Heisen's Eye

Chapter 18

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Ryu's POV
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The sword Airi gave me was very good. It's sharp enough to cut you by just putting your finger on the edge, but not too heavy to the point of it slowing me down. I'd have to say it's a near perfect sword for me.

I had been meaning to get a new sword, considering what happened to my last one, but I'm currently not trusted enough to leave the building we're in, which seems to be the barracks.

Not that I care. I have everything I need here and more. Free food, shelter, a bath, ample places to train, and ample people to train with.

Although, today it seems that I can't practice my with my new sword. We've just been called to a meeting by the Captain, probably to discuss the new mission he got a couple days ago.

I push the wooden door open and enter the room. I look around, having not been in here before, and see that there are no decorations, just a single table in the centre of the room, surrounded by chairs, and a few windows at the back.

It's just a simple meeting room.

The table in the middle, despite having around 10 chairs, has only 5 filled, each with a member of my squad.

"Hurry up, you're late." (Kana)

"Yeah, yeah, I got lost." (Ryu)

I take a seat at the table, openly annoyed at having to attend.

"Right, now that we are all here, let me talk about the mission." (Captain)

Silence fills the room as the Captain finishes his sentence, showing the eagerness of the squad towards the mission.

"There is a village to the east of the Great Forest of Reiche, its name is Alzibria. Currently, it is the biggest port town in the Kingdom, but from the most recent report we've gotten, it is being terrorised by a group of bandits calling themselves 'The Cardinal'. These bandits have been stopping the supply of fish and other goods to the Kingdom, and we have been tasked with restarting that supply and possibly removing the bandits from the town." (Captain)

"The Cardinal? Not heard of them before." (Airi)

"Ahh, you probably wouldn't have, they disappeared about 16 years ago, so even I've only heard some small bits about them." (Etsu)

"Yeah, they were pretty bad in their golden days, but they slowly got worse until they nearly died out." (Kana)

"Oh? You know about them, Kana?" (Astrid)

"Yeah, they caused trouble in the town I was living in a while back, before I became a soldier." (Kana)

"So when are we going?" (Ryu)

"Two days from now. We'll be riding for about a week and a half before we reach the town." (Captain)

"Couldn't we go through the forest?" (Airi)

"Too risky. The bandits have riled up the monsters there, so it's pretty dangerous." (Captain)

"I see." (Airi)

"Anyways, that's all you need to know, so go and get yourselves ready." (Captain)

"Yes, Sir!" (All)

And with that, we all leave the room, fully informed of what we were to do.

I'm already close to having finished preparing, considering that's all I've been able to do for the last 3 weeks. If anything, I'm a little over prepared.

But better safe than sorry. I'll feel a little at ease, having around 13 batches of healing ointment.

Nothing to do now but wait, I suppose.

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3 days passed in the blink of an eye.

Right now, I'm sitting on top of a horse at the front gate of the city, waiting for our squad to get authenticity to pass through the gate.

"Hey, we're up." (Airi)

Hearing Airi, I look towards the gate to see the Captain walking back from the guards with a thumbs up.

I ready my horse and begin trotting forwards.

"Remember, stay together, and don't fight anything unless we need to." (Captain)

We all nod in approval and begin leaving the city.

Our horses ease into a gallop as we get further away from the city, the rising dust behind us indicating the start of our journey.

Hours pass quickly as we continue our journey, only stopping to eat, letting our horses rest until we start again.

Night envelops us faster than I realise, and the temperature drops suddenly as well, the previous warmth of the day gone.

"Alright, I think we should stop here. Let's get some rest and start again early tomorrow." (Captain)

I jump down from my horse hitching it to a stone pillar the Knight made, and lay down a rough piece of felt, while covering myself with a line of firnir fur.

I'm quite used to this, the forest seemed to have colder weather than out here, so it's surprisingly warm for winter for me.

Looking over to the rest of the squad, they don't seem to agree with my thinking as I see the Healer and Archer shivering under their covers, obviously not used to the cold weather.

Ignoring them, I close my eyes and try to get some sleep, which comes quickly.

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Blaring at my eyes, the morning sun wakes me up before the rest of the squad.

Once again, I'm quite familiar with waking up this early, having to do the same thing in the forest just to get some food, although, now we don't have to hunt, as we brought a lot of food with us.

It doesn't take long for the rest of them to wake up when I begin cooking the food. It's a skill I gained during my time with the outlaws, as they were awful at it.

Slowly, the food begins disappearing, and, unsurprisingly, most of it had been eaten by the Captain, probably to maintain his bull-like stature.

Once the food was eaten, we all pack away our supplies, jump on our horses, and begin the journey once again.

This was our life for a week and a half, until we reached the village of Alzibria.

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Author Notes
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And that's another chapter!

This one was the worst chapter I've written so far, not considering the time, as this only took me 1 night, but the overall setting, and writing to get to where I wanted the chapter to be was a pain.

Overall, I'm not very happy with how this chapter turned out, it was alright at the start, but I feel like the quality dropped near the end.