Chapter 38: A Mission to the Forest

In the silent and hidden side of the village outside the evacuation center, the coldness reigned utterly. However, even with these extreme conditions, two individuals were secretly having a conversation.

"Furrengarde, thanks for the information." Cimmerian patted the fox's head. "It's really helpful to me."

"Master, I appreciate your commendation, but do you have something else tangible to offer?" He shook his body to dispel all the snow clinging to his feathers. "Master, aren't you cold?"

"Something tangible? Of course, here's your share." Cimmerian offered the fox finely sliced slabs of red meat from the swine, the village. "Oh, you asked if I'm cold? Of course, but I've been used to it. It's not that it's the first time."

For months now, Cimmerian had no one to completely trust when it came to secrets and other intelligence gathering, so he gave the job to Furrengarde. The latter accepted it without hesitation, and now his collected information on different things had helped him a lot on his future plans.

"I thought you'd just give me some vegetables that taste like crap. I'm surprised." He teased Cimmerian because a few months ago, just a few days after the incident, he was broke because all the stored supplies for the family were burned to ashes. As a result, he was forced to be fed with ordinary staples.

"This meat's good. Thank you, Master."

"Sorry about the last months. Consider this as a payback from those days." He continued to give me slices. "Eat all you like."

"By the way, Master, how's your sword? If there's something I can help with, I'll be glad to do that." He offered.

"No. It's fine. Everything's according to plan." Cimmerian patted his head. "By the way, I've decided something. There's no need for you to watch my brother anymore. From now on, I ask you to be by my side. I'm ceasing your intelligence operations as well. It seems like you're in danger."

"In danger? Master, what do you mean?" He was dumbfounded by what he's talking about. "Please enlighten me."

"If you're not aware yet, I'll tell you. Our enemies had known about your existence as well. Oh, do you want to ask how I became aware of it? Simple, numerous enemies would sacrifice their energy to move during this troublesome winter. However, they were moving, right? There's only one reason for that—you've been found out in your surveillance. Or perhaps it's not really you, but they noticed that they've been observed."

"You're probably right. In the past days, I hadn't seen any further movements at all. They might be wary of us now. So I'm just going to stay here from now on."

"Yes." He stood up. "I think we should go inside before we freeze ourselves to death."

The two went back, and when they saw Vaissien and Belle talking, they didn't bother to interrupt. The other villagers staying here were divided into two categories: the first were the ones sleeping like it's a normal season, and the second were those drinking alcohol until they passed out. Chief Feldor, who had initiated the mini-party a while ago, had actually started lighting the cauldron in order to increase the area temperature of the place. In fact, installing this cauldron had already been planned a year ago, and since the village suffered recession beginning this year or last 1st Stellar Season, the plan was halted. Now, luckily, due to the accumulation of all the efforts done by the villagers, it was made possible.

"Oh, Fu, this is the first time they're going to light it." Cimmerian pointed at the cauldron managed and prepared by some men. "It'll be warmer later."

"Is that so? That's a relief for me, too." He wagged his tail. "My fur isn't going to hold off the cold for long."

"Vaissien's coming. I think we should avoid talking for now."

Belle and Vaissien were distracted by the cauldron as well. And because of it, they noticed Cimmerian who was standing nearby.

"Brother, were you waiting for us to finish?"

I think now's the perfect time to talk about it with the three of us." Vaissien, who was shrinking in the cold, came closer.

"What!!? Fu, where have you been all this time?" He caressed the fox's fluffy furs in the back.

"I just let him wander and do what he wants to do. Anyway, Vaissien, I think I agree with you. Let's talk about our plans from here on." Cimmerian and Furrengarde walked where Belle was sitting. It was on a small chair and a round table.

"Cimmerian, I've made a new black jacket from you." She took the folded jacket. "Look, do you like it?"

"Yes. It looks good." Cimmerian took it. "Shall I keep this?"

"Yes."

"Anyway, let's start. Tell us your final decision, brother." Vaissien asked.

"Fine. I'll be going to the capital. I'm going to gamble. Who could tell if I passed or not? If lucky, I might even be able to earn more there than here."

"I have the same choice as you, brother." Vaissien looked at him. "Now, about sister…"

"About me???" Belle showed a sense of surprise. "It's fine if you leave here. At least, I won't be a burden, and you can do your best without thinking about me too much."

"Vaissien, it's not sister, but sisters." Cimmerian corrected him.

"Sisters? You mean, Big Sis Beatrice too?" Vaissien was a bit dumbfounded. "What do you plan with her?"

"I'm planning to get her and bring her to the capital along with us." Cimmerian dipped in his pocket and put a bag of coins on the table. "Look, I've earned it to sustain our livelihood in the capital."

"Are you planning to get her from the baron household?" Vaissien exhibited a cheerful smile. "Big Sis would be coming home, huh? Wait, I thought you weren't hunting by yourself."

"I'm bringing her with us. That's my plan all along." The Baron's household.

(Wait for us, Big Sis Beatrice.) Cimmerian thought.

Suddenly, "hey, you two," she slammed her two palms on the table, "aren't you being too hasty? I mean, that's not gonna happen. Beatrice's bound to a 3-year contract, and the cost is just too high if we want her to bail out."

"Ha-ha-ha, don't worry, we knew about that," he said, taking another bag from his pocket. "Here, look…"

In every monster extermination mission the two took on for a month now, they stopped giving half to the village treasurer. Instead, they kept the other half for Beatrice. However, a while ago, they had encountered a problem. If they wished to travel to the capital, they'd need to have an initial sum of money to sustain themselves. Vaissien thought that their plan on bringing Beatrice back would be jeopardized. But it turned out, Cimmerian was keeping some coins by himself too.

Belle, after seeing the golds, was taken unawares. "Where did you earn this? This is too much money."

"Don't worry, we just did our best on everything we did." Vaissien smiled sweetly.

Since only those licensed or legitimate adventurers can sell magic cores from monsters, Cimmerian had contracted an adventurer, who was once Feldor's friend as well, to sell their catch for them. This had continued until today. Anyway, Belle wouldn't have known anything about this.

"Vaissien, I'd kept 40 golds. How about our mutual earnings?" He asked him.

"Brother, we had earned 34 golds." Vaissien answered after counting the gold coins.

"Big Sis Belle, I've read that the whole agreement must be compensated, right?" She asked Belle, "And since Big Sis Belle earns 20 silvers a month, in three years, that would be 7 golds and 2 silvers. Since the contract should be paid twice for the penalty, it would be 14 golds and 4 silvers."

"It's less than we expected." Vaissien expected that the amount might force them to lean over backwards in frustration. But he was wrong. It turned out to be manageable.

Belle wiped her tears with her arm. "Y-you two, I know Beatrice would be very happy to know this."

"Big Sis, don't get too emotional, you know? Just consider this as something natural. Right, brother?"

"Naturally."

"You two can't be helped." She stood, "I'm gonna get some tea for us."

""Thanks.""

Sister went to get some tea in the back section of the site. It'd been made accessible to all villagers.

"By the way, brother, are we going tomorrow?" Vaissien asked.

"Yes. Prepare your stuff. You want to test your new sword skill, right?" Cimmerian asked as he touched his short knife borrowed from Chief Feldor, "I hope I'll have my own sword, too, as soon as possible."

Vaissien fondled his dark-green sword, "I want to test how sharp is it on monsters' outer protective shells."

"Its blade's not so thick, and not too thin as well. Just medium-sized."

"What's more, it is gold. I really like it." He put it back in a nice position.

The two talked further about their monster extermination mission tomorrow while savoring their warm cups of tea.

In the morning.

The three prepared their coats, food for two weeks, weapons, and a carriage.

"You three," Belle called them with a bit of worry, "don't let your guards down, okay?"

"Of course."

"Don't worry, Big Sis Belle, just take care of things here."

"Thanks for your kindness, Belle; don't worry, I'll watch the two carefully." Ferm added.

The three left at a fast pace. This errand would be one of the most dangerous and biggest extermination missions the three, Vaissien, Cimmerian, and Ferm, would ever experience. As for Cimmerian, he had been used to this, but he did not count himself out as the danger remained to lurk and exist.

This mission was planned to take place in the outer middle part of the forest. The greater the distance one traveled to the interior of the forest, the more condensed the trees were. The journey itself would take at least three days. Their main target was a specific creature, who was inhabiting a certain fortified home that would earn them a few hundred golds due to its gigantic and unique magic core if killed. Since they'd departed at 9 o'clock in the morning, they'd expected to reach at 9 o'clock three days later due to possible obstructions in the way. After all, they were traversing the infamous "Pernicious Forest of Buntod," an independent territory untouched even by powerful states like the Styllacus Kingdom.

On their first day, the two entered the forest just fine.

The three traversed without too many halts, except for when the two horses rested and ate. Before, traversing even a kilometer of the forest was known to be an act of idiocy and ignorance. In the last couple of decades, every time scout teams returned from here, they always brought bad news like "the carriage was destroyed." Or else, "many died in battle with beasts," and many others. However, this all changed when Cimmerian naturalized the notion that exploring the forest brought good fortune, valor, and many others. As of today, most of the villagers knew that this was the most dangerous expedition ever. And that they may not be able to come back. Belle, though a bit worried, did not know much about the details, as she thought it'd be just as usual.

While they were on the carriage, "hey, you guys," Cimmerian called the two, "I want to talk about something."