Kael.
I cleared my throat.
"We need a plan."
Everyone looked at me.
"A plan to get to the edge of the forest without facing… whatever that is."
I gestured vaguely into the darkness.
The darkness did not gesture back. It just sat there. Watching. Judging. Probably taking notes.
Jane raised an eyebrow. "I thought you wanted a monster harem."
Rael turned her head slowly. "What."
I raised both hands immediately. "Of course I do."
Pause.
"But the way we're behaving suggests the monsters are not reasonably beautiful."
Silence.
"Or handsome," I added, for fairness.
Kairo blinked.
"I'm also concerned they may not talk."
That one genuinely hurt to say.
"So my Tensura dream has officially moved to the delusional section."
I nodded to myself with the gravity of someone making a very difficult business decision.
"Therefore we avoid them at all costs. Also I'm tired of running."
Jane looked at me.
"I never said they can't talk."
Silence.
I froze.
Slowly turned my head.
"…They can talk?"
"Yes."
I straightened. Both feet on the ground. Full attention.
"Okay. Let me get this straight. They. Can. Talk."
"Yes."
"Have you seen them talk."
"No."
"Oh come on—"
"My brother told me they have their own way of communication."
I nodded immediately. The nod of someone who has just received the best news of their evening.
"Okay. Then problem solved."
Everyone stared at me.
"We just walk through the forest and politely inform the monster that we only wish to pass through peacefully."
Jane cut in. "That will never work."
"But why?"
"Because humans and monsters can't understand each other."
I frowned.
"What do you mean? I understand Rael just fine."
THUD.
Rael punched me.
"You idiot."
I bent slightly at the waist. Air leaving my lungs in a very undignified way.
"…Violence is not communication," Jane said.
"It communicates something," Liora said pleasantly. "Just not a message most people would intentionally deliver."
I pushed myself upright.
"We still have to try."
Kairo helped me to my feet with the long-suffering energy of someone who had accepted that this was going to be a recurring activity.
"Have you guys ever tried talking to them?" I asked.
Jane shook her head. "No."
"…Why?"
"Because it's an abomination according to the Church's doctrine."
I blinked.
"Of course it is."
I brushed dirt off my clothes.
"Is it like this in every fantasy world?"
Kairo frowned. "What's a fantasy world?"
"…Nothing," I said quickly.
I exhaled.
Looked at the group. At the dark forest. At the dead goblins. At the empty food spot. At six tired people pretending they weren't worried.
"I don't know… you guys just follow rules so blindly."
Nobody spoke.
"Like slaves. You have free will but don't use it. People at the top tell you what to do… and you just go along with it."
I walked over and dropped onto a fallen root.
"I can't do that."
The forest pressed in around us.
Rael's grip tightened slightly on her axe.
She remembered.
Why not try.
Her fingers loosened.
She looked away.
"Kael…" Jane said softly.
I didn't look up.
"Humans and monsters can't understand each other," I muttered. "Yeah, right. Just say humans don't want to understand monsters. That's more accurate."
"Kael."
Rael's voice.
I looked up.
Then pushed myself off the root.
"How about this," I said, back to normal. "Instead of killing the monster… we try something new."
Everyone watched me.
"We try talking to it."
Jane frowned.
"If I'm wrong, so be it." I smiled. "There's no harm in trying, right?"
Rael nodded. "Let's try it."
"Rael—" Jane started.
"Rael?" Liora echoed.
"I know it sounds weird," Rael said. "But breaking the rules helped me. I couldn't control my fire at first. Now I can. Trial and error… right?"
I grinned. "I knew you'd get it."
Branik looked at Rael. Then at me.
"If we die," he said, "I want that on record."
"Noted," Kairo said.
Jane exhaled slowly.
"Fine. But if Kael's instincts get us killed I'll come back and hunt him for the rest of his life."
"Noted."
"And I won't be polite about it."
"Also noted."
"At first light, we move deeper. Tonight we sleep hungry."
No one argued.
The forest remained silent.
—
Rael.
The camp settled slowly.
Kairo sat against a tree on one side of the clearing. Liora sat near the embers on the other. Not close enough to be obvious. Close enough that if either of them turned slightly, they would be looking directly at each other.
Branik checked the perimeter without being asked. He returned, then sat with his back against a different tree, great sword across his knees — the posture of someone who had already decided sleep was not happening tonight.
Jane returned from the forest, brushing leaves from her sleeves.
"Traps set," she said quietly.
Kairo nodded.
Jane looked around the clearing. At Kairo near his tree. At Liora near the embers. At Branik against his tree. At the ground where everyone had settled.
Then she looked at Kael.
Kael was looking at the moon.
Jane sat down near where she had dropped her things. Said nothing. But she wasn't looking at the moon. She was looking at the space between where Kael sat and where everyone else was.
Then she looked away.
No one spoke after that.
My gaze drifted.
Kael sat a short distance away on a fallen root, looking up at the full moon. He looked calmer than he had all evening. Like the noise in his head had quieted to something manageable.
I hesitated.
Then walked over and sat beside him.
For a moment neither of us spoke.
"You didn't have to back me up," Kael said without looking at me.
"I understood what you were saying," I replied.
He turned slightly.
"About following rules blindly. Just like when you explained my clan's fighting style."
He chuckled. "Yeah… that was a funny one."
I slapped his thigh.
Not hard.
"Shut up."
My cheeks reddened before I could stop them.
"I'm just saying—"
I looked away.
He leaned back, hands behind his head, looking at the moon like it owed him something.
"It's not like I hate rules," he said. "If a rule doesn't sit well with me, I break it. If a style doesn't help me, I switch it. Always trying to stay flexible."
He paused.
"Like water. Not hard like a rock."
I listened.
There was something about the way he spoke at night. Without the jokes. Without the exaggeration. Just the thought, placed quietly, like he trusted the air to hold it.
"That's how humans evolve. Try new things. Fail. Try again. Fail again. But every failure teaches you something."
He yawned.
"That's how I try to live."
A pause.
"If you just follow rules all the time… you become a slave."
He glanced sideways at me.
"Like… your mom is dying, but speeding is against the rules."
I blinked.
"That's… stupid," I said softly.
"Exactly."
He shrugged.
"Rules are guidelines. Not chains."
"…Yeah," I said.
Silence followed.
The comfortable kind that does not need filling.
"I wonder how they're doing," he murmured.
"Mira and Senna?"
"Yeah."
He exhaled slowly.
"I'm worried about Senna the most. She hasn't learned to defend herself yet. And here I am… heading east without even knowing where east is. We're just walking blind."
My chest tightened.
"I know how you feel," I said quietly. "Sleeping without knowing how they're doing… it's punishing. But we have to have faith. Right?"
"Right…" he murmured.
His voice faded.
Then his weight shifted.
Before I realized it, his head had dropped against my shoulder.
I froze.
My cheeks turned red immediately.
I moved slightly — intending to lower him gently to the ground, the practical option, the sensible option, the option that made complete logical sense—
His head ended up on my lap.
I blinked.
Why.
That was not what I intended.
That was the opposite of what I intended.
I looked down at him.
Moonlight fell softly across his face. The tension he always carried was gone. In sleep, he was still. Quiet. Almost fragile.
My breath caught.
A small tear slid from the corner of his eye.
Even in sleep.
Still worried.
I lifted my thumb and wiped it away gently.
My other hand moved to his hair before I gave it permission to do that.
What are these feelings.
My heart beat faster.
I looked around.
Kairo against his tree.
Liora near the embers.
Branik against his tree.
All still.
Jane—
Jane was standing at the edge of the clearing. Not toward the forest. Toward the camp. Toward me.
She saw me looking.
She looked away.
Back toward the treeline. Toward her traps. But for a moment — just a moment — her expression had been something I had never seen before. Quiet. Private. Something she hadn't meant to show.
I looked back down at Kael.
I don't understand…
My fingers slowed in his hair.
But I did not move him.
I want to stay like this… just a little longer.
The moon hung silently above us.
The forest quiet around six people… and the distance still between us and wherever Mira and Senna were.
I stayed.