The mess ended when Fred made eye contact with Logan. To be precise, it was more appropriate to say that the anger on his face was controlled by itself seeing the face staring at him. He got goosebumps as he didn’t know since when he had been staring at him.
Likewise, Ian, who confirmed that others had returned, calmed down his annoyance and walked to his barracks. Kyle, whose face was moistened, followed him with chatter, but he came back pretending to be aware of Ian’s eyes telling him to follow him one more step.*
[*T/N: It’s like telling people “follow me one more step and I will kill you.” ◉‿◉]
In the meantime, Claude was figuring out the number of people.
“Everyone is back except Evan.”
There were many seriously injured people, but only one was missing. When he reported the members who had been treated much more carefully than expected, Logan casually replied.
“He is dead.”
It seemed so. There was some commotion for a while, but it was never a situation to laugh and chatter.
As if realizing it, the surroundings became quiet. One death, three others were disfigured, and each returned with large and small wounds.
“I smelled his blood.”
It was the second search party that left at 11 o’clock
Logan, who was with Ian, smelled it and arrived, he had already stopped breathing.
“They were quite small, but they were seven.”
It was a miracle that so many appeared at once, and there was only one death. It was possible because Logan, who smelled it, arrived right away. Before he knew it, the view of the forest where the sun sank was so dark that he couldn’t see an inch ahead.
It was a shaded place even on a sunny day.
Logan muttered as he looked back on his way.
“This means they are around here.”
Yellow glistening eyes shone even in the dark.
Unlike last time, they seemed to have got it right this time. Before he could smell it, he had to find it first. Schwartz nodded quietly as if he knew what it meant without saying anything.
It seemed that the settlement of this expedition was here.
A full-fledged search began the next day.
Claude’s expression was a little stiff when he said he had decided to settle here, instead of riding the horse, unlike the everyday.
“We’re reorganizing the group because the entire second search party was injured. I’ve decided to leave a backup crew behind. It would be a problem if there were only newcomers like yesterday.”
As long as they stayed here, the campsite was never a safe place. This would be the most dangerous place if all the elite personnel left for the search. Since both food and horses were gathered, they should not move without any countermeasures.
Claude, who let out a light sigh in the self-sinking atmosphere, opened his mouth again.
“So, from today, the Grand Duke will join us.”
“What?”
“The Grand Duke?”
It was Logan, who was always moving alone. The sudden announcement began to stir the members. They didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. In fact, the safest place here was next to the Grand Duke, but on the contrary, the most dangerous place was also next to the Grand Duke.
“That’s all for the announcement. Let’s start with group formation.”
Moderately ignoring the tumultuous atmosphere, Claude immediately moved on to the next schedule. Soon thereafter, a new group was formed, and a search party dispersed into the forest along the same route.
“…..”
At that time, Ian, who was already up early, was feeding Bella. Originally, it was time to ride a horse, but he decided to settle down, so he didn’t have to.
Ian, who was filling most of the expedition with horseback riding due to his slow speed, suddenly lost time. Like other knights, he didn’t have to go out on a search, but he had to stay in the barracks all day long.
But things didn’t turn out as Ian thought.
“Sorry, there are a lot of injuries, but we’re short-handed. We need clean water to clean the wound.”
There was nothing wrong with Dayden’s words, that came out after he opened his mouth with difficulty. As the number of patients increased, the number of search parties decreased, and so they had to protect that place as they couldn’t afford to distribute the standby personnel to the encroaching battlefield.
He thought it would be better to move his body than to do nothing, so he nodded his head and Dayden’s expression brightened noticeably.
“Thank you! The river is nearby, so don’t worry.”
He felt like he had been swindled by the bucket that was handed over as if he had been waiting, but it was okay. As Ian heard where the stream was, he went outside and his eyes met Fred, who was boiling the stew.
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He glares straight at him as if he couldn’t forget yesterday’s humiliation.
Once again, Ian thought about throwing a wet cloth on his face again, but he gave up. Yesterday was rare and his hands moved first because he ran out of patience, but not today.
Fred, who was annoyed by the way he turned his head without any reaction, calmed down only after seeing the wooden bucket in Ian’s hand. Still, it’s hard to try to help without pretending… What is that?
“Agh!”
When Fred, who jumped up from his seat, screamed, only Daniel was startled. What’s wrong with you? He was alone with the newcomers yesterday, so it was clear that he was out of his mind. Sudden stress is dangerous.
Ian was gradually moving further away from the campsite, walking in the direction Dayden had indicated to him whether anyone screamed behind him or not. It was the first time he had come into the forest alone like this. Logan was always by his side when he moved, so there was no time to be alone.
Unlike the procession when the whole world looked white due to snow piled up, everything had melted. The weather has been clear since the start of the expedition.
Thanks to this, it was fortunate that it was easy to camp in the forest. It seemed a bit crazy to spend weeks in the forest in the cold weather. Even if the weather was clear that morning, several people almost froze to death.
There were no green leaves frozen with cold, but it was cold enough. It is a forest with so many old trees that even if you look up, you can’t see even half of the sky because of the leaves.
It was when he walked slowly after being amazed by the leaves that were dyed black as if a shadow.
Crisp.
Ian stood still at the sound heard not far away.
“…..”
It was already quite far from the campsite.
The search team left early in the morning, so there was no way that they could be here yet.
Then, what is it?
It was likely to be a beast if not a man.
Ian didn’t know what attacked those who returned from injury yesterday. Maybe it* smelled the blood and followed him to the campsite.
[*T/N: Here it is referred to as the man or the beast.]
The sound was no longer heard. As if he had sensed that Ian had noticed, the forest fell into silence again. Not far away, only the sound of the water was heard softly, and so he could tell that the stream that Dayden was talking about was over there.
He couldn’t have misheard it.
He didn’t know if he should go back like this or go in the direction of the sound of the water. Ed’s voice suddenly came to mind when he was in a short dilemma.
ㅡ If you happen to get separated from a group, go where you can hear the sound of the water.
It was a request as if he knew this would happen. He didn’t know what it meant, but he felt strangely pulled back. This premonition was generally not wrong, so Ian moved his paused pace. He thought it would be better to go to the stream instead of going back to the campsite.
I wonder how much longer I have to walk.
With the sound of water getting clearer and clearer, the river that Dayden talked about appeared. Contrary to what he thought, it was a flowing stream, it was wide. If you jump even this much, it seems that you would be submerged up to your shoulders.
Fortunately, the water was very clean to the naked eye.
They’ll boil it once anyway, so this wasn’t bad.
It was quite cold when he put down the bucket he was carrying and dipped his fingertips in it. Perhaps there might be a situation where he might have to go back and forth several times, so Ian immediately put the bucket into the water.
It was when it was filled to the brim that the water was fluttering.
Rustle.
He stopped again when he heard the sound from behind.
This time he heard it for sure. The distance was closer than he thought, so Ian hurriedly lowered his gaze. He looked for a possible weapon, but he only had the wooden bucket he was holding.
Crisp.
In the meantime, it was getting closer and closer to him. Ian, who took a deep breath, organised his thoughts. He thought he would run to the campsite if he had to.
There would be weapons there, so he would be able to deal with them somehow.
Ian, who concluded so, turned to the back in an instant.
Before he knew it, the sound was getting closer.
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T/N: Sorry for the late release, I have been quite busy with tuitions and school…
(´；ω；｀)