Chapter 1 – Behind the scenes

 

Three man hiding in a bush not far from the village that they scouted,

“As you can see, the leader of the bandit is in the middle of the plasa” said the man who used a magic for seeing far things called ‘Sight’

“Are they doing something?” said the man who was chilling and smoking at the same time.

“They are managing their things, I think they try to collect all the treasure from each house in that village”

“Hey, hey, look a group is coming from outside the village” I said with pointing the group that come from east side of the village.

“They look like an adventure, this mission will be easy” Said the man who was chilling and getting ready his things.

“I guess, our mission to release the hostage will be easier than I though” I said.

Then three of us decided a plan to help the villager escape from the bandit.

The man who used ‘sight’ called Alvern. He always wears leather cloth in order to move easely. But he used chain mail inside his clothes in order to prevent any ambush from anyside and a dagger in his waist. He is an alchemy but can use up to intermediate magic. He doesn’t learn any offensive magic. He learnt magic that mainly used to help people or increase his own vitality or sense in order to get any kind of materials for him to use. He likes to create something or experiment any kind of things that can be useful everyone. He has a medium size of bag to save his things. But, most of the time, his bag is kind of empty. When I asked him why, he answered “Let the nature provide us” He always stay out of combat and provide the others with information. Yeah, you can say that he is our informan. Because he works at workshop in the town where we live and getting any information from traveler while he do business.

“Well good luck to you two” Said Alvern while casting ‘Vision’ and ‘Audio’ enchantment to us all. This enchantment to make our eyesight and hearing sharper.

“Okay” Said the man who is ready with his mace.

He is Zexalone, who always works as salesman. He usually moving around to sell and advertise anykind of things that he needs to sell. He easely remember any kind of place because of his job. That is why he brings a small bag with a lot of advertise paper and pictures to help him advertise his merchandise. But for this mission, he brings first aid kit instead. His clothes same as Alvern, leather clothes, leather boots, fabric pants, and his small bag. His weapon is mace, a small blunt weapon that he always bring in his waist. He can use magic too, that is ‘heal’. He learned it in order to help people with injury. But this ‘heal’ magic can only provide the person that he is helping to improve their vitality in their body to heal themselves. You can say, it is like a drug. Of course you cannot heal any missing part of body. That is why the first aid kit for this mission is needed in order to help the villager that is badly injured (at least he can do first aid whenever he needs to save mana for later use)

“I’m counting on you to help the villager” I said while seeing Zexalone moves towards the houses on the edge of the village.

And there is me who was a waiters in a cafe.  Sometimes I work at bar too. My name is Kino and I used fabric clothes and small bag in order to move freely. But in different area. My appereance is like townsfolk or traveler, in order to blend with other people. I do have a weapon, that is small blowgun made from bamboo on my waist. Well I can’t fight like the soldier or knight, even I don’t have any kind of movement like martial artist. That is why I am not suited for fighting face to face with other people. Except Alvern and Zexalone, they learned a bit of fighting things since they mostly do hard work dealing with customers. Oh yeah, I learned a bit of conjure magic. But I still can only create a small object, because of my low of mana.

I moved on the edge of farming field from south, and seeing the group of adventure entering the village from east. Well thanks to Alvern, that I can see them clearly.

“Come on, we finally found a village, let’s take a rest in one of the inn in here” Said one of the adventure.

“I know, I know, but can you see that?” A knight pointing out to something in the village.

“Kino, Zex, there is smoke in the middle of the village” Said Alvern.

Of course Alvern used normal or a little bit whisper to say that to us.

“From here, I see that they are burning any kind of clothes that they think they don’t have any use of it” Said Zexalone

“Are they in a party?” Ask Alvern.

“I think so,” Said Zexalone.

“Ahh, I hope I can join them too, I wanna drink some beer..” Alvern grumbling.

“We will, but not now. Focus on your job Alvern” I said with moving around the edges of the farm and moving towards east gate.

This is the plan that we will execute, while alvern inform us the bandit movement, Zexalone will sneak to find out where the bandit keep the hostage. He will try to break the door when the bandit recognize the group of adventure later. Or, he will just break the lock (something that is used to lock the door) or maybe freeing one of the hostage and ask them to keep their head down while freeing the others (of course he asked the hostage to free the others). Then what will he do afterwards? He can move to hit the guards from behind, or doing something to disturb the guard like an accident occurs on their place. (Like the roof of the house suddenly collapsed, and anything else). Then he moved out from that place.

As for me, while I’m moving to east gate. I’m positioning myself behind those group of adventures in order to sneak into village freely. Well of course they will see me as innocent man that needs money or something. My goal in here almost same as Zexalone, but mainly focused on disturbing the enemies.

When I get near the gate, I see the group of adventure already fight the bandit. The group consist of 5 people, the knight that is proctecting the magician and priest, the martial artist who jumping around hitting other bandit, a magician that trying to cast ‘fireball’ I think. The archer trying to hit the bandit that trying to get closer to the magician from house pole . The last is the Priest besides the magician who is ready to cast any protection magic for their party.

“I think I can use that” while watching the magician’s casting ‘fireball’

I squad down near the gate where I can see the magician. Then prepare my blowgun and enchant my breathing. I conjure a small solid cylinder iron, and put it into my blowgun.

Thanks to Alvern ‘Vision’ enchantment, I can see clearly the projectile of the fireball.

“FIREBALL!!” Shout the magician.

The ‘fireball’ is flying towards the group of bandit near the knight.

FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUHHHH~

I blow the cylinder iron into the ‘fireball’ and changes it’s projectile.

BRRRR~ *the sounds of fireball hitted by cylinder iron*

The ‘fireball’ now flying towards the house pole near the bandit leader that trying to hide himself.

The ‘fireball’ hit the pole, then break apart, some of them hit the thatched roof. This makes the straw started to burn.

“Huh-?”

I’m giggling seeing the surprise face of the magician. But my job here is done. As the house started to burn, the bandit started to panic.

“YEAHH GOOD JOB CINDER!!” Said the knight to the magician.

“H-how?” the magician can’t believe her eyes.

Then suddenly, I see the bandit running to the central village without anything to cover him as he try to escape from the burned house. The archer manage to shot his heart.

“I GOT IT!!” The archer is shouting.

“Let’s go guys, surround them” Said the knight.

…..

Well, the adventure will get the credit. And the village will always remember them While moving away from the gate.

As I move away from the gate and walk on the edge of the farm field. I heard a lot of noises.

“The villager start to hit the bandit from behind” Said Zexalone.

I see, his job is done too.

“Thanks Alvern to inform me where the hostage is and the bandit who guard the house”

“That’s my job” Said Alvern.

“Let’s back to our rendezvous point” I said.

…..

“So what happened after that?” I asked Alvern when I and Zexalone back to our rendezvous point.

“After Kino burn the house, Zexalone manage to open one of the door where the bandit keep the hostage.”

“I hit the guard from behind, on his head from behind”

“Ah, I see, did you manage to flatted the tire of their cart?”

“Yes, I used my small dagger from my first aid kit, and cut them. Of course I wait for you to burn down the house or something to disturb the bandit”

“Nice one, let’s go to the village to join the party”

“Yeah, can’t wait for the beer”

“I wonder if there are some beautiful women in there” Said Zexalone while standing and walk away.

“Guys, you can go around freely later after we got a place to sleep”

…..

Three of us walk into the east gate and see the villager and the adventure throwing a party. We enter the village when the night is young. So we asked around and introduce ourself as a traveler.

From what we get, the villager managed to push back the bandit, and restrain them in the central village. They decided to give them into the knight of the Gram Kingdom to put them into jail.

While we ask around, we tried to help the injured villager with Zexalone’s First Aid Kit and Alvern’s potions. They are very thankful to us and asked us to join the party. Of course Alvern and Zexalone happy as Alvern walks into the group of man and woman drinking beer and Zexalone trying to seduce any girls he met.

And me? Sitting near the campfire and drink water in order to keep awake while looking toward the sky.

“Mission accomplished” While seeing a bird flying around in the sky and fly away.

Well, that bird is a unique bird that our supervisor had. He can see us, and we can report it to him. Other than that, we also receive our mission from it too.

The truth is the mission that we got is to help Gram Prince and his friend to finish his first quest to freely the village. That is the knight of the group of the adventure.

Why we get that kind of mission? And why we form a group to help other people from behind? Why we, who don’t have any fighting experience and just ordinary people given a task like this? All of this happened in a week ago…