Chapter 2 - Section 5 - Interlude (Marked Wolves)

The names Larr, I'm the leader of the rag-tag C-ranked adventurer team called the Marked Wolves we've been traveling together now in Mire for close to three years, in that time we've taken on countless jobs but the balance here is way off, every job posted appears easy but instead are traps, you could take a job to kill a party of goblins but when you get there it's a full settlement. I haven't yet decided if the guilds trying on purpose to kill us off or if this land is just cursed.

We're a well rounded party with me as a Ranger, keeping an eye out for possible danger, our tank in front is a warrior the gal can take one hell of a beating, and I think she like it too? Next up the other man of the party Anthony an arcane magic caster who specializes in elemental magic, and then Quinella a drop out from the Church of Hezione she's a holy magic caster, specializing in Enhancement and Healing magic.

As far as parties go our is pretty well balanced, we're not just a team of meatheads rushing into battle, but also not a team of braniac's who focus on the why of battle more than the battle itself, When we first started out our gains were big, we rose from G-rank in no time at all, and continued to climb, but once we made the mistake of coming here, our reputation disappeared, we failed countless job choosing to fail, and live rather than try and die. With our failure came the paying of guild penalties wiping out all of our savings, not to mention being placed on probation by the guild itself. Fail a single quest and we'll be kicked out without a penny to our name.

Our party was now together to debrief our most recent mission, all our heads hung low we we're broke barely able to afford the cost of renting rooms for the night.

"Why would they say that job was C-Rank, there were so many of them I could barely see the ground itself among that sea of spiders"

She was on the verge of tears while she griped to me

"We should've left this country long ago"

Who joined in.

The cloud of despair hung heavily on everyone, we all knew what we wanted to say but to come out and say it would only make us feel worse.

If possible tomorrow we'll find an escort job that can get us out of the country or at the very least near the border.

That's when everything changed, a young man with Black hair, and Black eyes asked to join our table.

He looked as old as we were but comparing our clothes he must be a commoner from the lower district.

He chatted up Quinella asking question after question, even offered to pay for it.

Not a deal we could pass-up right now, but what he was asking about bothered me, he asked common place things, where to eat, get supplies, like he'd never been to this city before no, even so far as to say he's never been to Mire at all.

As they chatted plates of food were laid out before him, my stomach growled with intense jealousy at the guy.

[Why the hell does he, a commoner dressed in cheap clothes get to eat so plentifully?]

As the toxic venom lashed out in my thoughts, I looked around at the others who were all looking toward Quinella with a look of shock; she meanwhile was scanning our own faces.

[What what did I miss?]

After once again listening in, I found out this guy Kokei had ordered not only food but also drinks for my entire party, I couldn't help but stare at my hands in my lap, a humongous weight of guilt bearing down on my shoulders.

[Was he doing this to be kind? To get more information out of us? Or was he just showing off for Quin, and Rose?]

As more dark thought flitted through my mind I brushed them aside, choosing to deal with it if something happened but not to dwell on it and just accept his generosity.

The rest of the evening was rather uneventful, the four of us ate till we were stuffed, but only Quinella talked at length with our patron, sure every now and then the others would chime in but as soon as they'd said their piece they'd shrink back in place returning as a silent observer.

A few days later in the morning as our party gathered together outside the Inn, I informed them of my decision to leave Mire behind and look for a job that would take us over the border.

The others all agreed happily as if they'd already decided to do the same even if I'd chosen to remain behind.

When we got to the guild I broke off from the other's who all went their separate way to try and sell of equipment or items in exchange for goods we'd need for the journey, I alone walked into the guild hall heading straight for the job posting board, scanning the C – D rank jobs I found 2 that matched our criteria, one was asking for escorts to take an item to the Empire, these kinds of jobs are so sketchy just by posting this who knows how many people have already leaked the info, and untold numbers of bandits and mercenaries are waiting to attack any who take on the job to steal the item, the other was a simple request to escort a merchant to Stata, and then over to her hometown of Bebol in the Meritocracy.

The merchants request was only D rank, but even factoring in this countries poor analysis of jobs I figured at worst it might be a C-rank something we should be able to handle. So I tore the request off the board and headed to the receptionist to accept the request.

Once the paperwork was done, I headed off to the merchants guild to meet with the client.

Raisa Salide apparently she's the daughter of some up-and-coming merchant in the Meritocracy the good they sell are simple so chance of someone targeting her for them would be low, and with her being human the chance of someone attacked just to kidnap her are also pretty low.

"Thank you so much for accepting my request, I hate to trouble you but the roads from the capital to Stata have become such an unknown recently that I fear an escort has become all the more necessary"

"No worries at all protecting the citizenry is what we do best, leave your safety to us, me and my team won't let anything happen to you or your goods."

The negotiation for the job went rather well, I'd agreed to escort all the way to Bebol in exchange for 5 silver coins, and Raisa would cover the cost of the travel rations and provision required along with the toll to cross the border.

We'd agreed to set out the following morning shortly after dawn to allow for the greatest distance of travel, so I headed off into the city to prepare myself.

I was just finishing up with the last of my prep after running into the others and discussing the job and remaining details with them when a kid of 7-8 came running up to me wheezing and panting heavily.

"You? You're a runner from the guild yeah, did something happen regarding our job?"

Shaking his head violently side to side, the boy thrust his arms out revealing a scroll with a wax seal.

After accepting the scroll the boy ran off back into the crowd of people littering this market square.

"Is that… a request from the guild?"

"Well this is a first!"

"To think they'd go out of their way even to send a runner"

The voices of my party echoed in my mind as I broke the seal and scanned the parchment scroll I unravelled.

I re-read what was written three times before rolling it back up.

"Well what does it say?"

She asked inquisitively whilst giving my should a light jab.

"We've got a personal request for an escort mission from a G-Rank adventurer named Kokei"

As the last of my words left my lips all eyes turned and looked towards Quinella.

"What, I mean sure I talked to the guy and told him some of our past but I don't know anything about this request."

"Could it be a trap? I mean we're only one job away from exile?"

"He didn't seem the type to me."

A chorus of discussion erupted only ending when I raised my own voice.

"Regardless of his request we've already accepted a job, so we'll have to meet with him and refuse, unless his destination is also along Mrs. Raisa's route"

"Oh yeah that's right we already have a job!"

With that we made our way back to the inn we'd stayed at before to inform Kokei of our inability to accept and rent the cheapest room possible to stay in before our departure in the morning.

The meeting with Kokei went well, too well in fact his request was almost identical to Mrs. Raisa's except that his own detailed that he just like us wanted to leave the city and country as soon as possible.

After talking it over with everyone in our room, we were split between two veins of thought, those who believed him to be a traveller who only wound up here by happenstance but was scared off by the stories he'd heard from Quin last night opting to go somewhere safer for him, or the other which was that he was on the run with someone or something after him, having newly arrived in the capital to immediately want to set off again made my skin crawl, we'd agreed to take him with us but I'll be on my guard the whole journey.

[Geez the money's not going to be worth it if I wind up stuck getting so tense]

Letting a large breath out I joined the sounds of quiet breathing as I slipped off to sleep.

Morning came and we The Marked Wolves made our way to the Merchants Guild to meet with Raisa and inform her of the changes, mainly the addition of a "temp" member to our party, to sweeten the deal we would let her know Kokei could use item box to allow the horses to speed up, by carrying us all instead of walking.

But something about the city was different as we entered the merchants' district the air was heavy, even in the craftsman's quarter there were far more guards out running around, but here members of the knights' order were joining in, giving orders and heading off in all directions.

"What the heck do you think is going on?"

"Looks like the whole city is in a state of emergency!"

Not one knight or guard they tried to stop would bother with them.

"Maybe we can find out more from Raisa at the guild"

Shrugging my shoulders we ignored the commotion and continued on to the Guild

"Oh all this, I heard from the receptionist this morning that their all looking for some guy with black hair and eyes who appeared in the city recently, named Kogi or something like that"

Our faces all blanched…

[For the knights order to be out in force that must mean the king is the one who's looking for him]

Uneasily we all gave uncertain looks to one another, Quinella and Roseanne both changed their looks after a little bit to eyes pleading me to do something.

I just silently gave them all an A-ok with my hand. I mean we don't know why he's wanted but until we find out he's just the guy who helped us out.

We next proceeded to inform Raisa of the late entry into our party skipping over the fact that that he was the one everyone was looking for.

But I mean how do we get him out of the city if the entire place is crawling with people looking for him.

Just as we finished detailing the newest entrant Quinella called out towards an alley.

All of us turned to look, Quinella on the other hand slapped a hand across her mouth. The guards all around only glance momentarily at us.

There in the alley was a cloaked hooded figure, the figured just stood there shoulders heaving as the man tried to catch his breath.

The escape from the city went according to plan, we stuffed Kokei into a crate used for transporting weapons and passed the checkpoint at the western gate due to sheer luck really, someone who'd apparently bought clothes Satou had sold was seen walking around and all the guards and knights chased after him.

After getting a safe distance from the capital we freed him from the crate and continued our Journey, along the way we all got to talking, since we're all Marked Wolves I figured it was the best cover and a way of learned what abilities and Skills Satou had, other than Item box along with trying to covertly figure out why he was wanted in the first place.

My hopes were dashed however since he declared himself to only be level 1 with Item box as his only skill so far.

He detailed the reason the guards were after him, as being someone in town found out he was a low level with a decent sized item box, the 4 recently summoned heroes didn't have a single supporter among their numbers so they were planning on using him as a makeshift supporter would be best, but to indenture someone who cannot fight back and force their cooperation is just sick.

I still don't entirely buy his story but I believe entirely in his desire to get away from here without bringing harm to us if he can help it.

The first battle our escort fought was a rather simple one, almost too simple that's when I noticed the others break out in surprise upon sheathing or lowering their weapons, so I did the same in that instant Kokei's or rather now Satou's figure appear out of nowhere, I was staring at him the entire time but only just now did I actually see him.

I thought he was Level 1, but no level 1 can turn themselves invisible, especially not so invisible that a level 35 ranger such as myself wouldn't be able to spot him.

We all questioned him and his excuse this time stemmed from his equipment which was apparently lent to him by a friend, it was high quality without a level requirement.

But only seemed to function against those who had drawn weapons against him.

I know this cause while he was explaining I'd raised my fists up taking a stance like I was about to punch him but he remained perfectly visible.

Still once the interrogation was over he aided us in dissecting the goblins, but i still had even more questions, his mood and interest making it seem like he'd never had to deal with monsters before or even seen them.

[That one he's hiding something, is he a fallen noble, an assassin? I'll keep my eye extra fixed on him, when night falls I'll pair him with Quin to see if he tries anything while keeping my own guard up just in case]

Morning came and the night was uneventful, I only stayed up the first hour after getting Quinella and Satou to take over the watch, the both of them just quietly sat staring at the fire and their surroundings.

[Well at least he took his duty seriously]

Walking out of the tent, I could hear a slight commotion as Quinella was freaking out asking Raisa and Roseanne question after question about Satou.

"Do you know where he is, did he leave a note, and have you seen him, where could he have gone"

The endless barrage of questions only finally stopped when I pointed out towards the hills and informed her he was running his was back here.

Her mood changed immediately, but my own face only turned to stone, even from this distance I could tell something was off, sure he was still dressed the same but there was a thick scent of iron, and foulness on the air, and as he got closer his once pale green clothes were almost black caked in dried blood.

Everyone else freaked out barraging him with questions, his explanation was pretty standard.

Killing some monsters wouldn't be too outlandish, and for a newbie like him getting covered in blood would be almost expected, but…

An Orc? It sounded like a joke he'd just claimed to have fought not only a large party of goblins but also an Orc.

I mean I'd believe it if he used hit and run tactics utilizing that cloak of his, but even then they'd still catch him eventually.

Perhaps they were injured already from attacking another group before they ran into him.

Continuing my speculation all the way as I headed off to the scene of the battle with the others except for Satou and Quinella.

When we passed over the final hill what we saw was nothing short of a bloodbath, 7 goblins, and 7 orc corpses littered the now deep red field of grass.

Most of the goblins looked like they had been crushed to death, whereas the orc's had received, many cuts on their thighs ankles, and wrists, before a killing blow was delivered to the nape of their neck.

"What happened here?"

She was the first of us to break the silence of this battlefield.

"From what I can see here, unless Satou is a shape-changer, or a giant using illusion magic, he got incredibly lucky as two groups of Orc's, and Goblins ran into and started fight against one another, he meanwhile went around dispatching anyone he could with that magic cloak of his since he'd be even more invisible in the dark of night"

[That's the most explainable, but is that really what happened… It doesn't look like he attacked any of the goblins except to sever their ears off after the fight, I mean sure it's possible the orc's killed all the goblins while he was just running around trying to survive but even still…]

Raisa and Roseanne proceeded to butcher the orc's, while Anthony and I worked to create a pit and drop the goblins, and dissected orc's into before covering the pit. Using a space magic spell "Floating board" we piled the orc meat high up, before returning our walk to camp.

"Even if you call him lucky to be able to harvest 7 orc's worth of meat"

"When we get to town he'll be rich once he sells all of this"

Raisa and Anthony joined in, in agreement.

[But the bigger question still is, is he a danger to us?]