The day came to an end.
When night fell, the caravan did not stop to make camp as it had before, instead continuing onward. The rumors they had heard from other caravans about Vampires had left everyone uneasy. Aside from Megumi, who remained smugly declaring, "If any Vampire shows up, I'll blast her into the sky," everyone else was on high alert, vigilantly watching the surrounding forest.
The caravan had originally planned to rest for the night and reach its destination by noon tomorrow. But now, they had decided to travel through the night. If they were lucky, they could arrive before dawn. After all, with Vampires possibly lurking nearby, every extra night they stayed meant another measure of risk.
As everyone knew, the most terrifying thing about Vampires was not merely their own immense power. It was that anyone bitten by a Vampire would become a Vampire themselves. That was the truly frightening part. According to the intelligence the caravan had obtained, seven brass-ranked adventurers had encountered that Vampire in the forest. Five had been killed, and only two had escaped by sheer luck.
That meant there could be at least six Vampires hiding here.
Brass-ranked adventurers were no weaklings themselves, yet five out of seven had been killed. The strength of that Vampire spoke for itself. Meanwhile, Priestess's side had three white porcelain-ranked adventurers—although their actual strength was not truly limited to white porcelain, it had never been officially confirmed. Even if they stayed here, it was hard to say whether Priestess and the others could protect everyone.
Under such circumstances, the sooner they set off, the better.
If they were lucky and did not encounter those Vampires, reaching their destination safely would naturally be ideal.
If they were unlucky...
"It's very quiet tonight."
Looking at the deathly