Moving Out

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"T-ten million Ezla?" I stare at the guild spokesperson with a face that expresses all the fear that encompasses all my emotions, my mouth ajar as I try to comprehend the debt he has put on us, "But, s-sir, we can't pay that much if we're unable to enter the kingdom..."

"A-and, what do you mean by kingdom, do you mean any city, town, and village— just anything under the banner of Ladour? Is that what you mean by kingdom-"

"Did you really question my authority, dark mage?!" He glares down at me, his eyes squinted, eyebrows furrowed and his lips curled into a snarling frown, "Have you forgotten your place!? Questioning my authority is already a sign of treason!"

My eyes widen once more, before apologizing to him in a bow, "Sorry sir, I will never repeat that mistake, just please... don't hang me or my friends for questioning your authority in this kingdom."

He lets out a deep sigh, as if releasing all the rage stored up in his nostrils, before speaking, but without shouting anymore— what a relief! "Good, but I will indeed entertain your question about the word I just used."

He remains silent for a few seconds, before answering with a grin that would make anyone's blood boil at the sight of it, "Yes, you are hereby banished from all the cities, towns, and villages under the banner of Ladour."

"W-wa-" but before I was able to rebut, Aoyama-san, that pig, cuts me off, "Now, I want you three to get out of my sight before dawn breaks, if I still see the three of you roaming these streets, I will have you sentenced to death for disobeying the law."

I stand there silently, knowing that if I do anything that somewhat goes against what this man infront of me orders, me and my friends would get absolutely annihilated by the sheer power this man holds in his fingertips.

"Guards, get these three hooligans out of this fair capital city!" He orders before turning around with his hands behind his back, although unexpectedly, he turns his head to face us once more, "And make sure to give them a fair send-off ceremony, they deserve it."

He then walks away from us and into the dense crowd, never to be seen again; I place my palm on my face, letting a breath of stress and dread escape my lips, I then turn to my two companions, who are just sat there in the water.

I give them the best warm smile I am able to do so— hopefully, that is capable of not having them worry about our situation at all —since this situation is already stressful enough. But as the leader, I have to act as the foundation and support for this party of mine, they are my responsibility and they are my friends.

"So guys, I guess this is it... make sure to pack your stuff and..." I inhale and exhale deeply through my nose with a bittersweet smile on my face, "...we'll just find a new place to call our home and pay off our debt from there."

I look at them, noticing their sad expressions, Benjiro-kun is slumped over, almost resembling a person who unfortunately died while sitting in the water with his legs acting as supports for his arms.

While Kitamura-san is just sat in the water with her knees reaching up to her face, I tilt my head in confusion due to the sorry state my friends are in, I exhale through my mouth before conjuring an idea.

I kick some of the fountain water at both of their faces, bringing them back to the real world, "Wakey, wakey, sleepyheads! Were you not listening to what I said earlier?" I spoke with a sly grin while squatting down to their level.

Benjiro-kun looks at me, "What's the point? ten million Ezla? that's an impossible amount to obtain, Natsuo-kun; we'd have to work our asses off at a tavern for five years to pay off at least one hundred thousand Ezla."

I playfully punch him on his shoulder plating, "Hey man, cheer up, we have a long road ahead of us, and we can just work odd jobs if it pays a lot, you know?" He then lets out a sigh, before standing up and crossing his arms.

"Fine, but if we happen to burn down another building owned by a very politically strong individual, I am not contributing to paying off that debt."

He mutters which is followed by a chuckle; I give him a smile and nod before turning to Kitamura-san, who is looking up at us. "Are you guys really that willing to pay off such an impossible debt?" she asks in a woeful tone, her eyebrows pointing downwards alongside a very noticeable frown on her face.

I reach out my hand towards her, "Look, as long as we are together as a team, we can do anything, Kitamura-san, remember? Just like when we were fighting that Colossal Mud Golem; it seemed impossible at first, but we were still able to defeat it!"

"To put it simply, just put a little hope in us; we can get through this."

Kitamura-san stares at me with widened eyes and a her lower lip slightly open, her eyes start shifting to different directions, and she looks down to her side, "If you say so, Takemoto-san." she grabs onto my hand and I pull her up and out from the water.

I let go of her hand as soon as she stands up; I jump unto the fountain base, before turning around and facing my two friends, shouting with tinge of bravery and a dash of main character syndrome, "What are we waiting for, you two? We have a vast world to explore!"

I look up at the night sky which is filled with shimmering stars that light up the void that is the sky at this hour; it is as if the Goddess of Stars, Qramleme, has told me that instead of looking at this situation as a terrible situation to be in, it should be looked at as a opportunity to explore the world with my two closest friends.

"Well, before we set off into the world, we should at least find a place we could settle down in; a permanent residence, so to speak," Benjiro-kun states, and he does bring up a good point.

"That is a good point, Benjiro-kun, but the problem is, most of the small towns around this area is under the banner of Ladour, so there is that problem," I start rubbing my chin very aggressively, trying to produce some ideas.

"There is one place I know which is not under the Kingdom of Ladour, so I think that location is our best bet, however, it is, how do I put this lightly... a fair distance from this kingdom," Kitamura-san states as she gets out off the fountain, still soaked head to toe.

I give her a big thumbs up as I support her statement, "Any location is better than this place! Since if we stay here after dawn breaks, our last few moments on this blessed planet will be spent hanging by the neck in the gallows!"

Benjiro-kun follows shortly after Kitamura-san out of the fountain, his armor clinking and clanking with every movement he makes out of this fountain we spent the past few minutes in— hopefully we don't catch a cold thanks to this.

I then hop off of the fountain base, landing on my feet, before gleefully announcing to my two companions, "Now, like I said earlier, let's gather our belongings and get out of here!"

"There is one problem to that statement, Natsuo-kun," Benjiro-kun asks with a tilted helmet.

"What is that, my good friend?" I answer with a smile, oblivious to what he is about to say next.

"I forgot both our belongings inside the building," he states with the most deadpan voice ever known to man, it almost sounds like what a regular, middle-class person would sound like when they realize they have lost a singular coin of Ezla.

"Well then, why don't we just enter the building and get our belongings?"

I almost feel like Benjiro-kun is raising an eyebrow right now behind that helmet of his, "Did I say something wrong?" I wonder, before turning back at the building that still has a raging fire going on.

"Oh right."

I turn to Kitamura-san in hopes to check if she did not leave her belongings in the building, before noticing that she indeed did not forget her belongings; I speak with glee, "Hey, we still have some of our belongings; Kitamura-san made sure to secure her belongings!"

As I begin chuckling in an awkward fashion, it slowly fades away as the feeling of losing something we worked extremely hard for slowly crumble down to ash. Our gear, our rooms, our efforts in order to get into this guild, all of that straight into the pit dug by one hundred goblins.

I hop off the fountain base, landing on both of my feet before gesturing to my friends who are currently waiting for my command, "Let's head on over to the gate, the guards are waiting for us," I then let out a hearty laugh, "The building manager even told them to give us a send-off ceremony!"

I start walking off with a kick in my step, singing as if I had drunk ten ales back-to-back; or in simpler terms, in a merry fashion, "We're~ making our way out of 'ere, onto the road, us weary peers!"

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As Takemoto-san continues singing his jolly song while leading the way out of this dreaded kingdom, I turn to Nishimoto-san who is currently walking with a noticeable slouch, I give him a sly smile and lean forwards with my arms behind my back, "Are you getting annoyed by his singing?~"

He lets out a groan, similar to how a Boarat attracts their mates— which is extremely loud, to say the least —and mutters while looking at me directly, "If I could just drink a potion that makes me deaf for a few minutes, I would gladly do it just to stop myself from hearing his terrible singing..."

He then slowly turns to Takemoto-san, before having his tone shift to an almost happy one, "...But, it is kind of nice seeing Natsuo-kun filled with glee for once. He has always been focused and stressed out from all the guild commissions, so he never had any time for himself."

I also turn to face Takemoto-san, who is just joyfully skipping while singing to himself; I turn back to Nishimoto-san, and I could bet one hundred Ezla that I could almost feel a smile forming on his face behind that steel helmet of his. "So... of all the people that should be filled with hope and happiness, it should be him," he says.

"Aww~ now that is the longtime bestfriend material I've been waiting to see from you, Nishimoto-san!" I give him a cutesy little giggle in order to irritate him, and did it work a treat.

"Pfft, no way..." he turns to me with what I assume is a death glare, "...You'll only get to hear that from me once, Kitamura-san," he answers with a deadpan voice, before straightening his back and cracking his knuckles.

I roll my eyes jokingly and cross my arms, "Yeah, right."

Facing forward, I notice that Takemoto-san has stopped walking; I ask him with curiosity filling my voice, "Why did we stop all of a sudden, Takemoto-san?" but he doesn't answer my query, so instead, I look over his shoulder.

I notice a large group of soldiers— wait, no, an army standing in formation infront of us, stopping us from exiting through the gate; I notice the fact that the soldiers are moving out of the way of a man on a black horse.

Takemoto-san places his hand infront of me as some sort of way of saying, "Just stay back," it is as if he was trying to protect me from getting harmed; I then turn to Nishimoto-san, who gets into a battle-ready stance.

The man riding the horse stops infront of us, he pulls the rope back while shouting, "Hyah!" which causes the mighty steed to stop, he then nods his head and speaks to all three of us, "Gentlemen, and fair lady."

"It is with a heavy heart that we are ordered to escort you out of the capital city walls, but it seems you have already made your way here, so what you three have to do now is just mosey out of here."

He then turns to his men, unsheathing his sword and raising it over his head while shouting with his rough albeit posh voice, "MEN! MAKE WAY FOR THE ADVENTURERS!"

And in one fell swoop, all the soldiers form a gap in the formation, which is big enough for all three of us to exit the city walls; the greenery past the gate is over abundant, however, there are some windmills and wheat farms on the plains as well.

The general now turns to us while sheathing his sword, "Keep safe out there, you three, the world is a dangerous place, but I think you three can survive out there; you are all adventurers, aren't you all?"

He then moves out of the way, and Takemoto-san, who was previously tense, now has calmed down alongside with his stance, which is much more relaxed; Nishimoto-san has also done the same thing.

He bows his head to the general in respect, and so does Nishimoto-san, and I follow suit afterwards; and before long, we make our way out of the city walls and through the gates, I glance over to my right and look at the soldiers just looking at us, not performing any actions whatsoever.

I feel a shiver move up my spine, it is as if these men are just statues, but who minds? Me and my two companions stand at the crossing point of the city and the outside world; the colors of gray from the stone path of the city and the greens and browns of the dirt path and grass that leads out into the world.

Takemoto-san turns to us with a melancholic look on his face, "This is it, the beginning of our new lives— we'll be starting from the bottom, but we'll make it back to the top in no time whatsoever!"

"You've always been like this, Takemoto-san. Always hiding that frown of yours behind that smile of yours... When will you just open up to us about what you're truly feelings?"

I give him a nod of approval, and so does Nishimoto-san; he gives us one big thumbs up and says with a wide smile plastered on his face, "I'm glad to have you guys as my companions and best friends!"