Otherworld Adventure

After leaving Cecil and Silver at the ranch, Lucia was on her way to the town square.

Passing through the gate, Lucia hurried on towards the agreed meeting place with Scarlet Blaze. When she arrived at the square she saw the party waiting by the event stage.

It was pretty crowded, but the young party of four really stood out from the rest of the veteran's that were crowding around the stage.

Lucia walked towards them while calling out,

"Milly!"

Turning around, Milly, the flame lizardkin spellcaster saw a silver haired 3 tailed fox girl calling out to her.

"Oh! Lucia! Quick come 'ere!"

Walking up to the party, Lucia sees that Tyr and Miles are looking around. Upon seeing that Cecil wasn't with her, Tyr immediately exclaimed.

"Cecil's not with you?!"

Expecting a question like that, Lucia answers briefly.

"He's at the ranch with Silver. After the event starts can we go pick him up?"

"Sure, sure!" Tyr answers.

"Actually it's pretty convenient. The area where we're going to clear out is the forest close to the ranch."

"Eh?"

Hearing this Lucia starts to worry.

'Knowing Cecil and Silver... they might just go have a small training session in the forest...'

Cathy sees that Lucia seemed to be worrying about something she tries to ask what's wrong.

"Uh..uhm... L-Lucia... is something, b-bothering you?"

"Eh? N-no, it's just that... knowing Cecil, he'd probably take Silver with him and train a bit in the forest near the ranch... since there's supposed to be a lot of monsters in there, I'm worried if he goes too deep he might get in trouble..."

"T-that's b-bad isn't it?"

"Uhm... I'm gonna go back and check on them!"

Seeing Lucia about to run back Milly speaks up.

"Hey! Lucia, we'll go too. The announcements just about finished so we'll just go together and have a head start. Others have already skipped the announcement ceremony and are already hunting down the monsters in the forest."

"WITH THIS, LET THE HUNTING BEGIN!"

The lizard-kin on the stage that seems to be the mayor of the town announces the start of the hunting event.

"Alright! Let's go already, the announcements finished already!"

Tyr was already running towards the gate of the town before he even finished yelling out his piece.

Lucia and the rest quickly run after Tyr and quickly head towards the ranch.

By the time they reach the ranch Lucia looks around frantically and sees that Cecil and Silver were nowhere to be found.

"They're already gone!"

Milly starts prepping her party after seeing that Cecil wasn't there.

"Okay, formations as per normal. Lucia since you're a spellcaster like me, just stay close to me later!"

"Eh?! Uh, okay!"

Not knowing what was happening, Lucia was caught in Milly's flow and agreed to whatever it was she was instructed to do.

"Alright, since we're ready, LET'S GO!"

Just as they were about to chase after Cecil into the forest, they hear someone shouting towards them.

"HEY!"

"""Eh?"""

The voice sounded familiar. The party quickly turns around and looks towards the person who was calling out to them.

What they see was a huge 3 meter tall white wolf with a black haired 3 tailed fox boy riding on top of it waving his hand over at them. It was Cecil and Silver.

The group quickly runs towards them and Lucia immediately began scolding the pair.

"IDIOT! Weren't you supposed to just wait at the ranch?!"

Cecil wanted to tell Lucia about their small feat in the forest, but seeing as Lucia started flaring up at him for no reason, Cecil's bright face darkened a little. Thinking that he didn't do anything wrong, Cecil tried to argue back.

"W-what's wrong? It's not like I made you wait for too long. I'm back already so why are you so mad?"

"You just came back from the forest!"

"Yeah, so?"

Seeing him answer uncaringly, Lucia flared up even more.

"IDIOT! It's dangerous there! Don't you remember why they even hosted the hunting event?!"

"To hunt monsters... I'm not stupid Lulu. What's with you anyway? I didn't do anything wrong, so why are you yelling?"

Hearing his careless remark and looking at his dull face. Lucia was just about to burst out at him again.

"Cecil!"

Seeing as the atmosphere was about to boil over, Milly immediately raises her voice. Remembering that Lucia wasn't alone, Cecil started getting embarrassed that others were seeing them argue like this.

"Oh, Milly...everyone... Sorry you had to see this. Quit it already Lulu, if you want to argue at least do it later... we shou–"

"Cecil! Although we've only met yesterday, but you should apologize to Lucia right now!" Cathy immediately interrupted.

Everyone was surprised. The normally stuttering and shy Cathy had raised her voice and spoke rather boldly without stuttering!

Taken aback by Cathy's sudden outburst, Cecil stammered in reply.

"Wh-why?"

"Look at her!"

"Eh?"

Cecil immediately turned towards Lucia.

Lucia's face was flushed red, she was biting her lower lip, and she had tears in her eyes. Seeing this, Cecil knew that he did something wrong.

"L-Lulu? W-what's wrong?"

*Sniff* "I-idiot."

Cathy raises her voice again, but this time it's at Lucia.

"And you Lucia!"

"..."

"I know that you're worried, but you shouldn't just flare up at him out of nowhere! How's Cecil supposed to know why you're mad if you don't tell him why in the first place?!"

After saying her piece, Cathy immediately realizes what she just did. Her face went red and she started clutching her tail in embarrassment.

"Uhm... s-sorry."

'Okay this is confusing' Cecil thought.

"Wh-why are you mad anyway, Lulu?"

Milly was the one who answered him this time.

"The area of the hunt is at the forest you were just in... so basically that part of the forest is currently overpopulated with monsters."

"Huh?!"

Cecil remembered he trek through the forest earlier. Indeed the forest was overflowing with monsters even at the periphery. Cecil thought that it was just a common occurrence so he didn't pay it any mind.

He even went further into the forest with Silver and battled against a huge pack of Barbed Apes. After the fight, only then did Cecil find it unusual. Even on their way back the monsters seemed to be even denser than when he first went in.

Thinking to here, Cecil finally realized where he went wrong and turned towards Lucia. He immediately did a 90-degree bow and apologized.

"S-sorry Lulu... for making you worry like that."

Lucia had already calmed down. Cecil was apologizing and she felt a little happy, but still very furious in her heart.

"...Idiot."

"Yes, yes. I'm an idiot. So please don't be mad anymore okay?"

"...Fine."

Seeing the two make up. Milly butts in on their moment.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way. Let's get to hunting!"