Chapter 44: Bald at a Young Age

Meanwhile, Elias was making his way toward the spot Team Five had discovered deep inside the forest.

With Evelyn, Elysia, and Vladir following close behind him, Elias felt a little more at ease in case something suddenly ambushed them.

At least if he died, he wouldn’t be dying alone.

That was what he thought as he walked, now and then opening the map in his hand to make sure they were still heading the right way.

"Is it still far?" Evelyn asked as she kept walking.

"Should be just a bit more, I think."

"If they found this place this deep in, that means Team Two has already gone even further."

"Yeah, we’ll worry about that later. The place is right in front of us."

The moment Elias pushed aside the leaves blocking their path, the sight of an area that looked like an old battlefield spread out right before their eyes.

Several trees had toppled over with claw marks and slash marks carved into their trunks, while the ground around them was torn up as well, with bloodstains that had dried in a few places, showing that the fight had most likely happened several days ago.

"Don’t spread out too far."

Evelyn, Elysia, and Vladir nodded before they began checking the area around them, and even though the three of them moved in different directions, they still kept their distance so they wouldn’t stray too far from the group.

Evelyn stared at a few broken swords stuck in the ground, but she didn’t touch them at all, only glancing over their condition before walking off to look at the rest of the area.

On the other side, Elysia did much the same with the claw marks on one of the trees, just staring at them with a blank face before walking away to check another spot.

Elias, who had been watching how they acted, could only scratch his head in confusion, because seriously, what kind of person investigates something by staring at it for a second and then just leaving?

’I don’t think we’re gonna find any clues like this.’

"Elias."

Hearing Vladir call him, Elias turned around right away and went over to the man, who was staring sharply at the ground.

"You found something?"

"Well... Take a look at this."

Elias followed the direction Vladir was pointing and found a few faint footprints in the dirt, some of them already ruined by the water that had pooled and flowed across the surface.

He crouched down to get a closer look, then followed the direction of the footprints, which led deeper into Blackwood Forest.

At first, Elias had wondered whether the prints belonged to Team Two, but after studying their condition once more, he started to feel that the guess was wrong, since the footprints were far too distorted by the water.

Judging from the soil and the weather in this forest, prints like these would need around two days to be worn down this much, while this place had only just been found by Team Five when they searched more carefully in the area Team Two had checked before.

’So these definitely aren’t Team Two’s footprints.’

"What did you guys find?"

Evelyn and Elysia had already come back over to the two men while they were still looking at the footprints below them.

"Vladir found somebody’s footprints."

"Hm? Isn’t that obvious?" Evelyn glanced at the battle scars scattered around them, "Besides, with the state of this place, plus a few broken swords, it’s clear that one side of the fight here was human."

"Y-you’ve got a point..."

’Why did I have to rack my brain over something that obvious?’

Elias scratched his head once more before turning his attention back to the footprints, while Elysia followed their direction until her sight was blocked by the tall plants growing around them.

"The trail ends here, so there’s a chance those people went even deeper into Blackwood Forest."

"Is that toward where Team Two is?" Vladir asked.

"No," Evelyn answered as she pointed in a different direction, "These footprints are heading northeast, while Team Two went north."

"Right, that’s true..."

Elias opened the map in his hand again to double-check the direction, and after matching it against their current position, he realized that the footprints led to a different part of the forest from Team Two’s route.

He didn’t know who the footprints belonged to yet, but at least he could be sure they didn’t come from the Nocturne group that had just set out to look for the Heartbloom.

While they were still discussing the discovery, Elias noticed that some of the Magic Talismans floating in the air were starting to lose their glow, and a few of them looked far dimmer than when they first entered the forest.

’These are supposed to be brand new Magic Talismans, so why is the mana inside them almost gone already?’

Elias felt it was strange, since the talismans hadn’t been used for that long, but he didn’t want to waste time on something that might not even matter, so he took a few of the dimming talismans and poured mana into them until their light was as bright as before.

"Well, at least that’s sorted."

He put the talismans back up and was about to recharge the others that were starting to fade, but out of nowhere, someone called out their names from behind.

"Sir Elias! Lady Evelyn! Lady Elysia!"

Elias turned around right away to see who was calling them, and it turned out to be a member of Team Two, who was walking back toward the camp.

"Why are you guys back? Did you find something?"

"Yes, Sir. We found something, but it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the Heartbloom."

After he finished recharging the dimming Magic Talismans, Elias quickly walked over to hear the findings, while Evelyn and Elysia followed along, curious about the report.

"So what did you find?"

The leader of Team Two began explaining their discovery. While they were searching for mana abnormalities around the thickets, one of the team members had found a tree that was far bigger than all the other trees around it.

Thinking the place might hold a clue about the Heartbloom, they decided to check the area around the tree, and they found a grassy patch where most of the grass was still standing upright, but some parts were flattened and pressed into the ground.

In the middle of that patch, there was a much bigger impression with the soil packed down hard, as if something heavy had once been sitting there, but they hadn’t found any footprints clear enough to tell what had caused it.

The leader then followed the trail of flattened grass to the other side of the tree, but he found nothing there, until he finally realized that from the very start they had only been checking the base of the tree and hadn’t looked at the surroundings from above.

So he climbed the tree to check its branches, and from one of the higher ones, he spotted a wide area hidden behind the trees, though it was too dark there to make anything out clearly.

After climbing down, he led his team toward the place, and they discovered a hidden camp tucked behind the thickets, with embers that were still hot even though the fire was almost out, a sign that the people who had been there had probably just left.

"The camp is almost invisible from the ground since it’s covered by bushes, but from the top of the tree, we could see where it was."

Elias frowned slightly at the explanation, since the camp could very well belong to the people involved in the battle they’d found earlier, but he didn’t have enough proof to be sure.

Who were they really, and why would they set up a camp in the middle of the forest with thickets covering almost the entire area?

"Hmm..."

Evelyn held her chin for a moment before finally giving her own opinion.

"Those bushes definitely didn’t grow naturally in a pattern like that, and besides, they surround the whole camp."

"Maybe they made them to hide the place from monsters," Vladir said.

"If they were really avoiding monsters, they shouldn’t have made a fire that could draw monsters’ attention," Elysia argued.

Elias gave a small nod because what Elysia said made sense, but there was one thing he felt they hadn’t considered yet, which was how cold the forest was and how little sunlight it got.

"Still, considering how freezing it is in here, a fire could be the answer, and maybe they put those bushes there to hide their camp because some of them were hurt."

Elias looked around him before continuing.

"If someone really is hurt, the warmth from the fire could help them rest. Besides, sunlight barely makes it through the trees in this forest anyway."

A few members of Team Two exchanged glances after hearing Elias, while the atmosphere around them slowly went quiet, since no one could tell whether that guess was right or not.

The team leader finally opened his mouth, though he sounded a little awkward.

"U-umm... So, what do we do now?"

Elias was still going over all the information he’d just received, from the footprints heading northeast to the hidden camp that had only just been abandoned, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt that standing around here wasn’t going to give them any answers.

He rubbed his face with both hands and let out a heavy breath before finally deciding to drop the discussion.

*Sigh...

"Screw those people. For now, we just need to look for clues about the Heartbloom, and we’ll leave them alone as long as they don’t try to get in our way."

"Understood, Sir Elias."

Elias scratched the back of his head again, hard this time, since all the things they still hadn’t found were making him dizzy, until he finally complained in a worn-out voice.

"I feel like I could go bald at a young age if this keeps up..."

*Gasp!

Hearing Elias made Evelyn and Elysia freeze up in shock and cling to each other. Their bodies trembling and their eyes still locked on Elias as if they’d just heard something terrifying.

"B-Big sis... Elias... bald."

"T-that’s a nightmare... A real nightmare..."

Evelyn shook her head before looking at Elysia seriously.

"I really hope I don’t dream about it tonight."

"Elysia, let’s sleep in the same bed. I’m sure we won’t dream about it if we’re together. Haha..."

Elias could only stare at the two girls with a blank look.

’What the hell is wrong with them?’

He didn’t want to think about their weird behavior any further and opened the map in his hand again, since they still hadn’t found the Heartbloom and he had no intention of spending more time in this place.

"Alright, let’s keep searching."

Elias started walking again, followed by Evelyn, Elysia, and Vladir, who were also getting ready to continue their journey.

However, not long after they left the area, the light of one of the Magic Talismans floating in the air dimmed again, even though Elias had only just refilled its mana a short while ago.

Elias didn’t notice because he was busy thinking about where to search next, while somewhere among the trees, far beyond their line of sight, a pair of glowing eyes kept watching the group in silence.

* * *