Task

"Albedo is not someone you can casually meet, but he might have the answers you are looking for. If you manage to do this task, I can set up a meeting for you, what do you say?" Lisa gently smiled.

'She is definitely up to something…' Despite thinking that, there was nothing Sai could do. Besides, he had already agreed to it.

"Alright. What do I have to do?"

"Do you know Dawn Winery?"

"Dawn Winery? Yeah."

"I need you to deliver this letter specifically to the lord's hands, not to anyone else. His name is Diluc and he has long vibrant red hair and dresses fully in black, there is no mistaking him." She pulled a letter from who knows where.

"Oh, that's it? I know Diluc, it's not a problem."

"Remember, directly to his hands. Go walking, take the main roads. Once you are there, just say that it's a confidential letter from the Knights of Favonius. Don't read it, deliver it and return immediately. I'll assign Amber to escort you, since you can't even deal with hilichurls on your own."

"Okay, but why can't you just have Amber deliver it?"

"She is too naive for this job. You, though… you are perfect for this." The corner of her lips raised with confidence.

"Uh… thanks, I guess?" He mumbled.

"I'll be either at the library or here waiting for your report. Amber should be waiting at the entrance."

"Understood, I'll be right back." And with that, Sai took the letter and left.

"Now… let's see how much you've grown…" Lisa mumbled as she recalled the cute blonde child from a few years back.

…

Walking back and forth at the entrance was Amber, bored to no end. When she finally saw him, she smile excitedly and skipped over to him.

"Hey! It's you again! Did Ms. Lisa tell you what we should do?"

"Yep. Let's get going."

"Where to?" She walked besides him.

"Dawn Winery."

"Alrighty! Should we get a cart? Or maybe a horse?"

"What for? Dawn Winery is just— Hang on… How far… is it?"

"Hmm… Around five kilometres from here, maybe?"

"What? That's it?" He decided to not question the fact that she answered in terms of meters instead of travel time as he expected. "Five kilometres should be fairly close."

"Yep yep. Should take two hours at most." She nodded in a light mood.

"Two hours…" It was more than he imagined.

"If we walk there, of course. We could also go running, but I don't think you would manage…" She looked at him while trying to confirm her thoughts.

"We better hurry, then." Sai looked up to check how long it would take before sunset. He took the chance to enjoy the view of the bustling city.

At this point, they were walking down the stairs to the lower district. Sai had already been there a couple of times, but the walls always impressed him. However, there was a more pressing matter at hand.

"Hey, hey! Can we go on horse? Did she allow it? It's been a while since I've last ridden one." Her eyes were shining with expectation.

"She specifically said to take the road and to go walking, so probably not…" Despite what he said, Sai wasn't completely sure.

"Ohh…" Amber dejectedly looked down at the stairs. "And here I was hoping to come back for dinner…"

"What do you mean?" Sai was dividing his focus on not falling down the long staircase, so he didn't catch up very quickly.

"Yeah… if we can only use the roads then it will take more than three hours to get there."

"Really?! No w— Three hours to go and three to come back?!" He started to regret accepting the task.

"The way back is probably going to take longer, since it's up a slope most of the time. And it will get dark before we get back…" Amber looked sad.

"Is there a reason why you wanted to come back early?" He probed.

"Yeah… I was going to have dinner with Bennett and Big Sister Eula… And maybe even Amy!" She had been waiting for that the whole week.

"Amy? Hmm…" He didn't know who that was, but he thought of a way to cheer her up. "Um, Amber, I heard some stories about your grandfather…"

"About grandpa?!" She immediately looked up.

"Yeah. I heard he was a great man. Perhaps you could share some of his stories with me." He smiled at her.

"Sure, okay! So, you know that my grandpa was…"

…

Some time later, Amber and Sai just passed through a bifurcation and continued through the road on the right side. From their relatively elevated current position, the big shadows of Dragonspine could be seen.

"We should take a quick rest here. From here on, we will be traversing monster breeding areas." Amber was a bit more solemn this time, unlike the whole journey until then, in which she wouldn't stop talking.

"You call it, boss."

That put a proud smile on her face. She proved easy to please. 'That's cute.'

"But uh… can you beat any monster that appears on our way?"

"Oh, yeah! Don't worry about it. I've been through it many times already, most of them on my own. Unless there's a group of abyss mages, I'm confident on either defeating or escaping them."

'Unless there's a group of abyss mages, you say? Well, groups of them are indeed rare, but that doesn't make me more relaxed…'

From what he could see, the road and it's surroundings looked very similar to the game version, and there was nothing that drew his attention in particular. It is unneeded to be said, but even that was still an absolutely gorgeous view that the modern world would rarely see.

Once they started walking again, they soon went under the coverage of a unique sparse forest, with both dark and light coloured trees. Some leaves were yellow and orange, others were green and brown. It seemed to be a transition of biomes.

During one of the brief moments of silence mid-conversation, Sai managed to hear very familiar sounds. Amber heard it too, and she lowered her center of gravity by bending her knees and back. She gestured him to be quiet and to not move.

She silently entered deeper into the canopy, a golden light forming a hunting bow on her left hand and three arrows on her right.