The smile on Lily's face vanished instantly, her expression shifting drastically. "Damn it! A Marsh Prowler! How did it sneak all the way here?"
She immediately grabbed the longbow resting at the tent entrance and barked at the two of them, "Stay in the tent and don't move! Whatever you do, don't come out! I'll be right back!"
With that, she didn't hesitate for a second. Her body darted into the darkness like a cheetah, chasing after the source of the roar.
"Do you need help?" Lucrezia instinctively poked her head out and shouted.
"Just take care of yourselves!" Lily's voice drifted back from the distance, tinged with a hint of impatience.
Soon, the camp fell silent.
Only Leo and Lucrezia remained.
"See? Look how hard she’s working to protect us," Lucrezia said to Leo, taking a bite of her fruit.
Leo said nothing.
He narrowed his eyes, observing the outside through a slit in the tent.
Talen, the tiger-man demi-human, was carrying two freshly killed, dripping "prey." He didn't seem in any hurry to process the ingredients. Instead, he glanced around suspiciously before surreptitiously slipping into Captain Arno's tent.
Immediately after, the lean scout, Raz, followed behind him like a slippery loach.
Finally, the thick canvas flap of the tent was pulled shut tight.
The entire camp clearing was suddenly empty. Only the untended campfire in the center remained, burning in solitude.
Everyone had skipped dinner to cram into a sleeping tent. What for?
And then there was that archer, Lily, who had just come over to chat...
Leo's brain worked at high speed, instantly catching this massive sense of dissonance.
Leo instinctively twitched his fingers, wanting to construct an 【Arcane Eye】 to scout ahead.
But his current mana level was only at the lowest transcendent rank. He sighed.
He glanced back at Lucrezia beside him.
She was his trump card for survival if things went south; he couldn't afford to waste her energy recklessly.
Since magic wasn't an option and the camp was currently in a "vacuum state"...
"Let's go," Leo whispered, a flash of decisiveness in his eyes.
"What?" Lucrezia was still munching on her fruit and hadn't reacted yet.
Without a word, Leo grabbed her hand and led her out of the tent, crouching low to stay in the shadows.
"Hey! What are you doing!"
Lucrezia was startled, nearly dropping her fruit. She hissed her protest, "Didn't Sister Lily tell us to stay put? There are magical beasts out there..."
"Relax." Leo nudged his chin toward Arno's closed tent. "Come with me. Let's see what kind of 'hidden menu' these 'good people' are discussing for us... especially when they went through so much trouble to exclude the guests of honor."
Taking advantage of the perfect opportunity while everyone was inside the large tent, Leo pulled Lucrezia along. Using the night and the campfire light as cover, they made their way unopposed to the downwind side of Captain Arno's tent.
This was a blind spot, separated from the interior only by a thin layer of canvas.
Leo pressed down on Lucrezia's shoulder. Both held their breath, ears pressed against the thin fabric.
A voice, deliberately lowered and dripping with malice and greed, clearly reached Leo's ears.
"...We're doing it tonight? Isn't that too soon?"
Leo felt the small hand in his palm tremble violently.
It was the voice of Talen, the tiger-man, carrying an impatient restlessness.
"Isn't it... a bit hasty?" The one who spoke next was Raz, the lean scout. His voice was cold, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.
"We can't wait anymore." Captain Arno's voice rang out, steady as ever but carrying an underlying ruthlessness. "The big one... he looks like a pushover, but he's a bit too observant. He'll be trouble."
Leo's eyelid twitched.
"Then... Captain," Talen's voice dropped even lower, filled with greedy inquiry, "only the big one?"
After a brief silence, Arno's icy voice fell like a judge's sentence.
"Yeah. Keep the little one; she's got a pretty face and should fetch a good price... As for the big one, kill him."
Boom.
It felt as if an invisible sledgehammer had slammed into Lucrezia's chest.
Her slightly chubby little face turned pale instantly, her pupils trembling violently.
If Leo hadn't been quick enough to cover her mouth, her terrified gasp would have surely alerted the men inside.
Leo's expression also darkened instantly.
He didn't panic; instead, he felt a sense of relief, as if the other shoe had finally dropped, mixed with a hint of resignation regarding his own intuition.
I knew it... there aren't that many good people in this world.
Enemy composition: three melee fighters, one scout, one ranged (currently away).
Should I make a move?
Leo turned his head. Under the cover of the dim firelight, his large hand reached out silently and pressed against Lucrezia’s flat lower abdomen.
That was the source of her mana.
Lucrezia's body stiffened instantly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Her face flushed hot.
Just as she was about to indignantly swat away the hand of this rogue, she met Leo's calm, steady gaze.
"Don't move," Leo mouthed silently.
He ignored the girl's shy trembling. Through the thin fabric of her maid uniform, he felt the warmth of her skin as his palm sensed the flow within her.
After a day of recovery, this girl's mana was back to about fifty percent.
'If I drain this fifty percent of mana all at once and force-inject it, I should be able to briefly burst with power at the heroic rank.'
It was a bit risky, but better than waiting to be slaughtered.
The first to strike gains the upper hand; the last to strike meets disaster.
Feeling the warmth of Leo's palm, the terrified Lucrezia instinctively looked at him.
She saw Leo give her a "shh" gesture, but his eyes held a coldness and killing intent that felt foreign to her.
Is he...?!
Lucrezia's heart pounded. She instinctively wanted to shrink back, but the hand holding hers was as firm as iron tongs.
Just as Leo prepared to forcibly siphon the mana and give the guys in the tent a "surprise"—
"Oh? You two little ones, what are you doing hiding here?"
A woman's voice, carrying a hint of mockery and surprise, suddenly exploded behind them like a ghost!
Every hair on Leo's body stood on end!
He spun around.
Lily, the temple ranger, was standing silently in the shadows behind them. She held her large bow, tilting her head and looking at them with a half-smile.
Damn it!
Leo cursed inwardly.
Is this woman a cat? How does she walk without a sound?
Without mana to maintain 【Arcane Perception】, his scouting abilities had practically regressed to a crippled state!
This exclamation wasn't a question—it was a signal to those inside!
Swish—!
The suppressed conversation inside the tent stopped abruptly.
A deathly silence followed.
Rate on N.U.
