Claire’s POV:

It’s the next morning when me and Clara wake up

Clara woke up a bit earlier and couldn’t find James

I woke up to her shouting my name, half tired I answer back

“What is it Clara, don’t be too loud you will wake up James”

When I opened my eyes wide enough, I could see tears flowing down her face

What? Why is she crying like that, I get up?

“what’s the matter, why are you crying?”

She handed me the soaked piece of paper that was left by on the bed

While reading it, I finally understood why Clara was crying like that

“don’t come looking for me”

What did he mean by these words, are we just dead weight?

I started crying and Clara embraced me, we continued crying for a straight 30 minutes until father came in

After showing him the letter, he read it, but he didn’t look surprised

“Father are you not worried for James? Hurry and go find him!”

He looked at me but shook his head

I already knew he would do this, also Steven told me last night that James had already left, the letter also says not to go looking for him so there is nothing we can do”

I look at the father who I have looked up to all my life and push him away while running

Clara follows behind me

I go to my room and jump on the beds with tears flowing out my eyes

“Clara, will he come back?”

I asked this knowing she didn’t know either

“of course, he will, remember what he put at the end of the letter?”

Yes, I remember, my heart was beating when I heard those words

I looked up at Clara who was giving me a smile, but I could see she was trying her best to hold in her tears

I shook my head and slapped me cheeks

“Alright then, when he comes back, we will marry him!”

I said these words and then Clara looked at me without saying anything

She blushed slightly and then giggled, I hugged her, she is like my little sister

James POV:

It has already been 1 week since I left Claire and Clara, I left with the bear minimal, but I still bought a pouch of coins, so I have been going from village to village, sleeping in Inns and then kept moving

These are the same Inns Me, Claire and Clara slept in while we were running for safety almost 9 years ago

I take a diversion onto a path people go to have walks

I have been walking on this path for the last 30 minutes and then I see it

A giant tree on top of the tallest hill in the vicinity

I start running and almost trip up, I go to the back side of the tree and start digging

I keep digging until I could see the glimpse of a wooden box

“it’s still here”

I let out a breath of relief before continuing digging up the box

I look at the wooden box which has deteriorated quite a bit, but it didn’t look like it had been opened

I grab the necklace I have been keeping on me ever since that day, I rip the key off it

This is the key to the wooden box, I put the key in the hole after getting some dirt out of it

I hear a click, I open the box

And there it is, just as it was 9 years ago, the Red Diamond Shaped Gem

I take it from the box and look at it, it really is gorgeous, it must hold a big secret

I put the Gem in my pouch and hurry back down the hill to the village Inn I was staying at

Now that I have the Gem, all I need now I can use it to kill the man with the spear

I pondered for a moment, I am only Advanced Rank Swordsman

Edward was a King Rank Swordsman, yet he could only hold the man back for 20 seconds

I need to get even stronger

Alright my mind is set, ill head to the nearest city to register at the adventurer’s guild, with my skill level I should be able to start taking high ranked quests right away

My next destination is Karpul, the second biggest city in Selrone kingdom besides the capital, this is where I can register for the Adventurers Guild, luckily its closer than the capital

After a week of travel in carriage I finally made it to the front of the city, I paid my fees to enter and I was stunned by the agriculture, I accidently spent almost 2 hours wandering about before I realised what I was here for

“Right the Adventurers Guild”

Right now, I’m in the middle of the city, I go up to a map and find my way, the city is massive, almost as big as the capital, so it took me 1 hour just to walk there on the shortest route

When I turned around the corner, there it was I could hear the smell of alcohol and smoke

I could see parties of adventurers heading in and out laughing with their pals

This feels nostalgic, I have never done this before, but this feels nostalgic

Maybe it’s because I read a lot of isekai manga in my previous life where the Mc goes register here to get money

I don’t need money though, I have plenty of that, what I need is to get stronger

I walk in and all the laughter stops, everybody looks at me, they are all giving me the look of “you are too young”

I don’t pay them attention and walk up to the women at the register stance

“Hello, I would like to register as an adventurer”

The women look at me with smile and proceeds to ask me some questions

“Hello, could you introduce your name, your age, where you were born, and your family, what sword form you can use and your Swordman Rank”

I nod and then start to talk

“Hello, my name is James Wrathead, I am 17 years old, I was born in the outskirts of a village, but I am of the Wrathead family, I am Advanced Swordsman Rank, and I can control the Ice Sword Form”

I think it would be better to keep it hidden that I can control all the Sword Forms

While the women were righting everything down, she smiled and nodded

“So, you are at the Advanced Swordsman Rank? Oh, that’s right, I forgot to ask you what school you attended?”

I wonder why this is important, but I can’t complain

“I went to the Kingswood School of Swordsman and Swordcraft, and I was ranked in S-Class as the strongest student in the school”

When I said these words, everybody looks at me with shock and then with disbelieve

The women who were attending to me looked at me with a daze for a moment but then came back to her senses, while she was writing my information down, she took a few other glances at me

Heh I must be abnormal for a 17-year-old, I wonder if that’s due to me being reincarnated

After asking me a few minor questions she told me to come back in 3 days to get my Adventurer Guild Card, I guess its like proof of my identification as an Adventurer

With that said I went back to the Inn I had booked while I was wondering about, got some dinner and went to my room to fill in my journal

The following day I adventured around the city and surprisingly saw a couple of the S Class students who I went to school with, since I had nothing to do, I tagged along with them for the rest of the day

“So, where’s Claire and Clara? Whenever I saw you guys you were inseparable”

When one of my old Classmates asked me that I felt a bit sad

“They are at home right now training with their sword” I said that with a smile

After laughing and patting me on the back we continued to go get lunch

After eating lunch one of the girls who was with us asked me a strange question

“Hey James, are you a virgin?”

I was stunned, I mean who wouldn’t be, but when she asked me this I looked back and saw Roses bright red and sweating face, the kind of face you wouldn’t show anybody else

And I smiled

“No, no I’m not”

I said that with a confident tone and then the girl started giggling while talking to her friend

There was 4 of us

Me, Sydney, Violet, and Ralph

While Sydney and Violet were talking to each other I started talking to Ralph

“So, I forgot to ask you, why are you guys here?”

After hearing that Sydney turned around with a big smile on her face and excitedly said

“We are going to become adventurers!”

When I looked around, they all puffed out their chests as if it was a huge accomplishment, I mean I guess it was

“The thing is we only have 3 people and to form a party you need 4, we all are waiting until we can find a fourth person, we all got our cards saying we were A Rank Adventurers”

The ranking system for adventurers is Similar to how the school done it

(S-C) but unlike the school where you could instantly be put in the best class if you were good enough, the highest starting point one person could be put in is A Rank

“Haha it’s no surprise you guys are in A Class, its not long until you move to S Rank”

While having a laugh Violet looked at me

“By the way James, why are you in this city?”

I looked at her and smiled

“How would you like it if I became your fourth member?”

There was silence for a moment and then Sydney let out a gasp

“Really!?!? James you’re becoming an adventurer as well?!?! This must be fate!”

When I smiled back violet gave me a smile and Ralph gave me a huge Bear hug

He was a lot taller than the already tall me so he could get away with this

“Wait so are you A Rank James?”

“No, I haven’t got my card back yet but if you guys got into A Rank then I’m guessing I will be fine”

When I said this everybody started laughing and we carried on going to the bar

While having a nice feast Ralph and Sydney got drunk, I’m not the type of person to overdo it so I was fine, Violet also didn’t drink much

“So, James when are you getting your Adventurers Card?

While smiling I looked around to violet

“Tomorrow, I’m going to get it at lunch time tomorrow, after that ill be a fully-fledged Adventurer”

When I said this, I got my jug of beer and drunk it down, although I said I could control myself

After giggling for a bit violet said that she would come with Sydney and Ralph with me so they could recruit me into their party on paper

While I nodded, I toasted with violet, and we carried on with the night

When the bar closed, I was carrying ralph who was almost crushing me with this unconscious body, while Violet was carrying Sydney who was asleep

“Sorry to make you do this James”

Violet said this with an apologetic tone

“Don’t worry about it, we are going to become comrades from now on”

While small talking we finally reach the Inn they are staying in, coincidently it’s the same in I’m staying in, after helping ralph into his own room I say goodnight to Violet

The following day I wake up and get ready, I head downstairs for breakfast to see Ralph, Violet and Sydney already down here eating breakfast

“Oh, hello James!”

Sydney comes up to me and hands me a ham sandwich, I take a bite

The sandwich is good

After getting my own breakfast I come to sit down with the trio and we start talking about Dungeons and Labyrinths, we are all excited

“Alright it will take us an hour or so to get to the Guild so I think we should start heading now”

While everyone nods with Ralphs proposal, we all finish our breakfast and start heading to the Adventurers Guild

When we got there, we walked in, the eyes turned to us for a quick second but then they looked away

When I went up to collect my card, it was the same women as before

“Hello, I’m here to collect my Adventurers Card”

The women pointed her finger up and told me to wait 1 moment

She went into the back room and 1 minute later she came out with an envelope

“Here it is”

She said this while passing me the envelope with a red crest on it, this was the crest of the Sword, the Adventurers Guild logo

I said thank you and went to sit down with Ralph, Violet, and Sydney

“Open it! open it”

Sydney looked excited, but I guess everyone else did as well

When I opened it, I looked at it and there it was

“Rank An Adventurer

I showed the other 3 the card and they all gave me a pat on the back

We were all talking while violet was reading over the card

“Hey James, why does it say you only have the Ice Form”

When Violet said this Sydney took the card out of her hand and looked at it

“Yeah, that’s right, I thought you could use all Sword Forms?”

Then I explained to them that I didn’t want the trouble of everyone knowing I could use all the Sword Form’s, so I only put down the Ice Sword Form, the one I was most acquainted with

After explaining this they all nodded, after talking for a bit more Ralph stood up

“Alright I’ll go informs the Guild that James has joined our party, ill be back in a minute”

While everyone nodded, he went to the information stance and started to fill in a form, minutes later he came back

“Alright guys we finally have enough people to form a Party, I have also taken the liberty to find us our first job”

Everybody looks over with excitement

When Ralph showed us the leaflet for the first job my heart stopped

“Clear out monsters and clear out the source of them in a village up north that was wiped out by a man with a spear 9 years ago”

Sweat started dripping out of me and on to the table

“Hey James, are you ok?”

Sydney said this while looking at me nervously, must have looked like I had seen a ghost

When Violet looked at the leaflet again and my face, she must have figured out what I was afraid of

She then said this

“James, this village? Is this the one you talked about in your speech at the start of our last day of school?”

She got bingo, she was 100 percent right, after violet said this Ralph and Sydney looked at the leaflet again and pondered for a moment

“Wait James! That story was real?”

The one who said that was Ralph

As I thought, some people must have thought that the story I told then was fake, after he said this, I nodded

“Ralph you idiot, go get another job!”

The one who said this was Sydney who started stroking me head

While I was thinking to myself ralph said sorry and suddenly went to get a new job

“Wait Ralph”

I suddenly stopped him, this might be a good way for me to go back to the stone monument, I was going to go there sooner or later anyways

“Its fine, we can take this job, I just thought that it was about time I went back”

When I said this the Violet, Sydney and Ralph looked at my face and hesitantly nodded

The following morning, we set out, it was a 1-week journey on the fastest carriage we could find

Violet kept on trying to tell me we could get another job, but I stood firm, after a while she finally gave in

I know she is worried about me

After a week we finally got the outskirts of the village, the driver said that he didn’t want to go any further, so it took us an extra day to walk from the previous village to this one

When we got over the hill my heart seized up, this was the place I ran away from 9 years ago

Looking around Sydney pointed at a certain shop

That was the shop I would always go in whenever I came here

But the difference was that it was desolate and filled up with Monsters

Hundreds of beasts

After everyone looked at each other we firmly nodded

I unsheathed my sword and said some words

“Alright the job starts now!”