Unexpected Words

Chapter 33: Unexpected Words

Afterward, to completely eradicate the Blood Sucking Vines, Shien and the others, led by Vivian, entered the scorched land blackened by fire magic and dug up all the roots of the vines in the ground.

The roots of the Blood Sucking Vines did not move like their main bodies; they were similar to the roots of ordinary plants and did not coil around people. They only absorbed blood seeping into the soil from the earth and spread seeds, allowing the Blood Sucking Vines to multiply. Furthermore, they weren't planted very deep, so Shien and the others used their weapons as tools and quickly dug out all the roots.

Subsequently, the group, under Vivian's direction, gathered all the roots of the Blood Sucking Vines. Then, they had Merika cast fire magic once more to burn all the roots, and the work was successfully completed.

"The Guild should send people to confirm this later. Let's head to the next commission location—the Mangal Mountain Range."

Under Vivian's direction, the group set off once more.

This time, the journey was completely smooth, with no incidents occurring.

If anything were to be said, it was that with Shien deliberately keeping his distance, perhaps due to his lowered presence, the carriage interior was no longer as stiflingly silent.

After the recent work, Merika's tension seemed to have eased, and she started talking more. This led to Tier and Lumya also being unable to remain completely silent and engaging in conversation to some extent, which helped to ease the atmosphere.

Naturally, Shien was not included in this.

Shien ignored the interactions of the three girls and looked out the window, his mind entirely occupied with matters of magic.

Under these circumstances, the carriage arrived at the Mangal Mountain Range before dusk.

"Alright, we've arrived."

Vivian stopped the carriage at the foot of the mountain. While calling out to Shien and the others to get out of the carriage, she also gave water and salt to the horses pulling it.

As Shien stepped out of the carriage, he looked up and saw a continuous range of mountains.

That was the Mangal Mountain Range.

"Although we don't need to go deep, the sun is about to set. Entering the Mangal Mountain Range at this time is undoubtedly not ideal. Let's camp at the foot of the mountain."

That was Vivian's plan.

"Camp?"

Shien looked over.

"That's right." Vivian looked at Shien and said patiently, "Night is when most dangerous monsters are active. Plus, visibility in the mountains at night is very low, so it's best not to undertake any adventurous activities. This way, we can avoid most accidents."

Shien immediately fell silent.

Because he remembered how he had spent those nights during his ten days in the monster forest.

"That's right, camping is good, camping is the best! I love camping!"

When he came to his senses, Shien had already said this decisively.

"???"

Seeing Shien's sudden change in attitude, Vivian was completely bewildered.

At this moment, Tier and the others finally came down from the carriage.

"Are we camping? Vivian-nee-san?"

Lumya asked timidly, glancing at Shien with a look of apprehension on her face.

"There should be an inn at the foot of the mountain nearby. Can't we stay there?"

Merika also expressed this, and she too glanced at Shien, her eyes showing the same tension as before.

As for Tier, she didn't say a word, slightly lifting her face, her eyes under the hood seemingly glancing at Shien as well.

"???"

This time, it was Shien's turn to be completely bewildered.

Of course, when these question marks appeared, it meant that I wasn't the problem, you were.

When they heard "camping," why did they all glance over here?

Are they afraid of being ambushed at night?

Shien was about to speak up and retort with something like that.

However, Vivian seemed to sense something was amiss and quickly intervened.

"The nearest inn from here would require us to travel until midnight even by carriage. And if we get up early tomorrow morning, we'd have to rush back from there, which would waste a lot of time. If we miss the activation of the magic power source, we'll waste another day. Considering this, let's just camp here."

After speaking, Vivian immediately took the luggage from the carriage's cargo rack and handed several black curtain-like tarps to Tier and the others.

"You guys set up the tents first; I'll feed the horses. I'm counting on you?"

Vivian gave Tier and the others no chance to refuse.

"Vivian."

Tier spoke, her voice carrying a rare hint of reproach, as if she were displeased with Vivian's decision.

However, Vivian looked directly at Tier.

"I think you should understand, right?" Vivian said to Tier with an unusually serious expression. "He did nothing wrong."

Tier was immediately speechless.

Not only Tier, but Lumya and Merika were also somewhat at a loss for words.

The three looked at Shien again, but no longer with the same lack of manners as before. Lumya even showed a hint of apology in her eyes.

Immediately, the three, carrying the tent cloths, silently walked to the side, preparing to set up the tents.

Incidentally, those tent cloths were actually magical items. As long as magic power was infused into them, they would automatically expand like heat-expanding materials, turning into individual tents.

Therefore, setting up tents was not a problem even if Shien, a grown man, didn't lend a hand.

Shien watched Tier and the other two leave, then turned his gaze to Vivian.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," Vivian said immediately, sounding somewhat apologetic. "In the past, in our party, we've had male adventurers assigned by the Adventurer's Guild join us a few times, and some of them took advantage during camping..."

Hearing this, Shien pretty much understood what was going on.

"No wonder they were so wary of me," Shien muttered.

"I'm truly sorry," Vivian apologized again, then sighed and said softly, "Although it's not our intention, in many ways, we receive excessive attention from men and male adventurers. Plus, we are adventurers ourselves, and some unavoidable troubles are really hard to avoid."

"That's why I formed this party, gathering female adventurers who might encounter similar troubles in various aspects, hoping to at least deter some people's ill intentions."

Vivian was quite candid, even saying these things.

"It's not that I can't understand," Shien said, spreading his hands. "But if you let me join this party anyway, aren't you and the Guild being a bit too bold?"

"Perhaps," Vivian didn't deny it, but smiled. "However, we naturally considered the drawbacks and still made this decision, proving you have that kind of value."

"Value?" Shien finally looked at Vivian, as if joking, "What value could I possibly have? Could I be the Hero?"

"The Hero?" Vivian was stunned for a moment, then said with a mix of amusement and exasperation, "If you were the Hero, we'd have a bigger headache."

These words made Shien freeze as well.

"Why?" Shien asked in surprise. "Don't you want to see the Hero appear and defeat the Demon Lord?"

Such words caused Vivian to be taken aback, then taken aback again.

Then...

"Wasn't the Demon Lord already defeated?"

As that sentence echoed, the air fell silent.

Shien's expression completely froze, his pupils sharply contracting. He could no longer conceal his astonishment.