Chapter 1: 01: The Rain

As the clouds overhead darkened and rain threatened to fall, the trees and grass all bent, being blown by the wind, peace reigned, the sounds of nature, animals, and beasts living their lives dominated. The rich greens of the forest and the pale yellow of the neighboring plains, untouched by civilization, no city, no village in sight, an area isolated from the rest of the world.

With the winds picking up and the overcast skies continuing to darken, a girl with black hair laid in the midst of a ruined building and dead bodies, staring at the sky with a melancholic expression. 

Staring at the sky, she raised her hand above her, studying it until small raindrops began to fall, not anything more than a drizzle. 

“What are you doing, Kaitlyn...” She murmured, talking to herself, dropping her hand to the ground with a thud, “In the middle of nowhere exterminating a bandit group...”

Pushing herself off the ground into a sitting position, she looked around, her eyes sad seeing the dead bodies strewn about on the ground, their blood seeping into the ground.

Pulling out a letter from her cloak, signed by her friend Jayce, she confided, speaking to the letter, “I wonder what you and Sasha are up to now, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you two. You keep nagging me to come visit, but don’t you know how hard that is?”

Putting the letter away, she then reached around, gathering her two swords that had been thrown to the ground, sliding them back into their two sheaths after taking a moment to clean them. Sighing as she sat back down, staring off into the distance where the trees swung with the wind.

“Jayce you keep nagging me... find a purpose, find a purpose...”

“You and Sasha, in every letter... Don’t waste your youth away... Bleh, I’m not that much younger than you.”

Swaying along to match the trees in the distance, she sighed, resting her elbows on her knees, “Maybe I need to heed the advice from you two... but don’t you know how hard that is?”

Staring off into the distance, she sunk back into her thoughts, admiring the view until raindrops began to fall, snapping out of her thoughts as she realized the rain would not let up this time. Feeling the rain fall harder and harder, she began running at blistering speeds, zipping away from the ruins back towards the forest that would provide some cover. 

“Shit, shit, shit, I forgot my raincoat...”

Running through the forest while holding a hand above her head, she complained, “Why the hell is the road so far away! Damn bandits making their base so far in the middle of nowhere.”

Coming out of the forest, her long hair quite damp, but not drenched, and her clothes quite wet, she took cover under a tree by the side of the road, considering her options.

“I really don’t want to be going out in that downpour,” She hummed, leaning against the tree’s thick trunk, “That’s a lot of rain...”

Staring out into the road as the rain poured down, coming to terms with the fact that she’ll be waiting it out, she was pulled out of her thoughts by a voice coming from a passing carriage, “Hey, are you lost? You can come ride with us if you want!”

Looking up to see a girl with dirty blond hair waving out to her from a carriage that looked like a prairie schooner, “We don’t mind if you come riding with us!”

Hearing voices of agreement from the other members in the carriage, Kaitlyn nodded, running over and hopping into the carriage, sitting down with a light, “Thank you”

“No problem at all, we’re glad we can help” One of the other passengers replied with a warm smile, reaching out a hand to introduce himself, “The one that just called out to you is Rachel and I’m Oliver, what’s your name?”

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“I’m Josephine!” A girl interjected with a smile, pushing Oliver out of the way onto the floor of the carriage before reaching out and offering her own hand, “Nice to meet you!”

Returning the handshake with an awkward expression, Kaitlyn nodded, unsure on what to really say, “Nice to meet you too, I’m Kaitlyn.”

Helping Oliver off the ground and sitting down next to Josephine as Josephine took the reins to the horses in front, another passenger introduced, “I’m Damien, nice to meet you, what brings you out here to the middle of nowhere?”

Seeing the curious expressions of the four passengers, Kaitlyn explained, “Nothing much, I’m just a wandering swordsman, I was out there exterminating some bandits. How about you all?”

“Well...” Oliver murmured, looking towards the others, going on once he saw them nod with serious expressions, “Well-”

“Uhm, you don’t have to tell me if you’re uncomfortable,” Kaitlyn interrupted with an apologetic smile, “I can see it’s kind of a touchy subject...”

“No, no, it’s totally fine,” Oliver assured with a chuckle, “It’ll probably blow up to a certain extent anyway, and we’re not hiding it. But we’re what you’d call, ‘otherworlders’.”

Sitting up in confusion, Kaitlyn asked, “What... Do you mean by that...”

“Exactly what it sounds like, we come from a different world compared to this one,” Rachel chuckled, sitting down next to Kaitlyn, across from Damien and Oliver, “Though, I won’t explain, Mr. Team Leader Oliver is much better at explaining things than I am.”

“Mhm...” Kaitlyn nodded, very confused about the new information she was hearing.

“I know it’s confusing, but pretty much,” Oliver explained with an understanding smile, “We got summoned to this world one year ago by the neighboring country, the Varis Empire. The Varis Empire, who used an ancient ritual they dug up somewhere, I don’t really know, summoned us to be the secret weapons in their plan to declare war on all of the other countries and sweep through and take over the world pretty much.”

“Varis Empire...” Kaitlyn, murmured, tapping her sword absentmindedly, “Didn’t they collapse... like completely, a month ago or something... I feel like I heard something like that.”

“Exactly,” Oliver nodded, leaning back with a laugh, “So when their plans got found out, just as they were finishing their preparations, they got absolutely pounded by the surrounding countries, and completely collapsed, being annexed into the countries surrounding them.”

“So here we are!” Rachel nodded with a smile, “We’re on this road right now because we decided to travel to the capital of the Rexas Kingdom and base ourselves off there to do our adventuring work!”

“Here we areeee~ adventuring~” Josephine sang out in agreement, urging the horses to travel a little faster.

Sighing and facepalming, Damien retorted, “You all are so embarrassing at times. Have some shame won’t you?”

Laughing at their antics and breaking out into a smile, Kaitlyn murmured, “You all are fun...”