Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Kaizen came out of the bushes near the cave, walking naturally.

"Come back, Hellround." He commanded, and the summoner was gone in an instant while still barking at Yokoso.

"Phew! I thought I was going to die!" Yokoso said, relieved. "Hey, wait, are you alive?!" he asked Psyker.

From the moment Yokoso pushed Kaizen off the carriage, the last thing he expected was to see him alive again.

Resmir Ferris seemed surprised as well, only in a different way than his grandson. "Yokoso, you said he was torn apart by a bear.... But here he is. A little wounded, yet alive! What's going on here?"

"Is that what you told your own grandfather to try to trick him?" inquired Kaizen.

Yokoso nodded with a shit look on his face. "I-I can explain! I pro-promise!"

"You better have a good explanation anyway..." Klank said, coming out of the bushes as well.

Rismar, Klank and Kaizen stared at Yokoso, waiting for an answer. Pressed against the wall of the dead-end cave, the butler had no choice but to tell them why he had done everything he did.

Then Yokoso told him that the route between the Royal Capital of Tretidian and the small university town Galilei was very famous for being dangerous, where many thieves ambushed him during the day from morning until evening.

These thieves would seek the riches of the noble carriages of students, professors, scientists and scholars, as well as rob the wagons full of supplies that supplied the city, since Galilei City had no means of production other than its student buildings.

However, while this road between the two cities was popularly feared during the day because of thieves, at night it was feared because of mysterious happenings, such as disappearances, murders and shrieking.

Obviously, people at first believed that everything that happened at night was the fault of aggressive thieves, but generally most thieves also left the forest when it was dark because of the lesser movement of carriages. Therefore, it was rational to think that the monsters were to blame for the mysterious attacks. This was the most logical answer, after all the monsters became stronger and more aggressive after sunset.

This common opinion of the people of the two cities about the monsters only changed when a group of famous adventurers entered this road during the night. Although they had been warned about the disappearances, attacks and murders of those who entered the forest at night, the adventurers were in a great hurry to get to Galilei to finish some mission, so they didn't even care.

These adventurers faithfully believed that, even during the night, no roadside monsters could threaten their lives.

The day after these adventurers' journey, their carriage was found by merchants in the middle of the road and so were their bodies.

What killed them? Was it thieves, monsters, or other adventurers perhaps?

The exact answer was never found, but considering how destroyed the chariot was by claw marks and how torn the bodies of the adventurers were, no doubt it had been something very ferocious. From that day on, there was a rumor about a very dangerous beast that had the entire forest as its territory.

Years later, a different road was built, deviating from the place where the beast attacked the most. This road was longer and created more points for thieves to ambush, but the number of thieves also fell after a while because travelers began to hire bodyguards for protection.

During the night there were sometimes some attacks on the new road, only much less than before. Some people even risked traveling at night, and about 50% of the carriages that did this arrived in one piece in the next town. This was still a problem, but not so big as to attract the attention of people powerful enough to solve the problem.

In addition, travelers began to say that the rain was a sign that the beast was near, and that it was also worse to travel when the sky was clear and the moon was visible, because the beast was more active. Little by little, the people themselves got used to all this.

Therefore, as Yokoso had stayed in the Royal City for some time, he had enough time to find out about all this. However, he didn't want to frighten his grandfather and didn't tell him about it, even when he heard in the lobby of the inn how the beast on the road had recently become more active.

In the end, when the man with whom he entered into an agreement, Klank, brought a partner along for the journey, Yokoso decided to use Kaizen to ensure that they would arrive safely in Galilee City even though they crossed the forest at night.

"That's why I pushed you off the carriage at that time... I just wanted to ensure the safety of the others. You looked so strong that I thought I could distract the beast long enough until we went around its territory." Yokoso confessed.

"How dare you do that, you idiot! You just drove away from you and your grandfather the person who could protect them the most!" Klank exclaimed, clenching his fist in anger.

Kaizen stopped Klank from attacking the NPC by putting out an arm to stop him.

Impressively, the anger the Psyker felt towards Yokoso was more tempered now by knowing his motives than when he was thrown from the carriage.

"Although I feel like making you lick my boots for giving me such a hard time, I understand that you did what you thought would be best to protect your grandfather. However, it is undeniable that all your decisions went wrong today. Despite your attempt to use me as bait, the beast still targeted your carriage and caught up with you. How did you manage to escape after that attack?" questioned Kaizen, crossing his arms.

While holding a cloth over his head to staunch any injuries, Resmir seemed to want to hear what his grandson had to say about this as well.

"Miraculously, I managed to jump out of the carriage when that thing hit us, only the carriage and the creature were not as lucky as I was and fell on the rocks ahead. I had a few scrapes, but overall I was okay, and I went down the stone ravine to see if I could still save you."

Yokoso looked at Resmir, then looked away.

"Luckily, when I got to the carriage the beast wasn't there, so I opened the carriage door with great effort and pulled my grandfather out, still unconscious. He had some blood on his head, but he seemed fine. Klank was there too, but there was no way I could carry two unconscious people, so I closed the door as best I could and left in a big hurry. After a while of walking in the dark forest, my grandfather woke up and we found this cave to hide from the rain."

"Is that why you were so afraid? Why, and here I thought I was afraid of the bear finding us..." Resmir said, looking down at the ground.

"That explains most of it, hair licker. Anyway, you'll have to reward us for hindering our mission. I wasn't paid to walk through the forest" Kaizen stated.

Yokoso nodded, resigned. "But what about the beast? Should we wait here until dawn?"

"The beast is dead." Psyker was simple and direct. "You'll have to pay a bonus for that too. Let's get going, there's nothing else to fear in this forest. Klank, stay behind us to make sure Yokoso doesn't try anything new. I'll light our way." With a snap of his fingers, Kaizen created a fireball over the palm of his right hand.

At that moment, Yokoso and Rismar looked alike at Kaizen and thought at the same time:

'He doesn't just look like a badass... He is a badass!'

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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