Unsealing Emptiness

Some of the Mercenaries noticed that the trio now had a carriage.

“Oi! look at those guys. Pfft! They are already tired of walking.”

“Tch! What would you even expect from those weaklings?”

. . .

A few of them passed comments, but no one dared lift their voices high, fearing that it might anger the Silver Knights.

The duo completely turned a blind eye to their taunts. Though Blaze would sometimes glare at the ones passing comments, he wouldn’t go any further.

.....

The ones who whispered behind their back were only the weaker bunch, so they would easily get scared.

Meanwhile, their convoy had already left the outskirts of the Capital. They were now entering the forest.

This forest totally surrounded the north of the Capital. Although it was a large forest, there weren’t a lot of hazards in it. The unique point it had was that this forest was connected to another one.

And this was also the reason that some of the Mercenaries had been afraid and wanted to leave earlier.

There were just too many obstacles between their destination, The Neutral Lands. Not to mention that even if they were to reach there, coming back in one piece was not guaranteed.

Anyways, the forest connected to this was one that only a few would dare to venture in. It was called the Old Whispering Woods.

Many had just heard the rumors since most of the ones to venture in would never return to tell the tale.

However, that forest was still far away from the current location of the convoy.

A hodgepodge1 of noises, most of which were birds and insects, resonated through the air as they continued through the woods.

Though there were many Magical Beasts in this forest, it was relatively safer than some other jungles.

The convoy continued until the Sun began to set in. No one expected to make a stop at this moment, but it seemed that their Leader, Clive, had different plans.

Everywhere had turned dark, so the Fire Mages created some Fire Balls to illuminate the surroundings.

As they arrived at an area with relatively fewer trees, Clive turned towards the whole group.

“We will be making a stop here. Stop the carriages and start to set up the camps!”

The Mercenaries were surprised by the sudden command. One of them even questioned;

“Shouldn’t we be moving as fast as we can? Why take a stop when no one is tired?”

Clive moved his eyes through the crowd and noticed that most of them anticipated an answer from him, so he gave a brief explanation.

“It is dark all around, and if there were to be an assassination attempt while we are on the move, it would give us a huge disadvantage. Anyways, since we are already in the forest, I will explain all the details. But before that, hurry up and set up the camps!”

Some of the influential groups did not like orders being yelled at them, but since the orders came from the Silver Knights, they could only hold their thoughts to themselves.

All of the Mercenaries started to set up the camps. Most of them had Spatial Rings, so they had their necessary equipment all stored in them.

They created a giant circle by setting up the camps in that way. They left a vast area in the middle for the person that they were supposed to protect.

The carriages stopped one by one. Everyone started to get off from the carriages. First of all, the guards in silver shining armors came out of the two Royal carriages.

And then came out the Rank-7 Mage from the third carriage, Sir Hanry. Right after he had made an appearance, he stood guard at the middlemost carriage.

One of them went towards the other carriages, and with a wave of his hands, he made them disappear into thin air. As for the horses, he leashed them all with the tress.

After that, all the Silver Knights stood guard at the only Royal carriage left on sight. All of them were mostly Rank-5 individuals.

After everything was set, Sir Hanry came near the carriage and knocked on the door.

*Clak*

After waiting for a few seconds, the door’s lock clicked before Sir Hanry opened the door.

Though most of the Mercenaries had started to set up the camps, they all stopped to take a look at the individual that they were going to protect for the whole journey.

As the door slowly opened, first a slender hand came out of the door. Soon after the hand, the figure of a woman wearing the maid dress came out.

The Mercenaries were so interested in knowing who their employer was that they were almost disappointed when the maid came out.

It wasn’t that the maid was not beautiful, but she was just not the person that they were anticipating.

“Damn it that woman!”

“Tsk! Idiot, She can hear ya!”

. . .

There were even a few people letting out their annoyance at the sight of the maid coming out first.

‘Che! It hasn’t even been a few seconds! Impatient barbarians! Hmph!’- Venessa thought with annoyance building up inside her. She didn’t like that they were traveling with Mercenaries one bit.

But she put those thoughts in the back of her mind, stretching out her hand to the door.

As she stretched out her hand, they all again focused on who the next person to come out would be.

Again, a thin hand reached out, placing itself elegantly on the maid’s hand. Shortly after, a mature girl appeared in front of everyone.

Though it was dark everywhere, everyone here was a Mage, so it wasn’t hard for them to see the beautiful silver hair fluttering under the dim light.

*Cough Cough...*

The men were all staring at the girl for a long time before the coughs from Clive brought them back to reality.

As they looked around, the Mercenaries found that Clive and the other Rank-7 Mage, who had come out of the Royal Carriage, had given them menacing glares.

It was obvious that they weren’t supposed to look around too much while on this trip. Even if that was the case, most of them couldn’t resist staring at Clara once in a while.

While everyone was stealing glances at Clara, she was busy searching through the crowd. But in the end, she was disappointed to find that the man that she was looking for was nowhere to be seen.

How could she find Ozul when he was still sleeping behind his carriage? While Raven and Blaze were busy setting a camp for themselves too.

While the camp would most likely only be used by Ozul, they didn’t care because this is what they were meant to do.

Some men lit up torches and hung them around the trees that surrounded the area so they would have a clear view without needing to create fireballs all the time.

One of the Silver Knights went to the middle of the area that especially left for them, and with a wave of his hand, he summoned an entire wooden cabin!

It seemed that they were prepared for everything since the man had even stored a wooden cabin in his Spatial Ring!

Clara together with her maid Venessa went inside the cabin. No one liked to be stared by all those burly men. Though there were some female Mercenaries, it didn’t help that more than half of them were the same as men while they stared at Clara!

Although the Mercenaries had also set up their tents, only a few of them would be put to use because most of them were not going to sleep.

Even the weakest of the bunch was Rank-4 Mercenaries. And even they could afford to stay up a few days before needing the sleep.

After what seemed like a few minutes, the Mercenaries together from the instructions from the Silver Knights had set up everything that they needed.

Some of the men already stood guard around the perimeter.

Clive looked around, nodding his head with satisfaction. Before he was pessimistic about the Mercenaries being a good choice, but now it seemed like they weren’t so useless after all.

After he noticed that everything was set, he looked around and noticed that the leaders of the Mercenary groups were looking at him, waiting for further instructions.

“Everyone, we are having a meeting! Only the leaders gather around while others keep watch!”- Clive shouted his orders.