Since the party was awake, I decided we should head to the meetup location to get our gear.

“Hey Kera, you told Tea 6 hours up the road to central right? I assume you know where that is enough to guide us?” I say as I stuff the sleeping bag into my inventory.

It’s listed as “Hand-made bedding” in my inventory and it doesn’t seem to have any issue with it being in the sack Gero put it in either.

“Yup, your camp’s actually just a short ways from the road. If we start walkin’ towards town, we should come across where the delivery boy stopped in no time.” Kera says as she throws the blanket and pillow she was using at Kiel.

Kiel didn’t see it coming and fell over when it hit him.

Sigh

“In that case let’s get moving, I don’t want to keep him waiting that long,” I say as I walk over and help Kiel up, putting away the items into my inventory.

“Wooh, that looks rather convenient, got somethin’ a bit like that myself,” Kera says and she reaches into her bag.

Her hand goes far deeper than the near coin-purse sized bag should be able to handle, and when she pulls it out she is holding a yellow scroll with a long red ribbon attached to it.

“Aint too big, but it helps to carry ‘round some trinkets.” She says tossing the scroll a short ways in front of her.

“Uvt summon!” She says holding her hand toward the scroll.

When she says this, a flame catches fire at the end of the ribbon. It's quite hard to tell if it actually burned at all before it blew out. Just like before, when she says her incantation, I can almost feel the words resonate in my stomach. It’s quite convenient to be able to make voice commands like that, but it could stand to be a little less uncomfortable to do so.

To my surprise though, after she said these words nothing happened for a short while. No monster appeared out of thin air like I expected, and for a moment we just stood there staring at Kera. I began to think it was just another prank of hers until

Gao!

A lion's roar completely foreign to what I would expect to come from a creature in this area sounded closely behind me. Walking up to the scroll casually is a creature that resembles a lion in many aspects. The only real things that differentiated it from a normal lion is that it is abnormally large, it also had vivid red and orange fur with a brilliant shade of orange for its mantle.

“That was an “Uvt” summon. It takes an animal ya’ haven’t quite tamed and makes a contract with it. It will come when called if it agrees to the contract. Ya’ can’t tame animals the same way you can with monsters, so it’s a pretty nice workaround.” Kera says as she climbs on top of the lion and lays face up on its back.

I would obviously rebuke on the sudden lion that showed up, or that it's obvious she doesn’t plan to walk herself… but I’m sure it’s what she is waiting for. I won’t encourage h-

“Woah! That’s cool! What do you call him? It is a him right?” Kiel says walking up to the lion.

“It is, but I wouldn't walk to clo-“ Kera says in obviously no hurry.

Of course, as if it was planned, Kera puts on a big smirk as the lion puts Kiel’s entire head into its mouth. It doesn’t chew or yank at all, it just holds Kiel there as Kiel struggles furiously… I'm not so evil as to leave him there typically… but he needs to learn how to deal with people like Kera. Yup, it’s a learning experience.

“Then shall we get going?” I say turning my back to them.

“HMM?!” I hear Kiel murmur… but I'm going to pretend I didn’t.

“Follow her, girl” Kera says rolling over and point at me

On command, the lion lets go of Kiel's head and starts to follow about a foot behind me.

After a while, Kiel regains himself and chases after us walking in the direction to meet with Tea’s delivery. Mak and Kay are sitting on Gero’s shoulders whereas Bik walks beside me. Kiel isn’t so much walking with us, as he’s trudging along behind us. He looks like a wreck… though somehow it’s far more comical a sight than sad. We walk for about 15 minutes before we arrive at a road that looks almost identical to the ones leading into and out of town. We follow the path until we see a cart parked up with two people standing next to it. One is feeding a very large dog-like creature that I assume is an Ina. The other is standing in a ready position with one hand on the hilt of a sword at his side as if he is expecting to be assaulted any moment.

“He-" I begin to yell out before Kera slams her hand onto my mouth and pulls my head back a bit.

“No caution at all, eh? Your horns?” She whispers into my ear as she pulls something out of her bag.

Crap! I keep forgetting about them! Man, these things are really inconvenient.

Kera hands me a hat that resembles a beret. I quickly don the hat in the nick of time, as the people around the cart have noticed the ruckus we were making.

“Oi! Over here!” The boy who was previously feeding the dog yells while waving at us.

I smile back at him and wave back as we walk over to the cart. He gives a confusing reaction when I do, as he stopped waving and looked at the ground. Did I insult him or something?

“You’re the people sent by Tea right? I hope we didn’t make you wait for too long.” I say as I begin to bow.

I stop myself before it becomes too apparent as I remember that I’m masquerading as a noble. I'll need to discuss noble etiquette with Kera and see if she knows what’s appropriate and what’s not.

“N-no um we did’n-“ The boy starts

“We waited far too long! Do you not realize that there are dangerous monsters in this area! You adventurers always forget that not everybody can just sit around like this surrounded by monsters and demons!” He is cut off by the man who was with him.

As he lectures us he gets ever closer until he is towering over me with an angry look. Annoyed, I open my mouth to respond, but before a word comes out of my mouth Gero steps in between us and does the same to him. He doesn’t say a word, but that only seems to add to the intimidation the other guy felt until he finally backed away.

Sigh

“I do apologize for the wait, but there was little that could have been done. Now, from Tea I ordered some equipment for Kiel, a rapier, and some light armor. Did you manage to bring everything?” I say still looking with some annoyance on my face at the rude man.

“Yes! Also, don’t worry about the wait, we were going to try to head to the capital anyway. Our Ina had to rest and eat so we would have been stopped here either way. Rukal, get their gear for them; I’m not paying you to gripe at our customers!” The boy says switching tones rather nicely to lecture the man.

The boy is a blond adolescent with rather nice clothes and semi-long curly hair. His clothes don’t seem to be very expensive, but they look rather nice and easy to move around in. The man, on the other hand, seems to be in his late 30s and is dressed to fight if necessary. He has short brown hair that is ruffled and a little bit matted. I suppose he must be a mercenary hired to protect the cart on the way to the capital… He doesn’t look too strong, will he be able to handle the goblins?

“Here! Entitled nobles, always ordering people around!” The man mumbles as he shoves the light armor and rapier into my arms.

…I hope this kid didn’t pay that much for him.

The light armor is of a light grey color, only being thicker than common clothes in certain locations such as the shoulders and forearm. I must admit Tea makes good armor; it doesn’t look like it will impede movement in any major way. Although it does look quite plain, so I’m likely only going to wear it when necessary. The rapier, on the other hand, is another story entirely. It is made of a very white silver-like material. It is not incredibly shiny but somehow the dull sheen seems to only further the elegant look it has. At the tip, you can see just the top of a light clear gem formed to make the tip of the rapier, and around the hilt, there are a series of nice designs.

“This sword looks quite high-tier, how did Tea come across it?” I ask the boy hoping he knew the answer.

“I’m not all too sure, as I’m hardly acquainted with him, but I don’t think he buys anything he sells. The merchant guild handles all non-personal orders in town, and Tea hasn’t put in orders for anything other than wheat and a few tools. It’s quite likely that he made that himself if you ask me.” The boy says opening up a book he kept in his cart and looking through it to confirm his statement.

Wow… I came across someone pretty amazing didn’t I? He doesn’t even put in orders for ores? Does he collect the materials himself then? I should do what I can to help him out if he can continue to supply me such high-quality gear.

“Man wearing such nice gear without having to steal it is almost a dream! I’m getting so pumped!” Kiel says behind me.

I turn to see that he has already donned his gear and is swinging a sword at imaginary monsters excitedly. His gear is comprised of a full leather vest and legs. Along with an undershirt that looks to be made of a sturdy material and a belt with his sword's sheath as well as a few other pockets attached to it.

“Oi! When did you put that on?! Don’t tell me you stripped behind me?!” I say while looking at him with slight disgust.

“Hey, hey, who do you think I am? Some kind of pervert? I went behind those bushes and changed. I mean it's not lik~ ~~~~~~~~” He rebukes energetically. He seems to trail off towards the end and I couldn’t hear what he said, unfortunately

He is blushing and looking down as well. I can’t seem to figure out the members of my party at all yet.

“Hey Kozu, we’ve given them their stuff now let’s go!” The man named Rukal says impatiently towards the boy.

“Geh! I'm afraid my compatriot is correct. We need to get this cargo to the capital quickly so they can send supplies quickly after the goblins demise.” Kozu says while bowing towards me.

“”The goblins demise”? Who did you hear about that from?” I ask surprised by his statement.

“Oh, master Faurch advised me to go to the capital quickly as the goblin problem was going to be resolved soon. I’m not sure what he meant, as he refused to answer my questioning, but I know master Faurch is almost never wrong about such matters.” Kozu says excitedly.

Geh… that old man again eh? Somehow I feel that he is meddling far more than just this.