It was late at night when Linde returned to the camp; his late return was entirely due to him getting lost in the Forest.
Logically, with his abilities, it should have been impossible for him to get lost in the Forest, yet he genuinely was lost, and the process of getting lost was somewhat inexplicable, as if the entire woods were moving with him; this made him wonder if Spark, a Forest Children, was playing tricks on him.
As for why she would play tricks on him, he surmised it might be because he had previously coveted Spark's potion, and Spark had sensed it through some means, so Spark wanted to give him a small lesson.
However, no matter what, Linde suffered no harm, only a slight depletion of his stamina, and on the way, he also hunted a few wild rabbits to feed the little one in his arms.
Throughout the journey, the little one in his arms was very well-behaved, not moving around, seemingly treating Linde's clothes as a sleeping bag.
Having nothing else to do, Linde also took the opportunity to name this little one Glory.
"You're finally back! I was about to send someone into the Forest to look for you." The scout captain, having learned from the night watch guard that Linde had returned, hurried over, scolding Linde for his late return while also scrutinizing him to ensure he was unharmed, only then did his tense expression relax slightly.
In his opinion, Linde should not have hunted the Shadow Lynx; otherwise, he would have been more or less injured and would have carried the Shadow Lynx's corpse back.
"It was too dark, and I got lost in the Forest," Linde explained simply.
The scout captain did not question the reasonableness of this explanation; he patted Linde on the shoulder and said, "Lord Garlan and Fotimo are waiting for you in the hall tent; you'd best go immediately."
Linde paused upon hearing this, and without asking the reason for their wait, he followed the scout captain's lead to the hall of the inn's building.
Because there were several bonfires in the hall, the dampness and chill of the rainy weather were completely dispelled; nobles and knights had found clean spots to sleep, with only a few attendants remaining awake, ready to answer their masters' calls at any moment.
Additionally, inside the very conspicuous tent in the hall, there was also flickering firelight, and silhouettes could be seen projected onto the tent fabric, indicating that the people inside had not yet rested.
Upon seeing Linde, the attendant sitting beside the tent immediately stood up, then motioned for Linde to wait a moment, turned and ducked into the tent, and quietly woke Garlan and Fotimo, who were dozing.
"Linde, come in!" After clearing his head a bit, Fotimo spoke for Garlan.
Hearing this, Linde lifted the curtain and stepped inside; however, the tent was carpeted, and the rainwater from his clothes dripped onto the floor, leaving puddles on the carpet, which made him involuntarily stop at the edge of the carpet to avoid making it wetter.
"Don't worry, I didn't want this carpet laid in the first place; those fellows insisted on it, so it's fine if it gets dirty," Garlan rubbed his somewhat sleepy eyes, then looked at Linde's condition, saying with a hint of disappointment, "By the looks of you, you probably didn't catch that Shadow Lynx."
"No, I caught up," Linde replied, "but I didn't kill it."
"Didn't kill it?" Garlan was stunned.
At this moment, Fotimo noticed something in Linde's arms, seemingly a living creature moving about, so he pointed at Linde's embrace and asked, "Is this what you gained from tracking the Shadow Lynx?"
"Yes," Linde nodded, then brought out the albino Shadow Lynx cub, Glory, that was sleeping in his arms, saying, "This little one was given to me by its mother, the Shadow Lynx I was tracking."
Garlan and Fotimo were both stunned by this, looking at the Lynx cub, Glory, that Linde had produced, and remained silent for a long time.
The next morning, the rain had stopped; although the ground was still muddy, it was much easier to traverse than the day before, and as usual, the scout team went ahead to check the situation, but unlike before, Linde, as the core of the scout team, was accompanied by a Shadow Lynx cub, and this cub was an extremely rare albino cub.
Last night, the people who had gone hunting with Linde, upon returning to their respective squads, informed others about Linde tracking the Shadow Lynx and also spread the misunderstanding about the ten hunting trials.
However, when Linde did not return for a long time afterward, many people speculated whether something had happened to him, as their current location was Kingswood, and no matter how skilled Linde's swordsmanship was, it could not be fully utilized in such an environment; furthermore, the danger of a Shadow Lynx in the Forest was far greater than elsewhere, as it could silently approach its prey concealed by trees and bushes, tearing out the prey's throat with its sharp claws and teeth, killing it in one blow; even a sworn knight might not be able to evade a Shadow Lynx's ambush, so as time wore on into the night, more and more people felt that Bear Hunter might perish in Kingswood this time.
However, Linde did return, and he returned unharmed, without any signs of a struggle on him, so everyone in the camp thought Linde must not have tracked the Shadow Lynx this time.
But not long after, new information spread from the inn's hall: it turned out that Linde had tracked the Shadow Lynx and defeated it completely without injury, then captured it alive; however, when Linde was about to bring the Shadow Lynx back to the inn, he discovered that the Shadow Lynx was a female with several cubs.
When Linde was a hunter, there was an unwritten rule: never capture a female beast with cubs, so he released that Shadow Lynx then; and as he was preparing to leave, the Shadow Lynx blocked his path and brought him an albino cub as a gift.
Initially, when the people in the camp heard this news, they all thought that whoever spread it must be talking nonsense, because they had never heard of a Shadow Lynx being tamed, let alone being intelligent enough to repay a kindness.
However, when Linde emerged from the inn's hall, cradling an albino Shadow Lynx cub, everyone's expressions were filled with shock, and their gazes towards Linde became increasingly awestruck, because such things were only seen in legends and only happened to legendary heroes, so much so that Linde also took on some of the aura of a legendary hero in their minds.
In fact, this was also the effect Linde hoped to achieve; he deliberately concealed the matters of the Forest Children and the Faceless Men, slightly altering the process of obtaining the cub, Glory; in his opinion, killing a Shadow Lynx would only make people think he was a powerful hunter, but having a Shadow Lynx willingly offer its cub would make people think this was something that would only happen to a legendary hero.
Moreover, and more importantly, he didn't need to publicize it himself; others would actively publicize it for him, and stories recounted by others were far more convincing than those told by oneself.
Thus, by the next morning, the entire House Rose contingent knew about the Shadow Lynx incident; many curious individuals even rushed to the scout team's encampment before Linde departed to see the albino Shadow Lynx cub from the story, and those who still harbored doubts about the rumors had their suspicions completely dispelled upon seeing the Lynx cub, Glory, clinging to Linde and growling at others.