Leonard tried to save face and said eloquently:
"Sophie, if you were sleepy, you could've asked someone else to take over the watch."
He turned to the rest of the group and asked:
"The girls would be glad to help, right, ladies?"
Silence.
"..."
The girls averted their eyes and started doing their own things, pretending it had nothing to do with them. Completely ignoring Leonard's question.
"Damn it!"
A vein popped on Leonard's forehead. Lately, he'd been made a fool of too many times—he wasn't even respected as the leader anymore.
"I brought some spare food. We'll discuss this after we're out of danger."
Aurelia, ever cautious and paranoid, had packed several boxes of nutritious bread in her magic bag.
The bread wasn't exactly delicious, but it lasted a long time without spoiling, and just one could keep a man full for several days.
Aurelia reminded them:
"The food didn't vanish on its own. We're lucky we weren't attacked while we slept. We should pick up the pace."
The group resumed their journey back. A subtle tension lingered in the air—after Leonard's outburst, the girls were avoiding him.
The path was far from easy. The mountain was full of uneven terrain and steep slopes, making every step treacherous and deadly.
But the one suffering the most was Sophie, who, as punishment for her earlier mistake, was carrying Thalira up the steep mountain.
The climb was grueling; Sophie wouldn't have managed it without Calista's help carrying Thalira. Aurelia also assisted Sophie, though only because her sister had taken the initiative.
Sophie didn't want any help—she saw this as punishment for her own incompetence. But she reluctantly accepted when she realized she couldn't make it alone.
When they finally reached the top of the mountain, which was relatively flat, the group set up camp, sleeping under the open sky that night.
There was no feast like the day before; all they had to eat was a hard, tasteless loaf of bread.
Some of the girls cast resentful glances at Sophie, as if she were to blame for their current situation.
That only deepened Sophie's sense of alienation.
'Why are they so cruel to me? I just wanted to be accepted…'
She thought as she chewed her dry bread, feeling sad and lonely—a feeling that had become her constant companion ever since Kyle left.
"Judging by your face, I'd say you don't like the taste," Aurelia said, offering her a glass jar with an orange-colored cream inside. "Spread this on the bread—it'll make it edible."
Sophie hesitated for a moment, but then snatched the jar from Aurelia's hand and spread a bit on her bread.
Her eyes widened as she took a bite—the taste had changed completely.
It was delicious!
"What's in this cream?"
Sophie asked, studying the orange spread curiously.
"I don't know either." Aurelia took the jar back and replied, "I just know it's a famous treat among the elves."
Sophie was surprised but nodded. The elves usually had plenty of good things—nutritious bread, for example, was their creation. It was a shame they hoarded the best stuff for themselves and rarely traded with other races.
That made Sophie curious. This treat didn't seem ordinary—so how had Aurelia gotten it?
"You're curious, aren't you?" Aurelia noticed and asked with a sly smile. "Unfortunately, I can't reveal my secrets."
Sophie felt disappointed but didn't complain and finished her bread. Deep down, she was happy that Aurelia had shared such a delicacy with her. They'd never spoken before, and Sophie was pleasantly surprised by how friendly she was.
"Calista wants some too! Some too!"
Calista said, pointing at the jar in Aurelia's hand and then at the bread she was holding. Aurelia made the jar float into her sister's hands.
"Tasty, tasty," Calista murmured as she dipped her bread into the sweet and devoured several pieces in a row.
When she was done, half the jar was gone, but Aurelia didn't mind and said:
"Eat as much as you want, little sister. We can always buy more after all this is over."
Leonard watched the three of them with displeasure. Even though Aurelia and Calista had sworn to serve him, they always carried an air of superiority, keeping an invisible distance between them.
And now, seeing them being all friendly with Sophie irritated him more than eating that dry, hard bread.
'Those arrogant bitches! They're trying to humiliate me!'
Leonard was furious, but he didn't show it. He wasn't stupid—he knew he needed their help to survive. But once they got back to the city, he'd make sure to punish them.
Night fell again, and since none of the girls volunteered, Leonard was forced to stay awake and keep watch.
'Great, now I have to stand guard because my team is full of lazy idiots!'
"Why won't Thalira just wake up already?!"
Leonard muttered to himself, sitting by the campfire. The demon kingdom was naturally cold, but tonight was especially freezing. He didn't mind much, blaming it on being atop a mountain.
The hours flew by, and as Leonard was about to drift off, the sound of footsteps woke him.
He looked ahead, but the firelight didn't reach far into the deep darkness. He activated the elves' blessing to see at least a few meters ahead.
And then he saw it—
The creature with the deer skull mask, tall and imposing, standing just a few meters away.
The fire went out. A wave of cold flooded his body, like tiny needles piercing his bones.
He opened his mouth to scream—to wake the girls—but no sound came out. It was as if something was lodged in his throat.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his sword hanging at his waist. But his body wouldn't move, as if unseen hands were holding him down, making even breathing difficult.
The creature didn't move closer—it simply stood there, motionless, watching the sleeping group.
It seemed to be toying with Leonard. And it succeeded, because Leonard couldn't close his eyes the entire time it was there.
When morning came, the creature vanished into the shadows without a trace.
One by one, the girls woke up, chatting among themselves—completely unaware of what had happened during the night.
The next morning brought no relief, only a new kind of torment. Leonard had barely closed his eyes. The image of that motionless creature—a silent terror in the dark—was burned into his mind. Every shadow seemed to hide the outline of a deer skull. He needed to get out. Now.
As the group prepared to leave, a single snowflake landed on his glove. Then another. And another. Within minutes, the air thickened with a relentless white mist. A blizzard was beginning to swallow the mountaintop.
"The cold… it's getting worse," one of the girls murmured, hugging herself. The wounded, already weak, were visibly trembling. The snow wasn't just cold—it clung to their wounds like icy needles.
"We can't go down in this weather," Aurelia declared, her voice steady despite the howling wind. "The snow will cover the slopes and loose rocks. One fall from up here…"
She didn't need to finish the sentence. Everyone knew death would be the only outcome.
"We should build shelter and wait for the storm to pass."
"No." Leonard's voice cut through the air, harsher than the wind. His eyes were wild, fixed on the distance as if seeing a ghost. "We're not staying here another minute. We're leaving now."
"Leonard, be reasonable! That's suicide!" Aurelia protested, stepping forward.
"I'm the hero! My decision is final!"
He shouted, fury born from pure terror. He hadn't told anyone about the nocturnal visitor. He wouldn't admit he'd been paralyzed by fear. In his panicked mind, staying still meant waiting for death. Moving—no matter the risk—felt like the only way to escape.
His scream silenced all objections. Faces pale with fear, the group began the treacherous descent.
The path was a white nightmare. Every step was a gamble. The wind cut, the snow blinded, and the silence was broken only by the sound of their pounding hearts and the muffled sobs of someone behind.
Then came the first scream.
One of the girls in the back lost her footing. A hollow sound of rock sliding under snow and a sharp cry—cut off abruptly. In the scramble to steady themselves, two others slipped as well, losing balance to the snow and panic. Their bodies rolled down the steep slope, vanishing into the deadly white curtain.
The remaining group froze, horror written across their faces. But Leonard, his eyes glazed, just shouted, "Keep moving! Don't stop!"
The tragedy shook everyone, especially Sophie. Burdened by guilt, her steps grew unsteady. Then her foot slipped on a treacherous rock hidden under the fresh snow. Her arms flailed for balance—but gravity had already claimed her.
"Sophie!"
Calista's scream was followed by swift action. She lunged forward, grabbing Sophie's arm with surprising strength. The momentum pulled them both down—but safely onto a rocky ledge below, away from the fatal drop. They landed in a tangle of limbs, Sophie beneath, Calista protectively on top.
The breath was knocked out of Sophie's lungs, her face pressed against Calista's soft, ample chest. For a moment, amid the terror, there was only warmth—the pounding of two hearts and an intensely ambiguous closeness. The sight of the two voluptuous women in a suggestive position of relief and panic lasted only a second.
But it was enough for Leonard to see. A surge of irrational rage boiled inside him, eclipsing his fear.
"Sophie!" he growled, his voice filled with anger that had nothing to do with concern. "Can't you do anything right?! Be more careful, you useless thing!"
The words hit harder than the fall. Sophie shrank under Calista's gaze, who helped her up in silence, throwing Leonard an unreadable look.
The descent continued in heavy, somber silence. When they finally reached the base of the mountain, the blizzard began to fade, as if the sky itself was exhausted. And then they saw them.
The bodies of the three girls who had fallen.
The snow couldn't hide the horror. They didn't look like victims of a simple fall. Their corpses were horribly mutilated, limbs twisted at impossible angles like broken rag dolls. White bones jutted through torn flesh, and their faces were frozen in masks of eternal agony. It was a scene of savage brutality—as if something had found them mid-fall… or waited for them at the bottom.
The group stood in silence, the wind's howl the only mourning for the dead. Leonard could feel the piercing gazes of the other girls—judging him. Blaming him.
He felt outraged in his heart. If not for him, who had stayed awake all night, they might have been attacked by that creature. He should be thanked.
Deep down, he knew the truth—that the creature had been toying with him, unafraid from start to finish. But he didn't want to accept it.
Today, his reckless decisions had led to his comrades' deaths.
'It's not my fault if they were careless and fell.'
He wanted to say it, but kept it to himself. It would only worsen his already ruined image in the girls' eyes.
'Why is this happening?'
Watching the girls drift further and further away from him, he asked himself deep inside.
He was supposed to be the Hero.
The chosen one.
The man destined to change the world's fate.
But when… did everything start going wrong?