“…Pervert,” Yuri said, stomping on his toes, as she walked towards the rest of the Star Seekers, allowing Alnea to breathe a sigh of relief. Though just a moment later, when he saw her wake up only Cecilia and Vestia from their meditation, and whisper something in their ears, he wondered if his good days were finally coming to an end. He could already imagine how the girls were going to call him in the coming days.

  “Why are you standing around in a daze?” Yuri said, bringing Alnea back to his senses. “Were you not clamouring to resume our exploration? Hurry up and wake everyone up so we can be on our way.”

  “…What were you whispering to them?”

  “Want to know?”

  “…I would not mind listening if you tell me.”

  “I was telling them that…” Yuri said, trailing off a little, and even taking a pause for a few moments, before finishing her words. “It is none of your concern. Now, go and wake everyone up. Do not forget that we still have a few things to discuss. It would not be good for us if your dallying delays our exploration.”

  “…Stingy,” Alnea said, as he walked towards the rest of the Star Seekers, and woke them up from their meditation by gently shaking their shoulders.

  “What? Is it time already?” Zain said, stretching out his limbs. “I swear that our rest times are getting smaller day by day. I have barely recovered three quarters of my Spirit Power.”

  “And whose fault do you think that is?” Karl said, pushing himself off the ground, and following the actions of the rest of the Star Seekers to stretch out his limbs. “Two and a half hours should have been more than enough to completely recover your Spirit Power had you not wasted it earlier.”

  “…Is that how you thank someone who just saved your life?”

  “…I do not think that I would have died from simply falling into a swamp.”

  “Are you sure?” Zain said, pointing to the creepy bubbles of air popping out of the surface of the swamp, releasing even more noxious gases into the green fog. “Do you want to give it a try? How about I push you in for a swim? Better yet, how about you take a drink?”

  “…Even if the waters of the swamp are dangerous, there was no need to waste your Spirit Power on so many Arcanas. Just a barrier to isolate us from its dangers would have been enough.”

  “…Well, excuse me for valuing my companions more over my Spirit Power,” Zain said with a snort. “Do not forget that I also had other teammates to support. How would I have had the time to carefully consider our situation, and handpick the most cost effective Arcana? Besides, do you think that these poisonous waters are the only danger in the swamp? What if there were Oren Beasts hiding within its depths? Would just a simple barrier have been enough to save us?”

  “…There were no Oren Beasts when we secured the area later.”

  “They could have escaped from all the noise we made during our battle.”

  “Even if they escaped, they should have still left some clues—

  “So that you can track them and hunt them down? What kind of fools do you take these beasts to be?” Zain said with disdain. “Anyways, I lost most of my Spirit Power in the process of saving your life. That is a fact that even you cannot deny.”

  “…There is no need to be so smug,” Karl mumbled, as he glanced at the girls huddling together, before turning towards his Captain. “Do you have something you wish to tell us, Captain?”

  “…Perceptive as ever,” Alnea said with a smile, and glanced at the forest around them, before turning back towards the rest of his teammates. “Have you all not been wondering why I always ask you to be careful of the forest?”

  “And not destroy the trees.”

  “Or the ground.”

  “You even asked us not to disturb the water bodies and the fogs unless necessary.”

  “And that the forest can heal itself.”

  “Right, that too. I have always been wondering what that meant.”

  “The forest healing itself…”

  “We did see some signs of the trees healing itself…”

  “But the process was too slow for the trees to be some kind of Oren Beasts.”

  “At best, they can only be called as some precious resources.”

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  “The only thing that seemed suspicious is the lack of traces of battles on the ground.”

  “With so many Oren Beasts in the forests, they are bound to fight each other even if they do not wish for it.”

  “Yet there are barely any traces of battles…”

  “Only on this point, we agree that there was something wrong with the forest.”

  “But not enough to make us wary of its changes…”

  Alnea nodded in satisfaction, as he listened to his teammates discussing their observations. His teammates had not spent the past eight months in vain. Though they might have been a little slower than the girls in noticing the strange traces they saw along their way, at the very least, they were not as oblivious as they used to be. Their only fault was in underestimating the forest they were exploring. Fortunately, not all of his teammates were so reckless.

  “Do you know how the forest can change?” Vestia said with a curious face, making the Star Seekers, who had swelled up with confidence in the past few days, quickly close their mouths. “Where did all this fog come from? Why does the fog always stick to one place? What governs the principle of segregating the fogs? And what keeps them from mixing with each other? More importantly, what will happen if the fogs are mixed? What will happen once the forest stops restricting the fog? Have you figured out all these secrets?”

  “…We did not have the time to explore the secrets of the forest, but—

  “Then how can you say that we should not be wary of its changes?” Vestia said, dropping her feigned curiosity with a snort. “Have you all forgotten what happens when you underestimate your enemies? Or do you also need someone to stab you in your chest before you etch this lesson in your Heart?”

  “Hey! Why do you have to bring me into this?”

  “Because you gave us such a perfect example,” Vestia said, flashing a wide smile, with a cunning light shining in her eyes. “Even when it comes to learning from our mistakes, you always take the lead. Thank you for your hard work, Captain.”

  “…I am not going to get rid of this stain for the rest of my life, am I?”

  “It is better that you get teased, than you forget your lesson and get stabbed once again.”

  “…What sort of crooked reason is that?” Alnea mumbled, before shifting his attention back to the rest of the Star Seekers. “Jokes aside, I hope everyone will keep what Vestia said in their Hearts. No matter the situation, we should never underestimate our enemies. And by enemies, I do not mean just the enemies we see on the surface. Sometimes, even intangible and ethereal things like Time and Fate can be our enemies, let alone a forest that seems to be alive.”

  “…Are you saying that the forest is our enemy?”

  “Well, in a sense, he is right. If we look from the perspective of—

  “Are you all not concentrating on the wrong thing?” Aren said, before turning towards the Alnea. “The forest is alive?”

  “I could not find any other explanation for all the strange things that we have encountered,” Alnea said, shrugging his shoulders, and glanced at the forest around them. “All this fog that you see around us, all these trees and lands, the swamp that you see next to us, and the rivers and lakes that we saw earlier in our path, even the Oren Beasts that we have come across, when taken together, form a strange sense of harmony with each other. As if they are all part of a complete system.”

  “…This could be an illusion created by the forest and the Oren Beasts adapting to each other. This happens more commonly than you think. Especially in areas like—

  “I heard their voices,” Alnea said, placing his hand on the tree next to him. “The trees. I heard the voices of the trees, begging me to stop hurting them and the forest…”

  “…Is he alright?”

  “Hearing voices is not a good sign…”

  “…Maybe it is because he is under a lot of pressure…”

  “Do not listen to them,” Vestia said, glaring at Ralph and Norren, before turning back towards her Captain with a firm faith in her eyes. “I believe you, Alnea.”

  “Hey, don’t steal my line, vixen,” Cecilia grumbled. “If it is about believing in him, then obviously I came first.”

  “…Of course, you two would believe in him.”

  “…What do you mean by that?” Vestia and Cecilia said in unison, turning towards Zain with a glare, prompting him to shut up and look away, while the others snickered at his reaction. Of course, not all the Star Seekers were focussing on the girls and their narcissistic teammate.

  “It is not that we do not believe in you, but that what you said is a little hard to believe,” Aren said, shaking his head, with Fran picking up from where he left off.

  “Unless you can prove that the trees are indeed speaking—

  “Do you want to hear the voices too?” Yuri said, glancing at the Star Seekers with an indifferent gaze. “Do you want to experience the sorrow of the forest, and know why Alnea is wary of its secrets?”

  “…Have you also heard the voices of the trees?” Karl said, with a hint of strange expectation in his voice, which seemed to grow with Yuri nodding her head, only to be disappointed in the very next moment with Yuri shaking her head.

  “While you were all discussing about the strange nature of the forest, I tried to communicate with the trees like Alnea, but I cannot seem to get them to respond to my call,” Yuri said, glancing at the tree next to her, brushing her left hand over its trunk.

  “If even you cannot get them to respond—

  “Then we will just have to use other methods to listen to their voices,” Yuri said, withdrawing her hand from the tree, and turning back to the Star Seekers.

  “Other methods?” Norren mumbled. “We do not even know what method our Captain used to listen to the trees. What other methods can we use?”

  “Is it not enough that Alnea can hear the voices?”

  “…Do you want to link our senses to his?” Vestia said after a moment of thought, glancing between Yuri and Alnea. “That seems like a good idea. It is just that you will have to bear everyone’s burden—

  “It is alright,” Yuri said. “I have grown more proficient in handling my… Arcana. And I am already a Peak Stage False Wanderer now. As long as I do not overstretch myself, and keep the link for only a minute or two, it should not be big problem to share his senses. Now, is everyone ready to hear the voices of the trees?”

  “…If it is really as you say…”

  “Alnea.”

  “…Then I will leave the rest to you, Yuri,” Alnea said, before turning back to the tree next to him, and closing his eyes.