13. Trip

The Empire had three big towns which used to be Kingdoms before the invasion of the great emperor and one of them was Lundane.

The second largest and vastly bustling town with different peoples and families. Large manors and big webs of routes inside the thick wall of stones.

Amalia lived there and made her living as an adventurer. She was a powerful mage as well as an alchemist thus she never ventured too far away from the town, unlike this time.

Her trusted friend Scott formed a party to take a Quest and he especially requested her participation because of her abilities.

In the World of Britannia, There were no official Guilds, buildings, or anything related to it. If adventurers wanted work they had to find it all around towns and local inns.

They have to take quests according to their wish and luck where they would be held responsible for everything, not the party who posted the quest.

The so-called world of adventurers was all dependent on trust. It was all about having faith between the two parties and that's how it was handled. Most of the time everything proceeded as expected like getting what they promised from the other party but it was not the case every time. Sometimes adventurers go back to their words and sometimes the other party who put the notices is thus doomed to have a few quarrels.

If the quest appears problematic then the adventurers naturally choose to form a party and take upon the quests.

"What kind of sword is that?" Asked Amalia.

Noah smiled thrusting the heavy-looking sword into the snow. It was blunt and looked incomplete but after seeing Noah's reaction she wondered why he was looking satisfied by the work of Smith.

Thinking about Smith's work she shuddered. What if he also ruins their equipment? They genuinely need it for tomorrow's journey. They can't possibly go into the Crypt while wearing some shitty armor, right?

She convinced herself that she was over-worrying like always, she needed to have faith in the skills of a blacksmith. He knows his job, does he tho?

She shook her head violently.

"is everything ok?" Asked Noah walking by her side. He had already put his sword inside his storage ring, she assumed.

"Yes, I am just overthinking" She gave him a gentle smile.

They had set off to gather herbs early in the morning at the lead of their party leader Scott.

He had a weird-looking map and was following it to find a garden of herbs located somewhere around here.

Their primary objective was the Tomb of Acropash which was buried in the depth of snow. He was planning to raid it for months and now he was here with his most trusted fellows. The same fellows who accompanied him hundreds of miles away from their city.

It was a dangerous and deadly journey and they might need a lot of healing potions so he decided to hire a few more hands and gather enough herbs so his alchemist friend Amalia prepared it beforehand.

Spending gold on healing potions would have been costly and it was hard to say if the shops had that many powerful potions they needed.

The party consisting of eight numbers moved through the thick snow. The path they took was not a stony path but full of ridges and inclines. They were venturing into a somewhere and presumably unknown location.

Amalia walked next to Noah making sure he was doing well throughout the journey because she had promised his grandpa that she would protect him in any case. It was not like they were going into the lion's den it was just a simple but time-consuming quest.

She took actual notice of him when he abruptly joined them at the table. He also helped them with the equipment repair but at that time she did not notice him or did not get fascinated, when he said he was aiming to join the small journey she felt an unexpendable amount of confidence from his tone.

He looked young but yet did not get affected by Rena's taunts and kept his cool and this was what impressed her the most. He was different despite being young he had the spark to be fearless.

She was aware of the fact that his grandfather loved him by their early meeting and was sure he had still not asked permission from him.

Just like she believed, the young man had yet to ask permission from his guardian. She did not foresee that he was much younger than her but after having a brief conversation with his grandfather she had gotten much information about him.

His grandfather even told her his worries and his past, how they met, and what Noah had been through before meeting with him.

His story was painful and terrifying, after all seeing your parents die in front of your eyes was not something you can handle easily. Escaping A monstrous creature like Ice Troll was not an easy feat either even an expert cannot dare to face them and be able to return alive yet he did. He faced all that previously and made it back, that was not simple luck.

She convinced his grandfather and told him that she would protect him with everything she got if he decided to let his grandson join the journey. She showed a willingness to protect him and managed to convince him but still, she had some questions that needed an answer and she got them after their talk in the garden.

He was not as simple as he looked and he was not a kid as she thought, he was mature and a reliable person. He knows the world and has what it takes to survive.

They walked for more than four hours and then decided to take a little break. Scott sat with the three bandits explaining to them why this was important to them while Rex and Rena sat a little further. Rena kept complaining about the snow, their fast speed, and the useless and underage guy.

Amalia and Noah sat even further. She noticed his reluctance and uneasy gaze on the other three recruits who were talking with Scott.

"What happened?" she asked softly, feeling his stressed shoulder.

"nothing it's just-"

He swallowed his words for some reason making her even more convinced that he had to say something but was hesitating.

She thought. 'Why is he hesitating?'

"Do you want to tell me something about them?" She asked glancing at, now three alone figures laughing and chatting ideally.

Scott had returned to Rex and Rena, he seemed frustrated as he gave a last glance at the trio and then joined his team.

"You can trust me," she took his hand in hers showing a gentle expression on her face.

She looked at her and said. "Why did you hire them? They are not good people"

This time Amalia was caught off guard by his response, 'why did he say that?' she pondered.

"What do you mean? Speak freely" She asked confused and determined to know the real reason why he was saying something like this, it was uncalled for.

"They are Bandits!"

Amalia froze. Did the young man just say they were bandits? Why did he say that and why does he sound so sure about it? Many thoughts barged inside her brain making her overwhelmed.

If in any case the thing he was saying happened to be true then this could lead to a disaster. Everyone knows what bandits are capable of and what their usual work is.

She was not afraid of the fact they were bandits, dealing with someone like them was also part of their job. They hunted many of them already but this time she got frightened about the fact that what if they had acted and attacked them while they were unaware, even a mage like her would not have been able to escape their ambush unharmed.

But it was not confirmed that whatever he was saying was true, there was a chance that he was lying or misunderstood. Bandits or no bandits Everything comes after it.

"Why do you think they are Bandits?" she asked dismissing all the worst-case scenarios from her mind.