At the crack of dawn, the bright rays of sunlight irritated Red's eyelids and stirred him from his sleep. It would take some getting used to before he could be comfortable with the sharp contrast of night and day. Judging from the muted noise around him, Red concluded that his companions had already woken up as well.

Narcha was awake, finishing her watch, but it didn't take long for the other two to be up and going. A few minutes later, the three of them were already talking and organizing the rest of the camp, while Red felt as if he was still in the process of waking up. Under the warrior's prompting, though, the youth had to get ready quickly.

After a short breakfast, the group was already hitting the road as if they had never stopped in the first place. This swift rhythm was rough for the boy to keep up with, but at the very least Narcha didn't press them to walk any faster, something Red was aware the three of them could easily do.

The following hours were mostly uneventful. Eiwin seemed as talkative as yesterday, although beneath her words he could detect something else, as if everything she said was laced with... Worry? He wasn't entirely able to tell, but the way the woman addressed him seemed to have changed ever so slightly from yesterday. It was likely the product of the conversation between her and Narcha before he went to bed.

It made him somewhat wary, but her positive attitude towards him hadn't changed from what he could observe. So in the end, Red simply decided to engage her in conversation as usual, ignoring her behavior change.

"What's the Empire?" He asked, once their chat turned towards his usual question barrage.

This was a word he had heard Narcha mention yesterday. He remembered some of the slaves in the mine also mentioned a similar word before in passing conversation, but he had never been able to tell what exactly they were referring to other than the fact this "Empire" was a large organization.

"It's... Not easy to explain." His seemingly innocuous question gave Eiwin some pause.

"Are they powerful?" The boy continued.

"Yes, they're a very powerful nation."

"That's it?" He insisted, not sure why the matter was so difficult to talk about in the first place.

"Well..."

The woman's gaze became slightly uneasy, throwing glances up ahead at her warrior companion. However, she noticed Red was still silently staring at her as if waiting for her to continue.

"Listen Red, it's a complicated subject to talk about right now." She hesitated again. "Just know that they're-."

"They're our enemies." Eiwin was interrupted by a voice dripping with hatred so intense as Red had never seen before.

It was Narcha.

"The Empire wants to destroy our way of life. They hide their true intentions and cruel nature behind a mask of order and harmony, but the only thing they want is more slaves and willing sacrifices to serve their Celestial Gods." She spat on the ground in disgust. "If they only wanted to take our lives, I would respect them more. Instead, they want to take our freedom and control the only way people like us can change our fate. They're less than human and worse than monsters..."

Her voice trailed off, and the warrior became silent once more. Red was taken aback by the sudden outburst of emotion from the woman, but just when he was about to ask another question, Eiwin put a hand on his shoulder.

"Not now." She shook her head and pointed at Narcha with her eyes.

The boy looked over and saw that the tall woman had already walked far ahead, hastening her steps without even caring if the rest of them were still following. Soon the two of them could barely see her figure through the tree trunks.

"It's a sensitive topic for her." Eiwin explained. "Well, not only for her but for everyone who lives in this region. We can talk about it later when she's not around if that's okay with you?"

"I see." Red nodded in understanding.

This was the second landmine he had stepped into during his stay with the group, and he doubted it would be the last one. Now he had to worry about how he could affect other people around him with the things he said. It was a bit absurd to him, but the boy supposed that at least it wasn't as dangerous as watching out for his own safety every second. Or so he hoped.

"They're fucking crazy kid." Rog spoke from behind them. "Batshit insane, believing that people live above the sky or something."

He pointed up.

"Look, do you see anyone up there?"

Red looked up as he was told. He was only met with the infinite clear blue sky and the sun beating down on their heads from above.

"No." He replied.

"See? As I said, all crazy. There are no gods up there." The man walked past them, hurrying to catch up with their expedition leader.

The youth continued to stare at the firmament. Gradually, he felt something awakening within his memories, and the world around him began to transform.

He felt like the sky starter to turn golden in color as if illusion and reality were merging into one.

The air shimmered.

Various enormous rifts began to appear out of nowhere as if they were breaching the very fabric of reality. Something started to push through them, and space contracted and expanded to accept their form.

These slits gradually opened up and gigantic disembodied orbs surged from within them floating aimlessly through the sky. These spheres began to rotate in place as if searching for something.

The speed of their revolutions was so great that the boy couldn't see what they looked like. Abruptly, though, they all stopped and turned to stare in his direction. That was when he recognized them.

Eyes.

Countless eyes, looking in his direction.

They had a pitch-black sclera, a dark blue iris, and myriad dots that formed irregularly shaped pupils. Red suddenly felt a terrifying sense of familiarity reach into his mind as time seemed to come to a standstill.

He shivered.

"Red?"

Suddenly, a voice broke through the illusion. He blinked, and the strange scene disappeared, receding into the calming blue sky of the surface. For some reason, he couldn't remember what he had just been looking at.

"Are you okay?" Eiwin asked with concern.

Red looked over, noticing the woman's hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine." He nodded.

"Okay..." She looked skeptical but retracted her hand all the same. "We should hurry, or else they'll leave us behind."

He nodded again and followed behind her.

...

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. Rog scouted ahead for them again, but there were no bandit camps nearby. Red was told that this was due to the fact they were getting closer to the city proper, and outlaws generally avoided those more densely populated areas.

Throughout most of their journey they had followed the river course, never straying too far. However, the path they were following suddenly diverged from the body of water, and they started to walk directly away from it.

When night was about to arrive, they came across a peculiar sight for the boy. A strange stretch of smoothed terrain was placed right in the middle of the forest, completely clear of any trees or plants. It extended very far before twisting behind the treelines and making the youth lose sight of it.

"This is a road." Eiwin explained to him. "People build these to make traveling between settlements easier."

"How long is it?" Red asked.

"This one runs well over a hundred kilometers and it joins up with an even larger road past the forest and the river. It can take days to travel through the entire length, but we're not going that way, thankfully."

The boy couldn't help but marvel at the trail. How much effort and time must it have taken to carve this kind of thing through such a thick forest? And there was an even bigger road this was connected to? Just thinking about it filled Red with curiosity to explore it, but it didn't seem like that was the group's priority right now.

"We'll keep going for a bit more. There's a clearing by the roadside we can camp in." Narcha spoke to the rest of them, before turning to look at Rog. "Any trails?"

"A couple. A few days old. A cart too." He said, crouching to examine the ground. "Don't look like it has been seeing much movement."

"That few?" The warrior frowned. "Is there a reason for that?"

"Bandits? Maybe trade crisis?" The man shrugged. "Who knows."

"Something must be going on past the river." Eiwin interjected. "Things weren't this bad even when the monsters were around."

"We've barely left town for a week!" Narcha complained, exasperated. "I hope Rimold has been making himself useful and knows something about this."

Red, completely unaware of what they were discussing, listened to the conversation silently to the side.

"Do you think..." Eiwin trailed off, looking at her companion.

"Another war?" Narcha completed the question for her. "Even if that's the case, it shouldn't affect things this far east, but we can't discount the possibility."

She shook her head.

"I don't want to spend another minute more than necessary here, so let's just be on our way."

The group started moving again.

An hour later, when night had already settled, they arrived in a clearing and made camp. Red partook of another roasted venison meal, this one of a lesser quality than the previous one, but still amidst the best things he had ever eaten in his life.

As the night got deeper, the group prepared to sleep. This time Rog was in charge of the watch for the entire night, completely foregoing his rest. The youth thought this was strange, but he was told that once you opened some specific veins you could easily go many days without sleep.

After changing his bandages, the boy took his borrowed bedroll and went into a corner to sleep. This time there was no secret discussion between his travel companions even an hour after he had laid down, and only then did Red feel comfortable to let himself rest.

If Narcha's previous predictions had been correct, then they would arrive at this town tomorrow. The youth had no idea what was expecting him there, but the recent tone of the group's conversations suggested that he may have landed in a more troublesome region than he would have liked.

...

The next day came without any interruptions and the four of them continued to make their way following the trail. Red felt some semblance of strength return to him with the paste's help, and he almost wanted to practice then and there. He thought better of it, though.

Soon, they arrived at a crossroads that split into three other paths. A wooden sign stood in the middle of it with arrows pointing in different directions, but the boy couldn't read what they said.

"We're almost there." Eiwin smiled at him. "Just a few more hours of travel."

"Yeah, and then we can see what Hector says we should do with you, kid." Narcha added, earning herself an ugly look from her companion.

These last few days had almost made Red forget the warrior was quite adamant in leaving him to die in the forest in the first place. He didn't blame her, though, since he would have probably done the same in her position. After all, the youth wouldn't like to hang around someone who was both cursed and possibly infected by some sort of virus, either.

A few hours later, Red saw something appear on the horizon. Ruins, dilapidated stone, and a lot of other wooden constructions built around it forming a weird, contrasting appearance.

"Is that...?" Red asked, turning to look at Eiwin.

She nodded.

"That's Fordham-Bestrem, home to our Water Dragon Guild."