The sharpshooter Cecile went prone on the ground with her rifle in hand, slowly crawling under the carriage in order to have line of sight with her target. The second Leona asked Phoebe for a distraction she nodded and dashed out from behind the carriage whilst drawing arrows as she ran. Seeing her run out made the leader of the kobolds howl and gesture with the club as the other six raised their spears above their heads, ready to throw at her.

“Now! Fire!”

Leona's commanding voice made Cecile sharply exhale and hold her empty lungs until she squeezed the trigger, the explosion beneath the carriage surprised the kobolds in the front and the brief flash of light accompanied the fall of their leader as the sharpshooter managed to land the bullet in the beast’s skull. With howling and whimpering, they quickly scattered and ran inside the forest.

Cecile stood up and patted her uniform clean.

“Phew…” She pulled the rifle’s bolt back, ejecting the spent casing before catching it midair. “I trust you are satisfied with the results, Princess Leona?”

“More than satisfied.” She was kneeling and checking the line of fire that she had under the carriage and was genuinely impressed. “My father used to fire muskets a lot back home, but he wouldn’t be able to hit a target so far away like this.”

“With all due respect, muskets are too unreliable.” Cecile explained. “A marksman that is able to hit their shots with one will fare even better with a rifle.” She cycled through the rifle once again and caught live ammunition before handing it to her. “Instead of round steel shot, we use sharp bullets like these which makes it much more accurate. Lord Jean would’ve made an incredible sharpshooter with a firearm such as this.”

“You’ve met my father?”

Cecile nodded with a smile on her face.

“I’m Arcadian just like you, Princess Leona. Though my parents left the capital when the war struck the provinces of Windia, they used to work in the Gracefell household when I was but a toddler.”

“Gracefell… Gracefell… wait… your family used to be servants of the Queen?!”

The young woman nodded with a smile.

“The one and only. I faintly remember her coming back to the mansion a few times before the war broke out. One of those times she was accompanied by your father and mother. Knight commander Eleonora Gracefell… you could even mistake her for a goddess indeed.”

“I… I wouldn’t have known…” She was pleasantly surprised to know someone else that knew her parents in such a far away land. “I’m glad to see a fellow Arcadian doing well in a place so far away from home.”

“Hey! How long are you two going to be standing there?” Charlotte’s voice came from uphill, she had Luka and Percival accompanying her while Khalid helped Gregor unload the supplies from the carriage.

“Princess, shall I lend them a hand?”

Krieg asked cordially before they could resume their conversation.

“Ah, yes please do.” She replied to him and then turned to Phoebe. “Can you come with us? There might be still other kobolds lurking in the forest.”

She nodded without saying a word. Her dark blue eyes had an ice cold stare directed at Cecile, she seemed unaware about the high elf’s hostile glare. Leona noticed the change in attitude but decided not to say anything as they climbed the hill towards the entrance of the forest.

“You really did a number on this guy.” Charlotte mentioned as poked the dead kobold’s head with the tip of her boot. “Almost between the eyes, did you want to prove your point to Leona here about being the best sharpshooter in Astera?”

“Not on purpose, no.” She humbly replied. “Nevertheless I’m glad the result was to your liking.”

“Very much so, this one right here is dead without a doubt.” She left the kobold corpse and turned to Leona. “So, what do you say we do?”

“Have Khalid and Krieg lead the group while the others cover the flanks.”

“Huh… shouldn’t I deal with the flanks?”

The Aradian swordmaster asked, seemingly puzzled by her suggestion.

“Kobolds aren’t known for their ambush nature, but they clearly tried to do that. However, since their original plan has failed, we can expect more of a frontal assault rather than them trying to do something that clearly didn’t work a second time.”

Percival and Luka looked at one another whilst discreetly nodding, convinced as to why she held the title of ‘Princess Tactician’.

“What about the rear of the party? Do you intend to defend it yourself, Lady Leona?”

Gregor asked, to which she replied by shaking her head and gesturing to Cecile and Phoebe.

“I’m primarily a spell caster, both of them can take care of threats should they get too close to us.”

The soldiers eyed the high elf, unbeknownst to them that she was an infamous assassin.

“Defend the backline with a bow?” Khalid raised an eyebrow. “Princess Leona, with all due respect-”

Before he could keep going she raised her open palm which prompted him to stop mid sentence.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover, sir Khalid. If you’re so concerned with the safety of your back, you are free to not join us in this expedition.”

“Wha-?! How dare you-”

Charlotte cleared her throat which made the young man stop shouting. She glared at him with a warning stare.

“I gave my authority to Leona since she has more experience in leading expeditions like these and you will follow her as if it were my words, you understand?”

He opened his mouth as he was about to complain but instead he simply bowed down.

“Yes, my lady. I’m sorry.”

“Good.” She turned to Leona as if giving her space to talk with a gesture of the hands. “By all means.”

She nodded in return and stepped forward.

“Kobolds as we know, they are cunning creatures, but not anything you haven’t faced before. Pay attention to your surroundings and shout if you see anything. We’ll be fine as long as we stay close to each other. Sir Khalid, lead the way if you please.”

The group assumed the position as how they were supposed to proceed and in no time they were skulking through the forest, eyes wide and ears sharp for anything that could signify a threat.

They proceeded in a slow pace as each member of the group carefully measured each step they took. That expedition was the first experience Leona ever got to be beside soldiers in the frontline, even though she was surrounded on almost all sides with reliable people, she knew one slip could prove fatal not only to her but the others around which made her palms start to sweat.

‘I won’t let it happen again…’ She thought as she clenched her fingers around the silver longsword handle. ‘This time, I’ll be the one shaping my own future.’

Visibility was on the lower side as Khalid and Krieg led the group, even though it was mid day the forest top was so dense it blocked most of the sunlight coming in, leaving just a few illuminated pockets on the forest floor which gave the place an even more eerie feeling.

As the group proceeded further in, Phoebe began to feel a subtle rumble from under her feet.

“Hold.” She said which prompted the whole group to stop. “I must check something.”

After saying that she quickly crouched on the ground and placed her ear right against the dirt.

“What is it?”

Charlotte inquired only to be met with Phoebe’s raising hand in an attempt to silence the young woman in the least rude way possible as she was trying to fully concentrate on the sounds coming from below.

At first she thought it could be coming from the roads beside the forest but as more time passed she began to notice a rhythm between each pulse of sound, more akin to hammer strikes of a blacksmith.

“Something or someone is carving its way through the ground.” She stood up. “I can’t tell exactly what is making these sounds, but something is happening below, something big.”

“All the more reason to kill all of those kobolds.” Khalid clicked his tongue. “Foul things… are they not satisfied with plundering from the weak already?”

“I doubt we’d be able to discern what exactly they are doing from up here anyway.” Percival commented. “Nevertheless, it is our best of interests to see what they are up to. Lest we fall prey like the travelers.”

“Point taken.” Charlotte replied. “Can you estimate how far down we are talking about, lady Phoebe?”

“Just Phoebe is fine.” She answered as she stood up. “As for the question, I’m not entirely sure. Maybe around ten to twenty meters at best. I don’t usually measure depth into the ground you see.”

“An estimation is fine.” She turned to Percival. “Remind me to fill in a letter of complaint to Murakano. If the reason as to why this nest is so big comes from the time we disregarded it as a threat it might look bad for us in the eyes of the merchants guild.”

“Worried about what your brother might say, young lady?”

The old man asked with a smile on his face.

“Don’t get me started on that Perci.”

“I didn’t know you had siblings, Charlotte.” Leona sounded surprised. “An older brother on top of that.”

“Yeah… he deals with the boring merchant stuff. I prefer to fish in the open seas, but since I need to pull my weight in the family I also trade in imports and exports for and from our city.”

“Huh, what exactly is Astera missing that you need to import from another kingdom?”

“Mostly grains, fruits and textiles. Spices are really hard to come by and clothing… can’t be living without those now can we?”

“Makes sense… since the borders of your kingdom are either full of forests, mountains or salt water, it would be hard to cultivate anything on a scale large enough for the whole city. Wait a minute… what about inland trade?”

“Arivaul is too small to even consider it as a trade partner for our city. Akrapocalis is on the other side of Death’s Pass, only a madman would try to cross it, Arcadia and Windia are out of the question for the same reason. The only would be inland trader would be Londria but it has become increasingly hard to acquire things ever since the great freeze there, it basically cut us off from our biggest supplier of textiles and thanks to the death angels that comes from Nara, it’s almost impossible to navigate the ocean without bumping into one of the uglies, takes a real captain to avoid getting swarmed by them.”

“In short, what my lady is trying to say is that we are fighting a losing war. At the current moment the city can still thrive off the bounty of the seas.” Percival added. “But even with it, people are still dying without an apparent explanation.”

His sentence made Leona tilt her head a bit as she was attempting to recall something similar she had read once as she asked.

“They wouldn’t happen to be bleeding from their gums or showing red spots across their legs or something?”

Every soldier aside from Khalid turned to face her for that brief sentence she muttered. With wide eyes and a half open mouth they stared at her, somewhat shocked which prompted Leona’s eyes to nervously dart around as she asked.

“W-what?”

“How do you know that?”

Charlotte inquired, her usual cheerful and carefree tone was nowhere to be seen.

“Well… I read a book once from a Zenithian physician, bleeding gums, aching around the legs and arms are symptoms of an illness they call scorbutus.”

“Are there any cures?!” Charlotte suddenly approached her with expectancy in her eyes. “Leona I must know if I-”

“My lady please, you’re invading lady Leona’s personal space.”

Percival was politely blocking his liege’s path with his arm preventing her from getting too close to her.

“Ah. I’m terribly sorry.” She raised both of her hands before clearing her throat. “We have been looking for a cure for what feels like ages already. If you could share your knowledge with us I would be eternally grateful.”

“The most effective treatment from what I remember is the ingestion of acidic fruits. Though how much, I have no idea.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened and her hands turned into tight fists shortly after it.

“Dammit all. Thanks to the lack of inland trade we were forced to use the space of our ships to bring more staple food instead of fruits from Nara… so in a way it’s our fault that the people are suffering…”

“Don’t blame yourself captain.” Luka spoke. “There is no way anyone would’ve known.”

“Let’s focus on this first.” Cecile got the group’s attention. “I feel like we’re been watched.”

Despite not saying anything, the way that Phoebe moved her eyes around made clear to Leona that they were indeed being watched. Khalid raised his arm and began to speak.

“Careful, something’s not right- I can smell them close!”

Just after he warned the group there was a brief hustling in nearby bushes and atop of the trees before multiple stone spears were flung towards them like a prickly shower.

“Hmph!” Krieg swung his longsword horizontally, catching some of the spears that would otherwise hit the backline. “We need to fall back!”

If not for his inhuman reaction time Leona would’ve been skewered by at least four spears.

However the other side wasn’t so lucky as Luka, Gregor and Cecile were hit by stray ones.

“Argh! Filthy kobolds!” Gregor shouted as he yanked out the spear lodged in his left arm with his right hand. “You’ll pay for that!”

“Get down!” Leona shouted as she winded up her right arm. “I’ll open a way!”

Suddenly kobolds circled the group, cutting off the way they came from. Phoebe had her longbow ready and kept them at distance by quickly firing a volley of arrows that while it lacked her deadly accuracy, she made up with speed in order to keep six kobolds away from their flanks.

“Might want to make it faster!” Charlotte shouted as she drew her revolver while behind Gregor and began to unload rounds into the kobolds that got too close from the right flank. “We’re getting surrounded!”

“Krieg, Khalid! Get out of the way!” Mana began to gather on her fingertips as she cocked her arm inwards, after which she shouted. “Winds of time, release thy might, Wind Blast!”

“What the hell?!”

Khalid complained as he was pulled out of the way by Krieg.

Both of them had just barely enough time to get away as she swung her right arm outwards, the mana coiled between her fingers suddenly spurned out in a violent gale opening a way forward, sending tree branches, loose rocks, foliage and kobolds flying. At that point since the wind had swept away everything in its path, it revealed the entrance of the cave that was hidden between a few bushes which gave Leona another option other than being pelted alive with sharp stone spears.

“Everyone! With me!”

Seeing her run ahead made Krieg let go of Khalid and rush in front of his liege in order to protect her from incoming kobolds.

“You won’t lay a finger on her!”

Despite his overwhelming strength, speed was the key to keep Leona safe as there were too many enemies coming from multiple sides for him to plow through like he usually would. Thankfully, his extensive training under a strict tutor gave him enough precision and speed with the sword in order to hit vital parts to kill them quickly.

Two kobolds were closing in to his left side armed with clubs while another came charging with a spear on the right, he swung his blade diagonally upwards which just barely cut the far left kobold’s throat, with a deft movement of his wrist he brought the sword back to the right with a horizontal swing that managed to wound the other one’s right arm that held the club and once the spear charging one was just in range of his blade, he made another horizontal slash that chopped off the spear head.

“Grrhn?!”

The kobold was stunned for a moment when it saw the stone head missing from its weapon, it dropped the spear and pulled out a dagger that kept on its belt in order to attack.

Krieg followed it up by grabbing the kobold’s right arm and pummeling its face with the pommel of his longsword, with his opponent stunned, he affixed his right foot in the ground before spinning his foe by the wrist, creating enough torque to launch it like a bar which served to knock the other four kobolds that were getting ready with spears in front of them.

“Charge!”

Charlotte shouted atop of her lungs as she noticed where Leona was planning to lead them.