After six hours of nonstop walking, Ronny and Enzi decided to take a break. The terrain had proven itself to be challenging, with the untamed nature offering no shortage of complications. A thick underbrush, long, gradual hills, and even a pack of wolves (not Silverbacks, just regular ones) slowed their progress considerably, but they persevered.

The two sat on a natural stone embankment and munched on some bread. Having been in the pantry for an ungodly amount of time by then, the loaves were rock hard. It took a lot of patience and chewing to get the rations to an edible state, but it was still easier than hunting.

Enzi sighed, “I must say, the one good thing about the palace was the food.”

Ronny responded with his mouth full, “Agreed.” he swallowed, “Those meals will be missed. Nothing we can do about that now though.”

“Guess not.” There was a pause while they chewed.

“Say… Would you be interested in learning how to read?”

“I haven’t thought about much, but I guess it couldn’t hurt. Why do you ask?”

“I think you should learn how.” He added, “I can teach you, if you’re interested.”

“Hmm… Well I can give it a shot.”

Ronny grinned and reached into the knapsack. From it, he produced the speller he’d stolen from the palace. He cracked it open and started trying to teach Enzi.

He’d never done anything similar, so Ronny didn’t know what the proper methodology was, or something like that existed. As such, he just read it and had Enzi follow his finger. It was hard to say for sure, but it seemed like the approach was at least somewhat effective. Enzi seemed be picking up the basics quickly.

After about ten minutes, they put the book down and resumed their travels. As they walked, the two talked about education and more specifically—Enzi’s complete lack of it. Apparently, nobody in Enzi’s family had ever had anything resembling schooling because the lord that controlled the land, they lived on made it illegal. Ronny responded to the news by announcing that he’d teach him the other subjects too.

Their hike was much more peaceful than either had imagined. Things would get worse at night, but until the sun went below the horizon, they’d enjoy relative safety.

♦

As Canta placed her palm on the monumental stone barrier that led into the city of Barnock, the other Mythrills said their prayers and steeled their nerves, “Alright. Let’s run over the mission one more time. All we need to do is kill the queen. With Alissa out of the picture, there aren’t any clearly-defined successors to the throne. As such, her death will cause the country to fall into anarchy by the end of the week. We don’t need to do anything about the Demons. The Guild will send in a extermination to deal with that later.” She took a deep breath, “And If the Corpse Chimera is active… Nvili and Saul will stall it until Rivv and I kill the queen. If it takes more than three hours to finish the job, the mission will be cancelled, and it’ll be every man on their own. Are we all on the same page?”

The others nodded.

“In that case, good luck to everyone. The mission begins now.” She put her other palm on the wall and activated her ability. The adventurers preceded to walk through the wall as though it were air. Without making a noise or being seen by anyone, they entered into the city.

The four of them were dressed inconspicuously, donning the same old-looking linen attire as the natives. Wearing hoods, masks, or anything similar would have drawn attention, so they skipped that. That said, they still got a lot of attention from the locals. Nobody recognized them, but nobody needed to know who they were to tell that they were remarkable. Their ambitious eyes and confident strides were all it took to set them apart as noteworthy. People cleared the way for them when the group passed by.

Rivv was the first to notice that something seemed off about the city folk, “The people here are anxious about something.”

Nvili gave a logical response, “Well they are under martial law at the moment.”

“I factored that into my statement. Even with that accounted for, they’re more fearful than the situation calls for.”

After walking past a street patrol without incident, Canta continued the conversation, “What are you getting at?”

“Their instincts are unconsciously responding to something. The Corpse Chimera.”

“That’s quite the leap.”

“My gut is never wrong.”

“Probably not,” Nvili shrugged, “But even if the Corpse Chimera is already active, all we need to do is be quick. Saul and I can keep it away from you two for at least an hour.”

Canta frowned, “Don’t underestimate the threat. If Alissa’s information is credible, this monster is at a stage where nothing short of an Adamantite would be needed to defeat it.”

“I realize. That’s why we’re only trying to stall it. Preventing things from moving is our specialty, you know.”

The group came to the palace’s gate. Unsurprisingly, they were closed. In response, they disappeared into an alleyway where nobody would see them, and Canta phased all of them into the ground. After a few minutes of walking through her intangible tunnel, they popped out of a wall and found themselves in the palace’s basement.

She took a moment to regain her breath, “Gosh, I’m out of shape right now. I haven’t taken a mission since my daughter was born.”

Rivv chuckled, “You just phased four people through several hundred meters of bedrock. That’s quite the feat.”

“Maybe, but I’m definitely out of my prime. Something like that shouldn’t tire a Mythrill.”

“Well this is a good mission to ease back into it then. Our target, Queen Madison, is an ability user, but not a particularly threatening one. Not unless the Chimera shows up…”