Johanna of course hoped it wasn't, but by their recent behaviour, she truly was unsure of what would come out of them, and that's also why Johanna asked for their next goal. Once they heard her question, they all answered that their goal was to reach the nearest human city, but after Johanna explained the true meaning behind her words, they all looked over to the swordsman, who was just as perplexed by this question as the rest of their group was.
"Wait, so you mean to tell me that you just planlessly walked into the forest, hoping to become great adventurers?"
"Yeah, that's kind of it."
"Im by no means an expert in adventuring, but if you dont even have a concrete goal that you want to achieve, be it childish or naive, without one you will achieve nothing in life or as an adventurer."
"You have a point there; well, my goal is to make these idiots the strongest adventurers in the world!"
Leony just blurted this out of nowhere, making everyone look at her in surprise, but she wasn't the only one since the swordsman screamed his dream out too.
"I want to become a strong swordsman, and then find my own noble lineage!"
"I want to master every spell there is and grow a bigger chest!"
"Oh, I don't want people to have to suffer if I'm able to heal them."
"I want to eat everything."
Johanna was satisfied with what she had done since now everyone had a goal to reach, but she also had to lecture them that they shouldn't go around a forest with monsters and scream like idiots while dangerous monsters might be after them. After they heard her explanation, they all agreed that it was stupid of them. But Johanna moved on since wasting their time any longer and staying at the same location after gaining so much attention was frankly not very smart, so they quickly jogged away from their position, and after Johanna made sure they were back in relative safety, they continued walking out of the forest to finally find an exit.
After walking until dusk, Johanna knew that they were close to the end of the forest, but it would take them at least four more hours. That's why she decided that they should set up camp and sleep out here in the forest until tomorrow. They all helped together set up the camp and were done surprisingly quickly, and since Johanna had already prepared food rations before they left, they just ate around a campfire Johanna had set up. After that, Johanna gave them some advice on how to survive in this forest if they ever came back and that they would need to be able to beat at least one orc each if they ever wanted a chance at surviving in this environment. They all listened closely to Johanna's advice since somehow they were more inexperienced than her, who just arrived in this world not even a year ago. Once Johanna was done giving them advice, she decided that she should rest now and went to sleep in her tent, while some of the others had to keep guard and the rest went to sleep too.
On the next morning, Johanna was the first to wake up. Once she got out of her tent, she noticed that Balu and the loli magician, who should have kept an eye open, were both asleep, so she checked all the tents to see if someone had gone missing, which was luckily not the case. As she was checking up on them, she also woke them up so that they could leave as soon as possible, since Johanna wanted to go back to her house and spend time with her children. Once everyone was ready again, which in Johanna's opinion took way too long, they departed, walking the last strip back to human civilization.
After the last four hours of walking, the whole group was relieved that they had finally reached the trading town, where Johanna had also met the blacksmiths together with Aiko and Amanda. Since it was a town where many merchants came through, she thought that it would be a great place to let them go because finding a carriage back to the capital would be way easier than in any other town in the vicinity.
"Thank you, Johanna. Thank you for bringing us here."
"And thank you for saving my life from those orcs."
"No problem, good luck on your journey, and I hope you all achieve the dreams you have set for yourself."
Johanna waved them goodbye while they were slowly rolling away in a carriage that went back to the capital. She was relieved that they finally made it, but she also felt sad having to say goodbye to them so soon.