Aftermath

King had woken up pretty easily. He was a light sleeper, but he also tried to ensure that Sencho Neo, Kamazaki and Shizaki got back safe before he could doze off. Looking around, he quickly realized that Neo had not returned with them yet.

It's definitely been more than an hour…maybe even two.

He was now thinking about going after them as well, but…he didn't know the forest well. The only thing he could do was just wait until they hopefully returned or go with someone who was well acquainted with the Forest.

His eyes gazed at the other two companions who were sleeping silently, Alexandriya Aya and Satou Yukino.

He then reclined on the grass with his arms behind his head, and he was now motionless. 

I can't just go to sleep peacefully knowing that brat is out there…

Unfortunately, he hadn't asked if any of them were familiar with Sekoto Forest. Only Shizaki had seemed knowledgeable as he had stated details of the forest being regularly patrolled, maintained and scouted by Royal Guards, but he had apparently read about that. Waking the other three just to ask that question would be unreasonable.

But as the time kept going, he just couldn't lie still any longer.

He slowly made his way to Aya. He calmly shook her and she slowly turned, wincing.

"Sorry to wake you, Aya-san…but…do you know much about this forest…?"

She blinked confusingly at him like he was the most stupid person on the planet.

"I-I know it's stupid to wake you up just to ask that question, please forgive me. But I need help to look for Shizaki-kun and Kamazaki-san. They haven't returned in more than two hours. Please accompany me to look for them."

She continued to look at him like he was the most stupid person on the planet.

King simply tried to smile, still pressing for a response.

Aya finally sighed and got up groggily, rubbing her eyes.

"Let's make this quick."

"Right. S-Sorry."

"You also owe me five hundred gold coins."

"Isn't that fifty times the minimum wage!?"

She simply sighed.

"When I find that Daizen Shizaki…"

Her words trailed off as she yawned.

They started walking away from the group.

"Alexandriya!!!! King!!!!! Neo-kun!!!! Yukino-kun!!!!!"

"-!"

King's left ear twitched and turned slightly like an animal, and both him and Aya heard the voice.

Yukino woke up, and squinted.

It was incredibly familiar. That was Daizen Shizaki's voice.

They turned to look at where it was coming from, and strangely enough…

They could see two large dots closely huddled together…

…in the sky, about one hundred metres away?

And with that, the duo began to descend.

King blitzed forward with superhuman speed, taking Aya's breath away as he ran forward.

What the-! There's no way a human is that fast!

"Aya-san!! Yukino-kun!! Let's catch both of them!!"

"R-Right!!"

"Eh!? Okay!!"

It was obvious that they wouldn't make it in time as they were a good way off from their camp. However, as King ricocheted from tree to tree within the forest with incredible agility, he was determined to get as close to the duo as possible.

Still keeping her eyes locked on Shizaki and Kamazaki, Aya stooped down and touched the ground. A humongous cluster of vines and grass and flowers clamped together and they lunged forward at incredible speed, swerving through the trees in an instant. She also ran forward without hesitation. As the [Vines] continued to crawl into the depths of the forest, it picked up much blooming grass and flowers with it.

It then bloomed only petals of flowers on its end as it spiralled into the sky, where the two freefalling people were. 

"Three…two…"

One.

"Wait, huh!?"

Shizaki held his breath as a large sloping flower slide had instantly formed right above him, with large vines and grass clumped together as foundation. The softness of the flowers cushioned Shizaki's fall, and Kamazaki, who just missed it, was caught by King right before she could hit the ground.

King had run almost two hundred metres in about a dozen seconds, a feat that no human was able to do and caught Kamazaki right on time.

Operation: Camp Arrival had been a success.

"Kamazaki-san! What happened to you!?"

King was quick to discern the noticeable features of the changed Kamazaki, especially her eyepatch and her torn middle-section of her shirt. His expression was that of genuine shock and fear as he ran towards her and held her up.

"Suri-chan…"

"Please find a better nickname! And don't try to dodge the question!! You're really hurt!!"

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. It's that crazy- o-ow! Hey, don't touch the eyepatch! It still hurts! And please don't look at Babyface in a harsh way! He did his best to protect me!!"

"I-I won't glare! It's just that-"

"No matter what happened, we couldn't do anything to prevent this outcome, believe me- owww!!! I said don't touch it!!"

Touching the eyepatch, King seemed too nervous and disturbed to lift it up. 

He simply asked the question.

"Your…right eye…is it…?"

She averted her gaze but quietly nodded with a sullen look.

King slowly embraced her.

"I'm…so sorry…I promised to help protect you…"

"It's fine, it's fine, Suri-chan. Really, it's fine. The tough guy over there did his very best to protect- he's bleeding wayyy too much!!!"

She had turned her attention to Shizaki, but realized that his bleeding was not stopping, and it needed to be tended to immediately. But surprisingly, they all watched on as Shizaki sat quietly as the blood slowly ran through his nostrils and the corners of his mouth.

He was suddenly in a deep thought, his hand holding up his chin as he narrowed his eyes. He then looked up and matched the gazes of the trio.

"O-Oh…thanks, King. If not for you and Alexandriya all, we would've…ah. Don't worry about the bleeding, it will stop in a few seconds."

Kamazaki flashed a regretful smile.

"You did that…to save me…"

"Don't worry about it…ugh…it hurts."

He could hear a slight crack in his head. A new fracture had formed.

Dammit.

"You two, how did you guys end up in the middle of the…oh." 

Shizaki exchanged glances with Alexandriya Aya as she and Yukino finally arrived at the scene, and on seeing his state, her eyes widened for a second.

Ah, that's how.

"Shizaki take this wet cloth and clean yourself up."

"Thanks, Alexandriya. More importantly, we need to get out of here."

"Why?"

"Timberwolves. Many tried to attack us, out of their own free will."

"Wait, what? Aren't they harmless?"

Kamazaki immediately shook her head to Aya's question and replied:

"It's a crazy enough story to make someone laugh at, but it's true, one got too close to me and, well, yeah."

She raised the shirt up a little displaying the full extent of the scar she had gotten from the attack. This unfortunate scar had proved to be evidence to back up their claim.

King and Aya exchanged glances, and Yukino clearly seemed frightened, with his two short but pointy ears facing downwards.

Timberwolves that attack…that was…impossible. Yet, it had happened.

"Not to mention, they looked much different than usual TimberWolves. They had eyes all over their skin and-"

"Y-Yeah, I've heard enough. We might also need to notify the Royal Guards in their regional posts about this."

"Do you think that they'll believe this, Aya-san?"

King asked her a question that made her think.

"...Most likely not, but we have Kamazaki-san's scar as backup. Though of course, they could make the claim that we tried to attack them first and got the scar from a result of the wolves defending themselves and their young."

King nodded and faced Shizaki.

"Are you sure that it were Timberwolves that you witnessed and something else?"

"I understand that what we're saying seems out of this world…but it's true. I'm one hundred percent confident."

King looked at Kamazaki, and she gave the nod of agreement.

".....Goodness gracious."

Suddenly, a rough voice from behind the group startled them, and as a figure with a mask covering his facial features emerged, King began to chuckle.

"Hey, hey, what's so funny? I was looking all over for these two rascals….I was just returning when I heard the commotion nearby."

"Neo-kun, welcome back."

"Seriously, I made a whole trip for nothing, huh? Anyway, what's going on?"

"We'll return to Kiyotai's carriage now which is from an upwards trail to the edge of Sekoto Forest from the campsite. It shouldn't take long, just about fifteen minutes just like when we traveled from there to arrive here."

"Hm. Something tells me that things are not going well. Fill me in with the info later."

"Of course. Let's move, everyone."

Aya stayed close to Shizaki while King and Kamazaki went ahead, and Yukino stayed at the back with Neo.

And with a sigh, the green-eyed girl landed a strong hand chop to the top of Shizaki's head.

"Gaaaaa- why!?"

"You made me lose precious sleep to look for you when you were already about to crash-land close to us."

"Yeah, crash-land into the afterlife, maybe!?"

"Even so…"

She reached out to his hand and held it tightly.

"I'm glad you're safe, Shizaki."

"Alexandriya…"

He smiled and wiped away a small trickle of blood from his nose with his other hand. The bleeding had finally stopped.

"I'm sorry that I worried you."

Her usual expressionless self broke into a rare smiling figure on hearing that.

"…Timberwolves can't just suddenly turn ferocious like that, Shizaki."

"I saw what I saw, though."

"Correct. So what exactly do you think made them that way?"

Thinking about it more deeply, Shizaki had wanted to avoid this idea that he had in his mind for a bit of a while now, but maybe the idea was realistic.

"There could be different factors that we might not take into consideration, but I was thinking…"

Aya waited for a response after Shizaki fell silent.

"A Mythical Beast User."

-----------------------------------------

(Chapter 14: Aftermath.)