The morning sun was soft as Aric and Kail sat outside the inn, enjoying a quiet breakfast. The last few days had been heavy. The truth about Renna had left everyone shocked, and even now, Viorel was still processing it. Aric stared at his bread for a moment before taking a bite.
"It still feels strange," Kail said. "Renna being the traitor..."
Aric nodded. "Yeah. I can't stop thinking about it."
Before Kail could say more, someone called out from down the street.
"Hey! Aric! Kail!"
It was Leno, the calm adventurer they had met during the fight between the old guild and new adventurers. He ran over, waving.
"Morning!"
"Hey, Leno," Kail said with a smile. "You free today?"
Leno scratched the back of his head. "My party's busy with errands and helping fix up a few places in town. I had a free day, so I thought I'd walk around."
Aric stood up. "Wanna come with us? We were thinking of heading to the Demon Forest. We haven't been there in a while."
Leno's eyes lit up. "Seriously? Sounds great. It's been a while since I've done anything fun."
As they walked, Aric looked at him. "By the way, what rank are you? Mage or swordsman?"
"I'm A-rank," Leno replied. "Swordsman. I use water and fire magic."
Aric raised an eyebrow. "Both? That's kinda rare, having two opposition types of magic."
"Yeah," Leno laughed. "My parents were both mages, so I got lucky."
They reached the edge of the Demon Forest by noon. The forest looked the same—dark trees, thick vines, and strange sounds deep inside.
"We'll stick to the mid-rank area," Aric said. "Nothing too dangerous."
Leno and Kail nodded.
Soon, they ran into their first fight. Three shadow beasts jumped out from behind a tree. Leno reacted first, slashing with his sword while fire magic flowed around his blade. Kail followed, using water magic to slow one down.
Aric watched for a bit, letting them handle it. The two worked well together. When one of the beasts got too close to Kail, Aric stepped in and finished it quickly.
They continued deeper into the forest. After about an hour, they found two rare demons —a twin-headed horned lizard and a crimson demon wolf. Both were strong and aggressive.
The fight was harder this time. Kail focused on support, freezing the ground under the lizard with freez water magic while Leno faced the wolf head-on. Aric watched for a while but eventually stepped in when things got dangerous. He took out the lizard with wind-enhanced sword strikes while Leno pinned down the wolf.
After the fight, they each got a magic gem from the monsters.
"These are really rare drops," Aric said, wiping sweat from his forehead.
Leno looked at Aric. "You take one. You helped a lot."
Aric shook his head. "You two did most of the work. I already have enough monster gems."
"Then I'll take the lizard's," Kail said. "And Leno can take the wolf's."
Leno smiled. "Sounds fair. Thanks."
As they walked back toward Verdian, they talked more.
"Back when my party argued with the old guild members," Leno said, "I didn't want to start a fight. But one of our guys... he's got anger issues. Always yelling. I tried to calm him down, but—well, you saw how that went."
"Yeah," Aric said. "You did the right thing trying to stop it."
By the time they returned to Verdian, the sun was starting to set.
They stopped by a blacksmith shop near the edge of town. The blacksmith was an older man with strong arms and a loud voice.
"We'd like to use these monster gems for armor and weapons," Kail said.
The blacksmith examined them and nodded. "These are high-quality. Come back in a few days. I'll have something nice ready for you."
After that, Leno stretched and yawned. "Well, I should go check on my party. Thanks for the adventure. Let's do it again sometime."
"Definitely," Aric and Kail agreed.
Leno waved and walked away.
Aric and Kail stayed on the street for a few moments, watching the people around them. Things in Verdian had slowly returned to normal. Merchants shouted about their goods, kids played in the alleys, and knights patrolled the roads.
Just as they turned toward the Sylvanthe estate, they saw someone running toward them.
It was Viorel.
She looked panicked, her dark hair bouncing behind her as she rushed over.
"Viorel?" Aric said, stepping forward. "What's wrong?"
She stopped in front of them, catching her breath.
"A group of people broke into the estate," she said. "They stole the documents that Renna was searching for."
Aric's eyes widened. "What...?"
Kail frowned. "You mean the secret ones? The ones that were locked up?"
Viorel nodded. "Yes. They got past the guards somehow. My father is furious. We don't know how they even knew about the documents."
The three of them stood in the middle of the street, the sounds of the busy town now distant.
Another threat had appeared.
And it was just beginning.