PROLOGUE
“Lian, you’re coming, right?”
“Yes, Mogi. Just a sec!”
My name is Berlian, people here call me Lian.
I am suffering amnesia for 3 years. The only thing I remember is my name.
I was badly injured when I came to, my stomach was cut open and my innards were spilling out. It was not a great first memory. I lost too much blood and I was so close to knocking hell’s gate.
Fortunately, a little catkin girl named Naira found me and brought me to her teacher, a healer named Lowe.
I was in their care for 3 days until my wounds closed. And because I didn’t have any money, I worked there to pay my debt to them for some months.
After that, I worked as an adventurer. I slay some monsters that lurk around this village and getting paid for those subjugation quests. In addition, some monster loots can be sold for some money.
And today, I’m on my first bandit subjugation. The subjugation party consists of 10 men and women from mixed races. Mogi, who was calling out for me, was a fellow dark elf. Although me and Mogi are the same dark elf, our features differ slightly. His hair is dull grey and short, and his skin is dark grey. My skin is more chocolate-ish and my hair is silver with a bit of green tint.
Oh yeah, I’m a girl.
“Che! Two brats!? Hey, you better be serious here!”
Well… although I don’t know my age, my body is similar to 15 years old human girl. And Mogi is only 22 years old. His body looks like a kid as well. Dark elves have some special growth method and that’s the cause of our appearances.
“hey, hey. Vahn, they’re this village’s representatives. At least they have the qualifications.”
“as he said, we are Jolkr’s representatives. We won’t hinder you.”
Mogi told them like that.
Apart from Mogi and I, the other 8 are from neighboring town of Lutanger. Vahn, the appointed leader of the subjugation team, is the highest rank in the team.
“…fine. But protect yourselves, we don’t have enough hands to babysit you kids. Now let’s move!”
With a sudden turn, his leather coat flutters and reveals his weapon: a thick single-edged greatsword.
This subjugation team is well balanced, there are short ranged fighters, long ranged archers and mages, a scout, and a healer.
I’m the sole healer
Though mages and wizards are capable of wide range of magics, healing magics are hard to learn. Thus, healers are quite hard to find. Thanks to my time working under Lowe I can perform some low level healing. With a team of veteran adventurers like this, a low level healer is sufficient. Not like they can ask for more, though. In the first place only I agreed to join the subjugation. The rest of the healers don’t want to harm themselves, or busy doing their quests from the guild.
While I’m capable of healing, I can fight to some extent. I don’t know why, but for some reason I feel like my head gets dull every time I fight. Sometimes it slows down my reflex, sometimes clouds my quick decisions. As a result, even while possessing great physical abilities, my combat proficiency is low.
For that reason, I’m mastering shield and sword combat for these 3 years. I feel that this style is not suited for me, but to increase my own survivability I have no choice but to bear with it.
Though I said a ‘shield’ it’s a leather buckler. I don’t like using heavy metal shield, and a big shield will hinder my range of sight. Furthermore, I’m confident in my speed and agility. So using heavy equipments won’t do me any good. I think.
And because of my gears, I’m appointed right behind the front line, between the vanguards and rangers. I can block some strikes and the most important, I can quickly tend to whoever needs a healing.
“still… don’t you find it weird? Jolkr is a small village without any specialty product. Even if it has one, it’s just located a few hours from a dungeon. Why would a band of bandits make a camp here instead of a bigger town?”
“who knows. All we need to do is to drive away those hoodlums. Reasons and whatnot, we can leave them to whoever concerned.”
The details of this quest was told by the guildmaster. Reports of bandit activities south of Jolkr, attacking at random. Most of the time they only kill and not looting the goods, the only thing missing are a small amount of foods and some sort of mana cores. Some reports said they even leave all the goods alone or just harass the victims by traps and pranks.
“we’ll arrive at the spot anytime soon. Like we’ve agreed we’ll make a camp and prepare for ambush.”