It's been 2 months since the fight at the Beefy Beef, in this time the squad has grown closer, their efficiency in completing missions has noticeably increased and Lyle and Ascalon's training sessions have been giving great results, mostly for Lyle, who got a massive motivation boost after beating Victor.
In a hot morning of August, the squad found themselves at the guild's lobby, the place was pretty crowded, many adventurers and mercenaries were inside the guild at the moment, most of them sitting around or just standing there, there were many at the mission board looking for their next quest as well as many others gathered around the counter for Lady Ladia to attend them.
The squad sat at one of the tables as Stella showed them some bottles with a dark blue liquid, the liquid also had many little pieces of what seemed to be herbs.
"Look at these babies, I made them myself" Stela said with pride.
"Are those magic restoring potions?" Lyle asked.
"Indeed my friend" Stella replied.
"Is this why you've been disappearing lately?" Mistia questioned.
"Yes, after wasting some of our gold in the brothel, I thought that I may as well put the money to some good use, and then I remembered that I never finished learning how to make magic restoring potions, I only really knew how to make healing ones but we don't really need those" Stella responded.
"How did you make these? We don't have any sort of potion making stuff" Ascalon asked.
"Oh well, I went with a potion master that I knew from a time I needed something for an illness and he let me use his stuff in exchange of sucking his dick" Stella responded, making Lyle blush and disgusting Mistia.
"Oh for the love of… " Mistia exclaimed, grossed out. "We didn't have to know that last part!"
"Ash, well, sorry" Stella unseriously apologized.
The conversation went out for a few minutes where Stella told them many things about the process of making the potions, neither Mistia or Ascalon were paying too much attention to her words. At a certain moment, Mistia's gaze shifted to the main entrance of the guild.
"Hm? Mistia, what are you looking at?" Lyle asked upon noticing the change in Mistia's attention.
"There are many people coming" She whispered.
This commentary surprised both Lyle and Stella who turned to look at the entrance, but it would be only after a few seconds when a plentiful group of armored people entered the guild, wearing similar looking armors with Lisbea's symbol, an elegant purple L surrounded by purple vines in a golden background in the shape of a shield with a purple outline, one of them carried a yellow flag with the symbol, it didn't take long for everyone at the guild to notice that they were soldiers of the lisbean army.
A soldier carrying a trumpet entered the place, upon walking a few steps in, he played an announcement sound with it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, receive with respect one of the most important figures of the Lisbean army, introducing to you, General Erbow Goldbend" The guy with the trumpet exclaimed, pointing at the entrance from where a man made his way inside the building.
The man in question was a fairly tall one, he had blonde long hair that seemed to be very well taken, his eyes had a piercing and intense blue color, his armor although having some more refined details compared to the rest of the soldiers it also seemed to be light and didn't cover much of his body, he also carried a bow and a bag of arrows in his back with him.
"Greetings, adventurers and mercenaries" Erbow said with elegance and a respectful tone.
"As my fellow soldier here said, my name is Erbow Goldbend, and I'm a general of the lisbean army. I was entrusted to come here today in order to make an important announcement for you all" The general said, catching the attention of everyone at the guild.
"You see, the lisbean army has a very important mission to take care of, very important and dangerous as well, but as of now, we lack experienced soldiers and because of the danger that this mission represents, we took the decision to recruit the help of you so we can reduce the amount of soldiers we'll have to send to the battlefield" Erbow said, seriously.
"I am not gonna lie to you, this mission that we are going to take on, is extremely dangerous as it involves the Esteller Empire, and because of that it is very possible that you die if you decide to go, since you're not part of the lisbean army and some of you aren't even lisbean I do not possess the authority to force you to come with us, and of course, we aren't expecting you to do this for free, those who come with us and survive will be properly rewarded for their services" The general added.
"If you are interested in helping us in our mission, feel free to come by the castle tomorrow at sunrise to be given more details on what's going to happen, that will be your last chance to ditch. We will leave a poster at the mission board for you to check in case something was left unclear" Erbow said as one of the soldiers approached the board to put the mentioned poster.
"That was all I had to say, thanks for listening and any doubts you may have will be responded to if you decide to assist tomorrow, I hope to see you soon" Erbow finished talking.
The soldier with the trumpet played it once again as Erbow and the rest of the lisbean soldiers left the guild.
Once the soldiers had left, the guild got filled with the whispers of all the adventurers and mercenaries in the place, considering to help out the lisbean army, however, most of them quickly dismissed the idea just because of the part where they'd have to face off against the Esteller Empire.
But that was not the case of the squad.
"Esteller's empire… this could be a chance for… well, to be honest I'm not sure, but just the fact that the Esteller Empire is involved… could it mean something?" Lyle said, considering the idea to help out the army.
"Well, I'm not really sure if it means something, but I believe that this is a good chance to begin our payback against those idiots" Ascalon declared.
Stella seemed a bit confused.
"You have beef with the Esteller Empire?" Stella asked.
"Huh? Oh! Uh… we… didn't tell you about that?" Lyle replied.
"Well, I remember that when we met you had this topic you didn't want to talk about so I decided to wait a bit before asking but I think I ended up forgetting that" Stella said.
Lyle took a deep breath and gave Stella a brief explanation of what Esteller's demons had done to his village.
"Oh crap, that's… that's rough. And now that you mention it, I remember that you once mentioned something about… not letting anyone else you love die" Stella said.
"Yes, it is… it's been really rough, I… I try to not think about it too much…" Lyle said with a hint of sadness.
"And that's why we are gonna make them regret that, starting by helping out the lisbean army with whatever they plan to do" Ascalon declared.
"Esteller's empire…" Mistia said in a whisper, lost in her thoughts.
"Mistia?" Lyle asked, noticing her lost expression.
Mistia snaps back into reality.
"Huh?! Oh, sorry I… I was… I was trying to remember who they were talking about, I once heard about that empire but barely anything" She lied very poorly.
"Well, the basic thing you have to know, they're demons and they're evil, and think that's all you've got to know" Ascalon said.
"Alright" Mistia said with a forced smile.
The decision was taken, the next day they would go to the castle to take part in the mission against the Esteller Empire. During the entire day Lyle was consumed by the curiosity of what the lisbean empire had on mind to do against them, Stella also shared this curiosity, however her curiosity was something that came from the mere intrigue, unlike Lyle who had a more personal reason to feel curious about the mission.
They gathered at the guild's gardens, during the entire day, Mistia seemed thoughtful, Lyle spent the day training with Ascalon, he was too focused on this and on what would go on with the Esteller Empire that he did not notice Mistia being lost in thought, however, this did not slip under Stella, who did manage to notice Mistia's weirder behavior.
Stella considered for a while if to approach Mistia, they didn't have the best relationship as of now. She was aware that Mistia found her a bit annoying and that her sexual innuendos disgusted her, and from her side wasn't much better, Mistia really creeped her out, she didn't like being alone with her, the way she would look at her if she tried to say something made her feel in danger. But at the end of the day, they were still companions, and if something was bothering her, she should at least try to check out on her.
Gathering courage, Stella approached Mistia while she watched Lyle and Ascalon trained and asked her to talk in private, which Mistia at first didn't want, but after clarifying that she didn't mean anything sexual, Mistia accepted to chat with her in private.
Although, saying that they were in private would be incorrect, they just went into the guild and sat at a table, there were not as many people as before and they wouldn't care about their conversation.
"Alright, what's up with you?" Stella asked straightforwardly.
"What do you mean?" Mistia questioned.
"You know what I mean, ever since we got told about the mission for the army you've been weirder than usual, are you scared of doing it?" Stella replied.
"Oh, no, it's not that, it's just…" Mistia said, looking away.
"You said remembering having heard of them but struggling to remember who were the Esteller Empire, but I have the feeling that you were lying" Stella declared.
Mistia shivered.
"Seems like I was right" The healer said.
Mistia kept her sight away from her teammate and kept her silence.
"Look Mistia, I know that we are not exactly friends, but as your teammate I'm here to hear whatever is on your mind" Stella affirmed.
"I have nothing to say, I was just remembering things" Mistia said coldly.
"Are those things… bad things?" Stella asked.
Mistia remained quiet for a few seconds before answering.
"No, it's something good" She responded.
Stella didn't say anything and looked at Mistia in confusion, for the way she had reacted and considering those who were involved, how could it be something good?
"Although…" Mistia whispered, making Stella look at her.
"That good thing led to bad things… it's a bit curious… how a good action can result in such horrible results…" Mistia said, her sight was lost.
"What?" Stella asked, she didn't understand what she meant.
"It… doesn't matter…" Mistia whispered as she stood up to walk back to the guild's gardens.
On her way out, Stella grabbed her by the arm. She didn't want to leave things like this, but what she didn't know was that the decision wasn't up to her. Mistia grabbed her forearm with huge strength, Stella could feel her wrist breaking.
"I said, that it doesn't matter" Mistia said, with a tone that made Stella creep out like never before.
Mistia let Stella go and walked back to the guild's gardens. Stella stood in place, frozen, as her broken wrist regenerated, she was trying to process what just happened but she couldn't, or rather she didn't want to.
Stella felt the need to distract her mind, she had to do something else, she looked for the bag of gold in her waist, her thoughts drifted to the brothel she had been visiting recently, the lustful thoughts filled her mind, replacing the fear she had just experienced as she walked out the guild.
Hours passed and night fell on the capital of Lisbea, the younger ones retreated to their homes as well as those who work during the day, those who live during the night emerge from their homes into the night life of the capital.
A half-drunk Stella walks with the best of her capacities through the streets attempting to reach Mistia's home, they had to go early tomorrow so it was better to her to spend the night at Mistia's instead of a stranger's. Even though some people attempted to take advantage of her, she was sober enough to use her Soothing Hands spell to get rid of them.
With effort, Stella managed to make her way back to Mistia's home, the door was locked so she had to knock, she wished that it wasn't Mistia the one who opened the door, and fortunately for her, she did not, instead she was received by Lyle.
"Stella, where have you been?" He asked.
"I… was just… getting rid of the nerves, do ya understaind me?" Stella managed to articulate.
"Are you drunk? And what is that smell, is that… perfume? Were you at the brothel again?" Lyle questioned.
"Hey! First of all, I am not that drunk, and second… what was the second thing?" The drunk healer replied.
"Just get in" Lyle said as he helped Stella in.
As Lyle helped Stella enter, she noticed something.
"Have you ever had those armbands?" She asked, looking at the iron armbands that Lyle had on.
"Oh, Ascalon and I went to buy some armor today" He responded.
Lyle helped Stella get to the couch to sit with her, there she looked better at Lyle and Ascalon who was on the floor rubbing his axe with a rag. Aside from the iron armbands, Lyle now also had a pair of iron boots and his chestplate also seemed to be new. Ascalon, similar to Lyle, had acquired iron armbands and boots and had renewed his chestplate and shoulder pads.
Stella began to get comfortable on the couch but was interrupted.
"Hey, you shouldn't fall asleep yet, Mistia is preparing something for us" Lyle said, as he pointed at the kitchen in the corner of the room where Mistia had been silently finishing preparing dinner for everyone.
Stella turned back to look at her, feeling a bit of creepiness for what had happened earlier but she tried to ignore it.
Mistia finished preparing the meal, it was something humble, a piece of steak with some carrots and peas. She served the plates at the table while Ascalon and Lyle removed their armors, they all gathered around it and enjoyed the meal, it had a pretty decent taste.
"Hey, I wondered, why did you want to make dinner? We could've just gone to a restaurant like usual" Lyle asked looking at Mistia "I'm not complaining or anything, I'm just curious"
Mistia was left thoughtful for a couple of seconds before she decided to answer.
"I just wanted to. It has been a while since I've prepared something and… I don't know, I just felt like it" She responded.
"Well, it is pretty decent, besides it's way cheaper" Ascalon said.
"That's right, it's very good, I bet that if you had a better place to cook it would taste even better" Lyle said with a smile.
Mistia blushed a little bit at Lyle's comment, she felt a strange warm feeling running through her body.
"T-Thanks" Mistia said, looking away, flustered.
A little silence formed and got quickly interrupted by Stella's snores, her drunkenness had finally made her fall unconscious on the couch. Everyone had already finished their dinner so they cleaned things up and prepared to go to sleep.
As Ascalon got comfortable on the floor, Mistia walked to her room, and as she turned the doorknob an idea came to her mind. She turned back to look at Lyle who was about to try to get comfortable on the couch.
"Lyle" She called out.
"Hmm?" He said as he turned back to look at her.
Mistia kept silent for a few seconds as she tried to think on what she was about to say.
"I… well, I was just… considering that… maybe…" She gulped and blushed.
"My bed is kinda big, so I was wondering if you'd like to sleep by my side tonight" Mistia said, looking away from Lyle.
The blonde seemed confused and flustered.
"It's just that… I wouldn't like that Stella puked on you while sleeping or something like that, and I think you wouldn't be comfortable sleeping on the ground" Mistia said, her blush intensifying.
"I-I don't know, Mistia… is it… really ok for you? I mean, with your man problem and such…" Lyle asked, a bit more calm.
"We-Well, as I said, the bed is not that small so we can share it without touching… be-besides, I don't think it will be that bad since… well… since it's you" Mistia replied, her face almost completely reddened.
Lyle's blush intensified at Mistia's words. "F-Fine, I… I guess that it is ok then… but, if at any moment you feel… uncomfortable, just tell me and I'll leave"
Mistia nodded and entered the room, she told Lyle to enter whenever he felt like it. Lyle stood still for a few moments, unsure of what to do next.
"Just go" Ascalon said on the floor.
Lyle got a bit surprised, the moment had made him forget that Ascalon was there.
"Alright" Lyle said to himself as he made his way into Mistia's bedroom.
He hadn't been there before, so he took a little moment to look at the room, it had a small window that barely lighted the room, allowing to see what was inside a little, he was able to identify the few things in there, in one of the sides of the room there was a cracked mirror with a little table under it, next to it there was some sort of wardrobe, it had no door and there were only two things hanging from it, some sort of old pajama and a very old and ragged blue dress.
There was a bed in the middle of the room, Mistia sitting on the right side of it, there was a night table next to it with a turned off candle on top. Lyle closed the bedroom door and approached the bed and sat on the left side. The bed was clearly old, the mattress felt worn, but it was indeed sizable enough for the both of them to sleep on it without much trouble.
"This is kind of a big bed, how did you get it?" Lyle asked.
"I don't really remember, I've had it almost since I moved in here, which was almost a decade ago if I'm not wrong" Mistia responded.
Both of them laid on the mattress next to each other without making contact. The night was hot so none of them bothered to cover themselves with the blanket. Lyle managed to fall asleep pretty easily, he was tired after all the training he had during the day, and even though sharing the bed with Mistia had put him a bit nervous, the darkness and the familiarity with her had quickly helped him get rid of the nerves.
However, Mistia was another story, she stayed there, awake, she tilted her head a bit to look at Lyle, whose face was being barely being illuminated by the moonlight, she was blushing, she was nervous, being so close to a man, sharing a bed, it brought her some bad memories, but looking at Lyle seemed to be turning down those feelings, those nerves and bad memories were replaced by just serenity. Mistia's eyes slowly got heavier as she stared at Lyle's sleeping face and before she realized, she had already fallen asleep.
The next morning, Mistia got woken up by the feeling of something slightly warm against her right cheek. She slowly opened her eyes as she turned her head to her right, in front of her she saw Lyle standing, holding two cups of tea in his hands, one of them against her cheek.
"Good morning, Mistia. Made you a tea" Lyle said with a smile that gave Mistia a warm feeling in her chest.
Mistia slowly sat on the bed as she took the cup of tea Lyle had made for her, she gave it a little taste, it was neither too hot nor too cold, it was pretty good. Mistia cleared her throat after the first sip.
"Good morning Lyle, the tea is fantastic" Mistia said.
The room was being illuminated by the barely risen sun, it was very early, earlier than usual, but they had an important appointment and they had to be there as early as possible after all.
Lyle and Mistia walked out the bedroom, in the main room there were Ascalon and Stella, the former stretching and the latter dealing with her hangover. The four of them got prepared to go out, Lyle and Mistia finished their cups of tea, Ascalon finished stretching and Stella tried to ignore her headache.
After Mistia combed her hair a bit and Ascalon and Lyle had put on their armors, the four of them left to go eat something before going to the castle. It was a bit complicated to find a restaurant open at these hours but they did manage to find one pretty soon. The place had no other clients yet so they got attended immediately and received their breakfasts, Stella even got a brew that got rid of her hangover.
Having finished their breakfast and paid for it, the squad left the restaurant and headed towards the castle of the capital, it was time to see what that mission was about. Lyle was particularly nervous about the situation but Ascalon reassured him with encouraging words.
At the castle, their way got blocked by a pair of guards, but after explaining the reason for their visit, they got escorted to the training grounds of the castle where numerous lisbean soldiers were already reunited.
The lisbean soldiers seemed to be organized depending on their roles, they differentiated from the groups of adventurers and mercenaries as they all had similar looking clothes and the lisbean symbol on it.
The roles were easily identifiable by their armors, the first group had soldiers that varied in size but all of them seemed to mostly only have hauberk armor instead of iron armors like the rest, they all held bows and crossbows, not really hard to realize what their role was.
Then, there were the light soldiers, not a numerous bunch but most of them weren't particularly tall or robust, their iron armors seemed pretty light and thin and their weapons similarly were mostly relatively short spears and thin swords.
The next bunch of soldiers seemed to be most numerous, they looked to be taller and more robust than the previous group, their armors as well seemed more resistant. Their weaponry was more varied, having axes, halberds, bigger swords, maces and also some of them wielded shields.
The fourth bunch, the taller and most robust soldiers of all, not only wore the most robust looking armors but they also had bigger weapons, giant swords, two headed axes, spiked mallets and even big iron shields.
Finally, the fifth bunch of soldiers, even though they looked similar in terms of armor to the archers, they didn't seem to have any kind of weapon, some of them had shields but no weapons in sight, it was hard to tell what their role was but many of them were doing little magic tricks while waiting, so they most likely focused entirely on fighting exclusively using magic attacks.
Aside from the lisbean soldiers, there were already many groups of adventurers and mercenaries roaming around the training grounds, some of them seemed familiar to the squad but they hadn't really interacted with them before, and despite the lisbean soldiers mostly being separated by roles, many of them were scattered across other groups, doing casual chat while they waited for instructions.
The squad walked into a side where there weren't many people reunited, they looked around for a bit in the meantime, it could be a good while before they were given instructions. They tried to do some conversation between themselves, wondering about what could be the mission be about, but aside from the fact that they were going to face Esteller's army, they didn't have much idea on what they were going to do against them until Mistia came up with the idea that maybe they had taken over a lisbean city or something of the kind and they were going to help taking it back, which seemed convincing enough for the rest of the group who couldn't bring themselves on thinking of another possible scenario.
After 10 minutes of waiting, the sound of a familiar voice made the entire squad turn to look in the same direction from where The Elementals were walking from until they stood next to them.
"Greetings, it's been a while, hasn't it?" Dante said with a smile as he waved at the group.
"Yes, it's been a while" Lyle said as he waved back at him.
"How have you been?" Stella asked, giving Terrac a small seductive gaze, making him blush a bit.
"Everything's been alright for us, although I personally have been wondering why we haven't met you at the guild in almost a month" Elene declared.
"Well, I guess we've kinda been waking up earlier. Hard to stay asleep until too late with the heat of the summer" Lyle said with a chuckle.
"I guess that makes sense, we did have some issues with heat at first but I learned a little trick recently" Dante declared.
"A trick? Show us" Ascalon said.
Dante concentrated energy in his hands, it was a light blue sphere of magic that seemed to emanate cold. After a few seconds, Dante liberated the energy, creating a small ice mist that chilled the air a bit for a brief moment.
"Works better on insides to be honest" Dante said as his teammates applauded for him.
"That wasn't a bad trick" Ascalon declared.
"He's right, seems pretty useful for these times" Lyle said, enjoying the little moment of chill.
"I must admit that I'm a bit surprised to see you there" Mistia said.
"Well, we've been improving ourselves these last couple of months, when we arrived at the guild at night and were told about this mission, we just had to give it a shot" Elene said.
"And if it turns out to seem too dangerous we can still quit the mission" Terrac said.
"Of course, we would prefer not to" Dante clarified.
"Well, you wouldn't be the first ones, that's for sure" Ascalon declared, looking at a team that had regretted coming here and were already leaving.
Not only them but another mercenary group left soon after, in general most of the independent groups that had decided to come here seemed nervous and insecure about if it was a good decision to come in the first place.
They were not to blame, the idea of facing against the most feared empire in the continent would scare off anyone, even if brave at first, the sooner the encounter approaches the more the nerves begin to gain over until it's just too much for some.
Even between the squad and The Elementals, both teams share the nerves that the mission gives them, but neither of them plan on backing off just yet.
"Ah, it's nice to see people that aren't shaking like terrified cubs here" A male voice said, catching the attention of both teams.
They turn to look at the voice and they catch a glimpse of what seemed to be a mercenary squad, however, they didn't quite look like the ones they usually met at the guild, their clothing was significantly more royal-like, but they definitely weren't soldiers, they didn't have the lisbean symbol on them.
Standing in front, there was a man, the one who had talked to them, seemed to be the leader of the squad. He was a fairly tall man, his hair was dark brown and well combed, his eyes were brown and he had a thin but long scar on his chin. The man wore a full body iron armor with many golden details, in his waist he had a spiky round mace and carried an iron helmet with golden details on his right hand.
To the leader's left, a tall dark skinned man stood, holding firmly an iron staff with golden tips in his left hand, his hair was curly and black as well as his eyes and the prominent beard on his face, he was wearing a very elegant dark robe with several yellow details.
To the leader's right, there stood a blonde guy with bright blue eyes, he wasn't particularly tall in comparison to his comrades, he had an annoyed expression on his face but the rest of his appearance was rather feminine. His hair was tied up in two small pigtails with pink ribbons, he wore an iron armor that had some pink details in the form of light pink pieces of fabric, mostly highlighting the one that looked like a long skirt on his waist. The guy also carried a scythe on his back.
Finally, next to the feminine looking guy, there stood an astonishing tall woman, easily around 2 meters tall. Her skin had a tanned color, her hair was short and red and her eyes green and bright, she wore an iron chestplate that only covered the top of her chest, exposing her defined abs, she also wore a pair of iron boots and a pair of black shorts that were only covered by what looked like the skin of a gray wolf tied up around her waist. She had several scars all across her body, the most prominent ones were an x shaped scar on her left cheek, a long scar that went from her abs to her thighs and what seemed like some kind of burn scar all over her left arm.
"Who are you?" Lyle questioned, looking at the squad in front of them.
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gork Guizin, and the people accompanying me are my team. We go by the name of Prime Squad" The leader said.
"Greetings, my name is Tak-al Alcaraz, it's nice to meet a bunch of brave people like you" The man with curly hair said as he bowed his head a bit.
"My name is Elias, that's all you gotta know" The feminine guy said in a cutting tone.
"Elias, what have we talked about being nice to others?" The woman said to the guy at her left.
"He didn't say a slur this time, I'd call that progress" Gork said in a chuckle.
Elias just sighed and looked away.
"I apologize for the rudeness of my husband. My name is Karla Gekshi, and you all seem like very nice people" The redhaired woman said with a hand on her chest.
"I suppose that you should introduce yourselves to us now" Gork said.
Both the squad and The Elementals introduced themselves to the Prime Squad, of course The Elementals did their characteristic flashy introduction, making Gork, Tak-al and Karla laugh, while Elias just thought that they were retarded.
"Are you really mercenaries? You look way too fancy, besides I don't think we've ever come across you at the guild" Ascalon questioned.
"Well, yes we are, but we work in a different way than you do" Tak-al responded.
"Hm? How so?" Dante asked.
"Long story short, we serve in a more private way, to put it a way. We do missions for people of wealth" Gork explained.
"So… you're mercenaries for rich people only?" Mistia asked.
"Basically, yes" Gork responded.
"Curious, didn't know those existed" Lyle declared.
The sound of a trumpet interrupted the scene, everyone looked at the wooden stage on one of the sides of the field, four figures walked in the stage, the first one was General Erbow, the one that had advertised the mission yesterday at the guild, following him, a spiky black haired man with a prominent bear and a serious expression on his face and a scar on his left eye. The third person was a man with fiery red hair tied up in a small ponytail, his attire was more elegant than everyone present there, he wore a golden armor with an ice blue cape.
And the fourth person was a woman, but not just any woman, it was a woman that Lyle and Ascalon already knew, even if it was for a few days only, they still remembered her. That golden hair, those light blue eyes, those spiky ears. Even if most of her body was covered by a green cape, that woman was, without doubt, the elf the pair of Downwood town had met when they began their adventure, Sylvana.