The group of three stuck close together. They got a few odd looks as they moved through the area, but considering they were in one of the seedier parts of the city, no one tried to stop them.
Sera was the navigator of their group, leading them towards the closest gate. Once they could see it in the distance, he turned around, speaking to the two heroes.
"Right. Did we ever actually sort out a plan for getting through the gates?" Sera asked nervously. The two heroes paused before shaking their heads.
"Well… We could just lie?" Eorna suggested. Kurose shot her a questioning look, and she expanded on what she meant. "I mean, we can contact Woodrow, right? I know we probably should have discussed this back at his place, but if he's such an important guy, then surely he's gotta have a reason for us to leave the city, right?"
Kurose nodded his head at that. "Well, it wouldn't be a bad idea. Plus we can check if the Charme actually works…"
With that said, he reached into the bag, quickly grabbing the two Charmes. He put the one that sent Woodrow a warning that they were about to call into his palm. His mana went down, but a few seconds later he got a response in the form of the Charme in his hand shaking slightly.
It's even more like a phone… Kurose thought to himself before holding the other Charme tightly.
"Kurose?" Came Woodrow's voice from inside his head. "What's up? Have you already ran into an issue?"
"Maybe?" Kurose responded, unsure if his words were actually going through. "We were just wondering if there was any way we could actually get through? Is there any tasks or anything that you could claim we were sent on?"
The Charme went silent for a moment, and Kurose wondered if what he said had actually went through. It would have made him look pretty weird if he was just talking into thin air. Yet, before he was about to try and speak again, Woodrow spoke.
"Hmm… Well, I have been hounded to get an Apprentice recently. Some concern about my age or something." Kurose could almost imagine the Wizard waving his hand dismissively at that before the man continued. "Could say one of you three are my personal student or something. Stuff like that isn't generally announced to the public or the guards at the gates, so it could work. For the two who aren't, just say they are an escort or something." Woodrow suggested.
"That could work…" Kurose thought about it for a moment later. "Am i just going to say you asked me to go to another city or something?"
"That works. Says something about going south, to Juwel Haven, being told to set up a communication Charme to the capital from there or something. If they have questions or something, just contact me again or something, got it?"
"Yeah, got it. Thanks." Kurose put the Charmes back into the bag, and turned to Eorna and Sera.
He quickly explained what Woodrow had said to them, and they thought it over for a second.
"Well, you are the magic guy." Eorna pointed out. "It only makes sense for you to be his fake Apprentice, right?"
"Eorna is right." Sera spoke with a nod. "If anyone's likely to pull it off, then it's going to be you."
"But what if they just start asking questions about Charmes and all that?"
"They aren't going to do that." Sera waved off his concerns. "And if they do, you can just contact the Inscriber again."
Kurose let out a sigh, but nodded his head. It didn't seem like he was going to be able to get out of it, so it was just something he was going to have to deal with.
"Fine, let's go." Kurose spoke. "Better to get out of here as soon as we can."
Eorna and Sera seemed to agree with him, standing on either side of him as they began their walk towards the gate.
As they got closer, Kurose noticed more and more guards moving about. If he remembered correctly, they didn't have this many when they went out there yesterday. That confirmed that the King had said something about them to the guards at least.
"Halt!" A guard spoke once they were close enough. "We are not allowing anyone to enter or leave the city at this time."
"Why not?" Kurose asked. "I've been tasked with leaving towards the south to prepare things for him."
"Then I am afraid you will have to tell your master, whoever he is, that his request will have to wait. The city is on lockdown until the criminals are found." The guard explained.
"Criminals?" Kurose questioned. He had to admit he was curious about what the King had said about them.
"Yes, apparently, criminals managed to sneak into the castle and plant some Charmes around, intent on blowing up his majesty. Thankfully, one of his royal guards found one and they were disposed of." The guard explained.
"I see. But that still doesn't solve my issue of needing to leave the city." Kurose responded. "It is an urgent matter, and me and my escorts can't be delayed."
The guard looked at them for a few moments before sighing. "Ill be honest. I don't have the authority to even give you permission to leave. That would have to come from the captain or higher up. Plus your master would need to be someone pretty impressive to even have a chance of being granted permission to leave with everything going on."
The guard seemed genuinely apologetic for it, and Kurose sighed. "Well, would it be possible to at least get a meeting with your captain? So I can talk to someone who has permission for us to leave." Kurose asked him.
The guard seemed hesitant to do so, but eventually nodded his head. "I… alright, alright. Just give me a moment…"
The guard moved over to his fellow guard, whispering something to him. The first guard kept shooting looks over to the group, as if to check that they were not just going to disappear as soon as he took his eyes off of them.
Kurose couldn't tell if the other guard was doing the same, with his head being covered by a helmet with its visor down, but Kurose imagined he was. The second guard soon walked off, hopefully to get the captain to come out.
The first guard came back, confirming what Kurose thought the second guard was doing, but added an extra question.
"I know you said they are your escorts, but do you really need them?" The guard questioned. When Kurose looked at him, he quickly made to fix what he said. "It's just, wouldn't it be better for them to be actual guards? Fully trained and all that rather than just two people?"
Kurose went to speak, but Sera spoke first, for the first time in this entire interaction.
"I apologize for not introducing ourselves." The former guard spoke, shooting Kurose a look, as if to say that he shouldn't interrupt. "But we were chosen specifically by the Inscriber. He did thorough background checks on us, and has us placed under a Contract."
"A Contract? I see. You trust this person enough to dictate a Contract between yourselves and him?" The guard spoke, a hint of concern in his eyes.
What is this Contract they are talking about? Kurose thought to himself. If it had this guard acting like that, then it had to be something important. He would have to ask Eorna or Sera what it was later.
"We did." Sera spoke with a nod.. " Both of us have agreed to it, and the Apprentice sorted one between us, and they are held by the Inscriber. We will not let harm come to his Apprentice, and in exchange, the Inscriber will take care of our families for us."
"I…I see…" The guard spoke with a disapproving tone.. "I wasn't aware that the Inscriber subscribed to such practices…"
Kurose was left confused on what he meant by that, as after those words from the guard, any attempt to revive the conversation fell flat. It instead devolved into Eorna and Sera getting looks from the guard, which Kurose couldn't decipher.
It took a while longer before the second guard returned with the captain alongside. No one tried to fill in the silence whilst they were gone.
The captain looked over the three of them quickly before turning towards the guard who had been watching over them.
"I was told you had an issue that you needed my assistance with?" The captain inquired.
"Yes captain." The guard responded. "We were told to not let anyone leave the city, but the Inscribers apprentice, along with two escorts are required to leave." He explained simply.
The captain gave the trio another look over, before nodding.
"Very well. You three, follow behind me." The captain ordered. "We will be heading towards a private room in the walls so that we can talk better. Any odd moves from your escorts or yourself will be dealt with accordingly. Are we clear?" He spoke to Kurose.
Kurose nodded his head at that, not willing to speak at the moment, and the captain seemed content with that. He began to walk, and the trio shot each other a quick look before dashing off. Though not before Sera whispered a "Thank you" to the guard who had watched over them.
They continued walking, getting about halfway to the gate. Kurose considered making a dash for it right now, but it was at least worth seeing if they could leave without any sort of issue.
The area did not hold many people, but Kurose could see a giant metal gate above, ready to be lowered at any moment. That was something to be considered if they had to make a quick escape.
Before Kurose could think about it more, the captain made a sharp turn right, leading the group further into the walls. They continued walking for a distance before coming upon a simple, wooden door. Two guards stood by it, one on either side of it.
They straightened as the captain came close, saluting him. The captain did not pay any attention to them, opening the door before finally speaking.
"After you three, please." The captain spoke.
Kurose looked towards the other three again, but they seemed to be fine following his lead for now. He entered the room, his two companions trailing behind him.
The room was bare. It looked like barely anyone stayed in this room for extended periods of time. The only thing that betrayed that people occasionally appeared in here was the various seats scattered around the room, along with the rather large table in the center of the room.
If Kurose had to guess, it was probably a break room for the guards. The captain walked past them, sitting on the opposite end of the table,
"Now. Why is it that you want to leave?" The captain spoke plainly. "I'm sure my men out there told you that it is prohibited at the moment."
"They did." Kurose confirmed what the captain had said. "However, I have been given a task by my master, the Insc-"
"Yes yes. The Inscriber. I'm well aware, I was already told by someone." The captain interrupted. "All I'm saying is it's awfully suspicious that you want to leave just after the attack on the castle."
Kurose tensed in his seat, and he imagined that behind him Sera and Eorna were tense as well. Silence filled the room as Kurose stared down the captain, only for the captain to let out a sigh.
"We do need communications up with Juwel…" The captain spoke, more to himself than the trio. "Alright. I can try and get you permission, but I can't guarantee anything."
"Don't you have control over who comes and goes?" Kurose asked the captain with a frown.
"Typically I do." The captain answered. "However, with everything going on, the decision rests with the king as of now."
Kurose had to hold himself back from letting out a sigh. The king definitely knew their first goal was getting out of the city, and blocking them off in this way? It was annoyingly smart.
"Could you ask the King now then?" Kurose instead asked politely. "We would rather be on our way sooner than later."
"Yeah, yeah. But uh… there is one thing." The captain spoke slowly. "The king has let some people through the gates already you see, but he wanted a description of their faces. Apparently he got a good look at the people who tried to blow him up."
Kurose let out a sigh. The King had definitely gotten a good look at all three of their faces when they had faced off with each other. But there was going to be no way to avoid it.
He lowered the hood, and from the rustling he heard from behind him, Eorna and Sera seemed to follow his lead. The captain took some time, memorizing all of their faces before nodding.
"Alright. Thank you for that. I'll need to go fetch the Charme first, but I'm sure the King will let you through in no time!"
If only that was true… Kurose thought to himself. Instead, he smiled at the Captain. "Hopefully he does."
Once the captain left, the trio pushed their ears to the door, making sure he was fully gone. They still remembered the two guards that were stationed outside, so they made a quick retreat to the far corner of the room.
"So… We are gonna get found out, right?" Kurose spoke, getting a nod from both Eorna and Sera.
"Yeah." "Definitely." Sera and Eorna responded together
"So, what's the plan? Do we just try and escape before the captain comes back with even more guards?" Kurose asked.
Sera seemed to think it over for a moment. "It's… not such a bad idea." He spoke slowly.
Kurose looked at him, and he explained further. "I mean, it's going to surprise the two out there, so we can knock them out easily. And then, we can run for it. I mean, we are like, halfway to the gate already." He pointed out.
"Yeah! And they haven't got the gate shut, which is a bit weird." Eorna added on.
Now that Eorna pointed it out, it was a bit weird. If they wanted to control the flow of people in and out of the city, surely they would just have the gates shut until they found them.
Then again, Kurose wasn't complaining. It made it easier for them in the end.
"Gate aside, what's the plan? Just… knock out the guards outside the door, and then sprint to the gate whilst they are distracted or something?"
"That's what I had in mind, yes." Sera spoke with a nod.
"Alright, The running to the gate is straight forward. What about the guards? I can't imagine you are going to be able to do much in this room with your spear." Kurose pointed out.
"Y-yeah… If I was actually trained with it, then I could probably do something, but…"
"Eh? You weren't trained?" Eorna questioned him.
"I mean, I was a little. Just… I never really got the hang of a spear. It's just too long, and I feel like it's just going to get yanked out of my hands whenever I attack. But that's not the point! What are we going to do?" He asked, turning back to Kurose.
"I mean… I could probably take one of the guards, and Eorna could take the other." Kurose pointed out.
"Yup, I definitely can!" Eorna answered with a smile.
"Alright. Sorry for not being able to help much." Sera spoke sadly.
"Don't worry. If you want to help, you can always try. Nothing is stopping you. You don't even have to stick with a spear."
Sera took that into consideration, a thoughtful look on his face. "I'll… keep that in mind for now." He said finally. "But we don't have much of a choice right now for weapons, so…"
"Of course. Ready?" Kurose asked.
Eorna and Sera both nodded, and Kurose swapped to his Parasol. He held it tight in his hands as they moved closer to the door, hearing the two guards speaking outside.
"...ything after your shift is over?" One of the guards spoke.
Kurose nodded his head towards Eorna, who took a breath, kicking open the door.
"Nothing much. Planning on going to- Wha-"
The guard who was just speaking was jumped on by Eorna. With that guard occupied, Kurose turned towards the other, who seemed to recover faster than the other.
"Stop thi-" "Erst Scarf!"
Kurose interrupted whatever the guard was going to say, the summoned scarf wrapping around the guard's body, causing the poor guard to look at Kurose in shock.
"What? Are you a he-"
Before the guard finished what he was going to say, Kurose made to jab his Parasol at the guard, but Sera seemed to be ahead of him, bringing the pole of his spear to the back of the guard's head, knocking him out immediately.
Kurose looked towards Sera who shrugged. "Just because I'm not good with a spear doesn't mean I can't hit hard with it."
Kurose accepted that, turning back to Eorna to help her if she needed, but to his surprise, Eorna had already knocked out her guard.
She was stood beside his limp body, with a bump on the guard's forehead. Had she hit him with the pommel of her dagger or something? How hard did she hit him to cause there to be a small bump already?
He was slightly concerned, and vowed to not let himself annoy Eorna any time soon.
The trio worked together to take the two guards into the room, with Sera taking one of the wooden chairs out and planting it under the doorknob.
"To make sure they can't escape if they wake up earlier than expected. I'm sure someone else will find them soon after we are gone." Sera explained.
Once they were all sorted, Kurose spoke once more.
"So... Do we start running immediately? Or just… I don't know, pretend we got permission to leave?" He asked.
"I think we pretend for now." Eorna responded immediately. "I mean, they probably wouldn't believe we would lie after willingly meeting with the captain right?"
"That's true. Plus, if it does get found out, they will probably be shocked and it will give us time to start running" Sera pointed out.
"Good to hear. Then let's get going." Kurose spoke with a smile, getting one in return from both Sera and Eorna.
Despite how much success they had at the initial part of their plan, it didn't make them immune from bad luck.
That was shown to them as they walked out of the hallway they had been guided into previously. The trio had expected to be able to walk out of there peacefully, or even run from about the halfway point when they were discovered.
What they hadn't expected however was for the captain of the guard to have finished talking to the prince so quickly, nor to gather up a decent amount of guards.
They stepped out of the hallway into the main area, seeing their freedom just beyond the gate at the same moment as the captain appeared, watching the trio he was meant to apprehend for the time being walking around freely.
As their eyes met, Kurose and his group reacted almost immediately. They began to run, much to the confusion of several guards that were just lingering around the area.
"Stop them! Lower the gates!" The captain shouted his orders.
It took a few moments for his orders to sink in to the guards, but once they did, they rushed into action. Two guards disappeared into the side rooms almost immediately, and Kurose had to fight to not cover his ears as the grinding of metal on bricks announced that the gate was beginning to come down.
The trio kept moving, but they were far enough ahead that none of the guards could thankfully attack with their weapons. They did have to be careful of a few arrows being launched at them, but they weren't major threats.
Kurose turned his head, making sure no one was getting close to them as they made their dash to the outside.
"Flaming Orb: Giga!" A person behind them shouted, and Kurose's eyes widened.
He watched as the Spell fully formed before shooting off towards them. He stretched his hand towards the fire, feeling the heat on his hands for a moment. His mouth opened, and words began to form.
"Scar-" He intended to use the one skill he had to hopefully block the spell, or at the very least weaken it before it could hit him, but something else happened instead.
Kurose saw Sera push himself behind Kurose, and the fireball striking the back of the former guard's armor. Sera let out a shout, stumbling forward, and Kurose slowed down enough to wrap an arm around him, helping him back to his foot.
He hissed as his hand made contact with the still hot metal before quickly swapping his weapon form to a scarf, attempting to use that to put something between himself and the metal.
"Thanks." Sera spoke quietly as the group made it through the gate, just as it slammed shut behind them.
"Keep going!" Kurose shouted to Eorna, who paused at those words.
She looked back for a moment before nodding her head, and the trio continued further on into the forest, ignoring the shouts from behind the closed gates.
It was a couple hours later when the group finally stopped. They all collectively decided they had gone far enough for the moment, choosing that moment to take a small break and assess their injuries.
Eorna had come out of it the best, having no injuries that Kurose could see, but he still asked anyway.
"Nope! Nothing wrong with me!" She spoke with a grin. "What about you? Any injuries?"
"Not me." Kurose said with a small smile, instead turning to Sera. "C'mon, let's get that armor off. It can't be good for you right now."
Sera gave a small smile, but grit his teeth as he sat down on a rock. "I'm fine."
Kurose and Eorna could both tell that was an obvious lie, both opting to stare at the former guard before he sighed.
"Fine, fine. It's a bit sore, but I'm sure it's nothing."
"Well be the judge of that. Turn around." Eorna spoke, with Kurose nodding beside her.
"Really, it's nothing!" He protested, but despite that, he still turned around.
It wasn't a good sight, but it wasn't the worst outcome either. The spell had burnt a hole into the back of the armor he was wearing, as well as a small hole through the clothing underneath. The skin was slightly pink, having obviously been burnt. The armor around the burn was blackened, and Kurose couldn't imagine the armor was going to be as effective right now.
Kurose was hesitant about touching where the hole was, but Eorna held no such reservations. She poked it happily, earning a hiss from Sera, his body jerking away from the touch.
"Are you sure you are fine?" Eorna asked with a frown.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just… a bit sensitive, alright?"
"Sorry." Eorna spoke apologetically. "I think some Healing Salve should help? I mean, I know Woodrow said it was for cuts and all that, but I guess it's worth a try for the burn?"
"Yeah, it's definitely worth a try." Kurose spoke, agreeing with her.
"No, trust me I'm fine!" Sera spoke quickly, but a frown from both Eorna and Kurose had him give up almost immediately.
Kurose passed one of the bottles of Healing Salve over to Eorna, who quickly got to work.
"...Why did you push yourself behind me?." Kurose asked as Eorna applied the Healing Salve to Sera's back.
"It's simple." He spoke, letting out a small sigh as Eorna rubbed the Healing Salve onto the burn.
"Right now, you are more important. I mean, you're here to protect the world right? So its only natural that if its a choice between my life and yours… Well, it's better for me to die in that case right? Not like I have anyone waiting for me."
"I…" Kurose paused at that, taking in what Sera had to say. "What about me or Eorna? How do you think I would feel if you died for me?"
Sera didn't speak for a moment.
"I know I would be sad." Eorna added, and Sera let out another sigh.
"I… Look, I can't promise that if given the chance between my own life, and you two living to see another day, I won't choose you two. Especially with how important you heroes are."
Are the Heroes really that important enough to sacrifice yourself? Kurose didn't say out loud.
"Anyways… Thanks, for putting yourself between me and that spell I guess." He responded instead.
"It's no problem. Better me than you getting burnt." Sera answered cheerfully.
"Much rather no one got burnt." Eorna spoke from behind Sera, earning a smile from the two.
"But like I said. It's no problem. I'm sure you would have done the same in my situation. Even if I didn't want you to."
He had a point. Kurose likely would have done the same, and he liked to think Eorna would have as well. Though Sera didn't seem finished.
"And you paid it back immediately anyway by stopping me from falling, so I think we are even."
"Yeah, I guess so." Kurose spoke with a nod.
Unsure of what else to say, he shifted to looking at his clothes, more specifically his shirt. The edge of one of the sleeves was beginning to fray, which was slightly annoying, but nothing he couldn't fix as long as he got the stuff he needed. When he was going to get the stuff was another thing entirely.
His thoughts drifted from that to his two companions. He looked towards them, with Sera slumping forward in obvious relief as Eorna continued to rub the healing Salve into his back, neither of them saying anything as they did, and Kurose found himself smiling.
Sure, the situation was bad. They were on the run and in a currently hostile country. They had little to no idea on what was going to happen next, but Kurose could still see the light in the situation. He, at the very least, had his companions.
Sure, they had only known each other for a short time. In Eorna's case, it was a couple of days, and in Sera's, it was even shorter than that, being only a few hours at most, but Kurose felt like he could trust them with pretty much anything. And he hoped they felt the same way about him.
Hell, they had trusted him enough to jump out of a window on his command, and he found himself trusting Sera to take the lead in conversations, such as the one with the guard at the gate earlier. Also the fact that without any prompting, he stood up against the Prince's personal guard for no other reason than because it was right.
Eorna had earned his trust by just being generally helpful. Being the hero the longest time, even if it was only for a few days more than him, meant that she had a few things that she could tell Kurose about. Namely the Monster drops and all that. Plus her personality just made it easy to trust her.
Before he could speak up, to check how Sera was doing, a small pop up caught his attention.
Companion Bracelet I unlock conditions met.
Kurose looked at the pop up until it disappeared, and made to open his weapon tree, only to jump as someone's hand landed on his shoulder. He looked up, seeing Eorna's smile before she spoke.
"Are you sure you have no injuries?" She asked him.
"Yeah, I'm sure." He confirmed.
Eorna still checked him over, but upon seeing no wounds, she wiped her fingers on a leaf, handing the Healing Salve back to Kurose.
"Sera, since your armor is damaged, do you want me to store it in the bag?" he offered.
"I'll be fine." He spoke confidently.. "I'm fine just wearing it still. It's better than nothing right now, but if it gets annoying…I don't know, ill probably dump it somewhere? Maybe try and lead them off track to think we are going another way?"
"Alright, sounds good to me." Kurose responded with a smile.
The group of three stood there for a moment longer, an unspoken question in the air on what direction they should head, with the exception of where they had come from.
"Since no one's saying anything… Let's go that way!" She pointed in a direction, beginning to walk that way.
Kurose and Sera looked at each other before taking off after Eorna, intending to catch up to her.
The prince turned king stared down at the captain of the guard. "You let them go." He said emotionlessly.
"I didn't let them go!" The captain refused, moving to stand before realizing who he was talking to. "They got the jump on me and my men."
"They were low level heroes. Surely you should have been able to handle them." He spoke.
He ignored the part where he ran, no, tactically retreated from that damn hero after he snapped a Charme. It was only after the fact that he realized they were such a low level.
"They surprised us." The captain answered once more. "They must have overheard us talking about holding them until you got here. Or they just decided to make a break for it when they realized we would be contacting you."
"Evidently." He spoke plainly. "If I didn't need you, I would have killed you on the spot. Get out of here and do your damned job." The king demanded.
The captain, obviously annoyed but unwilling to say anything, bowed his head and grit his teeth. "Of course your majesty."
Once the prince began to walk away, the captain murmured to himself.
"Were the heroes truly behind that attack?
[Accessory World Info]
Today's info will be about the Companion Series of weapon forms, and also the one that Kurose has unlocked.
Every hero, in any world, has the capability of unlocking this weapon series. It is gained through trusting your allies. This obviously comes easier to some heroes than others, depending on the situation of their state. It is a weapon series similar to that of the Slave User or Monster User series of weapon forms.
This doesn't require there to be a slave seal, nor a monster crest to work. It simply works by the hero counting them as their ally, as well as being someone they trust. For example, the equip bonus, once unlocked, will work perfectly fine on Sera because he is someone that Kurose trusts due to his actions. If some random person were to join Kurose's party for a time, they would not gain the benefits of the Companion Series as they are not trusted by Kurose in the same way that Sera is.
That is one of the downsides of it compared to the Monster User and Slave User series. With those two series, you can put a monster/slave crest onto the creature/person, and go from there, whilst with the Companion series, that person has to be trusted to gain the benefits.
[End of Accessory World Info]