Survive in the parallel world, please!

“I do! We catch up to them, beat their asses and then head back with Sera to Celarent”

“We can’t simply leave Celarent as we are! Veronica, Taffy and Claire would be left defenseless. What good would it do to rescue Sera, only to find out they killed our loved ones!?”

“So you do love Taffy after all...”

Bob muttered.

“That’s not it! I didn’t mean it like that, but that’s far from the point I’m trying to make. If we leave in a hurry they’ll be able to capture the people we know under false pretenses, not only that, even if we somehow find Sera we can’t be sure we’ll be able to beat the guards”

“Then what do you propose!?”

Risa and Luke were somewhat similar and couldn’t avoid yelling at each other whenever they argued. Bob was much more calm than them and he always tried to put out the fire in their fights, but Veronika was being affected by the poor mood that reigned over her house.

.....

Veronika wasn’t really a confrontational person, even back at the brothel she would rather avoid conflicts against other prostitutes, but that didn’t mean she would allow people to make a fuss in her own house.

“Can you please keep it down?”

She said in the fake smile she always put whenever she was mad.

“This is none of your business!”

Risa yelled at her, but that proved to be a big mistake.

“Is it not my business when you come into my house, eat my food and drink my wine? I guess you don’t want dinner then”

Risa didn’t think much of her words and simply kept arguing with Luke about who would be a better leader. When dinner time came the table was filled with cooked meat, steamed vegetables and all sorts of dishes Bob loved. Veronika wasn’t nearly as good as Ryu when it came to cooking, but Bob would eat her food over Ryu’s any day.

“Veronika, I think you forgot my share”

“Did I?”

Risa stared at her empty plate, there were also some empty bowls in front of her. There was also a jug and a glass, but both were empty.

“Come on Veronika, I’m sorry ok, you can’t do this to me!”

Risa’s eyes were teary and she pouted. Seeing a woman on her twenties act like that was a funny sight for Bob and Luke, she was older than they were, but Veronika was already on her thirties and wouldn’t budge against a childish tantrum.

“If you don’t respect my house, you don’t get to eat my food”

And that’s how Risa found out Veronika wasn’t the pushover she thought she was.

“So what’s your plan?”

Risa tried to keep busy chatting to cope with her hunger.

“We already investigated, but unless we’re able to capture Fena and get her to tell us everything we won’t be able to get any more information in Celarent. I doubt many people will know about their schemes, but I don’t think that’ll be too useful and we would be wasting our time. In this case, we need to follow them without being noticed and see what happens, if we’re lucky enough not every soldier in their group is corrupt and we might get a chance to rescue Sera while they fight each other”

Luke explained what was on his mind as he kept eating right in front of Risa. He knew Veronika would never forgive him if he offered Risa anything to eat. But Bob’s case was different and he couldn’t stand seeing his former instructor suffer so much.

“Honey, I think miss Risa learned her lesson. Why don’t you let her eat too? we need her to be in top shape, our very lives will be on the line”

“Of course sweetie!”

Veronika said as she leaned to kiss on Bob’s cheek. She loved him so dearly there was nothing she wouldn’t do for him. Whenever she woke up next to Bob she would thank the gods for blessing her so much. She was a woman from humble origins, even if she hadn’t become a prostitute her chances of marrying someone who treated her decently were slim to none, and yet there she was with a handsome man, much younger than her that treated her as if she was the queen herself.

Once Risa had food on her plate she couldn’t be bothered to talk about their plan and the table fell silent.

At that moment Luke found himself thinking what would Ryu do in his place and second guessing his every thought. There was a high possibility that things didn’t go as planned and even if they did, it would still be too hard for them to take out five soldiers by themselves.

In all truth he didn’t fear failure so much as getting someone on his team killed and now he faced a big problem. Claire, Taffy and Veronika weren’t fighters and they would only get in the way and slow them down.

“Bob, I think we should send Veronika and the girls back to Ironwoods”

“Uhm...”

“It’s the only way we can be certain that they’ll be safe, if the guildmaster really is conspiring with the sacred empire she won’t mind taking hostages and playing dirty”

“Uhm...”

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing, I agree with you but we can’t send them back by themselves, what If they’re attacked by bears or wolves? or maybe something even worse”

“That’s won’t be an issue! we can post a quest to send them back to Ironwoods, if we pay good money you can post it as a C rank quest. Even the guildmaster doesn’t have the authority to meddle with quests”

Bob’s face brightened up.

“That’s it! thanks miss Risa”

“So, this is what we’ll do. We’ll pack up our most valuable items and send them back to Ironwoods so they don’t suspect us, we’ll hire adventurers to protect the cargo but we’ll tell them to prioritize keeping the girls safe. We’ll see the girls out, then we’ll give chase to the soldiers and follow them without being noticed until we find an opening. Any questions?”

“I have a question... Who died and made you team leader?”

Risa scoffed at Luke who then lowered his gaze and he pinched his sinuses to fight a headache. But he couldn’t say anything about her behavior because he knew he had been the same, if not even more bothersome towards Ryu.

Despite Risa’s protests they did as Luke said. It was a safer alternative to Risa’s frontal attack strategy.

The next day Bob and Veronika held hands and kissed for the last time before parting ways. The carriage was filled with many valuables, including Ryu’s equipment, which meant the girls had to walk on their way back. None of them minded that,though, because they were accustomed to the hardships of this world.

The quest they posted was an oddly specific one, but fortunately one team filled all the requirements.

It had to be a team composed with at least two C ranked adventurers, a minimum of five people and they all had to be women. Bob wouldn’t let any men near her Veronika if he could help it and Luke didn’t mind getting acquainted with pretty girls.

Technically, those C rank adventurers should have been as strong as Risa and a lot stronger than Bob and Luke, but that wasn’t the case. Risa was considered to be almost a B rank since the only thing she was lacking was a second class, while Bob and Luke were heroes with incredibly high stats and otherwordly knowledge.

They hired the best team of adventurers money could get them, they paid three gold coins in advance and ten gold coins after completing the quest to each member. This may not sound like much, but it was considered a small fortune. Unfortunately for them it was really hard finding strong adventurers in Celarent because it was considered as a small city near the border of the kingdom in a place so remote it was governed by a lowly baron, the bottom of nobility.

Bob waited until the cart was completely out of sight before moving,he had time to spare since they were going to leave Celarent at dusk. Then Bob rushed to the tavern near the northern gate to meet with Luke and Risa who were waiting for him and had bumped into someone they didn’t expect.

“Mister Lorenzo, you finally came back from your quest!”

Luke smiled at his instructor.

“Yeah, it was no big deal at all, what are you guys doing here? don’t tell me you’re going to challenge Risa again”

He mocked Luke reminding him what happened the last time he drank with her.

“That’s not it, we’re on a quest”

“Without your instructor? I thought I told you guys to wait until I was back before taking any quest by yourselves, you’re still too green”

“I’m right here you geezer!”

Risa glared daggers at her friend.

“So, what are you hunting?”

“We’re not hunting anything, we’re going to rescue Sera”

Against all common sense, Risa disclosed the nature of their secret mission with a proud smirk on her face. Luke was dumbfounded, but still he placed his hand on the hilt of his shortsword in case Lorenzo tried to stop them.

“There’s no need to be so jumpy Luke”

Lorenzo said with a stern face

“In fact, If you want I can join you guys as soon as I get some rest”

“That won’t be necessary mister Lorenzo”

Bob, who only recently arrived at the tavern, said in a serious tone.