"Why do you follow that Woman?" Vern demanded. "You're plenty strong on your own, hell I bet you could make rank four in any guild easy,"
"I would follow her to the end of the earth," Zoey replied, having been told not to call Billie Lord, My Lady, or Mistress while she was Billie.
"Why?" Gunter inquired "She doesn't seem to respect you all that much,"
"My reasons are my own," Zoey responded curtly; the group of three fell back a little, and Gunter lightly tapped his stick on the ground.
"What do you think?" he asked, having cast a spell that allowed his allies to hear his thoughts and theirs.
"Some sort of enslavement spell," Vern replied as he eyed Billie's staff, "That's most likely why she has that crazy staff; I'm betting we break that we can be certain if Zoey is free or not,"
"Yeah," Gale shot back, "but that staff is high quality; I tried appraising it, but all I got was that its too powerful for me to appraise; I'd rather not foot the bill to replace it,"
"We must not act rash," Gunter declared simply. "We do not know this woman or where she came from; what's more, it's rare for humans to use that kind of magic on another human. I've never seen a slave driver use their race for labor,"
"You right," Galre agreed. "what we should look for is to see if Zoey is glamoured, if she is. Then it's a near guarantee this Billie is a monster slave driver,"
"And if she is, then we are helping her make her next delivery," Vern gritted his teeth as they continued walking down the road.
"I sense they dislike us," Zoey noted, using the same spell Winnie was fond of using to communicate with her master.
"No, they dislike me," Billie noted casually. "They like you just fine." Unaware that she was thought to be a slave driver, Billie continued walking the path before them.
After several hours of nothing but walking, Billie conceded that she had drastically underestimated the size of the road. The night was already falling, and there were no towns in sight.
"Say," Billie looked at the long road ahead. "How far away is Ozama?"
"It's about four days to Greenwater," Gunter said; his dislike for her was evident in his eyes, but his tone was still just as polite as when they first met. She assumed he was trying to remain professional, "Past that it should only be two days to the city of Reopes, the capital of Ozama,"
"Hu," Billie scratched with her free hand, unconsciously scratching at the scar on her false face, "I suppose roads never go straight to your desired destination, so taking them would take longer than cutting across the forest in a straight line,"
"I see a good break in the treeline," Vern said. There's a sold outcropping of rocks with a clearing in it. What say we make camp and call it a night?"
"That is up to Billie," Gunter replied. "She paid for our service, so we must do as she demands until we complete our task, Within reason,"
Billie felt personally insulted that he felt the need to add the 'Within reason' part, "I don't personally care if you wanna make camp, then we can make camp,"
"Alright," Gunter noted. "But keep in mind, something tore up the road a ways back, and we don't know what it was or where it went; we'll need to assign a watch,"
"Since she's so sure of herself, I recommend Billie," Gale said.
"Sure," not needing sleep, Billie had no problem with the job. The group moved into the small clearing hidden snugly in the rocky outcropping, and Gunter tapped his staff; three Tents were summoned. Billie followed suit and summoned her tent; it had been used as a customizable revive point in the game; upon looking at it, she was sure she had been dangerously addicted to the game as she had spent real money on something as pointless as a cosmetic to make her tent look more extravagant.
"Nice Tent," Gale muttered as she eyed the tent three times the size of her own.
"Everything Billie owns is nice," Zoey replied instantly with a smile. Gunter tapped his staff, and a campfire was set up along with a little rack holding up a hanging pot to cook in. He tapped again, and nothing happened.
"Gunter," Gale said in a chastising tone, "Tell me you didn't forget the rations again!"
"No worries," Billie reached into her inventory; having stocked up upon leaving Greenwater, she produced several live Green Crabs that fell to the ground, "I hate going hungry, so I always try to have something on hand for dinner,"
"Hold up," Vern said as he picked up the Crab that waved its claw at him threateningly. "If you have these suckers, you must have been to Greenwater before; what did your previous guides abandon you?"
"Nothing like that; I just got lost and went the wrong way," Billie smiled. "With your help, I might make it to the right nation this time,"
"So are you going to Ozama for any special things, or are you just doing that thing where you switch adventurer teams at every nation to lower the total cost?" Gale asks, eyeing Billie with skepticism.
"I've just never been to Ozama and wanted to see what it was like," Billie felt that the trio didn't believe her, "What did I even do? having Zoey hold back couldn't have made them this mad!" Billie tried to figure out a reason behind the hostility aimed towards her while she used her magic to pull water from the air and fill the pot, leaving her less-than-hospitable guides to cook the Crabs
Zoey stood next to her diligently as Billie groaned in visible confusion, a look Zoey had never expected to see on her master's face, even if it was a false one.
"What is wrong, my lady?" Zoey asked after confirming that the sound of their guide's cooking would drown herself and Billie out.
"I can not for the life of me figure out why they're this mad at me. I could understand the irritation of me telling you to hold back, but this is just ridiculous," Billie sighed.
"Why not just ditch them?" Zoey asked, curious as to why her master was still playing along with this silly campaign.
"No, I wanna see how much work everyone can get done in four days without me around to boss them around." That was a Lie; she simply didn't want to admit she might have wasted an entire day wandering around lost.
"A Brilliant plan," Zoey agreed, "With you gone, they won't have to worry about praising you and will instead put their all into their task; they should get through twice the work they would otherwise get done,"
"Of course," Billie declared, lying through her teeth, "How very observant of you; I know for a fact that Winnie would be proud," Zoey smiled at her words.
"Thank you, my lady,"
"I speak only the truth," Billie replied. "Except when I don't." Billie looked to the sky momentarily, wondering about constellations before returning to the campsite. " Let's go eat; you haven't had green crab yet, have you?"