Farewell to the hero! chapter 26

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Since that day, I hadn’t had to take any unplanned breaks due to my physical condition.

I was growing more accustomed to long hours of horseback riding, and whenever my back or thighs ached, Owen was quick to heal me.

Kaindel was clearly displeased with how I pushed myself despite needing Owen’s healing, but I ignored him.

I couldn’t bear the thought of being a burden to the group.

Over the next week, I grew even closer to Owen and Ruen.

Ruen, in particular, entertained us with tales of foreign lands during our travels, which became a small source of amusement on the road.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t found a chance to talk with Daniel.

I was sure he had seen me that day, but whenever I tried to approach him, he was either asleep or had disappeared somewhere.

I wanted to ask if he had seen me making a fool of myself, but finding an opportunity to do so was proving difficult.

In any case, we continued our journey, passing through a field of reeds and traveling without a single day’s rest.

We crossed forests and meadows, meeting plenty of wildlife like birds and foxes.

However, the only monster we encountered was the red berry we had found on the first day.

As that peaceful time passed, we finally reached another forest, this one dense with birch trees.

“This is the Gayat Mountain Range.”

The forest, which had given off an ominous feeling from a distance, was so dark that it was impossible to see what lay within, even in broad daylight.

Kaindel had instructed Daniel to investigate the forest rather than enter it directly.

After communicating with a bird circling overhead, Daniel confirmed that this forest was indeed the start of the Gayat Mountain Range.

As I poured water into a bucket for the horses, I glanced at Daniel.

I couldn’t hear him speaking to the bird, so I was amazed by how he obtained the information.

I had imagined that communicating with animals would involve mimicking their sounds, but it seemed there was another method.

I sighed quietly as I watched Ruen eating an apple with no sign of tension whatsoever.

Unlike me, he didn’t seem worried at all, and I found myself envious of his carefree nature.

Up until now, it had just felt like we were on a journey, but knowing that this forest was part of the Gayat Mountain Range made me feel uneasy.

I couldn’t shake the sense that we were getting closer to a great catastrophe, and I was already overwhelmed with worry.

I had dreamed of moving away from disaster, yet here I was, heading straight toward it.

It was almost laughable.

Meanwhile, Kaindel rubbed his face, contemplating Daniel’s report.

His eyes narrowed in thought as he tapped his lower lip with his finger.

“We’ve arrived sooner than I expected.”

“Yeah, I thought there would be more obstacles.”

Sehir replied to Kaindel’s muttering as he pulled off his hood.

The heavy cloak he wore for the increasingly cold weather draped over his shoulders.

When his cloak nearly slipped to the ground, I quickly caught it for him.

Sehir gave me a grateful nod in return.

“We should stop here for today and camp nearby.”

Kaindel looked around, as if seeking confirmation from the others.

After a moment, he pulled out a map.

“There’s a small lake nearby. It would be best to spend the night there.”

Kaindel spread the map for us to see and pointed to a specific spot.

He hadn’t been looking at the map for long, but his decision came quickly.

I followed the tip of his hand. His graceful fingers pointed to the Geam Lake, not far from here.

Geam Lake…

I thought back.

Geam Lake was a place that had never really been mentioned by any of the guests.

This implied that it was relatively safe to stay there.

Of course, not knowing about it could also mean it was dangerous.

Still, since it was far from the area known to be Mother’s habitat, it seemed like a suitable place to stay for the night.

After sorting through my thoughts, I looked at Kaindel. Understanding my intent, he gave a slight smile.

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It didn’t take long to set up camp and prepare dinner near the plains by Geam Lake.

While Ruen and Daniel laid out the blankets, I washed some cherries.

At first, it was hard to do anything on my own without someone’s help.

But after spending a few days with them, I was slowly getting used to taking on tasks myself.

Dinner tonight was cherries and mushroom soup.

It might have looked simple, but everyone ate so much that I had to keep making more soup.

After filling ourselves up, we sat around the campfire, chatting.

“So, does Mother hunt during the day too?”

“Yeah, from what I know, he hunts both day and night.”

I replied calmly to Kaindel, who was sitting beside me, and then stretched out my hands.

The warmth from the campfire felt nice.

As the temperature would drop significantly at midnight, I wanted to enjoy the warmth while I could.

Kaindel sat back, stretching his long legs in front of the fire. His calm green eyes flickered in the light of the fire’s embers.

“We should be careful when we move tomorrow.”

“But isn’t it said that as long as we don’t provoke Mother first, she’s usually calm?”

Owen, who had been quietly listening, suddenly questioned Kaindel’s conclusion, his blue eyes fixing on me as if seeking an answer.

Ever since he’d heard that I saved Ruen, Owen had begun to trust my information.

This seemed like an extension of that trust.

What if I’m wrong, though?

I let out a small cough, trying to suppress my embarrassment, and nodded.

“Yes, as long as we don’t attack his young, Mother won’t see us as prey.”

“See? Then it’s simple. Just don’t mess with his babies.”

“Still, I think we should be cautious.”

I corrected Ruen’s statement and lightly hugged my knees.

“If we do end up having to fight Mother…”

Just as the sound of the crackling campfire filled the silence, Daniel, who had been quiet, spoke up in his drowsy voice.

“Is there a way to kill Mother?”

I froze at his unexpected question.

Of all the information I had, I only knew how to avoid fighting Mother, not how to defeat him.

My hands, which had been enjoying the warmth of the fire, dropped to the ground.

I looked across at Daniel.

His pitch-black eyes were fixed on me with a strange sense of trust, as if he believed I would have the answer to his question. It was a trust that felt similar to Owen’s but with a different, clearer tone.

I unconsciously picked at a hangnail by my thumb.

If I shattered that trust, our first real conversation would end here.

It would be a missed opportunity to finally connect with the one person I hadn’t yet gotten close to.

But I couldn’t pretend to know what I didn’t.

After a brief hesitation, I shook my head.

“I don’t really know.”

“Is there something you ‘don’t’ know?”

Ruen, who had been spacing out while staring at the dying fire, raised his upper body.

He furrowed his brows like she’d just heard something ridiculous and then yawned lazily.

“All I know about Mother is what I’ve already said, plus that he has a fast recovery rate. So, I don’t really know how to kill him.”

I watched Ruen stretch and loosen his stiff shoulders.

Before, his sharp tone would have scared me, but after growing somewhat closer to him, I knew now that there wasn’t much meaning behind it.

“If I had to guess, since Mother is a bird-type monster, wouldn’t piercing the core in his forehead do the trick? I haven’t heard of any other method.”

“I see.”

Daniel seemed to lose interest in the conversation and didn’t ask any follow-up questions. His eyelids, moving slowly up and down, showed signs of sleepiness.

Maybe if I shared something else, we could get closer.

I swallowed my disappointment. It bothered me a little that my first real conversation with Daniel ended so awkwardly.

As I racked my brain to find a new topic—knowing Daniel’s personality and how he only joined conversations when there was a specific reason—Kaindel lightly tapped the back of my hand.

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