*'Jeehan'*

How did today turn out like this?

Well... I managed to find a group to adventure with, consisting of the apathetic brains, Doki, the womanizing ninja-wannabe, LOD, and the person I trust the most, Titanious. And I'm glad about that, but, I mean, Doki found out I was an NPC easily, and my brother, Shun, and my sister, Thorborg found me whilst going to job interviews at the cafe we were at; yeah, fourth island's names are weird. I heard from Shun, that on the third island, they call their children 'Henry', 'George', 'William' and keep it consistent with name types. Whereas here we have names varying from 'Aaron' to 'Han' to 'Vladimir' and everything in between.

Well, at least things didn't end up badly. I mean, we're currently staying at my family's home. Nio is staying in our guest room, and, since they were roommates already, Doki and LOD are staying in our parent's room. Doki originally wanted to sleep on the floor and let LOD use the sofa after hearing the reason behind the room's emptiness, but that event happened a year or two ago, so my 2 sisters, 3 brothers and I chose to let the two stay there. We do have another guest room, but we're re-painting it at the moment, and it would be bad manners to let two guests sleep on the floor.

We were having dinner, made by Adam, one of my other brothers, and Titanious. It was fish, made with boiled potatoes and salad. A simple dish for Adam to teach him the basics of cooking.

"Thanks for the food," we all said in unison, as we dove into the taste. The food itself was nice, however, as Alice said, I did just meet two of these three guests today, and decided, against the will of my siblings, to travel the taboo path our parents went.

By the way, Adam is a professional chef. He works at some fancy, over-priced restaurant over in Skimmington, but since the family house is in Simpson he sometimes just stays at a hotel in Skimmington and doesn't come back for a while.

I could understand why they questioned this path. But I wasn't like those two airheads. I wasn't about to get conscripted into this nations' army and go to the envoy on the continent to get slain in an internationally maintained mass genocide called war!

... Um... I-I didn't mean that part... If the others heard that thought... I dread the result.

A-anyway, the four of us decided to give tonight a rest, thinking of possible strategies for tomorrow. We were aiming to do the dungeon in stages. From what I knew, it consisted of five layers, each could take an hour on average if you knew what you were doing and leveled reasonably. We weren't though, and we didn't want to rush. Since the dungeon was nearby, we decided to just come back here at night, and take it layer by layer. Doki said it was so we could make money and try to reassure my family that we weren't going to be careless. It'd probably take a week, so it wasn't that much of a burden, and it was seen as a test in its own right. My family agreed, and Titanious would be getting lessons in cooking from Adam, or Hiiro if he was free, and they'd make a decision about whether they'd let us do this.

After the meal, it was pretty clear to my family I was spaced out. So before heading off to bed, Adam asked, "Han, are you okay?"

I couldn't really respond. I've always been like this, the moment I try to sum up my feelings, I forget what I'm feeling. It only happens sometimes, but it's still really annoying.

In response to this, Adam asked Doki to go outside with him. We already introduced ourselves, so I guess he knows the group's centered around him and wants to tell him some stuff about me.

Eh. If it's pointless, I can trust Doki not to care, so it's a good choice.

As I began thinking about what Adam could tell Doki, I noticed how late it had become. "It's late, and I'm tired. Sorry, but I'm going to sleep." said Alice. I fancied myself some sleep too, so followed.

"Oh, by the way, Han. Sorry to sound rude, but..."

"You're still skeptical Alice? Don't worry, that's the point of doing the dungeon over the week. Even if push comes to shove, I'll revive," I replied, with a calm look on my face.

Alice was a manager for a clan called the Small_Class_Heroes. She didn't fight but helped their financing and infrastructure, so was the best person for advice. With our given lack of strength and experience, given the fact they were strangers, skepticism was only natural.

"Um... That's not it. I don't like these LOD and Doki guys. They seem to be on opposite vectors. Whereas LOD seems too enthusiastic, especially about me and Thorborg, Doki seems like he'd scrap you in an instant. Also, I don't know Doki's class, so I can't give you advice on his fighting style. I know it's shallow of me to judge them as they are now, but I can't help doting on my younger brother."

"I understand. But, please give them a chance to overturn these doubts. I want you guys to feel good about letting me follow my dream, and I know it's your's and Adam's jobs to dote on our lot. But please have limits."

She sighed, then said under her breath 'I'll try'.

With that conversation done, I had reached my room, after exchanging pleasantries with Alice, I went to my room.

I was thinking a lot about the stuff that happened recently. Analyzing my associates in my head, and dreaming about the future adventures, I realized how much it all was based on my idea of Doki. This is a person who I only met today... Hm, I see why Alice doubts Doki. Well, we'll see what he does when he does it, I'm guessing the others doubt him too. Claiming to know which one, of an infinite possibility of ideas, isn't a good thing.

-

"*Knock* Ahem... Han? Are you awake?" This sounded like Adam. Or was it Hiiro? Those two sounded alike, so I couldn't really tell. Since the moon isn't blue, I guess it's Adam. Hiiro is a traveling merchant, who'd travel around for months at a time, and come back for days at a time before leaving again. Since he made money, enjoyed his job, and wouldn't miss an important date, this was fine. But, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be here so soon after leaving.

"... Who... Is... It..." I just woke up, so was kinda groggy.

"It's Hiiro. I just arrived at skimmington, when Adam said to come back immediately."

'Ah, that explained it,' I thought, knowing that Hiiro trusted Adam to a shocking degree, so if he said to come back, Hiiro would immediately do so.

I got up and started to get dressed, continuing the conversation whilst doing so.

"Sorry Hiiro, I just got up. Did Adam tell you much, or should I explain the situation myself?" I knew he trusted me too. But if Adam told him opinionated stuff, it'd be annoying to talk him out of agreeing.

"I heard bits of pieces. I know that you've found a party, and are wanting to go to the Grassy Hills dungeon, but not much more. I'm interested in the kinds of people they are, but Adam wouldn't tell me," he mumbled, in a self-pitying tone.

I gave a weak smile, appreciating that Adam didn't tell him. Although Hiiro sounded disheartened, I'm thankful Adam finally noticed how much Hiiro was blindly following his opinion, so didn't tell him about the members to avoid his opinions spilling out.

"I can understand why, I mean, you do have a tendency of blindly following him on any opinions he has, even when he, himself, has made a mistake, you'll scream and shout at anyone stating he was previously wrong... I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but Adam knows it can be bothersome, especially with a topic like this."

"Eh?" Hiiro was confused. Let's mask it up for now.

"Basically I found three people to join me in making my dream a reality. They are three 'visitors' with various personalities."

"'Visitors'?" I was shocked by Hiiro's response, then I remembered he's been traveling recently, and since the 'visitors' thing only came about a week ago, it's possible he just hasn't heard about them yet.

"'Visitors' are beings who are human, but for whatever reason, they suddenly appeared in major cities and towns. Their population is limited compared to us, but they also appear to not know why they're here. Since they are new, and obviously don't share certain thoughts, opinions, and knowledge as we do, some people have decided that they are a new race, and are upset with their existence. It's one of these annoying in-groups, out-groups debacles, that just causes destruction, and gives nothing good... Also, They started calling us 'NPCs', I have no idea of what that means, but the locals have started calling themselves that, so have I... They won't suddenly stop with the title, so I don't feel like trying to fight it."

Hiiro is relatively middle ground in these sorts of things. He's never been one to have his own opinions, so bases his reaction based on others, hence he follows Adam's opinion on most topics.

"Huh? That sounds weird... Well as long these 'visitors' aren't dicks, I probably won't even notice. Also, 'NPCs' has a nice ring to it... That's probably why."

"We're doing a test to see their personalities and such here since I only met them yesterday. They have their quirks, but for now, they seem pretty nice." To my response, Hiiro seemed content with that explanation.

But after a while, he gave out a deep sigh. "... So you're actually doing it then," he muttered. I heard what he said but tilted my head in confusion, and he continued. "Adventuring is a profession only people asking to get hurt choose..."

"Eh? I know what happened to moth..." Trying to rebuttal, but I was interrupted.

"It has NOTHING to do with them! Adam and I thought about it when we were kids. The aspect of waltzing into areas where vicious beings actively fight you until you die. That is adventuring. You literally walk into situations, fighting beings that will attack you, to kill them to level up to kill things faster to level up to kill things faster... It's just stupid. That's why we were so against you doing this. We don't want to turn into a monster Han, who expresses their joy in hot-headed moments with no remorse, after mutilating sub-humans, who are just trying to live their lives. What the heck is the difference between such a person, and the very monsters they go out to slay!?"

"..." In response to Hiiro's speech, I didn't have a return...

He was looking deeply into my eyes, egging me on to respond, but I couldn't... It made too much sense...

Ha... As he said, it's blatantly hypocritical, humans are supposed to be smart, knowledgeable rulers of the world, of whom are supposedly respectable, massacring entire species for 'gold coins' which could just be made by blacksmiths.

I thought about my new allies before I remembered something Doki had said before. 'I believe we've all heard this before'. This quote in response to the visitor debarked before and stated a hatred and boredom for such hypocritical tones. I couldn't figure out why, but it inspired me to think about different things which are equally as stupid, like 'pride' and such.

"You see, Those beings we epitomize as barbaric are just trying to live, and without any questioning, we massacre them. I agree with that sentiment, however, your argument also relies on humans having to lower themselves to become as barbaric as 'mobs' are. I mean, that's wrong. Think about it for a second. We pride ourselves on patriotism to the nation we're born from, to the families we're born into, and the richer the family/ nation, the more pride there is. Doesn't that seem bad to anyone else? Flaunting money made from products with ridiculous profits. Actively ripping off all the people you sell to, and that's a frickin' status symbol? Ha! And you're calling me hypocritical," I said, randomly spewing the rant that somehow formed in my mind. Did Doki possess me or something?

"Sorry. I mean I don't think humans are worthy of flaunting the pride they have over those they deem are lower than themselves. I personally don't mind getting hurt, as I'll be doing selfish things, and claiming it's goods. You and Adam won't get me to change my mind." I concluded. Whether it got through to him or not. These are my thought on the subject.

'I picked this path because it suits me. Unlike in other professions, even if I do well, there's at least some sense of pain to tell me that this is still wrong. As life should be. 'Every time you eat, someone else starves to death. Every time you breathe, someone else suffocates. Every time you celebrate your birthday, other people mourn the death of someone who died on theirs.' This world is unfair. For one to live, multiple things must die. This world is centered on such ruthlessness. Why the hell do I deserve to thrive so peacefully in such a world?' I thought, summarizing my point with some correlations.

"Hm. If you've thought about this path to that degree, and are still holding your beliefs to your heart, I can't stop you. I just hope that you don't change completely walking your chosen path." He gave a resigned sigh and left.

With that talk, I noticed the time was about six, so decided to get up since I was already awake. I heard a commotion from the living room. So went in to join whoever was up.