Overnight travel is not advisable even in such an emergency.

The already dangerous wilderness was made even more terrifying at night, and this time, unlike before, Henry had no such unfortunate luck as to find shelter in the nearby forest once again - and the group did not dare to go too deep.

Unlike Protacia, the forest on the west side behind Fort Ellen is part of the forest protrusion that stretches at the foot of the Tambur Mountains, which are best known for their variety of magical plants and magical beasts.

Crossing the forest, even the mercenaries with the orange card did not dare to try rashly, and although Henry did not know what level of mercenaries Bernie and his party were, or he did not even know if they had any cards, but for the current performance, the sage felt that most of the members of this team were in the blue to orange range.

In terms of combat quality and the cooperation between the members, they are indeed enough to reach the level of the orange card, and what makes the sage evaluate them lower is the ability of this group of people to survive in the wild. Professions such as mercenaries and adventurers are not only capable of cutting people, but also the knowledge of how to identify poisons and food, how to make fires, and how to find shelter in the mountains and forests all year round is the foundation of life.

And on top of this, even the two scout archers, Evan and Jericho, are only at the level of ordinary mercenaries - which is why Bernie chose to hire Henry as a guide, and the sage's ability to survive in the wild has already impressed them in just two days.

Bernie's squad's superb combat coordination and rough wilderness survival ability made Henry not believe that they were real mercenaries from the beginning. In fact, the details of these two days of getting along combined with the current destination of their journey made it almost certain that the sage was from a different kind of combat organization.

An organization that is more combat-focused than mercenaries, with well-developed logistics and therefore does not require everyone to be proficient in wilderness survival skills.

......

As the night wore on, they had reached in front of Fort Ellen and had made sure they were not being targeted, and they stopped at the edge of the forest at the foot of Mount Tembour.

Judging by the moonlight, it should have been around 9 o'clock in the evening, and the days of running have accumulated a lot of fatigue for people and horses. The people who had taken a nap for a while in the afternoon were fine, but the horses, which had not eaten clean food and grass for several days, were already exhausted.

It was obviously a fool's decision to travel at night under such circumstances, so Bernie ordered Jericho to find a meadow where the horses could feed, and the group rested on the spot and spent the night quietly.

Mila woke up in the early morning in a sore state, and Lorian, who had never ridden a horse, only felt a sore back because of the continuous advance, and the humidity on the forest surface after the rain, even if the pine needle mat was paved with the same as before, it still eroded the body and made it impossible to sleep peacefully.

But these worries and pains did not deter the girl, and she woke up every day with sparkling eyes.

The belligerent Loan naturally has adventure genes in her bloodline, and the journey full of excitement and thrill has never been heard of before her. So even when she was tired and tired, she seemed energetic.

Henry, who was on the side of the "......", smiled a little when he saw all this, although she had been quite quiet because of the unknown in front of her, but the sage could still read the little guy's expectation in those bright eyes that could speak.

"Give." Minna, who simply tied her blonde hair into a ponytail, walked towards Mira, who had just woken up, and the relationship between the two developed rapidly, and now it has reached the point where they stick together in their spare time.

This was also a good thing for Mira, and although the girl did not talk too much about her past misery with the sage, Henry could easily judge this fact from her words and deeds during this time, as well as the current situation of the Loans.

The maturity that surpasses her peers is probably honed in loneliness, after all, she has been helpless before this, and everything can only be solved by herself.

She would have been more cheerful with Minna, who wasn't too big in age—Mira had taken the emerald green twig Minna had given her, and she was a little puzzled, apparently the girl didn't know what it was for.

"This is the sprig of Pru, which is used to brush his teeth. Minna smiled at Mirawaner, for at the foot of this side of the Tambur Mountains, near the west coast, grew many of these dwarf trees, whose roots and shoots had been discovered a thousand years ago by the people of the West Coast to be effective in suppressing oral diseases, and which were still used by the people of the kingdoms today.

The risk of tooth decay and inflammation is far greater in the wild than in villages and towns. The multi-purpose knives carried by foreign adventurers and mercenaries often doubled as tooth extraction tools, and for this reason, those who fought for a living did not let the pain of tooth decay affect their lives. But the local inhabitants rarely had such troubles, and whenever they went out, whether they were Sivaliers or Avenellas, they would take with them two or three roots of the Pru tree, or collect them in the wild, as Minna did.

Mira, who knew very little about these things, opened her sparkling eyes, and then learned from Minna to peel off the twigs and bite them apart, clumsily cleaning her teeth. After this, they had eaten the rest of the bread and began their journey for the day.

The road from Fort Ellen to Vavasika is about as long as it is to Ashnir, but because of its location deep in the mountains, the road here is not as easy as it is on the other side.

Even after the opening of the border in Vavasika five years ago, merchants could trade through the Grigory Rift Valley and the provinces of the Ottolo Empire on the other side, formerly the Kingdom of Loan, now Moldonisk, for various reasons it was still sparsely populated.

The ale and bread they carried had been depleted, and although autumn was the hunting season, the wild animals in the Tambur Mountains were quite wary of humans, and with a high percentage of magical beasts, it was only a rather time-consuming act of luck to hunt in the forest to fill their stomachs, and the people obviously did not have this time at the moment.

Luckily, they didn't need to touch it.

As in any other West Coast country, there are always small villages scattered within a radius of several kilometres near the castle. Starting from early in the morning to noon, the crowd who had walked a little half the way unexpectedly came across one.

The village sits on the edge of the forest in a small inward recess - presumably because the villagers cut down the trees here for construction.

It wasn't big, just five or six humble bungalows. There is no shortage of stone on this side, so the wooden structure is also made of clay and large stones for the walls, and the rough and uneven stone and poor handwork make it look unsightly, but in terms of the degree of sturdiness needed to protect it from the elements, it meets all needs.

The arrival of the group attracted the attention of the villagers, and as mentioned earlier, there were not many pedestrians on this side.

A rudimentary wooden fence is standard in forest villages, because no one wants to be disemboweled by a sudden attack of beasts or monsters at night. A male villager chopping wood spotted Henry first, shouting and waving his hand inside, and more villagers poked their heads out of the house.

"Shh

The Avenela are no strangers to mercenaries and adventurers, so they can be replenished for a certain amount of money.

"Just for a moment. Henry nodded in agreement with Bernie's idea, the road ahead would take at least two days, and pinning all their hopes on hunting and picking wild fruits would obviously only lead to starvation for the group.

The guide agreed, and the leader of the team did not hesitate, and he walked over as a pioneer horse. The villager who was chopping wood just now came over with a firewood knife in his hand, and he stood next to the rough wooden gate, looking a little wary.

"Good afternoon, villagers, we would like to buy you some fresh water and dry bread. Bernie got straight to the point, but the villagers still did not let their guard down, he tightened the knife in his hand and did not reply, while Henry, who was behind, half-narrowed his eyes and began to observe the man.

Something was not quite right, and the sage was wary of it on his first impression.

The man standing at the gate of the village was quite stout and strong, and although his face looked dirty, his eyes were piercing.

This spirit, which did not look like that of a poor villager, made Henry feel a sense of disobedience, but what the other party said next gave a reasonable explanation for this sense of disobedience: "Who are you, I used to be a mercenary. I know that ordinary mercenaries don't bring women and children to work. But if you're a traveler, you're riding a war horse, and you're heavily armed. ”

The villager said with a serious face in the lingua franca of the Avenella accent: "If you are a fugitive lord somewhere, please stay away from us." Those who hunt you down will not spare anyone who gives help, this is just a small village, and we don't want bloodshed. ”

The vigilance and xenophobia of the villagers were expected by Bernie, and the history of Avenella was as fraught with conflict as any other country on the West Coast, and although most of the neighboring countries did not dare to take offense because of the current prosperity, the rivalries between lords and knights in the country were always there.

It could just be that one farmer accidentally cut another farmer's wheat while harvesting, it could be because the herdsman's free-range livestock ate grass that shouldn't be eaten, or it could be the most frequent occurrence where two lords fell in love with a lady at the same time.

Out of "dignity", out of "honor", what might have been a small deal quickly deteriorated, and eventually led to a small war. Well-armoured, well-armoured lords and knights sat on horseback, swords aloft and spoke generously—and then let the peasants with their tools fight to the death.

Local battles between tens and hundreds of people were staged every day, and the lords and nobles of all sizes ran to the king to cry after the fight, and the king waved his hand and immediately returned to his castle to drink and enjoy himself. In the end, it was only ordinary peasants who shed blood and sacrificed.

"We're just mercenaries, and those ladies are the ones we're escorting, so you don't need to worry. The experienced Bernie gave a convincing explanation, and the villager frowned and glanced at the rather effeminating women, who thought for a moment, and seemed to think that this was a reasonable explanation, so he nodded.

"Come in. He lowered his knife and moved out of the way, while Bernie nodded his thank you and waved behind him.

Not everyone entered the village, Evan and Jericho as scouts stayed outside, Bernie and Henry walked to the well and turned over and dismounted, the leader of the team lifted the barrel and poured water into the wooden trough next to it for the horses to drink, and the sage stretched his hand at the rice, the girl was quite resistant to this kind of help, but the continuous journey made it difficult for her to get off the horse with a sore body, so this time she acquiesced to Henry's move.

Björn picked up cool well water from a wooden bucket and splashed it on his face, his slightly injured arm still uneasy, and the woman in her twenties came up and untied the strip of cloth for him to examine the wound.

Rodney and several other mercenaries removed their pouches from their horses and walked to the smoky cabin, while Mira and Minna crouched down to refill the shriveled soft leather water bags.

Henry strolled to the side alone, and he slowly turned around in place, carefully observing the village.

The exterior walls of rough stone of different colors have a unique surface, and the thick thatched roofs have not yet completely dried out due to yesterday's heavy rains, and the upper floors are yellowish-white where the sun hits, while the lower floors are darker grayish-brown.

The chimneys, also made of clay and stones, were now emitting puffs of white smoke, and the smell of wheat and a little burnt roasted filled the village square, and the cool air was refreshing.

The sounds of mercenaries and villagers could be heard from nearby houses, especially Rodney's high-pitched voice. Henry withdrew his gaze again, and was about to walk back to the Mira when the feeling of the rough dirt made the sage pause again.

He hung his head, as was the case in most of Avenella, except for Ashinir and Vavasika, and the royal capital of Initzburg, which had stone-paved floors, most of the other cities and castles were simply dirt floors.

Nobody cares about these places, they just walk over them day in and day out, but no one ever looks down at it - except Henry.

"......" the sage half-narrowed his eyes, and the flat earth where he stepped was covered with countless overlapping arc marks, and Henry looked away along them, and there were more beside the wells, and then extended, and the doorways of several wooden houses were also filled with dense marks.

The tall black-haired sage's eyes twitched, and he looked left and right, but found nothing that looked like a stable.

“...... The next second, Henry drew his broadsword, and the shiny blade made a buzzing sound, attracting everyone's attention.

"Henry?" Bernie turned his head, and Mira and Minna stood up in a panic clutching the half-filled soft leather hydration bladder.

"Look at the ground. The sage's voice was not succinct and to the point, and the blond-haired leader followed his instructions and instantly noticed what Henry had mentioned.

"Horseshoe prints? this depth...... At least half a dozen, walking back and forth...... It was a massacre. Bernie's eyebrows raised, and he drew his one-handed sword with a thud, and then shouted, "It's a trap, these damn guys are Sivalier soldiers!"

"Everyone! Ready to Fight"

The roar of the mercenary squad leader, who had a bass-like voice like a bear, reached everyone, and Rodney, who was munching on a hot bread of baked bread in the warm wooden house, suddenly widened his eyes, and in the next moment, the villager who had just been smiling on the ground swiped the ground and drew his shining weapon.