Chapter 8: The Tragic Pair
So guys and gals, I started an actual wiki for this because we're going to have WAY TOO MANY characters and monsters among other things in this story, so I gotta do it somehow
https://earths-army-in-another-world.fandom.com/wiki/Maxim
Here's the link to Maxim's page, I'll fill in the rest later.
Also join our discord!
https://discord.gg/DrGcruPm
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Spring- Adventurers guild - Lunama Kingdom
Flander P.O.V
"Oh, Flander! Did you finish the quest?"
The adventurers guild in the Lunama kingdom was old, still made of wood instead of clean cut stone or marble. Even then, Flander entered the doors and walked up to the receptionist hauling a rugged sack in his hand.
"Yep! Five Mandrakes pulled straight from the forest outskirts."
"Wait...you mean Mandrake roots right?"
"Huh?"
AHHHHHHH!!, AHHHHHHH!!!
Flander opened the sack, which let out the shrilly, agonizing screams of the Mandrakes that made even grown men fall down clutching their ears.
"SHUT IT!"
Flander quickly bound the sack up, silencing the Mandrakes once again. He smiled awkwardly before placing the bag on the counter.
"Sooo, I still get the reward right?"
The receptionist glared at him, before sighing. She took the bag and handed it off to one of the other workers to be taken to the back.
"Considering the fact that you just killed a few dozen people's hearing as well as the extra work that needs to be taken to disassemble the Mandrake, your reward is going to be cut in half."
Flander opened his mouth slightly, before closing it. He clapped his hands in front of him in a prayer.
"Can't you please make an exception? It's not my fault there was fine print, I got it didn't I?"
"...25% cut, no less. I could be suspended from this position for doing this you know? Here, 45 copper coins"
The receptionist counted the coins and shoved them towards Flander, who depressingly shoved the copper into his bag.
"Ma'am, you know how bad rent and food prices are getting these days with the war! 45 copper is literally enough for a single meal, didn't this quest a few years back give a silver?"
The receptionist bit her lip before coming around the reception desk,
"Come with me, I'll explain it to you"
This receptionist pitied Flander a lot. Flander had escaped the army of the god of light to make it here, making it here with his childhood friend. So far, they were the only known survivors of the holy prosecutors. Their friends and families had all perished underneath their hammers and blades, but they managed to evade them. Now they lived here under poverty conditions since they weren't technically citizens.
Flander's could handle a sword fine, but the receptionist wasn't allowed to give any inexperienced adventurers monster hunting or high reward missions since there were just way too many adventurers. He was providing for both his friend and himself, who were both living in an extremely small house.
They made their way through the halls into one of the offices, in which Flanders sat down on the chair in front of the desk while the receptionist took her seat on the other end.
"Flanders, you know I want to help you, I really do. The problem is this is my job, I can't just pick favorites! The adventurers guild is already giving smaller rewards since newbie adventurers have already started to flood this place. I really can't do anything!"
Flanders looked down at the desk while fidgeting with his fingers. While many other teenagers were going to school and having a comfortable home to go back to, he was wondering where his next meal would come from.
"Alright, I understand… I'll go home I guess"
As Flanders started getting up it was the receptionist that started getting fidgety. Before Flanders could reach the door, she called out to him again.
"Look, I really shouldn't be telling you this but… there's a new adventurers guild opening nearby. It's in a country called the United States Of America, they promise good lodging and food to the newest adventurers and their pay is nearly double what we promise . It's only three days to the south by foot from here. The guild told us to tell the experienced adventurers here but none of them believe it, I think they'll take you in though"
Flanders perked up, a new adventurers guild?
It was widely known that a new adventurers guild generally gave the best rewards, but the problem was that adventurers that changed guilds needed to build their reputation back up for ranks.
Flanders had no rank.
Perfect.
A ranking can be attributed with the letters F, E, D, C, B, A, and S. They could refer to both adventurers and monsters, which helped adventurers determine which type of monster they could take on, most of the time.
"Thanks a lot, miss! I've gotta go tell Sylvia the good news!"
Before the receptionist even had time to explain more to him, he dashed out of the room.
The receptionist smiled
"Even though they went through so much, kids are still kids huh?"
Spring - Flander and Sylvia's home - Lunama kingdom
Flanders burst into the small house, almost tearing the wooden door off of it's hinges in the process.
"Sylvia, Sylvia! I found a place that can give us extra pay and housing! We've gotta go before others get there!"
Flanders slowed down before taking in Sylvia's appearance.
Even though it was close to noon, Sylvia was still tucked tightly into bed. Her silver hair was extremely messy and her face was a bit red.
"Cough Cough, Oh that's great Flander. Let's go…"
"Sylvia!? Are you okay?"
Flander helped Sylvia out of bed as she coughed a bit more, smiling weakly. Sicknesses were known to be lethal, even healer mages can't cure something they can't see. They either went away, or you died.
Sylvia stopped coughing, letting out a light laugh
"Sorry, it's just a small cough I'll be fine. I've been working overtime at the tailor so we can pay for rent again this week."
"We can leave right now, there's a country that's accepting new adventurers, we don't have to live here anymore!"
Sylvia's eyes widened. Although a new adventurers guild didn't sound like a big deal, the last new one that opened was over 20 years ago. Since then the population of countries had started to grow, resulting in reward cuts.
"Really!? That's great, I'll go buy some supplies and we can just go!"
Sylvia seemed like she got her strength back as she strode out the door before Flander grabbed her again.
"Whoa, are you sure? You're still sick, you know people die from it right?"
Sylvia shook him off as she opened the door,
"I've had this sickness before, I know I'll be fine"
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"Alright, ready?"
"Yep!"
Flander strapped his father's longsword along his back whilst Sylvia put her knife in the sheath around her waist.
"Alright let's see, this is three silver worth of supplies here. Well water, dried meat, torches. I think we're good."
Sylvia checked everything that she had bought, stuffing them back into her slightly roughed up bag before turning towards Flander, who experimentally swung his sword in the air a few times. It was getting dull after using it for so long and getting it sharpened cost way too much.
Flander was strapped in leather armor whilst Sylvia was in her normal travelling clothes. She had her silver hair tied back in a ponytail since they were going to be walking a lot, maybe even getting into fighting.
The area around the Lunama kingdom wasn't in constant conflict, so it was relatively safer than most other kingdoms. They also boasted one of the largest militaries in the nearby area, making it crawling with guards though there were less now due to the war. The roads were a different story.
Everybody knew that these roads were dangerous, they were crawling with Goblins and bandits lying in ambush. Even though they were considered small fry, Goblins were still ranked at E tier and a normal bandit recruit at rank D, which was more than they could handle.
"Hey look!"
Flander looked to where Sylvia was pointing, small and large steeds and constructs were flying in the air simultaneously. One of the larger constructs was emitting a large whirring sound while what looked like griffins were cawing indignantly at them. They passed on top of them before flying quickly off into the night.
"Wow, imagine if we could ride one of those, we'd be there in minutes!"
"Stop dreaming you dolt, do we look like royalty?"
Sylvia wailed on him with her fists as Flanders laughed, before Sylvia started coughing slightly again.
"Whoa, take it easy. Save your energy until you get better, alright?"
"You're an idiot"
They headed past the city gates and towards the main road, walking South towards the supposedly new country. They didn't know if the receptionist was telling the truth but they had nothing to lose anyways.
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30 minutes in
COUGH!
Sylvia let out a violent cough as they made their way down the slightly paved dirt road. They had made good progress, going around two miles from where they started but things were getting bad for Sylvia.
She had started to cough more and Flander couldn't help her in any way. They had both used up their sips of water since it was so expensive, they might have to go find a vendor along the way. The population of the Lunama kingdom was at least in the millions, so it was extremely hard to keep up with fresh water that wasn't contaminated.
"I'm Cough! Fine, don't worry about it. We can still get there.."
Flander looked at her worriedly, her health was deteriorating the further they walked. It hadn't been that far, but she was already completely out of breath. The darkness had taken over, making Flander light one of the torches with his striking stone.
"BZZZZZ"
A loud buzzing sound came up near them as they were trekking down the road. The noise was coming from the dark forest, so even with a torch they still couldn't see what was there.
Just ignore it, Just ignore it
It could've just been some bees around a hive, surely nothing to worry about….
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15 minutes later
"There is definitely something following us!"
Flander was now carrying Sylvia on his back after she tired out. On top of being sick, she was also very tired from working for so long.
The buzzing was growing constant, the owner of the buzzing seemed to stop attempting to hide the sound and letting them know that it was clearly there.
Sylvia sighed weakly,
"Leave me here, it's probably hungry. Just...get to that country"
"What!? No way, what the hell are you saying?"
As Flander was expressing his disapproval of her suggestion, the monster suddenly revealed itself.
Large transparent wings buzzed it's way towards them, while it's pincers snapped at them menacingly. It's armored yellow and black body ended with a gigantic stinger, almost the size of Flanders arm.
"No way. It's a giant wasp! Fuck!"
Giant wasps were rank D, not because they were notoriously dangerous but more because their shells were hard to break with a normal sword. They were sought after for their wings and their shells could be made into armor whilst their stingers into spears.
In this case, it was EXTREMELY dangerous to them.
Before they even had time to react, it dove straight for them with it's stinger. Flander hit the floor, making the wasp miss him.
One of their weaknesses was when they were agitated they attacked wildly, which meant that they were terrible at aiming. However, once you got hit with the stinger it was like getting stabbed with a spear, for new adventurers it was usually fatal.
While Flander got down, Sylvia swung off of his back and onto the ground beside him, groaning. Flander gritted his teeth as he unstrapped his longsword and grabbed the knife on Sylvia's waist.
The wasp came in again, this time aimed directly at Flander, who was holding his ground. As the stinger approached towards his chest, he swung down at it as hard as he could which resulted in a resounding CLANG!
The wasp was thrown sideways, floating in the air for a moment in a daze, trying to get it's bearings after the parry from Flander.
Taking this as a chance, he threw Sylvia's knife straight at the wasp but it hit it's body harmlessly and fell to the ground.
Shit
He raised his sword up again in anticipation of the next attack, but was suddenly distracted by an extremely bright light behind him.
The wasp, also distracted, flew towards the light, completely forgetting about Flander. The light was coming from a magic construct, probably holding nobles if Flanders had to guess.
Why do they have no knights protecting them!?
Flanders noticed that they had absolutely no escorts around them, it was just the construct. He heard surprised yelling from the inside, as the wasp hit the front of the front of the construct which caused a small dent.
"**** *** ****!"
"What the fuck are we waiting for, shoot it!"
As the wasp recoiled back from the impact on the hard surface, one of the windows opened and a man stuck half his body out.
BANG!
A loud noise rang out as a small light was seen from something the man was holding. Something hit the wasp dead on in the center, cracking its shell
"BZZZZ!"
The wasp let out a pained buzzing before going in for another strike. It's eyes had turned red from anger and it was dead set on killing the man.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Three more of the same sounds rang out, making the wasp slam into the front of the construct before dropping onto the ground.
"Christ, Sergeant Maxim, why did you have to stick me in the Humvee!"
Four men started to exit the construct, they were wearing spotty uniforms and headed towards the monster corpse.
"****** ** ***** ** ****?"
"Yeah, toss it in the back of the humvee and we can go back before more of these guys start coming out"
Two of the men grabbed the monster by it's head and stinger and hauled it back into the construct.
The man then looked around the area before he saw the figures on the ground. He wasn't sure if they were on the ground because of the monster or because of the gunshots. They were definitely injured.
"Oh fuck! Guys get over here!"
Two of the men got closer to Sylvia and Flander, who were both on the ground after the loud sounds rang out.
What should I do!? I don't know if they're going to kill us or not!
After parrying the wasp, his arm had been sprained from the force. Now he couldn't wield a weapon.
"Kid, you okay?"
Flander breathed out a sigh of relief, they didn't seem to be hostile for now but from their clothes they could be brigands or bandits.
"Yeah..thanks for saving us. We were almost killed by that thing. We'll be on our way now, thanks for everything"
As Flanders went to haul Sylvia onto her feet after her collapse, the man put a hand on his shoulder, making him freeze up.
"Hold on kid, where are you going so late in the night? Surely you know how dangerous it is at nighttime anywhere."
Oh god, if they're people from Lunama then they'll learn about the new country and everyone is going to flock there. I don't want the receptionist to lose her job!
Seeing no way out, Flander looked down
"We're heading to a country called the United States Of America for work. We wanted to get there before anyone else to secure lodgings because we were going broke and had no where to work."
I've done it now! I'm probably going to get hauled back and get the nice miss fired from her job. What have I done!
"Oh! That was just finalized today and you already know about it? Well I guess we can take you back to our base then, since you guys are injured."
Flander looked up in astonishment
"You guys know where the United States is?"
"Know? We're the United States army! Of course we know where our home is"
No way! There's no way that we're this lucky!
"Uh also, do you guys have any water? I don't need it but my friend over there is sick and she's coughing a lot."
"Oh yeah, we've got plenty. Don't worry, just get in the car and we'll get you and your friend checked up by a doctor when we get back."
Still astonished, Flanders picked up Sylvia and carried her into the construct before the man on the outside closed it.
"Alright private, hit the gas"
Flanders looked around the interior of the construct. It was quite large when considering the cost of magical constructs. A normal sized person could easily fit in each seat comfortably. He was sitting besides some of the other U.S soldiers with Sylvia propped to the side of him.
"I know money is tempting, but was it really necessary to go out into a monster infested road?"
The man in the front asked him while they were moving quickly along the road.
Flander looked down again
"We were running out of money and they weren't giving me any monster slaying jobs. Not even for horned rabbits or goblins. We're refugees so we aren't provided with any benefits, we need to move or die starving eventually."
The man scratched his head
"Yeah, I suppose that's a good enough reason. Oh yeah, here"
The man handed a weird looking vase towards him, which Flander took, confused.
"It's water, we can always get a refill so just drink up"
And at this moment, Flander didn't even care if it had been poisoned or spiked or whatnot. He drank like he was going to die of dehydration before he remembered about Sylvia.
He looked to his side to find her stirring. She had been knocked unconscious when she fell off his back earlier, so she was extremely confused to find herself inside of a magical construct with a bunch of soldiers.
"Wha-, Flander who are these guys!? What happened to the Giant Wasp?"
"They killed it with magic Sylvia, they're soldiers from the United States and said they'll take us there. Here, have some water"
He handed the water to Sylvia, who drank even more than Flander.
"Alright, we're here. Get ready to get off"
"What!? It's supposed to be three days away on foot though!"
However, as he looked outside he indeed saw bright lights and soldiers. They made a weird gesture towards the man which he returned and they opened the gates.
Sylvia and Flander looked at the surroundings in amazement. There were dozens of magical constructs as well as some of the flying ones they saw earlier. There were soldiers walking around, some chatting while others were carrying items. He saw some of them cheering around a large table as they had food that seemed to come from the royal kitchens of the Lunama kingdom.
Their mouths watered, they hadn't eaten in a while and the food that they could buy only consisted of a small amount of vegetables and some dried meat. They hadn't had a decent meal in ages.
The construct stopped suddenly and the soldiers opened the doors to get out.
"Alright, time to get out"
The soldiers as well as Sylvia and Flander hopped off the construct before heading towards the buildings.
The building that they were going towards was in the center of the surrounding buildings, with a man that was looking towards them standing outside.
"James, where were you!?"
"Sorry Sergeant Maxim, we got attacked by a wasp"
"A Wasp!?"
The man, who was now identified as James, motioned towards the soldiers behind him who were carrying the corpse of the wasp.
"The humvee got hit in the front and caused a pretty bad dent, should still be fine. This thing was a lot tougher than those goblins though, it took a 5.56 shot in the chest and kept going"
"And what about them?"
Maxim pointed towards the duo of Flander and Sylvia, who played with his leather strap to stop being anxious.
"They were told about the adventurers guild that's about to be built, there were too many in Lunama and now they came here for better pay"
Maxim sighed, while shrugging.
"Well, not much we can do about that. They can live in one of the empty barracks, we have way too many rooms anyways. We could fit a few thousand adventurers here with no problems. Though you should probably get them to the hospital, they both look pretty banged up."
"Yes sir"
James motioned them to follow him as the soldiers carried the monster corpse to another area. They followed him down the strangely smooth paved path, all the way to a building that was completely white with a red cross painted on top.
All the while, the pair had been looking around in awe of the new strange tall buildings and the massive amount of equipment that they possessed.
James pushed past the door and a woman who was walking down the hall immediately spotted them.
"***** *****?"
"They got attacked by a monster, the guy got a few scrapes and the girl is coughing pretty badly."
James talked with the woman before looking back at them.
"Oh right! Here, the king gave us a few extras so you guys can have these"
He rummaged through his bag and pulled out two scrolls and handed it to them.
"Are these translation scrolls!?"
"Yep, we got a dozen or so now so we can afford to spend two scrolls on you guys."
Flander's hands shook as he gripped the scroll. It would take them weeks before they earned enough to buy one of these.
He opened the scroll and the glowing inscriptions floated into the air before disappearing, Sylvia doing the same.
The woman waited for them to finish before continuing on.
"We'll have to do some check ups on the girl. We can get the guy some rubbing alcohol and bandaids, the scrapes don't look too bad"
As the women led Sylvia into a room, another man had popped out and opened the door to a different room.
He sat down on a seat and the man pulled out a bottle of clear liquid.
"This is going to hurt a little, bare with me for a moment"
As soon as the liquid made contact with his scrapes, he felt a small searing pain. However, he had been an adventurer even though not a very active one. He could handle this level of pain no problem. The man then started to put on a few large pieces of sticky cloth on top of the wounds.
"Alright, you'll be fine. We just need to see what's wrong with your friend now"
"She has a sickness"
"Yes we know. We need to find out what sickness"
What sickness?
Flander hadn't considered the possibility of different illnesses, since they pretty much had the same symptoms. They had just determined that the weak died while the strong lived. This was the stigma that most lived by in Lunama.
They walked back into the hallway just in time to see Sylvia walking out with the woman doctor, who was clutching a notepad.
"She's got a mild case of pneumonia. She was out of breath because of a combination of exhaustion and pneumonia, which was made worse when they walked for around three miles. She needs a lot of water and rest, then she'll be fine. She should also take some antibiotics just to be safe"
She handed a small bottle to James before going back into her office, the other doctor doing the same.
James looked at them, both of whom looked like they were suffering from malnutrition.
"I would say you guys could eat with us, but since she's sick we can just send some food up to your room. Follow me, I'll show you where you'll live."
The lights on the sides of the streets came and passed by them as they walked on the road, they went to the side as one of the magical constructs rumbled down the road. They were both still taking in the amazing view, this was a completely different city when compared to places of Lunama. It wasn't flashy, yet it looked much better and cleaner than any part of Lunama other than the royal palaces.
They headed towards one of the identical tall buildings that lined the sides of the area and went inside. The only difference was that the building was numbered 9 on the entrance.
"Do you want a room on the top floors or the bottom?"
On the top!? Does he really mean we can live up there?
"I-it would be great if the room was at the top!"
"Alright, let's go up there then"
He led both of them up the flights of stairs before stopping at the top, he then went through the door on the side which prompted them to do the same.
He opened the door nearest to the staircase and both Flander and Sylvia walked in, with their mouths open.
It wasn't large or luxurious by any means, but there were two beds and a wooden table with a chair. There was a weird wooden box to the side of the room as well as what looked to be magi-lights inside of a small item and on the ceiling.
A window of pure glass was on the side, with a view showing the entirety of the city. To them, who had to sleep on the floor and had no view of the outside in somewhere this clean and tidy, this was a dream. It almost seemed like there was a scam coming.
"...There's no catch to this right?"
"No, since we need to offer an incentive for people to come here and work. The electricity and water don't cost us money anymore, so technically we aren't spending anything to house people here."
He turned around to head towards the door before stopping and looking back.
"We'll get someone to grab you some food, just chill for a bit"
Right as he left, both of them dropped their bags and jumped on the beds. Feeling the soft cushions and comfy mattress, something that was extremely lacking in their lives.
Sylvia turned around and looked towards the ceiling
"I guess we are kind of lucky after all"
Flander smiled
"Yes we are Sylvia, yes we are"
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And we've got two new characters! Yes Flander will be a main character, so now we have two.
Update schedule is getting kind of rough but I'll still make it, don't worry. Next chapter will recap what happened between the U.S and adventurers guild since these characters weren't there and this was after the agreements.
See you guys in the next chapter!
W.O.V