Chapter 81: The Whispering Woods

Chapter 81: The Whispering Woods The first rays of dawn bled through the cheap, grimy window of the inn, painting a single, dusty stripe of gold across the wooden floor. I woke to the sharp, rhythmic sound of steel on whetstone. Eren was already awake, bathed, and dressed, his back to me as he sat on the edge of his bed, meticulously polishing the blade of his family’s ancestral sword. The light caught the silver of his hair, making it seem to glow. He must have sensed me stirring, because he paused, his movements ceasing for a moment. "Morning," he said, his voice a low, quiet rumble that was a stark contrast to his usual boisterous energy. "Sleep well?" "Like a corpse," I replied, my own voice a rough, gravelly thing as I swung my legs over the side of the bed. "You’re up early." "Force of habit," he said, returning to his work. "A blade is an extension of the self. It must be cared for." I simply grunted in response, my mind already a whirlwind of plans and contingencies for the day ahead. When we descended to the inn’s common room for breakfast, the rest of our team was already there, a tense, silent tableau around a large, rough-hewn wooden table. An old woman, the innkeeper’s wife, served us a simple but hearty meal of porridge, hard-boiled eggs, and a dark, bitter-smelling tea. Layla, ever the commander, broke the silence as soon as the last bowl was placed on the table. "After we eat," she began, her voice crisp and authoritative, "we will begin our search of the nearby area. We will eventually move into the deep forest to look for any signs of danger, or, hopefully, survivors. The village elder has reported that over thirty people have gone missing in the last month." She paused, her violet eyes sweeping over each of us in turn. "Our mission is twofold: we need to find the goblins’ cave, eradicate them, and save any surviving villagers. If we succeed, this village will be freed from the terror that has plagued it for months. And," she added, a flicker of political cunning in her eyes, "we will all be termed as heroes. The Harvest Moon Festival that is happening here from today will be dedicated to us. It will be a significant victory for the Academy’s reputation." Nyx, who had been silently stirring her tea, a look of bored indifference on her face, actually looked up at that, a flicker of interest in her crimson eyes. "That does sound... interesting." After we had finished our meal, we stepped out into the cool, misty morning air. The village of Eldoria was a quaint, rustic place, its small, thatched-roof cottages nestled in a valley surrounded by a dense, ancient forest. But beneath the surface of its pastoral beauty, there was a palpable sense of fear, a quiet, desperate hope in the eyes of the villagers who watched us pass. We made our way to the edge of the forest, the trees looming before us like a great, green wall. "We’ll divide into two groups to cover more ground," Layla announced. "Eren, Nyx, Cecilia, you’re with me. We’ll take the northeast quadrant." Her gaze then fell on the three of us who remained. "Ashen, Liora, Aurelia, you’ll take the northwest. I will be acting as a non-combat supervisor for my team. You three will have to rely on your own judgment." Eren’s team moved out, a silent, deadly unit that vanished into the trees without a sound. Liora, Aurelia, and I were left in a tense, uncomfortable silence. "Well," Aurelia said, her voice a little too bright, "shall we?" Our journey into the northwest woods was a study in contrasts. The forest was beautiful, in a wild, untamed sort of way. Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy, dappling the forest floor in shifting patterns of light and shadow. But the beauty was laced with a constant, underlying sense of menace. We encountered our first goblins within an hour, a small scouting party of five. They were weak, pathetic creatures, their green skin covered in filth, their beady black eyes wide with a stupid, suicidal bravery. "I’ll take them," I said, my voice a low murmur as I stepped forward, my shadow coiling at my feet. "Wait," Liora said, her hand on my arm. "We should work as a team. A coordinated attack." Before I could argue, Aurelia had already moved, a blur of gold and blue. "Too late for that," she called out, a brilliant, crackling whip of lightning forming in her hand. She lashed out, the bolt of energy striking the ground in front of the goblins, sending them scattering in a panic. Liora sighed, a sound of profound frustration, and drew her own blade, its silver surface glowing with a soft, holy light. She moved with a fluid, elegant grace, her attacks precise and deadly, a dance of steel and light that was almost beautiful to watch. I simply watched from the sidelines, my arms crossed, as the two of them dispatched the goblins with a brutal, if uncoordinated, efficiency. As the day wore on, we encountered more beasts—a pack of snarling, wolf-like creatures with matted, black fur and glowing red eyes; a massive, boar-like beast with tusks as long as my arm; and a swarm of venomous, insect-like creatures that moved with a terrifying, chittering speed. With each encounter, the tension between Liora and Aurelia seemed to melt away, replaced by a grudging, hard-won respect. They were beginning to move as one, their different styles of combat, Liora’s precise elegance and Aurelia’s raw, untamed power, complementing each other in a deadly, effective symphony. And me? I mostly just watched, stepping in only when necessary, my own shadows a silent, deadly threat that kept the more dangerous beasts at bay. By the time the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long, skeletal shadows across the forest floor, we had reached the deep woods. The air here was colder, the silence deeper, the trees older and more menacing. We were all hungry, tired, and on edge. "We should make camp here for the night," Liora said, her voice a low murmur in the growing darkness. "It’s not safe to travel in these woods after dark." We found a small, defensible clearing near a trickling stream. We divided the work. Liora and Aurelia would prepare the food we had brought with us, and I was assigned the task of gathering firewood. "I’ll be back," I said, my voice a noncommittal grunt as I turned and walked away from the clearing. I didn’t look for small trees with thin branches or dry leaves. I simply moved far enough away from the girls that they couldn’t see me, found a comfortable-looking tree, and leaned against it, my eyes closing with a weary sigh. My shadow, however, was a hive of activity. A small, scaly kobold, a hulking lizardman, and a handful of goblin grunts, all summoned from the depths of my Shadow Army, scurried through the undergrowth, their movements silent and efficient as they gathered a massive pile of dry wood and leaves. Back in the clearing, near the gentle, burbling stream, Liora and Aurelia stood in a comfortable silence, the last rays of the setting sun painting their faces in hues of orange and gold. "Those days," Liora began, her voice a soft, wistful whisper, "when you, me, Layla, Ashen, and Lucielle used to play at my family’s summer palace... they were amazing, weren’t they? I still wish I could go back in time." Aurelia smiled, a genuine, warm expression. "Yeah, yeah. Go back in time so you can tease Ashen about his terrible swordsmanship, then defend him against Layla when she gets too rough, and say all those cringy things like, ’Only I’m allowed to hurt him.’" Liora’s cheeks flushed a deep, beautiful red. "They were the best days of my life," she admitted, her voice a low murmur. "There was no pretending to be a princess, no responsibilities, no pressure. I could just be... me." "Yes," Aurelia agreed, her own smile fading slightly. "But things change, Liora. We can’t do anything about that." "I want to be with him again," Liora confessed, her voice thick with a raw, painful vulnerability. "But... but he doesn’t want me now. He doesn’t need me. He pushes me aside. He talks to everyone except me." "I feel the same way," Aurelia admitted, her own voice a quiet whisper. "I don’t know what he’s thinking. I don’t know what’s going on in his mind. But I know, with a certainty that I can’t explain, that he doesn’t hate us. Not you, not me, not Lucielle, not his mother. He just... he pretends to. Maybe," she continued, her voice filled with a new, dawning conviction, "maybe he thinks he’ll attract some kind of trouble, and so he’s pretending to hate us, to push us away, to protect us." "Maybe," Liora whispered, a fragile, hopeful light returning to her eyes. "Yeah. That would be... that would be just like him." Just then, I returned to the clearing, a massive pile of wood and leaves floating behind me, carried by shadowy servants. The girls, startled from their reverie, quickly set about cooking the food. We ate in a comfortable silence, the only sound the crackle of the bonfire and the gentle, chirping song of the night creatures in the forest around us.