Scarlett arrived at a Beast Nest. She crouched down and picked up a few beast hairs from the ground. After examining them for a moment, she let them slip through her fingers.
She let them fall back to the ground, stood up, and swept her pair of dark green eyes across the entire nest. Her expression turned slightly somber, and she turned to quickly leave the place.
The horrific state of those three people earlier was deeply etched into Scarlett’s mind. Whenever she closed her eyes, it was as if she could see the scene again.
She wasn’t unfamiliar with corpses, but none of the ones she’d seen had died in such a miserable manner. Even she had been frozen for a few seconds, yet Rosily had appeared even more composed than her!
Scarlett hurried back along the path and soon found the squad still advancing ahead.
Rosily sensed Scarlett’s presence when she was still four to five hundred meters away. She lifted her gaze toward that direction, and within ten seconds, the girl’s figure appeared.
Seeing Scarlett return, Rosily asked as usual.
“How is it up ahead?”
“Nothing. I searched many places but couldn’t find a single Magical Beast in sight. All I could find on the ground were some beast hairs.”
Scarlett spread her hands and shook her head.
“It looks like they all ran to the outer perimeter along with the Monster Tide earlier.”
“Yeah.”
Rosily nodded and slowly walked past Scarlett.
She continued leading the team deeper into the Mountain Depths.
Standing in place, Scarlett was once again left at the rear of the team. She passed through several figures and gazed at Rosily’s back.
“The situation now is that there are unknown risks deep in the Mountain Depths. The rational choice would be to withdraw, even if it means this Training Trial yields no results.”
She took a step forward and silently followed along.
After pursing her lips, Scarlett still didn’t voice anything.
Scarlett figured that Tristan and Samuel wouldn’t fail to give Rosily a passing Assessment.
Even if they didn’t, she could still leverage her connection through Yelena, or even act a little spoiled and have her mother put in a word with Lady Henna…
Anyway, as long as Rosily wanted it, she had plenty of ways to take shortcuts.
Besides, the purpose of this Training Trial had always been the word “training,” and given the current situation, it clearly wasn’t suitable to continue training.
After burying the bodies, Scarlett had considered persuading Rosily to turn back, but she could tell that it was precisely at that moment that Rosily’s resolve had hardened even further.
Even if the path ahead was dangerous, she would still keep going, even if she were all alone.
To keep the team from splitting apart, Scarlett chose to remain silent.
She didn’t know whether her silence would lead the five people of her team into hell or somewhere else.
“Hopefully not hell.”
Scarlett lowered her lashes and gave a helpless smile.
Getting close to Rosily was actually a small scheme of hers. The person who had taught her once said that this World operates on Fate, and some people are simply favored destinies chosen by heaven.
That person told Scarlett that when encountering such people, one could either avoid them or try to get along with them and find a way to ride on their Fate.
Scarlett lifted her eyes and gazed at Rosily’s slender back.
“Are you one of them?”
Night fell.
Rosily led the team to a thick branch of a large tree, where they set up tents and even lit a campfire.
She had a Spatial Ring, so she could carry far more than most people.
Throughout the journey, Rosily had been the one carrying the supplies alone, which was also why their team moved so fast. The others only carried a small amount on their backs, just in case they got separated and had nothing to eat.
Half a day had passed, yet she still found herself thinking about that highly impactful scene from time to time, causing her to vomit several times.
After all the ordeal of this day, Elqi’s delicate Missy constitution, despite having been trained, still couldn’t hold up.
Elqi was now looking a bit wilted, like a flower dried out by the sun.
Rosily carried a bowl of stewed meat soup over to Elqi. Elqi glanced at it, then let out a sigh and said:
“Thanks, I’m not hungry…”
Her voice was weak as she spoke.
Rosily blinked and sat down right beside Elqi.
“I’ll feed you.”
Elqi puffed out her little mouth. The servants at Home would never dare force her, and her parents and brothers doted on her dearly.
If she said she wasn’t hungry, they wouldn’t force food on her—she’d eat when she got hungry.
Rosily held a wooden spoon in her hand, scooped up a piece of beast meat stewed until tender, and brought it to Elqi’s lips.
Elqi looked at the food so close to her, then raised her eyes to Rosily’s earnest expression. She pursed her lips and finally opened her mouth to take the spoon, swallowing the soup and meat.
Before Elqi could even react, Rosily broke into a smile.
“At home, my mom’s always the one feeding me.”
Elqi froze for a moment, the food in her mouth naturally sliding down her throat. After Rosily saw her swallow it, she leaned in a little closer and lowered her voice:
“Tastes good?”
The slightly hot stewed meat soup made Elqi’s face flush. Then again, it might also have been because Rosily was too close?
“Goo… good…”
Speaking in a lowered voice, especially under the watchful gaze of the other three, made the atmosphere between the two of them a bit too intimate. Not only had some color returned to Elqi’s face, but her ears, hidden within her hair, also felt like they were burning.
“Mmm… it must be because I’m too close to the campfire and got singed!”
Elqi averted her gaze from Rosily and muttered softly with her head down:
“I’ll eat by myself.”
“Huh? I only fed you one bite.”
“I can eat by myself!!”
“Alright~”
Rosily smiled and handed the bowl to Elqi. Then she brought up a topic and chatted with Simona about the Goddess Church.
Seeing that Rosily was curious about the things she knew best, Simona started chattering on and on about a whole bunch of things.
Rosily also listened attentively to some of the stories Bella shared from her experiences.
As the team’s Captain, Rosily guided the group’s atmosphere, easing the psychological burden left by what they had witnessed.
But she deliberately excluded Scarlett, as if she were targeting her specifically.
Scarlett didn’t mind, though. Not everyone liked talking about themselves with others.
While chatting with the others, Rosily used her peripheral vision to observe Scarlett, who remained silent and wordless.
She didn’t really understand why Elqi had reacted so violently, but Rosily knew that perhaps that was how a normal person would react. Still, she didn’t want to fake being disgusted either.
As for Scarlett’s reaction, she displayed strong curiosity.
In Rosily’s eyes, Scarlett was a girl with deep thoughts. She seemed to have experienced a lot, acted indifferent to everything on the surface, and every move she made seemed to involve some kind of calculation.
If Elqi was a fresh and delightful cake, then Scarlett was like…
Those fruits her mother planted in the Backyard. They looked plain and unremarkable on the outside, but their flavor made Rosily curious, and she always had the urge to pick one and taste it.
Dinner time ended, and Scarlett was assigned to keep watch for the first half of the night.
When it was time to switch shifts late into the night, Rosily came alone to the high branch, where Scarlett happened to be sitting, waiting for her.
Rosily walked over slowly, and when she drew near, Scarlett quickly stood up, stretched lazily right in front of her, and yawned, looking as if she could barely keep her eyes open.
“You’re finally here.”
Then their eyes met for a brief moment. Scarlett casually turned her head away and brushed past Rosily. As she reached Rosily’s side, Rosily murmured softly:
“I guess I’m a selfish person.”
Scarlett stopped in her tracks.
Rosily tilted her head slightly and looked at Scarlett’s profile.
“No matter what happens, Estelle would complete the Training Trial’s objectives even if she were all alone, even if it’s truly dangerous there and she might lose her life with one wrong step. She wouldn’t hesitate, because that’s just the kind of person she is.”
Scarlett also tilted her head slightly, showing more of her profile to Rosily, but quickly straightened it again and spoke teasingly:
“So what does that have to do with you calling yourself selfish?”
Rosily smiled. She shifted her gaze from Scarlett to a distant mountain, then continued:
“I thought about continuing on alone, but I was afraid that if something happened to you all on the way back… so I figured it’d be safer if we stuck together.”
Scarlett turned around and raised an eyebrow at Rosily.
“Hey, you can toy with that innocent Missy and that dumb Nun all you want, but don’t think I’m as easy to fool as they are. I don’t need your protection. If danger comes, I’ll be the first to run, so don’t you worry.”
“Also, don’t get too full of yourself, little sister Rosily.”
“Heh.”
Rosily chuckled softly without replying.
Seeing that she had nothing more to say, Scarlett let out a quiet huff and headed back, leaping down from the high branch to the lower area below.
Then she nimbly slipped into the tent, lay down on the mat, and closed her eyes. After a moment, she turned onto her side.
Her hand pressed against her chest, and a faint curve lifted the corner of her lips.
Being cared about makes one happy.
***
On the other side.
Sitting on the branch, Rosily stared blankly at the stars in the sky.
She too felt like she had changed somehow…
Before, Rosily thought it didn’t matter what happened to this World or to other people. As long as she and her mother could stay together, that was enough. She never cared about the lives or deaths of strangers.
Why did Rosily continue? Because she knew that Estelle’s team, while looking like a team, was actually just loose sand—when a fight broke out, everyone only looked out for themselves.
She didn’t want her Sister to be alone, yet she also worried that without her, Elqi and Simona might meet misfortune on their way back.
Caught between two difficult choices, no matter how quick Rosily’s mind was, it was hard to have it both ways.
She neither wanted to abandon her teammates nor let her Sister Estelle face things alone, so the only option was to keep leading Elqi, Simona, and Scarlett forward.
In others’ eyes, this was a wrong decision, but Rosily felt it was the most correct one.
And in Rosily’s hand, she held [Cang]!