This is unlike her, I thought as we waited patiently in the field. We explored the city the other day and got to know all the important locations. The weapon and item shops offered higher quality items, more missions were available, and adventurers so crowded the taverns that it was hard to find a place to sit. It was emptier today, so we sat down, ready to discuss our plans.

"Why didn't you bring Daphne with you?" I asked.

"You wouldn't understand, Kimmel. She looks like an angel in her sleep, so I didn't want to disturb her," Phildina replied nonchalantly. She was truly a mystery to me.

"Well, we need everyone to be here, so please go call her," I said with an exasperated look on my face. 

"Yessir!" She saluted and then got up from her chair, but that was when the chaos began. A man barged into the tavern, looking like he had seen a ghost. He took a moment to catch his breath before dropping the bomb on us,

"The Kingdom is drafting adventurers!" At once, the jovial atmosphere changed, and the room was suddenly filled with murmurs. I couldn't believe it. What's going on? For as long as I knew, adventurers generally stayed out of such national affairs. We were not bound by any nation or creed. We were free to act as we wished within the regulations imposed on us by the Adventurers Guild. So, why is everything changing now? I asked myself but couldn't find an answer. 

I looked around to see everyone with the same puzzled looks on their faces. Well, everyone except Hertz, who just sat on his chair with his arms crossed. It was almost as if he had expected something like this to happen. I was just about to ask him if he knew anything when a Gladiator stood up and started protesting,

"We will not bend to the whims of those nobles! We are adventurers!" Many expressed their support, but we learned exactly how non-negotiable all of this was when a hooded-robed, royal mage appeared and started choking the life out of the Gladiator. We watched in horror as this promoted class struggled with everything he had to escape the royal mage's grasp. He eventually stopped flailing about and went limp. Seeing this, the royal mage dropped him on the floor like trash and asked,

"Are there any others in support of him?" An oppressive atmosphere filled the room at his words. I felt like I could hardly breathe in his presence as the tavern went silent. "Good. Then, you will all head to the Lanke Plains, where you will be sent, party by party, to different units. We greatly appreciate your cooperation." And just like that, he vanished, leaving us all astonished and Hertz... angrier than I had ever seen him before.

And now, we were here, but Daphne had still not arrived. 

"What's taking her so long?" Lucia asked, irritated.

"This is really not like her," I muttered. She would always be the first person on the training grounds and usually talked about the importance of punctuality. 

"Do you think she didn't know?" Lucia asked.

"Yeah, that has to be it," I answered, almost managing to convince myself. Everything happened so quickly, I began to reminisce. From the day we met her until now, it has been one surprise after another, but I never expected I'd be fighting in a war. To be honest, I was quite scared. It took all the willpower I had to stop my hands from shaking. I had to present a calm front. Otherwise, Matilda, who had been shaking like a leaf from the tavern, would faint. I'd also recently become a Paladin, so I'd experienced a great boost to all my stats, particularly strength, defense, and skill. Besides, it may help me find him... 

"There she is!" Lucia pointed at a blur in the sky, moving towards us at unimaginable speeds. In mere seconds, Phildina managed to slow down and land without blowing us all away. 

"Sorry, guys!" Daphne managed, unsteady on her feet, as she got down from the Pegasus. "I didn't know the Kingdom would be this fast..." 

"Shouldn't you tell them the real reason why you're coming late?" Phildina asked with a teasing smirk.

"Umm..." She pulled Phildina aside and whispered something into her ear.

"Oh, no! Anything but that!" She said playfully. Watching them like this, they were almost like sisters. It really did help ease my nerves a bit, but it was time for us to join the line, and Daphne understood this, too, as we all proceeded to where the General stood soon after. We waited with tense expressions on our faces for a while until he came, looked at a piece of paper, and said,

"Unit 317 C. The details of your assignment will be delivered to you soon." His tall, imposing figure and heavy armor would make even the toughest ruffians reconsider fighting him. And the way he moved so naturally... It's like the armor's not even weighing him down, I thought to myself in sheer awe with a little bit of fear mixed in. It took us a while to locate it, but we eventually found the horse-drawn carriage that would take us to our post and entered it. I could only hope for the best as we took off that day.