Rimold stepped back, sizing up Reinhart with a fearful expression. “W-We don’t want any trouble, Reinhart! Just let us go!”

The knight only laughed at the rogue’s reaction. “Do I really have such a poor reputation in your eyes?”

Rimold shook his head. “T-That’s not what I mean, I just-”

“Y-You’re surrounded now, Reinhart!” Allen interjected, pointing his sword at the man with some thin confidence. “There’s no way you can take all of us-”

“Young master, shut up!” the rogue put his hand over the boy’s mouth.

“Hm?” Reinhart hummed, his tone becoming more severe. “Do you really want to fight?”

“N-No, he didn’t mean-”

Before Rimold could finish speaking, the world around the group changed. A few moments later, the group stood in the labyrinth again.

“Run!” as soon as the rogue came back to his senses, he dragged Allen away and left the corridor.

Neither Red nor Rog followed the man, and Reinhart just watched them leave with his arms crossed. Once Rimold saw his companions weren’t following him, he froze in his steps.

“What are the two of you doing?!” the rogue looked back at them with a desperate gaze.

“… Do you think you can outrun him?” Red shook his head.

“Hmm?” Rimold looked confused. “What do you mean by…”

The man seemed to notice the strangeness of the situation. Reinhart didn’t have his weapon drawn and was not giving chase, and although both Red and Rog were still maintaining their distance from the knight, they didn’t seem to be worried about an immediate attack.

“… What is going on?” Rimold frowned.

“We have formed an alliance, of course!” Reinhart said, removing his helmet. Finally, the man’s appearance was made clear to the rest of them, confirming his identity.

“An alliance?!” the rogue’s eyes widened. He looked over at Rog and Red. “With him?! Are you insane?!”

“It’s no alliance.” Red said. “We are just working together until we pass this trial.”

“That’s not any better!” Rimold gritted his teeth. “Do you even know the first thing about this man?!”

“Not really.” the boy shook his head.

“He works for Gustav! Our arch-nemesis! Not to mention, he has tried to kill us plenty of times before!”

“Hey, that’s just a lie.” Reinhart frowned. “Those were Gustav’s other subordinates. I never attacked you directly.”

“You started a fight against Domeron in the middle of town!”

“That was just exchanging pointers.” the knight shrugged.

“Exchanging pointers, my ass!” Rimold looked over at Red. “Look, didn’t you say he kidnapped you earlier?! How could you ally with someone like that?!”

Allen, who was standing behind the rogue, also looked over at the boy with a worried expression.

“He had many opportunities to get rid of us there but never did it.” Red shook his head. ”I’m not suggesting we fully trust him, but working with him might be a necessity if we want to make it out of this trial alive.”

“We could have dealt with that bear on our own!” Rimold seemed unconvinced. “Why would we need his help?!”

“There were three bears.” Rog, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up.

“Three?” the rogue’s eyes widened in shock.

“That’s right.” Reinhart nodded. “And this was one of the weakest monster chambers I could find after exploring the area.”

Rimold’s expression worsened at the revelation.

“You’ve probably also noticed we need to kill monsters to advance, right? Chances are it will continue to get tougher further on.” the knight said with a sigh. “I didn’t plan on entering an alliance with you either, but even I was already hard pressed to deal with the bears by myself… I can’t imagine what it will be like further on.”

The rogue started to understand the direness of their situation. However, there was still no small amount of hesitation in his expression.

“This is still too dangerous.” Rimold shook his head. “He could turn on us at any point.”

On that end, Red had to agree with the rogue. Though they might need each other right now, what about at the end of the trial? What if he found some of his own companions too and didn’t need the group anymore? Not to mention, he could still just be playing the long con with them.

There were too many unknowns.

“I understand your worries.” Reinhart nodded. “How about this - I’ll walk ahead of you all and leave my back to you. That way I’ll be scouting the danger, and at any point your archer friend can just shoot me in the back… How does that sound?”

Rimold didn’t respond, looking over at Rog instead. It all depended on whether the man felt confident in killing Reinhart under such circumstances.

The hunter shrugged. “That sounds reasonable.”

“… Fine.” the rogue nodded. “We’ll do as you say then… But be warned that if you do anything suspicious, we won’t hesitate to shoot you dead! I doubt even you could survive Rog’s arrows!”

Reinhart smiled. “That’s great! Then shall we-”

“What about your talismans?” Red asked.

The atmosphere around the group suddenly changed, and they looked at Reinhart with wariness.

The knight glanced back at Red with a feigned smile. “I do have talismans… But as you’ve seen yourself, they all take a while to activate. By the time they’re activated, you’ll have shot me dead, won’t you?”

Red didn’t respond, and looked over at Rog.

“… That sounds reasonable too.” the hunter nodded.

“Then, are we finally settled?” Reinhart waited for the group’s reply.

“I guess so.” Rog nodded again. “We still have the rewards to split, though.”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that.” the man shook his head. “How about you take the rewards from this chamber as a sign of my goodwill? We can start splitting them later on.”

“Right, right, that also sounds very reasonable.” Rog was all too eager to agree. He pointed at the exit of the chamber. “Wait for us there while we check this, please.”

Reinhart laughed, but still followed the hunter’s instructions. He headed towards the exit and leaned against the wall on the other end of the corridor where the purple mist had formed once more, giving some privacy to the group.

Reinhart and Allen finally reentered the room and approached their companions.

“Do you really trust him?” the rogue asked the hunter in a whisper.

He knew that even from a fair distance away, Reinhart could still hear their conversation with his improved hearing, so he lowered his voice.

Rog, however, didn’t bother whispering. “I don’t need to trust him, I only need to trust in myself… It doesn’t matter how strong he is, as long as he isn’t in the Lesser Ring Realm, I can still shoot him down.”

The man seemed to have absolute confidence in his own strength, so Rimold didn’t have any room to complain.

“Let’s stop dallying around and check the loot already.” Rog shook his head and headed towards the altar with Rimold.

Red was about to follow him, but Allen held him back. The young master had a troubled expression on his face.

“Are you okay with this?” Allen asked.

“With what, exactly?” Red was confused.

“With allying with Reinhart, I mean. He’s not a good person…”

The youth frowned. “We are doing this for our own survival. It shouldn’t matter if they’re evil or not, as long as they help us get out of this alive… We aren’t really helping him do anything evil, after all, are we?”

“I suppose not…” Allen nodded. However, he still seemed unconvinced.

Before they could continue their conversation, however, Rog called to them. “Hey, you two, come look at this!”

Red and Allen approached the man and looked at the container he had just opened on the ground. Inside of it, there were three red pills arranged neatly side by side. There were a few strange symbols.

“Cultivation pills!” Allen exclaimed in surprise.

“Quiet, you moron!” Rog slapped the boy in the head. “Do you want that guy to hear it?”

The young master rubbed his head in pain and nodded along to the hunter.

Rog looked over at Red. “Do you recognize them?”

The boy frowned in response. “Why would I recognize them?”

“Aren’t you Goulth’s student? He knows pills and stuff like that.”

“Goulth isn’t an alchemist. He just knows the basics, and I haven’t even learned that much from him.”

“So we have no way of knowing what these are for?” Rog sighed. “I suppose we’ll need to wait until we’re out of here.”

After stowing the pill away, the hunter looked back at Red as if suddenly remembering something.

“Oh yeah, that’s right! I'm glad to see the injury to your arm wasn’t that serious after all!” Rog said with a smile.

“Huh?” Red was taken aback by the hunter’s words.

The boy looked down at his own right arm and noticed the pain had gone away without him noticing. He had been so focused on his fight with the bears that he had failed to notice such a change had happened without his knowledge.

‘Since when did this…’

“Is there something wrong, Red?” Allen asked once he noticed his companion’s contemplating expression.

“Nothing.” Red shook his head. “I guess it really wasn’t as bad as I thought.”

Although the boy said that, his thoughts were in disarray.

‘Could it be I really exaggerated the injury?’

That didn’t seem likely. Red had broken bones before, and he was aware of how it felt. Even if the injury from earlier wasn’t that serious, it shouldn’t have healed this fast. His mind thought about what could have possibly happened until he recalled another strange occurrence that had happened earlier.

‘The wolf blood.’

The fluid had disappeared once it had touched his face, leaving behind a burning pain. Red didn’t know if this was connected to his sudden regeneration, but it did point towards the most likely culprit.

‘The crimson sense.’

“Well, let us be on our way, then.” Rog got up and approached Red. He crouched down and whispered into his ear. “Keep scouting with your power, but don’t let him know about it. We’ll just let him scout the way for us, and you can sign to me if you sense something important.”

Red nodded. He agreed with Rog’s approach to things. Since Reinhart offered to scout the way ahead for them, there was no point in Red revealing his powers unless it was absolutely necessary.

“Are you guys ready, then?” Reinhart asked once the group approached him. “We don’t know for how long this mist trail will stay up.”

“We are ready.” Rog nodded, nocking an arrow into his bow. “Lead the way, please.”

Reinhart smiled and did as instructed.