I was hoping that this would be beneficial and it seems that I was right after all.
"A general of these followers isn't that far away, he was last seen in the town of Bristiel." Shimada says with a serious expression on his face.
At least I know the keeper wasn't lying to me about the general or the location of where he is. Here I thought that maybe she gave me some sort of lie so that she could buy herself time to get out of there.
Bristiel, a town that I've never heard of until I talked to the two of them. Shimada and the keeper both know of this town but it leaves me with another question, who else knows?
"Anything else I should know Shimada?" Artemis questions with a calm tone.
He crosses his arms as he begins to speak again. "This general is definitely going to be a lot stronger than most of the enemies you've faced so far." Shimada responds.
I could've guessed that myself, but at least he's giving me something to work with— Even if the information is the same as what she said. It tells me that it wasn't some lie.
"We should go get the girls, it's time we hit the road again." Artemis says as he stands up from the table.
They went back to the room where the girls were patiently waiting for them, Shimada has told them that he went out to handle some stuff. Luckily it was enough to keep them both from searching for him but it wouldn't always work.
Amelia runs over and gives Artemis a hug. "I'm glad you're okay, you don't just disappear usually." Amelia says with a bit of relief in her voice.
I've never really thought much about how she feels when it comes to me since I look at everything from the perspective of our pact. Amelia does care about my well being a lot more than I originally thought she did.
Its not a bad thing for her to care about me in that way— it's just something that I'm not use to yet, someone caring about me like this. I'll have to make more time for her when we stop again.
Getting to know her and Cynthia more will make the journey a lot more interesting than.
"I just had to go get something for someone but I'm perfectly okay." Artemis replies with a smile on his face.
A smile says a lot more than words sometimes so maybe it'll help keep her calm when it comes to me doing jobs. Obviously money will matter at some point or another so it's smart to think ahead.
"Does everyone have what they need?" Shimada asks while interrupting the moment between them.
They all nodded in agreement before exiting the room, it was finally time to get back on the road again. "Where are we going now?" Cynthia asks with a curious tone in her voice.
"Bristiel, a town that's got a decent amount of rare items for us to acquire." Shimada answers with a bit of excitement in his voice.
I guess it is best to keep the talk of the general quiet for the time being until we make it there. I don't know what to expect when it comes to dealing with the general of these followers.
They've been pretty hard to predict with every encounter I've had with them so it's tough to decipher.
"Works for me." Cynthia says with a smile across her face.
I think that's the first time I've really seen her smile since she started traveling with us, how nice is that. I didn't think she was capable of such a thing when she first joined us.
Everyone has quite a bit of growing to do as we travel together, a normal thing for parties to do right? Everyone is bound to grow overtime as they travel together.
I'm a lot more accustomed to this world than I use to be and I'm starting to understand that killing is something that I will have to do sometimes. It can't always be avoided, especially not with people who want to kill for some goddess.
Monsters will also try to kill us so I can't hesitate when it comes down to fighting them either.
"Off we go." Artemis says before looking back at the gates of Avania one more time.
I wonder what the keeper will do now that she's betrayed the goddess of death, I'm sure it won't be easy going forward for her.
The group begins to travel for the great town of Bristiel, a town that is known for its rare items and materials. Artemis and Shimada know that the point of this trip isn't anything to do with the town itself.
A trip to kill a general— this is the main goal of the entire trip to the town, but the girls don't need to know the gruesome reality. It doesn't matter if Cynthia is a knight or if Amelia witnessed everything that she did, it's better that way.
That's the way Artemis sees it after everything that happened so far.
The road ahead was painted with amazing views of tall mountains, all different colored trees, and even some animals they didn't see much of back home.
Wolves weren't really seen much back at the estate or even throughout that continent since it was known for its overpopulation of monsters.
That's why they have a lot of guild buildings throughout the continent— giving Adventurers quests to kill different monsters all the time.
(One week has passed since they left Avania. Using a map that Shimada has.)
We are still quite far from reaching the town of Bristiel but at least it gives us time to enjoy all the sights. It was nice to have a change of scenery after everything that happened to us.
That day replays a lot in my head, more times than I care to admit. It'll get better one day I'm sure.