15: Not a bad deal - Part 2

'Why did I agree to this raid? Fuck! Am I that easily swayed by money and power? I don't even think I am physically built for this.'

Liam complained as he walked over the third mountain of the day. He felt exhausted as he had been walking for about an hour now, with the destination nowhere in sight.

In front of him ran Bianca, who showed no signs of feeling tired or even showing it on her face. If anything, she was picking up speed by the second with no sign of sweat on her face.

"Boss, you need to hurry up. We need to make it to the hunting spot early, or all good entry spots will be taken up. You don't want to lose your chance of earning good money, right?"

It felt like an insult when Bianca said these words, but for some reason, Liam felt determined to push himself and get toward the other side faster.

And before you start to get some funny ideas—no, it was not because money was involved…probably.

"Fine…just wait a second. I am huff coming…Ugh, you are a magician, so why do you have such good stamina? Aren't you supposed to rely on magic for everything? Wait! Are you using magic to boost your stamina?"

Liam asked, his mind running through a thousand ideas behind the reason Bianca was so fast and active, except to acknowledge the 'real' reason.

"Huh? What do you mean by that? Are you making fun of me or something? I will have you know that the reason I am so good at running and other physical activities is because I used to be active in school. Ah, but I've gotten so much worse once I graduated. I need to start exercising once more…ah, we are here."

Bianca cut herself off mid-way speaking as she looked at the clearing in front of her. Liam followed after her and looked down as well.

He instantly noticed that there were about 100 people gathered in the clearing, but since he did not know what was normal or not, he decided not to comment on it.

Liam quickly glanced at the group he was headed toward and tried to look at these people to gauge their mana.

Most of them did not even have enough to be categorized as class E magicians, but the event poster said that it was a task for novice D-ranked magicians or up (and their partner).

So either most of the people here came as a partner, or they were all misclassified as D-class. At this point, both were possible.

Grrrr

Liam was a little too busy in his thoughts, so he felt spooked and almost jumped when he heard Bianca make that sound. She sounded like an animal out to get someone, and Liam almost felt afraid of her.

"H-Hey, are you fine? Do you feel sick or something? We can sit this raid out if you need to—"

"No way! There is no way I will ever do that. Especially when she is here as well. Ugh, I knew something was going to go wrong when I did my reading this morning…"

Bianca sounded as if she was in a bad mood all of a sudden, and her face looked agitated as well. And since she was like this, Liam decided not to ask her anything.

'I see. So it is a bad time to ask, huh. I guess I will keep my questions to myself for now.'

Liam was a person who respected women. And sometimes that meant not asking them any questions and letting them come to terms with their emotions…sometimes…

Clearly, he misjudged this situation, and Bianca puffed her cheeks out in an annoyed manner.

"Tsk, are you not going to ask me any questions about why my mood is so bad? Do you not feel curious, huh, Boss? Is it because I am too much like a 'child' in your eyes—"

Bianca grabbed Liam's collar and shook him around.

It had already been established that she was physically on par with Liam, and with the added element of surprise, Liam had no chance to stop her before he was being swung around by her strength.

"H-Hey, wait a minute! You cannot just…Bianca, stop."

Liam complained, and his voice was loud enough to grab some attention. People seemed to be debating whether to step toward them or not, but Liam was certain that they would choose to mind their own business.

However, he was proven wrong once more when he heard the sound of footsteps heading his way, and Bianca was snatched away from his body and restrained by someone.

The lady who restrained Bianca looked a lot like her, with the same red hair and red eyes. But unlike Bianca, whose magic was strong but unrefined (almost B-class), the red-haired older lady could hardly be classified as a D-class in Liam's scale.

"Excuse me, but are you alright? I apologize if you got hurt because of Bianca. Please give me your name and team number, and I will compensate you for any damages—"

"Shut up, you old hag! Do you think I will sit quietly if you try to restrain me? You should retire in your old age of 50—"

The red-haired older female hit Bianca over her head before she snapped her finger and magically bound Bianca's mouth.

Liam noticed that the magic she used was not that advanced, and Bianca should have no trouble getting out of it with her raw power alone. But for some reason, Bianca seemed to have given up and lost her will to struggle.

"Ah, I should introduce myself. I am Emily Ross, Bianca's sister. (Mother, stop lying.) Anyway, I am so sorry for our youngest causing you problems. You see, she just left home a few days ago when she turned an adult, and she still needs to learn about the world. Now, would you mind telling me who you are?"

Emily extended her hand for Liam to take, but it somehow felt like a trap.

Still, it was not like Liam could ignore someone like her (who seemed to have a lot of authority from what he could tell from the looks of respect aimed her way). So he extended his hand and shook the older lady's hand as well.

[Warning: Emily Ross is trying to create a location marker on the user. Would the user like to retaliate and issue a warning to Emily Ross?]