Chapter 52 - Arrow-proof?

Third person POV

 The night at the old lady's house was nice, and the old lady, despite her old age, managed to cook a big meal for them. It seems that she wanted to cook for someone like she did for decades. Also, the rooms Russell and his group are staying in are cozy and are filled with vintage-style furniture and stuff. But, the next day, while Russell's party and group are out shopping at Fernlay City's trade markets, in the surrounding forests, Aeri is spying on Russell, who was wiping one side of his bus, with the intention of shooting an arrow towards his back to get back at him for ruining her party's reputation. She was hiding behind a tree with a good distance between her and Russell.

So, as Russell kept on cleaning without noticing what she will be doing, Aeri grabbed an arrow and placed it into her trusty bow, aiming at Russell's back while she was hiding behind a tree from a distance.

Then, with enough strength, she let go of the string, firing the arrow towards his back.

She expected that it would shoot him and inflict him injury.

 But then, unfortunately, and ironically, the arrow hit him but did not inflicted him any injury or much pain. As a result, Russell felt a bit of pain and turned around, massaging his back mildly. "Oww…what was that?" Aeri was shocked that her arrow didn't injured him. "Wait, what?"

The outer business suit of Russell's bus driver's uniform is arrow-proof, protecting him from the arrow's infliction on him.

Russell then looked around, then at the arrow lying on the ground.

Curious, he picked it up and took a look at it. "An arrow? Who shot me with this?"

Then, he looked at Aeri, who then hid immediately upon being seen by him.

Thinking that she was the one who fired the arrow towards him, Russell went to him.

 "Excuse me, ma'am," he asked him briefly and calmly while showing her the arrow, "is this yours, right?"

Aeri was fearful of him at first, but she puffed up in anger at him and replied back, "Yeah, for humiliating me and my party!"

 "What party?" Russell asked in response.

 "It's the Elai party, you idiot!"

Russell now remembered her as one of Elai's party members back at the dungeon north of Leafmight.

After that, he said, "Ah, now I remember."

Then, he became serious and annoyed at her now. "Well, that's what you and your party get for betraying Adrian-kun and using him for selfish gains."

Aeri was shocked to hear the last part of it. "H-How did you know that?"

 "Adrian-kun told me about that."

Aeri felt betrayed by Adrian now.

 "That useless bastard…" she uttered under her breath.

Russell hears that and said to her in scolding, "Hey, don't blame him. Blame yourself. It's your fault for making him defect to my side."

In order to teach her a lesson, he broke the arrow into two and tossed it in front of her.

Aeri was shocked that he did that to her preciously crafted arrow.

 "Don't do something so stupid on me like that again," Russell seriously warned her, before turning around and left the area.

This only made her madder because of how disrespectful, in her view, he was towards her.

 "That jerk…" she uttered under her breath in a low voice.

 Shortly after that, Russell went back to his bus and resumed wiping his bus clean. Then, he was done, and his bus was now clean and spotless on the outside. But he has no idea that the outer layer of his bus driver's uniform is arrow-proof. After doing the cleanup of his bus, Russell got a couple of points in his current level both as a karmic achievement against Aeri and for cleaning his bus. Russell was stunned but liked it.