Noblesse Oblige: Ascendance

"Hey, Hurry up, will you?"

At the sudden shout, Ray snapped out of it.

Looking up his group was already far ahead, waiting for him to catch up.

He was currently on an excursion with his class, hiking a mountain he didn't even know the name of.

And while it seemed nonsensical to him that an economics major in his third year had to go on an excursion on a mountain, just so the freshmen could make some friends, he still went along trying to look friendly to keep appearances up.

"Just a bit tired, I'll be right there."

"Sure, we'll go ahead then."

Conversing in a half-assed manner with his group, he restarted his bored march to the top.

The group consisted of four people plus him, with two of them being in the same year as him and the other two being freshmen.

First was the person who shouted so rudely at him, Josh.

He was rich, handsome and extremely unlikeable...at least to Ray. All in all, he was the leader type of person who liked to put other people down and himself on a pedestal.

Next to him stood Sarah, who was, admittedly, as beautiful as she made herself out to be.

With lush blonde hair, blue eyes and a body any man would kill for, she was clearly not Ray's type. Or so he tried to convince himself.

The freshmen walked a small distance away from the other two, seemingly still uncomfortable with their seniors.

Max was quite the bulky guy and apparently played some kind of sport, though Ray wasn't interested enough to actually ask what. He had short black hair and wore a college jacket and jeans, which was strange considering the setting they were in. Of the group, with the exception of Ray, he was walking behind everyone, panting and wiping away his non-existing sweat. He was obviously faking it, staring the whole time he was walking at Sarah's butt.

'What an amateur.' Thought Ray to himself.

Being so obvious in staring at her would only bring him trouble later on.

Of course, he would never do something like that, as he respected women.

The last one in the group was Lisa. Ray didn't have much of an impression of her with the only things he knew about her being 'short and shy'.

She had shoulder length black hair, about 150cm tall and was apparently right in Josh's strike zone, as he tried to approach her in any way possible during this excursion.

Lisa, on the other hand, didn't seem as eager and tried to, almost unnoticeably, reject Josh's advances.

The only reason why Ray could see her trying to reject him was because he liked to observe and analyze other people and became quite sensitive as a result. Else they would have just looked like a young couple flirting to him.

Josh though didn't seem to notice her unwillingness and continued his "charming" flirting.

"Are you sure this is the right way?"

Sarah's complaining voice cut Ray's thoughts off. She seemed angry for having to hike this long without being the focal point.

"Yeah, I am! This is the exact route on the map. Wanna take a look?!"

She probably didn't expect Josh to get that angry, just because she interrupted his flirting, but not wanting to lose out she snapped right back.

"We've been walking for hours now on a trail that should have taken us one and a half, how is that the right route?! Max, don't you agree with me?"

Slightly bewildered for being spoken to so suddenly he replied, "Y-Yeah...we should take a look at the map and orientate us."

"Tsk"

Although clicking his tongue, Josh stopped walking, took down his backpack and started unfolding the Map. Ray, who finally caught up to the group, also took a look from behind and began drawing a mental map comparing the way they walked until now and the route before him.

After a few seconds of staring at the map, Sarah started talking again, in her default bitchy voice, she is best known for.

"See I was right, although the trail we are walking on looks like the one on the map,

it's way too long. It's definitely not the right one."

"But that's impossible. I walked exactly how I was supposed to.

If this is not the right trail where are we then?"

"How am I supposed to know, you're the leader right?

Now get us on the right trail; I want to get out of this gross forest!"

After speaking her piece of mind, Sarah turned around and sat down on a nearby stone, with an extremely content expression. Josh, being reprimanded like that, was obviously not happy but couldn't say much as it really seemed like it was his fault. With a red face, he snorted and looked at the map again, trying to make sense of the situation.

But even though it seemed like a simple case of being lost, Ray was confused.

The whole time he compared the route they walked and the one they were supposed to walk and still couldn't find any difference.

'This doesn't make any sense.' He thought

'The trail should have long have ended with the cottage being in view. Not to mention that weird cliff I can't find anywhere on the map.'

Looking ahead he could see a huge cliff that seemed way out of place right in the direction they were walking in. It seemed to be getting closer even now that they were standing still, but that had to be an optical illusion.

Rationalizing his thoughts like that Ray made a suggestion

"Why don't we keep walking for now? There is no reception out here and going back before nightfall is impossible, so our only choice is reaching the summit. Since the cottage should be there, we'll reach it eventually."

"Hmpf, That's what I intended to do anyway. Lisa come on, let's go."

After picking up his backpack and taking Lisa's hand, Josh started walking again, without waiting for the answer of the others.

Max, unexpectedly, started going up next, probably because he noticed how short Lisa's skirt actually was.

Left behind Sarah and Ray turned to look at each other, confusion in both their eyes. She didn't imagine she would possibly, once again, be ignored and he didn't think his suggestion would be accepted without any contention.

Despite their similar emotions Sarah, as soon as their eyes met, snorted lightly, sprung up from the rock she was sitting on and tried to catch up to the group. Laughing lightly while shaking his head, Ray also started walking as he didn't want to be left behind.

After another two hours of hiking, everyone in the group was genuinely concerned. It was slowly getting darker, and the summit was still nowhere to be seen. Without any rations, except a few snacks, and no tents they wouldn't have a good experience staying outside during the night.

Ray, however, was more concerned with the strange cliff that was extremely close at this point. Not only was it not marked on the map they received, but it was also a lot bigger than he initially thought.

'There is no way I would have missed a cliff that big looking up the mountain.'

Not able to come up with an answer himself, Ray decided to ask the other group members.

"Hey guys, have you noticed anything strange about that cliff over there?"

"Cliff? What are you talking about?" Josh queried in an annoyed voice.

It seemed the long hike was taking it's toll on him as he didn't flirt with Lisa anymore and strolled up without a tone.

Pulling his gaze away from the rear of the girls Max also chimed in.

"No, look he's right. There is really one. How come we didn't notice until now?"

"So what if there is a cliff? It's not like it's going to help us."

"Yeah, but it's only a short distance away, and if we have to spend the night here anyway, we may as well do it under a roof of rocks, not in the midst of the woods."

Though it was not the conversation Ray hoped for, he couldn't deny that Max had a point.

Staying by such a visible way-point would undoubtedly make it easier for the rest of the class to find them than if they slept next to random Tree A.

And as it seemed Sarah thought the same as she immediately seconded Max.

"Josh, Max is right, if we have to sleep out here, it's definitely better over there."

"Okay, Okay, we'll go to the damn cliff, but don't complain to me if we can't find the trail tomorrow."

Coming to such a conclusion, the group quickly moved up to the cliff, not wanting to waste any more time and finally rest. Unexpectedly when they arrived at the foot of the cliff what greeted them was not a simple stone wall, but a three meter tall and at least five-meter wide entrance to a cave. Looking into it one could not see a speck of light or make out anything that was inside, as if only darkness prevailed within. The strangest thing but was the unusual smoothness of the outer walls. No cracks or irregularities could be made out, no moss or other plants found growing on it and no traces of any human activity discovered.

Awed and strangely fascinated by their finding, the group stood before the cliff, mouths agape staring into the abysmal cave. The first one to recover and speak out was unexpectedly Lisa, who didn't say a word the whole way up.

"I've never seen something like this! I wonder if it's a man-made cave?

Maybe we should check it out?"

She exclaimed with a sparkle in her eyes.

The rest of the group looked at each other. None of them was as excited as Lisa seemed to be and appeared somewhat unwilling to go into the cave. But the sun was almost entirely down and sleeping inside the cave seemed to be the best course of action, considering the relative safety, from the whims of nature, within.

While the four were still contemplating what to do, Lisa already started skipping towards the cave, in the best mood she showed that day. Having no other choice, the rest followed her, slowly disappearing into the darkness.