The walk to the palace gates was even more awkward than the walk to smithy. Thankfully, it was a much shorter walk. By the time they got there, Dulhan and Medony, who had gone to obtain preserved meat, bread, and other provisions were already there.

“Hey your faces are pretty red. Are you two alright? Oh. I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Medony Ellis. It’s great to finally have another girl in this party. Let’s get along.”

“I’m Dulhan Tenmir. Sorry for last time, Princess. Glad to have you on our side.”

“You probably already know my name from earlier but I’m Barton Leferon. We’ll be counting on you.”

“My name is Emilia Forthon. I’m sorry about the attack and I’m grateful you’re helping me.”

“We can get to the Great Forest by flight. After that though, we’ll need to go on foot since the elves don’t allow flight above their forest.” With that, the four summoned their contract beasts and took off into the skies.

***

It had taken them a little more than a day to reach the Great Forest. It would take roughly a week to travel through the Great Forest which spanned more than a thousand kilometers despite being the smallest of the natural barriers that protected Leferon. Furthermore, the ancient trees in the center of the forest blocked the sun so days became shorter as travelers went deeper into the forest. Travelers and traders could normally hire an elven guide to provide them safe and quick passage through the forest. After all, being creatures of nature, elves could control the plant life in the forest and create a straight path through.

Arthur had not wanted Barton’s group to hire an elf as it may have led to an information leak. Thus, they had to travel through the Great Forest themselves. Even if they were discovered, the elves had no problem with adventurers attempting to get through the Great Forest on their own, only sighed with pity. As long as they didn’t wantonly destroy the forest, elves were generally aloof but polite.

As the Great Forest had been standing for well over a thousand years, various ancient magics existed naturally there. Although elves, fairies, and other sentient beings knew to avoid these areas of mana concentration, those that acted on instinct such as bears and tigers would occasionally stumble into one by chance and become mutated.

These mutated beasts would ignore travelers but sought large sources of mana to feed on and were the single biggest danger in the Great Forest. It was with the intention of avoiding these beasts that Barton and the others chose not to equip a Class as they used mana to enhance the user. Barton could mask his presence using his Ranger Class and Emilia could erase it completely with her Assassin Class but Dulhan and Medony had no way of doing so and Emilia was reluctant to equip her new Assassin garb regardless. Despite the fact that they would be able to more than double their speed, it was not worth risking a mutated beast finding them or potentially getting split up.

Relying on a compass and known landmarks, Barton and the others had made it a significant amount of distance into the Great Forest in a day without any issue. However, this was only because the outskirts of the forest were pretty thin and had been mapped. The hardest part of their journey would be the four or five days they would have to spend in the deep parts of the forest.

Dulhan suddenly stopped walking. “I hear a stream just ahead. Let’s rest here for the night.”

“Yeah, I agree. We’ve been walking for hours and I can barely see what’s in front of me now. Besides I’m sure everyone’s pretty hungry and tired by now.”

With that, the decided to set up for the night. Barton went to fetch water and catch fish from the stream while Medony and Emilia went to collect firewood for the night. Dulhan on the other hand put up the tents and volunteered to cook dinner. Although all three had experience cooking due to their missions, it was unanimously voted that Dulhan was the best. Barton’s cooking was decent and Medony’s was edible but Dulhan was somehow able to make high quality food with scraps. They didn’t know anything about Emilia’s cooking but Dulhan thought that since it was their first dinner together, they shouldn’t let the newcomer have to cook.

There was actually another reason Dulhan wanted to cook. Medony was naturally trusting and friendly and although Barton was hiding it better after the trip to Thulmok’s, Dulhan could still tell Barton had a crush on Emilia and probably wasn’t as on guard as he should be. However, Dulhan didn’t completely trust her yet and the fewer chances she had to poison or otherwise harm them the better.

Dinner was spiced grilled meat, bread, and a stew made with vegetables and the fish that Barton had caught. The steam that rose from the pot and the smoke that rose from the stone slab released pleasant aromas that whet the appetite drifted toward the hungry travelers. Finally, Dulhan performed the final adjustments and started distributing the food into plates.

“And done. Let’s eat.”

As they hadn’t eaten anything during the day, everyone finished their food pretty quickly.

“This was really good. Thank you, Dulhan. With skills like this you could open your own restaurant.”

“No need for thanks. Just applying a bit of what I learned when I was younger.”

“Dulhan’s grandfather does actually run a restaurant back home.We used to play there all the time since our parents were friends and our houses were close to each other. That and Dulhan’s grandfather always gave us snacks. That’s actually where we met Barton now that I think about it.”

“Yeah, must have been around 15 years ago. If I remember correctly, my brother Edmund wanted to go on an adventure and dragged me along. We made it to the Ellis territory about three kilometers from the capital before collapsing and that’s when Dulhan and Medony found us. I’ve been been friends with these two ever since.”

“It’s nice that you all get along. I was pretty isolated growing up as Father was afraid that the nobles would try to get to him through me. Father showered me with attention and I was friends with many of the old maids running the palace but I never really talked to people my own age.”

Medony suddenly reached over and placed Emilia into a bear hug. “Aw don’t worry Emi! I’ll be your first friend!”

“E-Emi?” Nobody but my father has ever called me Emi.

“Yeah, short for Emilia. I used to call Dulhan Han and Barton Barry but they told me to just use their real names when we we got older. In exchange you can call me Medy.”

“O-okay Medy.”

“Alright. Let’s take advantage of this stream and wash ourselves. We’ll make a bath and use it first. Can you guys wash the dishes? Thanks! Oh and no peeking! Just wait for us to come back. Come on Emi.”

With that, Medony dragged Emilia away toward the stream.

“Medony really just goes with her own flow, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah… she’s even got Emilia flustered.”

They continued on without incident for another three days. By this time, they were well into the dangerous center of the Great Forest and Medony and Emilia had gotten quite friendly with each other. As a result, the whole group started talking more and even Dulhan started to be less guarded.

Suddenly, the group heard a bloodcurdling scream.

“Someone! Anyone! Help!”

Rushing toward the source, the group found a trio of injured elves cornered by a swarm of mutated wasps.