsical nature before.

"Yo, everyone!  This bitter, cold hearted boy is Yuu, and this walking ball of sunshine is Lyo.  Dont let their looks decieve you, they are C-Rank adventurers".

"...im not bitter".

"Eh, you kinda are".

"Lyo?!"

Yuu tried to deny it a little, though his true goal was just to say that James was wrong.  But Lyo casually said that it was true.

"I see you two are the same as always...no, wait.  You do seem more mature".

"Thank you" Yuu said.  He might be a bit cold hearted, but he had the manners to thank someone for a compliment.  Plus, "more mature" meant taller, which meant someone was recognizing he did grow!

His height complex had also "matured", after all.

As for Lyo, he still seemed to lack an awareness of personal space, but unlike before when he clung to Yuu non stop, he seemed to not be like that.  He still had Yuu's hand clutched tightly in his, but there was a bit of distance between the two.  Not a cold distance either, but it seemed like he was more independent, and more aware, then before.

He was not kissing or hugging Yuu all the time in front of others, so that made it clear he had matured to the point of understanding Time and Place to a degree.

Well, he did hear about a certain "public declaration", but even if he did mature, he was still a young boy.  He wasn't going to completely mature, even in two years.

"Argen?  You know him?"

"Ah, yeah.  He helped us deal with the investigation two years ago.  He doesn't trust people very much, so dont try to force it.  He hates it when people do that".

Although saying they were friends might seem a bit strange, at the very least, Argen got along with Yuu more then James did.  He was respectful of Yuu and Lyo's past, showing sympathy and kindness but not dragging up the fatal question.  Rather then forcing it, he allowed their relationship to develop slowly and naturally, so they were on good terms with each other at least, as well as the rest of the Daysparrow party.

Although Yuu held a bit of a grudge over the fact that they were better at weapons then him.

He stared jealously at the sword on Argen's waist.  Even if Yuu didn't trust, and generally didn't like people, he was still someone who wanted to get stronger.  And in fact, if he could become a stronger vanguard, then he and Lyo would not need anyone else.

"Anyways, Zak, Avo, how about you party with these two.  You all appear around the same age anyways.  Ah, by the way.  The white haired boy is Zak, and Avo is the boy in the red and white cap".

"....me and Lyo work better alone".

"Come on!  Yuu, you need to make more friends!"

Yuu tried to turn away, but Lyo went into his face and gave him the puppy dog eyes expression, the smug because I am right expression, the arms crossed "Really? Dont be stubborn" expression, and the "You promised~" expression, the combination of which was known as Lyo's "Yuu convincing glare" technique.  It tended to be super effective and was the only chance to get Yuu to do something he was dead set against.

"Fine!  Fine!  I get it!" Yuu said, after enduring it for about twenty seconds.  "In that case, I want to get our formation in order.  First off, what is with that hilt?"

"Ah, this?" Zak replied, taking it out.  He poured mana into it, and a blue blade materialized.  And it was a rather large blade at that, taller then Zak was.  "This is my weapon, Azul Sanguine.  Its got a bunch of interesting affects".

Yuu almost retorted on that name, but managed to suppress it.  It was not often he felt like retorting like that, but that name....'Azul Sanguine'...used two different words from his original world.  He did here some of those words get used, and learned some of it was spread by summoned heroes in the past.  It became pretty obvious to him that those summoned heroes, at least some, probably came from his previous world and spread them around.   Then...Azul Sanguine probably originated from a Summon.  He also did consider the idea there were other Reincarnators like himself.

In fact, he was not quite sure why he was reincarnated with his memories.  Was it because his current life overlapped with his previous life too much?  Or was there something else?  It was very puzzling. 

Either way....

"So you are a swordsman then?"

"Magic Swordsman.  I can use magic as well".

"I am a pure mage though.  I know a lot of attack spells, defense spells, and support spells, and even close quarters combat spells.  Pleasure to be working with you".

Yuu didn't quite respond to that, mostly out of distrust, but either way it seemed that aside from James, everyone would be acting in a group.  

And so, they set off on their quest.