Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Yaru dismounted from the Gerpan once she spotted Enya. Drawing her sword, she swiftly beheaded a Feluda that was launching another attack towards them.

Screech!

The Feluda let out a grotesque cry as it collapsed. At that moment, Fiarca also jumped down from her Gerpan.

“My goodness…!”

Fiarca still seemed unable to believe she was right in front of her. Her gaze quickly swept over Enya, who was being carried by Jahan, and the rest of the den dwellers beside them.

“What in the world…! Enya, what exactly—!”

Fiarca appeared at a loss for words. Another tremendous impact sound came from behind. Yaru was confronting two wolves.

“Fiarca!”

Yaru, who was blocking the dripping fangs of a wolf, clenched her teeth and shouted. There was no time to dally. Fiarca swiftly pulled Enya down from Jahan’s back and hoisted her onto the Gerpan.

“Who are these guys!”

As Fiarca yelled at the stunned group, Enya quickly responded.

“They helped me! We must take them with us!”

It was an instinctive answer. Seeing Fiarca’s expression turned to one of astonishment, Enya pleaded with desperate earnestness.

“Please, I beg you! We have to go with these people!”

There was no time for deliberation. After a brief moment of conflict, she exclaimed.

“We’re short on mounts, but let’s try…!”

Without another word, Fiarca helped Jahan, Silanda, and Senu load their bags onto the Gerpans. As they were loading the weapons, Fiarca muttered what was clearly a curse in Nervana Forest language.

“Why is this so heavy!”

“Be, be careful!”

Senu quickly assisted her while anxiously cautioning her. Even in the midst of chaos, he seemed worried about dropping the weapons and rendering them unusable.

The situation rapidly turned around.

Yaru single-handedly distracted the surrounding beasts, allowing Fiarca to organize the loading of each individual’s belongings onto the two Gerpans.

While she provided cover, Enya mounted one Gerpan with the baggage, and Senu and Silanda climbed onto another. Jahan barely managed to hang onto the Gerpan they boarded by a hair’s breadth.

“You there! Can you handle a Gerpan?”

Fiarca, having swiftly mounted in front of Enya, shouted to Silanda, who was holding the reins of the other Gerpan.

“There’s no way! This is the first time I’ve ever seen such an animal!”

Silanda’s voice was trembling mercilessly.

It was understandable. Gerpans were creatures that had only recently been tamed. And Silanda, who had lived inside the cave until recently, though bold, was not enough to handle a Gerpan she was seeing for the first time.

“Silanda, hand the reins to me…!”

Then Senu, who had climbed up behind her, shouted.

“It should be similar to a horse!”

With his cry, Fiarca responded.

“It’s the same, just a bit more shaky!”

Gaining confidence from her words, Senu assertively took the reins.

“Let’s go!”

On Fiarca’s signal, the Gerpans carrying them kicked off the ground and started to gallop. Enya shouted at the top of her lungs, fearing they were overlooking a crucial fact.

“Wait! What about Yaru?!”

However, Fiarca kept her eyes fixed ahead. Hee-yah! She forcefully spurred the Gerpan to set off.

“Don’t worry about Yaru! We need to worry about ourselves right now!”

Enya hurriedly wrapped her arms around Fiarca’s waist as they jolted forward. The thought of Yaru being left behind without a Gerpan was intensely worrying, but there was no other choice.

Fiarca, Enya, and the Gerpan carrying the luggage dashed like mad.

However, Senu’s Gerpan, which was supposed to follow closely behind, didn’t move.

“Senu!”

Silanda, who was mounted behind Senu, yelled out.

His gaze had momentarily fixed towards the front camp, where Servia would be. Of course, Servia, surrounded and protected by soldiers, was nowhere to be seen.

“What are you doing?! We need to start moving now!”

As Silanda’s shout fell, Senu, who had been lost in thought as if he had been struck by a whip, was startled into action. Soon after, he, too hastily, spurred the Gerpan. Arrows rained in every direction. Amidst the chaos, the two Gerpans raced forward in a straight line.

Enya, battling the wind on her face, squeezed her eyes shut and shouted.

“What, what about Yaru? She has no Gerpan to ride back on!”

Fiarca, frantically steering the Gerpan, responded.

“I told you! Worrying about Yaru is the last thing we should do! Just hold on tight!”

Right after her words, a massive spear narrowly missed the side of their Gerpan. Enya gasped, holding her breath before gripping Fiarca’s waist even tighter.

‘Are Senu and the others keeping up…?’

She was too worried, but looking back was akin to a suicide mission for her at the moment.

Enya prayed fervently for everyone’s safety, tightening her grip around Fiarca’s waist. They had been galloping for what felt like an eternity. They leave behind the camp where Servia’s forces were stationed.

“Whoa, whoa—!”

On Fiarca’s signal, the Gerpan gradually started to slow down.

The exhausted Gerpan was visibly struggling despite using three lungs to breathe. Fiarca, panting heavily herself, soothed the Gerpan’s sides while scanning the surroundings swiftly. They were now running through a forest sparsely dotted with trees.

Enya quickly turned around.

Thankfully, the other Gerpan, who was steered by Senu, had managed to follow them here. The occupants looked even more exhausted than the Gerpan they rode. Fiarca lifted her head to survey the surroundings, put two fingers to her lips, and whistled sharply.

Whii-cck!

The clear ringing sound was promptly answered from the opposite side of the forest. Soon after, three figures appeared.

Enya held her breath the moment she saw them.

The tall figures of Nihitan and Rigata caught her eye first, and then, the small woman beside them who looked utterly astounded seeing Enya.

It was Ihita, the assistant to the pharmacist Piache.

* * *

After the two weary Gerpans finally began to breathe more evenly, Enya had just finished recounting everything she had experienced.

Surrounded in a circle, the expressions on everyone’s faces were a mix of astonishment and shock.

“May I ask why you all… are gathered here like this?”

Enya looked at Fiarca, Rigata, Nihitan, and Ihita seated around her. It was an odd group, to say the least. Aside from Fiarca, Yaru, and Nihitan, who were from the same Nervana Forest, there was also Rigata and Ihita.

“We were part of a search party looking for you, Enya.”

Fiarca responded first.

“We thought you might have been kidnapped outside of Aquilea, so we formed a search team to investigate.”

That was when Enya realized every member of the group was adept at combat. Not only was Rigata, Tarhan’s right-hand man, there, but each member of the Nervana Forest was a vital warrior.

As Ihita handed her a leather water pouch, Enya gulped down half of the pouch Ihita handed her.

‘Ihita must have joined as a medic.’

Ihita explained what the group had gone through.

“While we were outside looking for you, Gernan’s army arrived, completely blocking the passage and seizing control of the tribe. We couldn’t even think about returning to the village, so we had to focus on saving ourselves. The patrols were too strict.”

Enya connected this to what Servia’s soldiers had mentioned about ‘cleaning up.’ Her expression turned grave instantly.

Ihita, recalling the desperation of those moments, shivered as if the memory was too raw.

“Just when we were stuck outside, unable to move, we spotted Servia’s army exiting the tribe.”

Fiarca, thinking about the helpless state of Servia’s forces, bared her teeth and spoke fiercely.

“They were passing through just the right location to get entangled in the territorial fight between the Feludas and the Black Claw Wolves. We couldn’t just let such an opportunity pass by.”

True to the potential future chieftain of the Nervana Forest women, Fiarca showed remarkable boldness.

Ihita, overwhelmed with emotion, grasped Enya’s hand and muttered.

“Anyway, it’s truly a relief. Enya. You vanished without a trace… to be honest, we were almost giving up hope on finding you.”

Enya also felt a great relief upon seeing Ihita’s face again, to whom she had depended on as the people of Nervana Forest. Before meeting the Nervana Forest people, Ihita was almost her only friend in Aquilea. Her face brightened significantly upon seeing her again.

“I wonder how the people still in Aquilea are holding up.”

Enya said, shadow crossing her face.

Many, including Old Lady Piaçe and her followers at the pharmacy, Rigata’s subordinates, and some from the Nervana Forest, were still in Aquilea, where the ‘clean up’ operations were underway.

“They should be fine.”

Nihitan, who hadn’t joined the seated group but was leaning against a nearby tree with his arms crossed, spoke up. Enya was slightly startled to be addressed by him directly. He was usually seen close to Yaru and has always been silent and reserved.

But how could Nihitan be so sure?

At that moment, Rigata, sitting on a cut tree stump on the opposite side, added his thoughts.

“He’s right, especially about the pharmacist lady. You don’t need to worry. There’s a tunnel connected to the pharmacy. They would have taken refuge there.”

Enya’s mouth fell open in surprise.

…A tunnel?

Ihita sighed deeply and chattered away.

“The Old Lady always has a trick up her sleeve. Who would have thought she’d build such a tunnel secretly when she asked Tarhan to construct a larger pharmacy? Truly, no one knew.”

Relieved by these fortunate revelations, Enya breathed a sigh of relief. The existence of the tunnel was a surprise but also a relief.

‘Grandmother Piache had prepared for everything.’

Such was the foresight of Piache.

“Speaking of tunnels…”

Ihita, who was wiping the sweat off Enya’s forehead, glanced at the group, seated a little apart from the rest.

Everyone’s gaze shifted towards the leprosy den group sitting a distance away.

“I knew Servia was ruthless, but…”

Ihita eyed the cave dwellers, whose faces were all but hidden under bandages, with suspicion. The Aquilea and Nervana Forest groups had just heard Enya’s explanation about the leper den.

Shock still lingered on Ihita’s face.

“To think she managed to keep such a significant matter completely hidden from the tribe until now.”

Rigata also looked at the cave dwellers in disbelief, his gaze lingering on Senu for a long time.

“This is a huge matter. If this gets out, not only Servia but also her lineage, which has ruled as elders through generations, could fall. Even the private soldiers loyal to her by Kahanti’s decree might turn their backs on her.”

Indeed, the situation was as serious as Enya had thought.

Even after hearing everything, the mutual suspicion between the two groups was still palpable, especially between Fiarca and Silanda, who nearly glared in confrontation.

“How can we trust that these people aren’t spies planted by Servia?”

Fiarca, relatively unfamiliar with Aquilea’s culture and circumstances, openly doubted Senu.

__