Chapter 96 - Alfheim#6 Lucy And Lilith

LUCY'S POV:-

Moving outside the castle, I look at the wooden houses made up of different trees. Though most of the houses were mostly brownish creamy, some houses were greyish blue to pure blue in color. Some other coloured houses, mainly red and yellow with orangish hue, are also present in patches among the other houses. Fruits and flowers, along with leaves and branches all around the street and the houses, enhanced the beauty of the place. 

I walk deeper into the town until I reach the market area. I observe the place to find a few humans and beast men roaming around, but mostly it is Pixies, Fairies and Elves. 

'It really is beautiful, all right. This kind of beauty you will not find in any other Kingdom. But…' I can't help but look in a certain direction at a certain lady hiding behind some wooden crates, carefully looking in a certain direction. Looking around, people are giving her weird looks before passing on. 

A sigh escapes out of my mouth as I mumble, "Just what is that idiot trying to do?" Shaking my head, I reach closer to her to observe what she is trying to do, only to find another familiar face at a distance away. 

'Leader? He seems to be looking at a shop, hmmm…a blacksmith shop? Must be a weapon related thing…but that girl…sigh..' I walk towards that girl before tapping on her shoulders.

"Pss pss," she waves her hand without looking back. I touched her shoulders one more time, "Wait…I am doing important work here." She answers me with a serious voice.

"And Miss Lilith, what could that important work be?" My eyes darted at the Leader with slight curiosity. Maybe it is something interesting? Is what I thought until…

"I am stalki- I mean observing for research purposes. It's something related to the fates and destiny of this world, you know? Now, now don't disturb m- Huh? Lucy? When did you get here?" She turned as she was talking to me, only to realise that it was me she was talking to me. Looking at my slightly serious glare, she began speaking again, "Ummm…haha..I was joking, joking. Don't take it seriously, all right? I am not stalki- I mean I am not doing anything…Nope, I am totally totally innocent…"

'Seriously, is she honestly an idiot? I wonder why the leader still hasn't asked her to move out.' I think that as I look at that idiot observing me with puppy eyes. 

"I am going to take on a quest. Wanna join me?" I ask her at which she ponders before looking in the direction the Leader was, only to find him gone already. She then sighs with her head down, before looking at me gloomily.

I glare at her, at which she forces a smile on her gloomy face, "Pffft..hahahahah…" I couldn't help but laugh at her face. She glares at me before standing up and cleaning herself. She then looks at me as she speaks. "Let's go. It's not like I have anything important to do."

I slowly catch my breath as I look at her with a smile as I nod at her. She smiles back at me before we both start moving toward the Alfheim's Adventurers' Guild. On our way there, we observe Zwain carrying Icelos and Phantasos towards the Castle. Noticing such a scene, my face gets serious before both Lilith and I move in front of Zwain. 

Zwain looks at us before speaking. "They had a duel and over exhausted themselves." He then moves towards the Castle in a slight hurry. I and Lilith sigh in relief and look at each other before nodding and moving towards the Adventurers' Guild. 

After walking for quite a while, as we asked the people for directions, we reached the Adventurer's Guild. It was like the one in Eslaine, except a bit larger and with at least 3 or 4 times mana density. Going inside, we first moved towards the reception to update our watches with the quests present here, then we selected a 'small' quest related to the kidnapping of children. 

[Quest Details: A few Elf Children have been reported to get lost on the way to the Albri region of Alfheim. The suspects are the human bandits who arrived a week ago in Alfheim by illegal means. The number of bandits are suspected to be somewhat around 50-70, with strongest among them of Supreme Level and lowest of apprentice level.

Target: Bandits (50-70)

Difficulty: B+

Minimum Rank Required: 1 Ruby or at least 10 Platinum Rank

Duration: As fast as possible

Reward: 50 GOLD]

"That's our quest here. You have an adventurers card, right? What's your rank?" I ask Lilith, as I look at her with slight curiosity. If she made it alive this far in the Midlight Village she must be at least Gold Rank, for sure.

"I am Platinum rank. As for strength, it must be equal to at least 3 or 4 normal Platinum ranks," Lilith speaks as she ponders over it. Looking at her expression, it looks like she is speaking the truth. Well, that's quite impressive, honestly. We can handle the Supreme Rank along with a dozen lower ones pretty easily, as for the other bandits…

'Should we add someone else to the group? I wonder if it will be a good idea to do that…Well, let's first take the quest. At worst, we will ask Leraye or Kaneto to follow up.'

"All right, let's take the quest and approach with caution. This should serve as a basic warm up for the next few quests we would do today," I speak as I crack my knuckles before looking at Lilith, who is looking at me with an expression as if she wanted to say something.

"What? Just say already," I speak, preparing myself for another round of her idiocy and obviously she didn't betray my expectations as she spoke, "Can we…take an easier one? I don't like to get hurt…" she speaks as she looks at me with her puppy eyes. I sigh before speaking.

"I will protect you. For now, I just want to test how strong you are. Honestly, based on the Leader's attitude, it looks like you are going to stick with us for a while. To be blunt with you, I don't want you to become a burden to us, that's why I have decided to teach you a few things so that at least you can take care of yourself.." I speak to her with a serious face.