“Damn, that’s high!” Takana looked up towards the leafy-towering mountain ridges. “Do you think there are monster there?”

After four days of being on the road, we managed to get to Minora with little to no problem. The past four days had been painfully tedious. We stopped from village to village, acquiring foods and goods and then travelled to the road again. It was nice for an exchange to just relax but I guess I was just thinking that whenever something was calming, a pretty huge problem would be waiting for us, hopefully, no such thing would happen.

Fuyuki tilted her head. “Monsters? There shouldn’t be any, right?”

“Hopefully not…” Kihana was reading her book as usual.

“More jobs for us, right?” Merry said. On her lap was Risa, who was sleeping peacefully.

My neck ached as I admired the magnificent mountain ridges that stood tall and mighty in front of me. The clouds gathered above the mountains making it seemingly somewhat of a celebrity and with the bright sun serving as its spotlight. As the wind strongly pushed the falling leaves as we rode on the road, I got the feeling to blow on my hands a little more than usual.

I had never seen a mountain in my life before and looking at it in the distance could make it so small. The mountain ridges’ ashen snow reminded me of the time when I would eat ice cream near the store in my house.

“Hey, guys, prepare your things, we’re about to enter the town.” Chance said.

The town of Minora was situated along the foot of the mountain, separated by a lake, which was currently frozen due to it being winter. According to Chance, the town was mostly populated by miners, along with their family.

The previous town we’d been wasn’t so much different with this one, except for few things such as you would often see carts full of minerals such as coal, metal, and precious stones that were being taken to smiths. Another thing that was visibly different was the smokes of exhaust blowing out of chimneys of smiths and it made the place somewhat warmer than the rest of the places we’d been to. Another one was that the people here were more robust than the people we’d seen. Wouldn’t want to mess with them.

As usual, Kihana, Fuyuki and Takana went to find an inn we could stay in while Risa, Merry and I would go to the Wanderers guild.

Risa held my and Merry’s hand tightly as we pushed through a crowd. “Risa hates humans.” With a heavy sigh, Risa hanged her head low.

“Do you want me to carry you?” Merry looked at her.

How long has it been since I’ve talked to Merry properly?

“No, Risa’s fine. More importantly, why don’t you talk to onii-chan instead?”

I furrowed my brows. “W-What do you mean? We’re fine.”

Merry looked at me coldly. “I agree. There’s nothing wrong with the both of us. See, I could talk to him properly.”

“Hmmm,” Risa smirked. “Well, Risa’s just a child. Risa wouldn’t know anything about why Merry’s hand is shaking or why onii-chan is stuttering.”

“Now, you’re a child.”

“Always has been.” She stuck her tongue out. She sure was becoming lively these days.

The guild in the town of Minora was pretty much the same as the one in the Prosk. It made me think whether the kingdom of Ergaos hated Roq. The guild had a lot of wanderers, unlike in Prosk, which was surprising, and a bit nerving, to be honest.

Does this mean there are monsters here?

“Listen up, people!” one of the staff lively shouted. “There are more monsters showing up on the deeper floors of the mines. We’re still working out where they are coming from. For now, many workers complained that many safe areas are being breach by these monsters, we must guarantee their safety. If you have any questions, please look at the boards or ask one of the staff. Have a good day and happy hunting.” The staff bowed. With that, most of the wanderers dispersed, leaving a few wanderers to wander.

So there are monsters. Takana will like to hear about this. It’s not like we have to join them and no one is forcing us but we do need the money and I wouldn’t like it if we lose our edge. Four days of not doing anything would surely make someone out of shape. I think.

“Let’s go and look at one of the boards.”

On the board was information about the mine. Currently, there were six floors deep beneath the mountain, with more to be added. The problem was that monsters started appearing at the last three floors while the upper floors were safer. Due to the resources in upper floors being nearly depleted, the workers wanted to go down deep but the monsters were halting their progress.

On the board was also a rough sketch of the said monsters. There were kasaks, undead knights, and the last one was new to me. Also, there seemed to be a bounty on this monster.

“Ahem,” someone called out to us. When I turned, I saw two weirdly looking people behind us. “Are you people wanderers?” I said weird because they looked…fresh or ignorant might be the better word.

“Um, yes we are.” I said as I took a glance at Merry.

“Then I’m talking to the right people,” one of them spoke up. We seemed to be in the same age.

“And who might you be?” Merry asked politely. The two didn’t looked anywhere from the typical wanderers. Actually, they looked like they had a great upbringing, especially in the way they dress.

“I’m Elird Norundas, eleventh child of Minol Norundas from the BareBeer Company.” The boy stood tall then slightly bowed his head.

“And I’m Fiss Enoma, eighth child of Shira Enoma from the Enoma Silk & Cotton Trading Company.” The girl elegantly and lightly bowed while slightly lifting her skirt up.

I tried my best to bow but seeing I was not used to doing this things, I might have overextended it. Merry and Risa, on the other hand, repeated what the girl did. It seemed I was the only one here who lacked the knowledge about greetings in this world.

“How may we help you…sir?”

“Drop the honorifics,” Elird said. “We’re here to ask you for something.”

*

“You what!?” Takana shouted right in front of my ear. We were back in the inn that we would be renting. Right now, all of us were in the boys room.

“As I said,” I touched my ear and see if I could still hear. Still could. “Those two want to “rent” us by being their guards and guide as we go and kill monsters in the mines.”

“Can they even fight?” Fuyuki tilted her head. I guess she was in the right to question that. We wouldn’t want to bring heavy luggage with us.

“According to them, they could. Apparently, they are son and daughters of wealthy merchants and they have been briefly trained.”

“…I’ve heard of those companies. I sometimes see the brand of beer that Takana drinks and the trading company I’ve seen it, too, in markets.” Kihana said.

“They’re the ones who make my drink?” again, Takana shouted in front of me, spitting saliva all over. “Well, let’s take it! I want to get some free drinks!”

“Well, instead of free drinks,” Merry showed them a pouch with five gold coins inside it.

“Woah, that’s a lot of money! It’s practically shining!” Fuyuki backed off as if being blasted by the coins.

“It is.” Risa interjected. “Now, Risa don’t have to worry about where to get money.”

“We’re finally in the same page, kid!” Takana went for a head pat but Risa nimbly dodged it. “What’s wrong with this kid? It’s like everytime I see you, you’re a different person!”

“Oh! This looks fun!” Fuyuki joined in the fray. “How about I pat you instead? Come here, Takana!”

“Fuyuki, stop it!”

“Go for it, Fuyuki!”

As the three enjoyed whatever the heck they were doing, the four of us decided whether to accept it or not.

“Chance, what do you think?”

“I’m fine with what you choose. It’s not like I have a say in this since I’ll be busy being a mailman.”

“Well, you do have a point.”

“I think it’s best to take it.” Merry suggested.

“Any reason?”

“Clearly, they came from a wealthy family. I’m entirely sure that they haven’t seen a monster and when they do, I’m certain they’ll be scared. This job is easy if you think about it.”

“…I have to agree with Merry.” Kihana shyly but determinedly said. “I don’t really like to deceive them but it’s for their own safety…”

“Don’t worry, we won’t let anything happen to them. With that said, we did take the money, so we might as well do it.” Everyone agreed.

*

The road to the mines was full of people, both wanderers and miners alike. Though, it was farther than we thought, we could easily walk it over. The lake beneath the mountain ridges was being used as a main source of water and it was also being used for fishing, though of course it wasn’t one of their main sources of income.

As we approach the mines, we could see a lot of Norji that were being used for transportations. They were a strong species, so this should be easy for them.

“Are we really bringing her!?” Takana shouted, gathering looks from all over the crowd.

“It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?” Merry said as she carried Risa on her back.

“What’s this?” Risa teased. “Takana actually cares about Risa?” Takana’s problem wasn’t just his problem, it was everybody’s problem. The child on the back of Merry threw a tantrum as we were about to leave her again with humans. She threatened that if we didn’t bring her along, she would just have to go and find us by herself, and with that, we had to concede. Trust me, I didn’t like this much more than Takana did but it was better this way since I could watch over her. Besides, I feel encouraged when I’d see her.

“No, I don’t! I just don’t want to be blame at when things go south! Terrin, you know we have to babysit two more, right!?”

“It’s fine, Takana. We’re here already. We couldn’t let them waiting.”

“It’s alright, Takana.” Fuyuki consoled Takana. “Don’t cry. It’s okay.”

“I’m not even crying!”

So, where are they?

“Terrin?”

I turned around as my name was called. What I saw, I just had to say it.

This is gonna be a long day.