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The two of them were forced to navigate through the forest at night. Leo’s dark vision barely made the journey easier, as he needed to guide Marem to make sure she didn’t get caught in bramble bushes or trees. Marem had warned that the main roads would be too dangerous to walk on, so they made their journey through the woods.

She argued against lighting a torch, worried that the light may cause them to be spotted by the king’s soldiers. Leo accepted her decision, even if it meant they would take longer to travel. This day had been eventful, and Leo felt a gnawing guilt for how it all unfolded. What mattered right now was getting to Marem’s house.

“Okay, so why are we going to see your dad? I know you said he’d help, but this seems a bit past what a normal parent can help with,” asked Leo.

“When it comes to my dad, there is nothing normal about him. You just need to trust me when I say that he can help. The rest will be easier to understand when you meet him,” she answered.

“Alright, if you say so, Marem,” he responded.

“Oh, also, we’re getting married,” she calmly stated.

Leo froze for a second, stunned by his confusion, which caused her to bump into a tree. “What?”

Marem rubbed her forehead. “Not like, actually married, but we need to pretend that we are. That’s in the easier to understand later part of this.”

Leo continued leading her through the forest. “Okay, so I think that maybe we have enough time to discuss this before we meet your dad.”

Marem argued with him, “Leo, I just fist fought a geriatric who shot me with the physical concept of darkness. This is on top of being exhausted and grappling with the fact that we are currently wanted by the most powerful force in the world. Right now, getting into my family drama is the last thing I want.”

“Okay, I get that, I really do. But wouldn’t it be better to know as much as I could before getting involved in whatever is happening?” he asked.

“Yes, you’re right about that, but it isn’t our priority. Navigating through this dark forest at midnight is. The royal guards and living legends won’t dare go on his property, let alone have any way to make us come out. If they stop us from getting there, then we might never be safe again.”

Leo wanted to argue, but in the darkness, he saw more than she knew. Tears had formed at the edge of her eyes, and her lip had started trembling. He decided to let the moment pass, unable to find the right words.

The two marched in quiet darkness, attempting to draw as little attention to themselves as possible. Her father’s house wasn’t far from the capital, but their mode of travel greatly slowed the two of them down. Leo worried that they had no chance to reach there before the surrounding area was swarming with soldiers.

His proposal to risk it and run them over there was quickly shot down by Marem. He had managed to beat a living legend, one of the most powerful adventurers to exist, so why be afraid of encountering one again? But she argued that if the legend was aware of Leo’s strength, then he wouldn’t hold anything back. Getting spotted early would guarantee another conflict, and they might lose this time around.

Even his protests that he could definitely beat Venox again was shot down when she mentioned that even more may have arrived. Leo had been pushed to his limits, and the idea of fighting five people at that level of strength gave him pause. It took the two of them an hour of walking until her father’s house was finally in sight. There was a path separating them and the clearing that led to the house.

Though house was certainly an understatement. The building ahead was larger than the apartment complex that Leo had once called home. There were acres of yard filled with eloquent water fountains and questionable statues. They were all statues of beautiful women, some of them even felt familiar, like he had seen them before, but Leo wasn’t sure how.

While he stared out at the statues, Leo realized that they hadn’t been the first ones to get here. He stopped Marem from going into the open as he tried to find the people lying in wait for them. He could smell the obnoxious scent of armor polish and cigarette smoke coming from the trees on both sides of the clearing.

He couldn’t say how many soldiers were here for certain, but there had to be a dozen at the very least. Their sickening scent had spread enough that it covered their unique positions. Leo had no idea how Venox’s teleportation worked, and he was afraid that one soldier spotting them could summon Venox and his party.

“The path there is guarded, the clearing has royal soldiers hidden in the forest. I could beat them easily, but Venox might show up when we’re spotted,” Leo whispered to Marem.

“Shit, I really hoped that maybe they would refuse to send anybody here. I don’t have any way to get through, even if I tried to blind them, that’s the same as announcing we’re here,” she cursed.

“Damn, alright. So, we just need to get into your dad’s house, right?” he asked.

She gave him an odd look, “Yeah, that’s the plan we’ve discussed for the past hour. Preferably without them spotting us. If they can’t say we’re in there for sure, they have no possible way of getting to us.”

“Okay, I have an idea.”

Leo fumbled around in his bag, hoping that he hadn’t lost it in the fight with Venox. After some desperate searching, he found it. The metal helmet from the forest trap, still fully intact. Leo felt a bit sad about his current plan, as he had nearly trained the helmet to be a decent magic eight ball.

“Helmet, can you scream really loudly?” asked Leo.

The helmet cautiously responded, “..Yes? I’ve been enchanted to range from the sound of a wandering ant to a roaring crowd.”

“Cool, cool. Scream real loudly in about five seconds,” he ordered.

“Wh-”

The helmet wasn’t able to finish its sentence, as Leo hurled it into the center of the field. The soldiers, who had been enjoying a relatively calm assignment, were sent into panic when a banshee’s shriek erupted in the field they were watching over. This was especially a problem, as their only roles were to report sightings of Leo, and to not wake up the man who lived at this house.