Special Chapter X - Beach (part 1)

The group marched out of the cave about ten minutes later.

Including me, there are six people going to the beach. But, we aren't going to the beach for some beach party. We came to hunt.

The group left from a different entrance from when I first came. This time the exit was on the left side, and the one where I came from was the front. Just like that one, the path is long and can fit two people.

Gajah led the group as the captain. Everyone agrees since he is basically the rebellion's leader. He walked on the front, holding a lantern with his right hand.

The path to the outside took around ten minutes, which is shorter than the path I entered from. At the exit, there's a small amount of bush covering the hole, deadly similar to the previous one.

"Do all the entrances look like this?"

I asked one of the warriors with a longsword on his hip. He was also there when everyone was trying to calm Kirene down, but ended up being strangled.

"Pretty much. That cave was simply a station for the dwarves. It doesn't have a straight path to the dwarven kingdom, so if that area was known to the enemy, it's not that difficult to escape."

That's not what I'm asking… but I get the point.

The cave is expendable. Therefore, no need to put such a heavy security.

Such a shame a beautiful cave like that is expendable. I wonder how many other beautiful caves like this are around Mazino. Most of the caves around Mazino are just a bunch of dungeons filled with deadly monsters.

"Say... Those Lyona and Eva... they were your friends?"

He used this chance and asked me a question. I nodded slightly while still walking.

"Yes, they are."

"I see. Lyona was the envoy sent by Mazino to create peace between us and the kingdom. And Eva is her..."

"Personal bodyguard."

"Woah… I didn't know she was a fighter."

"She was a knight, actually."

Me and the longsword guy chats about Eva for nearly half the trip. It seemed that he really was interested in Eva.

"Oh right, I'm Belmar. Nice to meet you."

"Rile Viozet."

"Rile? That's a weird name."

"Indeed it is."

It's a fake name, after all.

We took several rests before reaching the beach. Since we had no means of transportation, we had no choice but to walk to the beach.

Luckily the path we are taking is a safer one, behind the mountains. Thanks to this path, the kingdom will never know about our trip to the beach. Because the beach is, after all... a recreational area.

The place will be crawling with both people and knights.

"How is a recreational spot like the beach have someone like the conjurer on it?"

I asked Gajah, who walked right next to me.

"It's exactly because it's a recreational spot. A lot of innocent people will come there, and it will be like a feast to the conjurer."

"That's... bad."

"That's exactly why we had to take him down, before any more people got hurt."

"And the kingdom's knights?"

"They haven't been able to do anything. For a while now, the conjurer has been continuously getting away with his crimes. Not even the Veldonian elites can do anything."

Gajah stopped for a while and placed his hand on his chin to think.

"Though, the kingdom does have some powerful knights. Like those magic knights such as the 'Rankers' and all."

"Rankers?"

"Yeah. I believe you said your rank is White in Mazino, right? Veldon had a similar ranking."

... Oh?

After that, Gajah explained Veldonia's unique military system to their magic knights. The ranking goes from rank 9 to rank 1. And based on his explanation, rank 9 is the lowest rank of all, which means it should be the same as a Red rank in Mazino.

Rank 1 is the highest and rarest. And there are only a handful of people who are in the category, and they are incredibly powerful.

"I just hope we don't come across the high ranks at the beach. Rank below 5 should be fine for Kirene to handle, but anything above that will be difficult for us. Don't even get me started on rank above 3."

Gajah continued his explanation. Looks like he was already expecting combat from the kingdom, after all.

"If you ask me, I just wished we didn't have to meet any knights from the kingdom, at all."

"That's true. Let's do our best to make sure that doesn't happen."

Gajah nodded at my sentence. We continued our journey while chatting about useless stuff. After walking for some more, we arrived at the last stop. After this, we will not be stopping anymore and will head straight to the beach.

After all, the beach is just beneath our feet.

"Look. At. That. Viieeeww~!!!"

Belmar shouted as he covered the top of his eyes with his hands. His eyes are staring at the view right in front of him.

The sun was rising, and it lit up the view right next to us. The golden ocean and the yellow beach. It truly is a magnificent view, I couldn't imagine what it would look like during sundown.

Currently, we are on top of a large hill above the beach. We had been walking for nearly thirty minutes, and everyone was quite tired. So, we took a stop at a spot with a really nice view.

"Would you look at that!"

Kirene came to the cliff and stared at the gold and blue in the distance. She had her bow placed down on a stone before coming to see the view.

I'm also enjoying the view. There's no way I'm wasting this chance. Something like this doesn't come easily in my world, after all.

The blue stretched from one end of the eye to the other. And straight from our position, is where the beach is at. It is located in the middle of an opening by the mountains, meaning the beach is located exactly in the middle of two mountains. This place is hilariously beautiful.

"Get some rest, you guys. We are walking non-stop after this."

Kirene and I headed back to sit down at the campfire that Gajah had already started. He and one other dude started the fire to heat themselves up. This is still dawn after all, and it is quite cold.

But I got over my sensitivity to temperature a long time ago. I don't feel that cold, but the others looked freezing over there. Out of all of the group, only me and Kirene don't look bothered by the temperature.

As a result, everyone sat down right next to the campfire. They placed their hands right next to the flames to help warm up.

I picked a spot away from everybody, somewhere at the edge of a cliff facing the ocean. I sat down and faced the view in front of me. I just stood there in silence, enjoying the blue on my eyes.

It's quite peaceful. I sat in this position for a long time, while everyone else warmed up next to the campfire.

After staring at the ocean for fifteen minutes, I can sense footsteps coming my way. Though the footsteps were hidden, I could still sense it coming.

It didn't take long for the footsteps to stop and followed by the sudden scream of a gorilla.

"Hya!!!"

Kirene walked over to me and tried to scare me, but I already knew she was coming miles away. I'm just surprised that her voice sounded so light when she was scaring me, a complete opposite to how she normally talks.

"Heh? Not scared?"

"I think your voice sounded very cute."

"... Whatever."

Kirene went back to her position with annoyance. I looked around the group, and it looks like everyone is also getting ready.

"Rile. We're going."

Belmar said to me, and I stood up while tapping the dust away from my robes.

I might miss this view, but we have to move on. I can come back to this place later, anyway.