“Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”

― Homer, The Iliad

The ragtag group of people, excluding Greyson and Eli, who had given up on walking and had instead climbed up to sit on Greyson’s shoulder. As they walked, she had been happily humming a tune to herself. Surprising, those that were walking along next to Grey and Eli seemed hold up a bit better as the march progressed and weren’t quite as tired as the others around them. Greyson, being who he was just enjoyed the fact that Eli seemed to be in good spirits despite everything that had been happening.

As the gate came into view and the group wasn’t more than a few hundred meters away, a group of approximately fifteen men in a dulled metallic armor made their way out of the gate in three abreast and five deep. They moved as a well-coordinated unit, not quite in a perfect march, but near enough that no one other than someone that had come from a military background would notice. The front two lines of men, and based upon their size that was Grey’s impression, carried large tower shields while the remaining men carried long three to for meter spears metal glinting from the tips with a red sash tried at the base of the spear head.

“Hold up!” Grey called out to be heard by his group. The weary group straggled to a halt, half of them collapsing to the ground as soon as they stopped moving. While a bit surprised by how tired the group was, Grey continued forward to stand in front of the rest of the group and meet the group of men rapidly approaching.

“Bad?” Eloise asked him from his shoulders tilting her head to look down at Grey.

“I don’t think so, but it doesn’t hurt to be a bit cautious.” Grey stated lifting his head to look up at her.

Well, let’s just see who they are then. Observe.

Grey mentally activated the skill command while looking directly at the first of the men coming towards them.

Name: Argus Valarius

Level: 7

Class: Warrior (Guard)

He repeated the skill until he had reviewed the basic information on each of the approaching men. While the names changed, each were level 7 and a warrior with one exception. With his curiosity peeked now he called up his own status for a quick comparison.

Status

Name

Greyson Einar

Age

???

Race

Human

Level

14

Class

None

Job

None

Health Points

312747

Mana Points

132913

Stamina

28598

Strength

2471

Vitality

3125

Dexterity

2798

Intellegence

1324

Wisdom

5128

Charisma

27

Huh, 13 levels out of those cultists. That isn’t too bad I guess. I feel like I should have figured out what level they were first just so I could guess further. Wait, how in the hell do I not have an age?! Shouldn’t it either be twenty-eight like when I went to the tutorial or at least tell me how long I was there? Fucking hell! Give me a god or goddess to strangle please!

Greyson continued his inner monologue cursing everything and everyone he could think of for the unfairness of it all. Now that he wasn’t There anymore, he did have to admit to a minor bit of curiosity for how long it had truly been. Sensing his tension and aggravation, a small hand patted his head. As if a veil lifted from him, Grey was pulled out of his inner musing (if that is really what you can call blasphemy against an untold number of deities that may or may not actually exist). Giving her legs a quick squeeze, Grey whispered out a quick thanks to Eli. For her part Eli managed to break away from her usual taciturn demeanor and smiled, no beamed down at Grey, giving herself a quick fist pump that she was finally able to do something to help her new papa. Despite their fatigue and fear, a few of the group of rescuees chuckled softly to themselves at the small child’s antics.

By the time the chuckles had died down, the approaching men had made they’re way to the group stopping a half dozen paces away from Greyson. The front two rows of men spread out in a small semi-circle so they were now six across. The remaining spearmen dropped their spears down interspersed between the newly formed shield wall.

Well isn’t that something. This almost looks like a phalanx formation from ancient Greece, they’d need a few more soldiers for it but still, kinda cool. Grey mused to himself. He silently waited for the group to settle into their formation making sure to not move at all and keep at least a mostly friendly expression on his face. Eloise, for her part just smiled and waved at the large group of men and weapons pointed at them. Lola, for her part had to throw her hands over her mouth and turn away to strangle the laugh that threated to escape from her. Spears pointed with overwhelming numbers and she waved to them. While she knew their savior was strong and had a magic she’d never seen before, this was just too much for even her.

Seeing the young child riding atop the apparent leader of the approaching group caused a few of the men to shuffle their feet in discomfort. She was either mentally deficient, which based upon the intelligence they could see in her gaze they didn’t believe, or she truly didn’t fear them. That thought caused one the two men coming around the side of the unit to pause and look over to his sergeant. They passed a few looks back and forth that seemed to constitute a conversation that only people who have been working together for years seem to master. Coming to a quick decision he took another step forward before addressing the group.

“Identify yourselves!” While not shouting, the load command laden voice of the man resonated throughout the group of weary travelers. Greyson studied the man a bit more before mentally casting Observe on him.

Name: Caius Sestius

Level: 9

Class: Warrior (Guard)

Well, well, who do we have here. Must be the leader of this group.

“Greetings, my name is Greyson and this little angel above me is Eloise. The rest of the people here are a those I I released from a cult’s prison.” Grey called back. Silence followed his declaration. After a few moments it started to become a bit uncomfortable to him so he decided to add a bit more.

“We come in peace?”

This time Grey let the silence continue on. He chided himself a bit for actually using the god damn movie line, even if it was true.

“Explain yourself” Caius stated a bit more forcefully. With a bit of a shrug, Grey decided to just go for the truth. It had the simplicity of not having to remember which lie he told which person.

“Well, short version is a cult of Algea worshipers summoned Eloise here to become the incarnation of their god. I objected. Once they were dealt with, we tried to find our way out of the lair, it is a lair if it’s built into a mountain with almost natural caves right? Anyways, as we were making our way out, we ran into their prison where we met this group of people. Since we just arrived to this planet, we let them out of the cells so that they could show us the way to the nearest town. Now here we are.” Grey said the last part with a bit of a smile hoping to make the whole thing a bit more palatable.

For his part Caius was attempting to hold in his shock. The cult that this man had ‘dealt with’ had been stealing citizens from Tenax for the past few months, most likely longer if they hadn’t taken some noble’s heir and brought it to the attention of the guards. There was a standing bounty of this cult as well as the captives they had taken. While no one had tried to claim any part of this bounty so far, he needed to verify that this was the truth and this man wasn’t some charlatan looking to make some easy money before disappearing on them.

“I see, do you have any proof of these claims?” he finally asked the man, Greyson, if he heard the man right in the beginning.

While he paused to think this through, one of the rescuees stepped forward.

“I am Tiberius Sergius Valens of House Valens, while I know not of the disposition of the cultists, I can say on my family’s name that he did indeed save us and protect us on our journey here.” The late high school early college aged boy stated. At the statement of the name, the group of soldiers immediately hoisted their spears and assumed what could loosely be called an ‘At Ease’ position.

Score one for saving someone important to the city it seems. Greyson inwardly chuckled.

“So does this mean we can come in? This batch here is a bit tired, and I haven’t had a damn bath in goddess knows how long.”

Caius frowned to himself for a moment before self-preservation told hold. He would not be the one to deny a Valen’s anything if he could help it.

“Very well, my squad here shall escort you to the gate. I must apologize in advance however, because each member of your group must be issued new documentation for identification purposes” he did neglect to mention that they would also be check against the list of known criminals. If there were any in this group, they would quickly find themselves at the end of their rope. Literally. (Ahh the joys of the days when public hangings took place as a form of entertainment.)

The guard squad broke up at this and took up escort position as those rescuees who had fallen to the ground made their ways up, some needing the assistance from others. They passed the remaining distance to the gate in a tense but companionable silence as neither of the groups really knew what to think of the other. The only two unaffected by this were Grey and Eli, who wandered along seemingly without a care, Eli taking up her humming again as they began to move.

After reaching the gates, Greyson was asked to remain behind as the group of thirty-two survivors were processed through the guard station. Lola, who was the last to be processed, looked back at Greyson before she put her hand on the stone pedestal.

“Is there anything else I can help you with after this Greyson?” she asked, a small spark of hope behind her aquamarine eyes. Completely missing the offered suggestion, (bow chica wow wow, because y’all know it’s a bit funnier if the protagonist is a bit dense in these matters) shook his head.

“We should be good. Go and find your family Lola. Make sure to stay away from dark alleys in the future.” He said with a kind smile.

Lola sighed and put her hand on the stone for it to read her information.

Name: Lola Lepus

Level: 3

Class: Academic

After the gate attendant checked her name against a list, she was given a new set of papers, which she hid in what remained of her shirt and headed out of the gate station.

“Thank you again Greyson for everything you did to help us.” She called over her shoulder, not wanting to look the stupid man in the face anymore.

Grey for his part waved a brief goodbye and then proceeded up scoop Eli up from his shoulders and deposit her on the ground near the pedestal. Before he could instruct her to reah up and put her hand the plate, a voice interrupted him.

“A moment if you please Greyson.” Caius while not fully nicely asked, Grey stopped in place resting a hand on Eli’s shoulder.

“What can I help you with?”

“I believe that it is I that can assist you. We have now confirmed that you have indeed brought back thirty of the kidnapping cases. Of those, twenty-eight of the cases were standard bounties of one silver a piece, one case at two silvers, and one gold and five silvers for the return of Tiberius. This brings you to a total of four gold and three silvers.” He stated beginning to hand small bag to Grey. For his part, Grey was a bit shocked, he had just been following his gut in helping the group escape the cultists, who would willingly let people die because they couldn’t be bothered to help when they were able to. He never expected anything like a reward for their rescue. While all of this processed, the synical portion of his mind added that he should have anticipated this along with the fact that they wouldn’t have any money if he didn’t accept this.

“That being said, we still have to confirm your identities before we hand the reward over to you” he mentioned off-handedly while stopping from handing over the money. Grey huffed a bit inside, but he could see the point so he released Eli’s hand and gave her a bit of a push to the pedestal. She placed her hand on it and the information popped up in front of all of them.

Name: Eloise Rhine

Level: 1

Class: Singer

Grey held back his shock at seeing that Eloise had a class where he still did not and then moved her away so that he could take his place and finish up their in-processing.

Name: Greyson Einar

Level: 14

Class: None

The group of soldiers around them pulled in a sharp intake of breadth as they saw Grey’s stats displayed for all to see. He didn’t really care too much, but turned to lock eyes with Caius.

“Are we all set then?” He asked almost languidly. Slightly chuckling to himself.

If only they knew the rest of it.

“Yes, it seems so. Here you are.” Caius said after quickly clearing his throat and handing over the bad of currency.

“By the way, can you recommend an inn for us to head to? As I mentioned before, I couldn’t really use a bath.” Grey asked unapologetically while swiping the money purse from Caius. After a moment of thought, Caius finally responded.

“Try the Tavern by the Gate. Its just a ways down from here. Look for the orange sign with the image of a plate with a fork and knife on either side of it.” Caius ultimately responded.

“Thanks, keep up the good work gentlemen” Grey called out as he grabbed Eli’s hand and they began to make their way do the road Caius had pointed out.