The shepherds had been on Mono’s tale for a while. They followed traces of her footsteps and sounds, but the forest often shifted under their feet like a rolling serpent. Making it much harder to keep up with the queen, but eventually, as the shepherd of the thought picked up a feminine voice, the trio followed that trail until eventually their paths crossed with the queen.
"Who are you?" She asked, raising her left eyebrow.
However, visibly concerned, the shepherds looked behind her and even surveyed the surroundings, trying to find the man after whom Mono had gone.
"Did you find him?" Asked the only woman in their group
The shepherd of the sword–her eyes lingered on Mono with a gleam of suspicion. Her footprints were accompanied by a man’s since a few hours ago. But now, out of nowhere, she’d appeared in front of them, and that too all alone.
"Find him? No, I was too busy looking for my way back to chase after him," Mono answered, but none of the shepherds were convinced by her lie.
Keeping their eyes on her, they didn’t know what to say or what to do. After all, much like Athenia’s chosen, Mono wasn’t just a queen but also a chosen of an ally goddess. To push her further or even attempt to threaten her could prove fatal for an alliance that their goddess has worked so hard to establish. And recognizing that fact, the group eased up a little and decided to leave the questioning to the general instead.
"We’ll get you back, just ," said the shepherd of thought, gesturing for Mono to walk in the direction from which they had just come.
"Lead the way then," Mono responded, but as soon as she took the first step forward, the scream of a woman turned everyone’s heads to an unexplored region of the forest. Rushing through it came the rustling of leaves and the sound of uneven footsteps.
Raising their guards, everyone but Mono moved to the front to confront whoever came out of that direction. A moment passed, and the sounds died down, but since nobody had heard the person walking away, the shepherd of the shield decided to go in and check on whoever it was. After just a few minutes of waiting, however, he returned with a monster girl thrown over his hands. Putting her on the ground, he confirmed her identity as Josare–the slime girl from Frazer’s party.
"She’s unconscious, we should take her," said the shield, glancing across his companions’ faces.
Without saying another word, he managed to relay the underlying implications of taking that woman with them. Given the fact that she was part of the traitor’s party, more than likely, they would be plunging her to certain death once Raven was done torturing the truth out of her. However, as servants of Athenia, it wasn’t even a question for them to put their interests first, especially when bartered against the life of a traitor.
"Hey..." Breaking the group’s attention from the girl, Mono called out to them with her hand pointing to a cloud of black smoke rising in the sky, not too far from where they stood. "What’s happening there?"
Noticing the same phenomenon, the shepherd of thought began leading the way in the direction of the smoke as he answered.
"The general has tasked the army to torch the forest and then move through the ashen land," glancing back at Mono, he motioned for her to follow him. "It’s done to gain a clear view of the surroundings, as it has become apparent that fighting in a forest after being trained to fight in a desert isn’t exactly working out for the soldiers just yet."
"Sounds like a good idea, at least," Mono responded as she began walking behind the shepherd.
One after the other, the rest followed his lead, and before long, the party ran into the burning region through which they passed after their presence was made known and an opening was left in the forest for them to approach the larger group. Holding the slime girl over his hand still, the Shield further guided the group to the general’s chariot.
Lying her down with her back against the chariot, he looked up at the general while the general himself was looking at Mono with a fierce look in his eyes.
"Do not run off like that again!" He complained, but Mono simply shrugged her shoulders as if she didn’t know what she’d done wrong.
"Don’t worry about me," nudging her head towards the unconscious girl, Mono deviated from the topic. "Focus on that girl instead, she came running at us from the woods–not entirely sure why, as she was unconscious the moment we found her."
Slowly turning his head towards the Shield, Raven ignored Mono for now and instead enquired the shepherd about everything that they’d run into. Relaying everything as clearly as possible, the burly man told Raven in great detail about their expectations of finding Mono and the extra pair of feet, along with the strange movement of the ground and everything in between.
Once again, as his head turned to Mono, Raven wanted to question her, but he already knew that it was no use. Even if she’d run into the man that she was chasing after, if she wasn’t being upfront about that encounter, then there was no way she would give up that information. For a moment, the thought of peering into her head did cross his mind, but after the last incident with her, he decided that it was better not to test her patience. Thus, releasing her to join Aradin’s party as well as Shamisha in their wagon to the very back.
Once she was gone, the shepherd of Sword didn’t waste a second to accuse her.
"She’s hiding something," she said, her hands folded under her plentiful bosom.
Staring in the distance, she kept her eyes on Mono even as she climbed into the wagon. A hint of annoyance, perhaps even jealousy, was reflected in her gaze, but what for? None of the men could decipher.
"She’s Mono, she’s always hiding something..." Upon hearing Raven’s response, however, her gaze finally lifted, but the frustration in her eyes didn’t ease even one bit. Matching her sight, the general looked down on her and, with a slight lean forward, he whispered to the jealous woman. "You’re not Mono, don’t challenge her that woman; she gets stronger the more shit you throw at her, and the last thing we want is her as our enemy."
Finally, as her sharp gaze numbed a little, the Sword lowered her head and nodded. In the meantime, Raven lifted his hand to once again continue with the forest’s torching. Getting up from his chair next, the general decided that it was time to have a talk with the slime girl and the family of that so-called hero, Frazer, to figure out what the hell was happening.