It was a heavy story to digest.

Having your perfect party formation ruined like that.

I would like to accede to his request, but having someone who’s emotionally unstable about this is always an uncertainty.

He could help disguise my intentions better, but could also jeopardise everything.

I think I’ll have to decline his request, as sad as it may be, “I-I’m Sor-”.

*Thump*

He smacks his hand against the rock he was sitting on.

Looking at me murderously, he scowls, “I wasn’t asking for your opinion. This is NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION.”

His eyes showed so much hatred, and some remorse.

Looking at the man in anger, I stood there stunned.

His actions reaffirmed that I shouldn’t acquiesce to his request.

After a moment of silence, I sigh.

“Alright.”

He nods before standing up, turning around to walk away.

He stops after taking 1 step, muttering under his breath, “Thank you.”

He then continues walking back to the camp as I look at his back with a complicated expression.

I don’t have a choice in the matter, we can’t do this without him.

The story does paint the Ogre man in a bad light, but ultimately, they were both not entirely to blame for the deaths of the other 2 members.

I sigh at the tragedy, remembering the hatred in the eyes of Zhe Yun.

“Don’t worry about it.”, a sweet voice comes over.

Sylvia, who’s still seated munching on her bread, says comfortingly, “He’ll be fine.”

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I turn away from the back figure of Zhe Yun, to look at Sylvia’s smiling face.

I can’t help but smile upon seeing that cheerful expression.

“You’re right.”

We journey quickly in the afternoon, at this rate, we’ll be back on the main road in just 2 days time.

We are assaulting the Ogre man the night after tonight, so we’ll still be away from the main road.

I am getting an uneasy feeling from this, even though we’re doing this to avoid the potential Class 2 Magical beast pack.

We’ve been lucky so far, since nothing has appeared that’s too hard for us to handle.

However, we have no healer, so frankly if too many Class 1 Magical beasts attack in a day, we’ll simply die after running out of stamina.

Hopefully everything goes well.

I confirm again with the merchant about the plan, as we sit in the carriage for the rest of the afternoon.

I asked him if he knew about the past of the Ogre man and Zhe Yun.

He sighed, saying that his brother had told him about it before he agreed.

It was a difficult favour to ask, but he had to grant it because it was a rare request from his own brother.

He says that Zhe Yun has spent much of the money he earned earlier in his mercenary party to hire people to search the area with him to find the corpses of his party members.

Sadly, he hasn’t been able to find them, which may be why he’s tried to resolve his regrets in this weird manner.

The afternoon was more peaceful, only a single pack of wild cats attacked us, and they were quickly fended off.

I rest quietly after the talk with the merchant, before we rest again for dinner.

I got my bread as usual and sat by the side as I waited for Sylvia.

Before long, she arrives.

I ask her if Wind was briefed properly, since she was the only one I haven't spoken to.

She reassured me that Wind was briefed properly, puffing out her chest in assurance.

“Well, I have no choice but to take your word for it!”, I laugh.

“Hmph, what’s with that lack of trust, I did do it properly!”, she argues, defending herself.

“Alright, alright, it’s just a joke. That reminds me though, you’ve been sleeping in the same tent as Wind for a while, right?”, I try to ask as naturally as I can.

“Trying to probe for information?”, she says lightly, as if mocking me.

“That’s exactly right.”, I say, shrugging my shoulders.

“How honest. Frankly speaking, we haven’t spoken all too much, she keeps to herself almost all the time.”, Sylvia says, showing her palms out, in a ‘that’s all I know’ gesture.

“Hmm, do you know where she’s from?”, I try to ask.

“Well, she’s mentioned she’s from a small elf village, but almost all elves are like that.”, she puts a finger on her chin, as she tries to recall.

“I see... “

“I told you I didn’t talk to her much. Why? Are you suspecting she’s in cahoots with the Ogre?”, she asks quizzically.

“Not really, I was just curious. I know the least about her currently afterall. I even know more about our Ogre man thanks to Zhe Yun’s story today.”, I reply truthfully.

“Hmmm~ Is that really so?”, she asks again.

“Well, I have some suspicions, but there’s nothing concrete as of now.”, I add.

“If you ask me, I don’t think Wind’s a traitor, if she was in cahoots with Ogre man, they could have forcefully taken the goods and killed us all, especially if they managed to kill me or Zhe Yun at night.”, she suggests.

I think the Ogre man is safe still, so it’s ultimately still Wind that I’m most suspicious of since I know so little. I guess that truth will be revealed after tomorrow's night.

“I guess so, I’ll put this matter to rest then.”, I reply Sylvia.

"Now there's a good boy. Want me to pat your head?", Sylvia says teasingly, gesturing with her small hands

"Give me a break~", I laugh at this.

She's geting revenge for all the times I made fun of her height and stature.

"Hmmm? You're so short afterall. Look at Ogre man.", she says as a matter of fact.

I smile wryly, "He's half Ogre! How do you expect me to win that!"

"Just admit you're a short man, hmph!", she pouts.

And thus we continue our light hearted banter into the night.