After the agreement was made, Lucius arrived in a carriage at their agreed rendezvous point. When he stepped down from the carriage, they all run towards him.
"My Lord, why did you choose the dark forest?" Asked Ginny
"In the past I learnt that not all monsters mean harm. Some of them just want to be left alone. The great war was just due to a lack of understanding and discrimination between we humans and the monsters. Instead of going through the trouble of war, why not make them our allies so we can all live peacefully."
At the end of his answer, they were all astonished by his mannerism. He possessed great wisdom and had delivered the answer to their thousand-year problem. Humans and monsters were seen as two rival races which were never meant to get along. But as a result of this rivalry, there has always been a never-ending war between humans and the monsters. And the result of it was the destruction of their beloved country Westeros. The hero Lucius Wesley had just returned not long ago but had already begun to change their lives.
"Come on. Let's go, to the dark forest." He said with great enthusiasm.
…...
When they finally arrived at their destination, Luna and Ginny were scared beyond measure, Amber and the knight were both normal just as Lucius. Luna coiled herself at the left side of Lucius while Ginny did same at his right.
"My Lord, I don't like this place." She spoke.
"Where do we start?" Sir Criston asked
Lucius turned to Ginny who was still coiled around him.
"Ginny, go with Amber and scout the forest. We'll be waiting for you."
"Understood."
They both replied and took off with Ginny's teleportation skill.
An hour later, they popped out of the air after they had completed their scouting.
"What did you find?" Lucius asked
"The whole forest is divided into territories, goblins, Orks, humanoid monsters and others, each minding their own businesses. But some of them seem to be very… violent" Replied Amber.
"Alright good work. Let's rest here for the night. Early tomorrow we'll begin our campaign.
They all nodded and set up camp directly outside the dark forest. Since there was a lot of work to do the next morning, most of them went to bed early, leaving Lucius and Amber, whose eyes were still open.
"Amber." Lucius called out to her.
"I have a mission for you." Lucius kept on his serious face.
"A mission? Lord Wesley. I don't mean to disrespect, but special missions would cost you an amount of money."
"You! Is money the only thing you can think about? For Christ's sake, we're rebuilding a nation from scratch"
"Christ? Who is Christ?" Amber face turned into a very confused one.
Are you kidding? You've never been to church before?"
"What is Church?" She asked again.
Lucius was in dismay by her questions. If it wasn't for her ignorant face, he wouldn't have believed her. So far, from all of his personal experiences, it seemed this world was a completely different one from his. If he wanted to keep his identity safer, then from now on he would have to be careful of the things he said in their presence.
Mmhh!
"Don't worry. More importantly, are you going to take the mission or not?"
"Lord Wesley, it's like I said. There's no mission I can't undertake. I'm a thief after all."
"What a notorious thief. Alright, I'll pay you five gold coins if you complete this mission."
"Five?!"
Lucius nodded with a smile on his face.
"Then consider this mission done."
She winked and gave him a thumb's up to show her interest.
After their night's rest, they were all prepared for all what the day had installed for them.
"Lord Wesley."
"Sir Criston?"
"Before we depart, I just want to say that not all the monsters would agree to cooperate."
"That's not a problem. If they oppose us, then we'll just have to go the old-fashioned way."
"Alright then let's begin. According to the map, before we get anywhere, we'll first have to deal with the goblins. And also, the goblins have a ruler."
"A ruler you say. Then let's go and meet this ruler."
With Lucius ahead of them, the party made their way into the dark forest. Luna was still scared but as time passed, she soon got used to the new environment. As for Ginny, she had already subdued her fear the moment they arrived. Sir Criston on the other hand had already made several conquests into the dark forest so he was already much familiar with the place.
"This place…"
"The further we go, the more I find it hard to believe that this is really the dark forest."
Ginny couldn't stop surveying her surroundings. The place was not eerie as she had thought it would be. This place was a haven for all kinds of natural resources. If it wasn't for the monsters, any country that possessed of this forest was bound to become the richest in the world. Now that country was about to be Westeros.
"Well, don't let your guard down just yet. The best part of this place is the middle of the dark forest. It has everything. It's a reservoir of riches, just waiting to be possessed."
"Lucius really thanked his past life for the journals he had written of all his conquests. If it wasn't for them, he wouldn't have had all the knowledge he had at the moment. Last night, he had stayed awake just to go through his past life's records.