"Ugh... I feel like I always wake up with an annoying headache nowadays. Now where am I?"
The White haired child questioned himself while realizing how uneven the ground was.
'Is this stone?' he thought
The cold feel quickly sent shivers through his body before he realized he was missing a shirt. Instead it was replaced by bandages over his injuries—his torso, upper arm/shoulder and forehead.
"Wait a second! How did I end up in a cave?" He asked rhetorically.
It took a while, but he finally got used to his surroundings, realizing he wasn't in the jungle anymore.
"Keep it down would you?!!" A rough voice replied Arthur with a hint of annoyance laced in the it. Though it sounded tough, it appeared to be from someone in his young.
Instead of panicking, he quickly sprang to his feet while going on guard and taking on a defensive stance, facing the source of the voice.
"Who's there?" He asked calmly and narrowed his eyes on the target, while trying to sound as serious as possible with his 10-year old voice.
The voice came from the direction of the entrance to the cave. He couldn't make out it's features due to the bright light peeking from the entrance to the cave. But one thing was certain. Whoever the voice belonged to had company with them.
"Doran! I told you not to bark at the kid didn't I?"
While Arthur's thought were racing with possible escape routes, another voice emerged. This one belonging to a lady.
'It's now or never.' thought Arthur.
He finally saw an opening. While the lady lectured the first voice , he did a quick dash at their blind spots catching them off guard in an attempt to leave the cave.
"Ack!"
Arthur winced as he felt himself lose balance from tripping over someone's foot. Then he heard another voice. It was a lady as well.
"Aren't you two supposed to be looking after this kid?"
Though the third figure had managed to bring him to the ground, Arthur was still bent on escaping as his priority at the moment was still his survival.
In one quick move, he did a handspin on one palm to gain momentum and rise from the ground. And then with both palms , he propelled himself forwards towards the cave exit. Thanks to his well refined body and heightened stats, feats like this were now somewhat easy for him.
"Sorry but I don't intend on getting captured." He said it the trio with a calm determined expression on his face.
"What the?" The male amongst the trio blurted out.
Landing on both feet a few meters away from the trio, Arthur did a quick spin and was about to dash for the exit before a new figure appeared, his large frame blocking the only exit.
"Damn it" Arthur cursed as he finally realized he was trapped.
"What's going on here?" The voice boomed into the cave.
With one quick glance, it was clear that the new guy was the leader—or rather, the strongest.
"Explain yourselves. Why're you picking on the kid can't you see he's still injured?"
"Huh?"
From the looks of things, it seemed that instead of attacking Arthur, the leader was scolding his subordinates. Even at that, Arthur never dropped his guard for a second.
"Wait my injuries..." Arthur checked his body as it finally dawned on him. "...They're gone?"
"Yes and no." the man before him replied. By now his eyes had gotten used to the light and he could now make out the features of the people present.
The large man before him stood at least 190cm tall, but his heavy armor made him look even larger.
"Given that you can move like that in such a state, I'd say that your life threatening injuries are already somewhat healed."
"I see." Arthur replied while lowering his guard for a bit on realizing the people here meant him no harm.
"Are you alright? You had us pretty scared back there." A familiar voice blurted out from behind him.—It was the first lady he heard earlier.
Without any warning, she was already holding his wrists while asking out of concern.
"Oh, where are my manners. My name is Emilia" she smiled.
One striking feature he noticed about the lady before him other than the fact that she was quite the chatty fellow was her bright blonde hair, bright blue eyes and unnaturally long pointy ears.
This was his first time seeing one in real life. He'd only heard of them from stories and other fictional works in his old world.
'An elf' he thought.
"This is Doran" she gestured to the auburn haired youth to she was scolding earlier. Arthur couldn't help but notice that this fellow had two blades strapped to either of his sides.
'A dual swordsman? Interesting'
"And this here is Rachel" she pointed at the other dark haired lady who just waved in response. From her attire and choice of weapon—a dagger, he could deduce she possessed an assassin-type class.
"And last but not least, the esteemed captain of our party, Gerald." She concluded as they both stared at the man at the entrance to the cave.
Emilia continued her chatter while Arthur simply stared at the man before him.
"Excuse me," Arthur started. "Why... Did you help me?" He asked knowing well that in situations like these he was usually supposed to give something in return.
"You were out cold with a bunch of nasty injuries out in the cold and you expect us to just leave you there?!" Asked Doran.
"Well no but—"
"No buts kid. We might not look it, but we're just a humble adventurer party. And besides, we're not monsters that we'll just allow you to die out there" added Rachel, leaning back on the cave wall.
"I see". Arthur smiled in response, a pure heartfelt smile that took advantage of his cuteness "Thank you."
"..."
Everyone fell silent as a little blush appeared on their faces.
"So adorable" Emilia commented.
"So now that the kid's awake, We should probably make our way back to town." Started Gerald.
"By the way, I didn't catch your name kid" Gerald asked Arthur.
"Uh- my name?" Arthur stammered a little as the question came out of nowhere.
Unlike his old world, anyone with a surname was either tagged as a noble or a merchant wealthy enough to be awarded one.
That being said, anyone without a surname was a commoner. Given the situation, Arthur knew he had to blend in to survive as he didn't want anyone finding out he was a member of House Sylvia.
"Its Arthur"
"Arthur... Nice name" Gerald added
"Thanks, so umm... Do you mind if I tag along?"
"Of course not, do as you please." Gerald replied with a smile.
Then he turned back to his teammates. "Okay team, gear up. We're heading home."