"Well... I expected this, to be honest," Arezu said, his usual laid-back demeanor intact.
"Tsk!... What a useless bait," Lynn remarked, clearly annoyed by their situation.
In front of Arezu, Lynn, and the rest of their group lay the bait they had been stalking for almost half a day: an Orc, now dead on the ground.
The cause of death? Blood loss from a grievous injury.
"How rude of you to put all the blame on me, Mr. Arezu!"
Though he hadn't said anything that could be considered blame, the dumbfounded look on Arezu's face as he glanced at Lynn beside him made it obvious. She saw right through him, prompting Arezu to voice the thought aloud.
"Severing its entire left arm was certainly overkill, Lynn."
"I'll have you know, Mr. Arezu, that while monsters do know what fear is, it takes that much pain and suffering for fear to overpower the Curse of Wrath that drives them to despise humanity."
Regardless of whether the bait was "useless," as Lynn put it, stalking the Orc through the western forest for half a day had given them enough information to estimate the general direction of the Orcs' nest.
"If we continue following the Orc's escape route, we should reach the boundary of the northern forest by nightfall," Lynn said, consulting a map of the Eileen Kingdom she pulled from her bag.
Before they resumed the hunt, Lynn ordered the dismantling of the Orc. Thankfully, Arezu was no longer the one stuck with that gruesome job.
As for the unlucky ones now suffering the fate of handling things no man should ever touch or see—those would be Gwen's four minions.
Earlier, before the stalking began, Gwen had introduced them to Lynn and Arezu as Minion 1A, 1B, 1C, and Minion 2.
It wasn't just odd—calling them by such names was undeniably rude. Yet, to Lynn and Arezu's surprise, the four boys were actually delighted by the nicknames Gwen had bestowed on them.
To clarify, Minion 1A was a warrior adventurer with a spear and shield. Minion 1B, another warrior, wielded a sword. Minion 1C was a priest adventurer. These three had been Gwen's party members during the previous goblin-slaying quest. Minion 2, a guard from Mead Village who had been abducted with them, had only recently joined Gwen's party—or rather, pledged his undying loyalty.
Putting aside the questionable details the minions shared, Arezu brought their wagon—now loaded with looted Orc weapons—to the dismantling team.
"You've certainly gotten used to touching that stuff fast," Arezu said, still visibly disgusted as he referred to the Orc's balls, which the minions had removed and stored in a jar in the wagon.
"Well... we've seen worse… back at the Goblin nest."
The haunted look on their faces told Arezu all he needed to know. He immediately decided not to pursue the memory.
By sunset, their group reached the northern forest's border and set up camp for the night.
Gwen's party offered to cook the evening meal—though in truth, her minions did all the work. Gwen herself lounged on what could only be described as a makeshift throne, being attended to by her fourth minion to ensure complete relaxation.
"Aren't you going to treat me like that, Mr. Arezu?" Lynn asked, half-playful, half-serious—jealous of the treatment Gwen was receiving.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm already being generous enough to you, Lynn," Arezu replied, well aware of what she was brooding over.
"Hmph! Generous people don't go around saying they're generous in the first place."
I don't want to hear that from you, Arezu thought, wisely keeping it to himself to avoid further ruining her mood.
In truth, Arezu was being generous to Lynn. Despite Gwen's minions handling the cooking, he still gave in to her demand for a second meal.
It wasn't that Lynn refused to eat food made by strangers—or maybe she did worry a little. But the truth was simple: Lynn just wanted to see what unusual, unexpected dish Arezu would cook up. Or rather, what he would cook specifically for her.
His side dish included the following ingredients: improvised dough, homemade sauce, dried meat, sausage, potatoes, edible herbs, and a generous mix of cheap cheeses. It was all baked using an improvised oven made from a frying pan and an iron lid.
"So, what's this one called, Mr. Arezu?" Lynn asked, clearly pleased and expecting another over-the-top name like last time's "Burger Queen."
But Arezu wasn't feeling particularly proud of this one. Without baking powder or yeast, it lacked the fluff he wanted. So, he gave it a plain name.
"Sorry, Lynn… This is nothing but Fake Pizza."
Still, paired with the vegetable beef soup prepared by Gwen's minions, everyone enjoyed what they assumed was some sort of hearty bread dish called Fake Pizza.
As they savored their meal around the campfire, Lynn and Arezu used the moment to ask about Gwen's last goblin-slaying quest. They still couldn't understand how such a strong party could fall prey to Goblins.
Sure, a giant goblin flasher with access to intermediate-level mystic spell like Obelisk and destructive combat skills like Shockwave would be tough. But escaping should have been possible.
Embarrassed and a bit downcast, Gwen told them what happened—this time, with all the details.
"It was all because of that strange evolved goblin..."
"You mean the giant goblin flasher?" Lynn interjected, urging her to continue without pausing for dramatic effect.
"Giant goblin flasher? …Right, there was one that looked like that. But I mean something else."
Arezu was surprised that Gwen immediately understood what Lynn meant by "goblin flasher," but even more surprised to hear there was something else at the goblins' nest.
"At first, I thought it was a captured villager. It showed up with the Goblins that was holding Minion 2 hostage. But after I rescued it—just as I turned my back—it attacked me with a sword."
The fact that Gwen had mistaken a goblin for a villager was funny—at first. But her next words wiped the smile off everyone's face, especially Lynn's.
"That goblin was as tall as an average person. It wore a hooded robe, so I couldn't see its face clearly, but it looked human enough… Either way, it was controlling all the other goblins, so there's no way—Ekk!"
Gwen's storytelling was cut short by a panicked scream. She had just seen something across the campfire that terrified her. Her minions had seen it too. All were frozen, speechless with fear.
Only Arezu didn't see it—because she was sitting beside him.
He quickly turned, only to find Lynn, wearing her usual innocent smile, already waiting and staring at him.
"What did you do?" Arezu asked, anxious and curious.
"Oh my, whatever could you possibly be talking about, Mr. Arezu?" Lynn replied, acting innocent—but she was clearly hiding something.
"What just happened, everyone?"
Arezu turned to Gwen's party to ask what they saw. But Lynn cut them off immediately, threatening them with a sweet voice, a gentle smile, and a murderous glint in her eccentric eyes.
"You didn't see anything, right?"