On the road, Belladonna and Jerry had been rather unsatisfied with their travels so far. The innkeeper had promised to overlook their original traveling gear from before, but Jerry had managed to find solace and interest in the hunting bow that Kite was carrying. Simply put, he had taken it straight from him. It was with regret that Elric had wished that he had bought several more bows after seeing the reluctance on Kite’s face.

For the entire afternoon, the four of them traveled without stop to find a vacant place to rest. This time however, Belladonna and Jerry had learned from their experiences and wore clothing more well suited for adventuring. Even after the entire day of walking, they had not felt as tired as before.

And so they rested. With all four of them now seated in the same area, Elric fished out three maps from his pack and gave it to each of them.

“Where is this?” Kite asked.

“Yesternight, I copied the diagram of a map onto three parchments.” Elric replied. “I was afraid that things would get troublesome if we lost the only one we had.”

“I was also studying the map when you were all sleeping.” Elric pointed at a spot on the map, “This part to the southeast border of the map is the most detailed part since it’s closest to the village area. There shouldn’t be any errors here, but the farther northwest we get into the forest, the more ambiguous the map gets so that’s when we should stop relying on the map markers as much. But look here—there is a certain river that’s plainly pointed out on this map that flows straight into the depths of the Forest of Illusions. So if we follow the river, we’ll be able to get to where we want to go without needing to worry about finding a new water source. Do you all agree to take this path?”

“I agree.” Kite replied.

“I don’t have any qualms either; as long as I get escorted there safe and sound.” Belladonna had been more than willing to relinquish her spot as the “brains” of the group over onto Elric to bear.

There had been no objections from Jerry either. For he had consented to Elric ever since he took the hunting bow from Kite and asked where he had gotten it from. He had determined in any case that as Belladonna was okay with it, so was he; and so Elric had been accepted as the leader by him as well. Jerry could also remember the secret to being a successful merchant his father had once told him: “If you wish to succeed, it’s rather easy. As long as you let the specialist of the area take care of it, your only worry is being able to accept that fact with modesty.” At the same time his father had given this tip, he was also in the middle of negotiating the biggest deal of his entire life for about ten million gold. Even more convincing was the fact that his father’s total profits had already reached a billion.

So when the time came for Elric to order Jerry to find a place to bury all of their coins for safekeeping, the entire group had nearly leapt up in fright when he did it without complaint.

And so, the initial three days of travel had gone smoothly.

Every year, plenty of people would enter the forests and walk on the paths left behind from the previous travelers. On the way, they would often meet the foresters of the Forest of Illusions. In this case, the travelers would have the chance to find ways to better improve their meals. After several days, Belladonna and Jerry had finally gotten into the habit of eating the wild game of the forest. Jerry had been so enthused that when they finally met a forester, he had begun to ask for tips and tricks on how to hunt and trap the game of the forest. Belladonna on the other hand had been more enthusiastic on how to cook the wildlife to be better tasting. Even though it wouldn’t be for some time that they would meet a forester again, there was no longer any problems with their food supplies. If not for Elric’s early determination and perseverance, then Belladonna and Jerry would have starved to death while pining for the rations to eat.

On their fifth day in the forest, the path had gotten even harder and harder to tread on. There was plenty a times where Kite had to lead the group while the rest walked in a single-line. With this, they were only able to walk several kilometers a day. For the sake of preserving their speed, Kite and Belladonna’s traveling gear had been given to Elric to carry.

Soon enough however, a new problem had taken place. As they traveled deeper and deeper, the forest grew denser and more perilous in footing. This in turn made it even harder to find a vacant enough spot to set up camp. But this time, it was time for Jerry to step in with pride. In his time of apprenticeship under the Magister Pierrot, Jerry had been studying aeromancy, a school of magic that had plenty of spells that enabled the power of flight to the user. And it just so happened that Jerry was capable enough to pull off the levitation and flight spells. The task of finding a new campground was thus placed on his shoulders, and so his traveling gear was only 

logical

 to be placed on Elric’s back to carry.

It wasn’t until their nineteenth day in the forest that the group finally encountered one of the monsters of the Forest of Illusion. That same morning, Belladonna was occupied with broiling a quail which Jerry had managed to hunt with his stunning hunting ability. Earlier in the morning, he had walked all around before finally finding one of the traps he had laid out last night had caught onto a nest of quails. Two of them were thus used for that day’s breakfast.

Under Belladonna’s skillful hand, she begun to cook the quail in earnest. As the drips of fat drizzled and sizzled over the fire, a fragrant aroma began to waft in the area. By the same bonfire, the three males were waiting for their breakfast to come.

“It smells so good.” Kite had remarked.

“What luck we have to eat such a breakfast.” Elric stated.

“True true, this adventure has really been something hasn’t it? If it weren’t for that village, I’m sure we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.” Jerry spoke honestly.

“Very good, tear the quail into seven and we shall all have our share.” Suddenly, a strange voice had made itself known.

Whipping their heads back to look, the four had immediately gone weak in the knees and collapsed. A single two meter tall wolf with three heads was seated right behind them.

“Monster!” Kite had cried out before bringing his lance up to strike the giant wolf.

At the same time, Elric had regained his wits. Grabbing onto Jerry and Belladonna, the three of them made a hasty retreat away from the bonfire.

The wolf had ignored Kite’s lance and simply strode for the fire. With the pinging sound like metal hitting stone, the lance came to a stop outside of the wolf’s skin.

Slowly, the wolf picked up one of the dropped quails and began to sample it with gusto.

“Not bad. Not bad at all—cooked food is the best in the end.” The wolf sighed in admiration as it snacked on the food.

“The wolf can speak!” Jerry had been unable to tell whether that was a good or bad thing.

“Stupid—only monsters can speak the human tongue! It’s definitely a descendant of the ancient Fenrir, and it has three heads! That means it’s at least three hundred years old! A monster like that can definitely use magic, three types at least!” Belladonna immediately reported all that she knew on this type of monster.

“Four, actually. Four schools of magic to be precise.” The wolf corrected her.

Just carefully, Belladonna asked, “Mister wolf, do you plan to not eat us?”

“Of course. A cooked quail tastes better than you by a large margin.”

This answer had given the four youngsters plenty of relief.

“Then, we’ll just leave the quails here for you and we’ll be on our way.” Kite immediately edged away towards his companions.

“You may leave, but not the woman.” The wolf suddenly began to speak like a bandit.