Summer Break

Chapter 11

Arthur and Tess continued down the road they were originally walking down with the hopes of spotting their friends. Luckily the task was fairly easy. They were headed towards the edge of the outpost where most of the mana beast and horses were kept, so their search area wasn't too big. Then after they arrived at the rental businesses all they had to do was ask a few people if they saw an elf leading a young group of adventurers. As soon as Tess asked someone if they had seen an elf, they knew exactly who they were looking for and were able to give Arthur clear directions.

Even though they had their directions, Tess was not very pleased about the fact that she was not the one responded to. The problem was that despite the fact that slavery of elves was abolished, there were many incidents where a now freed elf had nowhere to go, resulting in them gaining employment with the same family that once owned them. In the case of Arthur and Tess, many people saw her as a former slave that was now becoming an adventurer with the son of the noble or wealthy family she served. Due to this Tess was seen becoming an adventurer, either to act as a bodyguard due to an exceptional talent with magic, or because she had taken a liking to Arthur and wished to be close to him. It didn't take Arthur long to piece things together as to why Tess seemed to be in a sour mood, and wished that he had noticed sooner as to do something to make the person look like a fool, but it was too late now. Arthur didn't like Tess so bothered by this, so he put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in a little closer. Tess was surprised by this public act of affection, which she thought Arthur wasn't a fan of, but blushed lightly as she enjoyed it just the same.

After only a few minutes Arthur and Tess arrived at the rental business. There didn't appear to be anything special about the building, the only thing telling it apart from the others was the sign which had elfin writing on it. There were two large but very fancy looking carriages out front with a skitter harnessed to each. They had the look of carriages ridden in by nobles in Xyrus, not what one would expect to see in the beast glades. As they approached they could hear arguing, and soon saw it was coming from Feyrith and Elijah.

"Hey everyone. What are they arguing about?" Arthur asked the group.

"Oh hi Arthur, Tess," Claire greeted as she turned to see them approaching. "They're arguing about the carriages."

"What's wrong with our carriages?" Tess asked.

Curtis just pointed to the fancy carriages.

"Those are ours?" Arthur asked, sounding surprised.

"Yup. Elijah keeps arguing that they are embarrassing to ride in, while Feyrith claims there's nothing wrong with them," Claire explained.

"Feyrith!" Arthur called out, getting his attention. "What is with these? This isn't what I asked you to get!"

"Yes you did, you said carriages that can hold several of us and supplies, while also being durable enough to handle the rough terrain," Feyrith defended.

Arthur rubbed his temples. "What do you call that?" Arthur asked as he pointed to what he expected.

"Garbage collection cart," Feyrith replied with a disgusted tone.

Arthur sighed. "What you got won't survive. The axles are too thin and without a ring of metal around the wheels they're likely to break by the time we reach our first dungeon. Replace them with those," Arthur said pointing to the carriages he intended.

Feyrith appeared to be frustrated by Arthur's instructions, but walked over to a group of workers to have the carts switched. Everyone else was quite surprised to see Feyrith listening to Arthur so easily, especially after how hard he fought Elijah over the same issue. The difference between how Elijah handled the situation versus how Arthur handled it made all the difference. Unlike Elijah who based his argument around personal pride and dignity, Arthur kept his argument to simple irrefutable facts, which were in no way opinion based.