Chapter 5: The Resolve To Live, The Upcoming Disaster

(A/N: Check out my other novels such as Tale Of The Unbound) 

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'Hmm, sure is interesting. I wonder how strong they actually are. It's quite interesting.' I thought.

"I see, nice to meet you, Klein-san" I responded to his self introduction.

"So it's my turn." A calm voice that resonated with the wind is heard throughout the cave. 

"Nice to meet you my name is Edelweiss. I'm the second oldest after Klein. My age is 18. I'm the scout and archer of the team. I'm proficient in bow and arrow and dagger. I'm also a half elf. Because of that, I'm good with spirit magic and wind magic. My power level is on B rank aswell." He said. 

'Hmm? It's quite interesting. So Edelweiss is a half elf but Klein is not? Also spirit magic, eh.' I thought.

"Nice to meet you aswell. Now because both of you have introduced yourselves, I also will do" I said to them. I fixed my posture with my ears tensed up while my tail still is relaxed.

"Hello, nice to meet you. My name is..." I then contemplate with myself.

'Shit, should I use my old name? But... I can't just abandon it.' I suddenly stopped and thought. They looked at me weirdly for stopping in the middle of my introduction.

'Ahhh, fuck it. Let's just use it.' I just roll with it.

"My name is Kyoraku Nozomi. I'm not gonna tell my age of course as that is a secret~" I said with a playful tone at the end.

'After all I don't know this body age exactly' I thought.

"I'm good with close range fight with no weapon. As you could see yourself what my race is." I said that even though.

'I myself don't know what race I am!' 

"I don't know my affinity in magic. I'm also not a mercenary. I'm just a random passerby." I said. They looked quite shock at my statement in the end.

'"YOU'RE NOT A MERCENARY?!"' They both shouted in shock.

"I'm not?" I said while tilting my head. They looked at me dumbfounded. Klein then fake coughed and started another conversation.

"Er.. so where are you going passing through this forest?" He asked me.

'Well shit. I can't just say that I woke up here because I reincarnated from another universe can I? Better make up an excuse...' 

"So I just got lost... hehe." I said with a very nervous laugh. 

'I hope they buy it. After all I got no other excuse to use.' I crossed my fingers mentally that they wont question it.

"Ahem, I won't question much. But where do you actually want to go?" Klein asked.

"Hmm, haven't thought of it actually. Can I just tag with you guys?" I asked them suddenly. They seemed quite surprised by my sudden request but actually accepted it.

"Sure, why not?" Klein said nonchalantly.

"I don't see a problem" Edelweiss followed. 

"Great!" I said while nodding my head satisfied.

'After all, I don't where to go from here..' I then heard a rustling sound near us. The two of them seems to can't hear it. I looked around for the source of sound and see the source is from the girl that is asleep. She seemed to be waking up shortly. She sat up and lazily looked around her. She then practically jumped and looked around in panic. When she spotted us she looked more relaxed and exhaled a sigh of relief.

She walked over to us and the two of them finally realised she has woken up.

"Finally decided to wake up?" Klein asked with sarcasm. She could only laughed nervously at that question. Then she looked at me...

When she looked at me her eyes literally turned into a star shape for some reason. Her eyes also is glowing comically. For some reason I sense a danger sign. She then dashed towards me really fast that even I caught off guard. I thought she was gonna attack me but when she is in front of me she.. picked me up into the air? 

'Okay I know I'm pretty small. But am I THAT small?' I thought looking at my body size.

"Kyaa~! Who is this little girl? She's so cute!" She asked the two brothers but before any of them could answer she started to spin me around. 

The two brothers could only sighed and shaked their heads seeing this. It started to be quite dizzy with all this spinning. I looked at the brothers with pleading eye but they only looked away ignoring me.

'Oh, dear. Anybody help me.' I plead for help in my mind.

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After a while she finally stopped and calmed down. But not without putting me on top of her lap while patting my head. To be honest it feels quite good.

'But that doesnt mean I like it, okay?' I said in my mind defending myself.

"So... could you introduce yourself?" I asked her. She looked at me with a smile and said.

"Sure!"

"My name is Aster! I'm 17 years old. I'm the support, the mage, and financial adviser for the team. I'm proficient in healing and fire magic. I can't use any weapons as I'm pyshically weak. Please treat me well!". She introduced herself without taking a single breath. She also spoke like a train. Really damn fast. But I catch on to the point. So after nodding to her introduction she's the one who is now starting to ask questions.

"So who are you? How old are you? Why are you here? Why are you so cute? You ears are so fluffy and soft!" She said while rubbing my ears.

'Also note. My tail and ears are not as sensitive as most anime portrait. A good thing.' I thought debunking most anime portraying demi humans ears and tail as sensitive to touch.

"Name Kyoraku Nozomi. Cannot say my age but just let me say I'm older than everyone here. I don't know why I'm cute." I answered her question with the most effective way. The two brothers are quite surprised that I could actually answer her questions. Then after that she started to ask more question with high speed and I answered them with the littlest word possible. This went on for quite a while until she gets tired of it herself.

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"She finally is done" I sighed looking at her who finally stopped asking questions. The two brothers are still awake at this time and is reviewing the area of what they came here for.

"Ah, by the way" I said getting their attention.

"What are you guys doing in this forest anyway?" I asked them one of the questions that has been stuck on my mind.

"Ah that, we actually are called for a request to investigate a well known bandit camp in the middle of the forest." Klein explained.

"After that we unfortunately ran into a special AA rank monster." Edelweiss continued.

"Then we tried to hid here and set up trap to atleast stall it until we could run away" Aster finished.

"Ah, I see. So well what do you guys want to do now? I'll just tag along." When I said that Aster's eyes are shining with happiness. I decided to ignore her look and focus at the two brothers. They also noticed it and also ignored her.

"Tomorrow we're gonna see and investigate this place" Klein said while bringing out the map and pointing at a certain location. The location is near the river where I presumably am earlier. But it's more to the depth of the forest. I also took this chance to see other things. 

'First, letters are similar to japanese so its fine' I noticed the first thing.

'Second, the location of the forest is in the middle of the map. So presumably it's big.' Thats the second thing I noticed.

'Third, the only country/kingdom that I could see on the map is the 'Great Kingdom of Synes'.' It probably means its the nearest or the biggest kingdom. Thats the third thing I noticed from the map.

'Fourth, the forest name.. 'The Forest of Balance'. It's a little weird but I don't know anything so I won't suspect it.' 

All of this observation happened within seconds because of my high proccessing speed.

"It's in the depth of the forest which is near the branch of the river" Klein continued.

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"So presumably we're here?" I pointed at a certain place. 

"We are. So we need around 4 hours to go on this terrain to the camp. I will lead the team, Edelweiss will be our scout as usual and Aster will cast a small fire magic for light and you Kyoraku will be our supporter." Klein said and looked around for everybody's opinion. No one seemed to object so I also have none.

"Great, we will move in approximately 3 hours.  For now get some rest." Klein continued and we nodded. They all then took out their sleeping bags and surround the fire for warmth.

"Good night, Klein-san, Edelweiss-san, Aster-san." I said my goodnights to them. They all nodded and fell asleep quite quickly because if how exhausted they are. I waited until they're asleep and went outside of the cave.

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*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

The sound of steps are heard throughout the area. The steps are light but majestic. The figure who made those steps are of course me. The moon in this world is colored a bit blue and is much bigger than on earth. You could clearly see the craters on the moon. The sky is clear and various colors and size of stars are visible. The forest is silent yet relaxing with only the sound of moving branch caused by the gentle winds.

I'm walking to where it all started, the plains. The clearings in the middle of the forest. The plains are empty. There are no sign of any animals around here. So I decided to stroll around and I found a fallen log and decided to sit on it. The fallen log is dry and comfortable. The fallen log is so smooth that one could mistake it as a furniture.

I looked up towards the colorful sky and smiled. Unbeknownst to me some of my aura leaked and got absorbed by the nature around me. So slowly the plains devoid of any plants other than small grass suddenly is glowing little by little. More and more flowers are growing taller and taller. Until the once a normal plains now turned into a field of flowers. I looked around me and got surprised a little by all the flowers around me.

The flowers around me looked like one of my big sister's favorite flower. The flower looked like a Futaba blue heart lily but instead of the normal flower. The petals, stamens and pistils are glowing under the moonlight. Little by little some curious animals started to showing up. Ranging from small hares and rabbits, small foxes, and a horde of wolves. Not long after a swarm of glowing little fireflies and butterflies started to pollinate the flowers.

There are no blood, no fighting, only a relaxing condition to enjoy the beautiful night. The animals that came here all layed down circling me. But neither of them fear and tried to eat each other. Then three rabbits with horns suddenly jumped up to my lap and snuggle together to me. Those rabbits are pretty familiar and really look like the rabbits from way earlier. Then a wolf bigger and considerably stronger than every wolves there sit with a majestic position on my right while looking up to the sky.

I carefully rubbed the fur of the wolf next to me with my right hand and patting the rabbits with my left hand while enjoying the scenery. If anyone sees this it will look like a scenery out of a movie.

"This world. This will be my new home. A new place to make new bonds, families, friends. A new reason for me to live for. How exciting" I said to no one in particular. 

I spend most of the night like this waiting for them to wake up. But as much as I want this moment and scenery to last forever. I can't as I need to go. But even if I'm not gonna be always here, I'm gonna visit this place sometimes. I stopped patting the rabbits and they catched onto my intention quite quickly and jumped off from my lap, they all bowed and once again scattered inside of the forest.

The wolf also noticed and howl majestically. All the wolves then stands up and bowed then regrouped and leave. The shining butterflies and fireflies also started to scatter around once again. But the flower continues to shine under the beautiful moonlight. And so like that I goes back to the cave where they're sleeping at.

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<3rd PoV>

"What an absurd amount." A gentle voice is heard in a certain part of the forest. An absurd amount of nature energy was released.

"It resonating very well too. I wonder who it is." The nature energy was potent enough that was released was resonating with her own energy. Because of that her horns and green hairs started to glow a little.

"I couldn't sense anything anymore. But this is something to report to everyone." She said with a little worry.

"She should know or maybe not. After all she's the Guardian Of Civilization." She remembered about her colleague weird memory problems.

"Well lets not delay anymore." She walked into a random direction while her gorgeus green hair fluttering because of the winds. 

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<In another place>

"An anomaly has appeared." A voice is heard in the middle of no where. There's only black around everywhere.

"Well it doesnt matter." The source of the voice opened it's eyes. It's eyes are beautiful with the color of deep red with holographic colours. It's hair seems to be floating and moving by its own volition and four strands end in triangular buckles. Above its head is a triangular halo in holographic like rainbow color.

It wears a white jumpsuit covered with a holographic cloak lined with holographic color. It's left arm looked mechanical and colored white and gold and the upper arm in particular appears to be hollow and covered in a fine metalwork of lotus flowers and flowing water, almost resembling a tattoo. 

It's sitting on a white throne with triangular patterned holographic colored line. Next to it's throne, lays a long katana with multiple triangular motives on it.

"Because no matter how. The 'Gaze of Omega' has started." Her cold voice made the black and empty world vibrates before closing it's eyes again. So like that the empty black void became silent once again.

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<Nozomi's PoV>

"Ah- there you are Kyoraku-san. I thought you ran away alone" Aster said dramatically. Klein and Edelweiss only sighed seeing this. I ignored her and went towards them.

"So how are we gonna do this?" I asked a simple question. Klein once again bring out the map. But this time it's much smaller.

"We're gonna traverse this route" He pointed at a route near the river. 

"We're only asked to investigate the camp and only engage when necessary." He continued.

"So it's a stealth mission is it." I mumbled.

"A stealth mission it is" Edelweiss heard it and confirmed.

"So shall we move out?" Klein asked for approval. All of us only nodded and we started to move. They already packed their things when I'm gone. 

So we soon started to move. It approximately will took us 4 hours to arrive at their camp. So with that in mind we take our time to be careful. Based on what they talked about, they are not ordinary bandits. Seemed like they are a pretty big threat.

"They have no honour nor pride. They will do anything for money." This is what Edelweiss commented about them. And so after that we traversed the route in silence. With the help of Aster's little light source, it became not so dark even though there's no real difference for me. 

As for Edelweiss, because he's our scout he stayed on a higher place which is the trees to avoid the possibility of the bandit's patrol group and other monsters. So basically our team is quite balanced. But ocassional small monsters do attack but we took it out without any problems. So we continued our journey without much problems.

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We finally could see the camp itself. It's much or less as how you think of it to be. Multiple tents and multiple campfires all around a singular giant tent. There seems to be a lot of them. Based on what we see alone there are more than 40 people there. But more importantly I have a bad feeling about the giant tent or more spesifically the person inside of it.

"Let's get to work" Klein whispered and Edelweiss moved swiftly. On our way here they explained what are we gonna do. First, we need to determines how big the camp is. Second, we need to mark everything important on the map. Third, we need to determines their supplies and resources. They also asked me to help Edelweiss in scouting because of my nature as a 'demi-human'. I only agreed to it as I also dont want to only stay silent.

"I'll go aswell." I said to them and they nodded. So like that I jumped to one of the trees branch and swiftly move. I jumped from one branch to another silently without any mistake despite this is my first time doing it. I counted everythings from the bandits, their weapons, their tents, until measuring their approximate strength. I do this without getting caught but there are some with high level sense could sometimes sense me but couldn't actually see me.

Once I deem my information as enough, I decided to go back to Klein and Aster. But when I'm gonna go back I noticed weird movements from the bandits. So I went to investigate. I jumped from one trees to another before landing on the ground silently. I hide behind a thick bush and scout around. And what I saw was quite surprising even for me.

There are prisoners here. Quite a lot of them. But whats weirder is most of them are demi-humans of different types. 

"What scumbags. Guess Edelweiss was right. They really have no honour and pride." I muttered and decided to go back to them. But suddenly a scream could be heard. It's a girly scream obviously from a woman. Hearing that I have a bad feeling clouding me. So I decided to quickly went back to their place.

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(A/N: Yo!)

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