Though Ray didn’t particularly feel tired, she slept through the night. The moment her head hit the pillow in her room, she was asleep. Through a little bit of experimentation, she had found that she didn’t see any distinct negative effects from staying up for a few days in a row for training, but when she brought it up, Sister Eileen had assured her that her body still needed sleep. Maybe someday she would experiment with how long she could stay awake before she collapsed…

The next morning found Ray waiting at the front gate of the town for the members of her new party. She had arrived first with Lexi and the two of them had been waiting for over fifteen minutes before Jantzen and the others could be seen approaching with a large cart in tow.

As they got closer, Ray called out to them.

“What’s the cart for?” Ray asked. “Don’t you have an enchanted bag?”

Jantzen nodded, tapping the small bag hanging from a sash tied around his waist.

“Of course, I do. This cart is for something else.”

Ray raised an eyebrow.

Jantzen pointed at Lexi. The catgirl flinched and stepped back so that she was partially behind Ray.

“You’re bringing a slave along but you’re also taking up her job as the tank, so we decided to turn her into a packhorse instead,” Jantzen explained. “Most importantly, carts draw more attention and increase the chances of bandit attacks.”

The first reason aside, the second reason would have been decent logic if it weren’t an open-top cart with no products inside. She opened her mouth to protest when Lexi reached out and tapped her arm.

“I don’t mind,” Lexi whispered. “I’ll just pretend it's strength training.”

Ray nodded hesitantly. The catgirl stepped out from behind her and walked up to the cart. She reached out and grabbed the reins that were obviously designed to be attached to a horse or an ox. She started to pull, and the cart creaked as it rolled forward.

“Wait a moment!” Jantzen called out as he placed a meaty hand on the side of the cart.

Lexi relaxed her grip as she paused, looking at him with an anxious expression. The fat priest waddled over and grabbed the front edge of the cart. He pulled himself through the opening and into the storage area where he sat down and made himself comfortable.

“Continue,” he ordered, his face covered with a vengeful grin.

What in the world happened? This guy was terrified less than a full day earlier and he was now acting like a selfish bully?

Ray couldn’t understand the sudden shift in Jantzen’s behavior.

“Be careful. People like that don’t change their attitudes unless they are confident that they have control again. Don’t act rashly until you have a grasp on why he isn’t scared of you anymore.”

Ray suppressed her annoyance as she watched Lexi pick up the reins and struggle to move. Jantzen and Peter both widened their eyes in surprise as the cart slowly started to inch forward. Helen looked on with a straight face and Ven still wore his mask, so Ray was unable to determine exactly how they felt about what was happening.

Ray carefully examined Lexi, noting her strained arms and the perspiration matting her dark hair. She stepped forward and casually grabbed the reins of the cart as well.

“I like the idea of attracting prey to attack us, but I dislike your method,” Ray informed Jantzen as she started pulling the cart with Lexi.

Though Jantzen’s considerable weight was added to the cart, Ray didn’t feel like the task was particularly difficult.

Jantzen ground his teeth slightly in annoyance.

“She’s a slave... “ he started but stopped when Peter lifted himself up into the moving cart and put a hand on Jantzen’s shoulder.

“It’s alright, no harm done, right?” Peter said.

He shifted the dirty-blonde hair out of his eyes as he revealed a lopsided grin.

“As long as she can still tank when we get in trouble, it’s fine if the old bi- I mean, if the young woman helps pull the cart.”

Ray forced herself not to glare at Peter. She took note of his carefree demeanor. She knew that he was a warlock-in-training but since he avoided her until now, she didn’t know much else about him.

Jantzen shrugged and Peter gave Ray a wink. She felt a slight pain in her head, and she winced. She wasn’t sure why but something about Peter rubbed her the wrong way.

“What kind of warlock are you, Peter?” she asked.

“Obliterator,” he replied smoothly. “I break things.”

Ray frowned. The pain in her head flared and she shook her head in a futile attempt to make the sensation go away. Then a memory of her first encounter with Peter crossed her mind. He had used magic on her.

Ray summoned her mana and examined her internal state. Foreign mana had invaded her since who knows when. She winced as the mana struck her mind again and her head flared with pain.

Obliterator? Clearly not. He was a dominator-type warlock.

She willed all the mana that she summoned to permeate through her body and surround the foreign mana. She directed a vicious glare at Peter as she collapsed her mana into the invading magic and thoroughly crushed it.

Peter met her furious gaze and winked.

The action startled Ray and in that moment of clarity, she realized that the voice in her head was right. Something had changed that made it so both Peter and Jantzen felt like they could act up so blatantly.

Unfortunately, she had no idea what it was.

Ray shook her head, breaking the line of thought. It didn’t really matter what Peter was trying to do because it didn’t change her plans. If he thought he could mind control her, then this should be the extent of the attacks she would have to deal with.

“I think you should be a little more understanding of our ways,” Peter suggested.

The mana invaded her body once more and a sharp pain flared in Ray’s mind.

“Yes, I should do that,” Ray replied, trying to sound like she was mind-controlled. She didn’t really know what that would be like but guesstimated that a mind-controlled person would be devoid of expression.

She thoroughly crushed the mana invading her again as she shuffled forward, pulling the cart while looking in the direction she was moving with a blank expression. The hood of her cloak caught in the wind and billowed slightly, but she paid it no mind. She noted that Ven and Helen were now paying close attention to the conversation.

They were supposed to be checking the road for traps and watching for ambushes.

“Who are you?” Peter asked.

Every time he spoke, the invading mana returned. After crushing it again, Ray realized that he wasn’t manually controlling his mana, he was just imbuing it into his words.

That was why he didn’t realize Ray kept foiling his attacks.

Rather than come up with a fake story on the spot, she figured it would be better to tell the truth. Of course, she would have to embellish a few details, though.

“Ray,” she responded simply.

“What’s your family name? Where are you from?”

“I have no family. I am from nowhere and I have no home.”

The words rang true, and a faint memory of a crater passed through her mind. The crater was ringed by tombstones.

She pushed the feeling away. She was curious about the memory but now was not the time to examine it.

“Your hair. Is it dyed?” Jantzen asked.

“Yes.”

“What about your absurd physical strength?”

“I lift.”

The group had mixed reactions. Peter looked amused while Jantzen looked vindictive. Helen looked disinterested in the whole thing.

If Ray had to guess, Helen and Ven were not participating because they didn’t support the idea. However, they clearly didn’t oppose it either, seeing as neither of them were getting involved in any way.

Ray felt the throbbing pain in her head disappear. She shook her head as if coming out of a daze.

Ven and Helen returned their attention to the road while the group continued to move forward. Jantzen watched the two girls pull the cart with a sneer while Peter pulled a journal out of his bag and started writing in it. It was the same one he had the first time Ray saw the boy.

Lexi tapped Ray on the shoulder. Ray glanced at the catgirl, ducking her head slightly to hide her expression behind the cowl of her hood.

“You resisted the mind control, didn’t you?” Lexi whispered quietly. “I sensed a few lies in there.”

Ray chuckled.

“Of course.”

“Thank you for helping me. The cart was too heavy by myself.”

Ray shrugged.

“That’s what friends are for, right? Besides, this just gives me another reason to wipe the sneer off that arrogant prick's face.”

Lexi giggled while Ray returned her focus to the path ahead of them. She hadn’t been paying much attention to her surroundings due to the conversation, but they had already passed by the farmlands and were moving towards the Voskeg Mountains. The area around them was dotted with snow and dry grass. Trees were sparse and the sky was a dreary grey accented by dark clouds.

Originally, she had intended to share the info she got from the Earthbreakers, but she felt less inclined to do so now. It was common knowledge that Ax the Pony and his bandits waylaid groups traveling through the Voskeg Mountains. Ray didn’t intend to let them know more than that.

If her party was going to treat her and her friend like this, there was no reason for her to help them.

After about an hour, they approached the semi-familiar rocky landscape. The ground began to slant up and trees became a bit more common. There were more dried bushes than in the open landscape behind them.

Ray didn’t have many fond memories of this place.

These mountains were the place Ray woke up in after that ritual and then mysteriously experienced excruciating pain until she died. They were the place she had been eaten alive by a giant bird. They were also the place she had encountered Jonathan’s party of adventurers and had to fight for her life and freedom.

As the scenery around them changed, the group became even more focused on their surroundings. Peter put his journal away and he and Jantzen both began to help search for signs of bandits.

Helen and Ven each took a side of the cart while Peter watched behind them and Jantzen, Ray, and Lexi watched in front.

The wheels of the cart creaked loudly. Jantzen cursed as a wheel rolled over a rock and the cart jumped. Ray snickered and observed the path in front of them. She intentionally shifted the cart to hit as many bumps as possible.

Ray was the first one to detect the bandits. In the quiet, snowy mountains where the only constant sounds should have been the creaking of the wheels and her team’s shuffling steps, she heard a rock tumbling and a faint curse.

Her eyes immediately went to the source of the sound and she saw a small boulder on the side of the mountain path ahead of them. She studied the path and noted that there were three boulders spaced evenly apart in a triangle that were just large enough for a few people to hide behind if they were crouching. There were two other such boulders behind their group.

Realizing what was happening, Ray smirked.

She lightly bumped her shoulder into Lexi. The catgirl turned and their eyes met. “Ambush,” Ray mouthed. Her friend’s eyes lit up with understanding. The two of them released the reins on the cart and stopped moving. Ray drew her two-handed longsword.

“What are you doing?!” Jantzen hissed.

Ray ignored the bumbling bundle of stupidity as she turned in a circle, carefully observing each of the five boulders. Helen and Ven, upon seeing her action, immediately realized what was happening and drew their own weapons.

They heard a loud clapping sound and all eyes turned to see a man stepping out from behind a boulder. He had a pristine, white bandana on his head which covered his hair. His beard was grizzly and unkempt. He had two axes hanging from his belt, one on each side, and several throwing axes and hatchets attached to straps across his torso and his legs.

Ax the Pony.

“I am impressed that you detected our ambush. It was a little too late though, as you are already surrounded.”

The bandit leader’s voice was deep and clear. Though he was smiling, his eyes were sharp and intelligent. He was carefully observing each of them, taking note of their weapons and positions.

His eyes widened in surprise when he saw Ray. He froze and his face twisted unnaturally. After a long moment, he turned and stepped back behind the rock.

“I apologize for the inconvenience. You may continue on your way.”

“”...””

What the hell?