Leon's POV

The caravan was proceeding slowly down the rocky path, in the morning. On the steep road, Leon walked by the fifth cart, a crossbow in his hands, as his jade eyes scrutinized the forest around him.

They continued through the afternoon, the scraggly trees and brush growing a bit abundant, as the terrain grew less craggy and mountainous. The road wound between the hills, still heading in the same general direction, towards Anthea, though there weren't any more travelers, as the last caravan left hours before them. He kept his eyes sharp at the thought of monsters like Kalar wolves or bandits, both believed in number superiority. But he wasn't too concerned, as there were five knights in total, escorting the caravan to Anthea.

As night was falling, two bright moons hovered over the forest, washing it in a diffused blue hue. Corey, one of the senior knights, he was escorting the villagers to safety with, brought the front cart to a halt near a small dirt track splitting off from the main road and heading down the hills. It seemed they would be stopping here for the night, so Leon walked about collecting firewood. It was a bit harder to come by out here, so his search ended up sending him a bit further from the others. He noticed a commotion as he returned to the camp with an armload of wood. Oh! What now?

"Okay, try and deflect this!"

He heard the cheerful tone of Mahira, as she hurled an ice lance at a rather smug looking Corey.

Corey, being a defender, clacked his metallic shields together as he went to intercept a rather off-ranged projectile.

"Your aim sucks!", Corey said, crushing the incoming ice lance with one of his shields.

"You know that I just got this skill, I just need some practice with it!", Mahira groaned, as she hurled three more at her smug senior, still missing the shots completely.

Setting the firewood, down near where he had intended to start the fire, he watched as Mahria shot multiple lances of ice at Corey, who was blocking them with his shields. He seemed to be going out of his way to get hit, diving for the bolts to catch them on his shield even when they would clearly have missed. So, in essence, literally every single lance.

Perhaps the wind was the main factor, responsible for the slight deflection in the direction of ice lance after being shot, but Leon couldn't care less.

Mahria stomped off after a little while in a huff at her inability to get a single lance through her senior's defense. Corey was laughing at this, but shut up quickly as a bolt of red flames struck him right in the face, launched by a sniggering Clairy. Corey wasn't wearing his armour, he just stood there shirtless, displaying his well toned muscles. But he didn't seem too hurt, just agitated, shouting loudly as he chased after Clairy, blocking shot after shot with his shields.

Ignoring them, Leon sat by the campfire, relaxing after being exhausted from walking whole day. Protecting the caravan from sudden monster attacks and keeping an eye out for the danger a whole day, certainly took it's toll on him.

Since the rumour, that a door might open in the near future spread, the settlements and small villages, in and around the forest, fell into chaos. People panicked, the Adventurers guild was flooded with escorting requests. Bandit activities increased and monsters became more active as villagers tried to run off on their own. A normal person, being unable to traverse the treacherous forest, made the adventurers and knights to step in themselves.

News about the door opening, was just a rumour at first, neither was it confirmed. But nothing gets past people's senses of deduction. They eventually figured out that it wasn't just a rumour when they experienced the rising mana levels themselves.

Adventurers themselves would've dealt with it, but the Castle dungeon expedition was delayed due to a certain adventurer, confirmed alive inside the dungeon. Every dungeon had a maximum capacity, it differed from tier to tier. A tier-3 dungeon allowed a maximum amount of forty people to enter at once. But when the reconnaissance company tasked their team of forty knights, to track down the floor guardian and deal with it. Only thirty nine were able to enter. That only meant one thing, there was a survivor. It was highly likely the man who mindlessly jumped inside the dungeon at sight, as, he was the only adventurer among the normal civilians caught up in the dungeon formation.

So, their priority changed, from dealing with the floor guardian to locate the man. Leon honestly never understood the meaning behind all this. They could've dealt with the guardian first and then located the man. It would've been easier that way. But it wasn't like that this thought hadn't crossed their minds. He wasn't in the position to judge his higher ups, they must have had their reasons.

Since the expedition was delayed, some of the Knights voluntarily stepped in, to help with the evacuation of people and safely escort them to the city. Captain agreed, his reason being the presence of scattered monsters which might've started to reveal themselves, at the presence of the helpless villagers. Which was true, as Leon and his party themselves had faced two hordes of Kalar wolves and a rather tricky encounter with a venomous vine serpent. But they were easily dealt with. Whatever the captain's reasoning was, most of the junior knights just wanted to escape the torture they were going through. Digging monsters in the swamp for two whole days? Seriously?

Escorting mission was heaven, compared to the torture they were living through the past week. Being a knight meant always being bound within the walls of the city, well not always, but most of the time. They were taught how to be disciplined, be sharp, and keep their cool, even in the most adverse of the circumstances. In all essense, they were polar opposites of the adventurers. And knights took pride in this fact. But eyeing the activities of his fellow knights around him, he wondered if the freedom that adventurers were after, actually worth it.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a little girl slowly approached him, carrying a loaf of bread in her small hands. She looked behind, an older women silently waving her back. She shifted her gaze at Leon.

"Grandma said that you haven't eaten anything since morning... So...", she said cheerfully, offering the loaf of bread in her hands, "Grandma baked them yesterday and she told me to give it you and thank you for keeping us safe."

"Well, tell your grandma that it's our duty to keep you all safe", Leon said, accepting the bread, smiling at the little girl in front of him, "and thank you for the bread."

"Eat it and you'll see, my grandma makes the bestestttt of the breads!"

"I don't doubt it.", Leon said, chuckling to himself.

Leon wasn't particularly hungry, his harsh training also included starving for weeks, but he accepted nonetheless. Seeing the cheerful little girl moving towards the villager's camps, filled his heart with warmth. This is a knight's first and foremost duty after all, to protect these smiles.

"If that was my only mission," Leon sighed, as his hands moved towards the hilt in his belt, "that damn vampir- huh?"

He panicked and quickly ran his hands over his belt, "What the? Where's it?"

Mahira noticed his odd behaviour, sitting just a few meters away from him.

"You ok? Leon!", She yelled from afar.

"Oh no no! It's nothing, I'm just fine." Leon said, quickly returning to his calm maneuver.

"You sure? You're acting kind of strange.", Mahira said, noticing the cold sweat dripping off his forehead.

"Well, sounds like I accidentally breathed in some of the venomous mist released by that vine serpent. I took the antidote, but sounds like I suffered some sort of backlash upon using the mana stone afterwards.", Leon lied through his teeth.

"Let me guess, you haven't even washed your gear after fighting that snake.", Mahira said.

"... I kinda went to collect some wood and forgot-"

"YOU FORGOT?", Mahira groaned, "You forgot washing your gear, after fighting a monster with venom affinity? Are you out of YOUR DAMN MIND?"

"I know there's a lake nearby, I was just going to-"

"You want me to come with you?", Mahira asked, resisting her urge to roll her eyes.

"No, thanks. I'll be fine. I'm fine. It's just some side-effect, nothing biggie, hehe.", Leon said, doing his best to keep smiling as he got up and moved, towards the lake.

"You don't look much well.. Well whatever, hurry up before Corey realises how careless you have been lately.", Mahira said.

Leon, without even listening, rushed down the path the caravan once followed. Did I drop it somewhere? Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!