While the streets are calm outside in the district, we still opt to head to a nearby alleyway, just in case we start some more ruckus while we teleport away. Although, it’s easier said than done to find alleyways in this neighborhood. I suppose that because of safety, alleyways were rather limited here, opting for wide streets instead, so you couldn’t easily get jumped at. It makes me think we’d have been better of to teleport away from inside of the building. But after a couple of minutes of walking, we finally find a spot that is somewhat obscured.

“Is everyone ready?” I ask. “Everyone has everything?”

“A bit late to ask that, as we’d have to run back to the mansion, but yes, I think we are all ready.” Max gives me a thumbs up. Our wolves already getting closer to us. Those smart doggies already know what’s coming.

When everyone is close enough to my liking, I start revving up my teleportation magic.

The rustling of leaves of the nearby trees means that, once more, the teleportation has been a success. Dropping us off at the bridge where we went into the forest yesterday.

“That teleportation skill is seriously cheating.” Max comments.

“If you think it’s cheating here, remember that Ami can use this in our world too.” Sam replies.

“Free trips around the world?” Carol asks.

“Mhmm.” I nod. “I just need to have been there once and I can get there again without many issues.”

“Wow, so practically free trips to Japan and things like that?”

“Yep.”

“You are going to take me too, one day, right?”

I laugh at my friend’s request. “I would gladly spare you almost an entire day on a plane, yes.”

Max scratches her chin. “Gonna be a hefty jetlag, wouldn’t it?”

“Ami’s passive heal would deal with that I think.” Sam replies. “My girlfriend is OP. Both in cuteness and in many other ways.”

“I don’t think we will argue with that.” Carol chuckles. “You definitely hit the jackpot, Ami.”

“Wouldn’t say it’s all positive but the positives very very much outweigh the negatives.” I admit. “As much as I complain about the entire Goddess stuff, it has given me opportunities that other people never ever would get in their life and I am infinitely grateful for that. Even though I don’t express it that much.”

“I think you express it just fine with how many good things you try to accomplish.” Sam says. “Some people would waste their newfound powers. But you are definitely not one of them, and on top of that, you try to live every day to the fullest. And I don’t think that’s very self-evident either.”

“Yeah.” Max nods. “I’ve not known you for long, but I can definitely tell, with the limited amount of people-knowledge I have, that you are not someone who squanders gifts you are given.”

“Exactly.” Carol agrees vehemently.

“Y’all are going to make me blush.”

“It’s already too late for that.” Sam laughs and boops my cheek. “And it proves our point too.”

I pout but can’t hold it up for long before I start laughing.

“The army’s camp was that way, right?” Max gets on her wolf and points in the opposite direction from where we headed yesterday.

“Yep.” Sam helps me get on my wolf before she gets on hers. “I don’t think it’ll be that long of a ride, but let’s not waste any time.”

“Mind if I ride in front with Carol today?”

“Not at all.” Both Sam and I smile at our friends.

“Neat.” Max grins and beckons her girlfriend to ride besides her, an invitation she gladly accepts. We then start moving in group towards our next objective.

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While our wolves are running beneath us, I suddenly get a little popup in the corner of my eye. “Hmm?”

“What’s wrong?” Sam asks.

“I got a message.” I open up my interface. “Oh, it’s from my sister.”

* “Hey Ami, how are y’all doing? :) Questing along?”

* “Yeah, we are riding our wolves right now, going towards the army?” I send a message back, it’s not the easiest thing ever from wolfback but it’s workable thanks to the saddle.

* “Wolves??”

* “Yeah, direwolves. We found four of them to use as mounts, they are really cool.”

* “Wow, I heard about those but I’ve never actually seen one before! Be sure to show them to us next time.”

* “Definitely, I wouldn’t dare not to. Plus, they would be hard to hide. :p”

* “I bet!” That message is swiftly followed by a second one. “You said you were going to find the army?”

* “Yeah, Crystal sent us on a quest to find out something about bandits. They are apparently working together with goblins and Crystal wants to use me to make the army and adventurers work better together.”

* “Is it the army camp near Getinium?”

I look at my girlfriend. “Is it Getinium we are going to?”

“I think so, yes.” Sam nods back.

* “Yeah, apparently. Why?”

* “We are heading there too. We rescued a band of soldiers who were losing a fight against some darn well trained bandits down the river bank. We are bringing them back to the camp they belong to.”

* “Are they okay, you don’t have a healer with you, right?”

* “We stabilized them with my magic and some first aid, but some healing magic would be useful. Are you far out from the camp?”

* “Sam says it’s not that far. But there should be other adventurers there so they should be able to heal them when we are not there yet.”

* “Alright. See you in a bit sis.”

* “See you in a bit!”

I close my interface and look at my girlfriend.

“What was that all about?” She asks.

“Looks like our party is also heading towards Getinium.” I reply. “They found some soldiers who got into trouble with bandits and they are bringing the wounded back there.”

“Oh, also bandits?”

“Apparently so, yes. Do you think it could be connected.”

“It could be.” Sam nods. “There were some bigger bandit encampments in that area of the map. Although none of them are really that close to Getinium itself.”

“I’m not really getting a good feeling about this. Lise said that the bandits looked rather well-trained too. And if my sister says that…”

“Yeah, that’s probably not good news…”

“Well, looks like our reunion will be faster than expected.”

“Mhmm.” I nod.

While we continue riding, we bring the rest of the party up to speed as well of our reunion so they at least don’t act too surprised when they see the rest of our other party there. It takes us another hour or so before we finally see Getinium in the distance, in the meantime it had also started raining which was making the road extremely muddy.

“Why can I only stop the rain that I make myself. I feel cheated.” Carol laments.

“Maybe you can later on, who knows.” Sam replies. “You never know with Ami around.”

“You girls and your cool magic stuff.” Max laughs. “I just hit things with my axe.”

“Hey, you chose that.” Carol flicks some rain on her girlfriend which she playfully gets hit by.

“I know, I like hitting things with my axe, but still.”

A group of soldiers blocks the road in front of us. Waving us down to stop in front of them.

“Another group of bloody adventurers, just what we need.” One of the soldiers immediately starts ranting once we stop in front of him. He doesn’t even care about the snarl from our wolves. That’s just how irritated he looks.

Most of the other soldiers seem to be as amused as him, apart from one who closely looks at the four of us. He does a double take once his gaze passes over me. Tapping the most irritated soldier’s shoulder.

“What?!”

“Uhm… Maybe you should tone it down a little.” He suggests.

“I’d suggest that too.” Max takes the opportunity to hop on to the discussion. “What have we done to get cursed at? We are here to help.”

“Help, help. That’s what they all say.” The irritated soldier continues. “I’ve had it up to here with these adventurers. I don’t see why they want us to work together. Don’t see it at all!”

“It’s the truth though.” Sam replies and then looks at the more helpful soldier. “What happened between the army and the adventurers that things are this bad?”

“The people inside of the settlement will be able to explain it better, ma’am.” The soldier replies, looking at his compatriot who’s still raging about.

“You are thinking about letting them through!?”

The soldier ignores the other and continues talking to us. “You can go through, I will deal with this.”

The other soldiers standing beside them, while still looking annoyed, don't stand in our way as we give the other soldier a nod and start to walk by. We decide not to talk to them any further though to avoid confrontation.

-What the heck happened here? I didn’t expect this much outright hostility…-