In the end, they chose to take a different route around the mountain.
This path wasn't much longer, but it was notoriously dangerous. Instead of the territory of travellers and merchants, it was a bloody road filled with bandits and adventurers.
The road curved down through a thick stretch of forest where the sunlight could barely reach the ground. The trees were old and black, their roots twisting across the trail like fallen vines. The sound of the wheels seemed to echo further in the forest as they rolled through the muddy road ahead.
It was a place that smelled of old blood and burnt bark, yet this dark atmosphere contrasted with the hundreds of glowing butterflies and luminous plants that flickered past.
It was a blend of mystical wonders and frequent battles.
She curled up, knees tightly pressed to her body.
While the small child was distracted, Mousa couldn't help but think about all the bad rumors that he had heard about this place over the last few years.
"A-Are you sure this is safe? I heard people vanish in this forest all the time!"
Petra nodded innocently from her seat. "Then we'll just have to not vanish!"
He groaned, ears drooping. "That's right, isn't it…"
The caravan moved more slowly than before.
Time passed.
The carriages creaked cautiously between the trees, and the guards always kept their hands close to their weapons. The forest was strange, no birds, no beasts, not even the sound of wind between the leaves.
Aside from the spirit-like butterflies, there was nothing, only the quiet silence lurking beneath the caravan's advance.
Petra's eyes leisurely scanned the surroundings through the window.
This desolation didn't seem to be a new development, at least, judging from the faint signs of insect nesting she could find on the trees.
By the second day, they had already passed two broken carriages along the road. One had been stripped bare of anything useful, while the other still had its horses tied to the front, dried blood on their necks, dead, and half of their bones were scattered nearby.
Petra's eyes narrowed as they passed.
She sighed, then leaned out the window, looking at the scene with disinterest. "They must be poor, right? Who robs caravans that small?" That was what she said, but she couldn't help but wonder what the ants were doing right now.
With a turn of the mind, Petra scanned through the connection with each of the nearby ant units.
Some were scouting, some were collecting, and some were already hunting the nearby bandit camps that they had missed.
Petra was mentally connected with all her beasts, and this connection extended through the ant queen and into all the ants in her network. Because she had left the Ant Queen back at the Emerald Ghost Tree, the distance was long, but this didn't seem to matter with her abnormal mental energy. The combination of her Beast King Physique and her abnormal mental energy synergized extremely well, allowing her to basically maintain a connection with all her beasts regardless of the distance.
This was because the thing guiding her monstrous mental energy wasn't her incompetent control, it was her physique.
By the fourth day, more carriages had joined their caravan, most of which were stragglers from smaller groups hoping for safety in numbers. Among them were a pair of merchant brothers moving silk, an old scholar who forged scrolls, and a group of rough-looking mercenaries who smiled too easily.
Sketchy people, all of them!
To make matters worse…
Outside, the forest stretched endlessly ahead and behind. Somewhere between the silence and the shadows, someone, or something, was already watching them.
-
By the fifth day, the caravan reached a narrow mountain pass where the forest had momentarily thinned. The obstructive foliage had started to relax, revealing the road ahead, and…
The group waiting to its side.
Four travelers stood there, exhausted, their gear mud-stained but still maintained. Even from a distance, they didn't look like merchants or refugees, they were adventurers.
They looked like mortals waiting at a bus station.
The first was a man in worn armor, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword. His dark brown hair was cut short, and his eyes carried a kind of calm overzealousness. He was Rogan, the swordsman.
Beside him towered a giant of a man, Brenn, with a round face, bright eyes, and a kind laugh that shook the trees when he greeted the caravan guards as they approached.
A little further back, a skinny figure leaned lazily on a rock, a spark of green fire flickering between his fingers, watching the carriages roll up with a smirk.
Finally, standing half-hidden in the shadows, a hooded woman, Lyra, said nothing at all, her silver eyes followed every face one by one.
These were the four adventurers who Petra had met before.
Raina slowed the carriage and frowned. "Adventurers…?" She mumbled to herself.
Mousa poked out. "They look… dangerous."
Petra tilted her head, watching the group with faint amusement.
* * *
Later that day, the caravan stopped to rest.
The sun was setting.
Petra sat around a campfire with Soryn, Wind, and the four adventurers.
Seeing the two silver sisters, Mousa was naturally distraught at the sudden appearance of another two of Petra's 'servants'.
Aside from that, Wind and Soryn were catching up with the four adventurers.
"Remember that cave in the south?" Soryn said, half-grinning. "You said it was empty, Rogan."
Rogan (the swordsmen) chuckled. "It was until you kicked the damn wall!"
Brenn (the guardian) slapped his knee, laughing so loud the distant guards turned to look. "And then the whole mountain collapsed! Bahahaha!"
Iven (the mage) stirred the fire with his wand. "Hay~hay! If it wasn't for me, you'd still be buried there."
Everyone laughed, even Wind and Soryn.
When the noise died down, there was a pause.
Then, Rogan's expression turned to curiosity. "But seriously," he asked while rubbing his chin, "what's with the bounty? How the hell did you manage to go from a top-level gold-ranked adventurer, to the accomplice of the most wanted criminal on the continent?"
Soryn clicked her tongue while crossing her arms, and with a snort, "It can't be helped! Those Sky Tower idiots were asking for it. There just a bunch of power-hungry lunatics!"
Petras eyes turned away in guilt.
That wasn't the only reason.
Wind grinned bitterly and explained. "We picked up a slave in Sevensen's Black Market. Who would've thought that it was one of the Heroes? And now we're all wanted criminals! Just like that, crazy!"
That was definitely not it…
Petra shrank down into her shoulders.
Iven arched a brow, skeptical. "Is that all? I heard the person you're following is also a heaven's chosen. Is that true?" He peered sideways at Petra, who was currently looking very guilty.
Petra, who was sitting quietly and nibbling on some bread, straightened her back and looked over with her head tilted like a naive child.
Wind and Soryn exchanged a glance, then answered in unison…
"Impossible!"
"Impossible!"
From the side, Lyra, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke. Her voice was calm and mature. "It's not just the two of you, right? A lot of people traveling with you have big bounties, don't they?"
Soryn nodded with a tired chuckle. "The little master seems to enjoy picking up troublemakers, Ah ha..."
Lyra didn't laugh.
She just shook her head and continued playing with her dagger.
Brenn pulled his massive shield closer to his feet and began its maintenance for the day. "A lot, huh? Who?" He scanned Petra and the others with a doubtful gaze.
He was a bit slow.
Rogan nudged him with an elbow. "You haven't heard? The Azurefell Twins, the Sky Tower traitor, our white whistle from the south. I even heard that the Black Market in Sevensen announced that she bought two slaves, a thief who robbed the Barak family, and a cursed Sikadeer tribesman."
Petra froze mid-bite.
Her little ears twitched rapidly.
'Thief'?
'Cursed Sikadeer'?
What the fuck was that?
Her mind turned rapidly, and two familiar faces popped into her head, a thrifty raccoon and a noble-looking deer, both of them wearing her maid costumes and smiling innocently while waving from a distance. Mm! Why did the deer in her flashback seem even more innocent than normal? Was this what you called an uncanny smile?
How suspicious!
Petra's eyes twitched as she purred to herself.
She would have to ask them later… if she remembered…
The night passed
-
The next morning, the caravan continued its crawl through the forest.
Sunlight pierced through the canopy in sharp golden streaks that reflected off the morning dew. A thin breeze moved through the trees, stirring up the scent of rain and herbs.
Petra's carriage was near the back of the procession.
Her chin rested lazily on her knees, while her body was tucked up onto the seat. She watched the muddy road roll by beneath the wheels. Her eyes drifted between the flashing forms of sunlight and shadow.
Then, she noticed something, a faint aura ahead on the path.
The caravan began to slow.
The leading guards called out something, their voices muffled by the sheer distance. Petra's gaze stayed fixed on the ground ahead. The soil there glowed faintly, pale green and purple, and from that ground rose dozens of round, fragile-looking plants swaying gently from side to side.
She tilted her head. "Mm…?"
Because of Petra's bloodline, her eyes were much better than the average person's, but what appeared ahead on the road was still quite a bit away.
As she approached, Petra slowly got a better view.
They were beautiful flowers as wide as her palm, with petals like transparent glass, and small crystal threads pulsing inside. Each flower had dozens of thread-like appendages that extended out and fluttered in the wind like long hairs. Even from this distance, she could see the air shimmer faintly around them, releasing a strange mist that seemed to make the upper points in the procession wary.
Petra's mind turned, and she quickly identified these as Purple Veiled Wisteria Ribbons.
Poisonous, of course…
The procession carefully passed, allowing Petra to quickly hop out and pick a few.
Although a bit deadly, they were a good thing for Poison Masters like her.
Speaking of Petra's collection, Petra had yet to 'play' with the majority of the common flora from the world of Pillomal. Her time was limited, so she could only focus on what she needed right now. This left her in a strange state where she had knowledge of a lot of poisonous plants, but she had yet to find them and experiment with them.
It was shortly after this small intermission that something finally happened.
Using the residual effects of the Purple Veiled Wisteria Ribbon, which had left a large part of the caravan's guards unfocused, the surrounding forest came alive, and hundreds of masked figures all shot out at once.
Petra sat by the window, knees pulled up, and a small piece of dried fish firmly locked in her little palms like a cat.
She, like all the others, didn't notice the shift in the forest at first.
No, perhaps, she simply ignored it…
At this time, the birds stopped singing, and the trees held still. The first scream came from the front.
"Ambush!"
It was an earthshaking roar that was impossible to miss.
A chorus of shouts followed, echoing through the mountain forest like a tide. The sound of snapping wood, metal striking metal, and horses shrieking all exploded in mere seconds.
Petra took a bite of her crunchy fish-shaped chip.
Her little feet kicked back and forth under the seat.
Her face was naively cute, with a little smile, almost appearing as if she didn't hear the massive fight that erupted outside.
Arrows continuously whistled from both sides, as a carriage up front exploded into splinters after a fireball struck its side. The guards scattered, trying to form ranks, but the attack had come too fast, to spread out, and they were still suffering the aftereffects of the poison, which slowed their response.
Woosh!
The forest itself seemed to split open as masked bandits, blades already drawn, shot out in the dozens as they charged from the dense underbrush towards the carriages. They swarmed the forward half of the caravan where the merchants had gathered, cutting through ropes, tearing at crates, screaming out orders.
Blood flew and limbs scattered.
From the back, Petra calmly pushed open the window and stuck her little head out, 'nibble nibble nibble', and watched everything unfold, almost as if observing a distant stage.
"Mm," she murmured, "That's not good."
Boom!
A wave of smoke followed an explosion not too far away.
The twins, Lilly and Luna, didn't move. They remained to Petra's left and right, sitting as calmly as an ancient tree. One continued reading a textbook, while the other watched the flames reflect through the glass of the window.
They were indifferent, but opposite to them, Mousa was going crazy.
The guards around the rear carriages all rushed to the front to reinforce the fight. Merchants screamed as horses reared and jumped.
The cries of children began drifting on the wind.
The scent of smoke and magic began to fill the air.
'Nibble nibble nibble.'
From where she sat, Petra could see everything, including the silhouettes of Wind and Soryn pushing through the chaos like mini storms as they followed the four adventurers to fight the attackers.
Soryn moved like a frozen knife, her sword carving wide arcs that cut down and froze everything within its reach. Rogan and Brenn had joined the front lines, their movements clean and practiced, while Iven's spells painted the air with streaks of green fire that rained down on the surrounding forest. Lyra darted between wagons and carriages like a shadow, knives flashing in silence, while Wind cast blades of magic from the back.
They were holding.
A stray bandit broke off from the chaos and ran towards the back.
Another followed him, and another, desperate, thinking that the rear wagons would be easier targets.
Petra didn't move.
Her eyes didn't even flicker.
As the bandits passed, they didn't even glance towards her carriage, choosing to sprint toward the merchant wagon behind them.
Petra had already wrapped the whole carriage, Raina and Mousa included, in an illusory barrier that these low-level bandits wouldn't be able to see through.
Bang!
Then one of the bandits screamed.
Not from pain, but confusion, er, or maybe both...?
He stumbled backwards, recoiling after slamming his face against something unseen. It was Raina's spiked mace that she had casually held out and let the bandit run face first into.
She raised an eyebrow, surprised at the level of illusion.
"Ah!"
Another bandit screamed, then looked down and saw the ground moving as dozens of tiny, flickering shapes emerged from the mud in waves.
Ants, thousands of fist-sized ants!
Their black bodies shimmered faintly with green lines under the light, swarming over the bandits' boots, up their legs, and into their armor. The men dropped their weapons and fell into the mud, thrashing violently as they were torn apart from the inside. Blood flowed from where it could, before they were silently culled by the ants that quickly disappeared back into the ground.
From inside her carriage, Petra leaned forward, "Ah? I was wondering where they were going…"
Lilly looked up from her book and tilted her head. "You called them back?"
Petra shook her head. "They're not my ants, they're something like 'my ants' familiars."
Luna nodded to the side.
The chaos in front had shifted. The adventurers were pushing the enemy back, cutting through the bandits like a skilled team. Soryn's blade shone silver in the light, while Wind's voice called out orders from the back. The guards rallied, and the bandits began to fall one after another.
They were clearly unprepared for this level of unity.
A few tried to flee back into the forest, but few of them managed to even get that far, and for those that did, they were naturally hunted down by Petra's ants.
And just like that, it was over.
Petra dispelled the illusion.
Magic smoke and chaotic spiritual energy hung low over the broken road. The air was thick with blood and bitterness. The surviving guards staggered between the wrecked carriages, pulling bodies aside, and gathering the injured.
Petra yawned quietly and leaned her head down on the cushion inside, throwing up her legs to Lilly's lap, then closed her eyes.
Soryn strode through the wreckage, sword resting across her hip. She shouted something toward the rear, checking for casualties.
It was worth mentioning that after everything was finished, although many people realised that Soryn and Wind had not been seen up till now, their proactivity dispelled many of the questioning gazes.
Petra hummed softly under her breath.
"I wonder if they were organized," she said faintly. "What were they after… I wonder?"
Lilly reached down and brushed her hair to the side, then asked without looking back, "Does it matter?"
"No," Petra said, averting your eyes.
Wind's voice came from outside. "Bratty master! You didn't move the whole fight, did you!?"
Petra jumped.
She blinked cutely, turning her head up and looking towards the carriage window that Wind had poked her head into, "..."
Petras big eyes returned a dull and confused stare.
Wind sighed, her ears drooping in disappointment. She groaned and walked away.
The caravan regrouped slowly.
The front wagons were half-burned, but the road was still clear. The dead were dragged aside, the wounded treated, and it only took about half an hour to reset everything.
Because they didn't know those that had escaped were already dead, many of them were worried about reinforcements and another ambush.
When the caravan finally began to move, Petra looked back towards the forest one last time.
The last thing she caught sight of before the forest closed, was a glimpse of the ants emerging from the soil and loading all the loot that they had secretly gathered onto a much larger transportation ant.
Petra continued her journey to the western region.