Chapter 122 - Aren Krähenblut, Charming and Seductive Crowned Prince of Batela, and some very hard windshield wipers

Third person POV

 Later, in Garion City, which was just 7 kilometers northeast of Halestone Town, Russell stopped his bus and opened the door. "Okay, everyone, we're here. That'll be 3 gold coins, 6 silver coins, or 11 copper coins, please." So, the passengers, 16 in number, grabbed their belongings, stood up, and went to the front, paying the fare according to their available funds. But then, 2 of the 16 passengers are unable to pay any of the fares Russell put on for this trip due to insufficient amount of money. So, upon hearing that problem, Russell lowered them, much to the two passengers' delight and relief.

 After the last 2 passengers had gotten off the bus, Russell counted the money he had received and put them into his metal money box, before closing the box and locking it with its key. Once that was done, Russell looked at the dragon family and said, "So, wanna go out before we go to our next route?"

 "Yes, let's go to the meadows outside of the city!" Rai enthusiastically responded back.

 "Let's play!" Ria nodded with excitement.

Their mother Kelly agreed with them.

 And so, with that, Russell drove his bus to the nearby meadows in the northern part of the city. There he parked it under some trees and turned off the engine, before unbuckling his seatbelt and getting up from his seat. "Okay, let's play for a bit before I do some little cleaning," Russell said to them while getting his knapsack and book. And then, the five of them got off the bus and started running around while chasing each other. Russell was as fast as Ria and Rai, while Kelly was the slowest. John couldn't even keep up with the fast pace as Russell, Ria, and Rai and was exhausted two-thirds through, before stopping to take a break and catch his breath.

Then, the five friends sat on the green grass together and blew some dandelions. Rai even accidentally blew some towards Russell's face, much to the latter's annoyance.

 At the same time, the Elai party is trekking through the woods west of the city when Aren found them. Aren smirked at them nicely. "Hello there…" Upon seeing him, the Elai party became defensive and reacted by wielding their magical abilities and weapons.

 "What do you want from us?"

 "Yeah, what are you doing in our kingdom?"

 "Hurt us, and we'll attack back!"

 "No, I am not here to hurt any of you," responded Aren with an innocent look. "I am here to offer you guys help."

The party then put down their weapons and magic.

 "Huh?" Elai responded back.

 "Help?" Belius added.

 "Yes," replied Aren back, "do you hate that bus driver, right?"

Elai then scoffed. "Yeah, that guy is a pain in the ass, you know."

 "Okay then…well, I'll help you get rid of him."

Elai and her party were very surprised to hear that.

An enemy of theirs would help them get rid of their enemy and rival Russell May.

 "What?" Hans responded back.

 "You'll help us?" Aeri asked in response.

 "Yes," Aren responded back with some persuasion, "I'll help you guys eliminate him with my help and power. Do you want that?"

After some shallow thinking, the party accepted it, wanting to plot against the now popular bus driver hero that most people called.

Aren then smirked at their response. "Good, now come with me in my little hideout. We'll devise a plan to get rid of him."

 And so, without a doubt or a second thought, the party went with Aren in his hideout deep in the woods. But they had no idea that it was a trap set by the crowned prince of Batela.

 Then, an hour later, back at the meadows, Russell's playtime was over, and he was now doing a little, simple clean-up on his bus with a damp cloth. The dragon family is now resting on the green grass and under the summer Garion sun. Then, while cleaning the bus's windshield wipers, Russell noticed something off with them: the wipers' metal skeleton was unusual in terms of touchable texture. Curious, he put the cloth on his right shoulder and took the wipers off from the windshield, examining their skeletons' material composition. And then, the young bus driver saw that those are made of metal, but tough titanium mixed with tungsten and aluminum. Although he didn't know much about metals back in his previous life, Russell knew that it was pretty tough as rocks. So, to test that hypothesis, Russell made a quick cut on the trunk of a tree nearby. Its cut was long, hot, and steaming as if it was made with a sharp blade at a fast speed. Russell, who had made it with his fast speed from his sword fighting skills, was stunned and amazed at how hard the metal side of his bus's windshield wipers.

 "So cool…" his mind said in rising amazement.

John was amazed at Russell's way of making that cut with a non-weapon item.

After that, Russell put them back on his bus's windshield, while thinking about using them as batons and lower, backup weapons for fighting.