Chapter 6: Chapter 6 - A new goal
Flying just beneath the clouds on her wyvern, the lieutenant of Esteria's Silver Shield platoon: Shirogane Noel was making her way to Riverbank to visit her senior and newly reunited friend from her homeworld.
"Are you as excited as I am Laria?" the girl asked her wyvern.
In response, the beast just gives a small shrill squeak, eliciting a giggle from the silver-haired knight.
"Yeah, so am I."
Looking back to when she first arrived in Esteria, Noel wouldn't have thought of seeing anyone from Hololive. She remembered the panic that took her over when she was placed in a world she had no knowledge of. She couldn't communicate and for a while, she was looked like a madwoman. She got lucky when she was found by the princess who took her in, educated her and then got her a job in the army.
While climbing the ranks, she searched endlessly, using all the connections she garnered to look for any signs of her friends, but luck could only be by her side for so long and she found herself hitting dead end after dead end. She would leave, but her duties and loyalty to the princess that saved her kept her within the city walls.
But all of it was worth it when she met one of her peers in the small village of Riverbank. It wasn't in the best of situations, but she took what she could get.
After a nice quick flight over the fields, Noel finally saw the small village from the air. A smile quickly broke from her lips and she tapped Laria on the side with her foot, urging her mount to speed up.
Landing just outside the place, she hopped down Laria and told the winged beast to stay where she was. The wyvern grumbled a little bit before lying down on the grass and resting its head on its arms.
With her companion now relaxed, the knight made her way into the village where she was greeted several times by its people.
"Hello Noel."
"Ah Noel, good morning."
"Thank you for your service Noel."
As she continued to make her way through the village, she was showered with greetings and praise, it honestly made her cheeks go red after a good 30 seconds.
She eventually managed to reach her destination, a stone home situated just a little outside the village. She took a deep breath then knocked on the door. She waited for a bit, fiddling with her armour and weapon to make sure she was presentable to her senior.
The door then swung open and Noel came face to face with the young man that lives in the same house as her friend.
"Oh Shirogane-san, come in, Sora and I are still cooking, but please come in." The boy moved aside and let the knight in before closing the door behind him.
Once they laid their eyes on each other, Sora and Noel quickly ran to one another and wrapped their arms around each other tightly. They hugged for a couple of long seconds before Sora invited Noel to sit down on the couch so they could chat. Remembering her cooking, the brunette turned to her friend and asked him to watch their cooking.
While Rio was swamped in the kitchen, Sora and Noel caught up on each other's time with the knight mentioning her growth in the capital.
"That's amazing Noel-chan, you're really living up to your character," Sora cheered.
"Yeah, but honestly I feel like I'm cheating a bit." Noel then scratched the back of her head before chuckling sheepishly.
Tilting her head to the side, Sora asked, "Why's that?"
"Well" -Noel went silent for a few seconds- "my growth is thanks to the fact I can use some magic."
"Really?!" Sora gasped.
"Only one type though," Noel quickly added, "it's a type enhancement magic, I'm able to strengthen parts of my body. Works well with fighting."
"Woah that's amazing!" Sora marvelled, her eyes sparkling like diamonds in awe. "Rio's been trying to learn magic as well, but he only comes home with ripped clothes and bruises."
"Really? I would assume that he would be able to bypass certain limiters." Noel then went into a thinking pose as she pondered what Sora told her.
"Oh really? He's been struggling all this time though," Sora said.
From the kitchen with a loud booming voice, Rio shouted, "I can hear you Sora!"
Panicking, Sora quickly covered her mouth, making Noel giggle at her reaction.
While the two enjoyed conversing with each other, they had cut it short since it was now lunchtime. Joining the girls at the table, Rio just let the two keep talking to one another while he silently enjoyed the stew and the soft loaf of bread smeared with butter.
The mixture of the somewhat salty soup and the rich butter tingled the boy's taste buds. If he could, he would've probably moaned at the deliciousness of the dish. Unfortunately, he had company so he had to hold back on any reactions, not that he would've moaned over food anyways.
On the other hand, the girls were continuing their conversation from before. It had been a long time since both had seen another member of Hololive, so they've missed conversing about streaming and the antics that they've done. Sora was especially loving this though, it may have been the fact they had not seen each other in a while, but for her, every moment she spent with her junior was paradise.
The girl may enjoy spending time with her long time friend, but she missed Hololive and for the amount of time she's been away, made her miss them that much more.
While the two were enthralled with talking, Rio managed to finish his lunch before they did and slithered outside.
Noticing this, Noel decided to pursue a question that's been nibbling at her mind since their first meeting. Who's Rio exactly? She knows that he's Sora's friend back from their old world, but for two people, of the opposite sex, to live under the same roof for years and make it seem very natural, must mean that the two are quite close.
With her curiosity getting the better of her, the knight decided to ask her senior about her companion.
"Senpai, is Kanzaki-san your boyfriend?"
Upon hearing the question, Sora's face immediately turned bright red. Panicking the girl tried to deny any form of relationship beyond their friendship while waving her arms around like an inflatable tube-man.
"What?! No! Rio and I are just really close friends from when we were kids! We're not dating or anything." The girl nervously chuckled, trying to play it coolly, but her cheeks said otherwise.
Noel couldn't help but giggle at her senior's reaction, they may have not been dating, but even Noel could tell there's more to the story than what she was let on.
"So how come you've never mentioned Kanzaki-san before?" Noel asked, "He's clearly someone very close to you, yet not once have you talked about him."
"Oh." A small smile then crept onto Sora's visage. "Well, we are idols and…
"And?"
"I always end up rambling on about Rio too much, so I don't talk about him."
"Oh wow, she's that deep in love huh?" Noel thought pleasantly. "I totally get that, Sora-senpai."
After a couple more hours of conversing, it was now time for Noel to return to the capital, but before leaving Sora asked her junior if she had found anyone else. Unfortunately, the knight had no idea if there were any other Hololive members as she had been swamped in her job. But she had tried to track people down before using some connections, just no solid leads.
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That night, Sora was in her bedroom thinking about the rest of her friends, while she was glad to have met up with Noel, she now began to entertain the idea of searching for her friends a lot more. A part of this desire was born from guilt since Noel at least tried to look for the others, while she stayed in the village. She yearned for the others, yet never even really tried to discover if they were taken away as well. She just moped around.
However, it's not like she could just decide to go on a journey, she had to think about Rio as well who's been by her side all this time. Then there's also the problem of where she's going. Not only does she not know where the others could be, she barely knows the world outside Riverbank.
"Uhh this is a lot harder than I thought," she complained.
She just had too many questions and not enough answers.
None of these questions subsided the next day either, and it ate at her throughout the day, distracting her from her work. Like while she was working on the farms, she was so out of it that she accidentally overflowed a bucket and got some of her planted seeds eaten by birds since she wasn't paying attention.
Back home was no different, during dinner Sora was just staring at her soup with a blank stare.
Watching her be so out of it was concerning for Rio, so he decided to confront her about her worries. But, whenever he called to her, the boy would just be met with silence.
After about three calls, the boy sighed and stood up from his seat. He made his way to Sora and shook her a bit, still no response. So he did the one thing that always got the girl's attention.
A flick to the head.
With a small tap from the boy's finger, Sora jolted from the sting before glaring at the boy in front of her. "Why'd you flick me?"
"You and the soup having a nice staring contest there?" Rio asked sarcastically.
Realising what she's been doing, Sora sighed and began to eat normally, though it's not like Rio was just gonna leave it at that.
"So what's on your mind?"
"Huh? Oh it's nothing," Sora confessed, "I must've been quite the handful today huh?"
Seeing how guilt-ridden she looked, the boy decided to relay what the villagers thought about the girl as she went on with her everyday tasks. About how worried they were about the girl since she seemed very troubled all day.
With the concerns of the villagers now on her shoulder's Sora gave out a hefty sigh before explaining what was in her mind to Rio, not that she could keep it from him for long anyways.
From her missing her friends, to how Noel tried to find the others. She let it all out, she no longer wanted to sit around and wait, now that there was a chance the others could be out there, she wanted to look for them.
With her mind clearly made up, the boy then asked her what she was going to do now.
"Huh? Well, I didn't get very far planning this, I thought I would just help out Noel with what she found," Sora confessed.
"That's definitely a starting point," Rio then stood up with his dishes in hand, "I'm sure you've got a lot to think about, so take your time. I'll be here if you need anything."
Rio then made his way to the kitchen to wash his dishes and left the girl with her thoughts. When he was gone, Sora couldn't help but let a small smile appear on her face. She may get worried about him constantly needing to help everyone, but the one thing she was confident in was how reliable Rio was.
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If she was going on a journey, Sora needed to learn some things first and one of the most important assets for a journey was her stamina, so she went ahead and trained her body to handle more arduous tasks. She already had some strength from working in the fields, but nothing that could help her survive the wild.
Asking some of the village hunters to train her, Sora went on to hunt alongside them. Learning their methods and weapons, more specifically: the bow and arrow.
Sora managed to grasp the basics in a couple of weeks, learning how to hunt and move quietly within the shrubbery, as well as know what vital parts to shoot at with her arrows. She trained day and night to perfect her form and skill. It wasn't the best yet, but it was enough to work with.
Unfortunately, while she had learned how to shoot, she couldn't do much to practice at home. The hunters couldn't provide her with a proper bow since they only had the ones for hunting and those belonged to the village.
So with some tied up branches and horsehair, the girl managed to cobble up a crude bow. Using this, the girl would gather some haybales and arrows, also made with random stuff, then practice in her backyard on days she wouldn't be out with the hunters.
Taking an arrow that she stabbed on the ground into her hand, the girl placed it on the string and began to pull back. Fixing her eyes on her target, the girl then took a couple of seconds to just relax, breathing in and out slowly, lightly shifting her feet into the proper position before zoning fully into her target.
Finally letting go, the arrow zipped away from the bow, zooming to the target while piercing through the air. Its stone point aimed straight at the target, it wasn't going to miss the mark.
Then it began to dip slowly, curving straight to the ground before ending its journey by stabbing itself into the dirt.
Sora stood frozen stiff, her eyes being the only thing that moved to look at her arrow. She stared at it for a good few seconds before she dropped to her knees dejected.
"Well, that's unfortunate."
Coming up behind the girl was Rio with a bowl of potato chips on hand. He sat down next to Sora and presented her the bowl.
Taking the bowl from his hands, Sora then began to slowly munch on the salted pieces of fried potatoes while pouting and complaining about how she's done a lot of training yet can barely get an arrow to hit its mark.
"Sora you can train for all you like, but faulty equipment will always result in bad performance."
"Well where am I suppose to get a proper bow?" She picked up a chip and tossed it into her mouth. After gulping it down, she continued. "All of the good bows are being used by the hunters, I can't just go to them and ask for one."
"And making one is out of the question as well." Rio cupped his chin as he began to think about how to get Sora a proper bow, he could make the bow himself but he had no idea how to weave the string.
"You two ok?"
Turning around the two were greeted by a confused Noel, who was staring at the two while carrying a massive bag on her back.
"Uh Noel what's that?" Sora asked.
"Oh this? It's some souvenirs from the capital, thought you might like it," Noel answered innocently.
"How much did she bring?" the two friends thought in unison.
As Noel put the rucksack down she questioned the two about their conversation and the two, in return, had no problem sharing their little plight.
After grasping the situation Noel went into a thinking pose for a couple of seconds before clicking her fingers and letting out an, "Ah!"
Turning to the long-time friends, the knight gave them a proposal in regards to getting Sora a bow.
"Why don't we scavenge one?"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Monochrome_Library
Monochrome_Library Right nothing much this week other than congratulating you all for managing to stick with this story. We're now halfway through and soon we'll be leaving the starting town.
But other than that, nothing new this week. So, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you all next time.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone