"Oh, right! The demon parts, of course. Do you want me to give them to you now?" She asked.

Gerard felt at a loss. The Hero had appeared in the village and had believed his story, and allowed him to lead the way as an experiences local. But now, this very same hero was going to leave? Well, Gerard knew that the Hero would have to leave, anyways, since the crisis was over. But, still! For the Hero to leave so soon?

Gerard felt that if he accepted those demon parts that any connection of friends.h.i.+p between him and the Hero would be sliced apart like that Shadow monkey.

"Y-you can keep them." Gerard mumbled.

"Eh? What was that?" Robin asked, thinking she hadn't heard correctly.

"I said you can keep them!" Gerard spoke louder. "You can have everything, but please, can't you take me with you!?" He begged Robin. "Big sis always says I can't go about by myself, because it's too dangerous. But wouldn't it be fine if I came with you guys?"

Robin shook her head.

"No. the fact is that once you leave this village, you will no longer have an advantage of knowing the terrain. That being said, I'm pretty sure that your big sister would forbid you from coming, even if you said you were leaving with me."

"But-but!" Gerard's eyes began to fill with tears, as he stubbornly continued. "I promise I'll be good! I can carry your things for you!"

"We have the horse for that."

"I-I can become your apprentice!"

"I'm not sure if the Hero's job is a kind that one can become an apprentice to." Robin pointed out. "Otherwise, I would not have had to come from so far away. Is that everything?"

"NO! I can process the corpses of the demons you defeat!" Gerard threw out his final trump card. Robin paused with a bit of a shudder. She had forgotten all about that. In the future, she would have to do the processing herself. At this point, just the idea of cutting into a dead corpse....was not the most appealing of ideas.

Gerard saw that he had caught her interest.

"I'll even disa.s.semble them for free as long as you can provide for my food and take me with you!" he threw in.

Robin stood there for a bit, thinking. Off to the side, Christian, who had recovered from the 'backstabbing' earlier, held a conversation with Keith within a noise cancellation barrier. It was a necessary thing for a n.o.ble, to be able to have private conversations with others.

"Hey, do you want to bet if he'll let the kid come?" Christian asked.

"Nonsense! Of course he won't! It would be foolhardy at best!" Keith replied with a snort.

"Oh really? Then I bet that he'll gladly allow the kid to come with us." Christian smirked. Only Christian presently knew about Robin's aversion to corpses.

Keith just rolled his eyes. "You're on! Get ready to lose some coin!"

"5 silver to the winner?" Christian asked.

"Deal!" Keith agreed.

"Okay then!" Christian removed the noise cancellation barrier just in time for them both to hear Robin speak.

"All right, then. You can come." Robin sighed. "BUT you need to let your big sis know about this first, and get her permission to come with us before we leave. Got it?"

Keith's jaw dropped. he turned to glance at Christian. "How did you-?"

Christian grinned smugly. "Oh, just a small observation I made."

Keith closed his jaw, then sighed and shook his head. Between the Prince and the Hero, both were far too observant for their own good! He silently handed over the 5 silver.

"Hurray! I promise I'll do my very best!" Gerard promised as he hurried off.

"Be sure you get your older sister's permission, you hear!?" Robin called after him.

Christian chuckled, and broke the seal on the parchment scroll, unrolling it to have a read. Since his father, King Zephron, had sent a scroll along with the message, then surely he wanted Christian to do something for him on the way home.

Robin proceeded to saddle her horse. 'Perhaps I should buy a horse of my own, soon.' She thought to herself. It wouldn't do if she had to walk everywhere.

Christian finished reading the scroll and suddenly choked. "U-um, Hero Robin?" He asked.

"Yes? What is it?" She asked.

"Could you perhaps put off returning to Kinsward town until tomorrow?" Christian asked.

"I could, but why should I do that?" Robin asked.

"Well...It's my father. He wishes for me to bring you along." Christian showed the parchment paper to Robin. At the very bottom, in exquisitely elaborate script, was written:

"Oh, yes! And bring that Hero Robin along with you. In fact, if you don't return with Hero Robin, you do know the consequences, right?"

Robin glared at the page, then looked up at Christian, consequently glaring at him. He backed away a bit. "That is, it's only the second day of your quests. Even if you go back now, I don't think that you'd be able to reclaim the remainder yet."

Robin's eyes narrowed into a dangerous squint.

"I-I'll give you a gold coin if you come along!" Prince Christian added, feeling a mixture of fear and embara.s.sment.

"Achoo!" Robin opened her mouth to say something, but she suddenly sneezed. That's right. Her face had been screwed up into a frown because she was trying to stop herself from sneezing.

"I was trying to say that taking a detour to the capitol is fine with me." Robin said. "But now you're even paying me to go, so how could I not?"

Prince Christian then realized that it had all been a misunderstanding. "Can I take that back?" He asked Keith.

Keith raised an eyebrow and grinned mischievously. "Whatever happened to 'a prince's words are worth more than gold.'? I don't think you can wiggle your way out of this one. Hero Robin is right; you DO need to take lessons on managing your money."

Christian could only sigh and hand over the gold coin.

The Marshall left about half of his men to protect the village until it had been rebuilt, then took the rest to form a retinue behind the horses of Hero Robin and Prince Christian. Keith rode a horse by himself behind the two, while the rest of the soldiers followed in two long rows behind them.

As for Gerard? It turned out that he did managed to get his big sister's permission. And so, Gerard, who did not quite know how to ride a horse, was sitting with one of the soldiers close to the front of the parade that now proceeded down the center of the road.

Although Robin would have been fine to ride on the side of the road, to let others pa.s.s, Keith let her know that any time Prince Christian rode down a highway, he always had the right of way, over others. As Hero Robin was in the company of the Prince, she too was to ride with him down the center of the road.

Presently, the shaded forest highway slowly wound its way into the farmlands. And the farmlands soon ended in gra.s.slands. These gra.s.slands surrounded the city for at least half a mile in each direction.

Upon inquiring, Robin found that it was to prevent enemies and demon beasts from sneaking up on the city under the cover of trees and bushes. They even periodically burned the gra.s.slands to prevent the gra.s.s from growing too tall. Of course, they also took especially good precautions for the fire to not spread to the farmlands.

After a leisurely four hour horse ride, Robin was finally able to see the Capital's walls.