The first woman was a relatively young girl and had red hair tied back and her eyes were slightly yellow. She wore simple leather armor even though the guilds aren't currently accepting quests.
She was tall and had medium-sized breasts.
The second woman was a girl who looked younger. She had short black hair and her eyes were blue like the color of the sea. She wore casual attire that consisted of a simple loose-fitting shirt and long pants.
Now the two men.
The first man was a relatively older guy and had some muscle on his body. He wasn't that muscular, but anyone looking at him could tell he was strong.
He had black hair in a simple cut and wore a strange goatee. His eyes were equally black.
The second man looked younger and had short brown hair. The length of his hair was very similar to the hair of the black-haired girl.
He had pretty eyes, was a reddish color, and was quite bright.
His outfit was just a short-sleeved black shirt and long brown pants. On his feet, he wore a boot much like a boot that farm laborers use.
Lucio looked at these four people and approached them.
"Excuse me." He said as he approached.
The first person who said anything was the man who wore a goatee. He seemed to be the oldest, so Lucio assumed he was the leader.
"The old woman talked about your son. So how is he?" Hearing the man's question, Lucio seemed a little relieved as it showed he was at least interested in helping.
"He is not well..."
"What happened to him?" This time it was the girl with red hair who asked. Even not knowing Noah or Lucio, she showed to be worried, Lucio was surprised by this.
"He went into the forest hidden from me and my wife. We only found out that he had gone into the forest because a friend of his told us."
"And you didn't notice he was to the forest? So irresponsible." The red-haired girl looked a little annoyed as she looked at Lucio. Seeing this he started to feel a little guilty.
"He left during the night while everyone was sleeping, we couldn't stop it."
"So you mean a child managed to leave without being seen by you?" The guy with the goatee smiled.
"..." Lucio was silent and looked at the man. He knew it wasn't his fault, but he had no answer for that.
"Okay, I'm just kidding. I know very well how stubborn and treacherous kids can be, I'm sorry that this happened to your child." Noticing that Lucio was feeling bad, the man with the goatee decided to try to calm him down.
The red-haired woman on the other hand still looked a little irritated with Lucio.
'Is she one of those women who adore children?' It was the useless thought Lucio had this time. Often his thoughts were so useless and idiotic that it made him rethink his life.
####
After talking a little more with the adventurers, Lucio got their names.
First the red-haired woman, her name was Riata.
The girl with short black hair was named Nalett.
The man with the goatee was named Carbrand.
And the younger boy with brown hair was called Tomhe.
Of course, Lucio also introduced himself to the four adventurers. Most of Lucio's conversation with them was about his son and how he was doing at the moment.
Lucio didn't lie, he told everything. How Noah was found, what injuries he had, and so on. The four adventurers listened attentively, especially Carbrand and Riata.
They seemed to be the two who cared the most about children in this group.
The two younger adventurers didn't seem to mind.
"Okay, I already understand you're looking for a cure mage, but how did you get to us? We've been in town for a long time, but you seem to have arrived today." Carbrand looked with doubts.
So Lucio explained everything to him.
"After Noah got hurt, I came running to Geirseyri which is the closest town. When I spoke to the head of the guard about my son he said he had an adventurer group that had a very good cure mage."
"So that was it... That idiot Crow should stop recommending our group to anyone who shows up. It's not that I didn't want to help you, it's just that..."
"Has he done this other times?"
"Oh yes, before the war started he was often sending people here to ask for our help. I won't complain we already made good money, but even so, there were so many useless jobs."
"I think I can understand you." Lucio smiled at Carbrand. But the man who had previously looked smiling put a serious expression on his face.
Seeing this, Lucio realized that the time for negotiation had come.
"But now whatever. Now we need to know how much you're going to pay, you know we can't do a job for free."
"Can we discuss this when we get to the village? It's because I need to go back immediately."
"Listen, my son is not fine, I promise I'll pay you."
"80 silver coins," Carbrand said this and then put a glass that was filled with beer in his mouth. After taking a sip, he continued, "I know it's a lot, but we're in the middle of a war and I don't feel like leaving right now."
"…" Lucio gritted his teeth for a moment. 80 silver coins was a lot of money, but he still couldn't deny it.
So immediately he responded.
"Right, 80 pieces of silver."
"Oh." Carbrand, who heard this, looked quite surprised. He noticed that Lucio was sweating a little and looked nervous.
"I'm going to pay 80 silver coins, but first you need to help my son," Carbrand noted the determination in Lucio's voice.
And then after looking at Lucio for a while longer.
"Hahaha, very good." He started to laugh, leaving Lucio very surprised.
"Carbrand, you shouldn't do this. Listen, Lucio, we can help your son and you don't have to pay us so much." Riata said as she sighed.
"..."
"This idiot just wanted to play with you a little bit. But now about helping your child. Where is the village?"
"It's about 2 days away if each one rides a horse. If it takes a carriage and we stop overnight it might take up to 4 days."
"I see, I don't think I have a problem with that. And of course, Carbrand won't deny the help either, will he?" Riata looked seriously at Carbrand leaving him a little startled.
"Of course, I'll help no problem. But I still want payment for it." Carbrand looked at Lucio and smiled.
"I'll have a nice chat with you later." Riata looked at him and said this in a serious voice. But after that, she looked at the two other people in the group who were sitting at the table.
"And you, are you guys going to help? We need Tomhe anyway."
"Is this boy the cure mage?"
"Yes, is there a problem with that?" For the first time, Tomhe said something.
"Of course not, it's just that you're too young and that's surprising."
"Well, anyone these days can learn healing magic."
"I know that, but it's hard to raise your level so much."
"We can say that Tomhe is a genius, can't we?" Riata looked at Tomhe and smiled. The boy seeing this just turned his face away and avoided Riata's gaze at all costs.
He was a boy who seemed to feel embarrassed easily.
"It's good to know this." At my words, Tomhe also seemed to be embarrassed.
"But will you guys help? If you guys don't agree to go, we will have to refuse to go to the village." Riata asked the two people again.
The first one to say something was the black-haired girl.
"I'll." Those were the only words this girl said. She didn't seem to have any emotion in her voice.
"I'm going too." Lucio watched Tomhe, surprised that the boy had accepted. From the boy's tone of voice before, Lucio thought he was a little arrogant.
But Lucio was wrong.
"Okay, so I think it's decided." Riata looked happy.
"I'm glad..." Lucio sighed in relief and everyone had noticed that. Carbrand smiled, Nalett remained expressionless, Tomhe remained silent, and Riata looked happiest about it.
"So when do you want to go? We need to prepare since it's been a while since we've been going on a mission." Carbrand who was the leader of the group asked Lucio, but Lucio who was a little impatient couldn't lie.
"I was hoping we'd come back today so we can get there as soon as possible."
"Today? No." Carbrand shook his head many times.
But listening to Carbrand's words, one person was not happy.
"We can go today, right Nalett and Tomhe?" Riata said as she glared at Carbrand.
"Stop it, it's almost time for it to start getting dark."
"You don't have anything to do today, so if our client wants us to go today, we'll go, got it?" Riata looked furious at Carbrand.
"Okay, okay. You and your incomprehensible love for children."
"That's all because you don't want to have a child."