Lennox and Esme continued through the woods, leaving the noise of Yoslan farther behind with every step, though Lennox suspected the village would remain loud even if they somehow crossed the entire continent.
His attention kept looking to the weapon Nepherel had given him, particularly the glowing symbols worked into its metal, and curiosity gnawed at him harder and harder each second.
‘I’m itching to try whatever skills are in this blade. Temporary skills, rather. I’m pretty sure that whatever comes with this trial won’t be crazy, as these temporary weapons won’t last long anyway.’
The thought pleased him; a temporary weapon meant temporary limits, which also meant somebody at the Sanctuary had probably expected the recruits to use these things quickly.
He looked toward Esme beside him and immediately found another, considerably worse idea taking shape.
‘Should I take a swing at her? I barely know her and I already know she’ll try and attack me. But that's kinda what I want.’
That crazy thought should have ended there, yet Lennox made the mistake of actually looking at her.
Even the white wrap covering the other side of her eye somehow suited her, adding to that rough, tomboyish appearance she carried around like the rest of the world had offended her.
All in all, Lennox could agree that she was indeed very good looking.
Lennox continued looking, his thoughts wandering farther from the subject of temporary weapons and increasingly toward subjects he had absolutely no business thinking about.
‘This is actually the first time I’ve been alone with a girl for this long. And she follows me around like some puppy. Wait! What if she likes me?! Shit! I’m not too ugly, I think, right?’
His mind immediately began searching for proof, though possessing almost none, and the more he thought about it, the more certain he became that Esme’s behavior might mean something.
By the time he finally noticed what he was doing, he had spent an embarrassingly long time staring directly at her.
Esme turned her head, caught him immediately, and stared back with enough irritation to make Lennox wish a tree would suddenly fall between them.
Or on him.
“What the hell are you staring at?” Esme asked.
“Hm? Oh, nothing! Nothing at all.”
“Cool, cool.”
Lennox turned his face toward the trees and grabbed at his own hair, his entire body betraying him while his thoughts immediately descended into self-inflicted humiliation.
‘I’M SUCH A BITCH!’
He released his hair, cleared his throat, and tried to restore some dignity before Esme decided to make the situation even worse.
The silence between them lasted only a few seconds, although to Lennox it felt considerably longer because he had become painfully aware that she was probably still looking at him.
Eventually, he gave up pretending that nothing had happened and decided a conversation would be safer than allowing his imagination another opportunity to embarrass him.
“S-So, you say we’re rivals, but I know nothing about you. Plus you follow me around everywhere.”
Esme stopped and looked toward him. “Is that an issue?”
“No! Not at all. I’m not used to it really, that’s pretty much it.”
Esme watched him for a moment while Lennox suddenly found the nearest tree considerably more interesting than eye contact.
When Esme spoke, the teasing had faded enough for her answer to sound surprisingly honest, though Lennox knew better than to assume sincerity would survive for long around her.
“I never really met anyone else as amusing as you. Plus you kinda act like me, so having you around is like having a miniature version of myself. With the way I grew up, this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
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“Yeah, makes sense.”
Esme peered him again, and Lennox immediately regretted how quickly he had answered; Something in his earlier panic must have remained visible because a slow smirk appeared across Esme’s face as understanding finally reached her.
“Wait…did you think I…..? HAHAHA!”
Lennox spun away from her, one hand waving through the air as though he could physically erase the last several minutes.
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Forget I said anything!”
‘Yes! Okay! Yeah I thought I had easily romanced her! I was in way over my head!’
Esme doubled over laughing against him, barely able to stay composed while Lennox stood there wishing Hallwin would appear from nowhere and fight him again.
“Wheeww! You almost got me there!” Esme wipeda gear from her eye.
“Whatever.”
Lennox tried to sound offended, although a reluctant grin appeared when Esme continued laughing beside him.
Being around her brought something strange out of him, something irritatingly close to comfort, and he disliked that realization enough to avoid examining it.
She was loud, reckless, vulgar, and seemed to consider his embarrassment a public service, yet her presence had already become familiar in a way that made the forest feel less empty.
Some part of him had begun entertaining the idea that keeping her around might actually be useful. He could call it strategy if he wanted; rivals became stronger together, and that was probably all it was, especially if he was aiming to become a Paladin of War.
“You’re almost like an annoying little brother, in a way.” Esme said.
Every thought Lennox had just entertained died immediately. “Little brother?!”
His hand traveled toward his weapon before he stopped himself, staring at Esme as if she had committed a crime requiring immediate punishment.
‘I-I can’t forgive her for that! She must die!’
The earlier idea of keeping her around suddenly seemed like one of the worst decisions he had ever considered, which was saying something because Lennox had a long history of terrible decisions.
Esme, meanwhile, continued laughing hard enough that tears gathered around her eyes, apparently unaware that Lennox was reconsidering the value of her continued existence.
Esme tried to control her breathing finally, saying, “Okay, okay, haha, I’m done. You’re just such an easy target. But…I don’t really like talking about myself. It’ll bring the whole mood down, and I don’t need that right now. Or ever. But if I ever ask about your life, you better fucking tell me what I want to know.”
“Huh? Hell no! We trade information, fool.”
“I promise you, you’re gonna wish you never asked me about my story and lore and all that. It’s shitty.”
Lennox thought, ‘Makes sense, I guess. Like when I was little I made a deal with a witch, because I wanted her to make me forget what my parents looked like. Sounds cruel, but…they were cruel too. If I told someone that, they would definitely look at me differently.’
He kept walking and said nothing, deciding that Esme could keep her secrets for now because he intended to keep his as well.
There were memories that became far uglier once another person knew they existed, and Lennox had already spent enough of his life learning that people loved deciding what kind of person someone else was based on a handful of ugly details.
If Esme wanted an exchange, she could wait. He had never trusted bargains much anyway.
But then a sound reached them before either of them saw its source, beginning as a deep groan somewhere ahead and followed almost immediately by another from a different direction.
Lennox slowed while Esme’s attention moved through the trees, and both listened as the strange noises continued, several animals producing a series of heavy sounds that carried between the trunks.
Curiosity quickly replaced the conversation, because whatever waited ahead was either going to provide the food they needed or create another problem for the recruits to solve.
Lennox looked at Esme, and she glanced back, the two arriving at the same conclusion without needing to discuss it.
THOOM!
They both dashed into a run together, moving through the woodland at a fast pace that sent branches brushing past them and loose leaves flying around their feet.
Lennox accelerated, fully expecting to leave Esme behind, only to discover her staying beside him with an ease that caught him off guard.
He had always known his body was abnormal for an ordinary human, possessing strength, speed, durability, and agility that had made him stand apart from most people he met, so seeing Esme keep pace beside him gave him another reason to reconsider what exactly she was capable of.
‘She’s keeping up with me…’
The deep groaning grew louder as the trees began opening ahead of them, and both finally reached the edge of a broad clearing where the sight before them stopped them in place.
Esme slowly developed that same crazy smile, while Lennox’s face twisted in immediate disgust as he stared across the grass.
“What the hell…?”
A large group of bears occupied the clearing, their eyes glowing red and swords protruding from their backs as though somebody had armed a collection of woodland animals and then forgotten to explain why.
They were mating. A large group of battle-hardened bears thrusting another large group of battle-hardened bears, the growing getting louder and louder.
Lennox said, “This…is not what I expected.”
Several female bears stood among them, while the males crowded around in a manner that made the source of the earlier noises painfully obvious without requiring Lennox to investigate anything further.
The creatures pushed against one another, competed for space, and continued their animal behavior with enough enthusiasm that Lennox immediately wished he and Esme had taken a different route.
Even stranger, the wounds around the embedded swords shined with red light, suggesting these animals had been altered by something far more troubling than ordinary wilderness magic.
Esme looked thoroughly entertained by the discovery, which made Lennox suspect that her standards for what counted as amusing needed serious examination.