Why are you here?

"I guess we can reach the nearest village in about two hours or so if we use the horses here."

The light-brown-haired woman, Eleen, folded the map she was holding after showing the route to Ranger and put it inside her bag. Ranger nodded his head and turned to talk to the captain of the knights. The two of them discussed the ways to divide people in a way that they all could travel together. As the number of horses was not much, it was hard and nearly impossible for all of us to move together.

"But... How are we going to move Ian?"

I raised my head upon hearing my name being mentioned and turned to the group who were discussing our departure.

"Can we move him? Isn't it dangerous?"

Eleen smiled at Ranger and shook her head slightly.

"It won't be too dangerous unless he is forced to do excessive movements and actions that put pressure on his wound. If you are careful enough not to do anything carelessly, then it must be fine for him to move for a few hours."

Ranger heaved a sigh of relief and proceeded to talk to the knight captain about their route.

'Well, I'd be glad if you just leave me here...'

That way I won't have to worry about a plan to run away from these people in the near future. Although it's regretful to miss the opportunity to eat delicious food all day...

I looked down at the bowl of soup in my hands and sighed before filling my spoon, blowing it, and putting it in my mouth.

"...."

I didn't lift my gaze from the bowl of soup. Gulping down the food, I filled my spoon once again without looking anywhere else.

"...."

A cold gaze was drilling my back, but I did my best to ignore it. I swallowed all my questions and filled my spoon again.

'Why is he looking at me like that?'

After a few minutes of eating my soup, I put the spoon down and raised up the bowl, devouring its contents in one go. While doing that, I narrowed my eyes and peeked to the right for a brief second.

"...."

'He is still there...'

The man had been sitting there from the moment I woke up from my sleep this morning and had been staring at me without moving ever since. He didn't say anything at all, but just being under his gaze gave me the creeps.

'That's enough!'

I put the empty ball on the ground and took a deep breath.

'Even if he had recognized me, that doesn't mean I have to act scared around him! The most dangerous thing that can happen is me dying after all. I have nothing to fear here. Also, I have to find out who this boy is.'

Nodding to myself internally, I turned my head in the direction of the said black swordsman. I couldn't help but frown slightly once his sight entered my view.

"There are pretty much a lot of things you can use as a chair. I don't think there is a need to do that."

I pointed at what the man was sitting on as I said those words. Under the man was a person... A living person was being used as a chair for at least an hour! He was one of the few bandits that were captured alive and I have no idea why is he acting as a chair for this dude.

Hearing my words, the black-haired black-eyed man raised an eyebrow, as if he was surprised that I suddenly started a conversation. He examined me from head to toe once before tapping the back of the poor man under his butt.

"He'll stay in this position until he tells us the location of the goods they have stolen in the past month."

"The location of the goods they have stolen in the last month?"

I repeated the same words and tilted my head. I didn't expect any answers but the man surprisingly responded to me.

"We were assigned to find them and return them."

"....?"

I tilted my head once again.

"By one of their victims."

"Oh!"

So someone who was attacked and rubbed by these bandits had assigned this man to find the location of the stolen goods? That's logical and kinda illogical at the same time. I don't think that the money needed to hire a professional to track down a group of bandits, who is experienced and powerful enough, would be so little for anyone to afford... Especially someone who was rubbed by bandits not long ago. It would only be possible if the person was wealthy enough and the stolen goods were truly valuable.

"So are you some kinds of detectives or something?"

"...Mercenary."

"Oh!"

I could now understand things to some extent. These people were after the bandits for a while and had been tracking them, so when they found them attacking us, they joined the battle and captured the thugs.

'Still, it's strange... How come I've never seen these mercenaries before? I have never seen these bandits either.'

The only thing that had changed in this round is Alaric's memories... But how can someone's memory loss affect these bandits and the people tailing them?

'Whatever!'

Pushing those questions to the back of my mind, I looked at the man once again.

"Cool!" I gave him a thumbs up. "Now, can you please sit somewhere else?"

"No."

The black-haired mercenary refused as soon as I spoke those words.

"I don't really like someone continuously staring at me, you know. It's super uncomfortable-"

"Those hairs..."

The man cut off my words.

"Have you dyed them? Is that magic?"

"...."

My hand instinctively rose up to grab my slightly long dark-blue hair. I averted my gaze and nodded my head.

"Y-yeah. They are not natural. I've dyed them blue for fun."

"Where did you get the paint? Did you have the money to buy it? Aren't you a servant?"

The man's voice was full of doubts.

"T-that... I..."

"Hey, you two!"

At that moment, a voice calling out to us cut my words. Filled with a great amount of joy, I turned to the source of the voice and answered without waiting even for a second.

"Yes, old man?"

Ranger was momentarily shocked by my cheerful voice but he didn't say anything about that.

"Get ready. We are about to move."

"Yes yes!"

I looked back at the black-haired man and smiled at him.

"I was called. We have to go! Goodbye!"

I hope I'll never see you again~