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Four of us made up Bordaule’s Hero Party. In front was the actual hero, Princess Luvias. To be precise she was still a candidate, but I believed she was already more powerful than Leble’s heroes so I did not mind calling her a hero.

Then there was the warrior Karin. Since I started training her daily, her skill with the sword improved so much it was on a whole different level. The amount of magic power she could muster was still the same, but her ability to mold it had become more efficient, so now she could let it flow through her entire body while she fought. Though how long she could last like that could be a problem if we got involved in long fights.

After her was the magician Ciel. She was still stuck using only spells of fire, ice, and wind elements, but her repertoire now included middle class large area of effect spells, so she only had high level ones left to learn. Though her magic power itself had increased many times over, so no matter what kind of magician became her opponent, she would be able to easily overpower them.

Lastly was myself as a priest, though in name only. I did not belong to any particular religion, and I was only doing that since I felt like a priest was the only remaining member needed to round up the party.

That was the Hero’s Party we formed to visit Leble. Since we were representing the entire kingdom of Bordaule, our clothing was also different from our usual get-up, being of much higher quality. Luvias, the hero, wore light white mithril armor, while her beloved sword hung from her hip. She also wore a helmet, with details like a circlet. That particular item looked like a vanity accessory, but apparently it held the power to cover her entire body if imbued with magic.

Karin did not wear her usual leather armor either, instead she was also covered in mithril, except that hers was red in color as opposed to Luvias’ white. It was also far more lightweight, only covering her chest, hips, and forearms. Her usual sword had been so overused and in tatters that it would not be enough for the trip, so she also had a brand new steel sword. Apparently, she also had the option to use a mithril sword, but she chose the steel one since she liked feeling some weight to her sword.

Ciel had a new robe. It was of deep blue color, rather plain so it did not really attract much attention from regular people, but its properties were considerably different from her usual robe. It was woven out of threads made by a monster known as Arachne, which was also a rather high level monster, and magic power would increase its defensive properties even more.

It already negated basic and weak attacks in its basic form, but when powered with magic its defense would be many times stronger. The materials used to make it were very valuable and really hard to find, so the cost of making such a robe was not something to take lightly. Ciel also wore a hat made of the same material as her old one, which was not particularly wide, but it had a rather novel design. Her staff was also made of the same materials as before, but refined and crafted more carefully, which should make her magic even more powerful.

Lastly was me. I wore the same outfit as a regular priest, though with certain differences given that I did not lean towards any religion. Most notably the embroidery indicating to which temple I belonged was nonexistent. In general, it looked normal, but also unique in its own ways. Another difference was the size, it was shorter than regular priest outfits and it showed more of my arms and legs. Normally priestess dresses were long and reached the ground, but this one was designed with mobility in mind, though in a certain way it also looked like a mini skirt.

Then my weapons, priests normally were armed with morning stars or maces, but I was equipped with a halberd, which was something like a hybrid between an axe and a spear, a long pole with a small axe head on its tip. Using it was rather tricky, but once mastered it was not difficult to fight just like the Lich did. As to why I did not go with a sword, it was simply to fill in the gaps, it would not make much sense if three out of the four of us all used swords.

In the end, equipped as we were, we looked like a well-made Hero’s Party. It was a bit strange for all of us to be women, but we had two frontliners and two supports on the rear, so it was well balanced.

“His Majesty is really generous to gift us all these amazing items!”
“Yeah. I don’t want to even imagine how much it would cost to buy stuff like this ourselves. I’m sure they cost more than a house.”
“Well, we are the Hero’s Party after all. We have to show off for our country’s sake, so these were more like diplomatic expenses. But you can also think of it as the royal family’s way of thanking you all, so don’t think too much about its cost.”

The three of them had been training together often as of late, so they were very comfortable talking to each other. Karin and Ciel tended to spoil her all the time, and Luvias thought of the two as older sisters, as well as short-term goals for her to equal.

The four of us rode on a carriage for a couple of days, heading north until we arrived at the border with Leble. At the border, we did not only meet the soldiers watching over it, but also a delegation of many knights and civil officials. They were there to escort us into Leble.

Leble obviously also dispatched a group of knights to meet us. But the soldiers and knights on their side looked excessively armed, with unflattering and fierce weapons that did not seem suitable for a polite welcome. It was almost as if they were prepared for battle.

“Welcome to our Empire of Leble, Hero Party of the Kingdom of Bordaule. I’m Suplehawk, tasked with guiding you in our territories. I’m pleased to meet you.”

Saying that, a man bowed to us. He had a rather sour look that did not look particularly pleased or friendly to be here, so I thought he was just speaking that way out of duty, but from what I heard from some of our attendants and his underlings, he simply was bad at expressing himself. Then again, from his body, I could tell he was pretty strong, probably above the average knight, and those around him all seemed to be under his command. But in case they decided to attack us, it did not seem too difficult to take him down.

“We’ll visit a couple of cities on our way towards the imperial capital. The entire trip will take a couple of days more, but we’ll do our best to entertain your travel, so please excuse the delay. Let’s depart now.”

Even with his unapproachable appearance, he was diligently trying to accomplish his duty, so as far as I could tell there was no fear he would attack us.

The time we spent after that was boring once again: some of the roads were poorly built, probably because Leble was less powerful than Bordaule, so the carriage travel was the worst. On top of that, we were attacked by monsters more than once, and every time even our guards would become agitated, which did not give me a moment to rest. The only saving grace was being able to look forward to the food waiting for us in the next city.