6 Is she awesome or just dumb?

"Yes, please! We would love to work with you. You seem like a good man, so we trust you to be fair in judging us." Leo bowed towards Matt in relief and gratitude, after hearing his offer.

"Hahaha, you trust me huh!? Okay then, I will try and make sure to live up to your expectations. There, we are nearing the city walls. That's the great city Ostinia. Isn't she a beauty to look at from here?!" Matt grinned chewing on his straw as he tilted his head slightly towards the group.

"Woah! That's Awesome Uncle Matt." Erina jumped on to the seat next to Matt with eyes full of wonder and a splitting,ear to ear smile. The group wasn't that surprised to see how carefree Erina was as they had already started to get used to Erina's impulsive and cheerful personality.

The smoke they talked about before was coming from inside the city. But it seemed different than a normal city and civilization they were expecting. The air got cleaner as they neared the city and a feeling of freshness started to bloom inside them.

"Life probably will not be bad here righ-" Aiko began to speak.

'BOOM!'

A big explosion near the road made its way into the scene. The explosion was very similar to the explosion that occurs due to the nuclear bombs made on the earth. The sound threw the group into disarray except for Clint and Leo, where Leo was analyzing what he saw, and Clint was getting excited.

"Phew, that was close. The Knights might be fighting some monsters nearby. We better enter the city fast lads." Matt picked up the pace as he signalled a scared Erina, who was grabbing his arm out of fear, to go sit in the back.

"Here we go again. I am confused. Knights fighting monsters, accepted. But what's up with the explosion?" Ian muttered in Leo's ears.

"We won't know anything now. We can't ask Matt cause it seems something obvious and common sense to everyone who lives in this world. Just bear with your doubts a little longer. We can't have him look at us in a weird way." Leo said slowly in a voice which was only audible to the group as Matt was riding the cart sitting a little far away.

As the cart neared the city, jaws of all the seven fell gradually realizing how much they had underestimated this world. The walls were at least 40-50 feet tall and were manned heavily with soldiers who wore weird shiny armour but had no weapon in hand. And at the entrance of the city, there were two battalions on either side of the gates who were guarding the gates.

"Stop right there!" Two soldiers from each battalion walked towards the group in a stiff way and a serious face.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"Inside the city. What will you do? Stop me?" Matt got down from the cart with a serious face and faced the soldiers in front of him.

"Shit! This might not end well for anyone." Leo got up as he said those words and looked at the soldiers and Matt who were staring intensely at each other.

"What if they fight and we get involved with it?" Reeva squinted her eyes as she continued to watch them.

But what everyone in the group neglected was the fact that they have a careless naive happy-go-girl with them who hopped into the space between the soldiers and Matt while the group was distracted with the scene Matt and the soldiers were creating and also the consequences which may arise due to it.

"Crap! We're screwed for sure now. Clint grab her and drag her back, now!" But Leo was too late to notice and order what to do.

"No fighting! You shouldn't give people a hard time." Erina puffed her cheeks as she said those words looking at the soldiers. This made the soldiers quite confused and didn't know what to say until one of them stepped forth and said.

"But Matt was supposed to go out for drinking with us the day before yesterday and he didn't even tell us he wasn't going to make it." One of the soldiers retorted, trying to defend his friends.

"Did you really forget, Uncle Matt?" Erina turned around to face Matt who was trying to avoid her gaze out of guilt.

"Well...It wasn't on purpose little girl. I had to leave urgently for something and I didn't have the time to tell them, that's it, really." Matt tried to explain himself to an Erina whose face was puffing up.

While Erina teamed up with the soldiers in their small squabble about a drink, the group of teens had a dumb face on them with eyes that turned white seeing how the situation turned out in front of them.

"I don't even want to comment anything. I can't even tell anymore if she's awesome or just too dumb and naive." Ian blurted out loud to the group to which everyone nodded in unison as they said "Agreed".

"Yeah! Kick some sense into him, little girl." One of the soldiers shouted seeing how Erina was scolding Matt.

"..."

"Wait, who are you anyways little girl? I don't think I ever saw you here. Where did you come from?" The soldier lifted one of his eyebrows as he rubbed his chin, after seeing his fellow soldiers shake their heads suggesting that they never saw her either.

"Shit! She will mess this one up for sure, Leo." Sai looked at Leo who jumped down from the cart and rushed towards Erina and was immediately followed by Clint and the rest of the gang.

"We are travellers and we travel from one city to another trying to know more about the world. Our ride and all our stuff got eaten by a ravager the other day. Matt found us coming down the road and offered a ride." Leo stood in front of Erina who was later slowly pulled back by Reeva and Aiko.

"You kids areTravellers?! But you don't seem to have any Elementors with you. Are you kids bluffingus?" The soldiers straightened up, with hints of seriousness appearing on their faces.