The group was making their way smoothly towards Alvein, easily handling the few wolves that attacked along the way. Everyone in the group was looking refreshed as they had been moving while prioritising the conditions of everyone.

There was still two years until the deadline of the pact and time was on their side after all. They were the first and hopefully only group required to be sent to the capital by the tribe.

There were two main reasons as to why they were sent at this early in advance, with the first being a precautionary measure in the event that they encountered an accident and the tribe needed to send over more elves to fill the quota.

The second reason was based on careful observations made over a long period of time by the tribe. Almost every year, there would be periods when the wolves attacked less frequently, a lull period of sorts.

These lull periods usually lasted from one to two months each time and the most recent had just been observed a week ago, prompting the council to arrange their current expedition. As such, they only encountered a few small packs of wolves that did not pose a threat to them.

In the early stages of the expedition, Alz felt a clear distance from the other elves as they hardly approached him, after all he was a last-minute addition and wasn't familiar with anyone. Despite this, Alz didn't really mind it as he was already used to living in solitude.

Whenever he had any questions, he could also direct them to Kleiz who always patiently clarified his doubts. However, he was constantly on the receiving end of many stares during this time, gazes brimming with curiosity.

There were also many sympathy-filled gazes directed at him, particularly from the female elves as they looked at him. Although no one approached him, Alz was treated specially within as the group made sure there were always warriors near him in case of anything.

Alz felt some warmth in his heart at these actions. However, he naturally didn't think it was required and voiced it out, but they simply laughed it off with kind gazes and words like "Don't worry about it." and "It's no trouble at all." while continuing to look out for him.

He could only make a helpless expression at this as he understood that they would not be convinced easily. He was the only child in the group after all and coupled with his tragic past, it was difficult for the other elves to not care about him, especially when their tribe had very close bonds.

Hence, they continued moving forward in this manner, with all the warriors evenly spread out around the center except for one section of the rectangular formation which had three elves there instead of one.

It was only on the third day when things began to change, the day they group met with their first skirmish.

They heard rustling sounds coming from the front as they were moving, prompting them to halt in their steps. The elves began to ready their stances as they focused their eyes to the front.

Soon after, nine wolves slowly made their way into sight, but they stopped a distance away from the group. The wolves noticed the presence of the elves intruding upon their territory and would have normally attacked them immediately, if not for the size of the group.

Hesitation clouded over the wolf who stood at the front as it stared at the elves before it. However, its ears suddenly twitched and it retracted one of its forelegs immediately while pointing a ferocious glare towards the group while the other wolves began to release snarl at the group.

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*Whoosh*, an arrow rapidly cut through the air, embedding itself into the ground where the alpha wolf's foreleg was just moments ago. Alz met with the alpha wolf's gaze with a piercing, hostile gaze as he cocked his crossbow again, pointing it directly at the wolf this time.

Surprised gasps filled the air from the group of elves and many of them turned their gazes towards Alz and his weapon in shock and puzzlement. Kleiz however, was looking at Alz's weapon with a burning gaze as he had caught sight of the entire process.

Kleiz was the first to notice Alz's movements as he was standing closely behind him. He revealed a perplexed expression when Alz took out his crossbow and cocked it, but what happened next instantly blew his mind out of the water, causing his gaze to turn fiery.

The wolf was currently at least 100m away from Alz, which was almost double the range of an average elf. Yet, evidently, this wasn't the case for Alz. Even towards the end, the arrow clearly still retained much of its power, even capable of digging slightly into the ground.

After snarling at Alz several times, the hesitation in its eyes switched to a decisiveness as it howled loudly, ordering the pack to start retreating. A wave of relief washed over the group as they saw this, but they remained on their guards until all the wolves disappeared into the forest.

A few of the elves immediately gathered around Alz, praising him earlier shot while asking about his weapon. Alz replied them with a smile and started to explain the components of his bow and how they functioned to the group slowly, resulting in more elves moving closer to him.

He even did another demo shot with his weapon and let the other elves try shooting with it, allowing them to experience firing with the weapon. Each time after they tried it, they would return it to him reluctantly, but the way they looked at him had changed drastically from before.

After the tests, the mood became slightly heavy as the other warriors sighed while looking at Alz's crossbow with envy. However, this quickly cleared after Alz announced that he would help them each construct one of these after they arrived at the capital.

The warriors would have immediately burst into cheers if not for the fact that they were in the forest, but they hurriedly thanked Alz in advance so he wouldn't take back his words. The group then resumed moving with renewed vigour in the warriors with something else to look forward to now.

Alz was also happy to see this as he had already planned on giving them crossbows from the start but did not know how he should breach the subject. They were of the same tribe after all and they were his only companions to a foreign land.

He did not feel too strongly towards the tribe, but he still held gratitude towards it. Some part of him also felt guilty towards the tribe for leaving which was partly why he left the book behind, and this was also a small compensation towards everything he had received from the tribe.

With this incident as an icebreaker, the distance between Alz and the group lessened greatly and Alz began to truly become a part of the group. However, the following developments did not turn out the way he had expected, causing him to turn speechless at them.

A part of the reason why he flaunted his combat abilities earlier was because he didn't want the other elves to continue toiling themselves by specially looking out for him. Yet, the elves began to fight for the role to guard him, causing him to end up with four bodyguards.

He tried to argue against this arrangement to the other elves, asserting that he was capable of protecting himself, but this caused one of the elves to raise his lips into a sly smile.

He was also fighting for a spot as Alz's bodyguard but had failed to secure a spot. As he heard this, he came up with a brilliant idea which would negate his earlier failure.

"Hmm, of course we can do something about that arrangement. How about we let Alz stay in the center instead? Let's decide with a vote! Alz, we will even give you two votes for this!" he immediately shouted out, ignoring the fact that they were still in the forest.

The four elves who won their spots immediately looked to him with a resentful glare while the eyes of the others lit up. Alz stared by the side with his mouth open wide, but alas, the die had already been cast and he no longer had the power to change it, not that he had any in the first place.

The vote ended with an overwhelming result of 46 for and 6 against, sealing Alz's fate. The female elves happily dragged Alz towards the center as he stared blankly towards the sky, wondering what he did for things to end up this way.

Thus, he became the official plushie of the female elves, garnering him extreme popularity among the entire expedition, doomed to be hugged throughout the trip while receiving frigid glares from jealous male elves along the way.