The knock on the door had left the group uneasy, but the weight of exhaustion silenced any immediate debates.
Samuel was already sprawled across his bed, snoring softly, while Seraphina swayed slightly from the fatigue of two sleepless nights.
Edwin, ever the voice of reason, closed the door quietly and glanced at her.
"We'll discuss it in the morning when everyone is awake."
He said, his silver eyes glinting with a calm that belied the tension in the room.
"Whoever left this note didn't attack us— they warned us. That means we're not in immediate danger. Let's not overthink this now."
Seraphina nodded reluctantly, her mind still going over the strange encounter, but her aching body's demand for rest outweighed her curiosity.
She climbed into bed, pulled the blanket over her, and felt the weight of her eyes closing almost instantly. Edwin lingered for a moment, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, before finally settling in himself.
The room fell into a tense silence, broken only by Samuel's snores.
Morning came too soon for Seraphina, the sunlight streaming through the window harsh against her face— waking her from her much-needed rest. She stirred awake, her mind still clouded from her restless sleep, and stretched, sitting up slowly.
Samuel was already awake, leaning casually against the wall and playing with his odd little dagger. His grin was lopsided, as carefree as ever, despite the various situations they had been through.
"What's for breakfast?"
He asked now that he saw her awake, breaking the silence. Seraphina sighed and rubbed her eyes, waving off his remark as Edwin handed him the note.
Samuel's grin faded as he read aloud.
"'Stay out of the forest. This is your only warning.'"
His voice carried an edge of mockery, but he was very serious about the threat.
"Well, someone's got an eye on us."
"That's exactly why we need to keep a low profile from now on."
Edwin said, his arms crossed, his gaze steady on Samuel.
"No unnecessary attention. No stirring the pot. The more we fade into the background, the less likely we are to end up in deeper trouble."
Samuel leaned back and tossed his dagger lightly into the air, catching it with a smirk.
"Or we could do the opposite. Take a couple of quests, keep up appearances, and make sure we're not sitting ducks. If we act like we're hiding, it might just make us look more suspicious."
Seraphina, listening quietly as they debated, tapped her fingers on the edge of the bed— but she had a completely different idea from both of them.
"What if we don't hide, but we don't just act normal either?"
Both men turned to her, eyebrows raised.
"What I mean is— what if we confront this head-on? Whoever left the note didn't attack us, which means they're trying to scare us off. We investigate them instead, in secret of course. If we find out who they are or why they're involved with the forest, we could gain the upper hand."
Edwin's brows furrowed.
"My Lady, we don't even know who they are, let alone how dangerous they might be. Investigating could lead to exposure— or worse."
Samuel grinned, clearly intrigued by the idea, though he didn't rush to support it outright because he also knew that Edwin wasn't wrong. It was a dangerous idea that could lead to death.
"Bold. I like it. Dangerous, sure, but not a bad idea. Better than sitting here waiting for the next note."
The three of them debated for a while, weighing the risks of each approach. Ultimately, Seraphina managed to convince them, and they knew that even if they didn't agree, she would do it on her own anyways.
Edwin sighed, his silver eyes narrowing as he relented.
"Fine. But if we do this, it's in moderation. No reckless decisions, no unnecessary risks, and you promise to stay out of direct trouble."
"I promise."
Seraphina said with a small smile, her tone lighter now that they were on the same page.
With their plan loosely decided, they went downstairs for breakfast since they were all hungry. The warm scent of fresh bread and sizzling meat greeted them as they entered the inn's common room.
The innkeeper waved at them from behind the counter, her green eyes lighting up as she approached their table.
"Morning all. You all look like you're starving, breakfast is ready."
Seraphina nodded politely, keeping the conversation casual while they ordered their food. By now, they had become familiar faces among the inn's patrons, and a few nodded in greeting or offered small smiles as they passed.
Over breakfast, the group kept their conversation light, discussing mundane topics to avoid drawing any unnecessary attention.
Once they finished, they each set off to handle their individual tasks for the day.
Samuel and Edwin decided to visit the guild again, in the open it was to pick up another quest but with the hidden goal of eavesdropping on any relevant information— mainly about the forest and hooded figures.
Seraphina, however, had a different destination in mind.
The library stood tall and imposing as she approached it, its polished stone walls gleaming under the warm glow of the early morning sunlight—it was so early that people were just about getting ready for their day.
She paid the entry fee without hesitation and stepped inside. A familiar sense of calm washed over her as the scent of old books instantly eased her tension.
Rows upon rows of shelves stretched toward the high ceiling, and the soft rustle of pages filled the air.
This time she came here with a goal in mind, Seraphina's focus was on knights.
She combed through the first and second floors, selecting every book she could find related to knight— their history, rankings, training methods, and myths.
While many of the training methods were rudimentary and missing key details, only here as a reference, with no real way to practice them, they still provided valuable context.
By the time she finished gathering, she had a small mountain of books stacked on a nearby desk where she could avoid attention— 36 in total.
She resisted the urge to grab more, aware that drawing too much attention could be counterproductive.
Settling into her seat, she began skimming through the texts, her violet eyes scanning each page with practiced efficiency— she avoided reading them in detail because she wanted to get through all in the day.
Because of that, she just scanned the words to store them in her mind and quickly moved on. To the outside viewers, it would look like she was just skimming the book and throwing it aside, not actually learning anything.
The hours passed quickly as she absorbed the knowledge, adding each book's contents to her mental library.
She covered tales of knights great and small, accounts of their triumphs and failures, and descriptions of their unique life seeds and training philosophies.
The myths and stories were particularly interesting, they were more of a view into the idea common folks had of knights— and even the idea lower knights had on the higher ranks.
The training methods were nothing great, they didn't even go over the proper movements needed to be used to train the method, and didn't cover the materials needed— they were just a rough outline of what it was. The idea of the technique and some basic depictions of how the movement might look.
Around noon, as Seraphina flipped through yet another book, she felt the presence of someone nearby.
Glancing up, she noticed a young man standing a few feet away, his curious gaze fixed on her stack of books— his hair was dark and slightly unkempt, and he held a small collection of his own texts under one arm.
"Quite the collection you've got there."
He said with a friendly smile, his tone light.
"Mind if I ask what you're researching?"