An Urgent Request

A blonde knight with shoulder-length hair and a kind smile greeted Alden when he stepped into the general store.

"Nylane was it? How are you?" Alden responded courteously as he saw the familiar knight. There was no reason not to be on amicable terms with them.

"It's my turn to purchase the supplies, what about you?" Nylane replied gently, a far cry from Aster's hostility towards Alden.

"I'm here to buy some mana potions. I heard they're expensive, so I'm ready to sell some things."

In the middle of his explanation, the shopkeeper had come back with the supplies Nylane had ordered. He had heard their conversation from the back and decided to chime in.

"Sorry, all out of mana potions. This young lady purchased all of them."

Alden was a bit taken aback when he heard the shopkeeper's words.

"…that's…huh. How much is Baron Lundri paying you!?"

He was prepared to sell most of the weapons and use most of his money to buy just one potion. Hard labor for a short time was also not out of the picture if it came to acquiring the potions.

"We need them just in case, Kane is starting to believe your words from this morning." Nylane carefully watched her words in front of the store owner, there was no need to cause a panic about the draugr.

"Good." Alden nodded in relief that at they were coming around to his claims.

Nylane was certainly his favorite of the knights now. Her grace and delicate beauty were greatly complimented by her soft and gentle nature. She was the picturesque form of a fairy from the tales of this world. He would've been smitten with her if he had not met Daiyu and recovered his memories from Earth.

Unfortunately, that was not how it looked to Daiyu.

"He's getting reeaally friendly with her." Daiyu said to Huginn as they both waited outside.

Alden didn't want another fight about whether or not Huginn was a pet.

Meanwhile, Daiyu had been curiously looking at the wares in front. Stone valley had a large number of craftsmen whose intricate works were incomparable to the village's.

CAW!

Looking at Daiyu and then back at Alden, Huginn flew to the window of the store and lightly tapped on it.

"Oh, I better go search the rest of town for a potion then. Huginn is getting a little bit impatient."

"Please, keep in mind Kane's words."

Alden said his goodbyes to Nylane and was about to leave when the store door opened violently.

"Nylane! We're needed at the western gate! Something's off, there's a stampede of wild animals! The others already left to defend the other gates!"

Fleyn, the other female Lundri Knight, explained with great urgency in her voice.

"Hmm, you handled the situation this morning and need a mana potion. I'm assuming you can handle yourself in a fight, Alden. Would you like to us defend the gate? Of course, I'll spare you some of the potions."

Although Fleyn wanted to leave immediately, Nylane had turned to Alden and put him on the spot. Fleyn was now glaring daggers at him to make a decision quickly.

"That's a steal for the potions!" Alden nodded and the three of them departed the store.

"Huginn, we're leaving!"

With a flap of her wings, Huginn took to the sky and followed overhead. Daiyu was moving towards Alden's side as usual but then…

"Huh!?" Nylane had thrown a glance back at Alden.

Both Alden and Daiyu noticed at the same time, and immediately Daiyu put distance between her and their group.

"She noticed my presence, be careful around her! Or her insight will cost us." Daiyu frowned as she looked down at Nylane with disdain.

"What is it?" Fleyn asked as they continued to run, not even a moment could be spared to stop.

"I could've sworn there was something close by Alden!"

"Let's worry about that later, right now the gate is more important!" Alden quickly interjected and changed the topic as fast as he could.

"Yea… you're right." Thankfully, Nylane dropped the subject due to the situation they were in.

When they got to the gate, they saw several soldiers struggling with the number of predators at the gate.

From what Alden could see, it was numerous Mountain lions and Bobcats. There were some wild bears in the mix as well.

"Please find a safe place for this!" Nylane handed Alden the supplies while running to catch up to Fleyn who had run past the gate.

Fleyn nodded to Nylane as they both drew their swords and touched their blades with their other hand.

<Flame Weapon>

<Lightning Weapon>

Fleyn's weapon was suddenly engulfed in flames at the blade while Nylane's was crackling with energy.

"So these are Spellblades." Alden watched with interest as they proceeded to engage the wild animals with only the two of them.

A mountain lion lunged at Fleyn but had its head decapitated by her flaming sword. Several small felines tried to attack Nylane next, with a swing of her lightning blade she slew them easily.

"Did they need to enchant their weapons?" Alden wondered as he watched them dispatch foe after foe with ease. In his opinion, their abilities seemed to be more suited for fighting humans. Fleyn could heat up or melt an enemy's suit of armor while Nylane could electrocute any knight on contact with metal.

After half an hour, they fell back to where Alden and the other soldiers were.

"This is strange… they just keep coming and coming. Some don't even look like they want to fight, maybe scared or desperate?" Nylane said as she and Fleyn each drank a mana potion. Their weapon spells only lasted for a few minutes Alden noticed, carefully noting it in his mind.

"There's another wave coming!" A bunch of soldiers suddenly shouted in retreat as they ran back towards the gate in great panic.

"Damn it!" Fleyn cursed their luck as the next set of animals suddenly came into view. She and Nylane had barely any time to breathe much less recover their mana.

"Alden, please we need you. Buy us enough time to recover our strength."

"Of course, Nylane. Just remember to leave me a potion." Alden let out a small laugh before leading some soldiers to charge forward.

'I say that, but this isn't in my favor at all! I can't reveal <God Eye> here and <(Demonic) Gluttony> is also not ideal in front of everyone…which only leaves…'