The Ranger Cabin that Ritzy, Talia, and Gerhart were headed toward wasn’t located very deeply in the Banta Forest because Lenny, the resident ranger of Vestor, wasn’t that powerful of a ranger. Lenny claimed there were other reasons as well, but the general understanding among the three troublemakers and most of the town was that Lenny was weak and lazy.

Yet, it still took the trio quite a while to arrive at the log cabin. The sun had set, and they had to make use of the remnant trickles of light lingering in the air to make out the path forward. Thankfully, Gerhart had been at the cabin several times during his ranger practice.

“Is that it?”

“Yep. It should be unlocked. Talia, you awake?”

“Nngh.”

Ritzy scurried over to the door, his sacks dangling and clanking. Gerhart felt like making a comment about who Ritzy had been so tired he could barely lift his feet a moment ago. But who was he to complain when he was too tired to make that comment?

Ritzy yanked on the door until it opened with a scuffle.

“Did Lenny build this?”

“Yeah.”

“Mmm. I could tell. It’s all wonky.”

Ritzy compared the uneven doorframe with the door that was uneven in the opposite direction.

“When did you become a carpenter? Just get inside.”

“Ahem. Did you forget who designed the tunnel you escaped through? What about the trebuchet we built back then? And the trapdoor? In case you forgot, they were all done by me, mister snarky mouth.”

“Oh, sorry. Guess you were a carpenter since you were born, then?”

“No! I was a necromancer since I was born!”

Since Ritzy stopped to do a heroic pose right inside the door, Gerhart shoved him aside so that he could start unpacking himself. He went over to the bunk and dropped Talia on it before stashing his bow and bags in a corner.

“Rit, did you bring any food?”

“Nope.”

Gerhart sighed. He was too tired to deal with Ritzy. But they needed something to eat, especially Talia.

“And why not?”

“Because there’s food in the forest, no?”

“Yeah, sure. Do you want to go get it, then?”

“Nope. I’m tired. Talia, scoot over.”

Ritzy made his way to the bunk after putting down his bags gently in another corner and inspecting his skeleton and his equipment.

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Gerhart sighed again as he walked over to the only other thing in the cabin, which was a chest. If he was lucky, there might be some emergency provisions there.

“Here.”

“This isn’t food.”

Ritzy looked at the blanket Gerhart had thrown to him in confusion.

“I know. Keep yourselves warm. I’ll be back shortly.”

“Where are you going?”

“To find food.”

Gerhart closed his eyes for a few moments and, after resting as much as was possible in such a short time, he grabbed his bow.

Gerhart held his bow and did a light inspection to make sure the string was fine and wouldn’t snap on him. That was the last thing he wanted to happen. Then, he bent back down and moved the bags aside.

“Rit…?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you bring, you know, a quiver and arrows?”

“Nope.”

“And why not?”

“Because there are arrows in the forest, no?”

Gerhart sighed and tapped the body of the bow against his forehead as he closed his eyes in frustration. He closed his eyes for so long that he was about to fall asleep, but he eventually opened them and put down the bow. He started going through his and Talia’s bags.

“Hey, Rit, where’s my knife?”

Ritzy sat up and looked at Gerhart.

“Gerry, I think the lack of sleep is getting to you. Your knife is, probably not anymore, though, in Michmond’s throat. Oh, by the way, I didn’t actually plan that part. The only thing I prepared was the fire. Everything else was coincidence. Promise.”

“Haah~”

Gerhart was too tired to argue with Ritzy about whose knife belonged to who.

“Fine. Let me borrow your knife real quick.”

“Nnnn…–”

“Do you want something to eat or not?”

Gerhart interrupted Ritzy before he could turn his hesitation into a refusal.

“Ugh, okay. But give it back afterward.”

Ritzy pulled back the blanket and crawled out of bed to retrieve the dagger from his bag of things that weren’t part of his skeleton.

Ritzy held out the dagger, but he didn’t let go when Gerhart grabbed it.

“Gerry….”

“Fine. I promise to return it.”

Ritzy’s bright smile almost lit up the room as he let go of the knife and returned to bed.

And then, in between two scraping sounds of the door opening and closing, Gerhart disappeared into the forest.

It was already too dark for Gerhart to see clearly. He could only rely on the meager mana he had to strengthen his vision.

The conditions were clearly less than subpar for a forest expedition, especially inside a forest where the leafy trees grew densely and their foliage blocked out the star and moonlight.

The only fortunate thing was the fact that predators and monsters weren’t too active around dusk. There were a few exceptions, but Gerhart hoped he wouldn’t run into any of them as he snuck through the forest, doing his best to keep the rustling of his feet and legs moving through the bushes to a minimum.

But as he walked for a bit, Gerhart realized there was one other thing to be happy about.

Lenny’s laziness.

Since Lenny was the one who had built the cabin, he naturally made sure he would have as little to do when there as possible. The cabin was in a place where he didn’t have to shovel snow in winter. It was close to water, and the area around it was a place where berries thrived.

Gerhart tried to remember the locations of the berries he had seen during his practice. But since Lenny usually tasked him with cleaning the cabin, Gerhart hadn’t gotten many opportunities to familiarize himself with the forest.

Gerhart held back his sigh and scoured the area for anything edible.