CH 283

At first, Hawa didn’t know. She had merely thought that since there were thick trees and vines, it was a jungle of sorts. However, before long, Hawa felt a strange sense of déjà vu. Although it was definitely her first time here, this place felt strangely familiar. She felt as if she had been here before, and this feeling became stronger as they went deeper inside. Hawa tried to ignore this feeling, but as time went by, the unknown sense of familiarity became more intense.

Then events that she couldn’t ignore occurred. First, when she saw the tree monster that Emmanuel faced, she had doubted herself, but after seeing the three-way intersection, a memory deeply engraved in her brain surfaced. How could she forget it? To her shock, the Hala Forest was similar to the place she had risked her life to train and died hundreds of times in, where everything was covered in darkness. Of course, it wasn’t 100 percent identical, but too many things were the same despite the small differences. A hypothesis took shape in her mind. What if Chi-Hyun had created the image representation space she trained in to be as similar as possible to the Hala Forest based on the information he heard from someone else? Then everything fell into place, and it made sense why he had made a ridiculous request to her out of the blue.

[Join that expedition and be acknowledged.]

[Take the position of the head in your team.]

And why he had said things that were incomprehensible back then.

[It’s no fun if I tell you in advance.]

[You’ll find out when you go.]

Chi-Hyun, who had judged that Chi-Woo would go on the Hala Forest expedition, had trained her while giving her information at the same time—not for her, but for his brother.

‘No wonder he accepted me so easily…’ Chi-Hyun probably planned this from the very first time they met at the entrance of the official residence. The more she thought about it, the more astonished she was, but she had no choice but to admit that in a way, this was a great opportunity for her. This was an opportunity for her to prove herself, arranged by no other than the legend himself.

* * *

“Why did you come this way?”

Lakshasha looked clearly baffled by her question. It was the authority of the guide to decide which way to go. It was an authority and unwritten rule that even the expedition team’s captain couldn’t easily challenge. Of course, if Chi-Woo officially raised an objection, he could question the guide’s decision. However, the one challenging him wasn’t the captain or even another expedition member, but a porter. Lakshasha knew the necessity of a porter, but he had never imagined that he would hear this question from one.

“We brought her as a porter, but she’s not an ordinary native.” When Lakshasha looked at him with a questioning gaze, Chi-Woo quietly said, “She’s using the same growth system as us and has the knowledge and ability of a guide.”

That changed the story a bit, but Lakshasha still had his reservations, “But even then—”

“Come to think of it, I’m also curious about one thing.” When Lakshasha tried to protest, Emmanuel stepped forward. “At the entry area when I was fighting the tree monster, you immediately told me his weakness. How did you notice something that I and the other expedition members and even the head did not realize?” While talking, he glanced at Lakshasha. He was curious about this question, but he was mostly saying this so that Lakshasha would shut up and quietly follow the captain’s decision.

Lakshasha made an annoyed sound and snorted. “Do you have a problem with the way we came here?”

“You told us in the beginning that we’d take the path your previous group had taken to find your comrade.”

“Yeah. I said I’d go the way I knew. So what?”

“The three-way intersection that we just passed.”

Lakshasha frowned.

Hawa continued, “ There was no sign of exit on any of the paths.”

“…Signs of exit?”

“There were signs of entry, but no signs of exit.” Hawa straightened her neck and continued while staring at Lakshasha, “Your expedition team wasn’t annihilated. A few, including you, have survived. Then shouldn’t we see signs of exit on any of the paths?”

“Ha! Geez, I was wondering what you were going to say, but…” Lakshasha said with disbelief and looked at her as if she wasn’t in her right mind. “So you have knowledge of a guide? You seem like you’re at bronze tier at best, but… Want me to give you a piece of advice as your senior?” He continued as if he found all of this ridiculous, “What you see isn’t everything. It’s troublesome if you start imagining a fantasy world after reading a few traces.” He shook his head and placed his hands on his waist. “Anyway, I’ll answer you with this one sentence. Is there a rule that says that the path you enter has to be the same as your exit?”

“…No, there isn’t.”

“Right? I just said this to the pink-haired lady already, but we couldn’t think properly when we met one of the king candidates. We were all in a desperate hurry to run away, so why would we care about such a small matter like that? Do you think we would have thought about going back the same way we came from?” After seeing that a couple people seemed to accept his coherent explanation, Lakshasha lost a bit of his steam.

“That’s strange.”

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“?”

“Didn’t you say that the king candidate let you go alive, not that you ran away to survive?”

Lakshasha faltered a bit and said, “…Listen properly to the end. We ran away like crazy, but we were caught. After that, it happened as I said.” After adding a few more sentences, Lakshasha suddenly showed signs of anger. “Do I even have to talk about such trivial things?”

Some of the expedition members watching the situation shifted their gazes. They alternately looked between Hawa and Chi-Woo with uneasy expressions. In any case, once an expedition team was formed, disciplines and rules were extremely important, and this also included trust towards other members so that they could trust their lives with each other. This was also the reason why a member who ran away by themselves during an expedition was severely criticized and unable to join another team. In other words, this was not a matter that they could easily turn over like flipping a page in a book. While Hawa was the one who made a mistake, Chi-Woo was the one who needed to take the responsibility.

Smacking his beaks, Lakshasha sighed and said, “It’s fine. Let’s just stop it here. Regardless of what just happened, you guys did listen to my difficult demands.” He waved his hand and continued, “Considering that…it’s fine for me as long as the suspicion is cleared up. There’s no need to apologize. Although I feel extremely awful to be doubted like this, I’ll just consider this a matter where an amateur guide, too greedy for her own good, acted out by herself.”

A few of the expedition members’ faces brightened that Lakshasha was going to move on without making a big deal.

“I understand what you’re saying.” Hawa nodded and continued, “You’re sure that you went through this path, but you might not have gone out the same way.”

“Yeah. This isn’t even a basic knowledge for a guide, but common sense. If you finally understand—”

“A place where common sense doesn’t work.”

Lakshasha blinked at Hawa’s unexpected interruption. Then he felt an unknown sense of anxiety; although the situation had changed to his favor, Hawa remained completely expressionless.

Then Hawa said, “Why did you lie?”

“What?” Lakshasha doubted his ears.

“Your expedition team didn’t use this path.”

Then his face stiffened. “…You want to really fight or something?” He outrightly showed his fury and growled, “I tried to let this slide considering your situation! What nonsense are you spouting! On what grounds—!”

While Lakshasha angrily shouted, Hawa quietly continued, “Your expedition team had a total of six people. A balanced team with Lakshasha of the Garula clan as the captain and head, and a team quite known even in the Cassiubia League. The vice-captain was a member of the same Garula clan and Lakshasha’s younger sister, Laksia, and her class is a priest—”

Everyone’s expressions instantly turned stupefied, and Hawa continued to recite information about Lakshasha’s past expedition team. She knew more than the number of their members, but also each of their physical description, class, relationship, and even their equipment and weapons.

“…Kaman played the role of keeper in Lakshasha’s expedition team and wears a heavy armor that is so thick and heavy that he’s called the iron warrior.” After this long speech, Hawa exhaled a long breath and asked, “Is that correct?”

“…Y-Yeah? So what?”

Hawa stared directly at the stuttering Lakshasha. The reason why Hawa had gone out of her way to find this information was simple—she found him suspicious.

[If you want to succeed as a guide, etch this into your heart.]

[Our biggest weakness in our lives is thinking that we’re rational.]

[The moment we think that we’re rational and accept a piece of information as the truth, we don’t doubt it anymore.]

[You should keep doubting and suspecting till the very end. Guides should never withdraw their suspicion.]

When Chi-Hyun gave his first lesson, he told her to engrave this into her brain. Lakshasha’s expedition team failed, and his comrade got captured. Since the captured comrade was his blood-relative, he needed to save her at all costs. The process of Lakshasha joining their team was reasonable enough, and there was nothing that was particularly fishy. The fact that everything made perfect sense, though, was what Hawa found suspicious.

However, she couldn’t just be suspicious without proof, so she went around collecting information while Lakshasha received treatment and reorganized. It wasn’t hard to find out more about his team. After inquiring about Lakshasha’s colleagues, who had survived the expedition together, Hawa approached Lakshasha’s past teammates directly by saying things along the lines of, ‘Lakshasha created a new expedition team and wanted me to ask if you can go to the Hala Forest again.’ Thanks to obtaining information like this, Hawa’s endless doubts finally bore fruit inside the Hala Forest.

“If Kaman had worn heavy armor, it would have been normal for his footprints to be clearer than the others. Much more than this.” Hawa made a deliberate step before lifting her foot, her leather boot leaving a dent on the ground. “But on the way here, I don’t think I have ever seen a footprint that matched a warrior wearing heavily iron-cladded footgear—no.” Hawa cleared her throat and said again, “I have not.”

“That’s…!” Panic spread on Lakshasha’s face like watercolor. However, he quickly suppressed his emotions like a skilled head. “What do you know? Do you think all footprints last that long? In a place like this, something like footprints—!”

“It’s only been one or two days. Isn’t it quite far-fetched to claim that all footprints have disappeared?”

Emmanuel, who had been listening quietly, inadvertently nodded. Lakshasha licked his lower beak and quickly shouted, “Do you think we’re the only ones in the Hala Forest? Besides us—!”

“Even if those footprints could have been erased by external factors near the entry, it doesn’t make sense after going deeper into the forest, especially at the three-way intersection earlier.”

Yeriel quietly stepped back three or four steps, and after taking out a bead, covertly aimed at Lakshasha.

Hawa continued, “I couldn’t find any traces of combat. Moreover, there were very few signs of coming and going. Isn’t it absurd that all those signs disappeared, or were erased in just a day?”

“I told you before, but what you see isn’t everyth—”

“It’s not only the lack of footprints from metal shoes. Do you want to go back and see? I’m sure we’ll find more discrepancies with your statements.”

“No. So what I’m saying is—”

“Why?” While Lakshasha frantically tried his best to refute her points, Hawa laughed. “Are you perhaps going to say that the heavily-armored warrior named Kaman separated from the expedition team and took a different route by himself, all alone?”

Lakshasha’s mouth closed at once. There were things in the world that made sense and things that didn’t, and what Hawa just said belonged to the latter.

“W-Well, come to think of it, I might have mista…” Lakshasha realized his mistake because the next moment, he recalled that he had confidently told everyone that he knew this path well several times. Furthermore, Hawa had confirmed this with him one more time, asking if he was sure. He had answered with an affirmation without much thought back then.

‘No way—’ Lakshasha looked at Hawa with trembling eyes. He had been baffled by the ridiculous question, but it had been a trap. The question was meant to lead him into the coffin and nail him in. It was now much too late for him to change his story.

‘She got me…!’ Hawa wasn’t an amateur guide or anything like that, but a shrewd nine-tailed fox. Who would have imagined that a mere porter could read traces and signs at a level comparable to a gold tier guide? Silence fell between the expedition members in an instant.

Apoline, who had been listening with her arms crossed, widened her eyes at Hawa. After thinking that Hawa was acting out like she did during the Zepar expedition, Apoline had all kinds of thoughts like, ‘She still hasn’t gotten her sense yet’, ‘Why did Mr. Chi-Woo bring her again?’, ‘This can’t go on any longer. I should become his wife as fast as possible and do something about her.’ But now she thought, ‘Now that I see her again, she’s pretty good…?’

The silence continued, and the longer Lakshasha remained silent, the more of the expedition members got ready to fight. Ru Amuh and Emmanuel had their hands on the hilt of their swords, and Apoline unfolded her arms and muttered a spell. Yeriel had taken out her bead a while ago and was considering if she should throw it or not.

“Did your expedition team really go this way…no.” Then Hawa, who had been leisurely enjoying Lakshasha’s reaction while coiling her silver hair, said, “Mr. Laksasha?” She asked once again with a small smile, “Where were you trying to take us?”

Lakshasha blanched.