As I continue to indulge myself in my newly found source of joy (the soup), I think back to some of the things that happened back in the Kingdom…

“Are you ok, mister?”, a sweet sounding voice drifts over, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“Ah!”, I exclaim in surprise.

I look up, to find the person who called me, but I couldn’t see anyone in front of me.

Looking around for a bit, I frown and decide I may have heard wrongly.

“Hey! Hey! I’m down here!”, that voice rings again just as I was about to continue sipping at my soup.

I look down in response, only to see a small petite girl with short hair pouting with her face slightly flushed.

“Ahhh... I’m sorry I didn’t notice you…”, I notice my mistake, apologising.

“No problem, it’s just that you seemed to be frowning to yourself a lot just now.”, she replies in a cheerful tone.

I was thinking of the past events that happened in the Kingdom, the rejection of my recruitment, the mystery behind my previous self’s death, my mother’s circumstances and the fact that I left all of it behind to come here.

It naturally brought a nasty expression to my face, which still showed even now.

I try to correct it, smiling wryly.

“It’s just that I thought back to some bad memories… thanks for your concern…”, I let out weakly.

“Your name was, Xue Qiu, right?”, she asks, her big eyes blinking.

I can’t possibly use my real name, so I figured I’ll just use a half hearted pseudonym. I doubt I have much pursuers, if any. Even if I let out my real name, it’ll be fine, it just might bring more trouble than good.

“Yes, I remember your name was Sylvia?”, I answer.

“Ohhh! You have great memory, Mister Xue.”, She laughs heartily.

“It’s a cute name that suits you, naturally I’ll remember it!”, I say, puffing my chest slightly in pride.

I must say, conversing with someone with the vestige of a child does lighten my mood tremendously. How soothing.

Please don’t arrest me. Prison may just be a room, but I would not like to be in that room.

She blushes to the tip of her ears.

“T-thank you…”, she mutters softly.

“It’s the truth, no need for thanks.”, I laugh at her response.

“By the way, weren’t you with the other mercenaries?”, I ask suddenly, realising that the mercenary camp was a short distance away from mine. She wouldn’t have been able to even notice me if she hadn’t come close.

“Ah!”, she seems to have recalled something and exclaims.

“It was just too gloomy there…”, she complains.

She then explained that the camp for the bodyguards was simply too gloomy. While her female camp was close to the male bodyguards’, she says that it was still a quiet bonfire.

Her tentmate, the elf archer, was distant as usual, and wouldn’t say more than 5 words even with her pestering. As for the male guards, the Ogre just death stared her when she tried to talk and she was scared off easily. The male adventurer went off the moment they set up camp to drink with the male servants, so he wasn’t there as well.

“Ah.”, I let out, having a look of understanding.

“Since you’re here, let’s talk for a while then.”, I smile at her warmly.

“T-Thank you!”, she stutters out gratitude.

We then sit by my small fire, talking about our respective home countries. She talked about her Dwarven Village she lived in when she was younger, how there she had fun with the dwarves she met while shopping, the nice older sister that lived nearby, the friendly neighbours that would wake her up daily…

I talked about the Kingdom’s culture, nobility and the way of life there. It’s quite different from their village after all. She was very interested, so I just kept on going.

“It’s getting rather dark, how about we both stop here and continue tomorrow night?”, I suggest, noticing how late it was.

“Mmm, tomorrow then! It’s a promise!”, she nods cutely, and flutters off back to her own tent.

I let out a soft sigh once she left.

“It’s a new beginning afterall… I have to stop thinking about the Kingdom.”, I mutter to myself as I settle back into my tent.

Morning quickly arrives, and I wake up, as the servants pack the tents and we get ready to set off again.

It takes quite long for them to pack, I notice, since there’s only 4 Male servants.

Today we’ll be heading into the Northern forest of the Kingdom, and the guards heighten their vigilance slightly upon entering.

As I look at them, Sylvia notices my gaze and waves at me cheerily, losing her slightly serious demeanour. I simply wave back.

It can’t be helped that they’re not completely serious, this is a map that’s been mapped out by countless merchants and travellers afterall. As long as you follow the designated route, there’s almost no chance you’ll encounter something troublesome.

There are certain wild animals inside, on the road, but they’re simple beasts that even the servants would be able to handle them just by outnumbering them and beating them with a small weapon.

That’s why this merchant’s rather careful, for bringing this level of entourage with him despite the safe trip. I’ve heard he’s been doing it for his past few trips, after he was robbed of his goods once by a passing bandit.

It suited my purposes, since I didn’t want to have any disturbances on this trip. My fighting power isn’t high after all, so I approached him to request to join his caravan. It didn’t take much cajoling, it was clear I was a noble since I approached him with only a scarf covering my face when I first saw him.

He let down his guard further when he heard of the high sum I was offering for a simple trip, and joyfully acceded to my request.