I just had to help them. I couldn't just let them uselessly try to find another mercenary. No, that wouldn't have been nice, that would've been selfish.

But they're making me reconsider.

This kid was asking me stupid questions all day long. And when he wasn't asking me stuff, he was telling me about stupid noble drama.

"No kid, I don't care about your long lost thirteenth cousin. Why would I care about them?" Oh, and that wasn't even the worst part, the worst part was that damn guard.

"Oh, I'm sorry your commoner brain can't comprehend the importance of my lord's interests." And the worst part was that I couldn't bash her head in for talking like that.

Why does she think she's better than me? She mentioned something about being in the golden generation, maybe it's something to do with that?

"What's the golden generation? The redhead talked about it." I tilted my face so I faced the boy. Even his long winded explanations would've been better than her lectures.

"I have a name y'know? And why would you have asked him? I know more about it."

"Ain't it obvious? I'm asking him because I don't want to talk to you." I was damned if I replied to her, and damned if I didn't.

She would suspect the worst if I didn't reply to her.

And you're about to watch what happens when I do reply to her.

"You childish moron!" She literally facepalmed. Who actually does that?

"Are you avoiding me? Just because I insulted you-." I cut her off. I couldn't be bothered with this anymore.

"Fine! You explain it." Maybe she's gonna see it as goodwill. I can't afford to be making enemies with the people I'm travelling with.

The boy had been uselessly trying to intervene this entire time. He'd try to butt-in, only to be cut off by either me or the redhead.

"Well… you know the Scarlet Academy?" God dammit, not this again.

"Nope." Most adventurers have gone to an academy. They always reminisce about it as if it was the best time of their life. But my experience with them has always been terrible.

My dad paid for all his childrens’ education. But only if they chose to go to a combat academy. I enrolled in one as it was basically free. Within like… 3 months, I was literally suffocating from boredom, and left.

"What? How do you… What rock do you live under?"

"Come on lady. I'm a busy man, alcohol doesn't drink itself. I don't have time to learn about these academies."

"But it's like… one of the few academies recognised by the adventurers council. It's world famous. Well… just know that it's a very famous school, and the golden generation was the greatest generation of graduates. Wanna guess who’s in it?" Well, I guess that explains her egotism.

As she finished talking I heard a thud, and felt a weight get off my back. The girl finally woke up.

"Did you have a good sleep 'princess'?"

She finally opened her eyes. She looked at me, then the guard, and back at me before speaking.

“Wasn’t she supposed to return?”

“Schedules changed. She’s coming with us because apparently I'm a ‘bad influence’.” I had to tell her the truth before the redhead could skirt around it.

“Good on her.” Welp, it's nice to see our group agrees on something. After saying that, she slaps me.

“You idiot! Why’d you leave us behind?”

“Mighty accusatory ain’tcha? I trusted that you would at least know how to protect yourselves. If I babysit you, the necromancer would’ve just kept summoning skeletons.”

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“You don’t give orders! We do.”

“Not until you prove yourself. I am the leader for now, because none of you have enough experience. Just make sure to use smaller spells next time. They're easier on the mind.”

You had two choices when it comes to magic. You either drain your mana, or life force. Your body doesn’t contain that much mana, so you have to be sparing with your use of magic. While using life force is immensely painful.

The guy had already started walking away while I was talking, and the girl was still standing there for some reason. She then extended her hands out.

“What are you doing? Get up.” She… scoffed?

“Carry me, I don't want to walk.” Uh, what?

I just stood there, dumbfounded. Then got up to catch up with the others.

“Hey! Are you gonna leave me?”

“You got two legs. Use them.”

***

She was more stubborn than I thought. We walked for a good amount of time before she started running after us.

We were making good pace. I hadn’t fully planned out our path, but I knew our next stop would be a crime den.

If we kept walking, we’d arrive at night. Thieves usually tried ambushing people at night, and I couldn't be bothered today.

“We're gonna stop here for the night.” The others looked at me like I'm an idiot.

“The stars aren’t even out yet. Why would we stop now moron.” I was half expecting the guard to say something, but she was just standing there while the girl was talking.

She certainly knows how to act-.

“Hey! I just asked you something.” Oh right.

“We’d arrive in the city at night, and that’d mean getting ambushed. It’s much safer in the tundra.” The shops would also be closed during the night, which would mean we couldn’t buy any food. There were lots of things to hunt in the tundra.

The girl nodded and went into the forest, and the guard followed her in. But the boy was still by my side.

“Why aren’t you going with them?”

“Where’s your sword?” Goddammit. I forgot to grab it.

“It snapped in two.” It was a blatant lie, but my ego couldn’t survive a third person in the group thinking I'm a moron. “I’ll buy one at the market, they go for cheap.”

“What swords are you buying? Swords are like… the most expensive weapon. Especially a katana. They have to smuggle it, and bring it all the way from japan.”

“Hey, I'm not buying the Japanese ones. I buy the cheap ones. Y’know, the katanas who’ve only been folded once.” His jaw practically dropped after hearing that. “What? A good warrior doesn’t need a good weapon to be deadly.”

He prepared to tell me something but I cut him off again.

“Go with them, and I'll catch up with you, ok? I just gotta find some food first.”

***

Prey was relatively easy to find any time of year. My father always hunted all his food, but any normal person just used ice magic to preserve meat during the winter.

There was little point in hunting when you had a cow in the fridge. So it only took me a few minutes before I found two geese.

In a world with magic, animals don’t stand a chance.

***

Their path had been obvious. Even an amateur tracker could’ve found their tracks. Thankfully, nobody wanted to explore the tundra during the winter, and by proxy, nobody bothered to track people during the winter.

As I finally arrived at our ‘camp’, I saw the fire they had set up. It was frankly impressive that these stuck up rich people even knew how to start a fire.

“Finally! What took you so long?” I’m starting to get annoyed with her attitude.

“I was quick. You’re just used to food on demand.” Thankfully, she turned away after seeing the bloody goose in my hand.

The guard took the goose from my hand, not saying a word.

What’s she planning to do with it?

“I can butcher it y’know.” She didn’t do anything. “Are you a chef?” She still won't do anything. “You’re awfully quiet.” This is… awkward. I didn’t want her to have a cringy memory for the rest of this life, so I had to do something.

“How about we do it together?”

“No. I can do this, I don’t-”

“For god’s sake! Work together.” The guard immediately turned to me and gave me the goose.

“You butcher it. I’ll set up a spit.” Welp, I guess she’s useless when the princess is around.

***