Elincia sat against a fallen tree and handed me a slice of dried meat and a bit of stiff bread. It has been almost an entire day since the last time I ate something and I was starving. The forest around us had been laid to waste. Not only had the trees been ripped apart and thrashed, but the same dirt under our feet had been completely ravaged. The area looked like someone had fed cocaine to a bulldozer.

We ate in silence and then we remained seated until the weak autumn sun was high in the sky. Every single muscle of my body was aching and yet, I couldn’t wait to resume the journey. The white fog was denser than before and it made me feel paranoid.

Starting an illegal potion business might have been a bad idea, and part of me wanted to just get this over with. My mana reserves weren’t at anything I could call comfortable. Even with all the time we had rested, I couldn’t see myself fighting another opponent like the Stone Giant.

I felt relieved when Elincia gave me the heads up to break camp.

“We almost died yesterday.” I said as I stuffed the blanket inside my backpack. No matter how dumb it sounded, I needed to get it off my chest and set the record straight. If I was alive, it was due sheer luck. No matter how much my [Mana Manipulation] had improved, in the end, I was at the mercy of the Stone Giant.

I expected a snarky remark as a response, but instead, Elincia hugged me from behind. The warmth of her body and the steadiness of her arms made me feel better.

“I can tell you are not used to this, Rob, you don’t need to pretend.” Elincia softly said. Her arms tightened around my chest.

“I’m not a kid who needs comfort, you know?” I awkwardly said. Nothing had prepared me for this kind of attention. Since my parents had died, I could count with the fingers on one hand the number of people who had treated me like a kid.

Elincia rested her chin on my shoulder, her face a few centimeters from mine.

“You can drop the tough-guy act around me, you know? We are a team. You lend me a shoulder, and I’ll lend you mine.” Elincia tightened her embrace to the point I knew I wasn’t just going away.

“Thanks, I’ll take it into consideration.” I replied.

I felt Elincia deflating against my back.

“Let me say this clearly so your Scholar brain can understand. Your free trial of keeping secrets from the Governess has ended. To break free you must tell me what’s on your mind.” Elincia said.

I sighed. Elincia had kept her promise of not pushing the topic of my private life for a while but I could tell she was worried. The elven woman had a keen eye to detect troubled orphans and now she was using that skill on me. And she was right, I was troubled.

The fight against the Giant had made it clear that neither of us were guaranteed to make it back to the orphanage in one piece.

I took a deep breath and put my thoughts in order. The perspective of this being the last opportunity I had to talk to Elincia made the words flow with ease.

“I admire you.” I said with my eyes fixed on my backpack.

The words sounded a lot more awkward than I anticipated.

“I admire what you do for the orphanage, for the kids. I admire your selflessness. You are a great woman and I’m glad we had the chance to get to know each other.” I said.

Elincia remained silent at first and I could feel her confused glance over me.

“Admiration? Aren’t you doing practically the same as me? You know, taking care of the same orphanage with the same kids?”

“It’s not the same.” I said.

“Does this have something to do with the reason you act like a maniac every time you get a chance to do something risky?” Elincia asked once again.

I wasn't liking the direction the conversation was taking. Despite her promise of letting me go if I tell her what’s on my mind, she kept hugging me.

“I already told you what was on my mind.” I replied.

Elincia sighed and let me go. When I turned around, I discovered she had a smile from ear to ear on her face. It has been a while since I saw Elincia smiling without a hint of mischief in her expression.

“I’m glad you think so highly of me. Usually, people judge me too harshly.” Elincia said with an increasingly teasing tone. “I might get accustomed to the compliments, though.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“I’m not feeding you more compliments. It was a ‘one time only’ thing.” I replied, rolling my eyes.

Elincia took a step forward and put her finger on my lips.

“Don’t ruin the moment.” She said with a mischievous smile.

If anything, I was glad Elincia wasn’t trying to get more answers.

* * *

As we went deeper into the Farlands, the white fog became worse to the point it was hard to see my own steps.

From time to time, we found uprooted trees and turned up soil that pointed to the presence of other Stone Giants. With my obscured vision, I couldn’t help but feel paranoid. Every time we found a vestige, we remained still, searching for any sound that could give up the presence of monsters. We didn’t stumble upon any dweller of the Farlands but my paranoia kept on growing.

By mid day, we found a small creek so we stopped to rest and fill our waterskins. Despite our near death experience, Elincia was in a good mood. Unlike me, she was truly an adventure junkie.

“We have to go upstream and hug the mountainside to the north.” She said between sips of water.

“Can you really navigate with this fog?” I asked in disbelief.

The dense fog had such a thick concentration of mana that I could barely sense my own mana pool. I couldn’t help but feel we were wasting time walking mindlessly instead of actively searching for ingredients.

“I know the path by heart.” Elincia said with a smug face.

Near the creek, I found a few clumps of low magic concentration Barrel Root and Moon Laurel. It wasn’t a lot but we were reaching the territory untouched by the Alchemists Guild.

“Leave them.” Elincia said as I crouched to harvest the herbs.

“When do we start looking for ingredients then?” I asked.

Elincia gave me a know-it-all glance.

“Bees don’t just wake up in the morning and go on a rampage for pollen, silly. They first fly away from the hive ignoring all the flowers and just start collecting pollen during the flight back. That way they don’t carry around any extra weight.”

It made a lot of sense considering our provisions took up most of the space in our backpacks. However, a backpack with a lot of space and no food wasn’t good either.

“What if we have to go further into the Farlands to find ingredients? Then we will not have enough food for our return.” I said nervously.

“We will not have to go further than we planned. You will see.” Elincia replied with a mysterious expresion. I could tell she was keeping a secret but I decided to trust her. The Farlands were her territory after all.

The rest of the second day was uneventful. We continued walking the rocky path, always going north and west. By the end of the day, the path went into the forest once again. Despite the protection given by trees and the fog, I couldn’t help but feel paranoid. With the fog hindering our vision, any little sound put me on high alert.

“We should set camp in a place with better visibility.” Elincia said.

We endured the hike a bit more. As the road returned to the mountainside, a chorus of howling broke the silence of the evening. I froze. The pack of Black Wolves was near.

“Let’s keep going, before they find us.” Elincia whispered to my ear as we pushed forward.

We walked in silence, gazing towards the forest for any sign of the pack. At times I could see their yellow eyes like fireflies against the fog. My mind tormented me with images of Wendigos stalking us from behind the trees. I tightened the grip of my sword but no wolf dared to abandon the protection granted by the forest.

Hour after hour we continued walking in silence until the sun fell behind the western mountains. After what seemed to be an eternity, the yellow eyes suddenly disappeared and only the sound of the gravel under my feet disturbed the night.

We climbed a rock formation protected from the winds and finally Elincia dropped her backpack to the ground. I copied her, feeling a bit more safe between the rocks. From our position we had a clear view of the strip of land between the forest and the rocks, or at least as much as the fog allowed us to see.

“We will be reaching our destination by tomorrow.” Elincia said, collapsing over a stone. “There shouldn’t be a lot of monsters in this area.”

Down in the forest, the wolves started howling again.

“They are scared. You can tell by the sound.” Elincia said, glancing into the foggy darkness as if she was able to follow the wolf pack’s movements by ear.

“Isn’t that concerning?” I replied pulling out the enchanted blanket Chief Alton had given us. There were delicate strands of red mana threaded on the fabric and I wondered if I could do something similar if I had access to elemental mana.

“They won’t leave the forest.” Elincia grunted as she stood and pointed at me with a finger. “I’m going to check the perimeter. Don’t you dare follow me.”

That was her secret code for bathroom time.

I took off my shoes and massaged my feet, hoping to be able to walk by the morning. Now that I was alone, the feeling someone was preying on me from within the fog increased. I tried to keep my mind blank from paranoid thoughts but that just made it worse.

Less than a minute had elapsed when Elincia came back from her bathroom break. In complete silence, she walked directly to her backpack and started pulling out all her belongings, forming a neat pile by her side. Whatever she was searching for, it seemed to be at the bottom.

“Did you lose something?” I asked from my comfortable position against a rock.

Elincia mumbled something I didn’t get and continued searching. After a moment, curiosity got me and I sat by her side, looking inside the backpack. Instead of shushing me, Elincia mindlessly handed me her belongings until the backpack was completely empty.

Elincia had a strange expression on her face. It wasn’t concern but it was close. She grabbed her alchemist toolkit and started examining it with a professional eye. If something was wrong with it, I couldn’t pinpoint what was.

“You didn’t peek, did you?” Elincia’s voice came from behind me.

I turned my head to see a second Elincia standing against the rocks. A shiver ran down my spine. Both my arms and legs suddenly weakened. I had to fight against my muscles to turn around and look at the fake Elincia by my side. There was something inhuman in her eyes.