Beads of sweat slid down my face as light was beginning to break through the clouds in the sky. When I saw the light, I took that as a cue to finish up. As I placed my sword against a tree, I wiped the sweat off my forehead. Before placing my sword on my back, I grabbed my cloak that was hanging off a branch. Once my sword rested on my back, I began walking back towards the front gates to Marawa.

I saw several people and six horses as the gates came into view. I thought by the time I was there, everyone else would be waiting but it looked to only be four waiting.

When I got closer, it seemed like I interrupted their conversation as the group looked towards me while I approached them.

“Who goes there?” A man that wore an iron breastplate that met with a matching tassel that had cloth running beneath which had black stripes on the edges and blue running down the middle. His arms were bare except for the gauntlets he wore and had a shield that rested upon his left arm. He as well had matching iron greaves that ran down to his slightly pointed iron sabatons. Upon his waist rested a sword that was covered by a sheath that was mainly black with two blue stripes running down it and one black and one blue sageo tied near the hilt. The man's face looked stern with a scruffy black beard that matched colors with his black hair which was a few inches above his eyes.

I assumed that this was the group for the subjugation party so I went straight to the point “I’m here to join the subjugation party.”.

The man then turned to a well dressed individual that wore clothes similar to the ones that worked in the guild “Yes, if I’m not mistaken, this is the last member for your party. He joined at the last minute with the guild approving it.”. When I realized that the fourth person here was someone from the guild, I wondered where the other two were.

The man with the shield then turned back to me “What’s your name and adventure rank?” he said while measuring me up from bottom to top.

“I go by Crim and my rank is B.” I answered him with.

The man then brought his right hand to his chin and stroked the stubble “Hmm, quite surprising the guild has a rank B adventurer going along this subjugation. Why apply by yourself, where's the rest of your rank B party?”.

I looked at him a bit confused, “I don’t have a party?”.

He then took his hand off his chin and had a subtly surprised expression before turning to the guild worker. The guild worker then helped him understand “I was a bit surprised myself when I heard about it too that he had no party but he's completed his promotion quest with no assistance. The quest itself was B rank and was not modified for a single person.”. He had a short pause before continuing “My guess is that Crim here is or was most likely a freelance adventurer before joining the guild.”. When I heard of that phrase freelance adventurer, I wondered how many people don’t register with the guild.

The man then turned back to me while placing his hand on his chin and started stroking it again. “Hmm, if that's the case, things should run quite smoothly here if anything bad lurks the path to Nishilon.” He voiced out. The man then bowed his head “Let us start over. My name is Brell Pristey and I’m the party leader of The Crescent Blue, a B rank party.”. He then gestures to behind him “And these two are my party members.”.

The first to speak was a tall man with dirty blonde hair that was slicked back except for several strains that fell forward to the sides of his head.He wore armor of the same fashion as Brell with an iron chestplate, tassel with the same black and blue cloth flowing underneath it. He as well had iron greaves but they looked to be modified to make it easier to move in but covered less of his legs that exposed black pants he wore underneath. His arms were bare as well except he had no gauntlets and on his shoulders rested pauldrons that were black with blue lining it. He stood in a position that had him resting a long halberg upon his shoulder, the halberg itself had a long pointy tip and in the middle was a symbol of a moon that had intricate designs in the middle that I didn’t understand the meanings to. Off the moon was a long curved blade that was in the shape of a crescent moon and on the other side was the same but smaller crescent moon shaped blade that pointed the other way. The only other notable thing was the black and blue rope tied right before the edges started on the pole. All the man did was nod his head towards me and spoke his name “Names Krello.” and spoke nothing more.

My eyes then turned to the lone lady in the party who wore round glasses that rested upon her nose. She had brown hair falling freely behind her back except for the bangs that were lightly touching the top of her glasses. Overtop she wore a black robe that had blue lines flowing all around her in intricate designs. The robe itself was loosely tied around her neck in a bow and underneath she wore a black chemise that was lined with blue. The chemise laid over chainmail that you could see near the neck. She as well had black pants that rode down to her black with blue lining boots. With both her hands, she held a staff that had a blue crescent moon on the tip with several smaller crescent moons hanging off of it which cling together whenever she moved the staff around. She gave a shy wave with one hand “I’m Howari Krilli. The water mage of Crescent Blue.”.

As she gives greetings, I nod to her in return. Brell then speaks up while turning to the guild worker “Even after giving all our greetings to each other, those two are still not here?”. A moment passes before a sigh slips from Brell’s lips “Always late those two.”.

When I heard that, I was curious about what the other two people were like. Time passed by as Brell talked with his party members about their supplies and gear while waiting. Finally after a bit two people were walking towards the gates.

One of the two people was a woman that had long black hair braided tightly behind her back, she had a lazy look in her eyes as if she just woke up. She had an iron breastplate that only covered the chest and left a midriff which exposed her toned stomach. She had black pants that had an iron tasset resting on top. Her arms and feet were bare which made it easier to see her toned arms. She had no weapon on her which made me wonder what kind of person she was.

The one beside her was a man with brown hair that came close to his eyes that had rectangular glasses resting upon his nose. He wore a leather chestplate which laid overtop of chainmail that laid underneath. His arms were bare except for his right hand that he wore a gauntlet over top which held a long staff with a beast that I couldn’t recognise. The beast that was on top of it covered the back end of a medium sized blade which was protruding from it.

By the time they were close Brell called out to him “Why are you two so late!”.

The man let out a sigh as he looked towards the girl to his right. “She literally wouldn’t wake up and waking her up is like waking up a hibernating bear, kinda scary.” He said in an exhausted tone.

“Hey Suta! That’s kinda rude!” The girl beside him voiced out, upset.

The man named Suta rests his hand upon his forehead while looking towards the ground “Don’t worry Lin, to you calling you a bear is more of a compliment.”.

The girl named Lin then changes her expression to a smile “Oh if you meant it that way, you should have said so sooner!”.

Suta lets out a sigh to her response and just stops walking forward once they enter the group of the five of us waiting. He then turns to Brell “It’s good seeing you too Brell, how's Crescent Blue doing?”.

“We’re doing well and with not much currently going on, we decided to take part in this subjugation to get to Nishilon and take part in the merchant festival.” He answers him. “How about The Restless Claws? You know though right now it really seems like the opposite of restless if Lin’s just waking up.” He said as his gaze shifted towards Lin.

Lin lets out a yawn at the mention of waking up “I was up late at the tavern, Suta said we had to be up early tomorrow and I didn’t think he meant tomorrow, tomorrow.” We all looked at her confused “When he told me, it was already really late so I didn’t think he literally meant in several hours!”. She then looks towards Suta “So blame him for not being specific!”.

“I-...” Suta stops himself and just lets out another sigh as he shakes his head. His eyes then make it towards me and change the subject “I don’t remember someone wearing red being in Crescent Blue, who may you be?” he asked in a curious voice.

I was just watching the scene in front of me and was taken back when he asked the sudden question. “Names Crim, a B rank adventurer. I’ll be joining the subjugation to get to Nishilon.” I answered him after a short pause.

“A B rank adventurer…”. Suta then fixes his glasses and asks Brell while studying me “When did you get a new party member, Brell?”.

Brell shakes his head “He’s a lone wolf capable of being a B rank adventurer with no party apparently. I don’t know much about him.”.

“Hmm… Alright.” Suta then looks me back in the eyes. “My name is Suta Kinslin, I am the leader of the two man party called The Restless Claws and in my free time I study magic.” He tells me. Suta then gestures to her right “And this is Lin.”.

Lin studies me for a quick moment before saying anything. After a short pause she then tells me “You look strong, let's fight.”.

Suta then waves his hand in front of her “No no no, let’s not. I know that you normally fight stronger people in the slums but this isn’t the slums, he’ll be part of the team also we don’t have time for this because you felt like sleeping in.”.

Lin then looks upset towards Suta “Hey, he’ll fight me if he wants to. Don’t answer for him.”.

Before anything else could be said, the guild worker speaks up, cutting off anything that would have been said. “Alright, you guys have spent too much time not being on the road, I’ll explain one more time on what you guys are here to do before sending you all on your way.” He then pauses for several seconds. “It is quite simple, the guild has employed all of you since you guys are capable adventurers of killing beasts at a decent pace and can deal well with bandits.”. “For each beast killed, you will be awarded an additional Silver Coin and one per two bandits killed on top of the ten given to each individual after arriving in Nishilon.”. The guild worker then takes a short breath before continuing “The horses here are provided from the guild and are to be returned to the guild in Nishilon. Each horse has several blankets for sleeping at night and enough rations for fourteen days just in case something happens along the way.”.

The guild worker then looks over all of us for a few moments to see if there are any quests needed to be asked. Since there was no one who had anything to ask, he continued “Alright, there's not much else to be said so I hope you all make a good temporary party and clear out the path for the soon to be merchants traveling from here, Marawa to Nishilon.”. “I will now take my leave and let you guys get to the road, safe travels to you all.” He said before turning around and began walking off.

Brell looks around to all of us and is the first to speak up “Alright everyone, to make up for the time that those two lost us, lets get on our horses and leave right away.”. Once he said that, everyone except for myself began climbing onto the provided horses.

I observed them all on how they got on the horses since I still didn't really know how to ride one. Once the last one got on their horse which was Howari, I tried mounting the horse the same way everyone else did. When everyone was on their horses, the lead, which was Brell, started moving along the path towards Nishilon with both Howari and Krello following suit.

I awkwardly stayed in place since I didn’t know how to get the horse moving forward and Lin and Suta passed me. It seemed as if Suta knew I didn’t know how to ride the horse and he said in a low voice as he passed me “Lightly press your legs together to get her to move.”. Following his instructions my horse started to move and follow the other horses in front.