Our group of mercenaries and elves made their way around Auria towards the Sleeping Forest. It was a bit annoying that we had to circumvent the town but walking straight through it was prone to causing trouble, according to Korwen. Incidentally, Fenna and her group had already left a while ago so they didn’t join us.

Well, I’d be quite worried as well if a huge group of buff men accompanied by an even larger group of small girls walked through the streets.

At least, the elves weren’t walking around in their mostly naked get-up anymore. That would have raised more than just a few questions. Actually, while their current appearance wasn’t as sensual anymore, it was still quite questionable. Some of the elves wore proper clothes now but most of them wore a random assortment of clothes, most of them way too large. As a result, quite a few elves wore nothing but an oversized shirt. Sure, it hid the important parts but it left little to imagination.

Yeah, thinking about it, this isn’t really better…

This was quite a problematic view after all. And the elves didn’t even seem to mind it at all…

“Yumi, stop staring at them.”
“Huh? Sis? Wai— Don’t cover my eyes!””

Suddenly, everything went dark. Karen covered my eyes from behind and the elven crowd disappeared from view.

“Don’t stare at them like that, Yumi.”

I was confused for a few seconds before I realised what was going on.

“Sis, I only wondered about their different clothing, I didn’t look at them like that.”
“Their clothes?”
“Yes.”

Karen’s hands moved away and light once more entered my eyes. Hurray.

“Why are you thinking about their clothes?”
“Well…”
“Yes?”
“... I figured that those oversized clothes aren’t that much better than their original clothes. And that it’d cause quite a stir if they wandered into town like that.”
“...”

I wondered for a moment if I should really tell her but in the end, I decided to be truthful about it. It wasn’t like I was scared about what would happen if I didn’t tell the truth. Really.

“... They would, wouldn’t they?”
“Nn, they would.”

While I did have the feeling that people were relatively open about nudity and the like, there were bound to be limits to it. Then again, they weren’t exactly nude either… Anyway, it was probably a good idea that we went around town.

“But some wear normal clothes.”
“Maybe Wanda made them? Or the other women.”
“That might be.”

Wanda was a professional seamstress but quite a few women among the mercenaries’ families could do sewing and the like.

“But the other elves need some proper clothes, too.”
“Nn, agreed.”

With that said, it wasn’t like this was our problem. Or at the very least, it wasn’t something we could help with. Sewing wasn’t part of my skill set.

“Hey, Sis. Can you sew?”
“Huh? A little… Why?”
“You can? Surprising.”
“... Wanda taught me a long time ago. But only a little bit.”
“Ohhh…”

That made sense. Wanda had been taking care of Karen back in the slums. If you could call it ‘taking care,’ of course.

“How about you?”
“Me? Not really. At least, I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so...”
“Nn.”

Though, I was pretty sure that I couldn’t.

“Well, we’ll just leave that problem to Wanda and the others.”

Like I had mentioned before, it wasn’t our problem.

“More important… Sis, is that it?”

I pointed towards the front, the place we were approaching with our group. A dark green curtain slowly showed itself behind the town.

“I would guess so.”
“Another forest…”
“You already knew that, Yumi.”
“I did.”

Forests were nice, though.

“But you can’t really see into the forest…”
“Nn.”

The underbrush was so thick and the trees so close to each other, that you couldn’t really look into the forest. There was really just a long curtain of trees.

“... I feel like it’s going to end up a huge pain to get through that.”

Clearing the underbrush was one thing but with how close the trees were to each other, we would have to cut quite a lot of them. Even with the elves, I couldn’t imagine them making a wide path through that.

“Oh well…”

This was going to be a lot of work…

---

“Mr Greyward! I found it! I found the road!” shouted a man some distance away.
“Thank the heavens, finally.”

Once we had arrived, Greyward had ordered everyone to find the old road or any other kind of path that would lead into the forest and potentially to the fort. Unfortunately, two hundred years were more than enough time for the forest to reclaim that road. Much to everyone’s chagrin, since they had to search for it now.

As luck would have it, a mercenary found it after a while, without any big trouble. And so, with Korwen in the lead, the three of us joined everyone else in taking a look.

“Let me see.”
“Here, Mr Greyward.”
“Mm… stones… a paved road. This is it. Good job.”

Small square stones were hidden under the grass. They were discoloured, a dark green surface telling of how long they had been hidden.

“Okay, everyone, get to work. The road doesn’t free itself. Come on, get to work!”

Greyward clapped his hands to draw the attention of everyone before giving out the order. The men saluted and promptly began work. The mercenaries carried over tools and small carts.

“As for the elves… Well, do whatever you can to help out.”
“We will.”

The elf serving as the new elder replied before gathering her fellow elves and helping out the mercenaries. I would have thought they’d try to make the forest move or whatever else they could but that didn’t seem to be the case. Maybe being similarly confused, Greyward asked her about it.

“Say, didn’t you want to move the trees out of the way or something like that?”
“We did. But. Forest thick. No space. Needs to… to… trim? Remove trees. Make forest healthier.”
“I see? Well, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work… As long as you help out that’s fine.”
“We will.”

The elf smiled before rushing off to join the other elves with their work.

“Didn’t know that removing trees would make a forest healthier… I’ll remember that. So, Korwen and his two little ladies… Are you three just going to stand there and watch?”
“Oh, are we in the way?”
“You are.”
“Greyward, you know—”
“Yes, yes, I know you are technically my superior. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be in the way.”
“What a rude fellow.”

Despite his choice of words, Korwen was clearly amused by it.

“So, are you going to keep standing in the way?”
“For a while. We’re just waiting for Fenna to come back.”
“So that you can go and take a look?”
“Exactly. What other reason could there be?”
“So impatient… Well, not like I don’t get it.”

Greyward shrugged his shoulders before turning his back to us to shout at the mercenaries to ‘hurry the hell up’ and things like that.

“Mr Captain, is it really okay if we’re not helping?”
“It is. So you two just stay here.”
“Okay…”

Honestly, I was worried a little about whether we should help as well but if Korwen said no… Well, by now, I could more or less guess what his intentions were. He’d probably tell us something about getting used to watching people work and supervising them or things like that… Well, probably not supervise.

“Still, I knew it’d be bad but if the path is already overgrown like this, I dread to think how the fort is going to look like…”

It probably turned into a hill of trees already.

Let’s hope Fenna can actually find it. If it turned into a literal tree fort, it might be a little… hidden.

Then again, I knew that Fenna had some experience with reconnaissance and the like. I was sure she’d manage.

“But this is going to take a while… isn’t it?” I muttered.
“Of course. What else did you expect?” answered Korwen, chuckling.
“Don’t know… Maybe some magic that could clear the area in a flash?”
“Mm… It’s not that it’s impossible…”

It wasn’t?!

“... but those four alone wouldn’t get far on their own. And we’d lose out on the lumber. Lumber that might come in handy later. Ria would probably just burn half the trees down, after all. And hiring magicians would be far too expensive to be worth it.”
“I see… So we can only wait and do it the regular way?”
“That’s the case.”

How bothersome…

Oh well, that there’d be problems was to be expected.

Honestly, as long as it was just this, it was something we could solve with time. Not that much of a problem.

Yeah, I’m only saying this because it’s not me who is out there cutting the undergrowth and the trees… I’d sing a different tune if I had to do that, wouldn’t I?

For once, I was very grateful I could stand next to Korwen and watch the mercenaries work. Really grateful. Even if standing around and just watching wasn’t something you could call exciting either.

Either way, the three of us watched the mercenaries work for a good while. First, they unearthed the part of the road that led to the forest. They didn’t clear up the entire road up to the town, only what was nearby. This alone already took a while but once they were finished, the old paved road was once more seeing the light of the day.

After they had managed to unearth this part, they began working on clearing the undergrowth between the trees along the path the road went. All the branches and twigs and whatever else they pulled out was now piling up on the side. A mountain of twigs and branches, growing steadily.

It was at this point, that people appeared from within the woods.

“Well, well, look who has come back.”

Korwen grinned happily as these people made their way over to us.

“Captain! We have returned!”
“Good work. Have you found it, Fenna?”
“We have, Captain.”

Korwen’s grin only grew wider at Fenna’s declaration.

“How was it?”
“It was… impressive, Captain. How come such a large fort was simply abandoned?”
“Plenty of reasons. But first tell me, what was its condition?”
“That’s…”
“Tell me.”

Fenna frowned a little before continuing her report.

“From what we see, there was no outward damage to it. It was also not as overgrown as we had expected. It still is very much the picture of overgrowth, though, with trees and other plants growing all over the walls.”
“Mh, so about what we expected already. What else?”
“That’s it, Captain. We haven’t entered so we don’t know the situation inside.”
“Mm. Good work, Fenna. And everyone else, too, of course.”

The for was overgrown, after all, but at least outwardly it seemed to be fine, according to Fenna. That was good news. 

“Okay. Fenna, lead us to the fort. It’s time to take a look myself.”
“Yes, Captain!”

And just as expected, Korwen immediately decided to see it for himself.

“Hey, Greyward, I’ll be leaving things here to you.”
“Yes, yes. Get going.”

Greyward gestured with his hand and shooed us away. Seeing his dismissing attitude, Korwen chuckled again. He clearly got some amusement out of this.

“Then, let’s get going, before Greyward throws half the forest in our direction. Fenna, lead the way. Yumi, Karen, stay behind me.”
“Understood, Captain.”
“Nn, got it, Captain.”
“Yes, Mr Captain.”

And so, with Fenna and her squad leading us, we ventured into the forest.

---

“How in the blazes can people manage living here with this forest next to them… Ugh, Sis, help me...”
“If you want me to help, hold still, Yumi. I can’t do it if you don’t.”
“... Yes.”

The forest was as untamed as expected. Thick undergrowth, trees so close to each other you could barely stretch out your arms without touching one. And, of course, I got stuck everywhere. Every. Fucking. Where.

“Okay, there we go, Yumi.”
“Thanks…”

Karen let go of my untangled hair. My hair kept getting tangled up in branches and twigs wherever I went. If it was just a little, I could simply move my hair and untangle it myself. But occasionally, I got stuck so badly that Karen had to help me. And this had been like the fourth time Karen had to help.

“Ha! A troublemaker wherever you go, aren’t you?”
“I’m not doing this on purpose, Captain.”

While Korwen was making fun of me, I wrapped my hair around my waist again, hoping it would at least protect me a little from more trouble.

“Done?”
“... Nn.”

Despite the trouble I caused, Korwen remained patient, only laughing whenever I got stuck. I knew how much he wanted to hurry up and see the fort, so I was quite grateful he was that patient.

Let’s just hope that patience won’t run out… Ah, it’s stuck again…

As we continued our way forward, a branch hit me in the side, swiping up my hair once more. It wasn’t bad enough that I had to call for help but it still cost me some time getting it untangled.

“Ugh, I hate this forest…”
“Need help, Yumi?”
“No, I’m fine, Sis.”

After untangling my hair once more, I hurried after Karen, careful not to get caught in any branches again.

“But why is this forest so… I don’t know…”
“Untamed?” asked Korwen, hearing my complaint.
“I guess?”

The forest near the village, the one where we had gone through with Fenna for reconnaissance, wasn’t even remotely as bad as this one. Sure, it wasn’t exactly the easiest trip either with unsteady footing and annoying undergrowth, but compared to this one, it had been a walk in the park.

“If I had to guess, it is because the locals don’t need it.”
“Don’t need it?”
“Most forests are hunting and gathering grounds for anyone living nearby. But Auria survives on seafood and field crops. It also doesn’t seem to be monster territory. There’s nothing living here that could make large paths. Well, except for a few animals.”

Did the Aurians not eat any meat whatsoever? Wasn’t that unhealthy in its own way? Or maybe they lived from livestock…

“Well, it might be that there is a completely different reason, too… After all… Fenna, was the forest like this the entire time you were here as well?”
“It was, Captain.”
“...”
“Nn?”

What were they talking about?

“Yumi, the forest is quiet,” explained Karen.
“Quiet?”

I shut my mouth and tried to listen to the sounds of the forest… There were leaves rustling in the wind… but that was it. No bird’s singing. No animals crying. Nature could be quite noisy but there was nothing to hear of that right now.

“No wonder they call it the Sleeping Forest. I admit it’s a little disturbing.”

Only our own sounds and the sounds caused by the wind…

“... I’m glad it’s bright outside.”
“What? Scared a ghost comes out?” laughed Korwen.
“...”

With the forest like this, it wouldn’t surprise me. Especially, if it had been dark.

“Captain. We’re close now.”
“Oh?”

Thank god for Fenna changing the topic. Everyone’s attention returned back frontwards. We walked for a minute or so and then… A large, white wall revealed itself in the thicket.

“Ohhhhh! It’s the fort! Fort Auria!”

Korwen stepped forward, his excitement palpable. He walked up to the wall and touched it.

“Fort Auria… We did it. We really did it.”

He stepped back again, looking up at the wall. It was high. Higher than the town’s wall. Maybe even twice as high. Maybe even more. Creeper plants covered it from top to bottom and on the top of the wall, I could make out something else growing.

“Let’s look for the entrance. Fenna? Do you know where it is?”
“No, Captain. We returned immediately upon finding it. We do know it’s not nearby, at least.”
“I see. Then let’s look for it. Fenna, lead the way.”
“Yes, Captain.”

Fenna led us along the wall through the forest. Having something so big next to us made it at least easy to know where we were going. That said, if I got lost here, I was one hundred and twenty per cent sure I wouldn’t get out of this forest on my own. I didn’t even know how Fenna manage to guide us here in the first place. Everything about this forest looked the same.

We followed the wall for a few minutes in silence which actually… made me wonder a little.

“... Hey, is it just me or is this a really long wall?”
“It’s not just you, Yumi.”
“...”

Okay… If this was just one side of the fort, it really had to be massive… Unless it had some weird triangle shape and this was the longest of the three sides… Which, obviously, would be pretty stupid.

In the first place, we did see those blueprints… Those did suggest it would be pretty big.

And, obviously, not a triangle.

“Oh, I see the gate, Yumi,” said Karen, bringing me back to reality.
“Nn? That there?”
“Yes.”

At the far end of the wall, or at least as far as we could see, was something that seemed to be a hole in the wall. Probably the entrance.

We approached said hole and, sure enough, it was the gate. Or rather, what remained of it. Plus, it wasn’t just one hole in the wall, but two.

“Hey, Captain, I thought this was sturdy and wouldn’t be likely damaged?”
“...”

The rust-covered metal lattice was on the ground, bent in every way possible. Honestly, even I could see this wasn’t the work of plants. Something had destroyed the gate.

“Fenna, you didn’t enter, right? Did you hear anything that might be inside?”
“No, we haven’t heard anything…”
“...”

Korwen went over to the metal lattice and crouched down, touching it and looking all over it. After a while, he stopped at the edges of the lattice, looking at the parts that had likely been inside the gate.

“... This gate wasn’t destroyed very long ago.”
“Eh?”
“Huh?”
“...”

It wasn’t destroyed that long ago? Was he saying…

“Whatever destroyed it, might still be inside.”

This… wasn’t good.

“... Mm.”
“Captain, what should we do?” asked Fenna.
“... Let’s take a look inside. Fenna, Karen, protect Yumi. I’ll take the lead from now on.”
“Yes, Captain!”
“Yes, Mr Captain!”

The two of them saluted and Fenna came over to me and Karen. The rest of her squad also spread out a little, their hands grasping the hilts of their respective weapons.

“Let’s go. Be careful.”

Korwen walked over the lattice, entering the fort. We followed closely behind, entering the overgrown fort.

“This is…”
“It’s massive.”
“Nn…”

A courtyard spread out in front of us. An incredibly wide courtyard. There was so much space, that I wouldn’t be surprised if the mercenaries could just use it to camp regularly here. Several buildings were among the walls, some of them collapsed. A large red-bricked building was at the other end of the courtyard, dwarfing all other buildings.

“It’s so big…”

Was this really the fort we would be living in in the future? It might be overgrown with creeper plants and a few wild trees but if you cleaned it up, it would be really impressive.

“Captain.”
“Ahh… Nothing to see… For now.”

Korwen was also keeping his hand on the hilt of his axe as he surveyed the surroundings.

“Let’s get to the main building and look there.”
“””Yes, Captain.”””

Our group walk across the courtyard, keeping close to the wall. We walked past the collapsed buildings, inspecting each and every one of them. It seemed that they had been built with wood and regular stone and had been unable to withstand the passage of time. But nothing of note was inside. They were, in fact, conspicuously empty, except for rubble. But that could have been a simple result of the fort being abandoned and the soldiers clearing out everything.

“There’s no one here…”
“Don’t be so quick about that, Karen. They might be hiding.”

We continued on, very slowly, and finally approached the main building. We still hadn’t seen anything noteworthy at all. We hadn’t seen anything, but…

“Hey, Sis, does it smell?”
“It does.”

There was a rotten smell entering my nose as we approached the main building. It was beyond unpleasant and made me retch.

“Captain…”
“Ahhh… Yumi, Karen, stay behind a little. Fenna, come with me.”
“Understood…”
“Yes, Captain.”

We stepped backed, leaving the area with the rotten stink. Fenna’s squad stayed with us, visibly glad they didn’t have to join Fenna and Korwen. As for those two… They had their weapons drawn and approached the large double door. The door was made of wood as well and was half-collapsed. Korwen stuck to the wall, looking past the corner and into the building.

“Well… Shit…”
“This… ugh…”

Fenna peeked past Korwen and the moment she spied inside the building, she turned around, holding her hand over her mouth.

On the other hand, Korwen relaxed a little, and walked up to the double door, pulling the broken remnants apart and making space for entry.

“Fenna, stop clamming up and help me.”
“Captain… Understood...”

With clear reluctance, Fenna removed her hand from her mouth and helped Korwen remove the remains of the doors. It didn’t take them long to get the broken door out of the way. Having nothing to bar the view, we could finally see what had Fenna clamming up.

“Corpses… And so many…”

Dozens of unmoving bodies lay on the floor, their garments shredded, revealing the rotting flesh beneath.

“Bandits, probably. Guess they thought this would be a good place to call home. Well, clearly they didn’t last long. But, man, the smell...”

Unperturbed, Korwen entered the building, walking up to the windows and opening the wooden covers. After that, he came out again, rejoining us with Fenna, who had finally regained her composure.

“At least we found the ones who destroyed the gate. Would have preferred some wild beast, though.”
“Captain… Were they attacked? Or what killed them?”
“Not sure, Fenna. Ria would need to take a look. But it didn’t seem to be caused by an animal. Maybe infighting. Either way, they’ve been dead for a while.”

Korwen frowned as he glanced back to the main building.

“We’ll need to search the buildings. There’s still the unlikely possibility someone survived and stayed here. Fenna, send someone back and have them call a few people over.”
“Yes, Captain!”

Fenna saluted and then gathered her squad, likely to discuss who to send back and who had to search.

“Yumi, Karen, will you be fine helpin?”
“... Nn, I’ll try to.”
“Yes…”
“Good. Try to be careful. They might have boobytrapped the place. Hahaha!”
“...”

Actually, I wasn’t fine, I’d sit this out… wasn’t something I could say now, could I?

“Mr Captain…”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you search alone. Fenna’ll accompany you. They really might have boobytrapped the place, after all. Doubt it’d be anything sophisticated, though.”

That’s not very reassuring, though. Even if it wasn’t sophisticated, if it could kill, it could kill.

At that point, Fenna also returned to us, her squad already spreading out and entering the buildings in groups of two or three.

“Captain, I sent someone back.”
“Mm. Good. Then, accompany Yumi and Karen and help with the search. I’ll stay here and take a look outside.”
“Understood, Captain.”

Having gotten her orders, Fenna turned around to us.

“Yumi, Karen, shall we?”
“Nn.”
“Yes.”

Leaving Korwen behind, the three of us walked over to the main building, where they had just found the bodies. The smell of rotten flesh immediately overcame us once more.

“You two okay?”
“Nn… Barely…”
“Somehow…”

Even if we weren’t, we had to deal with the smell either way.

The three of us entered the main building proper and began our search.