Torch Fortress, true to its unique appearance and role, had many monsters in the surrounding area. Sometimes it became vicious enough that ogres would come down leading groups, because Torch Fortress's giant torch attracted monsters.
Even after dealing with so many monsters, it was a troublesome area with monsters still abundant.
'I thought it was a dangerous place.'
While traveling for half a day, they didn't meet bandits or mountain bandits, let alone monsters. Rowan had mixed feelings of disappointment and relief. They found a place to bivouac before the sun set.
The party received their assigned tasks and scattered. Because Rowan didn't know the geography here, he was assigned to gather firewood nearby with Shield-bulk Keireon. Youngest Sen and Merein were assigned the hardest job of fetching water.
At first glance it seemed fair for strong Keireon to fetch water, but because they rotated by turns, this time Merein and Sen went to get water.
"Hmm-hmm~."
Humming a song he'd picked up at the tavern, Keireon leisurely gathered firewood. They had to pick up lots of fallen branches of appropriate size, so his back would probably hurt quite a bit, but like a mercenary, he used good tricks.
Swoosh. Swish.
He gathered firewood in one place with his feet along with dirt, sat down on his butt, collected firewood and tied it with dried vines. Rowan saw that belatedly and followed suit. Keireon didn't bother talking to Rowan. He was the type who got more stressed the more he talked anyway.
Rowan could be just as taciturn when he wanted to be.
The two men gathered firewood like that without a word. More firewood was needed than expected because nights in wooded places were very cold. They had to heat stones, and if they just slept on the bare ground without heating them, their condition would drop sharply.
They didn't know when they'd have combat, and to notice enemies in advance, their senses had to be good.
'Fatigue makes all stats drop.'
Warmth was the most powerful means of maintaining human condition. They gathered firewood abundantly with their feet for one hour. Then they whacked dead trees with a hand axe to bring eight forearm-thick pieces. This thick wood would maintain the fire for a long time and was important for shaping the campfire.
They also tore off dead tree vines when they saw them. Bringing those, Rowan sat and rubbed vines with his hands.
Swish swish swish! Crumble!
Turning to powder, the moisture disappeared. Because his hands were parched from holding wood and dirt without a drop of sweat, from the hot rubbing, the vines crumbled and even the little moisture that was there disappeared.
Just striking flint on that was enough. While Rowan made the place to put the first fire, Keireon was skillfully shaping the campfire. Placing four thick pieces of wood, fitting the smallest branches inside, then standing and laying small firewood like rows and columns.
Tak! Tak!
The flint sparked twice and a spark was born. As soon as he covered it with his hand and gently blew, white smoke suddenly puffed out. He placed the spark on the campfire and blew.
"Huff! Huff!"
After Rowan blew a few times, he pulled back. Keireon tactfully blew instead.
Meanwhile, Yuval caught two birds. Bedum brought mushrooms and edible mountain things.
"Ngh!"
Merein made a sound while slowly bringing a bucket full of water without spilling. Sen did the same.
Rowan brought his pot from the cart carrying the bear hide and boiled water first.
"What are you trying to do by boiling water?"
When Merein approached and asked, Rowan opened his mouth.
"I boil it and drink it."
She treated him like he was odd. Nothing was tastier than cool water, but hot or lukewarm water? Just hearing it was unappetizing, and there was no desire to drink it.
She quickly lost interest. The people who roughly washed their faces cat-style with water each took out things to eat. The soup they'd eat together used a fairly large pot, and it was always Yuval's role. No one made soup better than him.
He skillfully rinsed vegetables once with the water they'd brought, twisted and tore them with his hands and put them inside. Because of picky eater Keireon, all the unappetizing vegetables had to be torn to shreds by hand. Otherwise he wouldn't eat.
"You're putting it in like that again? I eat it now..."
"This makes it thicker and better."
Keireon clicked his tongue. Regardless, Yuval started making soup. He plucked and put in the caps of the edible mushrooms Bedum brought, thinly sliced and put in the lower parts. Meat couldn't be left out either. Thick fat was good.
It was the belly part full of pork fat with little lean meat. Of course, it was salted. There wasn't a single idiot here who'd bring raw meat on a trip. It wasn't suitable to use smoked meat considering the price.
'If you use salt-cured pork, you don't need salt seasoning.'
Then he took out a small amount of smoked duck. This had to be used sparingly. Lean meat was indispensable. This was for grilling. It was hard to give up lean meat's texture and taste just to eat fat.
"Caw."
Making crow sounds, Kaiya unhesitatingly approached the campfire. Youngest Sen was too busy staring, finding it truly amazing. Keireon spoke roughly.
"The guy who slept all day on the cart finds his way here amazingly when it's mealtime."
All along the way, crow Kaiya had fallen fast asleep on the cart, showing even his belly. Rowan impassively prepared Kaiya's meal while also subtly saying,
"You can't sleep at night."
"Caw."
"This guy stands night watch?"
Sen asked with an astonished expression.
"Yes. He's smarter than you'd think."
As soon as Rowan said that, Kaiya looked at Sen and made crying sounds, circled around as if evaluating him, then immediately pecked his butt hard with his beak and climbed onto Rowan's shoulder.
"Ow! This guy pecked me!"
"He really is smart."
Keireon laughed while checking the temperature of the liquor he was warming. Yuval was concentrating on making soup. It clearly showed he paid quite a lot of attention and effort to cooking.
'Anyone watching would think he's a chef...'
Grr.
Meat also went to wolf Dono. Rowan found that quite a bit of money went into food. After eating the meat, the wolf was given a bone. When the crunching sound came, Keireon subtly stuck out his foot and poked the bone.
Glare.
Wolf Dono, who shot him a look, made no sound, took the bone in his mouth and disappeared to a secluded spot. As if to say how petty. Keireon, who didn't get to have fun, clicked his tongue and passed around the warmed liquor.
"Let's have a drink."
Having a drink, the party talked about the crow's night watch. Because certainty was needed, there were many questions about Kaiya.
"Let's try an experiment. Have Sen carefully come back here."
"That won't work. He already saw him once."
"He can distinguish that too?"
"Yes. I know well."
They couldn't change policy overnight.
"Let's see for a day, and I hope we can benefit from this crow."
"I don't mind."
Rowan nodded. There was nothing inconvenient for him. He knew the mercenaries were distrustful because they didn't know how smart crows were, and didn't know that Kaiya was especially outstanding among them.
Rowan, as soon as he finished eating, immediately put heated stones into the ground and covered them with dirt. He spread one fur on the ground and went to sleep. Dono skillfully pressed his body against Rowan's back.
Crow Kaiya climbed onto a thick branch. All the mercenaries confirmed that.
"Feels like he's glaring on purpose."
Youngest Sen, who got pecked once, muttered and closed his eyes.
Throughout the night watch, Kaiya had his eyes wide open. Sometimes pecking branch leaves to drop them below, he surprised mercenaries who got up to stand night watch.
"You little shit."
Keireon couldn't get very angry. Because everyone was sleeping. But his pride wouldn't allow venting on a beast either. Leaves fell down in streams in front of him as he endured.
"Stop it."
"Caw."
At the crying sound like scoffing, Keireon looked for liquor. Because it was something Rowan cherished, he couldn't kill it. Because it understood words fairly well, it was expensive.
'I want to teach him a lesson but he's too small to hit.'
Even flicking his forehead looked like it would kill him. So he couldn't touch him.
"Here. You bastard. Eat this and get lost."
As soon as he waved a piece of jerky, Kaiya readily flew over, snatched the jerky with his talons, climbed back on the branch and pecked at it with his beak to eat.
For Keireon, who'd planned to tease with food, it was like being robbed with his eyes wide open.
At dawn, through youngest Sen's last turn when he was dozing off, Kaiya stayed awake. They knew Kaiya was awake throughout the night watch, but letting an animal stand night watch wasn't trustworthy. Suspicion disappeared but they couldn't trust it yet.
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
Flap! Flap!
Wing flapping made rough sounds. Dozing youngest Sen jumped up. Not at the crow's crying sounds but at the flapping wing sounds, everyone raised their bodies. Rowan was no exception. It was clearly different from when Kaiya had pecked his head to wake him when a thief entered his personal warehouse at night.
He was quick.
"What? What's happening?"
Keireon picked up his shield first and looked around. But the surroundings were quiet. The commotion rapidly decreased.
'That crow bastard?'
While the feeling of being tricked seeped into the mercenaries, Rowan stood up with weapons drawn while watching Dono sniffing.
"Dono, let's go catch them."
Without answering, Dono took the lead. When Rowan followed behind, Yuval and the others did the same.
"Merein, guard the luggage. Sen, go around the side. Bedum, climb up a tree."
At Yuval's words, everyone moved quickly. Only two people went with Rowan—Yuval and Keireon—and Bedum instantly climbed up a tree. Sen hurriedly equipped himself and belatedly disappeared on a different path. Merein left the campfire and ambushed at a spot with her back against a tree and bushes in front.
Without Yuval having to speak in detail, just one brief word, everyone acted tactically. Experience stood out, and that's why they'd even contracted with the lord. Without skill, they wouldn't have gotten that far.
It was also because they made their living bounty hunting. Hunting only monsters and contracting with the lord would have been impossible.
Before sunrise, when it was darkest, Rowan, who entered the forest, couldn't see anything but skillfully followed Dono just by outline. The version of him who used to slip while climbing mountains had disappeared, and there was only a veteran hunter.
The mercenaries also ran unhesitatingly on the rough mountain terrain. Before even fifty steps, someone who saw the party approaching while shaking bushes opened their mouth wide. It was a foolish act.
"Wh-what?"
Stupid sounds popped out from ahead. Yuval yelled loudly.
"Who are you! Who are you to approach us?!"
When there was no answer and the enemies just floundered, Keireon roared like a beast and sounds burst out from various places. The dull sound of the shield he was beating was naturally threatening.
"We're refugees! We don't have anything!"
"Refugees from which village!"
"Mushroom Mountain Village!"
The commotion didn't end like that. When Rowan approached, someone immediately swung something.
'No way.'
Rowan roughly dodged the weapon and immediately cut the guy's wrist with his shortsword.
"Aaaah!!! Ah! Uaaaah! My aaaarm!!!"
The guy whose wrist got cut off screamed like crazy after falling and curled up tight. Because of the pain, nothing else registered. To kill the guy right away, there were too many enemies around.
"Refugees my ass, they're holding weapons!"
At Rowan's shout, Keireon rushed like a bear in a straight line at two people approaching him.
"Gak!"
The guy who got hit by the shield bounced backward and rolled miserably. Among the two guys aiming for Keireon, one who saw that immediately dropped his weapon and prostrated himself.
"Spare me!"
Youngest Sen, who went to the side, just looked around nervously while drawing his bowstring. Because it was so dark, he couldn't tell who was who.
When sounds of begging to be spared and wails of pain popped out, everywhere was full of people shouting surrender! or we yield!
"Don't move!"
Binding them in darkness was unthinkable. Until sunrise, silence descended in the tree-filled place. As the surroundings gradually brightened, Yuval, Keireon, and the party tied them up.
"Huhuhu. Huhuhu."
The guy whose wrist Rowan had cut off cleanly cried like a child.
"Talking like refugees."
After clearly seeing they were all holding vicious weapons, Rowan sneered. Yuval approached Rowan.
"What's with standing at the very front when you've hired escorts? Don't do that going forward."
Rowan nodded. He regretted not being able to kill the guy because of the darkness and enemies appearing in large numbers. Because it had been quite a while since dreaming a black dream, he had thirst building up, so he'd rushed unhesitatingly.
Because he'd realized the massive power of forces at Big Village Dudun's Barrel, the thirst had grown even more severe.