Days have passed since Sylphie departed, leaving Nagi in the town. And now, three carriages are traveling deep in the middle of the forest where everything in their surroundings is nothing but just trees whose size is at least 20 meters tall.

Until now, the escort mission seems going well as there are no problems that happened. Their group hasn't encountered a single group of bandits or monsters. If this continues, they will be going to reach their destination after two more days of travel.

Currently, the client hired a total of twelve adventurers, including Sylphie, to protect the carriage. Aside from the generous rewards that each of them can get after completing the escort mission, the client is not picky about the people who picked the mission.

Sylphie guessed that their clients are nobles this time as they could take a lot of gold from their pocket to hire adventurers to protect them. Those adventurers who have low rank can still join as long as they can prove their strength to others.

Of course, Sylphie didn't need to prove herself as she's a high-ranking adventurer in the first place. Right now, it was already late at night, and everyone is resting in the forest. Because it is common sense for the adventurers to give some privacy to their clients, Sylphie and the others made their tents far away from the clients.

Still, they considered the distance where they can quickly help the client in case of some emergency. The adventurers who were in the escort mission were divided into three groups. One of the three groups was a party called Roaring Serenity, a group of two men and women, which are high-ranking adventurers.

The second group was also a party called Fallengarde, which consist of two men who are middle-ranking adventurers and a woman who is a high-ranking adventurer. As for the last group, they are the solo adventurers who accept the escort mission, and one of them was Sylphie.

Sylphie knew about the Roaring Serenity and Fallengarde because they were famous adventurers in the town of Lerre. Not only was that, but the group is also known up to the capital of the Kingdom.

As for the other solo adventurers, Sylphie doesn't have any information or idea about them, nor she cared about them, as in the first place, Sylphie was not interested in any of them. Not the escort mission or the Roaring Serenity and Fallengarde.

The night was still young, and everyone started to eat their food while warming themselves in a bonfire. Some of the men started to approach and talked to Sylphie, trying to win her heart.

 Some of the guys from the famous group, Roaring Serenity and Fallengarde, went to her side, trying to pursue her.

"Sylphie-san, I have some food here. Do you want some of it?"

"Hey, I'm first! Wait for your turn."

"You guys, move! Sylphie doesn't like guys like you!"

As for Sylphie, this situation is natural as she has always got to experience people who always flatter her ever since she was young. Because of it this, Sylphie was always annoyed when someone tries to flatter her while hiding their real motive behind their back.

Years of experienced made her very sensitive to any ill intent towards her. By just looking at the eyes of these men, Sylphie already understands that they don't have any good intentions towards her.

Sylphie tried to reject them politely while wearing a smile on her face while she was sighing inside. On the outside, the men thought they were lucky as Sylphie was like an angel smiling at them, but what they didn't know was that deep inside, Sylphie was annoyed to the point that she wanted to kill them right now.

Since the first day of the escort mission, whenever they stop to rest, they will always try and get near Sylhpie to make an impression on her. At any moment right now, Sylphie was about to snap when one of the solo adventurers interrupt and started to speak.

"By the way, haven't you guys thought something was strange? For the past few days, we haven't encountered any monsters or bandits on the way."

The moment someone said it, the expression of some adventurers became severe, especially those adventurers who are veterans. Sylphie and some adventurers also realized this earlier, but no one wants to point it out.

In the case of Sylphie, she was the one who realized it first among the group but decided to observe the situation, whether it was a serious matter or just a coincidence.

After all, reporting unnecessary or wrong information may delay effect and delay the travel of their party. But for the past few days, the situation was still the same, and soon she thought that it's the time where some of them will realize it too, and she decided to wait for someone to address the problem.

"I'm thinking that too. We always travel on this path, and even the luckiest and safest time we travel, we still encounter one or two monsters and bandits." The leader of the Roaring Serenity, who is the most experienced among them, said it with a severe expression on his face.

The veteran adventurers already said it as the other party has no choice but to acknowledge their strange situation. The others also recognized their situation was unnatural. The dead silence in the air disappeared when someone from the group of solo adventurers spoke.

"Maybe, we're just lucky in not encountering any troubles this time? It's fine as long as we finish the job. After all, we're going to reach our destination soon."

"Fool, I didn't know how you survive till this point with that kind of mindset." The leader of the Fallengarde party sighed while looking at the guy. "If you want to live long while being an adventurer, you shouldn't ignore every little change around your surroundings."

The rebuke's adventurer could not refute back as he soon realized he was wrong and decided to sit back while hiding his embarrassment.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Another adventurer said.

One member of the Roaring Serenity speaks. "Right now, we don't have any information, so the best thing that we could do is to be care—"

"H-Help meeeee!!!"

But before she could finish her sentence, they hear a scream from where the client is resting, not far away from their place. Everyone was alerted and started to run where the voice originated.

"What happened? We already checked the perimeters earlier, and the area was definitely safe!" The leader of Roaring Serenity angrily said as sweat started to appear on his forehead while running.

"I don't know! Don't ask me, just continued to run!" On the other hand, the leader of the Fallengarde shouted at him as he was panicking.

Sylphie, who was quietly following them in the back, was a bit anxious. "I have a bad feeling about this." and she said in a weak voice as they continued to run.

The moment they reached where their clients are camping, the thing that they feared the most happened. What they saw was a four-legged monster with amber eyes with an estimated size of four meters, and on its mouth, the beast was chewing something.

No one dared to ask what the monster was eating as they already knew the answer. The monster sauntered without making any noise even though its paws are big enough to squash a whole person without difficulty.

Its fur is a snow-and–coal mix. With its razor-sharp teeth that can be seen from its mouth, they were sure that the monster was a top predator in the jungle.

The monster was akin to a tiger, and the only difference between the two is that what was in front of them was much more extensive and taller than what they know.

Everyone was paralyzed as they couldn't muster any courage to take even the slightest move, and they just continued to watch the monster finish eating its meal.

Their instincts screamed and alarmed them the danger that the monster possessed as they felt helpless, while inside their heart fear started to shrieked as the monster while going to finished its food soon.

While everyone was panicking, Sylphie, in the back, has a different expression than others.

"Impossible... Why… Why is there an alien beast here..." She murmured in a low voice while having a grim expression showing from her face.