Says the guy who pointed a crossbow at him the moment they met him. Well, to not prove his point, Robert kept his mouth shut with his usual smartass reply, but instead a genuine smile and a thank you for the two of them. [color=0054a6]"I'm glad I have all your trust. The village has some nice peaceful surroundings to catch up, and good food. You'll need it. Then, I'll show you the leads." [/color]

After all, he had a similar experience to these reincarnated anyway. It's better that he returned the favor somehow, at least spiritually.

But then...

"I'm not weak..." 

He heard the young hotshot mumbled behind him. He turned around, saw the same look that MacKenzie saw in him, and immediately had his finger raised. "Don't even think about it, you-" But it was too late. MacKenzie immediately followed him, before Robert could even say anything to her. His hands covered his head as he saw them disappeared from his vision as fast as they left. These people! He just had their composures, and now they're already doing the dumb things a confused and uninformed person should NOT do! This is not a fairy tale. 

[color=gray][i]"You might be doing dumb things, but I'd follow you to the ends of it to pull you out."[/i][/color]

Fine........

[color=0054a6]"I'm following both of them. If you wanna stay out of this, just follow the road to the village outside the city." [/color]

Whoever would want to follow him are also welcome to do so. At this point, they're a team now. 

Unfortunately for Robert, he was not the age where he could break an elephant's tusk anymore. He was not a physical fighter. His style was always passive, letting people or machines do the work for him. His stamina was low, and he was pretty much forced on the 'long' path. Not long after he departed to catch up to Yakeru, Robert was already far behind. To make the whole thing worse, above the scared civilians were on the opposite path as he was, running past and even into him, a few large wyverns was circling around him. Now that Yakeru provoked them once again, they have all the reasons to have his head here. 

Robert found himself next to a human couple, who were also tired from running as he was, scared and seemingly hopeless as they gazed at the sky, thinking that the flying beasts were there to get them finally. The husband quickly shielded his young wife, trying to remain strong in the face of their imminent doom. For a moment, what the sarcastic and smartass logical man that Robert was known to be, acted automatically, standing right between them and the wyverns, his hands raised and casted a barrier to fend off the arrows from the wyvern-riders, meanwhile, his other hand would try to signal for the other civilians to get in the barrier. 

Because he used to do it too...