Much to the exasperation of the men, the sun quickly re-entered the sky and started to shine its pale light onto the world. Leon woke up naturally, as he had been waking up at the crack of dawn ever since he had started traveling.
Remarkably despite sleeping on the ground in a patch of grass, Leon didn't feel sore at all and kept in mind that sleeping on grass wasn't the worse thing. What surprised Leon, even more, was discovering two other people had also awakened.
The ex-soldier had woke up from one of the outer tents and started to pack the stuff lying around in the campsite back into the cart, while the entrance to the center tent opened and the old village chief stuck his head out.
He nodded at the ex-soldier putting away stuff, but when he saw Leon awake his eyebrows went up in surprise.
"To think even someone as young as yourself would be awake by now."
Leon didn't think waking up early was too impressive and tried to be humble.
"It isn't that impressive. Loads of people get up early."
The old village chief started to walk towards the other tents but still faced Leon.
"Hahaha, you'd be surprised sometimes. I mean look at these 'Men'. They can't even get up in the morning."
After he finished saying that, the old village chief went up to each tent and started banging on the side of the tents with his cane until each person in the tents got up and helped pack stuff away.
After twenty minutes, everything had mostly been packed except for the tent where Boadicea was sleeping and the old man got someone to gently carry the sick girl back into the cart. So they could quickly disassemble the tent and toss it back into the cart.
Once they double-checked that everything had been put away, the group set off before the sun had fully revealed itself to the world.
They repeated this routine for about fifteen more days. For better or for worse, in the fifteen days that Leon had been traveling with the group, no incidents had befallen the traveling group. This was mostly due to the fact that the Veszely Canyon was the only place on the way to Mifis with monsters, which made encountering a monster or being attacked by one very unlikely. The only other threat that was left were bandits, but the group had been lucky to encounter none.
Once they were out of the canyon, the group started to see other travelers and seeing Boadicea's condition get worse. The old village chief luckily came around a merchant who had a spare horse and bought it off the merchant for a relatively cheap price, since the horse was a cart horse and not a war horse.
After the group had hooked up the horse to the cart, the speed they were able to travel at greatly increased, which shortened the trip even more. By now, Leon estimated that they were only maybe half a day or a full day's journey away from hitting the houses and outskirts of Mifis. While this made it sound like they were quite close, Mifis was unlike Orsini and was not necessarily walled, which meant that the city was quite spread out unlike the concentrated city of Orsini.
Although it would take them a day at most to reach the outskirts of Mifis, actually reaching the main part of Mifis would take maybe another day or two, since some people chose to live in suburban places just outside the bustling city.
The sun started to set and the men started to set up camp once again. The spot they chose was not the greatest of places as it was a tiny clearing off to the side of the road, but a few clusters of trees surrounded it.
As per usual, the tents went up first and someone placed Boadicea inside the center tent, so she could rest as everyone else set up everything else. After doing it more than a dozen times, everyone had become like machines and automatically did what they usually did to help set up camp.
Some people went to gather firewood in the nearby trees, while the appointed cook went to set up the pot and help look for something to use for the stew. Leon tried to help, but the men usually told Leon to stay behind since he was a guest and was already helping them get to Mifis safely.
Usually, while they set up the camp, Leon would survey the area in the case that he needed to move in the dark or fight in the dark and if he still had time left to spare. He would go over to the old village chief to talk and share a few laughs, while they tended to the sick girl who looked worse and worse every day.
After roughly half an hour, everyone that had gone out to search for their items came back with varying results. The men tasked with firewood found plenty, while the men who looked for food and fresh water only found water and a few vegetables that had been hiding in the ground.
This meant that the stew would be possible, but since they hadn't found any animals this time. The stew wouldn't feature any meat and only vegetables. However, the men were so tired that they didn't care too much and decided to roll with it.
Tossing the vegetables into the boiling pot of water, all the men relaxed and sat back as they waited for the food to finish cooking. Since they were bored, the men started to arm wrestle, which Leon found enjoyable to watch. Although Leon was by no means physically strong in the adventurer world, compared to normal people like the villagers there was no doubt that he would win unless a person with a naturally strong physique like Lorenz or Erik were here.
With that in mind, Leon only watched the arm wrestling matches and didn't participate. After a few dozen matches, the man watching over the pot once again used his ladle to alert everyone the good was done.
"It's done!"
This time he didn't bother telling everyone to line up, but it didn't matter too much as everyone did it naturally. Like the other fifteen nights, everyone ate till the pot was empty, while Leon helped the old village chief tend to the sick girl. By now Boadicea looked like she was barely holding on as she was much more pale and thin, even her fever had gotten worse and she was sweating like she had just finished running a marathon.
The old village chief stroked his granddaughter's hair and looked like he was holding back tears watching his loved one suffer.
"It'll be fine soon my little angel...just another two days…"
After the sick girl fell asleep, Leon decided to leave her to her grandpa and looked around for a place to sleep. Coincidentally, there was a large tree that Leon could sleep on this time and he made his way up the trunk with a blanket and pillow.
Like always, the men assigned a person to keep watch, and this time the ex-soldier sat on the outskirts of the camp looking out into the darkness with a spear in hand.
Unbeknownst to the ex-soldier and Leon, just past the line of sight of the two of them, the bushes startling rustling as something was moving in them.