…

"Have you heard about it yet?"

A young male stood in front of a desk and asked. He looked at the chair that was turned in the opposite direction and awaited an answer.

"What have I heard?"

The high-pitched voice of a teen said aloud as the chair turned towards the man in front of the desk. The chair revealed a small girl with long jet-black hair and a cute dress to top her beauty up.

"Someone from our guild said they spotted a world boss in Sorrowful Forest when they explored the area."

He answered Claire's question but couldn't quite look her in the eyes as he did. So he decided it was better to look awkwardly at the wall when talking to her.

"Oh really!"

Claire exclaimed happily and jumped in her chair from excitement like a little kid. Looking at the man that got startled by her sudden outburst, she wanted more information.

"Tell me more!"

She crawled onto the desk, got up close to the man, and stared in his eyes directly. His face got beet red from being so close to her face, and he couldn't look away anymore after she had stolen his eyes.

"Oh..okay."

He stammered a bit before continuing.

"They went on an alternate route through the forest, and suddenly the trees began to shake, and a big monster ran past them."

He kept on explaining all the details, and the guild leader listened with anticipation through the whole story as he did.

"They didn't really see in detail what it was, but they assumed since it was so big and it was in the wild, it must be a world boss."

He ended his story and assured the guild master that the monster was a world boss.

"What did it look like then? I might be able to answer if you know a little about it."

Claire sat back in her chair with a doubtful expression, awaiting the man's answer. She was a bit skeptical of whether or not the monster was a world boss, and after hearing the story the man told her, she couldn't quite make up her mind.

"I don't know if it's important or not, but they said they couldn't see its head. But it might be because it was too dark to see."

He said and shrugged his shoulders without knowing that what he said was the most vital information he could have given.

"What did you just say! They couldn't see its head?"

Claire jumped up from her chair and slammed her hands hard into the desk, making a loud sound that vibrated the whole room.

"Uh.. Yes."

The man stammered again. He trembled a bit after his guild master showed her powers. It wasn't just the fact she was powerful, but that her control was so good that she could make people feel her powers without breaking anything.

"That's not good! Send a letter to the Dragon Guild immediately; we need to succumb it fast before it wrecks too much havoc."

She yelled and pointed her finger towards the door, ordering the man to get his arse out and do his job quickly. The man followed suit and ran out of the door.

'Why did it has to be 'that' world boss when there are so many others.'

She bit her nails in anxiety, not knowing if it even was possible to defeat it in the first place. So she could only sit back in her chair and wait for a response from Minjun of the Dragon Guild.

'The Headless Horseman…'

Claire closed her eyes and fell into deep thoughts.

…

Rustle-!

Something lurked in the forest, making sounds from all directions. Creaking and snapping sounds from all the dead branches indicated that something mysterious was nearby.

"Where are you!"

Sung-jin yelled suspiciously in the direction of where the rustle sounds came from, but he couldn't quite figure out entirely where it was hiding.

"I know where you are; just come out!"

He said aloud while sounding confident, but it was only a lie to lure out was hiding from him, though it didn't work. And it made him lose his patience.

"Okay, I give up. If you don't come out, I will just go without you."

He said and shrugged his shoulder, and as he did, the sounds made before suddenly stopped. And as the sounds stopped, he figured out where the person was hiding.

"Aha! There you are!"

He suddenly exclaimed, turned around, and jumped towards where there were no sounds and surprised the person hiding from him.

"No! That's not fair!"

A high-pitched voice from a little girl cried out in laughter as she rolled on the ground while Sung-jin tingled her right after he had caught her.

"Yes, it is. I'm the adult, so I make the rules!"

He said and continued to embrace the girl on the ground, making her laugh even harder than before. However, it only lasted for about a minute before they got tired and laid on the ground looking smiling at each other.

'Is this weird?'

Sung-jin asked himself, making a perplexed expression as he did. Because whether or not how you look at this scene, it wasn't normal to roll around on forest ground and embrace each other as they did.

'It doesn't matter what people think. But for some reason, I get a tingling feeling through my body whenever she laughs, and I never felt like this before. However, I don't want it to end.'

His expression got happy, and he smiled at the girl and thought of his feelings towards her. And though he had never had any siblings in his past life on earth, he did a fantastic job at making the little girl feel safe and happy without her mother.

"Are you tired? We can hit the sack if you want?"

He asked her, making them both sit straight up.

"Yes."

She answered him with a short reply and rubbed her eyes. After the adrenaline from before had faded away, she could suddenly feel her eyes getting heavier, and she could barely keep them open.

"Okay, let's sleep now then."

He took out a thin cloth that was big enough to envelop the girl. Though it wasn't the thickest and most warm, it did do a better job than not having one at all. And besides Sung-jin's warmth, he couldn't do more since he was in the middle of a desolate forest.

"Here you go."

He packed the girl in the cloth and carried her over to a nearby tree where he sat down so he could lean himself on it so as not to have a completely terrible night. And it didn't take long from the moment he sat down to the girl snoozing in.

"Huh, already asleep? You must be tired."

He said in a whispering tone, so he didn't wake up the girl. And he himself could also begin to feel his eyes getting heavier as he looked at the carefree sleeping girl in his arms.

'I think this forest is f*cking up my sleep schedule.'

He thought, looking up at the always dark night sky.

'I don't have any sense of time in here, the only clock I have is my inner one, and that's broken, so I don't know the time. But it doesn't matter; even a broken clock is right twice a day.'

He snickered at a quote he remembered from his past, and as he did, he buried his arms around the girl, so she was covered everywhere, and hopefully, it was enough not to let her freeze in the night.

'I hope we can find her mother soon; I can't imagine how it is to be without one's mother for so long. And especially not when she was lost in a cold desolate forest with no one around her. She was probably very scared before I came.'

His thoughts about the girl made him even more tired, and he could no longer keep himself awake. However, he had to be half awake so as not to get attacked in sleep because that wouldn't be fun. And since he had done that for every night in the forest so far, he was exasperated, but he couldn't just carelessly fall asleep.

'I hope we find her soon, also for my own well-being…'

He ended the day on that note and closed his eyes.