Undying Berserker
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Chapter 50 - Troublesome Job
🕑 Added 2025-01-26 13:39:46 +0000 UTC“I don’t think that they would give us a very difficult job, but at least it should be something that they don’t want to do for whatever reason. As for the possible jobs that they could be, it is hard to say.”
Irlan nodded. While it was interesting to think about that, ultimately, it was better to wait for Reina to confirm things. Just as expected, finishing the preparations for the mission had been pretty easy for Zelos. It seemed that the old man farmer had laid the groundwork for that kind of situation beforehand, and there were some kids who would do Zelos’s job while he was away. It seemed that they thought the secret of Zelos’ strength was his work and the milk of the farm. It was nice to be that naive, if anything…
When the day for the departure came, the group reunited on the training grounds with their horses and soon departed. Carriages or wagons couldn’t reach the base of the natives, after all, so they could only use their own horses. Fortunately, that increased their movement speed quite a bit, since all of their horses were of high quality. Still, Zelos was by far the one carrying the most weight. Heirina wondered if his horse would be fine.
“That is a lot of stuff that you are carrying.”
“Nightstorm eats a lot, so I am bringing a lot of weapons.”
“Your horse eats a lot? Right…”
Everyone felt like chuckling, but in the end, they managed to hold it back. The trip had been pretty pleasant since it was summer and the area had been pretty peaceful lately. Without the closest neighbor in the West to cause trouble all the time, the bandits didn’t have many options to attack when the area was reinforced. So, they moved to other areas.
Zelos heard that some of them had bounties, so he wondered if he should go around capturing them. It would be an extra nice income.
Thanks to the trip, the group was able to recall the last time that they had worked together and realized that Zelos had grown quite a bit. Kids of his age usually grow pretty fast, but he got at least ten centimeters taller. He also had grown in terms of muscles. That made sense. All that food had to go somewhere, after all.
The group reached the mountains in the natives territory after four days of traveling. Instead of crossing the first few mountains, they decided to circle around it and then move toward the river that they used before. Still, Edea soon found a problem regarding that.
“I wonder if we really should head straight to that river… we might end up revealing to the people around us that the natives use it to move.”
“We don’t know if Reina is in a hurry or not, so it will be better if we try to find them there as soon as possible while also saving the energy of the horses.”
It was troublesome since Reina didn’t know how they should contact them. There was a limit in Heirina’s opinion about how much a person should be bad with words, after all. She felt even more troubled by the fact that she was like that and still could be a very charismatic leader.
When the sun was setting, the group reached the river, and the area was the same as usual. Heirina and the others left Zelos to look after the horses and then they went to check the cave of that mountain in which the river crossed, but it was sealed.
“We should start a fire… that should alert them that we are here.”
Everyone nodded and then they started to work. Now and then, they would hear something and then look around, only to see Zelos mumbling something to his horse. It wasn’t like they had never talked with their horses, but it felt like Zelos was going way overboard with the conversations.
Before long, night came and then the group had their dinner together. They ate in silence, since they were worried that they might not hear something. Fortunately, Zelos’s ears were sharp enough, and he heard the familiar sound of something heavy moving. Before long, they heard a voice coming from the clearing at the base of the mountain.
“Our leader warned us that you would come through here, extinguish the fire and then come to the river.”
The group looked behind some trees and then saw a shadow moving there. Without hesitation, they followed the instructions and soon disappeared into the darkness. One at a time, they put the horses on the boats that they found on the river and eventually, they began to head to the base of the natives. Only two of them were waiting for the group, and they didn’t look familiar at all.
“Did your leader say anything as to why she called us here?”
“No.”
A simple and decisive answer that nullified any desire to pursue a conversation. In the end, Heirina accepted the message. The trip would last for a day, so they decided to relax and rest since they had no idea what the mission was supposed to entail.
When they arrived at the base, it was dinner time, and while the place was quite well lit, things were as silent as it could be. In any case, the natives that controlled the boats soon guided them to the tower, where they met Reina for the first time. Maybe Reina was indeed in a hurry.
Once again, they found her meditating in the last room of the tower. The place was completely silent this time around… Zelos wondered if he could ask her some tips on how to meditate effectively. He didn’t expect that her trait would consume magic to work, but maybe it made sense if consuming her magic let her eyes find the weaknesses of the enemies.
“You have come pretty early. Truth be told, I didn’t think that you all would come without knowing what this was about.”
“To be honest, I don’t like the idea that we came here without knowing what we were supposed to do, but a debt is a debt.”
“Are you guys hungry? Do you want to eat and talk here or somewhere else?”
The group had finished Zelos snacks in the middle of the afternoon, so they weren’t that hungry. Zelos was, though. While some traits required magic or stamina to work, he required a steady amount of nutrients. When he tried to use his trait recklessly when he was hungry, he ended up feeling like he was going to die for several hours. It was a sensation that the Zelos never wanted to experience ever again.
“Please, bring some food for our guests.”
“Understood, leader.”
The guys who brought the group left and soon they were left alone in the room. Reina told them to sit down on the floor and soon they followed the instructions.
“I suppose I should start saying sorry about the contents of the letters. You guys might not know, but recently, a lot of spies from other countries began to investigate us.”
After hearing that, the expressions in the group changed a lot. From slight annoyance to one of concern… they imagined that such a thing would happen, but they didn’t think that it would be after just a single victory for their country. Moreover, they never found signs of spies activities. However, the natives were apparently very good at picking that stuff. After thinking for a short while, Heirina soon had some questions.
“If you didn’t want to risk letting the spies know of that, then this job should be pretty dangerous.”
“It is a dangerous job under certain circumstances, like when the wrong type knows what is going to happen, but considering the precautions that I took, it will be a simple job for you all. I want you guys to deliver something to someone. It isn’t anything dangerous or valuable either, it is just a birthday gift.”
Now everyone couldn’t help but show confused expressions… Was that truly the job that Reina wanted them to do in order to pay the debt? A single delivery job?
“Where are we going to head to make this delivery, and to who?”
“To the capital and the person you should give the gift to is Liry. The imperial princess.”
As one would expect, everyone was left speechless with that kind of declaration. It was something that they never could have imagined that they would have to do. So, it took a while for them to process the whole thing properly. As usual, Heirina took the lead of the talk.
“... Why are you sending her a gift now? Wouldn’t that make people think that they can win and your people over?”
“Her birthday is approaching and a lot of people already tried that, but they failed. After leaving them half dead once, they stopped bothering us altogether.”
“I am surprised that you would know that or that you would recall it after five years.”
“I send a gift every year, since she also sends one every year.”
The princess and Reina were a lot closer. They would be pretty chummy friends if they knew each other’s birthdays and exchanged gifts like that. Regardless, that kind of job was troublesome in a very unexpected way. The group couldn’t even begin to think how they could reach the capital without gathering some attention and even finding the princess. In a way, they thought that it would be better to fight the enemies at the front lines.
“Before you ask anything, you need to deliver the gift directly to her and don’t open it. Don’t let anyone touch or open it either. If you succeed, you can return here to receive your payment. As for how you can contact her, she should be some friends that will help you if you spread around the world that you have a gift for her birthday. Some low lives will try to fool you as well, so you need to be careful.”
“Reina… considering what you told us, you should know that this can be very problematic to my clan, right?”
“What about it? Isn’t it problematic to your clan that a lot of people die fighting for you all?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“Consider that this is a hassle that is on the same level as fighting the enemies in the borders. As I said, I will pay you accordingly. Unless the danger isn’t the real problem here, but the fact that you want to live in ignorance while knowing that perhaps you have enemies even inside the country as well.”
Comments
Jerry
I send a gift every year, since I also send one every year.” shouldn't the second send be receive
