"Come on, Crevanille, hurry up! We don't have all day!" Regina's voice cut through the woods as I walked quietly behind her, enjoying the scenery. Furlough was rare these days, it was nice to take a peaceful walk. "Do you really hate shopping with me that much?"
"No, no. I'm glad you decided to take me along." I wasn't lying, it was a nice chance to get away from camp for a little bit.
"I thought so! Okay, then, let's get going." She stretched as she started to walk again. "I'm your sister, so it's your job to do the heavy lifting!" I couldn't help but sigh at that. 'Sister', huh? That aside, as if she needed my help lifting anything. She was stronger then most of the men in the brigade. "What was that for? You used to come crying to me all the time when you were little!"
I shook my head, she always held that over my head, no matter what I did, I would always be the little brother.
"Hey, just how long have we known each other, anyway? Was it really fifteen years ago that Dad brought you home? Do you remember those days?" How could I forget? Dixon had bringing me into the brigade was one of my first memories. "Wow, you do!? I don't remember things from when I was two or three. But I'll never forget the day I first met you."
Without this child, mankind has no future. That was how he had introduced me, and he refused to tell anyone what he meant either. It always brought a smile to my face how he seemed to sincerely believe it.
"Well, no matter what Dad said, or however special you were supposed to be, you turned out to be such a normal guy." She sighed turning to look at me. There was nothing I could say to respond to that, so I kept my silence. "Er, it's definitely not normal when you react to things like that... Still whatever happened, bringing a child into a mercenary brigade is another matter..."
She was right, raising a child in this war like environment. I didn't think poorly of Dixon for it. Quite the opposite actually. I had met several different people, and I had been trained to defend myself. The morals of the group were the best of the brigades we had faced thus far. Or perhaps that was just the way I was raised.
She started walking. "Well... enough about that. We need to get going!"
We continued down the path, and I fell back into silence, as she started going on about what she was going to buy turning back she said something to me, but my eyes were drawn to a small green gem lying on the side of the road. I'd never seen anything quite like it. I bent down to examine it closer.
"Hey, are you alright!?" There was an urgency in her voice, I quickly the pocketed the gem and looked up to see her kneeling next to someone who appeared to be passed out. She turned to me as I rushed over. "Crevanille... let's go back to camp."
"Of course." This took presidence. I got the young man onto my back. "I'll carry him back. 'Heavy lifting', right?"
"Thanks! I'll go on ahead and make sure the path is clear." She moved on ahead, as I made my way back to camp.
I arrived at camp shortly before the meal was to be served but ran into Pamela at the camp entrance. "Regina told me what happened. Is this the young man?"
"Yes," I gave her a quick summery of his condtion before leaving him in her care. Remaining here would put me outside of my element. However, as I reported to Dixon the incident, she came by to inform us that he had regained consciousness. Which sparked us all to pay him a visit.
"Hello young man." Dixon was the first to speak, asking the young man about the event's leading up to him being unconscious on the road, starting with his name.
"My name is Remus..." he started off slowly, recalling the events. He told us about how he had been travelling with his father, when bandits struck. Apparenlty he barely escaped with his life. We all listened to his story carefully.
"Crevanille, I want you to show him around." Dixon charged me with his care, I had no objection. Aside from it being an order, it would be good to have someone my age to talk to. I introduced myself to Remus before leaving him to his rest.
6 MONTHS LATER
I had just returned from outside of the camp when Bauer approached me. "Huh? Is Remus not with you today?"
"I asked him to grab some water for everyone. Is there a problem?" I explained, Remus had taken well with the other members of the Brigade. He was welcome as family almost immediately. That's just how they were.
"Huh." He accepted the answer without much thought. "Speaking of Remus, I had my doubts about him at first, but he's finally starting to snap out of it. I saw him borrowing some books from the boss and Pamela the other day. Looked like medical books and stuff."
"Yeah, he told me he wanted to help everyone." It had actually been my idea. He had been stressing out so much about not being able to help, since Dixon had prevented him from fighting due to his previous experience, so I had suggested he look into another method to help everyone.
"It's all thanks to you being nice to him. I bet you're glad, too, having something like a younger brother." Bauer was speaking nonsense. He was a friend to me, not so much a little brother. "Whoops, nearly forgot that the boss was calling for me."
Recalling the event seemed to have brought him back to earth as he walked towards Dixon's tent.
"Crevanille, I got the water from the river!" Remus was now the one to approach me as I watched Bauer walk off. I nodded at Remus to let him know I had heard him. If Dixon had called for Bauer, that probably meant Furlough would be over soon.
"Silent as always, eh? You were already participating in real battles at my age, weren't you? Amazing... I've yet to experience real combat for myself even once." He sounded like he wanted to try to help us in a real battle. But just from what he said, it sounded as if we wasn't ready. His encounter with those bandits was real combat. "So, what's next on the agenda? Just lead the way."
There wasn't any real agenda however, I wanted to check up on Bauer, to see if we really had a new mission.
"Hey Remus, how goes?" One of the mercenaries called out.
"Okay, I guess..." His response was weak. He was still lacking in confidence.
"Dam, you sure don't sound like it. Still have confidence issues?" The man's voice held genuine concern. The brigade really did look after it's own. "Listen. Even if you haven't seen real combat yet, you're still a member of the Alten Schwart mercenaries. Knowing you're there to patch us up helps us fight better. So, have a little confidence and be proud of yourself!"
"Thank you. I will." The words seemed to have cheered Remus a bit.
"And I'm glad to see you well, Crevanille." He greeted me next, rummaging in his pocket. "Oh yeah, I found this pretty rock the other day. I'm not one for charms, so I thought I'd let you have it. It matches that other one you have right?"
He handed me a small green gem, almost identical to the one I found in the forest when we found Remus. I still wasn't sure what they were, but I accepted it gratefully. "Thank you."
We continued through the camp, but were stopped by another member. "Ah, Remus. How goes it? Learned to wield that Ring Weapon yet?"
"Well... I did manage to get it working." Remus admitted to my surprise. This was the first I'd heard he'd got it working.
"Let's see it, then!" She showed her excitement far more then I did.
"O-Okay." He brought his hand up, the ring glowed, but it lost it's shine fairly quickly. He had failed unfortunately.
"... That could've gone better." She admitted, before turning to me. "Here, Crevanille, show him how it's done."
It couldn't hurt to give him another demonstration. I had a feeling what the problem was, however I brought up my hand anyway and allowed the ring to transform into a sword.
"Wow! I'm impressed you can make it work so easily." He had watched me carefully, and I returned the sword to it's ring state. The ring weapons the Alten Schwart mercenaries used were supposedly developed by some nations military. It was once they hit the black market, they were almost universally used by all mercenary corps. That was probably why Remus couldn't activate it properly right now. Since it was developed by a military, it was triggered by ones will of self preservation, without real combat experience and fear of his last encounter, he couldn't properly summon up the Ring Weapon. "What should I do if I can't make it work in a real battle?"
"You just have to make do with a regular, heavy sword." She explained, before bidding us farewell. Everyone was looking out for Remus, it was nice to see.
"Ah, Pamela." I called out to catch her attention, she had a bag, so I presumed she had just come back from getting supplies.
"Ah, Crevanille. Did you need something?" She turned upon hearing my voice. "I just came back from the village with supplies, so I have some to spare." She saw Remus, "Ah, Remus is with you... You'll need this. Here, give me your hand." Remus held out his hand, and she handed him some different medical herbs. "Use them wisely." She bid us goodbye.
"Oh, Regina." Remus called out to her. And she turned to greet us.
"Ah, it's you two. Together as always." She gestured towards the tent, confirming my suspicion. "Dad's in there, talking to Bauer about our next job."
"Our next job...?" Remus still wasn't quite familiar with how things worked around here.
"Do they know where?" It was a shame that furlough was over, but fighting was what we did.
"Looks like it." She nodded. "But if you want to know more, go ask Dad yourself."
She looked to be in a rush so I didn't press, if we had a job it was natural that the boss' daughter would be busy. "Regina's so kind. Pretty, too, isn't she?"
"Are you kidding?" Maybe it was cause I'd been raised with her like a sister and leader, but I saw her more as a warrior then a woman.
"You don't think so? She's strong as the boss's daughter ought to be, but she's still a woman..." He looked after her. Well if he wanted to go after her, he could. I just wanted to know what our next job was though, so I headed towards where Pamela had gone. I saw the three of them, Bauer, Pamela and Dixon standing together talking.
"I see... Lamplast Island." Bauer's voice, was the first one I heard.
"Indeed. There are gold mines on that island, with many kingdoms fighting over the rights." Dixon explained the situation. I had heard about the conflict on Lamplast island. There were two factions apparently, those helping the natives and the invading armies. Apparently the entire island had turned into a battle field.
"Boss, if you've already sealed the deal, is there a chance of winning? Or a reason to side with them?" Bauer looked more at victory and the reputation of the group, as opposed to the reason why we were fighting.
"The latter this time. At the very least, I'm sympathetic to the native islanders." Dixon explained, if that was the case then they probably had an even chance of winning. He wouldn't have put all of our lives on the line for sympathy. "We have an even chance of victory, but with all your support, I'm sure we can turn the tide."
"All right. Then it's our job to meet your expectations." Bauer was a strong man, and proud to, and Dixon knew that, assuring him that he had no doubt in his abilities.
"We'll depart tonight. Go on and spread the word." I wasn't surprised at the suddenness in which we were moving. We often got called out at the last minute to pack up and move. It was how things worked in the Brigade. Bauer quickly left to alert everyone.
"I'll go back to checking on our supplies, then." Pamela told the boss and left with Bauer.
"You heard all that?" Dixon called us out. It didn't matter if we did, and there was no sense in hiding it so I told him we did.
"We're going to Lamplast Island, correct?" I confirmed the details of the mission.
"Yes. It's to the south of Marquelay, out on the sea." It sounded to be just under a days travel. But Remus spoke up.
"Um, boss...? I wanted to ask you something." Remus stepped forward.
"What is it, Remus?" He asked, but the look in his eyes said he had suspected what he was going to say. I saw it coming too. It wasn't hard to see.
"Please let me fight!" Dixon looked at Remus appraisingly. "I'm a mercenary, too! I don't want to stay a burden on this brigade!"
"I see... Very well, then." He turned to me, "Crevanille, I want you to act as Remus's bodyguard.
"Yes, Sir." I saw no reason not to help Remus. Bauer had helped me despite it keeping him from the front, it was my turn to help someone else.
"I-I'm sorry to inconvenience you. Thank you, though..." Remus thanked me, after apologizing.
"Don't apologize. Everyone starts somewhere. Bauer guarded me on my first campaign." I explained to him, hoping to give him some common ground.
"Anyway, we'll be off soon. Gather whatever you need." Dixon left us to talk about what had just happened. But Remus's mind seemed to be elsewhere.
"The boss reminds me of my father." Remus confessed, "He was more reticent, but there was kindness in his brusque manner. The boss is somewhat similar. You may not be his blood relation, but I envy you somewhat, having a man like him as a father. I must try my hardest in battle to replay the boss's kindness!"
"I'll expect great things from you then Remus." I patted him on the back. "But for now we need to get ready for the travel." I hope he didn't mind boats, we'd be on them a lot over the next couple of weeks it seemed.
Authors Note: This is my novelization of Growlanser. The first chapter is pretty similar to the story so far. However, as the story progresses I intend to make more and more significant changes to how it plays out. Character wise, dialogue wise, I also plan to show perspectives of a few different characters as they are introduced and tell the story from their side. So look forward to it!