On the walk back, Lillia seemed particularly amenable. Perhaps because she was glad of the progress we made. Maybe it was because she had was still feeling apologetic about what had happened earlier with the wolf. Anyway, it seemed like a good time to broach the subject of how and why I was brought here. I had found out a lot from Liz, and I wasn't going to pry too much into what happened with the last summons after finding out the circumstances from Liz. I did think it would be nice to hear it from Lillia. Seeing as she was the person that brought me here perhaps, I could find out a little more.

"Hey Lillia, I wondered if you were willing to tell me a little more about the circumstances of me being brought here? You know it has been a few days now I and I still know so little of while I'm here."

The first response was a pained look, then a brief pause until she finally spoke.

"Look there is a reason why I haven't told you anymore yet." She answered.

"I know, because I had to die to come here and I probably can't go home. The only way for me to gain an existence that is permanent and not bound to my relic is to defeat the demon lord, then remove their heart. You're worried that if you tell me this I might run away, because if I did the guild masters would destroy my relic and then I really would be dead."

"How do you know?" She asked surprised.

"Because I bumped into Liz while you were away outside her shop and when she realised that I knew nothing, she decided to tell me what she knew."

"Then you know about…"

"Yeah, she told me about that too. She thought it was better than you have to relive the experience again at least for now."

"I'm sorry, it was just so soon..."

"It's okay I can understand why you didn't want to tell me. That was an awful thing to have to go through and I also know that you have no choice but to obey the instruction to summon heroes here. I'm not going to run away."

"I see… Then what do you want to know? You already nearly know everything."

"I don't know, is there anything I missed that could be important?"

"Well that's pretty much everything I would tell a new summons. It's actually more than I would have told you myself. We aren't supposed to tell you that the guild can kill you by destroying the relic. It's supposed to only be used if the heroes turn against the guild or the alliance. They wouldn't want any chance of them trying to gain their own relic."

"Should you be telling me that?"

"Probably not." She giggled. "But you do already know about what they did. So, it isn't as if I've told you anything new."

"I suppose not… These relics, do you know where they're held?"

"No, all I know is that they are supposedly somewhere in the capital."

"Would you even tell me if you knew?"

"Maybe, I'm not sure. I guess it would depend on why you wanted to know."

"I don't want to go against the guild, not if they aren't a threat to me, but having something like that hang over my head makes me feel uncomfortable and then there's what happened to my predecessor."

Lillia flinched at my mention of the at the subject.

"They told me I would have the chance to change his mind, but they didn't even give me that. In the end they didn't want a hero that wasn't completely committed to the guild. If they even found out that you knew the truth about the relics, chances are they would kill you too."

I would have to be incredibly careful that they didn't find out.

"That's worrying… There's something else that's bothering me. Is it really true that only a hero from another world can defeat the demon lord?"

"Yes, at least that's what the ancient teaching that predicted their arrival say."

"Any they're believed without question?"

"They are now, but weren't at first. They alliance races did everything they could to stop them. None of it worked, many armies and our greatest warriors fell in the attempt. Nearly eighty percent of the male population, outside of the nobility has been wiped out."

"But not the nobility?"

"No, they realised pretty early on that our attempts to defeat the demon lord were ineffective. The nobles were taken off the offensive and brought back under the pretext of defending the capital… Only a handful of warriors and ranking guild members stayed on the front lines."

"And I suppose most of the commoners were wiped out?"

"Yes… Cowardly isn't it?"

"Yes, but it's not unexpected."

I'd thought the same thing about my home when Liz told me about the summoning. Our leaders would make the same kind of choices if their survival were threatened.

We had talked almost the entire way back to town. I could make out the gatehouse and walls in the distance.

"Look, we shouldn't talk about this in the open. Not in the town." Lillia warned as we approached.

"Yeah, we can always talk more later in private." I agreed.

It was approaching the time when the town gate shut for the night, so there was a small que to get back into the town. We filed in at the back of the line and slowly walked to the gatehouse. It was a good ten minutes until we made it inside the walls. Once inside we headed back to the adventurer's guild. We headed straight inside and made our way to a free table. After the days training and the long walk there and back we were both starving.

"Hey you two, over here." A voice called out to our left.

I glanced over and noticed that Altria was sat there calling us.

"I've saved us a table." She called over.

"Thanks!" Lillia replied. "Come on we had better join her."

"Sure." I agreed

We both made our way through the hall and joined Altria at her table.

"So, how'd it go?" Altria asked once we were seated.

"Good. We made the goals for the day." Lillia answered her.

"That's good. So, we're on course for that expedition?"

"Yes."

"Hold on what's this?" I asked as it was the first time that I had anything about any expedition.

"Well, there is only so long that you can keep on gaining experience doing what we did today, and it would be good if you can earn your income too." Lillia explained. "To do that you need to take on guild quests. There was one I've had my eye on for a while. The reward is too low for the danger and it isn't particularly exciting, so no one has taken it on, but it would be ideal as a starter for you. It would be good to get you used to working in a party as well."

"So, Altria is coming with us as well?" I hazarded a guess seeing as it was her that mentioned it.

"Yes, there will be four of us in total." Lillia explained.

"Who's the fourth?"

"That would be someone I occasionally team up with, she's known as Serin."

"You mean Serin Staphenidie?"

"You know her?"

"No, but I saw her collect a sword from Beth's when I was there the other day.

"That's just like her to go and get new gear for one little expedition!" Lillia snorted.

"Well, it looks like I will be in good hands then with you both and her. Beth told me that she was an exceptional swordswoman and a ranking adventurer."

"You do know that both me and Lillia are ranking adventurers." Altria spoke up.

"I didn't know that… Not that I didn't think either of you were proficient or anything, I just didn't know. Sorry."

"That's okay. It's not like we told you." She added.

"So, when do we leave?" I asked.

"Seeing as everything went according to plan today and you've reached level five already, a couple of days. If we can get everything ready in that time." Lillia told me.

"What's the quest?"

"One of the neighbouring frontier towns has trouble. A low-ranking officer of the demon lord's army has taken residence in the dungeon of some on old ruins a few miles from the town. The area was too poor to raise enough of a reward to attract anyone to help. The town has become a ghost town now only populated by a few adventures in the guild and the towns garrison."

"An officer in the demon lord's army. Is my level high enough for this?"

"You will be by the time we reach the place. It's several days away on foot and usually we would take a carriage, but there a few good training grounds on the way. It will give the chance to level up some more and get used to working in a party before we tackle the quest."

"And the four of us will be able to manage?"

"Do you think that three ranking adventures would accept a quest they didn't think they were capable of?"

"If you put it like that, I suppose not."

"Don't worry, we'll look after you." Atria said trying to reassure me.