"I see," he said, leaning back slightly.

"..."

"Zilu... what do you think about the idea of traveling with us?"

"Eh?"

Saying that, Mark could feel all the eyes around him turn toward him with intensity, but to his surprise, beyond that, neither Aria, Ely, nor Alice said anything.

"You heard me," Mark continued, looking at the rabbit-eared woman. "If you really have nobody and nothing tying you to any particular place, you can come with us until you figure out what you want to do."

Zilu looked at him in surprise.

Her black ears lifted slightly from the surprise, trembled lightly in the air, and then lowered again.

"Why...?" she said finally in a quiet voice. "Why would you offer me something like that?"

Mark looked at her slightly confused.

"I’d probably just be a burden to you all..." Zilu said, lowering her gaze to the table. "I’m not strong like you are, I don’t know how to fight, I can’t use magic, I don’t even have any special abilities... the only things I know how to do are hunt small animals and cook what I catch."

"Actually," Mark said without changing his tone, "someone like you would be quite useful to us."

Zilu looked up, confused.

"Useful?"

"That’s right, because as you can see, we’re all human," Mark said, gesturing vaguely toward Ely, Aria, and Alice around him.

Seeing that Zilu didn’t seem to understand what he was referring to, Mark continued explaining.

"And given that we’re planning to go deep into demi-human territory, that could cause us a lot of problems."

"..."

"If we show up in a demi-human village as a group of only humans, the most likely reaction is that they’ll attack us, throw us out, or simply refuse to speak to us," Mark admitted. "Especially after finding out there are human slave traders operating in this area."

Zilu stayed quiet, listening.

"But if a demi-human comes with us," Mark continued, "the situation changes quite a bit. Having someone like you with us would show them we’re not a threat, or at least give them a reason not to attack us on sight."

"That makes sense, but..."

"But?"

"Why would you want to go into demi-human territory?" Zilu asked in a tone that was more curious than suspicious. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"Let’s say we’re investigating something," he said, trying to sound as vague as possible. "Something extremely important."

"Like what?"

"...Right now I can’t tell you that, not because I don’t trust you, it’s more that even we don’t have all the details of what we’re looking for figured out yet," Mark lied.

Hearing his explanation, Zilu frowned slightly.

"But I give you my word," Mark added, looking her directly in the eyes, "that if you agree to come with us, I’ll tell you everything at some point."

Zilu looked at him steadily.

"I don’t know..." she said finally, looking down again. "It’s just that all of this is very sudden and I... I don’t know what to say."

"I understand, I didn’t mean to pressure you either."

She kept her eyes on her hands as she listened to Mark.

"You can also choose to go your own way," Mark said in a tone that made clear he meant it. "We’re not going to force you into anything or hold you back."

Zilu didn’t respond.

"But if you choose that," Mark continued, leaning slightly forward, "I’d like to ask you one last thing before we part ways."

"What thing?"

"Do you know where there might be a large demi-human settlement? Something like a city or an important village."

Zilu sat in thought for several seconds, her ears moving slightly as she thought.

"Unfortunately no," she said finally, shaking her head. "I never left my village, so I don’t know other settlements."

"None at all?"

"None," she confirmed. "But..."

She paused for a moment.

"My friend might know, she’s traveled a lot more than I have and knows many things about the area."

"Is that the same friend you mentioned before?" Mark asked.

"Yes, if anyone can give you the directions you’re looking for, it’s her."

Mark sat thinking for a moment.

"Could you take us to your village?" Mark asked. "Just to talk to your friend and ask for directions, nothing more."

Zilu looked at him for a second, somewhat undecided, but then nodded slowly.

"Yes... I can do that."

"Thank you very much," Mark said, placing one of his hands over Zilu’s.

Then an idea crossed Mark’s mind.

"You know what," Mark said, suddenly pulling his hand back. "How about you think over what I proposed on the way to the village."

"What?"

"Yes," Mark continued. "You have the whole journey to think it over calmly. And if after we get the directions you’re still not convinced about coming with us, I won’t bring it up again."

"...That works for me."

"Perfect, then it’s settled," Mark said with a small smile.

He was about to get to his feet to start organizing their departure when the sound of footsteps came from behind.

Rose appeared from beside the table and dropped onto the bench next to Mark.

The vampire settled into the seat, resting an elbow on the table, then put her chin on her hand and looked at everyone present with a tired expression.

"What did I miss?"

...

...

...

Meanwhile, several kilometers away, a lone soldier was making his way down the road on a horse that looked as tired as he did.

The man was wearing the same blue and silver uniform as the other soldiers from the camp, though his was considerably more wrinkled and covered in road dust.

Behind him, tied to the saddle with rope, was a wooden crate with several glass bottles inside. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Everything hurts..." the soldier muttered as he stretched over the saddle trying to relieve the tension in his back. "Three days on horseback just to bring that idiot his stupid favorite wine..."

The horse snorted beneath him as if in agreement.

"Maybe I should drink one..." he muttered, narrowing his eyes. "That idiot never counts the bottles, if I tell him they gave me eight instead of nine he won’t notice."

The man thought about it for a couple of seconds but then shook his head.

"No... better not," he said with a sigh. "With my luck he’d count them this one time and have me executed."

The soldier kept moving down the road, until he noticed a strong smell.

The smell only got stronger and stronger as he advanced.

"What is that...?" the soldier said, covering his nose.

When he finally came out of the wooded road and reached the clearing where the camp should have been.

The horse stopped and he sat completely still on the saddle.

Because where there had once been an enormous military camp, there was now absolutely nothing.

Just a massive circle of scorched earth in the center of what had been the camp, and an absurd amount of ash scattered across the entire area.

"...What the hell happened here?"