Everyone headed back towards the cart and Leon helped some of the men herd the run-away horseback to the cart, where they strapped the horse to the cart. The ex-soldier sat in the driver seat alongside the old man while the rest of the men sat in the back of the court, smushed together as they tried to give the sick girl space to lie down.
Leon tapped in his horse on the side and went ahead of the cart by a few paces to take lead.
The rest of the journey in the Veszely Canyon was rather uneventful. The group stuck close together, only on edge when random sounds of monsters in the distance would echo in the canyon. However, despite the noises, none had approached the group making the rest of the journey boring, but safe.
By the time Leon could see the exit of the canyon filled with giant walls of rock, the sun had started to dip below the horizon. Seeing as night was soon to be upon the group, Leon started to pick up the pace and the cart pulled group followed in suit.
As the walls of rock disappeared from the surroundings and a plain dotted with trees took its place, Leon on the other hand remained vigilant of his surroundings.
'Hopefully, we get lucky and find a nice place to camp down, otherwise, things might not go so well at night.'
Although they had officially escaped the Veszely Canyon and its potential dangers, monsters could always be lurking near the canyon's exit, so Leon wanted to get as far as possible down the road without having to move in the dark.
After another hour of trotting down the road, the sun had already disappeared and a waxing crescent of a moon peeped its head out and gave a small light on the world, the group had found a decent spot to camp out in. It was a small clearing with few trees and a rather open and short field, which made it easy to spot anything attempting to approach the group.
Unlike Leon, the villagers had brought a couple of tents along with them and tiredly hammered in the stakes to hold down the shelters in case of strong winds. Right after the tents were set up, the old man got one of the men to help him carry the sick girl into the tent before they got the rest of the camp ready. Some of the men went out to find some materials for cooking and also found a small amount of firewood from the many trees in the surrounding areas and set up a small fire so they could cook the food.
One of the men helped cook back at the village, so he naturally took over the whole operation. Taking water from a clean river nearby, he dumped it into a pot that sat above the fire and dropped mushrooms that they found in the forest into the boiling water. Next, he went over to the cart and grabbed some potatoes and herbs like green onions and thyme that the group had brought to ration throughout their trip, after peeling and chopping them he threw the materials into the pot.
As the man prepared all of this, the last party of men came back and carried over a carcass of a regular rabbit that they had luckily stumbled upon. The cook did his best to butcher the carcass and pouring the meat to simmer inside the pot.
With everything set up, the group of men sat around the fire and started to talk amongst themselves to occupy the time as they waited for the pot to finish cooking. Leon had sat closer to the tents and chosen the spot as no one else had sat there, before he could get comfortable the old man had hobbled over and slowly lowered himself onto the ground on the left of Leon.
"I hope you don't mind if this old one decides to sit here."
Leon didn't mind the company and nodded.
"Go right ahead."
Looking towards the jumping and burning fire, the old man addressed Leon without even looking at him.
"Since you know why we are going to Mifis if you don't mind me asking, why is a young lad like yourself traveling there?"
Although Erik had told him to be careful, Leon hadn't felt any bad intentions from the old village chief the entire time they had been traveling so he decided to tell him a little bit of his journey.
"Well as an adventurer, I wanted to travel and experience Mifis and maybe visit the surrounding Coalition states as well."
Hearing his guesses turn out to be true, the old man gave a laugh.
"Haha, I knew you were an adventurer! Since the foods simmering, why don't you tell us some of your adventures! It's not every day I can sit down next to an adventurer and talk with them."
A few months ago, if someone has asked Leon this, he would've tried to deflect the question since he was a new and sad adventurer who fought low leveled slimes. But after that fateful day, Leon's fortunes had changed, and could finally tell some exciting stories, so he smiled after hearing the request.
"Alright, I guess I'll tell a few. Okay, so one day my friends and I decide to go to a dungeon…"
As Leon told the story of his first-ever dungeon, the other men who sat in a circle around the fire started to listen in on Leon's story. After all, these were regular folks who didn't fight often and only fought a few goblins or slimes every year, so they were captivated and interested in Leon's story.
"Then with the help of all my friends, we managed to hold back the thundering axe, then Emilia comes in with a magic charged attack that manages to cut the steel-like body of the high orc. The impact alone made my bones shiver! However, even with the blood pouring out of the beast like a river, it still managed to give one last attack that launched me into the wall! I swear the blow could've broken the wall, but luckily my back survived the impact. Then I awoke only to find out I had missed me lying on the girl's lap!"
Hearing the end of the story, all the men let out a hearty laugh.
"You poor lad!"
"Another story!"
"What a lucky weasel! To get to rest on a beautiful girl's lap! I'm jealous!"
"Well, he can't be too lucky if he was unconscious!"
"To think you fought a high orc and lived to tell the tale!"
The story had been a hit with the group and everyone including the ex-soldier to the village chief had entertained and awed at one point. A fight with a monster like a high orc was beyond their imagination and they didn't doubt that Leon had embellished some of the details, but they couldn't care less.
Leon on the other hand heard all their reactions and had on a huge smile.
'It's nice to have people be excited about your adventures…this...this is why I'm glad I became an adventurer sometimes."