'So he's yet to join a party?'

To be honest, I thought that in all this time, one of the big parties around would have already successfully recruited him. He was, after all, the strongest cadet of the Bastion of Crimson and Silver in terms of levels. Plus, his bonded ability, which gave him the ability to see whatever he wished to see, made him an asset that any leader would kill for.

But then he is rejecting party offers?

Does he plan on being a lone wolf or something?

I raised my bottle and drank a bit more alcohol.

'…Typical main character behavior.'

By now, I could feel myself getting slightly drunk.

Dion was already far gone, sniffing beside me while muttering his brother's name amidst the rest of the gibberish he was spewing.

At that moment, Aika landed beside me and immediately shifted into her human form. She didn't say anything and simply dropped to the ground, leaning her back against mine. Then, she pulled out a bottle of alcohol and began chugging it down.

A few seconds passed, and then all of a sudden, I heard Evelyn's voice in the back of my head:

"How does this work?"

Not long after she spoke, I heard Celeste's voice too:

"He said we should just talk to the feather and he'll hear."

"Like this?" Suddenly, Evelyn's voice grew louder in my head, "Hello… can you hear me, Cedric."

Apparently, Evelyn was holding the feather I had given her.

I gave the command, and suddenly, the feather in her hand changed into a raven that tilted its head and looked around.

Now that the feather had become a raven and I could see through its eyes, I could see that they were in the tents area.

"Woah." Audrey, who was beside Evelyn, gasped as she leaned closer to stare into the raven's dark, obsidian eyes. Then she looked toward Celeste and asked, "Can he also see through it?"

She had barely asked that when the raven nodded its head repeatedly, startling her. She jumped back a bit, her eyes wide with a mix of surprise and unease.

"I guess that's a yes," Celeste muttered, looking directly at the bird.

Evelyn finally let her intrusive thoughts win and blurted out, "Ahh… the things I would secretly do with a skill like this."

Celeste glanced at her with an "ew" expression. "Probably nothing legal, knowing you."

Evelyn giggled embarrassingly.

While the girls were still bickering, the raven cawed, drawing their attention, and flapped its wings before taking flight. It circled once above them and then began to fly toward our location, signaling for them to follow.

…At the same time, a few meters from where the tents began, Ino stood looking at an empty spot. A raven, which I was sharing my vision with, was perched on her shoulder.

"I think this spot should do," Ino muttered as she swept her gaze across the surrounding area. Then she turned to the raven. "I think it's big enough. What do you think?"

The raven cawed and nodded in agreement.

Ino smiled. "It's a good thing you told us to gather all that wood we found back at the Grail River. We can build our own shelter here tomorrow with the wood you have stored."

Caw!

***

After all the members of the party had reunited, we gathered in a circle around the fire. Ino then quickly prepared one rabbit into a thin stew for everyone.

Of course, that was barely enough to fill our stomachs, but at this open ashen campground where we sat, with hundreds of starving cadets around, it wasn't really wise to show off that we had a lot of meat and were doing better than them.

Even just that one pot of stew earned us a lot of hungry glares from the surrounding groups.

In order to improve our security and be able to do as we pleased, we needed to move deeper, past the open ashen campground of starving barbarian cadets to the tents area where it was more secure.

This was why I had asked Ino to find a free spot there where we could build a shelter as early as the morning.

By the time we were done with dinner, Aika chose to keep first watch. The others, one by one, settled down to sleep on the banana leaves they had spread across the ground.

***

Meanwhile…

Inside one of the tattered tents in the tents area, Leon sat on the ground with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. He wasn't wearing a shirt, but had it draped over his shoulders.

On his crossed legs, a white cat lay calmly licking its paws. In front of them both, a large bright oil lamp sat on a small round piece of wood, illuminating the cramped space with a warm, flickering glow.

The space was quiet, until Leon opened his eyes and sighed in frustration. A deep frown crossed his face as he rubbed his right eye, which had turned a dull, cloudy pale, while his left remained a striking, vibrant green.

At that moment, the cat stopped licking its paws and jumped down from his lap. It padded toward him, and as a golden light flashed and enveloped it, its form shifted into a beautiful girl with dazzling silver hair and smooth ivory skin.

Uriel wrapped her arms around his neck from behind. Then she leaned in and asked, "How bad is it?"

Leon rested his hand over her arm while rubbing his thumb over her skin. "It gets worse, Uriel."

Uriel frowned and her voice dropped to a low, scared whisper. "They already moved the red bridge. How much worse could it get?"

Leon turned to face her until their faces were only inches apart. "The new lords... they want to wipe us all out. Moving the red bridge is just the beginning."

Hearing that, Uriel's eyes widened with a hollow look and she slowly detached herself from Leon and sat slumped on the floor.

Her voice grew more troubled as she eventually asked, "Is there any hope for us?"

It was quiet between the both of them for a moment. Then Leon exhaled and shook his head. Eventually, he said, "I have looked and looked, and even though the future keeps changing everyday, I do not see a future where we do not die."

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