Right now, Ailya and I were waiting inside a store near one of the gates that led to the labyrinth. Unlike the gate we came into the city to, this one had a road that passed directly by Palma, which we would have to visit in order to let them know we were taking the quest. Thinking back, it was undoubtedly a good idea that we avoided passing through the town before, as it would have been not only suspicious for the two of us to have passed right after the disappearance of the trio, but also to return to investigate the situation. While Ailya drank her coffee in peace, I was ruminating over the events, or better yet lack of, that had occurred yesterday.

After having agreed to take on this rather low paying quest, Ailya and I along with Daniel and co formed a temporary party and formally accepted the quest at the reception desk. After that, we all chatted a bit about what we were doing and where we were staying at. Upon learning where the two of us were staying at, both sides were pretty surprised. Them at learning we were staying at The Red Swan, although they also had appearances as if this news had confirmed some misconception they had about us. And as for me, that they were staying at the inn that the old man had recommended us, which told me that one way or another, fate had been acting in a way that would have led to the lot of us to find each other.

Once we separated after agreeing on a meeting time on the next day, both of us went our separate ways to buy goods for the trip. While they had offered for all of us to go shopping together in order to better learn about each other, I politely decline their invitation telling them that there was something Ailya and I had to already do later on in the day and that we would be able to get to know each other very well in the journey to the labyrinth. Thus, after finishing shopping for what we thought would be good for the trip with the rather large stipend that Charlotte had gifted us, Ailya and I began trying to search for Charlotte in order to let her know that we had discovered the other hero. However, no matter who we asked or where we looked, we couldn’t find her. Not only that, we also couldn’t find any of her companions either, which made question just what exactly they were doing that not a single one of them could even come back to the hotel. After all, they were still in the city, so I was pretty annoyed that the one time I needed Charlotte, she was nowhere to be seen.

Without Charlotte, it was going to be up to me to deal with this mess. The problem was that I couldn't just simply dispose of the trio that were going to be accompanying us this time. While getting rid of them without anyone finding anything suspicious was a worry I had, since we had formed a party and the guild knew that we had all accepted the same quest together, my main concern was that they were simply stronger than us. Daniel was at level 32, while Elizabeth at 30. Meanwhile, even Rose was at level 23. Quite impressive compared to the trio we had paired up before with, but not all that impressive compared to other adventurers. Still, considering they had informed us that they were just beginning their journey, it was a rather impressive starting point compared to the one that Ailya and I had started at or even the trio. Truly as a hero's should be.

Still, it wasn’t as though it was impossible for me to find a way for us to dispose of them, I still had my [Soul Devourer] that was a very powerful weapon against those whose level was close to mine. Still, with there being three of them it was going to prove rather difficult to defeat them in any sort of battle, so at the moment the plan was looking very much the same as last time. Find a way to separate the three of them and deal with each individually. However, I had a feeling that unlike the three stooges, these three might have some sort of sense that’ll save them in times of trouble, so I was going to need to prove them first before choosing to act.

Feeling someone tap me on my shoulder I was awoken from my thoughts. Turning around to see who it was the expected appearance of Elizabeth with Daniel and Rose behind her greeted me.

“Hey sorry we’re late.” Greeted Daniel

“Yeah, sorry about that. But a certain someone didn’t want to wake up early again.” Added Elizabeth.

Her expression immediately showing that she was offended by Elizabeth’s comment, Rose chipped back, “That’s because you kept us up all night!”

“That’s because you wasted all that time looking at every little thing in the store!”

While Elizabeth and Rose got into another one of their scuffles I turned to look at Daniel who gave me a wry smile in return. Seeing that it was time to go, Ailya quickly finished her drink as the five of us made our way out of the city and began our journey to Palma.

While my immediate impression of Elizabeth was that of a very friendly and well mannered woman, it only took a few minutes for me to learn a bit more about her true nature…… 

I was currently walking alongside Elizabeth with Daniel to her side while Ailya and Rose walked in front of us. At first, Rose had seemed wary of me getting next to her brother. However, after a bit of pestering by Elizabeth and her getting distracted with Ailya, she seemed to have forgotten about the issue and immediately began to talk with Ailya. To which I being a more mature adult, didn’t put up a fuss about her monopolizing my Ailya, not that I really minded since it was nice for Ailya to have another friend beside me, even if it was only temporary. Also, seeing how Rose seemed to be so against me getting close to her brother, I felt that I could somewhat understand the antagonistic relationship between her and Elizabeth, although it didn’t seem to be too serious and the two were good friends despite that.

Thus, with Rose and Ailya separating from us, Daniel, Elizabeth, and I were left to talk amongst ourselves. We weren’t really talking about anything too important, just commenting about what we were seeing. However, when our topic of conversation switched over to Rose and Ailya, things began to change.

Both Daniel and I gushed over our own respective little sisters, with Daniel telling me about how despite Rose’s attitude, she was actually a very caring young lady who was capable of talking to and even summoning spirits if the circumstances were right. Something that Daniel said was thanks to Rose’s ability. The fact that I had been unable to see such a skill or ability when I checked their stats led me to believe that this was caused by her fate that had yet to activate, which made her impressive ability very fitting for someone who was supposed to be a companion of the heroes. As for me not wanting to lose, I very liberally exaggerated Ailya’s healing abilities. It wasn’t that Ailya wasn’t impressive, she was, but at her low level she really wasn’t all that capable at utilizing her magic. Also, being able to communicate with and summon spirits is something that was rarer than healing magic, even if healing magic was quite rare in of itself. Unlike other fantasy worlds, spirits were something extremely rare in this world, as they tended to avoid places of high population, even elven forests which you would normally think they would be happy to be in. 

In fact, spirits were more like a pure mana construct, and thus were able to freely travel through the world almost instantly, as if they were photons of light. They didn’t really need to have a shape or body, but chose to transform into small humanoid beings, although they could also transform into anything else. As a result of this freedom, they tended to avoid any locations where there were other sentient species as they would often attempt to capture these elusive fairies. And despite their ability to travel at incredibly high speeds, although not really anywhere close to light level as I had alluded to mind you, It was still possible to capture them and prevent them from escaping with a mana sealing barrier, as the little mana construct spirits were actually able to escape through even the smallest hole as though they were a liquid.

Thinking about these spirits that I had read upon,couldn’t understand how they had sentience without a brain, although they could technically form one if they chose too, but I wasn’t too worried about finding the answer as I was sure it would be revealed when I got the chance to use [Veritas] on one of them, since one of the places they seemed to strangely appear in where dungeons or labyrinths that were closed to transforming into one.

Anyway, back to our talk about the two prodigal girls, after talking about their abilities briefly, the two of use began to talk about what we liked about them. Daniel telling me how cute his sister was in the mornings after she woke up all groggy, even if Elizabeth didn’t seem to find her attitude the least bit amusing, while I told him about how cute and happy Ailya looked when she greeted me in the mornings. He told me about how excited Rose would be when she won at something and how she would try to show off, and I told him about how excited Ailya would be whenever she learned something new. In this mannered the two of us talked between ourselves, and ended it off by talking about how nice it was to have someone who always seemed to be so happy just to get a chance to do something with you.

We ended at that point not because it was a good point to end the conversation, but because we had apparently been gelling along a bit too nicely for Elizabeth’s taste. It wasn’t as though either Daniel or I were purposefully ignoring her, but Elizabeth didn’t have any siblings she could pridefully talk about, and she had no intention of saying anything nice about Rose. Thus, she had been left an unfortunate spectator in our fangirling over our two adorable idols. And, having reached her limit, Elizabeth moved between the two of us in a not-very subtle manner as she changed the conversation to where we came from.

At first I wasn’t sure what her intentions were, but seeing how anytime that Daniel and I seemed to find ourselves in the same page and getting along, Elizabeth’s expression would show the slightest bit of annoyance, I was quickly able to guess the cause of strange actions. Although Elizabeth was definitely trying to hide it and act as if nothing was wrong, she wasn’t really doing a very good job of it in my opinion. Thus, wanting to play a bit of a prank on her, I casually asked, “Sooo, are the two of you dating or……”

Immediately after asking my question, I saw Elizabeth’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment as a crooked smile appeared on my face. Daniel on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed as he responded, “No, the two of us just know each other since, well, forever. She’s basically family since both Rose and I have been raised by her’s ever since our parents passed away.”

Hearing Daniel’s rather heavy answer I turned to look at the boy. However, he didn’t seem to show any signs of melancholy as his smile never faded from his face, or showed any sign of changing either. As for Elizabeth, she seemed to have become slightly downtrodden at Daniel’s denial of their relationship, even if it was the truth. However, her expression turned slightly more complicated after the rest of his answer and it seemed like she had no intention of continuing with the topic. When we talked about ourselves earlier, I was aware that Daniel and Elizabeth didn’t seem too keen into pushing too deeply into my background, and now I understood that it was because they understood that people might have things they want to keep hidden. As for me, I also avoided proving to deeply about them, although Daniel didn’t really seem to mind talking about himself.

With Daniel providing that information that sort of killed the playful mood I was in, and the jealous mood Elizabeth was in, we both seemed to calm down a bit as we both looked at each other and gave ourselves a smile as we moved the conversation to something else. All the meanwhile, I was thinking about whether Daniel was aware of Elizabeth’s feelings and the fact that he might be a bit too much like a shonen protagonist with his backstory and fate. For I knew too well that in harems, the childhood friend would basically never win, and with that, I issued a small prayer to Elizabeth…… 

Not that I was planning on giving them enough time for my hypothesis to be tested anyway……