Volume 1. Chapter 2. The Hero, The Envoy, and The Lost Tree.

They discussed their plans for the future once again, and the meeting ended after each of them was assigned a task, which they rotated daily.

The next day, Rii got the first turn to guard the woman. Vail and Cini looked for something to eat.

The sound of falling wood was heard in Rii's ears. He came out of the house and saw that his two friends had returned carrying firewood and some fish.

"What's wrong? Your face looks tired?"

Rii was confused to see Cini like someone who had travelled tens of kilometres.

"Using magic is too much just to catch fish."

Vail told his the reason why Cini looked tired.

"How is she? Is she okay?"

"I don't know; she hasn't opened the eyes since we first brought her."

Rii answered his friend's questions and curiosity.

"We better prepare food and hope the woman opens her eyes soon."

Cini didn't want the condition of the foreign woman to be a burden on their minds.

Day by day, the shift to guard the foreign woman went on.

One month passed, and Cini began to understand the concept and how magic worked in that world. He taught his two friends to use magic and control stamina.

Right in the third month, when they were grilling fish. The sound of coughing from inside the house was heard, and the woman inhaled the smoke caused by their fire.

"You heard it, right?"

Cini wanted to ensure she heard the coughing sound inside the house.

"Maybe she has opened her eyes… because today is your turn. Can you check it?"

Vail asked his friend to go to the strange woman and ask her to eat with them if the woman didn't mind.

"I'll be back."

Rii moved ahead to go inside the room where the woman was.

Seated with her elbows resting beside the bed, she blinked in bewilderment, her gaze raking unfamiliar ground.

"Are you awake?"

"We heard your coughing from outside. Can I come in?"

A man's voice was heard from behind the door. The woman was curious and assumed that Rii was the one who had helped her.

"Sure..."

The woman allowed Rii to enter, even though she was curious why a strange man was in the special forest.

The door opened, and Rii slowly entered, carrying a wooden glass filled with water for the woman.

"Thank goodness you're awake. Drink this. Sorry if the smoke from our fire made you cough."

Rii gave the foreign woman a drink of water to soothe her throat.

"Thank you,"

The woman took the wooden glass in one of Rii's hands and immediately drank it.

"Thanks again, and sorry for troubling you."

The woman thanked them again and felt bad for bothering the foreign man.

"We don't feel bothered."

The woman’s curiosity spiked. She was just about to ask—The loud voice of another man was heard.

"Us?"

"Yes, w—"

"Rii, come here the fish is cooked!"

They heard Cini's voice telling them.

"Don't forget to invite her to eat together!"

Cini told them again in a fairly loud voice.

"Okay, I'll be there!"

Rii replied to his friend's words.

“I'm sorry. You had to hear us shouting,” Rii apologized because he and his two friends had shouted and disturbed the foreign woman.

“No need to apologize, I didn’t at all…”

The woman stopped speaking. A rumbling sound was heard in her stomach. And became embarrassed when Rii laughed at her.

“Sorry, I didn’t suggest to chuckle you.”

Rii slowly stopped laughing.

“It’s okay…”

The woman said in an embarrassed voice.

“Let’s eat before they finish our share.”

In the yard, the woman saw two other men preparing grilled fish. One of them gave her the cooked fish.

“For me?”

The woman took the wooden stick in one of Cini’s hands.

“Yes, eat it. But I'm sorry if it tastes bland, because we didn’t find any ingredients to make it into seasoning.”

“It’s okay. I apologize for bothering you.”

Staring at the grilled fish in her hand, the woman fell silent, her thoughts drifting to the summoning process.

The three of them were surprised to see the woman silent momentarily before finally eating the grilled fish.

Having just taken the first three bites, she felt like she had to say something that was on her mind.

"Can I ask the question?"

"Sure, it's much better than being silent."

Vail didn't mind what the strange woman said.

"Before asking, I would like to thank you for taking good care of me."

The woman lowered her head slightly as a form of gratitude.

"You're welcome. We just found you in a dark room."

"Darkroom?"

The woman became curious about Rii's words.

"Yeah, we found you there. So, what do you want to ask?"

The woman became silent again, ignored her curiosity, and then focused on the question.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"As far as I remember, we were fighting one of the demon king's ancestor’s followers to stop the summoning."

The woman said what she thought.

"Prevent the summoning?"

Rii became curious about the woman's words.

"We entered the forest to perform a hero summoning, but halfway through, one of the demon king’s ancestor’s followers attacked us."

The woman's words made Vail remember the faint voice when he was about to sleep on the sofa.

She looked at the men in confusion as they exchanged glances.

"We'll tell you what we know."

The woman was surprised by Rii's slightly strange way of speaking.

"Please..."

There is no objection to the answer that will be given.

“When we arrived here, we only saw human body parts. And in the exit hallway, we found you unconscious among the corpses.”

Rii told the woman briefly and hid how the circle summoned them for some reason.

She was silent, concluding that the summoning they did had failed.

“Do you know them?”

Vail was curious and wanted to know who the dead people were.

“They are magicians from various kingdoms who have come together to summon heroes on the orders of the union.”

The girl told a little.

“Unity?”

“Union is the name of our alliance because right now, we are united against the ancestor of the demon king and her followers.”

The three of them were silent for a moment. Before speaking, they looked at each other again, which surprised and puzzled the girl.

“From your calmness, it seems your words are not lies.”

“I am not lying...!”

The woman denied Vail’s words and accused her of deceiving them.

“What can I do...?"

"My name is Vail. On my right is Rii, and on the left is Cini. They are my friends.”

Cini waved his hand slightly, and Rii just nodded.

“I just found out there were names like that, especially since this is the first time I’ve seen your faces.”

“That’s because we come from a very faraway place, and, naturally, you don’t recognize and feel strange about our names.”

Cini said while skewering fish with wood to grill.

“So, what’s your name?”

Rii was curious about the name of the foreign woman.

“My name is Nia, Nia Aghture. The envoy of the union will lead the summoning group from the Verz kingdom.”

“Then Nia, it seems like your summoning was successful.”

“Really?!”

Nia became excited hearing Vail’s words. She hoped very much that those words weren’t a lie.

“Where did you—Don’t tell me you found the hero we summoned in that room?!”

She asked, barely able to hide her urgency.

“We did see him, he was in that room, too. But calm yourself down first,”

“Sorry, I just hope that’s true. And…”

Nia stopped speaking because she couldn’t express her happiness in words.

“Can you tell me where the hero we summoned is?”

Nia asked again in a calm voice.

“Of course…”

Instead of answering directly, the three of them pointed at each other.

Knowing that the summoning had been successful, Nia accidentally dropped the grilled fish in her hand. Her eyes began to fill with tears, and she did not expect her friends’ sacrifices to pay off.

“Why did you throw away the fish—”

Surprisingly, Nia held one of Cini’s hands, which would take the grilled fish.

“What’s wrong, did you—”

“I don’t know how to summon three heroes. Maybe there was a mistake. But we don’t have much time,”

“Let’s leave this place and face all the kings in…”

Nia stopped speaking, and the three heroes were silent after she told them. She wanted to take them to face all the kings.

Slowly releasing the hand that was holding Cini’s hand.

“What’s wrong? Why are you guys quiet?”

Nia was so curious about the change in atmosphere.

“...because we can’t get out of this forest,”

Rii answered Nia’s curiosity.

“Can’t get out?”

Nia was confused by their words telling her they couldn’t escape the forest.

“We’ve been looking for a way out for three months, but the results remain the same. If not, return to where we found you or this wooden house.”

“Ah, that’s because this is a special forest. Outsiders like you might be confused about how to find a way out, but it’s very easy.”

Nia told that getting out of the special forest wasn’t as difficult as what they had been doing for three months.

“What do you mean?”

Vail was so curious about Nia’s words.

“In short, the special forest is controlled by the forest ruler. And the only way to escape this endless forest is to find the banyan tree.”

“A banyan tree?”

They were even more curious about those words.

“Yes, that tree is the way out, so we can…”

Nia stopped speaking because the three heroes lowered their heads, and the atmosphere changed again.

“Why do you all look like you're hiding something?”

“It’s just… the tree you mentioned is gone. We… used it as a target for our magic.”

Nia fell silent after hearing Cini’s answer. The only way out of the special forest was gone. She remembered they had been looking for a way out for three months.

“...are you serious?”