Several days after I arrived on the 25th floor.

Having woken up bright and early, I was counting the stock of my potion, separating them from the poisons, and sorting the raw ingredients.

After that, I cautiously putting them into the backpack and separating some on the waist pocket and hidden pocket.

Other than that I also put 2 Magic Stove, a Magic lamp, 10 days of ration, civilian clothes, and alchemy and magic books. Strapped a bedroll, a mess kit, 25m rope, and crowbar to the outside of the backpack. On the outer pocket, I put 10-meter roll of wire string, a map, and a disguise kit.

On my waist, I put a bell, a small file, a set of lock picks, a small mirror mounted on a metal handle, a set of narrow-bladed scissors, and a pair of pliers into a leather case.

Strapped on my leather vest and hidden under my cloak were several throwing knives.

"Yep, this should do it."

This was not a day where I could get careless. Today was the day when I would set out on an escort mission destined for the Thiban, a city that located in the west Grurian.

This escort mission would take me through several small towns. My reason for taking this mission was, of course, because it aligned with my goals.

My objective was to discover an information about the current war condition, and the best way to do that was by learning it from the outcast.

Outcast usually wouldn't care about the country they lived in or anything like that. But one thing they would really care about was money.

Either way, the first stop along that path required that I first reached the city of Thiban, and passing through the Empty Tropics, a jungle, that according to the rumour, was the place where most famous bandit group live. In my opinion, they alone should outstrip Grurian in obtaining intel.

Speaking of which, even though the most famous bandit group was living near Thiban, Thiban was a highly developed city with regards to both trade and intel, second only after the capital itself. I wanted to get a grasp on the workings, names and circles of the nobles and criminals, and so I’d planned to spend some time in Thiban gathering resources before making way to my final destination in Cadanod, Grurian western peninsula and continued moving to Coral Cove, the island of pirates.

And why did this for free if I could make money on the way? For this purpose, I had attached myself to a business caravan which was thoroughly acquainted with the area and the journey.

I’d been on the constant lookout for such mission at the adventurer guild, when finally this opportunity had presented itself the day before.

Because the competition was fierce, I’d originally assumed that it would have taken quite some time to successfully getting accepted on such mission. However, it had only been three or four days, quite a bit earlier than my projections.

When it came to this, it had to be said that my affinity with Time, or especially healing spell and potion played a large role. By the time I had made my way to the reception window, the caravan had already met its requirements for bodyguards. However, the leader of the caravan had said that when it came to magician wielding healing spell, the more the merrier, and welcomed me.

And given that my guild record was quite good, and the fact that I had stayed for some amount of time in this town. It was possible that the caravan leader knew I was one of the chosen ones, or in a sense, one with high status.

Anyway, my plans for the day were already set. Today, I would leave this town.

Right then. Let’s head back, Suimei thought to himself, hiding his mercury blade once more on his person.

On the way out from the inn, I accidentally bumped into someone head first going around a corner.

"Ops, sorry."

For a brief moment, I saw stars. Shaking slightly from the impact, I guessed I was already letting accustomised in this inn, accustomised enough to let my guard down, and as I apologized for my inattentiveness.

The person I had crashed into was a fellow student, as well as someone who had been hanging out with me for the last few days, Azusa. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

She already dressed in a blue dress under her armour, all of her armour was the kind that just protected the chest, elbows, lower back, and a part of the legs, but I thought that should be more than enough for someone like her.

Azusa herself seemed to have finally realized how I looked.

"Oh... are you leaving today?" She asked in a low voice.

"Yep."

"I see... I guess I picked the wrong time for my meeting, huh." She said with a wry smile. "Then again, you should've told me if you're going today."

"Eh, can't do that. Eri herself didn't tell anyone either, right?"

Eri, the delinquent looking girl was the first one that took Information job before me, the other one was Daichi, one of the bully trio, and the third one was me.

"I guess that's true... but geez, I wonder why you guys want to take this job."

"I guess the freedom? We are in a different world, after all. What’s wrong living with more freedom, right?"

Azusa only exhaled a deep sigh when she heard this. "...Seriously, people like you." So... this will be the last time I see you then?"

"...Please don't jinx it." I said. "Anyway, shouldn't you go to your meeting?"

Hearing this, she simply gasped, frozen in surprise.

"Ah, um... yes, I am. How about you? aren't you in hurry?"

"...Want to eat breakfast together?"

The other party, Azusa, only weakly nodded.

As the sun began to rise, the delicious aroma of supper wafted out from the dining room. Some people had already started to drink, so from to time, people making merry could be heard.

We walked quietly under that merry atmosphere until eventually, our food came.

"No matter how many times I look at it, it really amazing, right? for people in this world already drinking in the morning." Said Azusa.

"Aren't they had been drinking from last night?"

"Are they?!"

Azusa, completely dumbfounded, she simply gasped as she looked around before finally muttering to herself. "Urgh... how can you remember them? even I can't remember a single soul in this room."

"Coz I'm smart?" I said smugly. "The other reason is the floor near their table. If you look at it carefully, the floor near their table is dirtier compared to the rest of the floor, right? That means these guys haven't moved from there since last night."

Azusa rested her chin on her palms as I explained. "As I expected, you're really amazing."

The moment she said that the waitress served us with our of food. Eggs, ham, and fried potatoes for me. And a tureen of local fruit sat in ice to keep it chilled for her. There was an elegant glass of orange juice as our drink.

As I dig in on my food, Azusa only used her fork to play with her food before letting out a deep breath. "...I guess we can't eat together in a long time huh."

"Yep, then again, we might meet in the other city, right?"

"I guess that's true." She said then let out a weak laugh. "Still... I can't believe it is almost two month since we arrive in Exceed."

"Hm... time sure fly fast if we don't need to study, right? Anyway, what's up? Starting to feel homesick?"

"Ahaha... rather than homesick, somehow I feel more happy and worried right now."

I tilted my head to one side when I heard that, and Azusa explained.

"You see, back on Earth my father always told me to always behave like an elegant and cool-headed lady as befitting a woman from my family. So when I’m at home and school, I have to pretend to be the perfect honours student-good kid act, so I can’t speak to other people casually like this. When I was striving to keep my emotions from rising to the surface, I naturally started to limit the use of my facial muscles as much as possible. Due to that, I seem to have ended up with an expressionless face that makes it hard for other people to approach me. So I was always alone."

“Huh... Was that also the reason why you would occasionally glare at people?”

"I didn’t mean to do that. But as I kept telling myself that I had to deal with people in a level-headed manner, I somehow ended up with that kind of expression."

Azusa was resting her chin on her palm in regret. "Hey, do you think the other students hate me? Are people avoiding me because they think I’m scary?"

"Eh, I don’t think that is the case."

If anything, most of the student just felt she was someone on another level, well, I guessed I was one of them. Not to mention that behaviour and glare of hers were causing some student to become her fan. But I decided to not talk about that.

"Is that so? but when we came to this place, I think I could be able to start over. I can go on adventures and make friends, just like I always wanted. But then I realized something. Every time the other student was talking to me, they always looked at me as I'm a dependable person."

Saying that, she closed her eyes for a moment.

"But that isn't true, you know that right? I'm far for dependable. I’m more or less used to it now, but there are still times when I feel really stressed and lonely. And no one that I am really close enough to know about my problem."

Seeing a drop of water fell from her eyes, I could only smile bitterly.

"That's why... when I saw you preparing to leave, the reality strikes me. I mean... what happens if you're not coming back? What happens if you ended up like Tadano? I mean... as far as I live, you two are the one who knows about my real self."

"Eh? What about the princess?"

....

Azusa simply stopped her tears, gasped as wide as she could, completely frozen in surprise.

"What? You don't consider her as a friend?"

"N-no... she is a friend. I mean... our situation is kinda similar, so I guess we could sympathize with each other... but! Leaving that aside! How do you know she is Princess Lunara?!"

"Eh... I never saw her training with us, and speaking by the way she acted and her blue eyes, there was a high chance she was someone that never stepped out of her home, and considering our location and timing, most likely she is the princess. And that reason she never spoke is because she was afraid we recognized her voice, right?"

And Azusa just laughed. It might be a sound she wouldn't make in a while and it was a sound she would wait to hear.

"A-amazing... geez... and just the time when the mood gets gloomy. You really can't read the mood, aren't you?"

"Hm~ I wonder. And beside her, you also have the others, right?" I said as I wiped her tears.

She fell silent as I did this And...It was really awkward to wipe someone tears after she'd just laughed. "Ummm... that's right! I guess getting summoned to this place also give me something positive."

Azusa held up her fist and said energetically. "Alright! Enough with the gloomy mood! I going to work hard starting today!"

(...Wait, she isn't working hard all this time?!)

"Eiji! Don't you dare die without my permission!" Azusa said with a strong conviction.

"...As if I can do that. Anyway, please stop with a jinx."

It was, however, almost the time for our own business, and with all others lost in dreamland, we were leaving the building as I secretly left something to her.

Then again... to tell the truth, on our conversation I wanted to give her my notebook. An ultimate notebook filled with every student's power and weakness. Then again, just before I wanted to give it to her, I remembered about there was a chance the spy was the one among us, including Azusa.

She might say I was her friend, and I might be thinking like that. But in the end, it was still too early for me to trust someone, even my own 'friend'.