The snow had melted and the flowers started to bloom. The animals that had gone to their slumber also started to wake up one by one. The warmth of the sun that was covered in the cold winter could finally be felt again.
The spring had come and the time for Zoella's training began. Since the night before, Zoella had made her preparation exactly as Hayes told her to.
She prepared a robe, her bow and arrows, also her experiment's products. Thankfully Hayes gave her a magic bag so she could bring all of them at once. Harriet also gave her some new clothes and tied her hair in a ponytail with some braids in it.
The problem was when Hayes was about to channel his mana to the magic circle, the twins suddenly rushed to them and hugged Zoella's legs.
So, Hayes couldn't perform the teleportation magic with the twins clinging to Zoella. They even cried so hard when Harriet and David tried to separate them.
"No! I want to... go with Sister Zoe!"
"Don't go... I promise... I'll be a good kid."
Hayes sighed as he shook his head lightly while Zoella tried not to get swayed by their cries. Zoella was extremely weak when it comes to children. She tried so hard not to hug them because if she did she might cancel her entire plan.
When the parents finally succeed to pick them up, Zoella decided to soothe them.
"Rowan, Rigel, we will visit as often as we can. Okay?"
Instead of being consoled by her words, they cried harder instead.
"Don't worry about them. We'll handle it somehow."
"Take care. Both of you."
Hayes nodded at them and started channeling his mana again. Within a second, the Torneu family disappeared from their sight. Hayes and Zoella arrived beside a pretty large building.
Zoella looked down at her feet. She was standing on some kind of wooden floor with a magic circle carved on it.
Zoella still didn't know much about teleportation magic but she did know to do that, it required a lot of mana, the right coordinate, and the exact same magic circle with the destination.
In other words, it was very complicated magic. The fact that Hayes used it casually made her slightly in awe of her teacher.
"Let's go."
Zoella followed Hayes and walked inside the building. She was struck by amazement once she stepped in.
'Holy cow.'
In every fantasy book she heard from Gina, there must be a mercenary guild like this one. Posters for missions on the wall, noises of mercenaries while they rested, and some parties discussed their next work.
These all made Zoella realize that this was a completely different world. She didn't really feel it at Academy as it felt really similar to her world.
"Zoe."
Hayes waved his hand to Zoella. He didn't realize that Zoella lagged behind when he talked with the man in charge.
"Ah, so this is the assistant."
Zoella frowned as soon as she heard the man call her 'assistant'. She looked at Hayes as she put on a straight face. Zoella should be used to Hayes's unpredictable act but she still felt quite annoyed sometimes.
The man started to explain the rules of the mercenary guild. Everyone could be a mercenary as long as they had the skills that were needed. There are three types of mercenaries, a fighter, a healer, and a mage. These three types were also needed if someone wanted to create a party.
The mercenaries usually took a request to take care of the bandits or monsters. The more dangerous the request the higher the payment.
"Since this is your first time, why don't you take an easy request?"
"Nah, that won't do. We'll take the request regarding the monsters."
"Hoho, of course. With an amazing mercenary like you, this young lady won't need to worry about a thing, Sir Crimson."
Again, Zoella's brow knotted when she heard that man called Hayes 'Sir Crimson'. And she felt a bit cringe when she realized that it was Hayes's alias based on the color of his eyes.
"Ahem, yes. Well, we'll take a look at the poster."
Hayes took a big stride to the poster wall leaving the confused Zoella behind. Zoella scratched the back of her head before she followed her teacher.
"What kind of alias is Crimson? And why is that man saying you were a mercenary? Aren't you a teacher?"
Zoella asked in a low voice. She actually wanted to shout at this man but she couldn't since they were in public.
"Well, before I became a teacher I did this and that to make money."
Hayes answered indifferently as he scanned through the poster. Zoella was irked by his answer but couldn't do anything about it. She chose to brush it off if she wanted her blood pressure to remain normal.
He took a poster that attracted his red eyes. It was a request to defeat some wolf-like monsters. They had been bothering a village to the point the villagers were afraid to go out.
These monsters also harmed one of the villagers one time and there was a big possibility that they would do it the second time.
"How about this? The village isn't too far and the payment is rather good."
Hayes handed the poster to Zoella. She read the poster carefully and nodded her head.
"Sure. But it'll be fifty-fifty, right?"
Hayes was quite surprised when Zoella suddenly talked about the payment. He folded his arms with a smug grin on his face.
"Seventy-thirty."
"I'll get the seventy?"
Hayes's teasing face turned flat. Zoella was trying her best to suppress her laughter after seeing Hayes's expression change.
"Fine, fifty-fifty."
"It's a deal. Let's go."
Zoella waltzed out of the building with a happy heart. At first, Zoella was fine if Hayes didn't give her any since her purpose was for training. But seeing the payment made Zoella think that maybe she could be a mercenary once she graduate.
The work was simple and the payment was fair. Even with fifty percent, the payment was higher than before when she worked as a part-timer in a convenience store.
"This way."
Because the village didn't have any magic circle for teleportation, Hayes and Zoella needed to walk to get there.
Hayes wanted to get two horses for the two of them but unfortunately, Zoella didn't know how to ride them. So they had no choice but to walk.
The two walked leisurely in the forest as if they were taking a stroll. Both Hayes and Zoella were unfamiliar with this forest. But for them, there was no difference between one forest with the others.
However, this was where they were wrong.
The ground around suddenly vibrated. The small animals were in a hurry to hide. Since animals were more sensitive to danger, Zoella and Hayes stopped their movements.
GROAAAAAA!
Zoella covered her ears when the sudden scream echoed across the forest. Hayes kneeled down and placed his hand on the ground.
Through its vibration, he could guess that a group of something was walking in their direction. Without wasting any time, he threw Zoella's body to his shoulder and started to climb the highest tree.
"Teacher, what are you-"
"Shhh!"
Zoella closed her mouth when she saw Hayes's serious expression. Her eyes widened when she saw something in the corner of her eyes. Zoella had never been so earnest to hope she could go back to her world until now.