It had been a while so it felt great to get such a high reward quest, but at the back of my mind I had a lingering suspicion. Because Sensei wasn't this generous and the quest came out of nowhere.

Anyway, how was I supposed to find this 'prized journal', when I didn't even know which member of the party had it? Was I supposed to attack each of them until I got my fangs on it?

And who the heck was this Grandmaster Lothrein anyway?

"You are being rather generous with this quest, so what's the catch?" I straight out asked Sensei.

«You should stop thinking of me as your personal answering machine and just focus on finishing your quests and getting stronger.» Sensei grumbled.

Why was he being salty for no reason, like I spent all day tormenting him – when it was actually the reverse.

Regardless, it was thrilling to receive something good for once.

But then it dawned on me.

I was still in a penalty, and he expected me to go against three elves and ten mortals like this?

What the heck? It was like giving another difficult exam when the current one wasn't finished yet!

Was this even legal?

"I'm the one being tormented here!" I complained.

«Do you think this is a cruise for you to casually coast by?» Sensei sighed. «You should stop complaining and be grateful for the quests I give you.»

Grateful? I scowled in annoyance.

"I might be a monster, but why shouldn't I be able to enjoy a leisurely stroll like a normal snake? Does some hardship have to be included too?"

What happened to my Pit being more important?

He'd forgotten that as soon as he saw that elf girl.

But Sensei's next words hit my sore spot.

«Can you confidently say you could beat Sylrin right now?»

I stared at the overgrown lizard hiding behind the foliage, his tail swishing about excitedly behind him. If it was before, I could've confidently said yes, but now... I wasn't sure.

«Think...why did he bring you here?» Sensei continued. «He must also want something from them.»

Indeed, Sylrin had been acting strange.

I reluctantly agreed, because why else would he stalk the hunting party all the way here?

And although I still had my doubts, the quest was very tempting to ignore.

If I could get my fangs on this journal, perhaps I could read its contents and find out what the elves and mortals were after. The quest said to destroy it, but it wasn't mentioned to destroy it immediately.

Ah! But I didn't know how to read any text yet.

However, I was confident there was a skill for that!

Fortunately, I was confident there was a skill for that, I just needed to discover it. But for now it was best to watch the party members to figure out which one had the journal.

Since there was little activity from the tents, we decided to relocate further away from them.

Sylrin had already figured out the range of the elf girl's detection, and although I wasn't sure how it worked, I decided to trust him. As long as we stayed outside of the range, I was confident we could observe them comfortably from a higher vantage point without being discovered.

In addition, after staying within the illusion barrier for a couple of minutes, its nauseating effect had become slightly tolerable. And so, I settled on a sturdy tree branch and scanned the group of tents for movements within.

Sylrin was watching from the ground while covered in my shadows for an extra layer of concealment, but he wasn't happy with staying down and attempted to climb up my tree to join me, much to my annoyance.

The branch I was on started to strain under his weight, the leaves rustling aggressively, and I hissed at him to get down before it broke. But we were interrupted by the hunting party as they emerged from their tents.

They were divided into two distinct groups though - the elves, and the mortals, and there seemed to be some kind of tension between them.

I did a quick head count of the party and counted only seven members.

Hm? Why were they so few now?

Where was the rest?

There were familiar faces that I recognised such as the elf girl and the scruffy huntsman. But there used to be thirteen members in total so what happened to the rest?

Sylrin who was watching from beside me, let out a low growl, his eyes fixed on the mortals, and I recalled the skull I'd found in his cave.

Haah…

When I did a quick addition of the casualties caused by Sylrin and I, along with the commander and the burnt soldier that escaped there was still at least one member missing.

I tried to recall everyone I had seen before and to my surprise, it was one of the sparkling elves that was missing.

I had to be extra careful to avoid their detection when I snuck into their camp so I made note of every member. I remembered him especially, because he wasn't as clean cut as the others, and he'd carried a short sword and a bow, which made me wonder what had happened to them since.

However, I soon got bored after a while.

The male and female elves were elegant as usual, but their actions were too normal.

Once outside their tents, they converged to pour over some maps and that was all they did for several painful minutes.

And there were too many scrolls scattered across their table to know which one was the journal I needed.

The mortal half of the party skulked around them, looking bored as well while the ones dressed like soldiers kept chatting amongst themselves.

What exactly were they doing?

Ooh!

There was someone I'd never seen before!

She was clearly an elf because her ears were pointed, but her skin was a dark shade of mahogany, and her hair was cut short and dark green.

Hm.

Calling her cute seemed wrong, because 'she' seemed more like a guy.

This elf was crouched on one of the rubble walls, dressed in dark clothing while adjusting a long bow that was nearly as long as she was tall. She was beautiful in a rather androgynous way, and I did not miss the wiry arms and obviously flat chest.

However, the feather lashed, cherubic face highly threw me off.

So this was their archer.

And lastly there was my favourite huntsman who looked even scruffier than ever.

He was polishing his axe, between the two groups, neither a part of the mortals nor the elves.

As for the others, I didn't care much for them.

The male elf was too sparkling in looks, and stood in an arrogant way, much like the female.

But I told myself to not be fooled by their appearance, because they were probably the oldest of the group.

While the mortals all looked like middle aged adults, compared to the elves who seemed to be in their twenties and the archer looking like a teenager, they were probably as young as infants.

In between pouring over maps, the two groups would occasionally clash, with the elf male frequently going against the three mortal soldiers.

I asked Sensei what their argument was about, and he summarised it briefly.

The elf side of the party wanted to go down into the misty valley, and the soldiers wanted to wait for their commander to return from hunting a winged creature, who I assumed was Sylrin. It seemed they wanted to capture him to fly over the valley, rather than go through it because of the monsters inside.

Hearing this made me hissed in anger.

Sylrin was not a mount!

However Sylrin, who I was defending, growled at a mortal who looked lecherously at the elf girl as she poured over her maps. With her prince-nez in hand like a scholar, she didn't seem to care much that the mortal soldiers were against her and continued her actions.

Meanwhile, Sylrin was practically aflame as he glared at the soldiers, and nothing I did could calm him down.

I was so sure the group would discover us from how loud he was being. That is, until the elf girl tucked one long strand of hair behind her pointy ear.

And suddenly, Sylrin who had been so close to storming down in a blaze of fire, settled down quietly on my tree branch to watch.

What?

I stared back and forth between the two in horror.

Why were Sylrin's eyes sparkling? And what was that enraptured look?

Don't tell me he has fallen for the attractive elf?

No! I thought I was his everything!

I quickly covered his eyes with my coil, and Sylrin who suddenly had his view obscured wriggled to free himself.

The strained branch who could no longer withstand our combined weight, finally gave out and we both crashed to the ground.

The elf girl's ears twitched as she heard the noise and turned to stare in our direction.

And I quickly smothered the struggling Sylrin, enveloping us both in shadows to prevent us from being seen.

I was offended!

How could he betray me? Weren't these snake curves enough?

After listening out for a while the elf returned to her maps, but not before she ordered one of the mortals to check out the noise.

However, when none of them moved she looked up from her papers, a wrinkle set between her furrowed brows.