Chapter 133: From Acceptance To Chaos (1/2)

In the end, Loren decided to accept Karl’s proposal.

As he had said beforehand that he didn’t want to participate in the war, he decided that he would just feign ignorance till the end no matter what he was told. Should anything happen in the forest, it would be a merit to have more people – that was the reason why he accepted the proposal.

He had been supposed to confirm with Klaus first, but since Klaus himself just approved it readily, the other girls also had no complaints. And things just went along like that.

“Will only us walk?”

“I apologize for it, but we don’t have horses to lend you. Since we’ll move slowly in the forest, you walking probably wouldn’t be a problem.”

Talking about borrowing horses, Loren actually had no experience riding a horse. He had never ridden a horse during his mercenary days, and horses were extremely expensive to be of practical use to begin with. Moreover, horses that had been trained for battles were also rare; one wouldn’t be able to ride them unless one belonged to the army.

It was the same for Klaus and the others. The only ones who had ever ridden a warhorse were Layla, a knight and for some reason, Lapis.

“How did you ever ride a horse?”

“That is, well, a secret of the maiden.”

Lapis laughed mysteriously. He could have pressed her for an answer, yet since they wouldn’t be lent horses anyway, Loren just stopped the conversation there. Without horses there was no difference whether she could or couldn’t ride a horse.

Karl decided to leave some troopers in the village in case any villagers return. At the same time, he let the two return to the main force to report about the unusual happening here.

Loren thought that the kingdom’s involvement might improve the situation. Nevertheless, there was no way back anymore, unless the state of affairs changed.

“So, let’s go.”

At Karl’s command, the cavalry slowly advanced into the forest. Loren’s group was at the front, walking near Karl.

The forest was quite gloomy inside, but the trees didn’t grow too thick to hinder riders’ pass. There were also paths formed by villagers coming and going, so there seemed to be no issue for the slowly-moving cavalry. The biggest problem was their width. Human footpaths weren’t wide enough for horses to line up side by side. Thus, Karl instructed the troop to advance in two columns.

“How long does it take to pass through this forest?”

“About two hours on foot.”

Military personnel were generally the ones who knew most about topography details. There were maps on the market, but the information they recorded were very vague; in many cases, the country concealed the exact distance and location.

“For some reason, the atmosphere here is a bit strange.”

As they went forth on the forest paths, Karl looked around and muttered.

“Have you noticed? There are no signs of birds, animals or even insects in the forest. It’s too quiet.”

Loren had also noticed without Karl pointing it out. A forest was a place where various creatures lived. It wouldn’t be strange to see the signs of their presence, to hear their sounds or to catch a glimpse of their shapes. Yet there were no birds and not a single animal he could find when he looked around; it wasn’t normal.

“If there are deserters or villagers here, it wouldn’t be strange to have signs of them.”

“On the other hand, having no signs of them so far is rather eerie.”

Lapis, who was walking next to Loren, voiced her feelings. Not just Loren group, the soldiers were also having the same thoughts. Some of the troopers looked around with anxious faces, representing the uneasiness they felt.

“I’ll want to investigate this if we have time, but I can’t say that.”

“It’s not a good tendency for soldiers to be anxious.”

“It’ll end once we leave the forest.”

Karl said, but the whole group had to stop just a short while later.

“Messenger here! There’s people ahead!”

When the news came from the group that had gone ahead of them, it had been about one hour since they had stepped into the forest.

Karl immediately ordered the whole troop to stop and rode ahead himself to check what the messenger had reported. Loren’s group also followed him.

When they arrived at the vanguard, a bewildered-looking soldier pointed to a human figure standing alone on the path ahead and reported to Karl, who was approaching him.

“Captain, there’s a person.”

“A villager?”

The human figure looked to be female; she didn’t show any reaction even after seeing a cavalry. She wore the common clothes of villagers, and didn’t appear to be armed. They couldn’t see her face due to the distance and the gloom of the forest, but her just standing straight without even swaying was quite unsettling.

“Is it human?”

As Loren muttered, Shayna’s voice spoke up in his mind.

[‘Doesn’t seem to be an undead, onii-san.’]

[‘Any signs from the surroundings?’]

[‘That… I don’t know for sure. There seems to be some, but at the same time doesn’t…’]

Loren heightened his alertness at Shayna’s vague words. If even the King of the Dead couldn’t be sure of the situation, then it couldn’t be normal.

[‘It feels like something is hindering me. Please be careful, onii-san.’]

Loren didn’t need Shayna to tell him that. Seeing Loren laid his hand on his greatsword, Klaus group and Lapis also became tense.

And of course, Karl also began to give orders seeing them like that.

“Be alert! We don’t know what will happen!”