Story III / Part III: Northlandia and White Falcon Party (II)

"Arcane Warrior Squad's Leader, Tobias Hidelson, at your service."

Tobias is a talented adventurer that I met during my visit to Yggdrasil World, Floor 35. At that time, I saw a group of Arcane Warriors from Leprechaun Fairy swiftly subjugated a Mithril Golem that normally is the worst opponent for a Mage aside of Skeleton Dragon. Well, I didn't ask him and his team to join out of blue, but I observed their habits and ability first, and they passed with flying mark. They had a hard time earning money in Yggdrasil World because it is too peaceful, so they quickly took my offer before I finished my formal invitation.

"Summoner Squad's Leader, Miyamoto Shiki is here Kaichou-san."

Shiki, a woman who once my classmate in academy. She is a talented Kitsune commoner from Yamato Island that came to Northlandia Magic Academy through scholarship from Konoe Empire. Other than her calm, collected and lovely character, she is also sharp and hates to lose. I often heard and her quarrel with Luna because of simple matters, probably because sense of rivalry between their race from Yamato Island.

"Mentalist Squad's Leader, Rave Rizel."

Rave is a Dark Elf that studied abroad to Northlandia and yes, he was also my classmate in Northlandia Magic Academy. Rave is a man that's not very talkative but he boasts powerful mind magic that can even manipulate a lifeless creature like Golem or Ghost.

"Enchanter Squad's Leader, Vetto Zaveriel von Xerxesiel, at your service. My Vice Leader, Takimura Mikazuchi is also here, Leader."

A dignified man and woman with serious look and glasses greeted me with polite voice. The man is Vetto, the second son of Duke Xerxesiel, the Marine Force General of Northlandia Army. He doesn't have a slight interest to command a special army or squad in Northlandia Imperial Army because he doesn't want to be tied with regulation. Meanwhile, Mikazuchi is another Kitsune that joined my party with the letter of recommendation from The Konoe Empire's Adventurer Guild Master. It seemed she was a fresh talented graduate who only accept solo mission because there was no party in Konoe Empire who can hire her because of her high price for the use of her ability and talent. She said, if she made a great blunder on a mission when she joined a party, she would work for free for the rest of her life.

"Necromancer Squad's Leader, Delriethel Varidell at your service, Your Highness."

Delriethel Varidell is an Imp Fairy that joined my party after I saw him won the final match in a tournament when I visited Vanaheim World, inside Yggdrasil Tree. He is a cheerful and kind boy, despite his class as a Necromancer. But he doesn't like socializing with the others, or I can say he is an introvert.

"Academist Squad's Leader, Faudel Rusolth. Good Morning, Leader."

A young man with gentle face and polite demeanor greeted me. He is Fau, the son of Northlandia National Librarian, Barschuff Rusolth. He is very polite and smart, and he is good at socializing with the others. I also invited his little brother, Jason Rusolth to join because they have a talent on memorizing everything that they had seen and heard. Well, in my party, The Academist Squads are called "Walking Encyclopedia".

"Painter Squad's Leader, Alfonso de Vermillano, who or what should I pain today, Leader?

Alfonso is Terra Elf who once lived in Imperium Romanum. He is a carefree, sassy, eccentric and talkative man who loves nothing than battle, arts, magic and painting. I also heard he came from distinguished artisan family.

"Bard Squad's Leader, Valentinus de Vermillano, is present himself before you…My Love."

This eccentric man is Valentinus, Alfonso's little brother and he also has similar personalities like Alfonso.

"Puppeteer Squad's Leader, Valentina de Vermillano is ready to depart!

The twin little sister of Valentinus, Valentina also joined my party, because she found me…shining?

"Alchemist Squad's Leader, Erick Darcleionnere. I'm ready whenever you need me, My Dear Lord."

This man with scornful look and sharp tongue is Erick, a Dark Elf who joined in along with Del. He loves to tease or prank other members. He also loves to secretly making dangerous things that had exploded our party's base three times. Truthfully, Erick is a recidivist from The Dark Elf Kingdom of Midgardia, who lived in slum with his little sister. I offered him to join because I saw him sold a new type of potion to a merchant, but he got kicked out and labelled as a schemer, even though the merchant himself haven't tested his potion at that time. I am interested to his products, and I bought several potions and explosive flasks from him. When I tried it in my journey, the result exceeded my expectation. Then, I quickly returned to Midgardia and asked him to join my party. Although at first, he misunderstood me as a slave dealer and a schemer merchant.

"Warlock and Warlord Squad's Leader, Tim Igniveris…eh wait Kaichou, I'm here!"

A shota uh, wait this little cute boy from Ignish Elf Race is Tim. He was an orphan who was abandoned by his parents because his excessive amount of mana and dangerous personality…like an arsonist maniac. Long time ago, I saw a boy with slender body and dead eyes lying on the street during my visit in The Ignish Elf Kingdom of Vulcaniar. I approached him and asked him whether he is okay or not, but before I finished my question, he cried and asked me to save him. Hearing that I quickly took him and brought him to the local guild, but they refused to tend a mischievous child with ridiculous amount of mana that had destroyed countless building and injured the people who tried to save him.

Then, I took him back to Northlandia with teleportation gate and abandoned my mission. I brought him to the Healer Mage Tower and asked them to tend him. Few daesh later, the Healers contacted me and told me that they must seal Tim's mana because it burned his body from inside and causing him to go berserk.

Tim needed an Eelvariash of mental and physical therapy, and after The Healers allowed him to go home, I took him to live with me and raised him until he can become an adventurer as now. During that time, I taught him to control his mana and properly behave. Then, father sent him to Northlandia Magic Academy. Strangely, after he came back he became a sweet boy with gentle, androgynous face and polite demeanor. Other than that, he also really clingy to me and doesn't want to be separated from me.

"Special Squad's Leader as well as Vice Leader of Rogue Squad, Rania Vaneir Latrodectusia is ready for your command, Haru-chan, eh oh I mean Kaichou-chan, hehe…"

Rania is an Arachne from North Americanae Continent before that Continent separated from Europeanae Continent on the end of A.E.V I era or so that what she said to me. She was a traveler and storyteller that visited various places in the world, but on those places, she also received harsh persecution from Humans, who misunderstood her as a man-eating monster, that became her main reason why she hates Humans deep into her heart. She came to Northlandia after she met with my father in Vermillione Francois Empire. Well. Rania has long lived in our mansion as father's spy long before I born. But honestly, Rania isn't a bad person, she is really carefree and very Onee-san like, even though she loves to tease other members until they are traumatized. Well, I don't know how to describe her correctly but I still remember that she is a sadist to her core, for example she ensnared Luna and Yuna with her web and did something…I don't want to say.

"Vice Leaders of Saber Squad, Arnold Gardelioth reporting in! There are also Toval Sablionne, and Ello Losckein, here Leader. We are ready anytime."

The man with a mean look is Arnold. He is a Terra Elf who has serious attitude and he is love to trash talks other people. The one beside him is Toval, he is a Tempest Elf who loves to flirt any women he met and the last one is Ello, and a Dark Elf with lazy expression who loves to sleep everywhere he can.

"Elizabeth von Marcellia, Arcane Archer Squad's Leader, ready for your order."

"Maria von Sareleloirre, Magic Archer Squad's Leader, ready to commence operation."

"Khazim Stelvas also here! We Dwarves are ready to smash anything that comes in our way!"

Eliza and Maria are third and fourth daughter of Marquis Family that trained many talented Arcane and Magic Archers that served the Imperial Family and my household. They are also my classmates during academy life. Meanwhile, Khazim and his friends are great friends of my family's blacksmith.

(Yup, everyone has come) I looked around and I counted the number of people.

I counted 150 members of my party have come in time, high-spirited and they are ready to depart anytime. Well, normally an adventurer party shouldn't have more than 30 members, but in Elf, Dwarf, Fairy, and Demi-Human's Kingdoms the more the merrier, because we can work fast and efficient. For example, like taking 30 quests at once. We can divide our party into small squads and dispatch them into the specific areas. We can shorten the time and get more cash rather than normal party with few people. However, the demerits from having many members are leadership, fairness and traveling expense. If you don't have a single talent and ability that are suited to become a leader of party with massive members, you can't ever dream to become this type of party leader.

"Right, now let's start the meeting…" I snapped my fingers and a big magical map appeared instantly in front of us. At the same time, a long seat appeared below my party members and then they sit neatly in line.

I cleared my throat, "A wikliviash ago, the Guild Master received an urgent request from Her Majesty, Queen Anne Petroskyvia Reina herself to eradicate the corrupted monsters and "them" that still roaming in the Raklera Valley. Her Majesty asked The Guild to send a few top-ranked adventurer parties that operate in Northlandia."

"…and with your mother connections on the Kingdom, the Guild Master tasked us with this job?" Thomas stared at me with mocking gaze.

"Hey…you are playing dirty Haru-chan…" Rania added.

Well Thomas is right. The Guild Master gave us this job mainly because my mother recommended our party to the Queen herself and I don't feel it as a "dirty play" because I have a connection. We would be in high ground everytime and everywhere we have a connection on that place that was my father said to me.

"I bet everyone is jealous of us right now." Said Tamara and Rania nodded in agreement.

"Truthfully, I think they pitied us and other parties who have been tasked with this job, Tamara nee-san."

"What made you said that so confidentially, Robert-kun?"

"Look, we are tasked to eradicate monsters and creatures that have been rampaging the main continent for 106 Eelvariash and all of them are dangerous. Their weakest are C-ranked and all of them can corrupt anyone they bite into one of them. Don't you think that the Guild Master wants to kill us?" Robert looked around, finding an agreement from everyone.

"Bahahaha! Hoo-boy, you are right. I will be asking for plenty of money from the Guild Master if we came back alive." Said Jacob whose sits next to Thomas. He laughed hard upon hearing Robert's statement.

"Well, we have known the details of our mission this time. Then, what about the battlefield?" asked Maria.

"The geography structure you mean? There a lot high ground so Mages and Archers can easily attack the enemies, but there are only a few parts of the valley that we can use as front base during the operation. I don��t want to camp together with other parties." Yuna explained and complained both in same time.

"So, what about supply and other things that we need to take care of?" Yovan raised his hand.

"Me, Robert and Ayumi have prepared our own and we already bought some for our party members as well. How about you, have all of you prepared your supplies?"

"Don't worry Kaichou, we have prepared for it long time ago." Rania waved her hand up and down.

Everyone in our party has this mindset after a few of my comrades were gravely injured on the past when we were on quest to subjugate a monstrous boar. We failed at that time and we must pay the compensation money. We almost went bankrupt and disbanded at that time, but thanks to Ayumi's support, we could get back to our track. Nevertheless, we need to start from scratch again and fixing our bad habits.

"So, what about our party members? Is anyone here has a trouble with your own skill or spell?"

I asked this because it is the main reason we failed the boar subjugation quest at that time. Our party members were selfish and unwilling to follow my command. They didn't want to reveal their weakness and kept using the same spells or skills even though it was ineffective. They also tried to use long and difficult spells that wasted our times. Ayumi, Robert and I sure had a hard time because of that. After we failed the quest, I scolded all of them. Thanks to that failure now, we are able to cover each other weakness.

Eliza raised her hand, "It's me, Leader! You know, my [Ice] Attribute Magic is really bad right now. If someone wants to use Ice Attribute Magic, that person needs to master [Wind], [Water] and [Dark] Attribute Elemental Magic first to a certain level. I have grasped the expert rank for each of those elementals, but my [Ice] Elemental Magic still has low damage and short duration…"

"You probably need to train your [Water] and [Wind] Elemental duration as well as the status effects. Your Ice Magic has short duration because you can't maintain the "coldness" and "water amount" on your [Ice] Elemental Magic. For damage, you need to enhance your [Wind] Elemental Damage. Among those three, [Water] and [Dark] Element couldn't do much damage except if you use High-ranked Magic for [Anti-Army] or [Anti-Fortress]." Yuna explained it to Eliza and she nodded heavily after that.

"Cih, how annoying. Please teach me Yuna-sensei." Yuna replied with a nod.

"Alright, did anyone here still remember what the shape of our formation is when we are riding the horse?"

Vetto raised his hand, "Yes. We will have eight carriages to escort. I recall 20 Knights will be on the outer line, then 20 Warriors in the middle line, and 20 Scouts in the inner line. On each of the carriage, a Knight and Warrior will become the coachmen and they will take a turn every 12 Heverra. The rest of the party members will ride the carriages and we will divide them into equally to each of the carriage. So they can provide necessary support for other party members if they injured or ran out of mana. Isn't this right, Leader?"

"Yes, you are right Vetto. Did you hear that everyone? Yes? Okay, anyone here wants to ask something?"

Pedro raised his hand, "I also have a problem, Kaichou! I think my sword skill has grown dull. Yesterday I met a huge wild bear, and from the look, that bear is corrupted by [Chaos Rain]. Normally, it takes less than 15 minerval to take one down, but my sword can't kill it with one hit. It also blocked my sword skill. I wonder what's wrong with me…"

Rania stood from her chair and approached Pedro. She said, "You stupid drunk! Did you forget to clean and sharpen your sword?! Your sword is covered with blood, sand and corrosion from Spider's Venom already. Of course, you have grown dull because your shoulder is a bit dislocated. Do you remember that a bear smacked your right shoulder long time ago?"

"Let me fix your shoulder for you!" Rania pulled Pedro's shoulder and then she squeezes it.

"It Hurts…It Hurts…!!! Rania, please stop…!"

"That's Rania for you! Bahahahaha…!" Jacob laughed hard, followed by the others.

I chuckled when I saw my party members get along like this. It sure brings a calmness in my heart. On the beginning, after the party recreated and hundreds of talented adventurers that I invited came, the party suddenly became chaotic and no one can get along really well. I need to hold my anger until a point when we failed on that monstrous boar subjugation quest. Well, I didn't remember really well what I did to them until they can get along like this but Rania and Ayumi said I turned completely into "something different" and beat up everyone that made we failed on that quest in one go. Well, Robert once said, "On that time you disciplined them really well until we can reflect on ourselves…but please don't turn into that again…eh forget it."

"Aniki, I think we have forgotten something…" Robert approached me and placed his hand in my shoulder.

"…Hmm…I don't think we have forgotten ab—eh…!"

"…FATHER!" We looked at each other and teleported outside.

We run downstairs straight to exit door. I passed Anya and I felt she wanted to say something to us but she was too late.