Volume 1 Chapter 6: Part 3: Expedition

 

"Irene, can you not hug my arm so tightly?" Onyx sighs as he says this. He looks at Irene. Her expression is so relaxed as she snuggles Onyx's arm. 

 

Ireen looks up at him, "I don't wanna. It's so comfortable."

 

"Be more focused. We're on a mission to deal with orcs. I need both of my arms to deal with them." Onyx shakes his head. They can't be comfortable in a situation like this. 

 

The two and the rest of the trainees are walking through the forest. Compared to the mountains, the only word that came into Onyx's mind was: dense. 

 

Even though the time was evening, because of how dense the forest was, it looked like night. There are only glimmers of light shining through the cracks. 

 

That made it difficult to see what was going on. So Onyx became more alert to what was happening around him, prepared for ambushes. 

 

Unlike his serious attitude, Irene has a light-hearted expression, "Relax, Onyx. It's not like we'll be attacked by those monsters first." And she's right. The position Onyx and Irene have in the group is the center.

 

"We're in the safest position possible." They wouldn't be the first ones to be attacked. So it was fine. 

 

"..."Do you really think this is the safest place? Onyx has doubts about that. Yes, they won't be the ones who'll be attacked first. But,

 

Do you not see who's around us?!

 

All around the two are trainees. From the north, west, and east, the trainees cover them. The only protected area is the south, where the senior knights are positioned. However, they are so far back that they're in a separate group from them.

 

They are surrounded by beginners from everywhere. 

 

However, it doesn't matter whether they are safe or not. Onyx scolds Irene, "You should still be aware of your surroundings. This isn't a time for us to relax and have fun." 

 

Irene pouts, "Nothing is coming our way tho." 

 

"...." That's not the point. The purpose of this mission was to have the trainees and Irene gain experience. 

 

But the only person who seems to understand this is only him. 

 

They're not even focused at all. Onyx's face darkens. He looks at the other trainees and sees some trainees acting smug, ordering others around. What's more: some of them are even yawning, not caring about this.

 

But that wasn't the worst part. As the group walked, Onyx realized that some didn't even bring their weapons with them!

 

Onyx's expression was just baffled, realizing this. He had no words for them.

 

Why aren't you guys carrying your weapon?! Are you guys going out on a picnic or something!

 

Onyx just couldn't believe it. He came prepared. He had armor and his sword with him. While some of the trainees have nothing. 

 

Should I have stayed back? Onyx begins to have doubts about coming on this mission. And the other bigger question coming to his mind is whether or not he will make it out alive.

 

Seeing Onyx silent, Irene coaxes him, "C'mon, we should enjoy ourselves a little. We can easily beat anything that comes our way. Did you forget our dream? We're on an adventure! We should have fun!"

 

Before she can talk about it more, 

 

"!" Onyx quickly pushes Irene away and screams, "Watch out!" He dashes to the side quickly, 

 

The trainees turn their heads to see why Onyx shouted at them. But they shouldn't have done that. 

 

"Gee!" The moment they turn their heads away from the bush, a goblin jumps out from the bush! With the rusty knife in its hand, the goblin is about to stab a trainee in the head! 

 

"Ahh!" The trainees stumble and drop to the ground in shock! Some even closed their eyes, not wanting to see what'll happen to them. 

 

Well, it tried to do that. 

 

Instead of stabbing them, what the goblin gets in its face is Onyx's sword. He waves his sword, and the goblin's body slams into a tree!

 

He looks down at the trainees, "You ok?"

 

"Y-Yes." The trainees' expressions are pale as they look up at Onyx. He doesn't focus on them as he looks over at the brushes. It was just one. He sighs, loosening his tension, and takes a handkerchief out, wiping the blood off his sword.  

 

Onyx walks back to Irene; the knights and priests stare at him in awe. But Onyx doesn't care about it. 

 

"So cool!" The one who cuts this silence is none other than Irene. She jumps onto Onyx and snuggles into him. The way he jumped in to deal with this situation looked so heroic!

 

Onyx knew why she was doing this as well. Instead of patting her on the head, he sighs. Tapping her on the head, 

 

"Be more alert to your surroundings." Onyx doesn't really care whether or not the trainees will grow from this mission. 

 

Irene, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter. She needs to learn how to react quickly. 

 

Irene nods her head, "You don't have to worry. I got this!" 

 

"..." Seeing her earnest expression, Onyx doesn't say anything. More like he couldn't lecture her seeing the happy expression on her face. 

 

"Let's keep moving," Onyx suggests. The other trainees' nod. 

 

As the group continues to travel deeper into the forest, it's much smoother. There aren't any monsters coming their way, and the sun starts to set. 

 

Onyx sets up his tent, and seeing this, Irene is surprised, "You know how to make a tent?" 

 

"Yeah, I learned this from my last trip. Also, can you grab the herbs besides the tree?" Onyx says and points at the herb on the ground. 

 

Irene nods and hands him the herb. Onyx washes it and then throws it into the pot. 

 

It causes a strong aroma, making everybody sniff, wondering where this smell is coming from. Onyx doesn't care about how they look at him and continues to set up their tent. 

 

Each trainee has to make their own food and set up their own sleeping arrangement.  

 

Thank goodness teacher taught me all of this. I would have looked like those guys. 

 

Onyx looked over at the trainees, and they did the bare minimum. What's more, they're only eating dried foods and rations. 

 

"Hey! Irene Valentine! Don't you dare put that into the pot!" Onyx points at Irene. In her hand is the lid, and in the other, a strange plant. 

 

"Hee, I have a hunch that this would make our dinner delicious." 

 

"With your hunches on food, no way." Onyx shakes his head, not trusting it. The end effect of those food hunches is a stomachache lasting for weeks. 

 

"And besides, the food is done." Smelling the aroma, Onyx can tell it's done. 

 

"Oh." Irene's face turns dejected seeing this. But Onyx sighs in relief as he uses a spoon and scoops out the stew,

 

"Here, try it." He hands her a bowl, and the moment Irene takes a sip of it, 

 

"So guuud!" Irene's voice turns mellow. A perfect blend of salty and savory. 

 

"There's a lot. So eat your fill, gluttonous beauty." Onyx jokes a bit. 

 

"You know I will." Irene begins to wolf down the food without a care about the tears coming from the other trainees. 

 

It didn't take long before they finished their food, and it was time for them to go to bed. That's what the trainees all thought except for Onyx. 

 

"Who's going to take the night shift?"

 

"Nightshift?" One of the trainees asks. 

 

"Yeah. We need people to be awake to alert us when monsters are coming. So who's going to do it for the first hour?"  With this many people here, they should have groups of three or four.

 

"..." But contrary to his thoughts, all the trainees look away from Onyx. 

 

"..." Onyx's expression turns stale. Are you guys serious right now? They're trainees, yet these people aren't acting like it. How spoiled are these brats?

 

Onyx shakes his head, "I'll be watching for the first hour. Who else is coming with me?"

 

"I'll do it!" When Irene heard Onyx, she wasn't going to stand around now. 

 

"Are you sure?" Onyx looks at her with one eyebrow in the air. 

 

Irene nods her head, "I can definitely do it!"

 

"Alright then."

 

And that is it. Only Irene volunteered and nobody else. 

 

Well. 

 

Some male trainees wanted to go too when they saw Irene volunteering too. But when they saw Onyx, they thought otherwise. 

 

"Since nobody else wants to do it. I'll volunteer." The person who speaks up is a senior knight. He has soft brown hair and a gentle expression on his face. He's the definition of a dandy man. 

 

He's the vice-captain of the knight order, Joseph.

 

Hearing that, Onyx sighs in relief. The others may not realize it, but having Joseph in the group is ten times better than anybody else here.

 

But the others didn't as they entered their tents to sleep, leaving the three there. 

....

"mmm mmm mmm" It has only been a couple of minutes, but Irene's body tilts back and forth. 

 

Seeing this, Onyx takes a blanket and covers her, "You go to sleep." He knew this was going to happen. 

 

"I can still do it." Her words don't match how her body slowly drooped downwards. 

 

"You're not a night person. So don't push yourself." Irene was never the type to stay up very late. She's always the first person to go to bed. 

 

"But what about watching monsters?"

 

"You don't have to worry about it. I can keep watch easily. And Sir Joseph is with me as well." 

 

"He's right, hero Irene. You should get your rest."

 

"Then alright," Irene says as she snuggles into the blanket. But then she shifts her body down and uses Onyx's lap as a pillow. 

 

"..." I meant in the tent. Onyx wanted her to sleep inside rather than outside. He knew Irene understood what he meant because Irene snuggled into his lap even more, locking herself there.

 

"Do you want help?" Seeing how she acted, they would need two people to bring her to the tent.

 

"Just leave her be like this." Onyx doesn't mind. He asks Joseph, "So what do you want to talk about?"

 

"Hmm? What do you-"

 

"Save it. I know you wouldn't be sitting out here with me if you didn't have something to talk about."

 

"So, how did you know I want to talk?" Joseph isn't going to deny it. 

 

"Because you and the knights didn't make a move throughout the journey." Before Onyx made his move on the goblin, he glanced over at the knights. 

 

They just stood there, watching the scene. And that made it clear to Onyx. The knights have no intention of helping the trainees. That made Onyx become more on guard of what was around them. 

 

Hearing this, Joseph smiles even more, "As expected, your instincts are sharp. And don't get me started on your quick moves as well."

 

"Thank you for the praise. So what do you need from me?" 

 

Joseph's expression turns serious, "Hero Onyx, you should already know the real purpose of this mission. It's to give those trainees and hero Irene some combat experience."

 

"Mmhmm."

 

"This makes it simpler then; I want you not to join in the battle."

 

"Hmm?"

 

"I know you mean well, but what you're doing is inhibiting them from learning. If you jump in, the trainees won't learn anything from this." 

 

Even a few minutes before, when Onyx brought up the night watch, the trainees didn't understand the importance. 

 

"They have to learn these things first hand rather than somebody feeding it to them." The knights weren't planning to help the trainees so that they could learn about danger. 

 

The best way for a person to learn is by experiencing failure firsthand. They have never fought in an actual battle or had experiences like this. 

 

The knights expected the trainees to be all sleeping, and monsters would attack them. But they didn't think Onyx would say something like that. 

 

Hearing this, Onyx thinks it over and agrees with it, "Alright. I won't be jumping in then. But if the situation gets messy, I won't hesitate to step in. Is that fine?"

 

He was all for it for Irene to learn. But he wasn't going to sit back and watch people die.

 

"That's what we want as well." Hearing that, Joseph sticks out his hand. And Onyx shakes his hand. 

...

The next day, the group continued to move forward. Onyx frowns, realizing a problem with the group. 

 

We're moving slower. 

 

Compared to yesterday, Onyx realizes the group's movement has become much slower. Joseph and the other knights aren't the ones making the pace. Instead, it's the trainees. The knights would copy their movement and speed, following after. 

 

Did that really take a toll on them? The reason why the group is going slower is due to the night shifts. The trainees aren't used to somebody suddenly waking them up.

 

And the people who kept watch kept making loud sounds, making it difficult for some to sleep. So the amount of sleep they got was minimal. 

 

Irene is the same. There are slightly-dark circles under her eyes. The only people who don't have any problems are the knights, priests, and Onyx. 

 

He continues to scan the surroundings, not letting anything out of his sight. 

 

Then, he hears it. 

 

5 moving out of the northeast and more than 10 coming from the southwest. There are more coming from the east too. Onyx looks at Joseph, and he shakes his head.

 

Seeing this, Onyx knew he shouldn't be doing anything yet. He looks over to the trainees. 

 

The majority of the trainees don't realize what's going on around them. However, there are a few who realize something is off. One shouts out, 

 

"Something is coming our way!" Even though he screams, the reactions are just pitiful. The trainees who were nobles shout out,

 

"Then deal with it yourself." With that said, the nobles continue to act in leisure.

 

"Can you act serious!" As the trainee screams that out,

 

That's when it happened!

 

Wolves jump out of the bushes, pouncing on top of the trainees! And the trainees who stood in the outermost were shocked by the sudden ambush!

 

"Ahhh!" They shout as the wolves begin to bite down on them. Those screams cause the entire group to collapse. It didn't take a second. People are running around, 

 

"Run away!"

 

"Commoner, do something!"

 

"I can't die like this!"

 

Some even broke down into tears. 

 

With the party broken, more wolves kept coming out to attack them!

 

Despite most of the trainees being useless, there are a few who went into action. They take out their swords and battle with the wolves. But it still isn't enough against the overwhelming number. 

 

Until she strikes. 

 

Numbers of lightning spears shot out! They're pinpoint accurate, taking down a good number of wolves. 

 

"Everybody! Keep calm and stop crying!!!" Irene shouts out commands. She steps up to the front. Her voice made everybody stop squirming around. 

 

"Group together and deal with the wolves. I'll deal with the large group in front of us!" Irene gives out commands like a general. Hearing her concise orders, the trainees started to do something. 

 

Irene turns over to the pack of wolves in front of her. She raises her shield up and stares down at the animal.

 

There are two things different from the group of wolves in front to the ones the trainees are fighting with. 

 

The number of wolves is greater than the others. 

 

The second is the one wolf in the front of the pack. It is triple the size of the other wolves. 

 

And the beast has many scars to prove the number of battles it went through. 

 

It's clear to everybody that he's the pack leader. The wolf starts growling, making the other wolves fan out, circling Irene!

 

Not happening. Irene knew this was trouble. So the decision she makes is to charge! 

 

Charge straight at the pack leader!

 

The wolf leader reacts and charges in to bite at Irene's shield! 

 

Its mouth is big enough to cover the entire diameter of the shield! But it couldn't break it. 

 

"I got you!" Irene waves her sword, ready to slice the wolf's stomach open. 

 

But the leader reacts to what she's trying to pull. So it swings its body around, causing Irene's center of gravity to change. 

 

And the other wolves realize the opening and quickly charge at her. They thought this would kill her off. 

 

But they forgot something.

 

Well, someone. 

 

"Don't you even think about it." Before the wolves could respond, their bodies got obliterated into pieces! Onyx isn't done as he slices toward the leader. 

 

The leader loosens its jaw on Irene's shield as it jumps away. 

 

"Grrrr." The wolf leader growls at him. Onyx raises his sword up, ready to attack. 

 

"Wait, Onyx! Let me deal with the big one!" Irene says as she grabs onto Onyx's shoulders. 

 

"..." Onyx stays silent. But then agrees, "Alright. I won't let the little ones get close to you. Just focus on your fight." Onyx turns over to the other wolves. 

 

Seeing his gaze, the other wolves flinched. The beast felt it. If they thought Irene was a threat, the person in front was a monster. 

 

Onyx doesn't hesitate as he attacks the wolves.

 

It took a couple of minutes. But the outcome was done. 

 

All the wolves have been killed off. However, the amount of damage the group suffered was heavy. 

 

Most of the trainees are injured with bites and cuts. Some even have large wounds on their body. Seeing this, the only word that came out of Joseph's mouth was, 

 

"Pathetic."

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