Mister Milon and Millia were the only ones who came to the city gates to see us off. Our departure was very lacking in fanfare, but that couldn’t be helped. Everyone had their own lives, and they couldn’t be expected to hang around people who were on their way out.
“Sir Eiji, I wish you safe travels.”
“Take care, Mister Milon. And you, Miss Millia.”
We shook hands. Behind me stood Tiamat looking like a busty mage, the bulky Baze holding the donkey’s rein, and Hieronymus the light-footed warrior with the cool hat. Of course, Mister Milon was surprised upon first seeing their new forms, but the ‘we transformed to be less conspicuous’ explanation sufficed. He was cool with that. Good.
“Please give the others my regards,” I said as I let go of his hand and headed toward the city gates. They were about to open for the day.
With a slight creek, the gate slowly opened.
“You can give them your regards yourself.”
Mister Milon laughed. In the next instant, a booming noise echoed in the city’s gate plaza. A sea of people were standing on either side of the travel road. There was Syfer and his team, and Mister Garish and his wife. All of the other people we had made acquaintances with in the city were there too, forming a long, long line.
“Why are...?”
“We already had quite a large gathering before dawn. Since it would inhibit commerce and traffic, we opened the gates earlier than usual,” a guard explained as he approached me.
I recognized him, too. He was the guard that received us when we first arrived in Lishua.
“Opened? The gate was closed until a second ago.”
“Oh, you know. It was a little surprise.”
“You definitely took quite the liberty.” I laughed.
If I didn’t laugh, I couldn’t have helped but express how I felt in another manner entirely.
“A little payback. For the heartless people who saved our city, trying to leave without giving us a chance to thank them.”
The guard patted my back. The four of us began walking through the roaring cheers, heading for Noura in the distant east.
“That felt like a finale.”
After we walked for a while, and as Lishua was beginning to fade into the horizon behind us, Tiamat made this little comment while sniffing her nose. I understood how she felt. I couldn’t handle surprises like that very well. I didn’t know how many times I nearly blurted out, “Change of plans, we’re staying.”
“It was not an eternal farewell. With luck, we should see them again,” said Hieronymus. Not without emotion. This one had the brim of his hat pulled down, hiding his face; he was holding back tears. I understood.
Baze, by the way, was bawling with a deep howl, not caring who saw him. The donkey he was pulling seemed very annoyed, though. Apparently a cat and a wolf expressed their emotions quite differently.
“I mean... Tia and I had to go, but there was no reason you two couldn’t have stayed. Lord Baze, Lord Hieronymus?”
It wasn’t like they were on the job to save the world. No one would blame them for following any path they pleased.
“Shut your mouth right now, my man!”
Baze slapped my back with his open hand. Ow! My spine was going to snap!
“We share a destiny now! You couldn’t get rid of us if you tried!”
Bam. Bam.
Please stop. You’re going to kill me.
Probably sensing my mortal danger, Hieronymus came in between us.
“Lord Eiji. We are precisely on the path we’ve chosen. We would be left for fools if you should leave us now.”
A slight smile was on his handsome face, and his silky locks flowed with it.
“Y-You’re absolutely right. I’m sorry I mentioned it.”
I apologized, out of breath. My back ached. Tiamat approached me and rubbed my back.
“Y-You do too much for me. If only...”
“Papa. You promised not to mention Mama.”
That’s some stupid gag we’ve concocted.
“Speaking of, Papa. I sense an unruly presence ahead. Have you noticed?”
“How am I supposed to notice that? And stop calling me Papa.”
“Bandits, perhaps?”
Apparently she couldn’t discern how many there were, their strength, or what weapons they carried. I mean, she would have been some superhuman if she could tell that much from sensing their presence. Of course, no one else in my party was an ordinary human either. It felt like this was where the wild things were.
“I shall scout them out.”
“Nah, leave it to me. It’s been a while since I got some exercise.”
Baze volunteered himself over Hieronymus and handed me the donkey reins.
“I don’t worry about you, Lord Baze, but be careful.”
“You betcha.”
He kicked off the ground and accelerated to amazing speeds. He shrank into the distance as I watched. His leg strength was incredible.
“Then why don’t we leisurely try to catch up?” Tiamat said, completely relaxed. She showed no sign of concern for Baze jumping the gun.
“Let’s.”
To be fair, I felt no concern either. Honestly, if he couldn’t handle the situation, there was nothing I could contribute beyond waltzing over there. If anything I’d only get in the way. We three carried on down the travel road without changing our pace.
After a little bit, Baze returned.
“A caravan was getting attacked ten kilometers down. Probably bandits.”
Ten kilometers? Not fifteen minutes had passed since he had left us. He ran the roundtrip of twenty kilometers in that time?
“No?”
Baze crooked his head. It wasn’t cute when a huge, towering man did it.
“Five minutes to get there, five minutes to get back. Two minutes to beat up the bandits, and about three minutes to get away from the merchants trying to thank me.”
You beat them up, did you?
It couldn’t be helped that the combat itself was the shortest part of his little expedition, since he was really a Fenrir. A team of A-rank adventurers had faced him down, ready to die. There was no way any bandits were going to best him.
“Wait, get away from?”
That’s the part I was more concerned about. He didn’t beat up the merchants too, did he?
“They started yammering about thanking me, or traveling together, or wanting to know my name. I told them our boss man decides that stuff and came running.”
Oof. That meant the caravan was waiting for us up ahead. We were barely out of the city, and now we’re in another mess.
“Hmm. Should we change course?” Tiamat mumbled, seeming to share my sentiment. They had transformed into humans to avoid attention. We didn’t exactly want to star in a parade.
“You have had a change of heart, Lord Baze. Perhaps you should have left the humans to squabble amongst themselves.”
Hieronymus grinned. He was teasing the Fenrir, who now completely sympathized with humans after being close to Mister Milon and the adventurers. Hieronymus was in the same boat, though. He had been adored by the spellcasters in town, and many women had shed tears at his departure. Not that I was jealous or anything!
“Go off the travel road you mean, Tia?”
“Mm-hm. We keep going and we’ll bump into that caravan. That’ll be a whole mess.”
“If we do that, though, we may not reach the inn in time.”
We weren’t in a modern nation where numerous roads crisscrossed each other. There were only a few routes suited for human travel. Once we were off the travel road, our map was practically useless, too. If we were to go around and get lost, we wouldn’t be able to laugh it off. Most importantly, though, I didn’t want to sleep on the ground anymore. You have to experience it to know how hard it is.
“No, let’s keep going and accept our fate. Even if we go around, we’ll probably see them in the next town.”
“True. If they decide to wait for us there, there would be no point in altering our route.” Tiamat shrugged.