Souta felt that something big is going to occur in the Gripin City. He always trusted his intuition, so he had to prepare himself. There's no harm to him even if he was wrong.
He rested his hand on the handle of the [Vajra Sword Saya] that was hanging on his waist.
Since the reward for this quest will give him 3 skill points, it wouldn't bring him that much trouble. With his current strength, he could handle the quest that will give him 3-5 skill points. He wasn't worried about this at all, he's worried at what's waiting for them in the Gripin City.
He rubbed his chin and wondered why the reward for this quest was 3 skill points. Considering what happened before, if that person from Melosa Country sent another batch of assassin then it was surely stronger than before, so the difficulty increases.
Souta shook his head and decided to think about these things later when he encountered it.
"It looks like your quite close to them, Souta? You even know the name of the maid and butler." Tidor said.
"Yeah, they employed me before so this was not the first time," Souta replied to Tidor as he gave the paper back to Lumilia.
"You should go back inside now," Souta said to Lumilia.
"Souta, do you want-" Lumilia didn't even manage to finish her sentence as Souta interrupted her.
"Don't worry about me. I'll do my job, you'll do yours." Souta said as he turned around and walked towards the carriage behind the blue exquisite caravan.
He knew what Lumilia was about to say. Although he wanted information, he still declined because of the Gale Group. He doesn't want to ignore the group as they were in a party right now.
It's important to improve his relationship with other adventurers. Especially to those higher rank than him.
In Lumilia's case, she was his classmate so there's a lot of opportunities to improve their relationship, but the Gale Group was different. Adventurers tend to travel from another place to another because of their job.
Lumilia looked at Souta's back before she shook her head.
Brianna stepped forward and said, "I'm sorry for his action. I'll talk to him later."
"No, it's okay. That's not a problem for me. Shall we go now?" Lumilia gently smiled and asked Brianna.
"Understood." Brianna nodded her head and she called her group. They went inside the carriage and their carriage started moving as they followed the blue caravan in front of them.
Yuko was on her four limbs. She's walking beside the carriage Souta was. With her body, she couldn't fit inside any carriage so she had to walk.
Traveling to Gripin City from Ladros City will take ten hours using this kind of carriage and caravan.
...
Souta picked up one of the fruits that he brought here. He stretched out his hand and Yuko ate the fruit in his hand.
In case something bad happened Souta was already prepared for it. He already bought middle-grade mana potions and health potions. There were also some pills that could temporarily increase his stats even for a whole one minute.
He used several platinum coins to acquire these potions and medicine. He managed to get the potion that could temporarily increase his stamina regen through Jimmy's help.
"Are you Miss Asvares friend?" Tidor suddenly asked him.
"Hm..." Souta pondered what's his answer in Tidor's question while rubbing his chin. He asked himself if she was his friend. When he found an answer he looked at Tidor and replied, "Yeah, I'm her friend."
He remembered the time when he and Bryan visited Cl.u.s.ter. Yeah, she's his friend.
'Hmm... Since I could say that she is friend maybe I could help her even without a quest. But, well, quest is important to me so she should ask me to help her since she's my friend... or not? Should I force her? Argh! What should I do?' Souta rubbed his head with both of his hands. He's having a hard time deciding whether he should help Lumilia or not. Quest was important to him since he could earn skill points with it.
'Well, let's decide it later when we arrived in the Gripin City.'
Brianna, Tidor, Jane, and the rest of the Gale Group just looked at Souta with a dumbfounded expression. They were wondering what he's thinking.
...
Just like that they smoothly arrived in the Gripin City. Since the route from Ladros City to Gripin City was inside the kingdom, the people who were traveling in this route didn't need to worry. The adventurers were constantly receiving a quest to clean up this route, so there's no need to worry about bandits and monsters.
The group safely arrived in the huge gate of the Gripin City. The gate was almost forty-meter tall. The whole Gripin City was larger than a border city just like Ladros City. The population of this city was larger than any of the border cities in the whole kingdom of Hebrei.
"We're finally here," Tidor exclaimed while looking at the huge gate of the city.
"Yeah." Souta nodded as he lifted up his head and looked in the sky.
It was past dusk and the surroundings were getting dark as the lights in the city started to light up one by one.
Souta then looked at Brianna and asked, "So, what should we do now?"
"Our task is to guard Miss Asvares until she finished what she had to do here. In other words, we'll become her personal bodyguards." Brianna replied to his question.
'Hmm... There's really something wrong with Lumilia's family. If there's not then why would she hired adventurers to become her bodyguards. Can't the knights in her family do that?' Souta thought as he rubbed his chin. He shook his head and looked at Brianna.
"What is it?" Brianna asked him when she saw him stared at him.
Souta opened his mouth and asked, "Are we going straight to Lumilia's mansion or not?"
"That...? Souta, I advise you that don't say Miss Asvares name that lightly here in this city." Brianna said solemnly.
"What if I don't follow your advice? What will happen to me?" Souta asked back.
"Nothing." Brianna smiled and replied to him.
It seems that she's copying him. Making a joke like that.
"You got me there." Souta laughed and said, "Then, what about my previous question?"
"That? Of course, we're going to Miss Asvares mansion." Brianna replied to him. She then looked at Tidor and Jane. "Tidor, Jane, have you explain the plan to Souta or not?" She asked the two.
"Ah...?! I forgot about it when I saw Yuko." Jane smiled awkwardly.
"Ehehe! Me too." Tidor laughed as he scratched the back of his head.
"Sigh..." Brianna sighed when she heard their reply. She then looked at Souta and briefly explained what they have to do in this quest.
They will escort Lumilia to her quarters and guard her room. From there, Brianna tasked two people to guard the door of Lumilia's room. The next morning, they will go with Lumilia when she visited her father. Of course, they don't know what will the two talked about.
Well, a lot of people will visit the Asvares Family starting today. And their job was to protect Lumilia from any harm that will befall her.
But all of that doesn't answer Souta's question about why don't the knights of Asvares family guard Lumilia instead of them?
'Really, I hate politics the most. I should just do my job and help Lumilia if she somehow needed my help.' Souta sighed and thought that things were getting complicated.
After a few minutes of waiting, Souta and the others managed to enter inside the Gripin City.
Lumilia's caravan quickly went towards the direction of the Asvares mansion.
In the carriage, Souta looked around the city. It was his first time coming here in the Gripin City. He didn't even go here in Gripin City when this was still a game, so he doesn't know the ins and outs of this city. Just from this, he already has a disadvantage when a battle broke out.
This world was too big, so it was impossible for him to explore it alone. There's even those unknown continent that only the people from ancient times knows.
Also, the Hebrei Kingdom wasn't a small country. It was a large country that has more than one hundred huge cities.
Souta tried to memorize everything that he saw here in this place. The path that they have taken and he also took note of the huge mansion he saw in their way.
"We're here in the Asvares mansion."
After a few minutes, they arrived at their destination. Souta and the Gale Group got down from the carriage as Lumilia, Jusmin, and Fred too.
Souta stood beside Yuko and looked around his surroundings. The yard of this place was too wide and there's a huge white mansion in the center of the field. Around the mansion were four exquisite three-story houses that were connected to the white mansion. In front of the mansion was a huge fountain along with the beautiful trees beside the road.
'So this is where Lumilia lives?'