“Let me introduce you to the ones guarding us for this trip, sir.”, he gestures inside the carriage.

The short merchant pushes the curtain of the carriage open, revealing the people inside.

It’s quite a scene, pretty diverse.

Expected more racism from an alternate world with many races of differing bodily constitutions.

Don’t even get me started on the religion here…

All in all, this is something my former world would be glad to see.

Ramblings aside, we have an Elf, Dwarf, Human and a Ogre.

The female Elf refused to give her name, asking us to call her Wind. She’s an rogue, which falls on the more uncommon of elf classes, other than the typical archery. How cold.

The Dwarf’s female as well, named Sylvia. She’s not as cold as the Elf. She’s pretty hyper, if anything. She greets me excitedly, shaking my hands with both of her small hands. She’s a berserker despite her small size.

My fellow human is a guy, named Zhe Yun. Would have liked him to be more special but he looks like the textbook definition of an adventurer. He has a short sword by his side, and politely greets me.

Last but not least, the Ogre. Or half-ogre to be precise, they are born from a human mother and ogre father, pretty complicated beginnings there, brings a whole new meaning to ‘childhood ruined’. He’s male as well, and shakes my hand silently, without any changes in his expression. I have the strange feeling that he dislikes me…

That’s all for introductions.

The party’s pretty even in gender as well, excluding me of course.

As a paying customer, I sit in the merchant’s carriage, instead of the caravan for the guards.

I would get my own carriage, but a party of this size, couldn’t possibly have more carriages. It would just be hard to guard.

The merchant’s name is Tong Guan, and he provides tea for me as we chat along the way.

He’s outgoing and rather light hearted. He’s a reputable person; while being a small merchant. It’s said he’s cheated often because of his stupidity. He is paid back by those he helped, which is why he’s still in business.

That’s why I employed him, since I wouldn’t like to be thrown out into the woods to die after getting my belongings stolen from me. Going in this way lowers the chances of someone finding out my destinations more too.

Hiring guards for myself would simply be too conspicuous.

We laugh in merry conversation for a while, while he explains that the Ogre is actually the strongest one there, as he paid the most for him. It seems the Ogre has a rather bloodthirsty reputation, having went after the murderer after his employer was killed once.

He hunted down the man, killing a total of 19 people from that man’s organisation before stopping. Since then, he’s been known as the ‘Bloodthirsty Guard’. His employer dying in his hands is quite a blow to his reputation. Tong Guan says that if not for a personal friend vouching for him, he never would have employed him.

He’s a risk afterall.

We soon reach nightfall, and the few servants begin setting up the camp.

There’s 5 tents set up, 2 individual tents for Tong Guan and I, 2 tents for the 4 mercenaries, and 1 of the servants.

I understand they have to be divided by gender, but I pity Zhe Yun for having to sleep with the Ogre.

I pray silently for his safe return and his butthole quietly.

I’m glad I didn’t go on this trip as a guard instead, that would have made it much harder for me.

A Rank 3 Mage is plenty to be hired as a mage, but with my low mana capacity and talents, I might as well be an ordinary person with 3 spell scrolls on me.

It’ll take us approximately 8 Days to reach the Shui Kingdom, and it’s unsafe to run the carriages at night, hence we’ll need to stop over for camp nightly.

We’ll be going through a forest soon, but it’s known to be quite safe.

There’s no typical storyline of: “Hey, we’ll be going through that route with a Dragon in it, I sure hope nothing happens!”

It’s a F**KING Dragon, why would you think nothing would happen?!

But yes, we are on a safe route to the Shui Kingdom, with even 4 guards for the caravans to ensure our safety further.

We couldn’t be much safer aside from being escorted by the Kingdom itself.

The servants set up a fire, while preparing an amazing smelling soup.

My eyes flash a glint as I smell a rich aroma.

I’m handed a plentiful bowl of soup as a servant ladles it in.

I take a whiff of the smell again.

“Ahhhh,..”, It’s truly great to have hot soup in the cold night of the forest.

The soup warms my cold hands, as I continue to smell that aroma in front of me.

“I should have escaped sooner.”, I smile wryly.