Cid regarded the concern in Paul's voice, then dusted his palms together.
"Then we should get to the village as soon as possible," he said, stopping just where the carriage had been packed.
"How far until we get there?" Cid asked.
He was also indeed curious about the entire situation now.
"Not very. In fact, we'll be able to get there before sunset today—"
Before Paul could finish, a loud cry suddenly tore through the forest air from its depths. The canopies shook as dozens of wild birds suddenly took to the skies.
"What was that?"
Paul, Cid, and Pip's heads snapped toward the direction of the cry. It was a human-like scream. It sounded feminine, in fact, and Pip and Cid's sensitive ears could instantly trace where it came from.
"That sounded like a person."
Cid stepped forward toward the direction with a calm and sober expression, his abyssal black eyes deepening beneath the shades.
"Pip, stay back with Mr. Paul," he said. "I'll go check it out and return quickly."
Then he dashed forward into the forest bushes, evading trees and branches as seamlessly as a shadow gliding over a surface.
Cid's figure blurred through the forest as loose strands of his raven-black hair fluttered over his calm face. His pitch-black eyes suddenly lit up with a hazy purple glow as his vision expanded with a Skill Activation.
Eventually, Cid's figure tore through the air, emerging from deep within the forest while reaching to draw his sword from under his wildly flapping cloak.
It was an old, used blade he managed to swipe from one of the corpses just before leaving the Dark Fortress to embark on his journey.
And like a living mass of shadow, he landed soundlessly, almost lightless, in the midst of a young lady, causing her to jolt and yelp in place.
"Don't move," he calmly said, gazing coldly ahead.
The girl was surrounded by three lurking wolf-like monsters, backed up against a rushing river behind her. Cid landed between the predators and the human girl, unsheathing the blade of his sword.
A tinge of sinister bloodlust exuded from his being, causing the wolves to flinch back warily from his appearance.
Then Cid growled, akin to something of a beast himself, and drew the tip of his blade through the ground in front of him, causing black sparks of unordinary flames to erupt in an arc.
"Back off!"
The monsters yielded almost immediately at the sound of his voice, their intimidating and predatory forms shrinking down like cats before water. They whimpered piteously before turning around and quickly withdrawing at once.
This was how Cid had managed to drive off most of the monsters they'd faced until now, without necessarily killing them. While killing them would be as easy as he did with the Bulwark Tiger from before, Cid had been intentionally restraining from doing so, unless absolutely necessary.
Once he made sure the wolves were completely gone and the coast was clear, he sheathed his sword and pivoted around.
"Sorry for scaring you like that," Cid said with a small smile, his demeanor swiftly transitioning to something different from his bloodlustful display just now.
He gazed at the person warmly, like meeting a friendly stranger.
It was a young girl with short, wavy blond hair and dark brown eyes, wearing a sky-blue one-piece gown with a woven basket in hand.
She stared at Cid with panic-stricken, wary eyes, her face pale as a ghost. Suddenly, his overly friendly smile seemed even more dangerous than the wolves that had just tried to ambush her.
And it didn't help that Cid's rough appearance and the way he dispatched the wolves made him look like a really violent bandit. She was suddenly painfully aware she was alone with him in a deep forest.
"Please... don't hurt me..." She took a step backward, almost stumbling into the river behind her.
'Huh...?'
Cid blinked. However, before he could understand, he heard the familiar voice of Paul suddenly call out from behind.
"Cid! Is everything all right? We stopped hearing some noise and..."
Soon, his concerned figure, along with that of Pip, emerged from the bushes and trees, leaves sticking out all over his hair and face in a panic.
As soon as Cid turned to explain the situation, he heard another voice cut him off before the words could even come out.
"Mr. Paul?" The surprised voice came from behind... it was the young girl.
Paul as well, managing to climb down a small slope after making sure there was no threat still lurking, froze and turned his attention toward the girl.
"Cleo...? What are..."
"Eh...?" And like that, Cid was stuck in between the two staring at each other, looking weirdly back and forth.
Eventually, he managed to speak, fake-coughing out of the awkwardness.
"You two know each other?"
'That's obvious...'
***
Apparently, it turned out the young girl Cid saved, named Cleo, was someone Paul was acquainted with. Actually, she was a resident of the small village which they were headed towards.
What a coincidence.
"I wasn't expecting to run into Mr. Paul in such a way like that..."
After getting over the initial shock, Cleo became more than comfortable traveling with them the rest of the way. Although the word travel no longer seemed appropriate, since they were much closer to the settlement than they thought.
Cleo's appearance this far out was proof of it.
"Neither did I. It's unexpected, isn't it?" Paul chuckled from the front, holding the reins as the horses galloped steadily along the rocky path.
After hearing from Cid about what happened, he felt glad they had found Cleo when they did, because who knew what would have happened to her if they were a second late.
Cleo smiled, brushing the side of her hair behind her ear in the wind.
"The village has been anxiously expecting you for a while now. It was strange that you hadn't arrived yet. Many were worried something might have happened to you..."
Instead of Mr. Paul, Cid was the one to respond in his stead from behind.
"Then there's no need for you to worry... Mr. Paul is fine. We made sure to take good care of him for the ride," he assured.
But more importantly... hadn't Cid found a river back there?
"So does this mean we're getting close to the village, then?" He leaned forward and asked, sounding almost excited as Pip tried to pull him back.
He heard Mr. Paul laugh heartily from the front, then his voice flowed smoothly through the air as he announced something.
"We've just arrived, actually."