After following the river for a whole hour, Leon could finally see the collapsed stone bridge under the moonlight. It was old, over several centuries old, and had been forgotten and abandoned for decades now. No one came to these parts of the forest, so no one cared to repair it, and thus, this could be a decent place to rest and recover a bit.
"Finally... we can wash this filth out!" Beatrice gasped, and Leon lifted his hand. "No, just wash your hands and faces. If your clothes are dry, don't get them wet." He threw a glance back at them and Roberta nodded with a tired sigh.
"Yeah, they'll never dry out at night, and we'll die of cold." She looked at the other girls. "Slimes' slime can be scraped, and it'll dry faster than water, so you can leave it. Beatrice, I know you want to wash all of that filth away... but just scrap it away. We'll wash properly tomorrow at noon when the sun is out."
As they washed by the river's side, Noel looked at Leon. "What's the plan now? We're out of the city. We've got some money, but nothing else."
Leon looked at the stars in the sky, used them to find where the north is, and pointed. "Beyond the northern mountains, there is a village called Hearthfill. They mine iron there and export it further north to the fort city of Drakegate. We will cross the mountain, get supplies in Hearthfill, and stop by Drakegate for a while before going further north outside of Father's domain."
"So we got a plan." Roberta had finished cleaning herself and looked around the river. "I'll stand guard and get us something to eat. You three should go to sleep."
Leon looked back at her. "And what about you?" Seeing his worried face made her giggle. "I'm used to staying up for several days in a row. I'll be fine."
She was right, and Leon knew that, so he quickly stood and looked around for a nice place to rest. They were in the middle of the forest so there was a lot a of grass to use as bedding, and thanks to Roberta standing guard with her [Blood Lord] skill, they won't need to worry about getting attacked by either monsters or animals.
With how exhausted the three of them were, it didn't take Leon and the two girls long to fall asleep, and Roberta looked at them from the branches of a tree as she kept watch.
"A skill that can empower others and even rank up their skills. It would've even turned me into a monster of legends if my contract was permanent. What a monster..." She looked at the two moons in the sky, and then her eyes followed the stars toward the snowy peaks of the northern mountains.
When the morning came, the three woke up to find Roberta having already caught some fish and had them grilling, and she had even foraged the forest for berries. "It's not much, but should be enough." She looked at Leon, and he gave the fish a glance.
"Did you gut them?" As he asked, Roberta blinked. "What do you mean?" Leon was just as confused as she was, so he had Noel check.
"She didn't clean the fish at all, they even have their scales on. You have to scrape those off" She threw a sharp glare toward Roberta. "You can't cook, can you?"
"Well..." Roberta looked away with a troubled face. "... I never needed to cook before."
"I'll clean them." Noel took all of the fish off the fire to clean them as much as she could using Beatrice's dagger, and she asked the others to go wash in the river first.
Leon used one side of the collapsed bridge to take a quick bath, and Roberta and Beatrice took their bath on the other side. Leon was about to wash his own clothes, but Noel snatched them away and gave them to Beatrice and Roberta to wash with theirs. When she finished cleaning the fish and got them cooking, she quickly joined Beatrice and Roberta, getting rid of all of yesterday's filth and slime.
After the quick bath, they all waited a few minutes for their clothes to dry in the sun before they wore them half-damp and got to eating their breakfast. It wasn't much, but to them, who were starving, it felt like a true feast.
But the moment they finished eating, they had to move. Even if this was a good hiding place, it won't be for long. They would only be safe outside of the domain of Leon's father.
As they moved north and went deeper and deeper into the forest, the monster got stronger and more sensitive. Soon, Roberta had to kill a large demon bear before it could reach them, and she did that by giving it a brain hemorrhage from afar.
She looked at her hand. "Usually, I wouldn't have noticed it until it was within twenty meters, close enough for it to rush me. I would not have been able to even affect its blood with my Blood Master skill." She threw a second glance at Leon. "Really... I still can't believe that I have Blood Lord." She then frowned as her curious smile faded away.
"If this is the difference between a Master-class skill and a Lord-class skill, then what is the difference between a Lord-class skill and a King-class skill." She could only imagine the horror a Blood King would cause.
"The common knowledge says it is a factor of ten. But some say that King-class are more than that." Leon looked at her. "Keep the fact that you're a blood lord hidden. It's better to be underestimated as a weakling instead of singled out as a danger to be eliminated first."
But at that moment, Roberta stopped walking and looked forward, lifting her hand so everyone stopped. "People ahead of us. Elves... fifteen of them. I only sense women, children, and the old."
"What are they doing here?" Noel gasped, and Leon scratched the back of his head. "There shouldn't be any elves in this territory. Are they passing through... but if what you said is true..."
Roberta nodded. "Some of them are covered in blood, so I'd say they are running away from an attack. They would've been hunted down if it were bandits, so I guess probably a monster attack." She looked at Leon's face. "What should we do? Avoid them?"
"I heard elves hate humans..." Beatrice mumbled, and Noel, who carried her, nodded. "We were at war with them fifty years ago. We don't exactly see eye to eye."
After thinking about it for a while, Leon sighed. "Let's talk to them. If they ask for help, we'll give them directions toward the city. If they don't want to talk with us, we can just leave them. Can you kill them if they attack us?" He looked at Roberta, and she smiled. "I don't like killing the weak, but if it's an order from you, I'll do it."
He then paused for a second. "Wait, you can tell elves from humans just by sensing their blood?" He looked at her with a puzzled and dumbfounded face. Only for her to poke her ears. "I can sense them like a hazy form. While humans are basic, the elves' heads appear with a different shape due to their long ears and the blood flowing in them."