12 Scarlett and Mopher

"Why is the jungle so empty?" Shin complained. "Other than the pack of wolves we found nothing till now."

The other two of the group were irritated as well. After seeing the provisional merit list after the first day, they went down to business to look for tokens again. Yet after spending all the morning they only come across a pack of wolves. Though wolves are way more dangerous compared to rats, the numbers were still less, and with Elior there they did not have much problem finishing it.

While their sorrow lied that they found no more than 20 tokens till now.

"I wonder how the top of the list got so many tokens in just a day," Lyra sounded out. "Is he lucky to find some dungeons or something?"

"That may be the case," Elior said as he looked at the sun to measure the time. The sun was over their head, so there would be five or six more hours of light they had. He looked at his two companions again. "Or he has other participants working for him."

"You mean, they just gave away their tokens to him?" Shin raised an eyebrow. "What benefit would they have doing this?"

"That can happen, actually," Lyra said. She was wearing a tight orange dress even now, as she was not allowed to bring other stuff. "It's probably some scion of the mother world."

"Don't bother with that for now," Elior said. "Looks like we have to go to Plan B sooner than I have anticipated."

"Plan B?" Lyra and Shin asked at the same time as they looked at Elior. There was not even a foreshadow that Elior even has plans. So far he was like: We will see, what we come across.

"I actually thought about announcing this plan after the second day is over, but we need to step our game up," he said. "Plan B is very simple. If the tokens did not come our way, we will go to token's way."

''Meaning?"

"Let's hunt down participants," Elior said with a laugh.

"Is it allowed?" Shin said in his worry. "Would we not be disqualified?"

"We are not killing them. Just some harmless robbery."

. . .

Meanwhile, on the other side of the trial zone, two figures were moving in between trees at impressive speed. The one in the front was a girl with tall built and crimson hair. Even though she was in her teenage years, her legs were long, as there was a clear sign of feminine growth in her figure, but her posture lacked the womanly grace.

She was overwhelmingly quick compared to the man following behind her. With her red hair, she wore a matching red dress as well, with a dark scarlet cape around her back. She was just as spectacular and stunning as her name—Scarlett.

Scarlett did not slow down, in consideration of her companion, moved at her swift speed.

The one behind was of a tall build as well, but his face was more humble compared to the girl with red hair. He was about sixteen years old, as the girl. Even though he was having problems running after the red-haired girl, he did not give up on his job.

After moving around for half an hour finally, the redhead stopped. There were barely any sweats on the girl's face, yet the boy behind almost dropped unconscious, panting like a freaking dog.

The red-haired girl moved on a branch before resting her bottom there as she looked at the boy below. "Are you having fun, Mopher?"

"Your highness," Mopher could barely say that much before he leaned against the tree. "Why did you choose me to be your protector in this trial? There are many impressive fellows in the knight squire, I look like such a failure."

The princess smiled at Mopher before opening her rosy red lips. "I choose you for one simple reason," she said. "No, it's not your honesty or perseverance, or because of your father."

Then?" Mopher looked up at the tree where the princess was.

"It's simple, I chose you because you are stupid."

"I wish you never said that, your majesty."

"You are the one who asked in the first place," Princess Scarlett said. "Besides, my answer won't change anything. You will still be the fool, running after me."

Mopher sighed. He could not deny that. He could not turn away from his duty even though the princess did not need him here.

"Don't worry, I'll tell Sir Augusto that you obey your role adequately."

"You don't have to do that, your highness," Mopher shook his head. "Father will still be disappointed in me."

"You take things too seriously," Scarlet said. "Be like me. Look what my father emperor asked me to do?"

"To take the first place of the trial." Mopher answered as he was obliged.

"And what am I doing?"

"I should not answer that, your highness," Mopher refrained from answering as it would be criticising the princess.

Scarlett sighed. "I was asked to take the first place of the trial, and what I will do is entirely the opposite. Just barely succeed in the trial."

Mopher could not find any logic behind the princess's reasoning, but he could not question that either. It would be overstepping his boundary. "Then what are you searching all the while for, your highness?"

"I was looking for something interesting, yet found none after running around for hours." Scarlet crooked her lips. "Such a waste of my energy. I thought there would be something interesting in my first trial, yet it's so boring."

"What else you would expect, your highness," Mopher added. "Trial zero is specially meant for lower world participants, you should not even have to take part in it."

"You are right," Scarlett sighed. "But it's still a fresh change from my boring life."

"So what should we do next, your highness?"

"I don't know," Scarlett said. "Let's look at other participants and see what they are doing."

. . .

The surroundings strangled in darkness as the sun had set. The chilly wind blew the hairs and dresses of the three as they stood among the thick trees. They had almost finished up their task for today.

"Brother Elior, why didn't we start this earlier?" Shin said, brimming with joy as he counted the tokens.

Elior sighed. "I really did not want to do this if I had any choice," he said.

Robbing from other participants was the simplest way to gather tokens, and the most efficient way too. In just four hours, they gathered just below two hundred tokens, though Elior had let go of a few of the participants.

"Why?" Shin asked as he gave fifty percent of the token to him while distributing the remaining between Lyra and him.

Elior took it with no words. He was the one that did the most work gathering the tokens. Not to talk about the robbing, the most difficult task was to find other participants, and there his tracking skills came in handy. So it was not wrong to say he deserved it.

"Doesn't it look like we are the bad guys?" Elior said. "I feel so bad to break the dream of these fellas."

"Is that why you left some of the participants, even though they have tens of tokens with them?" Lyra asked, giving a peculiar look at Elior.

"No, that's not it," Shin added from beside. "Brother Elior even left most of the female participants as well."

Lyra frowned. "You are right," she said.

"I only left the ones that have a chance of succeeding in the test," Elior said.

"But some girls that you let go have no chance of succeeding," Shin added. "And you did not even charge any of them."

"My goddess," Lyra said, looking towards her. "Don't tell me you are trying to be a chivalrous Knight in this day and age?"

"Ahem!" Elior gave off an intentional cough. No, he never tried to be a chivalrous guy, much less a knight. He did what seemed right, nothing else. "I am what I am. Hitting a woman or children for self gain is some barbaric thing to do. I wanted to stay as far away as possible."

But that did not mean he will overlook someone's crime just because of their gender. To him, few might not be considered human, much less female, by the heinous deeds they had committed.

"Is it because you think women can't challenge men?" The orange clothed elf was triggered.

"I did not say that," Elior sighed. "It's just you taking out the meaning from my words."

"Then what do you mean?" Lyra scowled. "You think Women need to be protected, is that not right? Well, that's a barbaric way of thinking as well."

"No, that's not it as well," Elior said again. It was not the first time he had gotten into an argument with a female about this. He'd lived not for long, even in his old life, but he had done many deeds, and seen many deeds. The life of the Guardian is not just a life of rainbows and sunshine, there were many occasions he would've had to do difficult things, and by mother, he did.

After all this, he can only say one thing, it is always better to line out your values. There should always be some bottom line that one should not cross.

"It is just one of my beliefs, and it is what I was taught since childhood, and I should clear out I do not think women are behind men. Do you guys like me to see bullying girls? Apologies, but I don't want to do that as long as I have enough options in place."

"In one phrase, Brother Elior is a big softie for girls." Shin slid into the argument between the two, trying to make peace.

"That may be what you are taught," Lyra added lastly. "But you would be showing disrespect to women if you did not meet their challenges."

"Oh, I don't back down from a challenge, but I just don't want to bully some women," Elior said softly. 'Maybe I really am a softie, as Shin said.'

He had already gotten himself into many heated arguments with the opposite gender over this.

"If I have my way, I'll not raise my hands against anyone, much fewer females and kids." However, in the grand scheme of things, his wish hardly matters.

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