47 First day of escort

~Pov Alicia~

Alicia went with Bianca outside the guild leader's room. We've been waiting for him for a while.

"So... "Bianca tries to talk, but remains silent again.

Stopping to think, Bianca wasn't acting normally today, she seemed to be upset about something. Alicia decides to talk to her about it.

"Is Bianca all right?" Alicia asks.

"It's just a question... Are you really that angry at Ioan? "

So she was just worried about me and Ioan. Bianca always seems to be worrying about others, that makes Alicia a little jealous, she doesn't know if she could ever become someone like that, probably not.

"You don't understand, it's just that... "Alicia tries to start talking, but is interrupted by the sudden opening of the door.

Who was standing there was Ioan. Looking closely at him, Alicia's attention is drawn to her eyes, which were red, as if she were crying. When he notices our gaze he smiles at us.

"Shall we go? We need to go to the front desk to get the mission," he says from the room. "

"Did something happen to Ioan? "Alicia asks a little confused.

"Nothing much, I just learned a trick to get my eyes back to normal. Soon they will have their original color," he explains.

He deviates from the questions and starts walking towards the main hall of the guild. Alicia looks at the leader of the guild, who was still in the room, sitting behind her table. He smiles towards us, in response a great murderous aura is sent towards him, at this moment you can see that he begins to sweat, but does not undo his smile.

"Alicia... "Bianca speaks in amazement as she closes the door slowly, apparently affected a little by her aura. "Right now, you... "She seems to mean something, but she interrupts herself. "It's nothing..."

As we proceed to the main hall Alicia uses earth magic skillfully, as she had never done before, only what is necessary to lock the leader's door. That day three people had to force that door, only then they managed to get the leader out, who was stuck for a few hours.

~Next day~

We meet the adventurers and the merchants in the morning. We're near the village gate, outside, some guards were doing the morning patrol nearby.

I look at the village one last time. We have spent little time in this place, but we have managed to get into a lot of trouble in this short period. Unlike my first perception, where I thought it was just a small town, I was shown just the opposite. It is a city in development, living a continuous growth, after all, all those who come from the North must pass through here to continue their journey.

"Is everything ready? "A small, old man approaches our group, where the adventurers were, as he speaks.

This was Edtolne, who was introduced to us as the leader of this caravan, one of the most respected merchants in the entire region. His gaze was sharper than that of many adventurers in our group.

"Yes, it's all according to plan. "Seth answers.

In total there were fifteen wagons in this caravan, two adventurers were called for each of them, so there were thirty of us in total. Alicia was also with us, she will do the protection with me, but it did not count for this sum, because she was not an adventurer in fact.

Seth was the most experienced on our side, besides having total confidence from the guild leader and all the adventurers present. Obviously he took the lead from the adventurers' side. After Edtolne gets back to the merchants, I'll approach him.

"Are you sure it's okay for Alicia to come with us? "I ask.

"It's not uncommon to see adventurers with companions who aren't, like you, as long as it's not a hindrance there won't be any problem. "He answers while he goes to talk to other adventurers.

"I understand."

Looking around you can see the low number of women in our group, even though there were thirty of us, there were only six. But on the merchants' side it seemed different, they were responsible for almost half of their numbers.

"Not a lot of adventurous women, huh? "I talk when I get close to Bianca.

"It's not attractive to us, at least not here in the kingdom, you must remember what happened to me the day we got here, right? "She answers.

While he was talking, he kept his head down. Perhaps because I was born with a vampire, a society where there is almost no difference between genders, I had a false perception of this world. But something caught my attention in your speech.

"I see, you're right, but 'in the Kingdom', the Empire is different? "I ask.

"Apparently yes, I can't say for sure, after all, I've never been there, but they say that the situation of women has improved much after the last empress came to power. Not only that, but the small nations between the Kingdom and the Empire seem to be of extreme equality, with some even tending to matriarchy. "Bianca explains.

We looked at Alicia, who was nearby, who said she was shaking her head in a positive light.

When we finish our conversation Edtolne says we are leaving. The wagons start to leave in line, with an adventurer next to each of them. Bianca and I were watching the penultimate one, Alicia was walking beside me and Seth was behind us, guarding us

"If you feel married, I'll carry you." I'll talk to Alicia after we start walking.

I am not treating her like a child, I know Alicia's low physical capacity, we were told that the road will be a bit difficult for a part, even if she is on a road, so it would be a problem if she became exhausted along the way.

"Yep." Maybe understanding my intentions she responds positively, without complaining about being treated like a child, as she always does.

Since yesterday, when we left the guild leader's room, Alicia seems to have come back to me normally, I wonder what happened.

We walk for about two hours. Before, as well as near the village and even the path we took from the port, it was a plain, there were no great dangers either, just a few weak monsters that appeared sporadically, that were shot down immediately, but we were entering a forest now, we will spend much of our journey in it.

"As warned before, I want everyone to double their attention from now on, there have been reports of assaults in this area" Seth shouts for everyone to hear.

It may seem silly to do, after all, we are warning the enemy of our presence, but that does not apply in our case. We are a very big group, several of the wagons are full and make too much noise when they move, besides, if there is someone who can rob us, that someone already knows about us, we call a lot of attention not to know.

For these reasons we have so many adventurers, usually only one would be hired per wagon or even less. However, we now had a small army, in wars it is common for small groups of adventurers to fight, about a hundred being the usual. We have almost a third of that, besides Seth, who is considered the best adventurer in the region, finally we also have Sally's group of adventurers, who are well known, but now without their leader, who is disabled.

"Alicia, remember what we agreed, right? "I ask low.

Even lowering my voice I know that Seth, who is behind us, can hear us, having a beast-man with us is really hard.

"Alicia cannot use her magic, only in cases of great urgency. "She responds by repeating my tone of voice.

I asked that Alicia not demonstrate her powers. With Sally's case I ended up drawing a lot of attention to us, there are probably people who have their eyes on our group and may end up directing their bad intentions, besides I don't trust merchants. Seth gave me this tip before, a lot of them are involved with the underworld.

While I was thinking I smelled something, it resembled the smell of a human, but it was a little different, as if mixed with some animal, it even resembled the smell of Seth.

"Enemies! "Seth screams first, with me talking right away.

I hear the sound of something moving quickly through the leaves, I can't see anything, it was too fast for my current level. An adventurer, who was two wagons in front, is thrown into the vehicle he was making the protection.

"Everybody on guard! "Seth screams again.

I can't see the enemies, but by the smell I'm sure it was a beast-man, probably from the group of robbers that the guild leader told Seth when we were in his room. All I can see is a yellow blur, probably from the blond of his ears and tails.

"Alicia" I call her to me, placing her between me and the wagon. "Can you defend yourself from anything at this rate? "I ask, even knowing the obvious answer.

"No, impossible" Alicia answers.

I can tell by her voice that she was nervous. I look at the wagon we were protecting, there was only one woman in the guide, I put Alicia, with only one arm, next to her, who hugs her.

"Help if you see the possibility" I speak.

She shakes her head in positive.

" Bianca, to wagon! "I shout to my partner on the other side.

I knew there were no enemies on that side, after all, I can't hear the sound of the leaves moving, but I must make sure they're okay. The girl moves fast when she hears me.

I look back at the dense forest.

"And I, I thought speed was my strong point." I speak with a light smile.