Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan

- Lawton Keen ~

*silent breeze* The air turned frigid as the cobra stared into my eyes. -I can’t beat that…-

I stood there, paralyzed for several moments before it finally turned its gaze away to look at the flailing cobras.

And I wasn’t going to let that chance slip. *Fwoosh* The instant it looked away, I sprinted to the edge of the clearing as fast as I could.

I only slowed down once I got to the edge of the clearing and noticed it wasn’t following me at all.

-Huh?- Looking back into the center of the clearing, I saw it glance at me before casually lowering its head back into the crater. -It's.. ignoring me?-

At that point, I was already sweating bullets and could feel my heart beating out of my chest. My breathing was rough, and I felt drained of energy, far beyond what I felt after fighting the cobras.

Now that I was a safe distance away and it was ignoring me though, I stabbed my sword into the ground and sat on a collapsed tree to catch my breath. "Hah… Hah… Hah…" -Well.. I guess we need to find a way around…-

My original plan was to run and clear all the monsters out so we could cut straight through the clearing and avoid a long detour, but now we didn’t have a choice.

Idly glancing back at the middle of the clearing, I could see an ominous orange glow radiating into the air. It sent a chill down my spine just looking at it. -How long has it been since I felt like I could die at any moment...-

That snake, although definitely not what made the clearing, was the strongest monster I had ever seen, and needless to say, it was something I simply could not handle. -To think I’d see a real Nation Rank monster out here…-

Nation Rank monsters were actually so rare that common folk would only hear about them through old folklore or childish tales of heroes saving a kingdom, but even the royal families who did know of their existence just considered them the same as unstoppable forces of nature. -They really are horrifying...-

*CrUnCh* Hearing the distant noise of bones being crushed, I looked up to see the colossal, glowing snake biting into one of the spasming cobras.

It bit through the cobra's iron-like scales and bones as if they weren’t even there, slicing through the flesh and cutting the cobra in two with almost no effort.

It was chilling to witness, to say the least. -Well, I guess I should thank my lucky stars that I'm alive...- Had it not ignored me, I would have been in its stomach already.

"Are you alright, Sir?!" The scout that led me here came running out of the forest the moment he saw me.

"I'm fine. I just had a close call." I slowly stood up, realizing I needed to have more urgency about letting the convoy know about the change in plan. "Let's head back to camp quickly. I have got some less-than-ideal news to tell everyone."

Noticing the way I spoke, the scout assumed things didn't go well and wore a look of concern. "R..right away, sir..."

Hastily following after the speedy scout, we quickly made it back to camp, where I noticed that the tents were mostly empty.

It gave the camp an eerie vibe at first, but unsurprisingly, everyone was just socializing or eating around where they were fixing the soup for our evening meal.

Quickly making my way over, I looked around for the other scouts or captains and didn’t see any of them.

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Not wanting to bother looking for them myself, I quickly made my way over to the chef. "Do you know where the other scouts and captains are?"

I seemed to have startled him, but he quickly straightened himself up. "Welcome back, Sir Keen. The scouts went to the intelligence tent to eat with the captains. They said they were old adventuring buddies."

"Oh, I didn't know they knew each other. Do you mind if I get a bowl, by the way?"

"O..Of course, Sir!" He hastily picked up a bowl before carefully pouring a few spoonfuls of soup into it.

"Thank you." Giving a light nod as a courtesy, I quickly walked over to the intelligence tent just a couple dozen meters away.

But just before I walked in, I noticed someone running up behind me. "Hm?" Quickly glancing behind myself, I saw a young, blond hair blue-eyed woman running up to me.

She was incredibly good-looking, with a bright smile to boot. "Sir Keen!" The moment she got up to me, she threw herself into a deep bow. "I'm sorry to interrupt your business, but.. would it be possible for me to help you by cleaning your armor for you?"

-Clean my armor?- Unsure why she asked it, I looked down at my armor and finally realized that I was still covered in blood. "Ah…" -I guess I shouldn’t walk into the intelligence tent like this...-

Although I was slightly worried about something happening to it, the armor I was currently wearing wasn't my armor in the first place. It was actually just armor I was told to wear because it signified rank, it was a shiny silver metal with a golden royal crest on it, but the royal crest was currently covered in blood.

Figuring it'd be best if I at least cleaned the chest piece to show off Kaelallan's crest, I drove my sword into the ground and took off a majority of my armor.

Once I finally got it off I looked over at the female knight and noticed her face was completely flushed red. "Are you alright?"

"Y..yes sir!" She stuttered as she nodded fervently.

"Here you go then…" Figuring it'd be best not to question it, I gently handed her the fairly heavy armor, which she handled as if it were made of leather. Seeing her handle it so casually, I got a little flustered but tried not to show it. "I..I will be in the intelligence tent for a bit, so you can take your time with it." -She’s a lot stronger than she looks…-

"Right away, sir! Please enjoy your meal!" She quickly bowed again before looking up at me with a gleam in her eye.

-Uh…- "Ahem…" Picking up the soup bowl I had balanced on the hilt of my sword, I grabbed my sword and pushed aside the cloth to the tent. -I’ll never understand women...-

Inside the tent, everyone was staring at me in silence.

-Were they expecting me?- "So, what did all of you scouts find?" While waiting for a response, I walked to the end of the table and sat down.

"Well.. nothing actually, a concerning amount of nothing."

"Yeah, we didn't see so much as a rodent for nearly 10 km in any direction generally southwest of us."

"Haah.." -Great.. That means we’re the only food source in the area...- "I'm sure you all have been told about the clearing, correct? Well, in the clearing were two pretty huge Cobras, which I took care of, but I couldn't take care of the other monster there."

Everyone was too nervous to say anything in case they just heard me wrong, but they all thought the same thing. ‘A monster Sir Keen couldn’t handle?’

The only one to break the silence was Captain Coleman, who didn’t question me at all. "So what's our plan moving forward then?"

"We will need to take a detour around it. Any suggestions?" I looked around, hoping people would give their opinion, but no one spoke up. "Scouts? You were the ones to check the surrounding area, right? What do you think we should do?"

One of the scouts with a young and small build finally spoke up after a few moments, albeit nervously. "S..sir.. if I may?"

"Go ahead." I took a sip of my soup as he talked.

"I..If the monster was something even Sir Keen couldn't handle..." He nervously glanced at me when he paused. "Then I think we should take a long detour to be extra careful. I..I think it'd be smarter to delay our arrival plans by a few hours rather than risking the safety of the whole convoy."

The other captains and scouts looked at the boy in awe after he mentioned that the monster was far stronger than me, as it could be considered ‘questioning my strength’ which in some parts of the military is a punishable offense.

But not in my divisions. "I like the way you think." I paused to see if anyone would object before smiling. "We will go with that plan for now. We will leave before sunrise, so everyone go get some rest! Ah, and before you go, be sure to make the necessary preparations within your battalions. We won't be making any more stops until we hit Zan’s fortress city."

""Right away, sir!"" Coleman and the others responded in unison before getting up and leaving me alone in the tent.

After a short moment of silence, I leaned back in my chair and sipped on my soup again. -I should head to the clearing again to make sure it doesn’t move till morning...-