While the horses were moving, Syla kept her head down and avoids looking at the armored guy infront of her, she mainly did it because she doesn't know how to start a conversation when both of their eyes met, usually she would think the guy will be the one that started the conversation, however when Syla saw his cold expression, she pushed her thoughts back into her brains.
'Ughh.. I feel like this guy has been staring at me for a while now..' Syla said to herself.
A few minutes passed in silence, the only thing they could hear was the sound of the horses galloping and the birds chirping around them with the occasional winds that blew past them like an air conditioner in the middle of summer.
While Syla herself didn't really mind the silence that was definitely deafening, the other parties seems to have the opposite thought. As moments later the girl who was carrying a pickaxe suddenly opened her mouth and waved her hand, like she was trying to get Syla's attention.
"Umm.. Hello, miss?" The girl said, her voice was quiet, but loud enough to be heard by Syla even with the rustling sound of the carriage's movement.
Syla immediately raised her head and looked at the girl, taking a glimpse at her appearance, her hairs colored dark blue with most of her hairs being strapped on the back of her head, it was a ponytail style. Her eyes were painted with a lighter brown hue, and her arms looked rough, as if she was used with doing hard labour.
The girl asked for Syla's attention, and she gave her exactly what she wants.
"Uh– Hello.. Sorry, did i do something?" Syla said.
"Ah, no! Actually, we're just interested in you– But if you don't like to talk, then i won't say anything!" The girl panicked after she realized that Syla was thinking she did something wrong to the two of them, she explained that she were just merely interested, and that she didn't mean anything.
"No no no! Uhh– It's not like i don't want to talk to you.. The thing is, i don't really know what to say, i thought it'd be awkward if start talking out of nowhere, so i stayed quiet.." Syla tried to fix the misunderstanding, telling the truth to the two passenger as the carriage stepped on a rock and almost tumbled over.
Rustle!
"W- woah!" The driver gasped at the disturbance before apologizing to his passengers. "Sorry! Didn't see that rock!"
"It's fine!" The armored guy finally spoke after being quiet throughout the trip, his voice was quite high-pitched despite his appearance.
Syla looked the guy closely, glancing at his appearance. A red hair with his left bangs stretched over to his chin while the rest barely covering his ears, a pair of eyes dyed in purple, and a body that fits perfectly for an adventurer who has faced strong enemies multiple times.
The more she looked at the guy, the stronger he seems to be, when Syla saw him from the side of the road, she didn't notice the small details in his body, but now that she's on the same carriage as him, there was no way to ignore it.
'His body is similar to dad, i wonder how strong he is.' Syla murmured in her mind.
"I- is that so, uhm‐ Then, can i ask for your name?" The pickaxe girl asked Syla with a smile in her face, waiting for her response with excitement.
"S- sure, my name is Syla Clawenfall, you can call me Syla." Syla said, she saw the girl's face and was confused as to what made her that excited.
"Syla! Nice to meet you!, my name is Lori, i don't have a second name, but you can just call me Lori!" The pickaxe girl who calls herself Lori then stretched her right hand to Syla, asking for a handshake.
Syla noticed the offer and accepted it, the two of them shook their hands for a few seconds before letting go of each other.
"Ah, by the way, this man right here is Gauss, he doesn't talk much, but he's not a bad guy." Lori introduced the armored man to Syla, revealing his name as Gauss Mender.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Gauss, and as you might've guessed, im an adventurer." Gauss said, his voice was monotonous and lacked any obvious emotion.
"Nice to meet you." Syla replied. "I heard a lot about adventurers, you're the first adventurer that i've talked to."
When Syla mentioned that Gauss was the first adventurer that she talked to, Lori suddenly asked her a question.
"The first one? Does that mean you've never seen an adventurer before?" She said.
"Hm? Ah- No.. I've seen a couple of them, but until now, i've always looked at them from afar– You're heading towards Direwell too? If you're using this road, then does that mean you're in Demiria before?" Syla responded while also asking a question to Lori.
"I see– You're right, we're leaving from Demiria after 3 days of staying, you're a demihuman right? Did you live in Demiria?" Lori asked again.
"Yes, i was born in Demiria.. It was a lively village, im glad it has grown to be what it is now." Syla replied, her eyes were half closed, smiling as she remembered the past when the Demiria were still just a nameless demihuman village.
"That's awesome.. I've seen a few demihumans before, and they're all always so kind to me." Lori said, the smile in her face grew bigger as she saw Syla's tail wagging after hearing her words.
"Thank you.. By the way, if i may ask, what are you doing in Demiria? Is there a quest from the adventurer's guild to go there? Or is it just for sightseeing?" Syla asked.
Even though Lori was more than glad to answer, Syla occassionally took a few glance at Gauss, he wasn't as talkative as Lori, just like she said before, he only observed Syla and Lori from a safe distance, not trying to interfere or joining, his eyes also changes from looking at the trees around him to Syla.
"Ah, not really, we're going to Demiria because of Gauss, to tell you the truth, im just a temporary companion, Gauss paid me to help him mine the minerals from the hidden cave that was beneath Demiria, although the entrance fee was expensive, we took the risk and began mining there, i heard you can find Magic Crystal in there, even in caves around the capital, only a few Magic Crystals can be found, so this was a huge opportunity. I mined most of the minerals and ores while Gauss stored it in my backpack—
"We don't find any magic crystals though, so that's unfortunate, oh and- Gauss also fought a couple of monsters when we were trying to find a carriage, just for an extra money incase if we didn't get any profit from the minerals." Lori explained, her mouth almost drooled after all of that nonstop talk and she had to take a deep breath after she was done talking.
"I- i see.." Syla was shocked at first, unable to form a sentence for her response.
"I want to ask though." Gauss suddenly talked, his unexpected voice startled Syla even more who was still recovering from Lori's babbling.
"Yes?!" Syla said, her eyes instantly moved to Gauss's gaze.
"Are you– Trying to become an adventurer?" Gauss calmly said.
Syla blinked her eyes a couple of times to process his question, she had thought that he would ask a deep question or something else, however she didn't expect him to ask something this simple.
"Well– I might register as an adventurer. However as if right now, im more of a wanderer— Uhh, it's not really that different isn't it.." Syla felt a bit embarrassed after mistakenly interpreting Wanderer as different than an Adventurer, because no matter how you see it, an adventurer and a wanderer is basically the two sides of one coin.
"Pfftt.. I see, you're a wanderer, that's interesting." Gauss almost laughed, but fortunately he managed to hold it, though in the end it doesn't change the outcomes.
"Hey!!" Syla whined, her cheeks were becoming redder as she talked, and her tail that had calmed down began to sway even more aggressively.
When the three of them was about to continue their conversation, they were suddenly interrupted by the carriage driver, he called the three of them to look forward and see the view for themselves.
"Hey! We're going to exit the forest!" He said.
The moments after that was something that Syla could not forget, it was etched right into the deepest part of her memory as she saw the breathtaking grasslands that was hidden by the trees.
Mountains that stretched across the horizons, the grassy hills that looks like it was made out of cushion ball, and the large trees that stood all alone in many part of the areas, perfect for a resting place.
As soon as they left the forest, strong winds blew from every direction, hitting their face and making their hairs wave in a chaotic motions.
The burning heat from the sun that previously made Syla sweats was quickly overwhelmed by the cold winds, it felt as if the gods had given her a reward for enduring all of the hardships that she put in order to be in this exact scenario.
"Unbelievable..." Syla quietly whispered.
'This is it.. This is what i've always dreamed about, to appreciate the breathtaking scenery and remembering myself that– I was indeed.. In another world.'