Another week went by after the Emperor's Birthday. Because of the emperor's warning, Alex and Lilith decided to wait before moving. During the past week, apart from accompanying his family on occasional dates, Alex also hangs out with his friends until they left two days ago.
Late in the night, Alex sneaked out of his manor with Sakuya, Maria, Luna, and Gracier acted as if they were sleeping because they don't wish to see Alex left; they might decide to follow him.
''Let's go,'' Alex said after giving one last glance at Blue Haven Manor.
The two disappeared into the night.
•••••
The following morning. A brilliant light hugs the land as the sun stretches out with golden arms.
Outside of the outer capital, a group of people could be seen trying to board an adventurer carriage; this carriage was to guard a merchant going to Elesim for a transaction.
''So you're the three adventurers sent by the group to help us?"
The leader of this group of adventurers asked, a tall man in his early thirty; scars ran the length of his left cheek testimony of rough past as adventurer, a Rank 9.
''Yeah, we are. I'm Sam, a C Rank Adventurer; the one on my right is Mio, and the one on the left is Elsa. We are Rank 7. We are the Sky Wolf Group; Nice to meet you, Garan; we will be in your care.''
Sam, the young man in his late teens, introduced his party members; he had light blonde hair and yellow eyes, the one called Mio had light dark hair and green eyes, Elsa had white hair and blue eyes. Although the two girls were beautiful, it was not excessively, just above average.
Around Sam's waist were two long knives; Garan accessed that the boy was a knives user; although not rare, they exist. Next was the two girls; Mio held Katana; it was a sword-like blade explicitly used in the Far East Empire; she must be from there. To think that she would come all the way here, well, that doesn't concern him, Garan thought.
Lastly, there is that that girl called Elsa. If Garan were to point out what standout more about this girl, it would be her white hair and cold expression like an unapproachable goddess, she was a sword user, probably a magic swordsman.
In two minutes, Garan was able to access this group's class from their equipment.
''You said you're the Sky Wolf Group, right?" Garan asked even though Sam had already said.
''Yeah. Although we are a newly established group, we have few achievements under our belt.'' Sam scratched his nose in embarrassment; he presented to Garan their group symbol. It was a silver plater with three wolf claws on it.
Garan took the small silver plate and injected a bit of mana inside it; it was to read the information about this group and their achievements. Each team, a registered group, successfully finished a mission it got recorded inside their identification plate; the more achievements, the more recommendation, the more fame you will get.
As the boy had said, their group was recently established, even so, they didn't lessen, completing few risky missions, for example, slaying an Orc King, participating in defense of Losc city against a monster horde, at the end of this defensive mission they received a higher evaluation from the citizens, proof of their contribution.
''I see. Welcome, I'm Garan, a B Rank adventurer, leader of the Fierce Storm.''
Finally, Garan introduced himself after throwing the identification plate to Sam.
''As you must have heard before accepting the mission. Our goal is to protect this merchant carriage until it successfully arrives at Elesim. Bandits have been spotted recently on the road attacking merchant carriages, robbing their goods and eliminating everything they saw.'' Garan explained as they boarded the carriage.
''That's pretty vicious,'' Sam commented.
''Indeed, if it's possible, we must eradicate this group. We will earn more money and merit points.'' Garan explained after a quick introduction of the adventurers inside the carriage. Two swordsmen, Two archers, one mage, and one healer. Another group of five adventurers stationed at the rear, Garan's and Sam's group at the front.
By the way, merit points are used to raised group rank on the ranking board; higher ranking means more mission, more promotion. Sam's group Rank in the C Rank category is 250 on 880 registered group. As for Garan's group, they are ranked 120 on 500 registered groups.
''I see. No wonder the mission reward was so high. They took into account the fact that we might kill some of the bandits.'' Sam concluded.
''Exactly, you're pretty smart. I like smart people.'' the mage, probably a Fire mage said, she winked at Sam. Her intentions were obvious; she was trying to flirt with Sam; he was more handsome than the other men in their group, especially that light blonde hair tied with blue ribbon gave him a wild look, something that makes her adventurous heart beat faster.
Sarah couldn't help but lick her lips, imagining how delicious Sam would be. Unfortunately, it would only stay as an illusion, never come true because two pairs of eyes glared at Sarah, almost making her soul flee out of her body; she couldn't stop shivering; it was like having two sharp swords held against her neck. Sarah could only raise her hands in surrender.
''You two stop.''
''Sarah! That bad habit of yours, one it's will be the cause of your downfall.''
Both Sam and Garan intervened to stop things from further escalating.
The others adventurers laughed because it was not the first time that Sarah behaved like that; it was an open secret that she loves going after young men, especially the handsome ones. It could be said that it was Sam's misfortune to be a bit handsome. Fortunately, he had two shields; if not, Sarah wouldn't have stopped at anything to devour him, and most young men end up succumbing to her charm, it could be said that even though Sarah was Mage, she got a pretty hot body, red hair, brown eyes.
''Puhahaha! Today you found one that you can not devour. How unfortunate, Sarah.'' One of the swordsmen teased Sarah.
''Shut up, Idiot.'' Sarah was embarrassed; the others laughed; Sam and his group decided to ignore everything and closed their eyes to think.