Chapter 33: Enchanted forest

Sil entered a mansion and rushed into the hallways with an unconscious wounded woman in his arms. The result of the battle was a loss from their side. Their plan to attack the kingdom of Ethern and gain access to the stone of darkness got entirely crushed by the resistance lead by Vita's saintess and paladin. Six servants followed behind Sil silently. He stopped in front of one of the doors from the hallway, and two servants opened the door for him. He entered the room and gently placed the woman on the bed. Then, the servants immediately started to dress her wounds as he turned to leave.

As Sil was walking the dim hallways, he frowned from the pangs of pain flooding inside of him and started to cough while covering his mouth with his hand. He slumps down to the floor on his knees while holding onto the wall. He can taste the metallic taste in his mouth. Once the pain was slowly going away, he softens his expression and leans back to take a sit on the floor. Rising his hand, he looks at the hand with blood.

"You overdid it, Sil. You shouldn't have used the relic by force."

Sil looks at the little girl dress in a black puffy dress with an unnatural expression hanging from her face. The mismatch of her words of concern and her smiling expression was distasteful. He ignores her and stands up, holding from the wall. It's not like he did it just because he felt like torturing himself. He is under a contract that requires him to keep the fallen saintess safe no matter the consequences. The girl followed him, annoyed that he ignored her.

"I heard something interesting, though! There is someone like you, Sil. What was this paladin's name again? Oh! Kyrie Gerwyn Rowan... Right... A paladin with a bestowed name," says the little girl smiling eerily.

"Keep your hands off him, Saskia! He is mine to handle," says Sil as he turned around, unveiling a threatening stare.

"Okay, fine... No need to look at me like you are going to kill me for touching that bug," says Saskia offended.

Saskia turns around and runs away. She enters a room where the fallen saintess is. The fallen saintess almost got covered in bandages throughout her body.

"Geez... Who knew that someone so arrogant like Cynthia gets beat down like this? hehehe..." laughed Saskia as she looks at the unconscious wounded Cynthia, "I can't wait to play with them as well!"

In a good mood, Saskia skips away while humming a melody.

---

<Inside the forest of Krasview>

"Hold!!!" yells a woman in a brown hood cape.

The carriages stopped at the command abruptly. People from the carriages started to peek with their heads out of the carriages to see what is going on. The guards that surrounded the carriages hold the hilt of their swords and observe their surroundings but did not see anything that indicates danger. So, they looked at each other confused.

One of the guards beside her asks, "What's it, Laurel?"

Laurel looks around and frowns. She asked the man beside her, "Tobias, how long have we been in the densest part of the forest?"

"About two to three hours. Why?" asked Tobias, confused.

"I marked a tree about three hours ago to help us on our way back, but it seems that we are back to the place that I have marked," says Laurel as she looked at the tree beside her.

Tobias follows to where she looked, and on the truck of the tree, there were fresh sword marks. Tobias frowned. It was terrible news for them. They might have fallen into someone's trap.

"What should we do then?" entreats Tobias.

"I can only think of two options. One is to break the enchantment cast on the forest. The second is to find the 'true' path," says Laurel.

Both of them know that it would be merely impossible to find the right location of the magic inscriptions that enabled the enchantment to run. Even if they find it, they do not have the means to destroy the enchantment of this scale.

"What is this 'true' path?" asks Tobias.

"I am not even sure how to find it, but I heard about the legend by word of mouth from a friend of mine. He said that these enchantments were usually employed by witches to help them gather life sacrifices to the fallen god in exchange for being able to use chaos energy. I would have never thought that this forest that leads to such a small town would become one of those bloody forests that are used for human sacrifices. However, there is a way to get out of those kinds of forests, but it's only one path. That is why they call it the 'true' path. This means that we will have to pass through the forest a certain way, or else we will just circle back to where the enchantment started." says Laurel dishearted.

"Damn it!" cursed Tobias, "How the hell are we know the 'true' path?"

Laurel pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She was so angry at herself for not listening to the story from her friend until the end. She only took this guarding job because it came from a close friend of hers, but to think that this would end up in such a situation was out of her imagination.

Laurel suddenly draws her sword and shouts, "Who is there!" The rest of the guards draw the sword seconds after Laurel did.

The bushes rustle as a woman with dark brown hair gathered in a high ponytail walks out. The woman had a handsome countenance with a rather cold aura.

"Who are you? Why are you following us?" asks Laurel putting her sword close to that woman's neck.

"I was going to the town of Bristol when I found myself stuck in this forest," says Imogen.

Laurel frowns unconvinced and touches her sword on Imogen's neck, cutting the skin slightly on her neck.

She says coldly, "You are way too calm for just someone stuck in a forest."

"I hear that a lot. It's just the way I am," says Imogen.

Laurel looks at Imogen's sword, and Imogen followed her line of sight to her sword. Looking that Imogen has a sword, Laurel was able to discern based on what she has seen that Imogen is strong enough to enter the forest alone and survive. Someone this calm would not be so hasty to enter into the forest if she did not think that she will be able to survive. If someone wants to hurt them, they will not send only one person no matter how strong that person is. Having her in the team would give them more protection since they are in a dire state. They would need as many people and resources as they can to be able to find the 'true' path.

Laurel says after thinking for a while, "Okay, miss. You can stay with us as long as you help us guard against potential dangers."

"That's fine," agreed Imogen.

"But, Laurel! What if she is the witch? Don't you think this is too risky to let a complete stranger in?" complained Tobias.

Laurel, looking at Imogen, thinks that it is not correct to leave a woman alone in a forest like this. Plus, why would a witch, who is physically weak due to constant use of corrupted magic, expose herself when her opponent is a group of people armed with swords?

"Leave it, Tobias. I know what I am doing!" says Laurel, not wanting to hear Tobias's nagging.

The sun is setting on the horizon, and the skies are turning into a canvas of red, orange and yellow.

"Hold! Let's set up the camp to spend the night," shouts Laurel.

Laurel looks at Imogen, who is very distant from the group despite how much attention and curiosity she brings to the group. Apart from the handsome features that Imogen has, her mysterious air is drawing people to look at her and talk among themselves about her. On the way, Imogen was very capable and can eliminate any beasts that they have encountered. Laurel herself is also becoming curious about Imogen and why she was travelling alone to the town of Bristol.

"Laurel, I think we need some more water," says a woman who is in charge of preparing food. Laurel was brought back from her daydream.

"Okay! I will go get some!" Laurel replies.

Laurel takes two large bota bags to carry water and leaves. Before she left, Laurel looks around, but she is unable to locate Imogen anywhere her eyes wandered. Giving up since she has to bring back water for cooking, she thought that Imogen must have gotten busy with something else. She takes off her mind from being so entranced by Imogen's mysterious identity and leaves to get water.

Laurel walks through the forest like a veteran, knowing where to go just by looking around and arrives at a small river that she can cross with only two big leaps. She was rather happy that she was able to pick up so many edible mushrooms on the way, so she was humming as she got both bota bags filled. She hears the rustling of the leaves. She leaves the two bota bags down and slowly draws her sword out. Then, when the beast jumped out of the bushes, she swings her sword. Blood trickled down the sword and dripped to the ground, drop by drop. However, a chill runs through her spine when she looked at the body on the ground.

"Sh*t!" She curses as she took the bota bags and runs. She shouldn't have been so hasty to kill, to think that the beast she killed was a giant wolf cub. It will be a disaster if the parents find the camps. She has to get everyone moving. Although their number might be higher than that of two giant wolves, they are way too strong for her group of guards to go against. Laurel becomes annoyed at her own hastiness.

However, before she can go anywhere near the camp, one giant wolf intercepted her path. She backsteps to move away to give herself the opportunity to run from the other side, but another one came behind her back. Laurel breaks into a nervous sweat.

"Is this it?" She thought as she dropped her bota bags. She draws her sword. The giant wolf jumps towards her ferociously, opening its mouth wide for an attack. Laurel blocks the giant wolf in front of her, but the looming shadow coming closer from the other wolf made her close her eyes. Despite her career, she is most afraid of pain.

"This is it, right?"

Laurel waits for the moment of impact. However, nothing happened. Laurel opens her eyes slowly to see if she was so shaken that she forgot to feel the pain before her death. Her eyes focus on the texture of the clothes of someone in front of her. She felt the other person's lingering warmth emitting towards the places that they touch. Imogen was holding Laurel in her arms. Laurel looks up to see who saved her. She looked at Imogen, surprised with widening eyes. The very thought that Imogen saved her has never crossed her mind. Adding to the aesthetically pleasing features that Imogen already possesses, the light of the setting sun on Imogen's face made Laurel's heart start beating loudly.