Chapter 11-

Lura Sylkalyn was making her way through the forest. It was very early in the morning and the sun hadn't come out yet.

The reason why she was traveling through the woods so early in the morning, was to visit a place.

She soon reached a cliffside. It had a clear view of the forest and the Town of Brook in the distance. The distant sound of a rushing river at the bottom and a gentle breeze in the air.

Resting beside the cliff was a small stone shrine. It was made of a couple of flat stones stacked together. There was a small wooden bowl, some flowers growing around it, and the tip of a broken rusty blade.

"Hey kid... I'm back."

Lura knelt in front of the small shrine and placed her bag beside her. She then proceeded to take a few items out of it and started tending to the shrine.

"Sorry that the others couldn't come today. They had jobs in other places and couldn't make it."

She opened a small glass bottle and started pouring water to wash the dirt off the stone.

"The adventuring job has been going well lately. There haven't been many major quests, but I have been taking alot of the gathering quests."

She then placed a handful of the heart-shaped herbs on the bowl.

"Oh yeah! I finally made it to silver rank."

She held out her necklace and there was a silver plate on it.

"I got it a month after my last visit. After that I had to participate in many other hunts."

She then noticed that the sun was coming out.

"I got to go now. I need to head out for another job. Hopefully the guild found some others to help with it."

She then gathered up her things and got ready to leave.

"Thanks again for saving me and the others. Take care, Toshio."

****

After returning to brook, Lura went to the guild building and walked up to her advisor.

"Hello Lura, how could I help you today?"

"Hey, have any others joined for the job?"

The lady behind the counter looked through some papers and held up a sheet.

"Sadly we couldn't find any other silver ranks. So the guild decided to seek copper ranks and only one young man joined."

"Really, one guy? Who is he?"

"I didn't get the papers on him. But I do know that he has a mercenary background and his weapon is a club."

"I guess one guy is better than none? Do you know where this person is at?"

"He just accepted the quest with his advisor. Guessing they know each other, due to how she reacted after meeting him? But right now he's probably on his way to the carriage?"

"Alright, guess I'll meet him there?"

Lura then left and made her way to the town gate.

During the walk there, she couldn't help but remember the incident with the boar. How it almost killed everyone in her party. If it wasn't for Toshio, everyone would've died on that mission.

Even though she's glad that her friends made it out of there, she couldn't help but feel guilty for bringing that novice adventurer and not being able to save him.

She felt even more guilt when she and the rest of the guild searched for his body. The only thing she found was the broken tip of his sword in the river.

After when the guild decided to consider him dead, she built a small grave for him on the cliffside and visits that place every year.

'It's been two years now. Maybe I should move on now? It's not like I could bri-'

She then bumped into someone.

"Watch it!"

She saw that it was a strange young man.

“Sorry about that miss.”

Sighs. “It’s fine.”

She looked up and down, glancing at his gear and thinking to herself.

‘Who is this guy? Odd-looking leather armor means that he’s a beginner, sweater means that he was living in a city, and probably skilled in a form of martial arts by the looks of his physique?’

She saw that the young man looked at her with a surprised look on his face.

She then noticed the strange iron club on his back and remembered the description from her advisor.

"Are you-?"

"Hey Lura, I never expected to see you here?"

"Uhh… hi?"

She was confused. She doesn't know this person, but he knows her.

Then he spoke again.

"How's your leg? I remember that it got broken. Did you heal it by yourself?"

Now Lura was surprised.

'How does he know about that?'

"I guess that it's useful to have healing magic, since It's better than drinking healing potions. Those always taste like sweaty feet."

"Hold it! What do you know about my leg? I never told anyone about my injured leg!"

The young man looked at her confused.

"Well… wasn't it injured by the boar we hunted? By the way, a man named Daniel wanted to say thanks for the boar."

"Woah, woah, woah! How do you know about the boar? The only others that knew about it was the guild, my friends, and…"

Then lura covered her mouth and tears were running down her face.

"... T-Toshio?"

"Oh, yeah... about that. Surprised?"

****

I just got reunited with Lura and she fell to her knees and tears started running down the sides of her face.

I got glances from the people passing by. They were confused on what was happening and if I insulted this girl or something like that.

I then crouched down and use the sleeve of my sweater to wipe the tears on her face.

"Please stop crying? You're making this situation look awkward."

She then grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me.

"Do you know how I feel about this?!" Sniff "I thought you died and I blamed myself for bringing you along!" Sniff

She was sniffing her nose mid-sentence and trying to hold back her tears was starting to make her stutter.

"Y-You a-a**! You were gone for two y-years a-and now you come back?!" Sniff "W-Where were y-you all this t-time and w-what h-happened to y-you?! W-Why didn't y-you come ba-ack when y-you were f-fine and let u-us know?!"

She was now a sobbing mess and I was running out of dry spots on my sleeve to dry her tears.

"A lot of stuff happened and I had to deal with them before coming back. There was the mercenary camp, Lizardmen, Ice goblins, golems, a scary mentor, and some bandits."

She then tried to say something, but her sobbing made it difficult to understand her.

'And I just bought this sweater.'

I then ripped a large piece of my sweater and held it out for her.

"Blow your nose."

She took the cloth and cleaned her nose.

"Better?"

Sniff "Maybe… "

I then helped her up to her feet and looked at my sweater. The sleeves were now moist and my abs were now showing.

"Today just isn't my day."

"What else happened today?"

"A lot happened. So how are you feeling now?"

"Stable now. Sorry about your sweater."

"It's fine. I'll just get another one before we head out."

****

After buying a new grey sweater, Lura and I were traveling along the road in a carriage.

I was originally going to hire a driver, but it turned out that Lura owns her own carriage and we used it to leave town.

During the trip, I told Lura about everything that happened since the fight with the boar. How I joined the mercenaries, fought against Lizardmen, helping the tribe, meeting interesting people, fought against goblins and golems, and spent two years training under Sona.

Lura was surprised throughout the story and kept asking questions to know more about certain parts.

I obviously left out the parts with my left arm, the stuff Tashin did to treat the black spot, how Sona made me fight a whole group of adventurers, and the encounter with the divine beast at the lake, since it still gave me chills whenever I remember how it looked at me.

By the time I was done telling my story, five hours had passed.

Both of us were just sitting side-by-side on the front of the carriage, completely silent.

I was silent because I didn't know what to say next. Lura was silent and still mentally processing all of the info. I didn't blame her, since the story sounded very unbelievable that all of that stuff happened to one person.

Then Lura spoke up.

"Wow… I don't know if you're just unlucky or lucky to barely make it through all of that?"

"Maybe my low luck had something to do with it?"

"How low is your luck? It can't be that bad?"

I reached into my pocket and handed her my adventurer card. She looked through my stats and looked closely at my luck stat.

"Thirteen isn't that bad?"

"It was lower when we got attacked by the boar."

"That explains why all of that stuff happened to you. You're kind of a bad luck magnet, aren’t you?”

I then tried to move the subject away from talking about my low luck.

“So why were you at Brook? I'd thought that you'll already be traveling the lands and hunting with high-ranked adventurers?"

"I had some business here. I was looking for others to join me on a job and… "

"And what?"

"... I was visiting your grave."

"I have a grave?”

“Yeah... I made it after the guild labeled you dead."

Lura looked away shyly and there was an awkward silence between us.

"... Is it nice?"

“Huh?”

“My grave. How nice is the grave?”

"It’s nothing special, since it's only made of rocks and a piece of your old sword."

“I’ve wondered where that piece went. Where did you find it?”

“The second time when I searched for any trace of you, I found it in the river. It was all rusty and covered in some type of purple algae. So I decided to leave it on the grave that I made for you.”

“It’s kind of creepy that we're talking about my grave, so could we change the subject?”

“Um… sure? We’re already here by the way.”

I saw that we were approaching a spot beside the road and that there was a group of farmers waiting beside a large tree.

Lura parked the carriage on the side of the road and we hopped off.

"I need to meet up with the employer, so could you pour water for the horses?"

"Sure."

As I was pouring water for the horses, Lura went to meet up with the farmers. By the time I was done, Lura was walking to me and the farmers left on their carriage.

"So what's the details?" I asked.

Lura pointed at a nearby mountain.

"The owner of a nearby farm said that two Rocs have been attacking people that passes by this road during the mornings."

"You mean those large birds? Wait, they said that the Rocs come out in the morning?”

“Yeah, that’s what the farmers said.”

“It’s past noon. What’re we going to do until then?”

“We’ll have to camp here and plan our attack.”

“Are you sure? The last time we camped before a hunt, we got attacked and I went missing for over two years.”

“Do you wanna ride for another two hours until we reach that farmer’s farm?”

“Alright, we’re camping!”

****

‘... I can’t sleep.’

Lura and I were sleeping inside the carriage, but I was having trouble sleeping. Part of the reason was the fact that Lura was sleeping on the other side of the carriage and it made me uncomfortable that she was fine with us sleeping in the same carriage. The other reason why was that my left arm was itching like crazy and I didn’t want to scratch it.

I soon had enough and climbed out of the carriage.

The night was chilly, but I didn’t mind the cold anymore. The moonlight gave a clear view of the surrounding area.

I rolled up my left sleeve and unwrapped the Divine Cloth slightly. I was scratching my arm while I was walking through the night.

I then heard the sound of a small yawn behind me.

“Where are you going?”

I turned around and gave a sigh of relief. Turns out that Alice woke up and flew after me.

“Sorry if I woke you up. I just needed to go for a stroll.”

I wrapped the Divine Cloth back on my arm and rolled down my sleeve.

“Has it been acting up again?”

“Only a little bit.”

I then noticed something. There’s a path in a nearby forest. I felt an ominous and familiar feeling from it.

Alice then spoke up.

“There’s no way that we’re going that way, right? Knowing your luck, that’s probably… and he’s gone.”

I was already walking through the path and disappeared into the forest.

Sighs “Of course he’ll go there.“

Alice then flew through the path and caught up with me.

The path was lined with thorny bushes and this made Alice feel uneasy.

“I think we should turn back? This place is creeping me out.”

I didn’t say anything and kept walking through the path. The deeper we walked into the woods, the more thorny bushes we encountered.

“I’ve seen this place before.”

“Where? We haven’t been here before.”

“It was in a dream.”

“... So we’re walking through a creepy and probably cursed path, just because you saw this place in a dream?”

“Pretty much.”

We soon came out of the other side of the forest and to an open field.

“Ok, we’re out of the creepy forest. What’s the next thing that you need to do?”

“I don’t know? In the dream, I was carried and flew across miles of land, before stopping at the side of a mountain.”

“... I’m not carrying you.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

I then opened up my inventory and pulled out a map.

“I might be able to find out something if I travel the same direction? It could be related to what’s happening to my arm and the strange voice?”

“Or that black stuff is messing with your head and you’re going crazy?”

“I might not be destined to become a hero or anything, but I want to figure out what’s going on with me. It’s better than waiting until this black spot kills me or something bad if it reaches my heart.”

“...”

As I was looking at the map, a cloud covered the moon and it made it hard to read the map.

“Oh come on. I can't see the map now.”

I was about to look for something to use as a light, but a green light shined behind me and gave me a clear view of the map.

I turned around and saw that Alice was holding a ball of light in her hand.

“Does this help?”

“...”

“What?”

“Since when could you use magic?”

“Ever since we entered this world.”

“...”

“Oh… this could’ve been useful in so many situations, right?”

“...”

“Toshio?”