Chapter 16

As the crowing of roosters echoed through the village indicating the first light of day, Edward placed his traveling bag in the cart that would soon transport him.

As he examined his bag one last time, a man in his forties with a large beard approached and spoke in a hoarse voice.

"We're leaving in 10 minutes kid, say goodbye to your family quickly before it's too late"

This man was Marius, the merchant in charge of the troop, his face and his size were reminiscent of those of a lumberjack, and for good reason he had made his fortune in the sale of wood before creating a nomadic merchant troop, exporting products in cities.

Without answering, Edward simply nodded and quickly jumped off the cart, towards Alice and her father who were waiting seated on a tree stump, seeing him approach, a sad smile bloomed on Alice's face.

"I'm back, I took the time to check my bag, I don't think I forgot anything."

Alice nodded slowly without saying a word while her father kept the same stoic face, however his eyes indicated that he was listening.

"So uh… Marius says the troop will leave in ten minutes… The others won't come?"

Alice's smile stiffened for a moment before she spoke as if nothing had happened.

"Mother is probably not going to come, she couldn't bear to see you leave like this, and for our brothers…"

Interrupting Alice, Edward spoke again, "I see, I'm not surprised, anyway I already said goodbye to mother before leaving this morning."

He already knew his mother didn't agree with him leaving, but it was an important step.

'No, it's even an essential step if I want to protect our future!'

As Edward internally reaffirmed his resolve, his father gently pointed in one direction with his hand and uttered a single word in a heavy voice, "Son…"

It didn't take much for Edward to understand his father's intentions, in the direction he had pointed, a familiar duo had been waiting for a while.

Nodding at his father, Edward walked towards Sylvano and Sylphiette.

Once in front of them, Edward gently greeted the father-daughter duo with a vague smile.

Before the silence became too heavy, Sylvano patted her daughter on the head with a small smile. "Don't you have anything to say to her?"

As if bringing back to reality, Sylphie suddenly became active and took an object out of her bag.

"V-Here, this is for you Ed." As she spoke, she handed Ed a small, carefully carved wooden knife.

Edward widened his eyes slightly and accepted the little elf's gift.

"Wow, it's very beautiful Sylphie, did you make it?"

A smile appeared on the girl's face as she nodded "Yes~ Rudy has been teaching me how to sculpt with magic for a while, so I wanted to do this for you myself without magic!"

"Thank you very much, I will keep it with me during my trip as a good luck charm"

The young elf nodded gently, her smile threatening to leave at any moment. Seeing her daughter's sadness, Sylvano gestured to Ed as he spoke.

"Anyway, it's time for you to go, adventure doesn't wait."

Edward understood Sylvano's message and prepared to leave, however a moment before he left, he felt Sylphie embrace him in a goodbye hug, the young girl whispered a few words in Ed's ears before leaving him leave.

The girl did her best to hide any trace of sadness, her face flushed.

"Goodbye Ed, come see me and Rudy!"

Edward nodded shyly and waved goodbye to them.

"Goodbye Sylvano, Sylphie…"

Edward quickly left the father-daughter duo to find the other father-daughter duo, this time composed of his own father and Alice.

"I have to leave, it's almost time."

Alice nodded sadly, as tears threatened to fall from her eyes she gently hugged Ed, to her surprise, his father also joined in the family hug.

After about ten seconds like this, the three separated, this time Alice's eyes were filled with tears and her father's face seemed less lively than usual.

Not wanting to see them like this any longer, Edward spoke "It's time for me to leave, we'll see each other again soon~"

Without waiting for a response, Edward rushed at full speed towards the troop with a single jump, he landed on his cart which was about to leave.

Paf!

As soon as he arrived, an angry voice called out to him, "Finally, kid, you've arrived…."

The owner of the voice was a man in his twenties with long brown hair, he looked at Edward with narrowed eyes, next to him a long sword was placed, while indicating to him that he was an adventurer.

he suddenly seemed surprised and embarrassed, and spoke again with less anger "…Tsch, take this…you can keep it."

The man slipped his hand into his pocket and took out a pristine white handkerchief, which he held out to Ed.

Confused, Edward questioned him, "A tissue? For what ?"

The man rubbed his temple and sighed "For your face you brat, just take it!"

Under the blunt response from the adventurer-like man, Edward quickly accepted the tissue before frowning, 'My face? What's wrong with him?'

Using his hands to touch his face, Edward felt a small stream of water escape his eyes.

'Oh I see, it seems I'm the most emotional one in the family…'

Quickly using the tissue to dry his tears, Edward quickly thanked the adventurer-like man before sitting down in the cart.

The adventurer-like man didn't seem to want to speak any longer, taking advantage of this, Edward looked at the landscape trying to calm his emotions as he gradually saw his family disappearing in the distance.

The cart continued on its way, slowly leaving the village that Edward now knew so well, all along the way, the villagers greeted Edward, even some of his brothers working in the fields waved goodbye to Edward's surprise.

  Suddenly, he saw a familiar face at the side of the road, Rudy had also come along the troop's route to say a last goodbye.

As Edward felt his emotions overwhelmed as he saw his village and his friends disappear into the distance, he quickly slipped his hand into the inside pocket of his jacket, clutching the wooden knife in his hand to calm himself.

So, time continued its course, an hour after his departure, Edward finally dropped his knife and finally assessed the other passengers of the cart.

Apart from the man who had spoken to him earlier, there were 2 other people, a girl in her twenties also dressed like an adventurer, and a man in his thirties who looked more like a bear than a human, an ax was placed at his side while the young girl carried a sword.

Edward then turned to them attracting their attention "Sorry for not introducing myself before, my name is Edward, you can call me Ed."

Surprisingly, it was the gruff man who spoke with a big smile on his face. "Nice to meet you little one, my name is Grégore, the girl here is Iza and the one who is always angry is Glyn, we are a group of adventurers called the black rose!"

'Oh, they're adventurers, so the man who looks like an adventurer is actually a real adventurer!'