Aleph had brought a big bag with him, and it contained a lot of rations, including bread, milk, and cheese. It wouldn’t last long, and it would go bad in a few days, but he had the money to buy more along the way. He wouldn’t let his daily calorie intake become a problem for the group.

In any case, Aleph went to grab the rabbit and then gave it to Edea… she hesitated a bit in doing that. While she might have some skill, it was obviously the first time that she had shot anything. In the end, Aleph passed to Irlan.

“I guess I will be the cook once again. Not that I am complaining.”

Irlan smiled and then began to skin the rabbit. He was also pretty skilled at that, so everyone couldn’t help but nod impressed.

“I am planning to take it easy while we are on our territory and then speed up after we reach the next ones. We will only cross one and a half, and while Dad didn’t tell us that we need to be in a hurry, I think that we need to hurry up. He has been working a lot lately and only did that before big conflicts.”

Aleph began to connect the dots, and soon, he understood the reason behind the odd feeling he had three days ago.

“... I had the feeling that something was off when we received this mission. Do you think that he wants to keep us away from the frontlines in case something happens?”

“I would guess so. This might be part of the reason why he made this group; it might be necessary, but it was convenient, too. We might have been targeted after the mess of the previous mission. Some accidents happen in wars, after all.”

In the middle of the chaos of war, some people might die thanks to friendly fire, and no one would be able to confirm or deny that. It might be easy to put a crossbow bolt on the back of someone in the middle of such a place to silence people who knew too much, and Aleph could imagine that. In a world of constant wars, underhanded tactics should be almost bread and butter to some people. Irlan didn’t agree to all of that, apparently.

“It might sound like that from a certain perspective, but I believe that Captain Hei wouldn’t act out of self-interest that much. There are many people who trust him, and trying to save his daughter alone wouldn’t be something that he would do… Besides, gaining experience in a real conflict under the right conditions might improve your chances of survival in the future.”

“... I guess so… In the end, let’s just do this job to the best of our abilities and then prepare like everyone else for whatever happens. Thinking about what might happen and might not happen can blind us to too many things, and that won’t help us in the long run.”

Everyone nodded once again, but the doubt was still in the air.

The group didn’t try to avoid villages this time, but they didn’t announce who they were either.

“The villages look pretty busy and tense. I knew that that Dad sent some people to guard those places, but it looks like they aren't feeling that much of safety.”

“It can't be helped since we are closest to the border. A lot of people died in the last conflict as well… people will just have to toughen up.”

Despite her words, Kaitrine also looked troubled when she saw things as they passed the villages. Eventually, they reached the border with the next territory, and then the group also began to get tenser. That territory was like Hei’s; a clan ruled over the area, but the clan head died in the last battle. So, the succession took place, but Heirina told them that the new head was only thirteen years old. Usually, people would be worried about that, but Irlan wanted to give a vote of confidence to the new head.

“Well, this kind of thing happened in the past. Sometimes, it went horribly wrong, and sometimes, it worked. New leaders can only emerge like that, and they can only improve by doing their job.”

For some reason, Heirina looked at Aleph with eyes full of suspicion, but he only frowned. He eventually realized that she probably assumed that he was thinking that Hei had to try extra hard to not let his people and territory fall into the hands of Heirina.

“It is true, isn't it? Or are you ready for it?”

“It is so annoying that I could easily imagine that you would think like that…”

“Only because your actions made it happen.”

At the end of the fourth day of travel, the group arrived at the first village of the next territory, and they couldn't help but frown when they saw the people there. They looked exhausted… There were some fields around, but not enough for the whole village to work on, and it would be hard to maintain them as well.

The people there also closed their homes when they began to pass nearby… even the inns and restaurants closed their doors. They certainly weren't welcome there… even though the group didn't look like a bunch of bandits at all. Heirina raised her eyebrows.

“I would dare say that we won't be welcomed in this territory… this week will be pretty fun.”

Irlan rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment and considered a few things. Nothing could explain that since visitors usually would mean that the people there would get some money for their services.

“Have you heard about any changes here recently, Captain?”

“No… while we don't have spies, we have some informants, and we didn't hear anything about this.”

The group looked at each other in confusion… The first assumption was that it was something recent, but they couldn't deny that perhaps they had been fed false information. In any case, Heirina decided not to let that bother them for too long.

“Let's keep moving… this might be a good thing for us.”

The group soon left the village, and while looking behind, Aleph could tell that people were checking that they were leaving the area instead of just faking it. He was curious about what was going to happen next. If they weren't welcomed in a town as well, it would be safe to say that the whole territory was in shambles.

Before long, the sun began to set and the group decided to camp at the top of a massive long hill with some trees. It was a bit windy, and the sky was cloudy, so it felt like it was going to rain that night, but everything else was fine.

Once they stopped, the group went to work on each task. Aleph looked after the horses, Irlan took care of dinner, and the girls made sure that the area was clear. It seemed that the roles were reversed, but that was the best option, considering their abilities.

Once Aleph was done with his job, he looked around the camp and then decided to resume his training. The girls were also done finishing their tasks, so they saw him moving the club very slowly… that weapon truly won't be of any use for quite a while. Kaitrine decided to approach a bit.

“Why do you like heavy weapons so much? You probably could do better with a glaive or something.”

“No particular reason. If there is actually one, then I would say that I don't want an easy weapon to use, but I want one easy to master.”

That didn't make any sense, but few things about Aleph actually made any sense. After thinking a little, they could only assume that Aleph wanted a weapon easy to master and that he could still improve himself even after reaching that stage. Clubs weren't popular weapons, but they were very useful since they could block pretty much all types of weapons…

After a while, Aleph changed his training and then began to train his legs. He basically just ran around the camp while only touching the ground with his fingers. While seeing that, the group felt a bit like sparring too, but that wouldn't be wise… showing their training methods wasn't what they liked to do either… even if they didn't mind, that would be unwise since they had to stay focused on the mission.

After a while, Aleph stopped since it was time for dinner. He finished his meal pretty fast, but soon, he went to eat the snacks that he had bought… bread, jerky, and some milk. The others offered him seconds from the soup. Still, since they probably wouldn't be able to buy anything in that territory, they would need to be careful with food.

“Captain, don't you think that we should look for the informants and ask about what is going on here?”

The author here, everyone. Thanks for reading the book. I hope that you have fun reading the book as much as I have writing it. If you want to join our discord, this is the link: https://discord.gg/AQsYm99A

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