In the dark of night, the carriage moved through the path connecting two towns, the name of the next town that was nearly 8 hours away from the carriage was Pleura it is just a town formed as a settlement with nothing special about it, for all intent and purposes it could be called a normal town having more farmers than adventurers,

Sitting in the carriage, Ryu looked over at Jue who had just fallen asleep despite his best attempt of remaining awake the whole way.

As Ryu moved his shoulder, which had gone numb due to Aiena putting her head on it for 6 hours,

'Man, she is drooling!!' Ryu noticed as he looked towards her who was drooling a bit on his shoulder and repulsively moved her head aside, careful to not wake her up after Ryu carefully moved her head away,

'What to do? The outside is just repetitive… ahh yes,' Ryu thought as he chanted,

"The water that goes down from above-bringing life creates a water ball…" not completing the chant he let the water ball float in front of him continuously channeling the mana in it and the water ball part of the chant, this is an exercise to increase constant chanting channeling,

Throughout the way, Ryu kept channeling mana in the water ball, part of the chant falling into a meditative state only focusing on the water ball floating in the middle of the carriage.

time passes without him realizing as he kept changing and increasing channeled mana increasing the size of the water ball and suddenly a shout came to his ear,

"We have reached!!" the carriage driver shouted to wake up Ryu and others,

"Shoot!!" Ryu shouted as he realized that 2 hours had passed, and the water ball went straight but slow due to its big size smashing into Jue's face.

"What is this!? An attack?" panicking Jue shouted as the splash from the water ball also came on Aiena and Ryu woke Aiena up who were shocked at the sudden splash too,

"Did we reach why water?" Aiena spoke as she yawns, the carriage driver was also shocked as he noticed water coming out from the door as he opened it,

"What were you doing?" the driver asked, and Ryu answered,

"I broke the water barrel!" Ryu said as an excuse, but the driver looked at the totally fine water barrel and then at Ryu's face who just smiled at the pointed back, and the driver was shocked the barrel, which was just fine, had a hole in it.

"Still there wasn't this much water in it!!" the driver replied baffled,

"It was barrel!" Jue said, understanding what could have happened,

"It was the water barrel!" Aiena also said even though she only half got it, hurriedly they got out of the carriage and said thanks to the driver and started moving towards the home beside the adventurer's guild that was quite smaller than the one in Zerah town leaving the confused driver behind,

Ryu knocked at the door. It was just a few hours before, midnight so it felt a bit strange to be knocking at the door at this hour of the night but Ryu always wanted to ring someone's home bell late at night,

'let's make most of it' he thought as he hurriedly knocked at the door few times and stand beside Jue instantly as soon as he heard a voice approaching from another side of the door,

The door swung open in one go and a small-statured old woman with her hair in a bun with a copper hair stick going through them saw Jue as if seeing him with a grudge,

"Geld's puppy!! Can you not be so restless? Do you know old people need sleep!" she said to Jue without giving him a chance to reply. She just went back inside saying,

"Come in!! till when you three plans on standing outside" Jue looked at Ryu with a look of betrayal but Ryu just whistled as he stepped inside saying,

"Hurry up or she will get angry"

Jue and Aiena soon followed him inside, being careful not to make too much voice seeing Ryu himself was walking as quietly as possible.

Once they entered the living room of the house, the old woman was sitting on one of the chairs surrounding a table wide enough for 6 people to sit at the same time,

"You three were too late! That fool told me you will come two hours before," she exclaimed in a grumpy manner and pointed at the seats for them to sit on.

Once settled, Ryu spoke.

"Rana grandma, how are you doing? It had been 2 years" at, this the old woman named Rana nodded and spoke in an irritated voice,

"I was feeling better until that heck of dungeon appeared in the nearby forest!! My hair will be greyer than before and now there is this sudden VIP requesting to monopolize and clear this dungeon alone!!"

"Good evening, Rana grandma sorry for earlier," Jue spoke apologetically with a conflicted expression,

"couldn't expect something else from that fool's grandson!!" she said. Ryu at this thought

'Sorry grandpa chief… there are some things a man just has to do'

Rana and Village chief go way back. Since the Village chief first came to Zerah forest he explained her as a beautiful woman which couldn't be far from her current old self, she was a reoccurring character in the village chief's tales,

Rana stared at Aiena for a while, touching her hair stick as if in deep thought. This was, after all, she met Aiena. Ryu had been to Pleura a few times with the Village chief 2 years before and Jue visits the town a lot with the Village chief, seeing Aiena getting fidgety from all the staring. Rana finally spoke,

"How are you not married till now? If you want, there is my nephew!!" she thought,

'When that fool told me she isn't married, I didn't imagine her like this. She is so bright and cute!! How did she pass these 8 years unmarried?

In the world of Pefrion, the marrying age varies from place to place, but in the locality, the accepted age of marriage is 16.

At age of 24 Aiena being single shocked Rana, especially knowing she is a mana user of miracle attribute those with a higher amount of mana look youthful for long depending upon the amount of mana,

Aiena was baffled by the sudden marriage confession and answered rapidly,

"I will be denying it as there is still an adventure I am looking forward to!! But I pray the best for your nephew," as she looked toward Jue and Ryu.

'She could rap all along!!' Ryu was shocked at the speed of Aiena's speaking as Rana clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction and stood up, her face just two hands above the tabletop emphasizing her short height,

"I will show you all your beds for tonight so I can also have my rest!! Follow me" she ordered as she began moving towards the stairs although her act was all grumpy and irritated Ryu noticed a fabric of blanket coming out from underneath the sofa she was sitting on,

'She was waiting all along! As conflicting as always, Ryu thought as a smile formed on his lips, Rana had always acted grumpy while being soft at heart combined with her looks only a few know about her true nature,

That night Ryu and Jue shared a room and Aiena slept in another. The night went smooth but once the sun come up, they were wakened by a loud shouting voice

"Wake up!! You slackers, it is meeting time!!" Rana's shout resounded all around the house,

They all rushed out of the room hurriedly, Aiena nearly slipping on the stairs but they made it to the living room at the end.

"Rana grandma isn't it just a few seconds since the sunrise!!" Ryu complained still in a daze,

"Good morning, Rana Grandma," Jue said wiping his eyes.

"Good morning" Aiena followed,

"Sit down. I have important things to tell you about and also the food is warm now, the client is a quirky kid and would demand going or along with the party as soon as normal people wake! Eat when you have time too," Rana said as she moved her head,

Looking at this much food this early Ryu, Aiena, and Jue were shocked but instantly Ryu took a seat and began eating

'I need a lot of food for Power napping in the dungeon!! Food is tasty,' he thought as he focused on food. Rana began explaining

"Client will show you guys the dungeon. He had instructed to keep his identity secret so don't try to bother with it… but one thing, no matter what, don't let him get seriously injured and save him from any big danger…. I can assure you one thing the safety of this client is tied to the position and well-being of this town of Pleura!! So do your best…" but before she could speak any further a loud voice came from the direction of the door,

"Leave instructing to me…. And the instruction is to remain two-step behind and don't do anything unnecessary, just follow preferably silent' the boy with maple brown hair said with an arrogant and prideful voice.

-To be continued

[Author's note- Hope you enjoyed]