'He's looking at me?..' Syla thought, she was still not sure whether the adventurer infront of her had realized her presence or not.
The man infront of her stood still like a statue, his eyes locked into the direction of where Syla was hiding, but instead of walking closer to her, the man decided to turn his body around and walked away, as if he never knew Syla was there.
'Hah? Wait wait, what?! He's not coming here?' Syla was baffled at the unexpected twist, she watched as the man went behind one of the tree in the surrounding and disappeared.
'What the hell, is he purposely avoiding me?.. Or did he really not know that i was here?..' Syla thought.
Seeing as how the man had already gone to another place, Syla then comes out of her hiding, she walked towards the 6 orc corpses that were laying on the ground and turned her head towards the direction of where the man was going.
"He's gone.." She said quietly.
"Who's gone?" A voice replied to Syla from the side.
"That guy— Hah?" It took Syla a second to realize that she was alone, her face soon turned into shock as she saw the same adventurer from earlier standing right beside her, his face was calm yet curious, as if trying to see through Syla's intention.
"WAAHH!!" Syla screamed and almost swung her sword at the man, but she managed to held back.
"Are you an adventurer too?" The man asked nonchalantly.
Syla let out a deep sigh to calm herself after the jumpscare, her face slowly went back to normal after she concluded that the man was not intending to harm her.
"Good grief– You're right, im an adventurer." Syla responded, her focus briefly shifted towards the man's weapon, which is a curved sword, similar to a schimitar but thicker.
'When i was surprised by his sudden appearance, i almost swung my sword at his direction, although i held back, his hand was also holding his sword firmly, as if intending to block it incase if i really attacked.. He gripped his sword in less than a second and was able to have enough time for him to swing it and block my possible attack– This guy is strong..' Syla said to herself, reminiscing the instantaneous moments earlier.
"I see, i was wondering why you were hiding, are you scared of those orcs?" The man said, his words sounded insulting, yet his tone and face doesn't match with it at all, it's like his expression had already lost.
"Ugh, so you do know i was there–" Syla responded quickly, she didn't know how to feel after being discovered yet still get ignored. "Im not scared, infact i was just about to attack these orcs when you suddenly intterupted and killed them before me."
Syla pointed her finger at the orc corpses beside them, saying how she would've killed them if the man hadn't appeared out of nowhere.
"Heeehh.. Is that so." The man replied, he seems intrigued and kept staring at Syla's eyes.
'Did he realized i was a demihuman?!' Syla was starting to feel uncomfortable from getting stared continuously.
She was still wearing the cloak's hood ontop of her head, but even though her ears should be hidden, the same couldn't be said about her eyes, a demihuman eyes are obviously different than a human, their pupils are more sharp like a cat, but since Syla always looked down when she was walking in the town, people never really saw her eyes directly, other than Errick and his mercenaries, no one knew that Syla was a demihuman, atleast not until what happened in the guild that morning.
"You're strong– Are you also going to the orc dungeon?" The man said, he didn't seem bothered by Syla.
"Ah- Yeah.. Wait, are you also trying to find the dungeon?" Syla replied and was surprised when she realized that the adventurer infront of her was also here for the dungeon. "Are you from the guild?"
"The dungeon's right on that cliff, there's a cave below it, that's the orc dungeon." The man said with his finger pointing at the spot where it was obstructed by a big tree.
"I- i see.. No wonder why there's so many orcs here.." Syla said, her leg keeps tapping on the ground as if she was getting impatient.
'So my guess are correct, this cliff is where the dungeon reside.' She thought.
"You want to come along?" The man said, he asked Syla if she wanted to go together with him.
"Huh?" Syla was caught by a surprise, she initially thought that the man infront of her was a solo adventurer, based on the fact hat his face literally didn't have an ounce of interest towards Syla, and that he could easily kill the orcs from just a few swings, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that this adventurer could clear the orc dungeon alone, he might be on the same rank as Syla, an A-Rank adventurer.
'I can't read this guy's intention at all..' She thought to herself.
Then, after giving herself enough time to think about it, in the end Syla decided to accept the offer and help the man to clear the dungeon.
"Alright, it'd be better so i have no reason to refuse." She replied, her lips formed a faint smile, it seems like she started to think differently about the man.
Together, the two of them walked towards the cliff, closing in with the dungeon's entrance as they came across more and more orcs.
Grakh!?
Grakh!!
"Good grief, how many orcs do they have in the dungeon.. I bet there's a hundred." Syla said while holding her sword.
"The dungeon.. Is big.." The man beside her added.
"It seems like it." Syla then dashed forward, attacking the orc as she swiftly dodged any attacks that were thrown by the hideous monsters.
Swing!
Swing!
Thud!
In just a matter of a few seconds, the orcs that blocked their way soon falls to their death, their body was chopped into multiple pieces and Syla continued her walk along with the adventurer.
"Oh yeah, by the way- What's your name?" Syla asked out of the blue, she was merely just curious, and didn't expect to get a respond from him.
At first, the man was silent, but just like how Syla was thinking about whether she should go together or not, the man then ultimately chose to trust her.
'does he prefer to stay anonymous?' She thought.
Then, the man suddenly opened his mouth and spoke in a calm manner, his tone still lacking in any emotion, but this time, there was a subtle reaction on his face.
"Fedhr." He said.
"Fedhr?.. That's not bad, Fedhr as in Feather.." Syla said, she noticed he similarity of the man's name with the word Feather.
"And you?" Fedhr asked, he seems to want to know about Syla too.
"Syla, nothing's special, except maybe my family name which is Clawenfall– Lile Claw and Fall." Syla replied.
"— You're a demihuman?" Fedhr uttered abruptly.
Syla quickly felt a shock throughout her whole body, there was no longer anything that could shield her from being exposed, if she denied what Fedhr's said, then it would be suspicious since he already saw her inhuman eyes, and if she revealed herself, then there's a chance that Fedhr won't treat her the same going forward, since he's most likely from Beakwood, a town where many of the residents harbor significant hatred towards other species.
"I uhh— Haahh, yeah you're right." Syla sighed before pulling the hood on her head and let Fedhr saw her whole face.
"..." Fedhr fell into silence again, and as usual, he still seems to be unfazed, he didn't show any disgust or discomfort upon seeing Syla's ears, and he also didn't seem to feel attracted by Syla's beauty.
'Does this guy ever smiled!? Or is he cursed by someone!?' Syla said to herself, she couldn't understand how Fedhr could stay like that for such a long time.
"You're beautiful, Syla." Fedhr responded before turning his head to the front, as if what he just said was normal.
"W- what!?" Syla was taken aback by Fedhr's unexpected compliment, though she had received many similar compliments before, this was the first time she received it from someone so emotionless that it felt like it was a normal thing to say.
"O- okay.. Thank you i guess.."
'This guy really reminded me of someone- But who was it.. I feel like i've known a persom with this kind of personality before— But nonetheless, a guy with that kind of face telling me i was beautiful- I don't know but it kind of made me happy..' Syla thought.
A minute passed by, and Syla soon arrived infront of the cliff, she stood behind the last tree that separated the forest with the small open space that was directly beneath the cliff, and just like what Fedhr said, there was indeed a cave entrance at the cliff, and Syla could see multiple orcs standing near it, some went out of the cave, while others went inside.
There's also various decaying corpses around the cave entrance, many of them seems to be coming from a Grass Deer, but there was also other animals too like rabbits, boars, wolves, and even a human.
"Looks like someone got unlucky." Fedhr calmly said.