Chương 51: Promise

Aiko slowly lifted her hand, her movements so tentative and cautious you would have thought she was worried the air might file a lawsuit against her for the disturbance. She looked like a nervous student trying to catch the teacher's attention without actually being noticed.

"I... I know where it is," she whispered, her voice so low it was practically a secret meant only for the blades of grass around her ankles. I blinked, shifting my weight as my mismatched leather gear gave a skeptical little creak.

"Oh, you actually do? You are the keeper of the maps now?" Aiko looked down at her massive, iron bound boots, her face turning a delicate shade of pink that suggested she was currently reliving a very specific kind of trauma.

"I have made the journey there several times. I would walk all the way to the threshold, hoping to find the bravery to climb to the next floor and see a new sky, but... but I never had the courage to actually step through the gate. I always turned back at the last moment." I held up a hand, feeling a familiar wave of secondhand embarrassment starting to itch at the back of my neck.

"Okay, wow. That is way too much raw honesty for a casual stroll, but sure. Since you are the only one with the GPS coordinates for our destiny, can you take us there?" Aiko gave a slow, solemn nod, her bone circlet rattling softly against her forehead.

"Please... please follow me, everyone. Aiko-san will show you the path." With that, our resident shy tactical nuke took point. We set off across the Plains of Cladea, embarking on a trek that felt like it was designed by someone who really, really loved the color green and didn't know when to stop. We marched through the swaying emerald stalks for nearly an hour, the grassland stretching out in every direction until the horizon started to look like a repetitive screen saver.

It was a long, rhythmic slog through a neverending sea of turf, with nothing but the sound of our footsteps and the occasional distant scream of a Level 1 player being bullied by a rabbit to keep us company. By the time we finally dragged ourselves to the Floor 2 gate, I felt like I'd put enough miles on my mismatched boots to qualify for a marathon medal and a nap.

The gate itself was another one of those swirling sapphire vortexes, spinning with a hypnotic glow that looked like a very expensive, very dangerous laundry cycle. We stood there for a moment, watching a few other players vanish into the light to make their ascent, most of them looking significantly more professional and well adjusted than our little traveling circus of misfits. Dimitri, of course, was already in full legendary hero mode.

He stood before the glowing maw of the portal, his broad shoulders squared and his face lit with a level of aggressive optimism that could probably make a monster rethink its career path.

"The hour of our destiny is upon us, my wonderful friends!" he rumbled, his thick Russian accent making the air vibrate with enough motivational energy to jump start a dead battery.

"Let us march forth and conquer the heights of the second floor together. Today, we shall make this world tremble as it hears our first glorious roar as an official, united party!" With a majestic nod, Dimitri stepped into the blue light and vanished. Fiona followed him with a cheerful bounce that defied physics, and June swept in right after them with the regal indifference of a queen entering her own summer home. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

That left just me and Aiko. I didn't move. Instead, I stayed back and watched our resident Berserker practically vibrate with a level of terror that was actually starting to worry me. She was twitching, her fingers doing a frantic, nervous dance against the hem of her leather kilt as she stared at the portal like it was a hungry mouth waiting to swallow her whole. She started muttering to herself, her voice a low, frantic whisper that I had to lean in just to catch.

"Maybe... maybe Aiko-san is not cut for this at all," she whimpered, her eyes wide and swimming with a fresh wave of panic.

"What was I thinking? Joining a real combat party? I am just a shut in otaku. I would definitely die really fast once I entered that gate." I looked at the girl who was currently vibrating with enough nervous energy to power a small town. I needed to snap her out of it before she actually dissolved into a puddle of social anxiety right there on the grass.

"Hey, Aiko-chan," I said, trying to keep my voice steady as my gunner trinkets gave a supportive little jingle.

"Do me a favor and look at me for a second." Aiko slowly lifted her head, her eyes wide and swimming with a level of terror that made me feel like I was watching a deer staring down a very large, very fast truck. She looked like she was about half a second away from bolting back into the woods and spending the rest of her life hiding in a bakery.

"Look, it is completely normal to be scared of what is waiting on the other side of that swirling blue laundry cycle," I told her, leaning back with a casual shrug that I hoped looked convincing.

"Trust me, I am fully aware that everything through that gate is probably going to try and eat me alive the moment I step foot on the grass. But you know what? I know we are going to be just fine." Aiko blinked, her lower lip trembling just a fraction.

"We... we will?"

"Yes," I said, giving her a firm nod while I adjusted the strap of my mismatched gear.

"Because you have us now. We are a team. Once we step through that portal, it is a package deal. It is either all of us coming out the other side alive with smiles on our faces and enough loot to fill a treasure chest, or none of us. No one is getting left behind to be monster snacks. You have my word on that. We will protect you, even if it means dying right there by your side." I watched as the words actually started to sink in, cutting through her panic like a hot knife through butter.

The frantic twitching in her fingers slowed down, and that paralyzing fog of fear seemed to lift just enough for her to breathe. A genuine, fragile little smile finally broke across her face, and she gave me a determined nod that made her bone circlet rattle. The next sound to hit my ears wasn't the roar of a monster or the hum of the portal, but the rhythmic, enthusiastic smack of palms hitting each other.

I whipped my head around to find Fiona standing right there by the shimmering gate, clapping with the kind of pure, unbridled joy usually reserved for a puppy finding a particularly large stick. Right beside her, Dimitri was beaming at me like a proud father at a graduation ceremony. He hoisted a massive, leather wrapped thumb into the air, his face glowing with so much secondhand pride it was actually starting to make me squint.

Even June was in on it, leaning against a nearby rock with her arms crossed and a look of sharp, regal amusement dancing in her eyes, as if she had just watched a very entertaining street performance. I felt the heat rush to my face so fast I was surprised my eyebrows didn't singe off. My internal cool guy persona curled up and died on the spot.

"What the hell!" I barked, my voice cracking just enough to be humiliating while my gunner trinkets gave an agitated little jingle.

"I thought you three were already through the gate and halfway up the next floor by now!" June adjusted her tunic with a crisp, elegant flick of her wrist, her posh British accent dripping with a level of condescension that only a royal could manage.

"Oh, we were quite through, dear. Fortunately for us, curiosity got the better of the group and we decided to pop back for a moment. It would have been a tragedy of monumental proportions had we missed that delightfully cheesy little monologue of yours." I felt like I was shrinking inside my own mismatched boots. The embarrassment was so thick I could have spread it on toast.

"Great. Fantastic. Now I am the one who wants to pack it in and go home. Can we please just pretend that never happened?" Dimitri stepped forward, his heavy boots crunching softly on the grass as he reached out as if to pat the very air around me with kindness.

"I knew from the moment our souls met that you carried a heart of pure gold, my wonderful friend!" he rumbled, his thick Russian accent turning the compliment into a grand, sweeping declaration that echoed off the portal.

"Your words are like a beacon of hope in the dark!" I let out a long, defeated sigh and started marching toward the swirling blue vortex, refusing to make eye contact with any of them. I was pretty sure my ears were still glowing red enough to be seen from space.

"Fuck it," I muttered, waving a hand dismissively as I approached the sapphire glow.

"Let's just enter the damn gate already."