Margot's Point of View:
"Is he really that strong? Strong enough to make your hair stand on end?" I ask in disbelief. I've known Rocky for a long time, he's like a wild beast capable of identifying danger by relying on his sight and other senses.
"Yes, more than I expected." Rocky has created a small mana field around us, this is a private conversation. "He never had any bad intentions toward us, he was simply being cautious... my body reacted without directly feeling threatened." His voice grows deeper and his eyes don't lie.
"Young Maki is something different. Whenever I've met other geniuses or prodigies, I've always thought: He's strong, he has great potential, or he'll be someone to fear in the future; I've never felt threatened by any of them." Rocky puts a piece of dried meat into his mouth.
"Now, after only a few seconds of interaction, I felt something strange... my body knew that doing something stupid would come at a very high price." His eyes quickly move over each of our companions. "All of you would've paid the consequences, that's exactly why I was as cautious as possible."
"You're making it sound like a bad thing, but look at that stupid smile on your face." I also grab a few pieces of the delicious dried meat. It's delicious, quick to prepare, and easy to carry around.
"It's only bad if you antagonize him." Rocky tosses a piece of meat into the air and it falls directly into his mouth. "I'm above most Diamond Ranks. I've gotten where I am through hard work and by taking advantage of every opportunity that came my way; this could be one of those opportunities that helped me grow in the past." Rocky's eyes are focused on the sky.
The boss is right, an opportunity can sink you if you don't know how to take advantage of it, or it can bring you glory if you approach it carefully. Knowing how to seize opportunities has put us where we are today and given us a name.
For people like us, who came out of a filthy alley, all we can do is seize every opportunity and squeeze it until there's no juice left. If you don't take advantage of the right moment, you die like a worthless rat in the corner of a dark alley during a cold winter.
Rocky has always had a special sense for detecting these kinds of opportunities, he's always listened to his body. That's the only reason he didn't starve to death and was able to help us survive; he adapted to every situation and followed his survival instincts.
Some people called him a coward whenever he refused to enter a dungeon or take a mission, he knew something bad could happen. Now there's no way to return those insults to those people, they never came back from those places.
There were times when I watched him hesitate for an entire night, simply deciding whether he should go or not. Everything depended on how strongly his survival instincts hit him; whenever he saw even the slightest chance of surviving, he took it.
That's how he began climbing through the rotten society of the alleys until he became strong enough to escape that disgusting world. Little by little, he made a name for himself until he became a recognized Diamond Rank.
At first, it was difficult. Very few wealthy people or nobles are willing to give any kind of work to a group that came from the alleys, no matter how strong they are. Many of the few opportunities we did receive weren't good either, most of them would've sent us in as cannon fodder or straight to certain death.
Finding opportunities wasn't easy at all, first we had to somehow change the way everyone else saw us. We took those miserable opportunities and completed them.
When Rocky reached Diamond Rank, many nobles became somewhat afraid of us, especially those between the rank of knight and baron without territories of their own. Before his advancement, they only offered us shitty, almost suicidal missions and mocked us whenever we refused.
We could've taken revenge on some of them if we'd wanted to, but the cost would've been too high if you really thought about it; it was impossible for a group like ours to survive the retaliation in a large city.
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Those nobles saw us as brainless little rats who would gladly throw away their lives for simple revenge. It was somewhat amusing to watch them take precautions against us, while at the same time it was insulting to see them think we were that stupid.
We spent many years moving around the Quyr Kingdom, we never had a permanent home. Being constantly on the move had many advantages and also brought plenty of problems. We simply followed our boss's instincts, which have always kept us alive for as long as possible.
There were some tragedies we'll always regret, and we've carried that pain in our hearts ever since, a weight that will never disappear.
One day, less than a year ago, the man beside me suddenly rushed in and interrupted breakfast. He'd had a dream of settling down somewhere, he no longer wanted to keep moving from place to place like a thief. Our organization belongs to a larger one, but it's more like an association.
We've spent our time visiting different parts of the kingdoms, the Empire, and independent territories, searching for somewhere suitable. We found some good options, and then one day we heard about the potential of this territory.
We were somewhat reluctant to come here at first, a small territory belonging to a baronet who will possibly be promoted to baron; it's a little small by our standards. After investigating thoroughly, we were in for an enormous surprise, a single person changed the way we thought about this place; the young man we met less than an hour ago.
"We came here to find somewhere to settle down, finally somewhere we could call 'home' or somewhere we could always return to; I don't think any of our men would want to antagonize Young Maki." I reply to Rocky.
"A place we can call home." Rocky's words carry a heavy weight behind them. "For now, this place ranks among the top five in terms of how it feels, and it has also met many of the requirements we established. All that's left is to see how far they're willing to go." The boss's voice changes slightly, his tone is always different when he's taking something very seriously.
"How far they're willing to go..." His final words echo in my head.
I don't know when our goal changed. From wondering whether we'd be able to eat the next day, to whether we'd be able to pay the monthly rent, then what kind of missions we should accept, until finally we became the ones holding the handle of the frying pan.
Somewhere along the way, another goal appeared, one that goes hand in hand with finding a place we can call home. Becoming the leaders of a small settlement, making it prosper as much as possible, and eventually becoming nobles; a goal we would've laughed at until we cried if you'd told me about it when I was a teenager.
We know how difficult it is to survive in the alleys, we know how shitty people can be, how selfish nobles are; but we also know the other side of the coin, people you can trust with your life, having an abundance of expensive food, and finally meeting nobles who keep their feet firmly on the ground.
This dried meat is a daily reminder of our goal. We could eat a banquet every day if we wanted with all the money we earn, but we decided to save as much as possible; we could rent a nice hotel to sleep in, but we'd rather camp somewhere safe.
All that money we've saved will be used to improve the lives of the people who decide to follow us when we lay the first stone to build that ridiculous dream that came into our heads. I let out a small laugh when I think about how ridiculous it is, but now it doesn't seem nearly as far away as it did years ago.
We don't plan on demanding anything impossible or setting conditions they can't fulfill, we're quite reasonable, even if our thug-like appearance suggests the complete opposite.
"You'll handle the negotiations in general, I'll just be the tree you can lean against when your feet get tired." Rocky gives me a thumbs-up. "Make those years and all that money we spent worth it."
We spent a lot of money on special etiquette and negotiation lessons, I felt bad when I was the only one who ended up taking those classes. All my companions refused the moment I suggested it to them, even Rocky only learned the bare minimum, and that was because I taught him myself.
I was the sacrifice who had to sit through those long and boring classes, someone had to do it and as the second-in-command, I couldn't say no. Only one person went along with me, the only "normal" one in the group; seeing him in the distance laughing with everyone else while trying to read a book is a strange sight.
I look at the boss again, the gentle breeze doesn't move his raised maroon hair even a centimeter, his large light-brown eyes look over his group and the black paint around his eyes makes the brown stand out even more. Always dressed in a leather vest and loose pants, he hasn't changed at all since he was a teenager.
My clothes are mostly black and comfortable, my hair is also a "mess" with purple tips. We all have a similar yet different appearance, we based our outfits on the only person who extended a hand to us when we were on the verge of death during our childhood. That thin man, with a sickly face and gray hair, but always with a smile on his face.
The rest of our team gradually adopted their own outfits using us as a reference.
"Do you think they'll be willing to meet our offers? We'll offer as much as we ask for." I ask Rocky.
"I don't know, I can't know until I see them. If it doesn't work out, we'll simply have to look somewhere else." His answer is clear. We've spent our lives moving around, continuing to do so for a few more years won't change anything.