The Road from Runen
“I have just one question, Maya. Why did you become an explorer?”
Maya’s eyes wavered. She bit her lower lip lightly. “That… I can’t tell you.”
“We’re the ones tasked with escorting you. It’ll be difficult if you hide information from us.”
“…There’s something I need to find in a dungeon. That’s all I can say.”
Whether Maya’s words were true or false, I couldn’t tell right away. Roa spoke up.
“She became an explorer on purpose because she didn’t want to burden her little sister.”
Maya smacked Roa’s shoulder in surprise. “Roa!”
“Calm down. Trust Hajun Oppa. At the very least, he’s not the type to mess around with a mission.”
Roa gave a small nod. Even without words, her deep trust was palpable. I was simply grateful.
Maya let out a small sigh before speaking. “Fine. I’ll keep it simple. My sister and I share the same father, but we have different mothers.”
“…What?”
“When Father was young, he met a rural woman by chance while training as an alchemist. That woman was my mother. She passed away when I was little.”
“Then your sister…”
“She was born to the wife Father married after he obtained his official alchemist qualification and settled in Oricil.”
“…”
It was an incredibly awkward story. I never expected something about a half-sister to come up.
“The alchemists who support my sister say she has more ‘legitimacy’ to become guild master. On the other hand, the alchemists who want me as guild master argue that I’m older and have better achievements, so I should be the one.”
“You just said your sister is more suited for the master position, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Honestly, I don’t care what the alchemists say. I don’t want to become guild master, and if one of us has to be master, I think my sister is better suited. If I stay in the guild, I’ll only be a burden to her. That’s one of the reasons I became an explorer.”
I roughly understood the situation. For some reason, Maya didn’t want to become guild master. She’d even become an explorer so her sister could grow her influence. But some alchemists still hadn’t given up on Maya’s potential.
‘What if Maya becomes guild master?’
That very ‘possibility’ had rubbed the alchemists supporting her sister the wrong way. The moment Maya had an accident in a dungeon, they’d gone so far as to expel her from the guild.
Well, we’d come a long way to get here. In the end, the reason the alchemists hadn’t paid me was… because of this damn guild politics. Seriously, if they’re going to fight, they should just fight among themselves. Why drag innocent explorers into it?
“I don’t know exactly how things are unfolding either. That’s why I need to go to Oricil.”
“Understood.”
Maya closed her mouth after that. She didn’t want to share any more personal stories. I’d just have to remember that this escort mission carried potential risks.
“Alright. Let’s talk about the mission.”
The party members each found comfortable spots. Roa sat in a chair, Haneul flopped onto the bed with her shoes still on, and I leaned against the bed.
“Maya, please brief us.”
“First, I’d like to thank all of you for taking on my escort. We’ll mostly travel on foot from Runen to Oricil, but we’ll rent a carriage for the first day to reach Jerad. You probably won’t have to fight at all.”
“I hope so,” Roa said.
“Even if we do run into something, it’ll just be bandits or goblins.”
Excluding whatever schemes the alchemists might pull, that is. I used to not mind goblins. But now… those goblin bastards. I don’t even want to think about them.
“Did the supervisor give any special warnings?”
At my question, Maya’s eyes widened. “She told us to be careful of Hajun.”
“…”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking or serious.
“When can we depart?”
“Tomorrow afternoon should work.”
“Then let’s leave tomorrow evening.”
Depending on the situation, many travelers preferred moving at night rather than during the day. The weather had less impact, encounters with people or monsters decreased, and sounds carried better. Traveling at night meant resting during the day, when visibility was good, so the risk of being ambushed while resting was lower. Of course, it depended on the circumstances.
While I was thinking that, I suddenly felt a presence behind me. Turning around, I saw Haneul sniffing at me like a puppy.
“What are you doing?”
Haneul met my eyes and grinned. “I thought necromancers would smell weird, but you’re totally normal? You just smell like soap!”
“…”
The one saying that didn’t look normal at all. What a weird kid.
“Haneul…”
“Aw, you’re older than me, so just call me by name.”
Haneul was the youngest here. Younger than Roa, too. I couldn’t even guess her age. And her class was Ironclad. I wondered if she could actually tank properly. Being able to approach others so friendly was a talent in itself. Haneul clearly had that talent. Despite the short time, she’d already grown close to the party members.
“Ahem.” Maya cleared her throat to draw attention. “Then let’s meet at five in the evening tomorrow and depart.”
“Okay~”
After the meeting, Maya asked me to check our travel supplies. We spent the rest of the evening going around the market for final checks.
The next evening, we left Runen, the city of explorers.
Haneul’s personality was incredibly cheerful. “Hajun Oppa, don’t you have any scary stories?”
“Scary stories?”
Haneul munched on peanuts as she spoke casually. Scary stories, huh. There were plenty of scary things. Monsters we couldn’t handle at our level were scary, traps suddenly springing in dungeons were scary, and tangled-up strategy routes were scary. My very life as an explorer rummaging through dungeons to make a living was a scary story.
“I don’t know.”
“Aw, come on.”
Just then, a thumping sound came from the ceiling. Roa, sitting on the carriage roof, had knocked on it with her hand. Even from up there, she could hear our whispering.
“Focus on the mission. We’re not here to play around.”
“Okaaay…”
Roa was already keeping the newbie in line from the start. If my eyes weren’t wrong, Roa would make an excellent Guardian someday. The way she threw herself into a mission and focused was perfect for the role. Even if she was strict, if you listened well, the mission itself became easier.
Haneul glanced at Roa before lying down. “This is boring…”
She had a point. Even riding a bus for five or six hours got tedious, but we had to ride this carriage all day. And we’d only slept briefly after departing yesterday evening before setting off again. We’d already been sitting for over sixteen hours. No movies, no books. It was a common situation for explorers, but Haneul had almost no experience with it.
“Ever been in a dungeon?”
When I asked, Haneul smiled brightly. “Nope!”
Only explorers with considerable experience could handle dungeons. Rookie explorers built their careers with relatively safe jobs like deliveries, gathering, retrievals, and escorts. It made sense why Haneul had joined us. An escort mission—and one with bad contract terms at that. Rookies were grateful even for this.
Haneul was dying of boredom, but I had no complaints. Being bored was better than fighting monsters.
That’s when it happened.
“Coachman!”
Roa suddenly shouted. The carriage’s speed dropped sharply.
“Please stop for a moment!”
Roa, who’d been watching the horizon from the roof, had spotted something.
“What’s wrong?”
Roa leaned her head down. “There’s a fight happening in the distance.”
“Great.”
Fights breaking out on the road weren’t unusual. In a world with dungeons and explorers, monster attacks and bandit groups were common. The security was a mess. Regardless of anything else, ordinary citizens with average stats lived stubbornly in what was basically hell on earth.
“Who is it?”
I wondered if she could even see that much, but Roa didn’t disappoint.
“One looks like a traveler… the rest are greenskins.”
Greenskins. A collective term for monsters with green skin. Goblins, orcs, and trolls fell under this category, though trolls weren’t the kind of monsters you’d casually run into while taking a walk around the neighborhood. Goblins or orcs, though… Shit. The trauma was coming back.
“I have a greenskin allergy, you know?”
Roa had definitely heard me, but she pretended not to. “What should we do?”
“…”
I just wanted to hide. If the monsters attacking the traveler were goblins, they were weak enough that the travelers could handle them themselves. If they were orcs, one of the two sides would end up as fertilizer, so we could just pray for their souls. Adding four more corpses wouldn’t make anyone happy.
“How many?”
“I can’t tell from here.”
Even a Guardian with excellent detection abilities couldn’t identify enemies all the way on the horizon. The fact that she’d figured out they were greenskins was impressive enough.
“Let’s hide.”
I spoke as the representative. “Getting involved in strangers’ business only gets you hurt. It’s probably just goblins that woke up from hibernation. Or ones that made a new nest.”
The three of them each fell into thought. Roa’s kind nature meant she’d oppose my opinion, but she was too timid to push it aggressively. Haneul didn’t know anything, so she’d just stay quiet. The problem was Maya.
“Hajun.”
Maya, who’d been lost in thought, spoke up.
“Go ahead.”
“How strong would you say our forces are?”
…What an ominous way to start a conversation. How strong were we?
“Two Bronze-rank explorers and two Copper-rank explorers. Assuming no additional enemies will swarm in on open ground, and assuming Maya uses potions while I use necromancy… we could probably take out around thirty goblins without casualties. If they’re orcs… assuming the travelers fight with us, maybe five.”
If this wasn’t a dungeon and we didn’t have to worry about additional attacks, we could use our resources without holding back. Magic-type classes were strongest when they could use their magic freely. An alchemist skilled in area attacks would create corpses first, then the necromancer would raise undead from them. If we used skeletons as meat shields, our odds would be very high. But if there were orc warriors or trolls, we’d be the ones getting crushed.
“You don’t want to fight, do you, Hajun?”
Maya stated the obvious.
“No.”
“But if I go out to fight, will you follow?”
This was a VIP escort mission. The VIP here was obviously Maya. She was the one paying, after all. If Maya died? Then there was no money or anything else. Of course, if the client decided to charge into danger, I had to pretend to be crazy and follow.
“Maya?”
Surely there weren’t any justice-obsessed apostles among the alchemists. Damn it. But why did I feel so uneasy?
“I can’t just watch people die.”
Maya spouted textbook righteousness. Roa, hanging from the roof, nodded vigorously. Why was she so into this?
“I think we should help,” Roa added.
Haneul was a newbie with no opinion to give. Help travelers being attacked by monsters? Two in favor, one against, one abstaining.
“Let’s go. Come on.”
I jumped out of the carriage.