As the sun soon began to rise, Nobina and Fay quickly began to learn how much of a talker Harton really was. Previously, he seemed to keep quiet yet now he was chatting a lot about his past adventures. It didn’t really bother either of them too much, as both were fascinated by the journey Harton had gone on himself.


    Harton was about five hundred and twenty years old. It was not too long for a dragon, yet it was long enough that he was around to see various nations grow and rise to power.


    “Most of my time was in the nest, but I did get to visit humanity every couple of years. Thanks to my abilities, they have allowed me to visit places that we’d generally avoid. Of course, I had to be careful. If I was ever caught as a dragon while acting as a normal human, I’d get in some much trouble,” he chuckled.


    “You must have so many stories to tell then if you’ve been around that long,” said Nobina in awe.


    “We got plenty of time for it,” he nodded.


    The first day of their trip was rather uneventful. Besides the stories, which both Nobina and Fay enjoyed, they took the occasional stop to eat some food before moving on. It was mostly Nobina and Fay though, as Harton didn’t need to eat more than once every few days. He ate a lot during those moments but otherwise could travel awhile without issue.


    “That being said, I can eat three meals a day if I choose. I just need to pace myself,” he smiled.


    Nobina and Fay took the time to chat about their own experiences during their lunch, since Harton took it as a chance to merely keep watch.


    “Man, sometimes I wish we were truly alone,” said Nobina. “There’s so many secrets I can’t say near Harton that it sucks so much.”


    “What if we get him to swear never to reveal your secrets,” asked Fay.


    “It doesn’t work like that,” he yelled from a distance. “I can’t just keep swearing on my soul all the time. It’s really just a one-time thing dragons can do in desperation. Plus, I can’t promising multiple things at once.”


    Both of them sighed.


    “Worth a shot,” said Nobina, taking another bite of her rations.


    Once lunch was done, they continued on. Fay herself was starting to feel a bit tired, but she told Nobina she could manage until their stop at the night. Soon, nightfall came upon the group and Fay was the first to sleep. It gave Nobina and Harton a moment to chat.


    “Say,” said Harton, standing next to Nobina. “You two can sleep, you know. I’ll keep watch one day and Fay can do it another day.”


    “Hm? And what about me?” asked Nobina.


    “Rather not let you be even more fragile by keeping you awake,” he laughed. “I’ve honestly never seen you display any power that would make me fear you. Well… besides your bunnies, that token, your bag, your friends…”


    “I get it,” she waved. “I’m weak, but those around me are strong.”


    “I’m just saying. Do you want help training?” he asked, stretching himself.


    “Training? Do you think it will help?” asked Nobina. “Paths only get stronger when you do something related to it, and my Path is the Path of the Writer.”


    “Fascinating,” said Harton, looking over Nobina. “Isn’t that a non-combat Path? Do you have just a normal destiny? Was your life merely dictated by your special bag?”


    Nobina stayed silent, not responding immediately. Part of her didn’t want to reveal too much of her past to Harton, yet another part wanted to tell him everything so she could be free the whole trip. As she tried to think of the correct decision, Harton merely sighed.


    “Listen,” said Harton, looking up at the moonlight. “We’ll be on this journey for who knows how long. Ideally, it’s done as soon as possible, but I feel it better that there’s no secrets between us.”


    “How can…”


    “You trust me?” asked Harton. “I swore to you to that I would surrender to you. Whether or not you choose to believe that I’m trustworthy is up to you. However, do you really want all your secrets eating you up? My hearing is excellent and you’d have to be decently far to hide anything. Not only that, but each conversation you have has a chance of you slipping up. After all, I already got a sense you have some sort of special destiny related to the heroes of old.”


    “How did…”


    “I know?” he chuckled. “I didn’t, but I had a feeling, and you confirmed it.”


    Nobina began insulting herself under her breath for not being able to avoid hiding her secret.


    “Also, that doesn’t work,” said Harton. “Those soft words are like you speaking normally.”


    “I swear,” she sighed. “You know what? Fine. I’ll be more open about my secrets. However, I want to speak with Fay first before saying anything.”


    “That is fine,” he smiled. “You won’t regret letting me into your inner circle. Sure, I might seem like a silly person who might back stab you, but to those I really care about I’m very trusting.”


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Nobina stared at him for a bit, trying to gauge if he was telling the truth. After a bit, she gave a sigh, shaking her head.


    “Why do I feel like I’m going to regret letting you into my secrets?”


    “Only one way to find out,” he smiled. “For now, take a rest and we’ll discuss this more in the morning.”


    Nobina gave a nod, heading to bed and leaving the watch to Harton. As she fell asleep herself, Harton gave a small chuckle.


    “It is wise to doubt someone like me Nobina, but it’s even better to have me as an ally,” he told himself as he continued to keep watch.


    The following day, Nobina woke up and heard Fay arguing with Harton.


    “How dare you try to break her down like that,” said Fay, showing a fury that was becoming more and more common.


    “Relax,” said Harton. “I was merely being honest with her! Did you want me to hide that I’ve heard every single word you’ve two said while being even remotely near me? I could have and just learned everything in secret. However, I rather neither of you feel it necessary to hide anything at this point. Be free! Speak your mind!”


    Fay wanted to punch Harton badly but was holding in all her frustrations. They needed him not to become their enemy, and he had valid points. Nobina wasn’t the tightest of lips and would eventually reveal her secrets to Harton given enough time.


    “I just hate the idea you spoke to her alone,” said Fay, spit flowing from her mouth.


    “Listen. I get that you love her but…”


    Immediately, Harton felt a powerful fist across his face, causing him to fly back a few meters before landing on the ground. Nobina, seeing this, ran to Fay, who appeared to be beat red.


    “You idiot,” she said under her breath.


    “Fay?” called Nobina, drawing Fay’s attention.


    “Oh! Nobina! How… long have you been awake?” she asked, trying to compose herself into her cool demeanor.


    “Uh… I just woke up like a minute ago. Why do you ask?” she smiled.


    “What… did you hear?” said Fay, looking away from Nobina.


    “Uh…. Starting from ‘how dare you break her down’ to you saying something I couldn’t quite hear. Though, I am surprised you hit Harton that hard for his comment. I was sure you didn’t let jokes like that get to you,” she smiled.


    “Right… jokes…” said Fay, giving a weak smile. “But yeah, don’t let Harton break you down. I know you really want to talk about your secrets, but we can’t trust him to that level.”


    As she said that, Harton slowly got up, touching the spot that Fay hit. It had a bit of a bruise on it that seemed to bother him a bit.


    “I guess that was deserved,” said Harton, heading back to Nobina and Fay. “But really. Can you two be more reasonable? You can’t keep up with secrets those whole trip. I’m really doing this to save all of us a headache.”


    Fay was going to say something, but Nobina held up a hand to stop her.


    “Fay,” said Nobina, turning to her. “He’s unfortunately right. Sure, there are a lot of dangers to telling him my secrets, but there’s so many advantages with us being able to talk freely.”


    “She’s right,” nodded Harton. “Wouldn’t to be better to have a trusted ally rather than someone who you feel that will backstab you?”


    “I swear,” said Fay. “You are really good at manipulation Harton.”


    “Guilty as charge,” he laughed. “But no. I honestly will keep your secrets and only tell my love. It does me no good to get your ire, especially considering Nobina likely has a potential that will benefit me to be friends with. Not to mention how strong you are yourself Fay.”


    A headache was slowly building in Fay’s head, but Nobina’s hug managed to cause her to relax.


    “Fay,” said Nobina. “I desperately want to tell you everything. Ask you so many things. Perhaps it’s a bad idea, but I still believe the two of us can deal with anything that comes as a result of this. We aren’t telling the world either. It’s just the three of us.”


    Fay, who listened intently to Nobina, merely nodded.


    “Nobina… If you truly desire it… Then you can speak our secrets,” smiled Fay. “I will do whatever I can to ensure to minimize any consequences that come our way.”


    With that, Nobina gave a nod. She turned to Harton, who waited for the big reveal.


    “There are two secrets that I have Harton. The first secret is that my destiny can change the world. That is the result of my Path. The second secret is that I’m not from this world, like the heroes of the past. Fay is also from another world as well. Both of us come from the same one.”


    Harton face exploded in surprise, freezing as he took all that information in.


    “That answers most my questions surprisingly,” said Harton. “How on earth did you ended up with your special bag. Why a Death Hare is with you. Actually, wait, is this related to your Path or something else?”


    “Well… See… This bag was given to me by a god named Nonomo who uses this bag to connect me with Gaze entities. These entities watch over me, giving me items that either benefit me, cause chaos, or, in the worst case, creates problems.”


    At this point, even Fay was surprised at what Nobina was saying.


    “We’ve come to this world, yet our circumstances are so different,” said Fay.


    “Did Nonomo bring you here as well Fay?” asked Nobina.


    “No… I found myself alone when I arrived here. Not only that, but my Path stuff… works a bit differently.”


    “What do you mean?” asked Nobina, tilting her head.


    “My skills depend on my outfit, and this is the outfit I came into this world with,” said Fay. “I have the Path of the Cosplayer, allowing me to turn fiction into power.”


    Nobina was shocked. It reminded her of those overpowered skills that she knew people received in the various fantasy books she read back in their world. If Fay had something on that level, it would perfectly explain how she got S-rank so quickly.


    “Are you overpowered Fay?” asked Nobina, eyes glistening.


    “Hardly,” she laughed. “Like all Paths, even this skill has its limits. All my skills have limited usages, but luckily no costs. If I damage the outfit too much, my skills will weaken. Of course, I do have a skill that makes my outfits extremely durable, but it also means that I have to be extremely careful on taking it off unless absolutely necessary.”


    “I’m taking it you trust me now?” smiled Harton. “Revealing such a flaw in front of me…”


    “Listen,” said Fay, taking a deep breath. “If you do end up using all this information against us, I will do whatever it takes to ensure you or anyone you know can ever harm Nobina again. However, I desperately want to believe that Nobina is right. You will keep these facts a secret for all our benefits.”


    “If I could swear on my heart, I would,” he nodded.


    With that, Fay gave a nod, going back to her explanation.


    “As I was saying Nobina, I’m far from overpowered. I’m strong, sure, but I don’t think I can reach any higher level easily. My improvement in my Path involves becoming more well known. In a sense, I play a hero, but I’m not a hero.”


    “That sounds kind of weird,” Nobina chuckled. “You save lives, right? How can you play a hero and not be one?”


    “Who knows,” she sighed. “All I know is that for me to develop further, I’ll have to continue to accomplish feats, being more well known, and spread the recognition of this outfit to more and more people. It’s a lot, but that’s how I got strong so fast. And perhaps one day… I’ll be strong enough to protect you from anything.”


    Nobina gave a chuckle, shaking her head.


    “Fay… You really are overpowered. I’m nowhere near that level of strength, nor do I know if my Path can reach that sort of power. Not to mention I have so many costs to my combat skill…”


    “What is it?” asked Fay.


    “We can talk more about it as we travel,” said Nobina, heading back to the camp.


    “No fair,” said Fay, following after Nobina.


    As the two got farther away, Harton couldn’t help but chuckle and shake his head.


    “You do really love her Fay,” he smiled as he followed suit.