Chapter 88: Chapter 88: Adventure’s Test – Finale | Scorching Forest – Part 1

Andre made his way to the group but stopped to gaze behind all of them, his expression one of disbelief and horror. Curious Emmy looked behind her only to see a massive tower of smoke appearing in numerous spots in that direction.

The group gasped as they, one after the other, come to realize what was going on behind them.

"What in the..." Ansgar said as he took the hat off his head while Noelle reached for her great sword, her brows furrowed.

"Fire," Marcus said as he gulped, and then he snapped to attention, then he frantically reached into his side pocket and pulled out seven badges, before handing them out to the kids, along with the newly arrived Andre.

"These are...?"

"Adventurer insignias, I'm making a decision to promote all of you from trainees to actual adventurers in light of this," Marcus looked at the large plum of smoke coming from Wolfendom, which was several kilometers away from their position, "Emergency."

"You want us to help with that?" Emmy pointed at the forest that was past the crowd of people steadily growing in the distance, it was only due to her exceptional vision that she was able to see them, the people of Springvale.

"No," Marcus said, adjusting the straps on his waist as he turned to Mondstadt, "I'm asking you to stay here until I can get a team of Adventurers and hopefully, knights to come help with investigating," He gestured once more, "Whatever is happening over there but..."

Aries raised a brow, "But...?"

"You won't listen to me, won't you? I mean the look on your leader's face already tells me what she will do and the expressions you all have aren't that far of from her's either. Anyway, I'm not your parents, I have no authority nor the strength to force you to not go satisfy your curiosity,"

"I only say that such things will have a price."

Saying these words Marcus started to run as fast as he could before he stopped and slapped his forehead, he turned and ran past Emmy's group heading toward the village instead. 

"O, servant of the wind spirit of heaven, why doest thou retract thy momentum for another?!" Fischl shouted.

"I have a signal flare, so I'm just heading to the village to gather the Adventurers there, the guild members in the city will see the signal flare from there," Marcus shouted as he ran, his voice slowly disappearing in the distance, as his form grew smaller.

After he left all was silent before Harlin felt something land on his nose and with a mighty shout... he sneezed. Of course, he covered his mouth, just like his mom taught him to.

"You okay big guy?" At his nod, Andgar continued, "Though I do wonder what was the reason for the sudden sneeze— hmm?" 

The boy looked as a large piece of ash slowly fell in the middle of the group and upon touching the ground, shattered into several pieces. After several moments, Noelle was the one to hesitantly approach the ash and tried to pick it up.

Keyword, "tried".

With her strength, it was no wonder the fragile piece of ash broke once more and the girl, dejectedly retracted her hand.

"Boss," Andre said drawing the attention of the others, "What do we do now?"

The others stood rapt at attention, waiting for her instruction, and Emmy placed her eyes on the slowly greying sky. It was early in the morning, barely 9 am, so it couldn't be turning to night yet. The only other possible explanation was...

'Ash,' Emmy's eyes widened and she came to a decision. 

This amount of ash which was enough to potentially cover a section of the sky, surely it would make a splendid adventure.

She had to go, she wanted to, the heat in her chest would never forgive her if she didn't see what was happening over there. But... 

Emmy turned to her friends uncertainly. 

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Would they agree? 

'I would understand if they wouldn't, after all, who would want to follow a girl their age into danger, right? They could just back out and be safe, I want them to be safe. What if I can't protect them?! It would be like that time all over again! Huh? Time, what time? But I—'

"Boss!"

Emmy jolted out of her thoughts and looked at Harlin who had placed a hand on her shoulder without her notice, in the corner of her eye she could see the others looking a bit concerned. 

"I—"

"Boss, we will follow your orders okay? You are concerned for our safety right?"

"I," Emmy started, she wanted to deny it but the knowing look in most of their eyes deterred her away from that, "Yeah... I'm just, I want to go over and see, record, document what is going on over there but..."

"You don't want to risk our safety?" Andre finished for her as his brother crossed his arms, upset that the boss had disgraced them in this way.

"Yeah."

"Excuse me," Aries raised his hand and stepped forward, and Andre's face palmed as he saw the look on his brother's face.

"Not again," he whispered.

"Boss with all due respect, you are severely underestimating our ability," Aries said and he hurriedly continued before Emmy could respond, "I'm not berating you. I'm only asking that you trust us, the ones you trained to think of us as capable combatants of standard, not the kids you had to save that day in that burning building."

[He is right.]

'System!' 

Emmy hid a jolt as she forced herself to remain still. Even though the system was lecturing her now, she really did something wrong.

[Trust your comrades to do their job and you do yours, which is to lead. Leadership classes can be taken in the system space, although you may not need them, they are there.]

Emmy giggled, causing the others to express confusion in numerous ways.

"It seems that I have embarrassed myself, then..." Emmy coughed and then raised her head, a fierce light in her eyes as she began to order them, "Team, we will begin to investigate the mysterious forest fire, order effective Immediately. We will all go to Springvale to stock on materials, then begin our trek into the flames. Ready?"

"Ohhhh!" Andre was the first to shout out in support then the others swiftly followed suit in agreement, all of them joyous from the fact that they gained the boss's trust.

"Now, move out!" The others ran with Emmy behind them, a determined look on her face.

'We will see what's happening over there and in the case of danger,' Emmy touched the tattoo on her neck, a bit uncertain but it morphed into determination, 'None of them will fall into danger, I will guarantee it!'

The tattoo glowed ominously as if laughing at the girl's thoughts.

*****