In any case, for these reasons, Jade found the end of this discord somewhat ticklish and amusing.

Wow, this feels good. I guess this is why people fight with their friends. To enjoy making up!

Of course, it was a wrong thought, but there was no one to correct her.

Jade cleared her throat and turned her gaze towards the lake, where she spotted something sparkling and jumping out of the water’s surface.

“Did you see that? A-A fish jumped!”

He looked at her as if it was obvious, but didn’t verbally chide her. He seemed to be holding back, at least.

“I’ve never been near the lake before. You told me not to come.”

“At night, this area is crawling with animals and monsters. That’s why I told you not to come.”

“What…?”

Jade immediately lost interest in the lake area. Who cares about fish anyway?

Axel chuckled.

“Did you live outside unable to hide your expressions like that?”

“No. Outside, I always wear a mask. But here, there’s no need for that. Hiding emotions is too tiring.”

She still couldn’t understand why people came here, but she thought she could understand that decision.

Jade felt that if she lived like this outside for just ten more years, she might burst into this forest and build a very pretty white brick house.

Of course, before that, she would gain her grandmother’s approval, drive out her uncle, and become the ruling lord of the Broen territory.

“What about you?”

She had asked about having to wear a mask, but an unexpected answer came.

“I dislike people who throw themselves away carelessly.”

Jade blinked. It was the first time he had spoken about his own feelings. She thought it probably had something to do with the outside world.

She turned her gaze, but Axel wasn’t looking at her, instead staring off into the distance somewhere.

“Especially if it’s for others, it’s the worst. They might think it’s a sacrifice, but it’s not really. It’s just self-satisfaction.”

“No, I…”

“But you said you did it because you trusted me, not to make a sacrifice.”

Axel smirked.

“I’ll have to live up to your expectations.”

After walking near the lake for a while, they turned and headed into the deep forest.

When asked what he had been doing for three days without properly facing each other, he said he had been tracking the monster’s whereabouts.

“You must have been very busy. Is the child okay? I wanted to give more medicine, but you…”

She left the last words unsaid but conveyed them with a glaring look. This is all because of you.

“She got better right away with the medicine you gave. The fever reducer was even left over, and we’re still applying the wound treatment. So there was no need to go together with you.”

“Ah, so there was a reason.”

Axel cleanly ignored her seemingly sarcastic words.

“Until yesterday, the child’s condition wasn’t completely better, so it was a bit difficult to ask properly. She was sleeping all the time while recovering. But according to what Pavel heard, it seems to be quite a large creature.”

“Large? I guess it ate a lot.”

“But its form isn’t completely similar to humans, and it crawls, so they didn’t notice it approaching nearby.”

“Ugh, that’s the worst. Those kinds tend to look especially creepy. If it’s a crawling one, we should also consider the possibility that it hides underground or in shaded areas during the day.”

Axel nodded.

“Right. There’s a particularly damp place around here. I searched there first.”

He had found and killed three, but none of them were the monster that attacked the girl.

“No wonder the front yard was dirty. You were washing off mud, weren’t you?”

“Well. Anyway, it seems to be a persistent creature. It won’t be easy to catch.”

So…

Jade wanted to say those words that had been the cause of their discord, but she held back. However, Axel seemed to have already noticed.

“Even if we use you as bait, it won’t be easy. I agree that you’re a delicious and powerless prey, but if we keep killing the ones that approach for your safety, that monster will eventually hide too.”

“So now it’s a battle of patience, right?”

Whether the hungry creature will eventually approach, or whether we who set the trap will give up.

Axel laughed briefly at Jade’s casual tone.

“Yes. That’s right.”

Before it got completely dark, they started riding horses to Pavel’s house.

Of course, even during that time, Jade insisted on holding the reins, and Axel snorted and didn’t hand them over, leading to a prolonged dispute.

In the end, Jade sat in front, but the reins belonged to Axel.

“I’m so, so sorry that you couldn’t even drop by for three days because you were sulking.”

“Sulking? Me?”

“Then what was it!”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I was annoyed.”

Every time her body shook with the fast pace, Axel’s firm arm wrapped around her waist for support. Her back was completely covered by his broad chest, not letting even a bit of wind through.

It was amusing how surprisingly stable she felt, unlike the empty feeling she had experienced for the past few days.

As they dismounted, Pavel, who had been turning over soil inside the fence, came running out with a bright face.

The girl they met upon entering the house had fortunately recovered significantly and was lucid.

“Why did you lie that night? You said it was water!”

So, she had recovered enough to say such things.

Jade grinned and sat down at the head of the bed.

“Oh, you have a good memory. If I said it was medicine, you wouldn’t want to take it. Now, let me look at the wound one more time.”

“You’re going to put on that painful stuff again, aren’t you?”

“Of course. It has to hurt to get better.”

The dejected girl looked so cute that Jade wanted to tease her more. Upon examination, it seemed Pavel had applied the medicine well according to Jade’s instructions. The wound was healing nicely without any signs of infection.

“But this is my first time seeing a wizard. You said this is a magic potion? What’s it made of? It’s so sticky!”

“You just squeeze the juice from the toads by the pond, then pluck a head feather from a nightingale and mix it in.”

“Eww, what did you say?”

As Jade mischievously started talking about the purple poison that comes from toads, the girl became teary-eyed and looked at her own wound.

Axel looked at the wizard, who was acting more childish than a child, with disdain.

“The side effect is that you might turn into a toad, but the effect is really good.”

“T-Turn into a toad? I, I…”

As the startled girl looked helplessly at her father, Jade, finally unable to hold back her laughter, burst out laughing.

“It’s a lie. Actually, it’s made from Loroa root and swallow-wort.”

“Sheesh…”

“Stop teasing the kid.”

“But she’s so cute!”

Axel sighed, lightly flicked Jade’s forehead with his finger, and then looked at Pavel. The middle-aged man’s thin, dark face was filled with a smile, seemingly unable to hide his contentment as he watched his daughter pouting.

“I’ve been wandering around for days, but there hasn’t been much progress.”

“It’s alright. I’m truly grateful just for the medicine you provided.”

“No.”

As Pavel looked confused, Axel continued calmly.

“Monsters naturally target humans from birth, but there’s a difference between those who have tasted prey and those who haven’t. Aside from the fact that it will keep targeting this child, we need to be wary of it getting stronger in the future.”

The air grew heavy.

As the girl glanced back and forth nervously, Jade smiled brightly and handed her the doll from the bedside. She whispered that it wasn’t her fault, and the child smiled a little.

“Of course, I’m very grateful, but I didn’t expect you to go this far… Since this is the Athanase Forest, I don’t have big expectations from others…”

“There’s also a childlike one in my house, though much older. It would be good to deal with this in advance.”

Jade glared at Axel with a look that said, ‘Are you talking about me right now?’, but he cleanly ignored her.

Pavel’s face was half touched, half worried. He had only thought about avoiding the darkness, not about catching monsters.

But soon he nodded with a determined attitude. His thin, narrow shoulders tensed up.

“What should I do?”

“First, I’d like to ask the child a few questions. Is that alright?”

Pavel looked at the girl with a worried face, but the child nodded bravely instead.

“You’re trying to help me! I’m fine!”

“Oh, you’re full of courage.”

Jade smiled gently and asked kindly.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t asked your name. What’s your name? I’m Jade.”

“I remember what you said last time. I’m Ann! Dad calls me Nina.”

“Alright, Nina. Can you tell us a bit more about what happened that day? If it’s hard, you can stop anytime.”

Nina glanced at the woman with sparkling eyes. The wizard smiled brightly.

This time, she stole a glance at the very handsome man looking down from above. He didn’t smile at the girl, but he was quietly waiting as if he would listen to whatever she had to say.

The two of them, true to being people of the forest, didn’t have a single fancy decoration, but they looked strangely radiant. It was as if a wizard and a knight from a fairy tale had come here to defeat monsters.

They didn’t seem to belong here.

The girl’s father had come to the Athanase Forest, tired of people who lied. So he didn’t have expectations from people.

He always strongly cautioned Nina too. That she shouldn’t trust anyone. That getting hurt by unnecessary expectations and hope is a very painful thing.

But here, they received unexpected help.

They came running at once to deliver medicine and chased monsters for days. Without that help, Nina would have died, and her father would have cried sadly.

So, maybe it’s okay to trust these people?

Nina looked down at her fingers, tightly bound with cloth. The tips were bluntly cut, making them short.

“It was when the sun hadn’t even reached the tips of the branches yet. The shadows were short too. I remember clearly. Because it was where I always played. I used to go back when my shadow reached the roots of the short tree.”

Axel frowned. Jade also listened intently with a serious face.

“That day, I was going to go back a little early. You know that place by the lake that someone made like a dock?”

“I know it.”

“Something was shimmering under those wooden planks. It was giving off a faint light.”