The forest at night should belong to silence, and now… it truly does.
Gurgle…
White steam and bubbles rose from the hot soup in the pot.
Apart from that, there was no other sound.
Everyone… at this moment, exchanged glances with each other.
“Wh-who’s going to try it first?” Holly, feeling the heavy atmosphere, subconsciously asked.
Whoosh—!
Everyone instinctively took a step back, leaving only one brave soul unmoved in place.
“Eh…?” Veil looked at herself, suddenly standing out, blinking blankly.
“What’s wrong… is nobody going to eat?”
She frowned, tilted her head, walked up to the pot, and filled a bowl with soup, then took a sip under everyone’s watchful eyes.
“Hmm…” Goddess Young Lady smacked her lips.
“The taste… isn’t bad?”
As she spoke, she used her spoon to scoop up a piece of meat from the bottom of the bowl and ate it.
Hearing this, everyone let down their guard and stepped forward to ladle up soup from the pot…
Slurp~
Pfft—!!!
“Cough, cough… cough cough cough!! What is this slop?!” Ileya’s red eyes contracted sharply.
She suffered the most severe injury since arriving in this world!
Thud!
Veil, who had just said the soup tasted pretty good, collapsed to the ground… her body twitching a few times before lying still.
“Ah… aaah!! Senior Veil!!”
“Hey hey hey… what did you add in here… huh?”
Arthur looked at the spoonful, at what seemed to be a lizard… or a snake’s skull? He stopped himself from finishing the sentence.
Today’s head chef… Miss Amisa, took a step back under everyone’s gaze…
“I… I really can’t cook… I said so before…” She spoke a bit innocently.
Earlier, when Ileya had her prepare dinner, she had said it, but the Lady said… it’s fine, as long as it’s edible.
After all, there was dry rations and jerky. Even just boiling some water and soaking the rations to soften them would do.
Who knew… this girl truly was a hopeless disaster at cooking!
Maybe… it’s just that Jenny has spoiled our tastes…?
No, no, no… this definitely isn’t food for humans!
Sigh~ This time the Lady truly understands… what it means for professionals to do professional work.
Helpless, Ileya had Insmouth dump the whole pot of soup, refill it with water, boil it, and soak the dry rations for a meal.
As for the “culprit” Amisa, Ileya hadn’t planned to punish her at first. But Amisa insisted on being punished by the Lady.
Saying, “If I do something wrong, I should be punished! That’s the rule!”
Hmm… if only that suspicious blush on her face could be ignored, it would be more convincing.
“Then…” Ileya stroked her chin. Her methods of punishment were just those few…
So.
Whoosh! Ileya sat directly atop Amisa, who was kneeling on the ground with both hands supporting herself as a “human chair,” crossing her legs and calmly eating her bowl of softened dry rations.
“Huff… huff huff…”
Listening to Amisa’s increasingly rapid breaths, Holly couldn’t help but speak up.
“Um… Lady, Senior Amisa seems… really uncomfortable…”
Hmm… hearing this, Ileya, having just finished her meal, was about to stand up… when she felt the person beneath her suddenly lift her head!
“No… not uncomfortable! I made a mistake! I should be punished…♡!”
And those eyes, when they turned to Holly… the trainee Head Maid clearly saw the fierceness in them… as if saying, “Don’t meddle!”
Ugh…
Holly shrank her neck… and dared not say another word.
Really is… a strange Senior…
Could this be the legendary… Professionalism?!
So powerful…
Rustle rustle…
“Hmm?” At that moment, a sound came from the bushes behind the group!
Both Ileya and Amisa beneath her turned their heads to look!
Whoosh!
No need for any orders, Reliel, who had been silently eating from the start, darted into the bushes!
Thud thud thud…
And right behind her was Mein, the Herbal Shop Master Senior who had now turned into a Pale Ghoul!
On the other side of the bushes, Reliel first looked left and right, then locked onto a direction, pulled the long sword from her waist and threw it straight ahead!
Whoosh—! Thunk!
The rapier stabbed into the trunk of a large tree, shaking down several leaves.
Rustle rustle.
Then, Mein, like a tracking hound, overtook Reliel and charged forward in his most primitive form…
“How is it? Did you catch it?”
Rustle… With the bushes trembling behind, Ileya and the others came to Reliel’s side.
Faced with everyone’s questioning, the little mute girl could only slowly shake her head and pull her rapier from the tree trunk.
“That presence just now… was it really a person?” Ileya looked at Amisa, who had a bit of sweat on her forehead.
“No… not sure. It could also be a wild animal, a Forest Cat… or a Forest Wolf.” Head Maid shook her head.
“Hmm…” As Ileya pondered, Pale Ghoul Mein, covered in leaves, crawled back from the side bushes. Clearly, there were no results.
If it was a wild animal… could it really outrun her Pale Ghoul?
Oh well… she shook her head.
“Let’s go, everyone back to the carriage to rest. Mein and Insmouth will stand watch.”
Everyone nodded, clearly not taking this little episode too seriously.
They put out the campfire, pulled out the boards and set them across the seats in the carriage, and soon… everyone drifted off into a deep sleep.
In the early hours…
“Hmm…” Holly frowned, opened her sleepy eyes, and slowly sat up…
Ugh… need to pee…
A bit dazed, she glanced to her side at Reliel, whose sleeping face was so elegant, eyes quietly closed, even her breathing shallow…
She scratched her messy black hair, quietly slipped her little feet into her boots.
Whew…
The cold wind brushed Holly’s face, making her shiver instinctively.
Outside, the moonlight was desolate, and most of the stars in the sky were blocked by thin clouds, painting the forest in a heavy, dusky purple…
A few steps before and after the carriage, two humanoid figures stood rigidly.
Holly knew, those were the Lady’s black-armored knight and… the man who had become a walking corpse, Mein.
Ileya had told her before, Mein was already dead, only his body was still moving.
That had turned Holly’s previous anger and resentment toward the scoundrel into… a faint fear.
When she’d ridden in the same carriage as him, she could clearly smell that faint… odor of decay.
The Holy Sword Bearer Young Lady didn’t know if that was the scent of death, but… it certainly was unpleasant.
If she hadn’t just become the Lady’s personal maid, she would have asked to change seats on the first day…
With those thoughts, Holly walked toward where everyone had made the fire earlier.
Earlier, when everyone had sensed that presence, they’d crossed some bushes.
She planned… to solve her problem in those bushes.
The process went smoothly, but just as the drowsy girl squatted down…
Rustle rustle…
She felt something move twice in the bushes beside her.
“Eh?”
Could it be… a snake?
The little girl turned her head in fear…
And saw… a huge, smooth, deathly pale baby face with two large rosy cheeks.
It was poking out of the bushes, expressionless, staring at her.
Whew… at least it’s not… a snake…
“YAAAHHHHHHH——!!!”
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