Monkeys stared at Claud as he cleaved a way through the undergrowth of the forest. Unlike some of the unluckier forests, this nameless one was not a shortcut to anywhere, which meant that people had little incentive to forge a path through it and then charge users for a nice fee. As a result, the forest had grown uncontrollably, with bushes the height of Lily a rather common obstacle.

At least the trees weren’t clumped together, though.

“It stinks of death here,” Lily muttered.

Claud sniffed curiously, but he couldn’t pick out the stench of decay that he associated with dead bodies. “Are you sure?”

“Trust me on this.” Lily’s words carried a weight to them. “I can smell it. Dead bodies that have been buried deep underground. It’s not obvious to many people, but you just need to turn up some soil and the stench will burst out.”

“What the heck is in this forest?”

“Not just those darkened animals, that’s for sure.” Lily’s face twisted in a fashion that Claud had never seen before. “We should retreat. This place isn’t for us. Get Caroline and raze this forest to the ground.”

Leaves and twigs rustled at those words, and Claud felt his face twist. Without a word, he pulled Lily away. A set of claws fell on her previous position a moment later, tearing the ground apart upon impact.

“Run!”

Pulling Lily along, he bolted through the undergrowth, inwardly thankful that he had taken the time to cleave through a path. If he hadn’t, the two of them would have been forced to fight in hostile terrain. The monkeys bolted along with them, swinging from tree and tree and jumping down on the path when necessary.

A choir of roars rose from the depths of the forest, blotting out the frightened shrieking of the monkeys, and the ground began to shake. The larger monsters had awakened, but as for what type of monsters they were, Claud had no idea.

When did so many monsters hide inside this forest?

Claud had no idea, but he definitely knew that one wrong move would probably tie them down in combat, which probably wouldn’t end all that well.

“We’re close!” Lily yelled.

“Prepare to toss the flare!” Claud yelled back. “Use more mana too! Get more distance! These monsters aren’t going to let us escape this easily!”

Throwing on a burst of speed, the two of them dashed past the monkeys and broke out of the forest. A deafening roar shook the world as Lily took out a tube-like object and aimed it at the sky. A small ball shot out of it, bursting into a huge blue cloud high above them a second later.

Without waiting for the city’s response, Claud and Lily bolted off in the direction of the city gates, running madly as the roars and shrieks continued to spread. The sounds of clanging bells filled the air as the two of them made a mad dash towards the city — the defenders of Licencia were already on the alert.

“Slow down, but keep moving,” said Claud, who was taking the chance to inhale deeply after opening up some distance between them and the forest of dangerous monsters. “I don’t think they’re just going to slink back into the forest, now that they’ve been exposed.”

Another ear-splititing roar drowned out Lily’s reply, and on instinct, the two of them turned to look at the forest that they had just escaped from. There, a giant reptilian creature had just burst out of the undergrowth, roaring madly.

There were blackened streaks on it.

“Moons…” Claud muttered. “What is that?”

“I wish I could tell you the answer to that,” Lily replied, her face white, “but I do know something about that monster, and that it’s something we should run from. Right now.”

The ground shook again.

“No, not yet. Don’t move too quickly,” Claud replied. “In fact, we’re still quite a distance away from the city. It’s possible that if the monster spots us — which is easily done by moving quickly — it might just be able to chase us down and turn us into food. No.”

“Then…”

“Follow what I do,” Claud replied, before lowering his body slowly. His eyes were fixed on the reptilian, house-sized monster, who was busy surveying the area with its beady eyes. “Get down slowly, and lie down on the ground.”

“Lie down?” Lily asked.

“Yes. It seems that this monster still quite remembers its fear of Emperor Grandis, but we are outside the city,” Claud replied. “Therefore, it’s likely that this huge reptile thing won’t attack Licencia…but if it spots us running to the city, that’s a different question.”

As he continued to speak, Claud laid down on the ground, pulling Lily along for the ride while he was at it. He didn’t know how good the monster’s eyesight was, but lying down was a far safer choice than simply making a break for it now.

“What do you think that monster is?” Lily asked, pulling out a small package.

“No bombs, Lily,” Claud replied. “But I think it’s called a crocodile? I’m not sure. Big head, huge body, talons…we’ll just call it Tugly. You know, talon plus ugly.”

“Makes sense.” Lily unwrapped the package, pulling out a small square pastry. “Also, that’s not a bomb, that’s a small apple cube.”

“What’s an apple cube?” Claud asked, pulling out his small machete, which he had sheathed while running away madly.

“An apple pie, just that it’s in the shape of a cube,” Lily replied. “Are you digging a hole?”

“With mana, even a branch can be a shovel,” Claud replied. The air around the blade of his machete shimmered faintly — Claud didn’t use too much mana, after all. He didn’t know if monsters were attracted to the azure blue light characteristic of using too much mana, but Claud wasn’t going to take any chances here.”

Within minutes, his mana-empowered pseudo-shovel had produced a small pit, large enough for the two of them to shelter in. Unfortunately, the open terrain around Licencia meant that there really wasn’t any way to make a shelter, which, when combined with the hot sun burning down on the two of them…

“Alright, now just lie down on your back and get something to cover your eyes,” said Claud. “This monster…is really angry.”

He snuck a peek out at the monster he’d named Tugly, who was still roaring and looking around for any free food. Fortunately, no caravans or trade convoys were going past the vicinity — either that, or they had seen the house-sized monster, prompting them to make a detour.

“Cover my eyes?”

“Yeah, we’re going to sleep in the sun or something for a while,” Claud replied. “Fortunately, our clothes were meant for navigating rough terrain, so it won’t be that uncomfortable. Heck, you might get addicted to sleeping under broad daylight.”

Lily shifted closer to Claud, before tugging at his clothes.

“S-something wrong?” Claud asked.

“Come a bit closer,” Lily replied. “You always maintain this distance between you and everyone else, even me. I don’t like it.”

“Distance?” Claud thought for a moment, and then shifted to his right. “This better?”

“Yeah — wait, that’s not what I meant!”

It was obvious that Lily had been affected by the forest. Claud wasn’t going to doubt her words earlier; if she said that there were lots of corpses buried in that forest, there probably were lots of corpses. Of the Moon Lords, Claud had a feeling that she had seen and smelt the most bodies; today’s discovery had probably opened up some old wounds of hers.

He reached out and patted her head once. “It’s all in the past. Don’t dwell too much on it, okay? You’ve ended your family’s wrongdoing — that’s something that people with a conscience will do.”

“I didn’t realise you had the Telepathy skill,” Lily replied, shifting somewhat on the spot.

“I don’t need it,” Claud replied. “We’ve been running around the place for the past few months. I think I have a reasonably good understanding of your character.”

“But I don’t have a good understanding of you,” said Lily.

Claud kept his breathing steady. “Really? What part do you want to know more about? I’ll tell you what I can.”

“Really? Lily tilted her head. “Then…tell me about why you are so paranoid.”

“That’s a very long story,” said Claud. “Are you sure you want to hear about it?”

“We have time now, right?” Lily asked, her eyes a bit too bright for Claud to overlook.

As if on cue, Tugly roared once more, and the archers at the city wall trembled visibly. The two of them snuck another peek at the ugly reptilian thing, who was still looking around for presumably the two humans that had fled its forest. From the looks of it, the ugly fellow was going to be here for the next few hours or so.

“Yeah, I guess. Well, since that ugly thing isn’t going to move too far from its sheltered spot, I suppose we’ll have to wait it out or something. Once it gets bored, we can make our way out easily.” Claud slunk back into the pit. “So, about my paranoia, huh?”

“Is that fine?” Lily asked.

“I suppose.” Claud made himself comfortable, and then looked at a particular white cloud. “Let me start with my childhood, then.”