The fall of the Halberd Hero

"Young master, you have got it all wrong.", the old man proclaimed loudly.

"You see…", taking a suspicious amount of time to think, he finally continues, "I am a weapon smith, and your weapon just seemed so incredible. I had never seen a masterpiece like it before!"

Although it was unrealistic for a civilian not to know the nature of the legendary weapons, it was a seemingly good excuse in Bran's mind.

Yes, it was pretty lousy of a deception, yet Shinichi Tanaka was at least mildly convinced, considering the old man's rough hands and obvious working muscles.

To him, the old man could not possibly have any bad intentions, purely based off looks. His stoic party member thought differently.

So she grabbed the old man's hand violently, meeting his gaze,

"You're a smith, huh? Then take us to your smithy, i happen to have some weapons that need repairing.", she said, ignoring Tanaka's hand on her shoulder.

In his mind, Bran cursed the mace hero, 'How can this guy have so little control over his little minions?

Even Yukiko would have done something by now.', he added proudly.

So taking his other sweaty hand, he pushed her hand back,

"Again, you are mistaken-", he began, yet he was interrupted by Reginald's unexpected interference,

who slammed his keg on the table, causing the entire pub to go quiet. Then, he stood up and walked over to the woman, who slowly narrowed her eyes, looking at Reginald.

"Come on, grandpa, yeh've done enough already. What's mom gonna think?", he said, while trying to free the old man from the woman's grip.

Yet she pulled back, causing Reginald to puff in annoyance.

So they pulled the old man back and forth, fighting over who could give the other a more annoyed look, until Tanaka finally decided to interfere.

"Sina, that's enough. I doubt they would employ older men to spy on us, especially not ones with a loving family.", he said while pulling his stoic teammate away from the kerfuffle.

The 'Sina' girl finally let up, figuring Tanaka's words to make sense.

"Take this as a lesson, old man.", she slyly added, exiting the pub.

Agitated, Bran couldn't help but scream out from behind Reginald,

"You'd better learn to soften your mouth work, youngin'!", causing her ears to turn red out of anger, yet she had to restrain herself from teaching the old geezer a lesson.

Finally, Bran turned to Reginald to thank him for the help,

"Don't worry, uncle, this is t' least Ah could do.", he said, patting the dust off the old man's back.

.

.

*crack*

I couldn't tell how long I'd been running at this point, yet I could feel my legs practically falling off and my vision blurring from overuse of the passive skill.

Although Elisa's wight reduction buff helped a lot, that didn't account for the extra effort it took to run on the slippery ice without falling.

"Yu, are you alright? We'll be there soon, don't worry.", she said, yet it was her I was worried for.

I could soon feel her body turning colder and colder. I had hoped that my body heat could at least keep her safe, yet I turned to doubt that.

I was worried. i was doubtful. Even the ice I was walking on turned more and more fragile, yet simply just having someone to rely on was enough to keep me going.

After all, if I fail now, it won't only end in my doom, but also Elisa's and Bran's.

And I'm glad to have held on, seeing the sailing ship in the distance. Now it was all about gaining their attention without making them think we were enemies.

The trail of ice was already suspicious enough, but finally, Elisa could use a wind-spell to propel us on the ship, that was similar to a rabbit jumping.

And as soon as we landed, my halberd turning to its original cold steel color, we were faced with a bundle of very surprised expressions. A total of five at that.

.

.

.

.

"Yeh're t' Halberd hero? Yeh look younger than me! An' dinnae tell me that bastard Reg' put yer lousy ass up t' this.", Meredith commented, filling the cabinet table with laughter from her fellows.

Although we managed to explain the situation without causing worry or suspicion, the situation was still pretty fraught.

Especially considering Elisa's and my states, we needed anything but arguments right now,

"I'll put it out straight: without us, you guys are fucked. You know exactly that you're gonna be caught up in the waves with the course you're going right now.", I said, causing Elisa to spring back in astonishment.

"Wow, I've never seen you act this cool before, Yu!", she commented, making the situation way more awkward than it would have had to be.

However, Meredith didn't acknowledge the comment, and answered truthfully, "Y-Yeh're right. So what's t' plan now?"

"Since the waves will start in about a few hours, we will drag your crew into a sub-party and then teleport them with us as soon as the waves start."

"R-Right.", she said rightfully embarrassed.

Truthfully, Meredith wasn't a fool. Under normal conditions, she would have made it back to shore safely before the waves started, yet she didn't account for harsh weather conditions and several failures in the ship's interior from what I'd heard.

And now, all we had to do was wait a bit, catching some rest in the meantime.

We told Meredith about our condition, yet all she could offer was alcohol to counteract Elisa's cold, which I had to prevent her from accepting.

'Once you use the cold as an excuse to drink, you won't be able to turn back ever again.', I couldn't help but think, based on my previous life experience.

.

Until it was finally time to go.

The clouds rumbled in thunder and slowly turned a shade of red, causing a window to finally appear on my vision.

[Warning: A Wave of Catastrophe is approaching! Would you like to teleport to the

Wave's location?]

*[Yes]*