Samuel chose a random direction, and they began heading outside the village. His father had passed away before telling him which direction to take in order to go to the nearest city.
Maybe they were lucky, or maybe it was that all the wild animals nearby had been scared away. In any case, all the way through the forest from the village, Samuel and the group of children did not encounter any predator.
In fact, they did not encounter any wild animal. But that was a good thing, for the short term. But it was definitely not going to be good if they were going to spend quite a long time within the forest.
They would need food. And, even though the wild fruits could be eaten, gathering enough fruits to satisfy this huge number of children was quite difficult.
After all, the number of children that Samuel was currently leading away from the village already exceeded 100. Even though some of them would be capable of assisting in order to gather the fruits, it would still take quite some time.
Samuel was not really sure how long it was going to take for them to be able to get out of the forest and finally reach a nearby city. Additionally, he was also wondering how those villagers had ended up within that village so deep in the forest.
Despite what he was thinking about, he just hoped that they would be able to get out of the forest soon. It would not be good if nighttime got them inside the forest.
They had only left the village in the afternoon. And considering that there was a large number of children, they had to move at a slow pace. For those little kids, they were being carried by those that were slightly older.
But the group had only gone for slightly less than 3 hours when suddenly, Samuel felt that the surroundings around them were completely different. He was not sure about the difference, but he just felt that there was a great difference between the area that they currently were in, as compared to the area that they had been a few minutes ago.
In the end, after realizing that he could not find anything that was out of place, Samuel decided to focus on the journey. So, he just kept on moving together with the group of children.
The younger children were currently centralized within the group. As for those that were slightly older, they were helping Samuel in managing the other children. This way, they could avoid some children being left behind along the way.
A few minutes later, the group had to take a little rest. Samuel was after all moving together with a group of children, and not with a group of adults. So, during the past 3 hours, they had already been taking several breaks along the way.
And just as they were relaxing, Samuel detected the sound of footsteps approaching them from a distance. Since they were within a forest, the clear sound of someone or something stepping on dry leaves could be clearly heard.
Samuel immediately got up from where he was seated. He gazed towards the direction that the sound was coming from. The bow and arrow in his hand were all ready, in case it was a wild animal that was coming over to attack.
A few seconds later, someone appeared. Of course, Samuel was immediately relieved realizing that it was a person, even though this person was currently strangely dressed.
This person was wearing some black clothes that were quite thick as compared to the ones that he and the children were wearing. It almost looked like those armors that the villagers created. It was just that this armor on the body of this guy was made out of clothes.
Despite knowing that this person was also a human, Samuel did not lower his guard at all. Instead, he continued looking at the man, ready to attack in case if this guy was here with some malicious intentions.
As for the man, the moment that he saw a large group of children, he could not help but be dumbfounded. At the same time, he wondered how this large number of children managed to get here.
And looking at the way that they were currently dressed, it was as if this entire group was made up of beggars. Could it be that there was actually someone that was ruthless to create a group of children beggars?
As he thought of that, a cold light suddenly flashed within his eyes. But that glint disappeared within moments that it appeared.
"What are you children doing deep in the forest? You are not supposed to be here. I'm wondering how you managed to survive here, even though this forest has several monsters." The man asked.
At the same time as he asked the question, he looked at Samuel. In this entire group of children, he could tell that Samuel was the only one that was older. Well, he was older by quite a huge gap as compared to the other children.
Samuel on the other hand could not help but be dumbfounded the moment that he heard that there were actually monsters present within this forest. Just how lucky were they?
But he had his own doubts nevertheless. Despite having been moving for several hours, and it was getting late, they had not encountered any animal within the forest.
Moreover, it was clear that the village was not really far from where they currently were at. This implied that if monsters really existed here, they would have occasionally attacked the village.
Despite the doubts that he was having, Samuel remembered clearly that his father had been killed together with the other villagers by a monster. And currently, he understood what a monster was.
Upon not receiving a response for quite a while, the man looked at Samuel before asking directly, "What is your plan with these children? Let me tell you, if you are having any plan of exploiting these children for your own personal gains, then I will tell you that I'm going to kill you right now."
Samuel was immediately flabbergasted by the man's words. And at the same time, he felt that there was some form of invisible pressure that was coming from the man in front of him, weighing down his shoulders.
The pressure was nothing that he had ever experienced before. This was after all the first time that he had ventured outside the area around the village. And, even though his father had been a beast tamer, it was only during the time that he was about to die that Samuel came to know about it.
Feeling the pressure that was increasing on him, and looking at the man that was looking back at him as if he was going to take action at any time, Samuel obviously had no choice but to respond.
But even before he could do that, several children actually went ahead and stood in front of him. They fiercely glared at the man in front of them as one of them spoke up.
"You want to kill our big brother Samuel? I will not let you do that. I will fight you, and beat you up together with that big monster that killed our parents." The kid said. This kid was just about 7 years old.
The others also immediately responded, at least those that were 10 years and above. They all thought that this guy wanted to attack Samuel, and they could not accept that.
After all, along the way, Samuel had been taking care of them. He had carried several children, and would occasionally stop to find some fruits. Even though it was not enough to satisfy the hunger that they felt after walking for quite a while, it was still enough to be able to elevate it.
The man on the other hand was immediately dumbfounded by the reaction of the children. He had not anticipated that the relationship between this young man and the children was actually that close.
And looking at how protective of him they were, it was clear that they were going to do anything in order to protect that young man. But something else touched him.
It seemed that from where this group was coming from, there had been a monster attack. And, that monster had killed the parents of all these children here.
The man could not help but pity this group of children. After all, some of the children here were only a few years old, and even some of them were just a few months old.
Immediately after the children spoke up, Samuel felt that the pressure that he was experiencing had somehow disappeared. And the expression of the man in front of them had also shifted.
"So, the city that you came from was attacked by monsters? It seems that your parents found a way of sending you away from the city. Anyway, I will help you get to the closest city." The man stated.
He then approached Samuel and shook his hand as he said, "My name is William, a beast tamer of Reti city. And I am currently out here to find a method of improving the level of my monster. What about you?"