Despite my attempts to have them ignore us and simply go on their own way, as I had a bad feeling about having them follow us, it appears that it was my remark that had been the catalyst for our current situation…

At the moment, the five of us were walking towards the labyrinth as a group. Flanking the two girls were Brent and Roger, as they attempted to hold a conversation with the two. Brent stood to the left of the older sister, while Roger stood to the right of the little sister. As for me, I was standing behind group. Seeing that the two sisters were walking hand in hand with each other, I couldn’t help but feel bad at the idea that my two companions were putting unnecessary pressure on the two young girls.

As I was looking at the two girls with a worried expression on my face, the older sister’s eyes met mine for a moment as she gave me a small gentle smile before returning to face Brent as she answered his question.

“Yes, the two of us are sisters. We come from a village a bit south of the elven forest, however, our village was attacked by bandits and burned down. I managed to escape along with my sister, but as you can see, I wasn’t really able to bring anything with me.”

Hearing the answer from the girl whose name was Alex, Brent put on an expression of sadness and tried to show his sympathy for her situation as he said:

“I see… it’s a shame that the two of you had to go through such a horrible thing. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to keep the two of you safe for now. And later on, we can even go look for your parents.”

At Brent’s gentlemanly statement, Roger jumped in as he loudly exclaimed:

“Hey! Don’t forget about me, don’t worry you two, I’ll make sure that you two can be safe for the time being. Donchu worry about anything for now and just leave things to our hands.”

Following Roger’s statement, Alex turned her head back to look at me, to which I simply gave a small smile and nodded my head. Smiling in response, Alex turned back towards the two as she said:

“Thank you all. It means alot to receive your help in these trying times. My sister and I appreciate the sentiment…”

Seeing her look around at all of us with a confused expression on her face, I put a gentle smile on my face as I spoke up saying:

“Kevin, my name is Kevin. The man right there to your left is Brent, and the kid standing next to your sister is Roger. The three of us together make up a new adventuring party called ‘The Sworn Blades’.”

Hearing my answer to her unasked question, Brent and Roger showed somewhat embarrassed expressions on their faces as they glared at me. Clearly a little embarrassed at the name of our group.

However, Alex didn’t seem to think anything too badly about it as she just smiled at me and said:

“‘The Sworn Blades’ was it? That’s a very cool sounding name for a party. Don’t you think so, Alice?”

“Yeah, I think it sounds quite manly~”

Hearing the positive response from the two, Roger immediately jumped in as he said:

“RIGHT! I was the one who put on the idea and told them that it would be a great name! But the two of them didn’t want to believe me when I told them. Hmph, could you believe them?”

“HEY DON’T LIE YOU LITTLE- I mean, yeah he came up with the name, but it was ME who decided on the name among all the others. The actual name he wanted us to be was-”

“HEYYYYY… Don’t pay attention to him you two, he’s just jealous.”

With the two of them beginning to bicker amongst each other, Alex turned to look back to me as I gave her a wry smile. Seeing my smile, she gave me back her own as a look of understanding was seen in her eyes.

Seeing that we were getting nearer to the cave, I called out to the two girls as I asked:

“So you say that the two of you are able to use magic, where did you two learn something like that in a small village? Magic isn’t something the common person is normally able to learn.”

After asking my question, I ignored the glares from my two companions who were clearly not pleased with me asking a question that may lose us the girls favor. However, Alex didn’t seem to mind my question as she responded:

“An old man came by to our village once and thought the children there magic, though only Alice and I were capable of learning any at all. And even the magic we learned was only simple tier 1 magic.”

“I see… sorry for asking about something so private.”

“No, don’t worry about it~”

Giving me another smile at the end of her statement Alex turned back to face the two as she asked:

“So, what type of weapons do you guys use, though I can imagine that Roger specializes in archery?”

“That’s right! I’m the best archer around these areas, there’s nothing within 100 meters that can escape my bow and I!”

“Don’t listen to the fool, he’s just exaggerating about himself, he’s the only archer in our village.”

“HEY!”

“Anway, as you can see from the sword hanging on my waist, I’m a swordsman, and unlike those two, a pretty talented one. Even working together, those two were never able to beat me.”

“That’s because we were kids and you’re older than us! Plus, you haven’t fought the two of us together in five years!”

Seeing the two going back to bickering with each other, Alex released a small giggle as she turned back to look at me and asked:

“And you?”

Taking out the short sword that was placed in my back, I showed it to Alex as well as the knife belt around me as I said:

“I’m more of an all around type of guy, I can use this sword here a bit, but I can also use throwing knives and a shortbow.”

Hearing my answer, Alex once again smiled at me as she simply said:

“How reliable~”

After that, the five of us kept walking for another hour before we stopped once we had reached the entrance to the underground cave, that signaled the start of the labyrinth that had just recently appeared.