203 – Stuttering friend

Eric stood before Gillian’s face.

Gillian was barely able to raise his head to see Eric's indifferent eyes on him. Looking at those glowing blue eyes, he felt his soul trembling with dread.

He had never experienced such fear before. He had seen City Lord Gideon, but he was a very humble, gentle, and smiling person. So, this was almost his first time truly facing someone who showed him just how much of an insignificant being he was.

He pleadingly gazed at Eric to spare his life. The despair and desperation were vivid in his expression.

Eric was speechless. He was certain that it was not his forgotten evil ability acting up, as he had not missed his rituals even for a single day after waking up from the coma. He had made sure to ridicule heaven at least twice per day! And thanks to that, he felt he now had a lot better control over this inborn ability. So, it was definitely this Rank 3 just scaring himself up, thinking that he was about to kill him.

"We will be staying in this city for the next few days. If your Lord has problems, he can come and visit me anytime."

Thak!

Gillian fell unconscious.

Eric decided to relieve Gillian's mind by putting him into a short, pleasant dream; maybe he would be grateful after waking up and forget all about this small episode.

Everything went quiet. The entire area was silent except for the sound of people breathing.

Eric felt weird. So, he turned around to see everyone was still in the same posture.

He had made sure not to hit his allies with his spiritual pressure. So, why were they still lying on the ground?

He looked at his new brother Thorne and felt this was a disgrace.

"How long are you guys planning to taste soil? Did you guys miss your home ground so much? Stand up, let's go!"

Everyone stood up while blushing.

They didn't know what to say or do, except Elianor, whose blazing eyes were glued to Eric like an adhesive.

"Lit..." Caius coughed and changed his wording, "Brother Eric, they are still fine, right?" He pointed at the 'dead' thirty or so people.

Eric nodded, "Completely fine physically. They can definitely protect us from the vile Necromancers!"

Everyone felt their mouths twitch looking at the unconscious Mana Wielders. They wondered if these guards were truly capable of protecting them from the necromancers.

Brunhild exhaled deeply and thought that it was better not to think further on this and just go home.

"Let’s leave while there’s no nuisance stopping us. Lit... Brother Eric, how long till they wake up?" she asked.

"Around two to three minutes," Eric answered.

He had made sure to knock them out just enough for them to wake up soon.

He continued, "Let's go, and first help us get an inn. I doubt people will allow us to use our tents freely within the city."

Caius nodded and signaled the others to follow him.

Soon Eric, Lyria, and Livy came out of the barracks and were amazed by the sight in front of them.

The city street was bustling with activity. The cobblestone streets were lined with buildings that rose in stately rows, each cleaner than the last. The buildings were a mix of styles and made largely of wood, bricks, and stones, mostly painted in white.

Just the number of people blew all three country bumpkins’ minds.

Eric had, of course, seen a much larger crowd, but it had been such a long time that it almost felt like his first time. The city was also a lot cleaner and properly regulated, unlike their pitiful Ringwood town’s muddy streets. Though, for some reason, he felt the streets were a little too crowded—more than they should be. The vibe he was getting was that there were two distinctly different groups in the streets. One group of people were well-dressed, while another group looked like beggars or extremely worn-out travelers, but their numbers were a little too excessive for just being a few travelers or beggars in a city.

Other than that, the streets were broader, and horse-drawn carriages were continuously passing by. It showed how busy the city streets were compared to any villages they had passed through so far.

Lyria and Livy had seen much more beautiful places before they arrived at the orphanage, but they had mostly forgotten those details, and they hadn't really taken a carefree walk like this back when they were little. So, they were now also qualified countryside bumpkins.

Brunhild smiled watching the three who were glancing everywhere like countryside villagers who had never seen a city before in their lives. They all looked too cute, except when she recalled everything since the night of Maplemurk Village; she trembled and nearly slapped herself. They were not cute at all! They were all little monsters!

At this moment, Eilif said with a baffled tone, “Why does everywhere look a little too crowded, or am I imagining things?”

Everyone observed and eventually nodded in agreement.

Caius provided his speculation, “I am guessing that quite a few people from nearby villages have arrived here for shelter and protection.”

The others agreed and didn’t think much of it.

Caius began walking on the footpath, and the others followed behind.

Brunhild turned to look at the tall trio and said with reluctance in her tone, "Lit... Brother Eric, sister Lyria, Livy, are you all truly only planning to stay for a few days? You guys can stay for a month at least, and we will take you around the city. There is much to see and enjoy within our Batley City." She had heard Eric saying that to Gillian.

Elianor, whose eyes had been glued to Eric since his cool debut, immediately panicked hearing he was about to leave soon.

She hadn't even confessed yet; no, she hadn't even known him long enough, so how could she allow him to leave so quickly? No, she may as well follow Eric on his journey! She only had a single brother as a family member, and he could totally take care of himself!

The others also looked at Eric, Lyria, and Livy with reluctance.

They had been having so much fun ever since they met them. It was almost like they had received protection from some almighty, and no matter how many times they were ambushed by powerful Necromancer Teams, they never got injured.

It was such a fun ride filled with laughter and relaxation that they hadn't had for almost ever since they started taking missions outside of Batley City.

They truly wanted the three to stay longer and to know each other better. Maybe with some drinks together their brotherhood would bloom, but sadly none of the three drank...

Eric shrugged and answered helplessly, "We are tasked to do something, and we need to reach a place before a time limit, and along the way, we also like to visit and tour various locations. So, staying too long in a single place is not possible for us."

Everyone sighed with dejection but no longer persisted. After all, these three belonged to a completely different world than them, and what they were tasked with by their teacher wasn't something they could interfere with.

Only Elianor, who was panicking, could no longer hold back and said while stammering, "Eh. Ah... B-Brother Eric, c-can I also follow you around? I-I also wish to travel the world!" There was a hidden meaning covered within those words, which was clear to all who were present.

Lyria and Livy's mouths twitched. Just how long was this red-haired girl going to ignore their existence? They were also going together with Eric; at least add them too to her list of people to follow!

Caius and the others goggled at Elianor with disbelief. That was a clear betrayal of their solid friendship! But they didn't blame her and would only feel regretful if she left.

Since the night Eric rescued them at Maplemurk Village, it was clear for everyone to see that Elianor had developed romantic feelings for Eric. They didn't blame her, but also didn't encourage her as they didn't know if this relationship would result in anything good or not, since Eric wasn't the usual Apprentice Rank.

Eric, meanwhile, was startled by the indirect confession all of a sudden. Was he so hot these days?

He grinned toward Elianor, whose eyes immediately lit up with hope seeing his handsome smile.

"Sorry Elianor, we might face dangers along the way that you are not fit for."

It was a clear and brutal rejection on all levels.

Eric wasn't even initially willing to take Lyria and Livy with him on his careless, risky, go-happy journey, much less take another new person who was clearly just too weak.

More importantly, due to their deep dark secret of pumping raw steroids into their biceps, it had become hundreds of times more difficult to add new companions, whether male or female. And Eric was more than happy with it.

There was a quote by Buddha—'It’s better to walk alone than with fools'. Except Eric believed he was the fool, and smart people should seek better shelter and companions for life than him.

Elianor's face turned ghostly pale hearing Eric's response. She understood what Eric meant; it was a subtle but clear rejection of her love confession.

Her heart shook and shattered into a million pieces. She couldn't help but take a few steps back with a devastated look. Tears started rolling out of her eyes. She hadn't received such a major blow even when the Night Hag Arachnid had nearly killed her.

Everyone felt pity, but they knew it was coming ages ago.

Brunhild gently patted Elianor's back to help her calm down.

Looking at Elianor's grief-stricken expression, Lyria and Livy felt sad for her. They didn't hate her; in fact, they were quite welcoming of making her their new sister. Elianor was jolly, knew singing, dancing, and cooking, and was very pretty... but miles behind them on this! There's no compromise on this point! Otherwise, everything showed she was nice, cute, innocent, and a happy person. She completely fell into their ‘new sister category’, but if Eric rejected her so clearly before they could even begin brainwashing him, they could only be helpless and could only apologize to Elianor in their hearts.

Eric was fairly cool on the outside, but he also felt a little bad watching the devastated expression of Elianor; she kind of reminded him of someone from his past life.

He almost wanted to pat Elianor's shoulder and console her—'Better luck next time'. But he knew if he did so, there would be a 'K.O.' word popping out over her head. So, he held back.

Eric remembered a friend from his past life who was very handsome, just that he was a little too slender for being a man, but that could easily be worked out in gyms and it wouldn’t even be a surprise if he started receiving modeling offers from such agencies. That guy was also fairly good with studies. There was only one regretful point to him, and that was—he had 'childhood-onset fluency disorder', in short, a 'speech disorder'; in other words, he used to stutter while speaking. And due to that, he lacked confidence in himself.

On one fine day, when that handsome friend of Eric was in his college classroom, a very pretty, petite-looking shy girl of his class called him out to the college cafe for a 'talk'.

That lad went there with deep suspiciousness in his heart.

Eric and their mutual friends also sneakily followed behind and hid in a place so the couple couldn’t notice them.

After the girl appeared, she confessed her feelings. The boy—Eric's old pal—stood up, feeling offended, and slammed his hand on the table and roared at her, “H-h-h-how d-dare y-y-you? H-h-how dare y-y-you j-j-joke w-w-with m-m-me l-l-like t-this?!”

The girl was as devastated as Elianor, with her expression turned pale and tearful. She stood up and ran away while weeping.