Alz looked towards the sky and let out a sigh before turning the front. The skies had already brightened, and the day had only just begun, but Alz's body felt much heavier than usual, reflecting his current mood.

Today was the day he would set out on his first duty, something that he could only think of as being a drag. He wanted nothing more than to return to his daily routine, but he also knew that it would only end up worse if he skipped today.

"It's only one day."

With another heavy sigh, he consoled himself slightly and dragged his heavy feet out of the field, towards the southern guardhouse.

Incidentally, his attire today was also different from usual, donning the official guard attire for the first time. Perhaps because of this, he felt especially moody today, forced to leave his usual cycle and familiar clothes behind at the same time.

"Time to get it over and done with."

Initially, he was moving at a slow pace, but he quickly reasoned it within himself and realised that this was ultimately just wasting his own time, speeding up to his normal pace.

After walking for almost two hours, Alz finally caught sight of the entrance to the southern guardhouse along with three familiar faces standing by the doorway. When they saw Alz, all three of them immediately started waving at him, causing Alz to reveal a look of surprise.

Alz started hastening his pace, not wanting to make them wait. Even though the tribe hadn't mentioned anything about receiving him here, he could think of no other reason for their large reactions upon seeing him.

At first, he didn't think too much of it, dismissing it as one of the many acts of kindness they often showed. However, as he approached them, he started to notice an unnatural stiffness in their expression, causing an ominous vibe to rise within him.

"Hey guys, thanks for coming out to get me." Alz pushed the feeling to the back of his head and greeted the three elves with a bright smile.

These three elves were Kleiz, Bart, the elf who handed the scroll over to the captain and Tol, the elf who had spoken to Alz on many occasions regarding the forests, two of them being the closest acquaintances Alz had among the warriors while Bart was usually in charge of the group.

"Y-yeah, sure, no problem, don't worry about it." after a brief pause, Kleiz replied with a stiff smile on his face while averting his eyes from Alz as he spoke.

Alz's alertness immediately spiked at his reply, raising an eyebrow as he eyed the three of them with suspicion. If it was only a guess that something felt amiss earlier, Kleiz's shaky reply made him certain of it now.

Kleiz had a brash and straightforward personality, and how he was acting now was wholly unnatural for him, causing warning bells to sound in Alz's head.

"Sorry Alz, I forgot to check when I decided on your duty. The fault is entirely mine, so don't blame anyone else for this." Bart suddenly stepped up and spoke to Alz in a heavy tone.

"What's wrong?" Alz asked as he looked towards Bart with a puzzled expression. He had initially thought that something had went wrong with the tribe, but he relaxed slightly when he heard that it was just about the duty.

At the same time, he was also feeling confused as they knew of his abilities and there shouldn't have been anything they would worry about.

Bart gazed directly into Alz's eyes and tried to answer, but he hesitated each time he tried to speak, causing no words to leave his mouth.

After a few seconds, Tol sighed and took over, explaining the situation to Alz, "The patrol duty today is wolf-accompanied."

Alz felt his senses leave him for an instant, staring at Tol with a blank expression. He understood the words, but his mind was refusing to process the information immediately, spacing out for a moment.

A deathly silence went on for about a minute with Alz spacing out while the three elves exchanged helpless looks as they observed him with concerned eyes.

They had expected many different reactions from him, be it shouting angrily or falling to grief, but his current reaction, or the lack thereof, was more worrisome than any other he could have had.

This was something the tribe had only realised yesterday, inciting a wave of panic among them. They had decided Alz's duty solely by its date and had neglected to consider this scenario.

Bart was placed in charge of planning the duties, so he felt personally responsible for this and came today. Kleiz and Tol on the other hand, were selected by the tribe to deal with the aftermath, as they were the most familiar with him among the tribe.

Yet, even they were at a loss now for what to do, not knowing how they could go about with defusing the situation. Kleiz smiled bitterly as he inwardly regretted not looking to the female elves for help, as they would probably have been much better at handling this than any of them.

"It's fine, don't have to worry about me. It's just a duty, I can handle it." a hoarse voice escaped Alz's lips, trying to reassure them. Despite this, none of them felt any relief from his words with his tone and the blatant forced smile on his face.

Bart lightly nudged Kleiz while giving him a look, signalling for him to do something about it. Kleiz first shot a look of protest back, but quickly sighed and turned back to Alz as he thought of what to say.

However, before he even got a chance to speak, Alz circled around the three of them and entered the guardhouse, slowly heading deeper into the building. Kleiz wanted to call out to him, but Tol placed his shoulder and shook his head lightly, stopping him from doing so.

The three elves escorted Alz in with worried eyes, letting out heavy sighs after he disappeared from their sight. Bart revealed a strong look of regret, swearing to himself to never make this mistake again.

Alz trudged ahead with soulless eyes, slowly advancing to his destination. He was angry at the start, but he couldn't bring himself to lash at them with the sincerity they showed. Besides, he also felt partially responsible for not thinking of this before, so he didn't want to blame them.

With this in mind, he held himself from directing his anger at them, but this did nothing to help his motivation that had sunk to rock bottom.

Many of the elves he came across turned towards him with curious eyes. Normally, he would have been called out or approached several times already, but the dark aura lingering served as an effective repellent, the one good thing that resulted.

He gradually made his way across the guardhouse, exiting by the southern entrance of the building to the designated gathering point. He wanted nothing more than to just turn back and leave right now, but he knew very well that he couldn't.

"It's just one time."

A short distance away, he immediately spotted a group of five standing near the gates, with two of them from his tribe. Alz faced no difficulties in finding them, as they were standing out far too much for him to miss.

It was not their looks or attire, but the leashes they held onto that gave it away. Each of them was holding onto a leash that connected to a harness on one of those detestable creatures, a wolf.

After reading more in the library, he learnt that the wolves were truly non-aggressive here and were useful to the community in many ways. Rationally, he knew that he ought to try and accept them, but the scars in his heart went far too deep for this.

Even now as he looked at them, an intense bloodlust started to radiate across his body, barely resisting the urge to draw his weapon.

"Oh, He's here. Alz, over here!" an elf from the group noticed Alz as he exited the guardhouse and informed the others of his arrival while calling out to Alz.

After joining the group, Alz nodded to the two he recognised before lowering his head, not uttering a single word. The two elves exchanged bitter smiles, knowing that Kleiz and Tol were unsuccessful in consoling him.

The pair had given the three some details on Alz before this, so they didn't question the lack of his wolf. Regardless of how they actually felt inside, they didn't direct any animosity to Alz now, choosing to ignore him instead.

"Well... Since we're all here, let's go?" the elf snuck a cautious glance at Alz as he said this, but silence was the only response he reived.

He took the lead and left the gates, turning around to check immediately after. When he saw that Alz was following, he finally felt relief and went deeper into the forest according to the given route.