“Stop right there!”
Someone yells, even though we’re still over ten meters away from the gate.
The gatekeepers are holding up their spears, and are on guard.
“Did something happen?”
“Who knows… Hn, it wasn’t like this when we were here.”
Chris and Rurika seem perplexed by the gatekeepers’ reactions.
I’m surprised too. I’ve visited a lot of towns at this point, but they’ve never been this direct before.
Of course, it’s far from the first time someone looked at me with caution, but it was never this bad.
“What is your business in Nahal?”
Someone Rurika and Chris know lives here. Ah, and apparently they lived here for a while too.
“We’re adventurers that used to live here, but we haven’t visited in a while.”
“…All of you?”
“Just me and her. The others we met while traveling. You can check here.”
Rurika approaches one of the gatekeepers and hands him her guild card.
The gatekeeper fearfully walks forward and takes it, but the other one is still holding up his spear, and watching Rurika’s every move.
He goes back to his position after checking the guild card, and seems flustered, as he suddenly bows.
“I-I’m done checking. Excuse me. Come… I need to check the others. Hey, lower your spear, they’re all right.”
The sudden change in attitude leaves the other gatekeeper perplexed, and he’s not the only one.
Once they’re done checking our identification, we enter the town.
Now that I think about it, the gates are usually open, but this one was closed. And is that a guard station? There are a lot of people there.
When we reach the adventurer guild, we learn why the gatekeepers were acting that way.
“Rurika! Chris! And… Is that Sera!?”
A receptionist reacts with strong surprise when Rurika, Chris, and Sera reach the receptionist desk, here in the busy adventurer guild.
Apparently she’s known them since they were young.
“You can tell me more later, but what is your business with this guild?”
The receptionist feels people’s eyes on her, and goes back into work mode.
The three adventurers get some information and ask about inns, and after they come back to us, we leave the guild.
“Let’s go find an inn first.”
“Shouldn’t you go home?”
“Hn… It’s not really home per say, more like a home for orphans. We can visit later, but let’s go find an inn first. We might need to stop by a few, because there are a lot of outsiders.”
As we walk, they tell us what they learned in the guild. And why the gatekeepers were on alert.
Apparently, some ruins were found near this town, which prompted the capital to send a team to investigate, and adventurers to come here in droves. That means the once small town suddenly found itself flooded with people, and in a state of confusion.
There have been clashes between them and the people who already lived here, and overall safety deteriorated for a while too.
Things are relatively calm now, but apparently new arrivals cause trouble from time to time, and the guards are busy maintaining the peace.
“Do people find stuff like ruins often?”
“Sometimes. This time, it was because a landslide took with it part of the mountain. Apparently some people are making a base near the ruins.”
“…Instead of going to help in the dark forest.”
I know they hold grudges because of the war, but still, is that really fine?
“I’ve heard that ruins hold magic items just like dungeons. That’s probably what they are after.”
Chris’ explanation makes sense, but if they’re not sure, is it a good idea to ignore whatever may come and go investigate?
We keep walking, and as we visit our sixth inn, we breathe a sigh of relief as we are finally told we can stay here.
“There are more people than they expected.”
Sera sounds tired too.
“It’s less that there are a lot of people, and more that there aren’t many big inns. Even though it feels like the town is bigger compared to when we were here.”
Rurika says that back when they lived here, they were just starting to build the town, and it was more disorderly.
“From that point of view, it feels more like time is just moving on.”
“Yes…”
Say Rurika and Chris, as they look out the window.
“We can ask Rosa, the girl we talked to in the guild, more about the ruins. How about we stop by the home?”
“I want to tell them about Sera too, and I want to see how everyone is doing.”
“What are you three going to do in the meantime?”
We’d probably just get in the way if we went with them. And they probably have a lot to talk about.
“You can come too. You’ve done a lot for us.”
Says Sera, while I was thinking.
It feels like something’s off, and when I look at her, she seems nervous.
…Is she feeling anxious? I think so.
“Yes, we might as well tag along. We get to walk around town in the meantime too.”
And it might not be a bad idea to tell them about how Rurika and the others helped me too.
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Thanks for the treat.
Is sera nervous because it kinda the whole taking your boyfriend to meet your family feel to it. I hope they get to explore the ruins I’m Curious to see what treasure is berried