"Is that so.. I never heard of such myth.." Syla responded to Errick.
Living in a secluded demihuman village, Syla had already expected to not know many things about the world, even if she read a lot of books, there's a limit of how much knowledge she'd gained from it, books may teach her about ways to survive, however it won't teach her how to blend within society and act like a normal person that followed the unwritten rules.
She knew that religion existed in this world, the most popular one being the Empyrean Religion that worshipped 5 Gods and Goddesses, which is the God of Harvest, the God of Life, the God of Death, the Goddess of Magic, and the Goddess of Virtue.
'If i hadn't read that history book, i wouldn't know about it..' Syla thought, remembering the time when she was still a kid, reading a new book that her dad bought for her.
"It's just an old myth, naturally not many people remember it, but there's still a group of people that believed it." Errick said.
Surprisingly, Jule had gone quiet, Syla looked over him through the person that was sitting beside her and realized that he might have gone to sleep, Errick also noticed the quiet Jule and told the woman that was sitting beside him to check his breathing.
"He's still breathing, i think he just fell asleep." The woman said.
"Phew.. Thank god, i guess he was tired from everything." Errick sighed in relief.
"By the way i haven't known all of your names yet, since we still have an hour or more until we reached Beakwood, maybe we can talk about things." Syla said as she tried to know everyone in the mercenary group, she smiled at them and showed her sincerity.
Eventually, everyone gave their name to Syla, the one who was sitting right beside her, a man who looked young yet also quiet, was named Vahen, the woman who looked a bit muscular and only wore a tanktop with a few armors for her shoulders and knees was named Yveia, the man on the left side of Errick, which has the most scars on his face and looked old was named Anther, lastly the one who was beside Anther, a woman with curly hairs and darker skin who wears a hooded cape was named Hilma.
Syla observed Hilma longer than the others because she noticed that she has a horn on her forehead, when asked about it, Errick explained that Hilma was an ogre.
Syla previously thought that an Ogre was a tall humanoid monster who had muscular body and wields an axe, however in this world, Ogre is treated as a subhuman species, just like demihuman and elves, their characteristics can be defined with just their horn on their head, depending on their bloodline, an ogre can either be born with one horn or two horn. With many ogres subconsciously agreeing that a two horned Ogre is superior than a one horned ogre.
Because of it, ogres often suffers from discrimination by their own species just because they had less horns.
"We recruited her after we found her laying injured at the edge of a forest, and ever since then she had learned everything needed to live within human society." Errick said.
"Don't make me remember that memory again.." Hilma suddenly punched the side of Errick's stomach as her eyebrows furrowed.
"Ow ow ow!! Sorry– Ahaha.." Errick apologized while grunting in pain, but he also chuckled at Hilma's attitude as if this was a common occurence.
Syla smiled at the two, their bond clearly was inseparable, it seems like she was wrong about this mercenary group, they looked like a barbarian that only knows how to fight, but they're actually just a group of people who are trying to survive and take care of each other.
As the day goes by, together with the wave of laughter from a humble carriage, Syla had found a new group of friends in the wilderness. Even in the middle of a tragedy, a piece of company and warmth never hurt anyone.
Syla gradually grew to trust Errick and his friends, she told them about her story, in exchange of their own, she talked endlessly while moving among the open field that was filled with creatures and her smile never left from her face.
.
.
30 Minutes later—
Syla and the mercenaries were sharing their knowledges about monsters and mythical creatures, when suddenly the carriage stopped abrutply, causing them to almost flew from their place due to inertia. Then, a few moments later, while Syla and the rest were confused by the abrupt stop, a knocking sound that came from the front was heard.
Knock knock!
"Huh?" Syla turned her head towards the small curtains that opens towards the carriage driver.
"What's wrong sir Paroug?" Syla said as she looked into the open slit.
"S- Syla.. U- uhh.. Over there!" Paroug said, his voice was stuttering as if being in fear.
Syla who quickly noticed Paroug's distress soon looked into the distance, the dirt road was going to lead in between two cliffs, both approximately the same height, what made Paroug scared wasn't the fact that they had to squeeze through the cliff, but it was instead due to the sudden appearance of multiple armed men with shabby clothes.
"That's.." Syla hesitated for a moment. "Bandits..."
"What? Bandits you say?" Errick accidentally heard Syla's whisper and was shocked to hear the unexpected encounter.
"Bandits? Hey you must be joking.. How many are they?" Anther asked.
Syla looked into the distance once more, the bandits were gathering at the entrance between the cliffs, and it seems like they won't give any of them a chance to negotiate.
"There's.. Atleast 15 of them." Syla said.
"15?! That's a trouble..." Vahen responded.
"If it were 5 or maybe 10, we could've probably handled it– But 15 huh.. We might lose one of our limbs again." Yveia added.
"You said there's Atleast 15 right? so is it less or more?" Errick tried to get further information from Syla.
"Uhh.. I think there's more..." Syla replied, her response was worse than they expected.
"Shit.. Well they won't let us through, and we can't go back either, we've gone too far.." Hilma cursed.
"Let's prepare for battle, Syla- You don't mind if we take our weapons back right?" Errick said.
"Yeah." Syla replied calmly, she prepared the sword on her waist, ready to unsheathe it from its scabbard.
She and the mercenary group then get down from the carriage, and when they turned to face the bandits, the bandits was startled by their appearance, it seems like the bandits didn't expect Paroug to have a lot of armed passengers in his carriage.
"Hey, he has adventurers in that carriage! Jackpot!" One of the bandit said from the distance.
Syla heard their ruckus thanks to her heightened sense of hearing, she then walked forward and opened her hood, revealing her face to the bandits as she slowly approaching them while they stayed right infront of the ravine entrance.
"Ohooo!? Look at that demihuman! She's a beauty!" The bandit said.
"If she's wearing a cloak, that means she has something expensive! Gyahh!! I knew my guts never betrayed me, this carriage is the best one yet today."
"I suggest we capture her, who knows how much she'd be worth if we sell her to that slave market."
"Kyahaha! My arms has been itching for blood! Can we just kill everyone except that girl!?"
Syla's face gradually turned grim, her lips frowned and she felt disgusted by the words of the bandits, after she stood infront of the carriage along with the rest of the mercenaries, she then shouted loudly towards them.
"I ASSUME YOU'RE HERE FOR BLOOD, AM I RIGHT?" She said.
The bandits, having heard Syla's voice, couldn't help but to get even more excited as they realized that Syla was even more of a gem than they thought.
"WOAAHH This bitch is not only gorgeous, but her voice is also so sweet! Gahaha! It's decided, i will make you mine!" One of the bandit, who stood right in the middle of the rest, declared his desire to own Syla right infront of her.
Syla had already guessed it, but his words earlier made her 100% sure that he was the leader of this pack of bandits.
"I guess they're all just a brainless monkey in heat, unsheathe your swords." Syla said as she looked towards Errick.
"Huh? Ah sure, everyone, be careful!" Errick said to his friends.
'Why do i just casually obliged to this girl's words? She looked like she wasn't even in her 20's and yet her aura is this strong.. It's as if my instincts was telling me from the first time we met that this girl is a bad idea..' Errick thought with a drop of sweat coming down from his cheek.