Floki gave himself a serious ultimatum that, when he reached Wayan, he would conquer it in less than one hour. This included its soldiers, if it had any, and the chief himself.

When he told the women about his plan to begin their vengeance so quickly, they became emotional.

When he informed them that he would only be taking one of them, they grew even more distressed, as they had all wished to be there when the head of Denji Wayan was chopped off.

Still, they quickly halted their remorse and moved to select who would be accompanying him.

In the end, they decided that the chubby woman whom Floki had rescued last from the collapsing goblin den would be the one to go with them.

The chubby woman disagreed at first, protesting that Angelina should go instead, considering she was unarguably their leader.

Nonetheless, when Garrick arrived and it became known that he was the knight accompanying Floki, she agreed to go.

Floki and Garrick were completely unaware of the women’s arrangement, nor the true motive of the chubby woman known as Deborah.

Deborah had lost some weight since she arrived in Ironside. Unbeknownst to anyone, she woke up very early each day and did some light jogging on the spot at the back of their hut. Also, thanks to the training from yesterday, her body had shed some unnecessary fat.

While she still had a chubby body structure, her athleticism and facial fat were now at a better level.

She bade her fellow women farewell before accompanying Floki and Garrick as they strode out of town.

As no one was aware of Floki’s quest to take down a village, they assumed the trio were merely going on a casual stroll.

Once they were out of the people’s sight, Floki let Deborah in on his plan.

Deborah blushed slightly when she heard that Garrick would be carrying her to make the journey faster.

Her mission was simple: to lead the path. According to the women, she was the best at it.

Also, with Floki’s [Pathfinder] skill, which he had upgraded to A-rank beforehand, he only needed a small amount of guidance from her to find the way.

Just like that, their mission began in earnest.

Garrick and Floki were both at gold rank. While Garrick leaned more toward strength, Floki was faster.

With their gold-rank agility, the two of them covered a long distance in a very short amount of time.

===

Before noon arrived, they exited the forest from the other side.

A broad yet lonely path stretched along the perimeter on this side of the forest, silent and undisturbed.

As Floki and Garrick scanned the area, they spotted skulls of beasts and humans lying scattered across random spots. In one particular area, they saw a pile of human remains. Judging by their appearance, it had been years since they had died.

Yet somehow, the two of them were not fazed by the gore.

After all, on their way here, they had seen far worse.

For example, not long ago, they came across a pile of skeletal remains similar to the one before them now.

Yet unlike this one, which was scattered, that pile had been arranged in place. They could clearly see tight ropes binding the skeletons to one another, limb by limb, with a final binding to the massive tree behind them.

From the look of it, Floki had deduced then that they had died of natural causes, which made it even more tragic. They had likely perished from thirst, starvation, and the mental loneliness of being bound together in a forest filled with devourers.

Simply imagining the psychological torture they must have endured before death filled Floki with renewed anger to slay Denji.

And yet that was not the only one they saw.

They saw several groups of them on their way here.

Most of them had not even completely rotted here, indicating they had not spent up to a month in the forest.

A few of the remains they saw were bitten into, clearly by monsters who got tired of eating and left them.

The sheer imagination of how evil one would have to be to do such a thing to his own people made Floki’s blood boil with anger.

Garrick shared his hatred in that moment, while Deborah shared only in the sorrow.

As Garrick gently set her down on the clear path, she squatted on the ground and began to weep.

"Those women had families..." she cried out loudly.

Floki signaled to Garrick to console her, causing Garrick to send him a strange look, as he expected Floki to be the one to do it instead. After all, he was her Baron.

Yet Floki understood Deborah better.

Garrick might not have noticed, as he was focused on the mission, but Floki had seen the longing stares Deborah occasionally sent his way, along with the subtle blushes that followed.

To Floki, someone she was attracted to would comfort her faster than he, her leader, could.

However, he forgot something crucial.

Garrick was not good at emotional speeches.

He squatted beside her and, instead of hugging or patting her back, placed his large hands firmly on her shoulders.

Deborah looked up, meeting his steady gaze with her tear-filled eyes.

"Save your tears for later. We have a mission to complete." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He spoke in the most serious tone possible.

Deborah stared at him strangely for two seconds, then lowered her head and continued to cry.

Garrick stood up and turned toward Floki. The look on his face was that of someone who believed he had successfully completed his task.

’Crap!’

Floki cursed inwardly, shaking his head at Garrick as he stepped forward.

He made a mental note to ask Garrick after the mission whether he had ever had a lover in his previous life. If he had, Floki wanted to know how he managed to woo them.

Floki squatted beside Deborah and, using a softer tone and careful words, consoled her. He spoke in a way that not only eased her grief but also strengthened her resolve to complete the mission and ensure that Denji would be slain as revenge for those he had killed.

Gradually, her sobs subsided.

She rose to her feet, steadier now, and pointed in the direction of Wayan Village.

===

Floki, Garrick, and Deborah strode for a few minutes down the broad path until they arrived in front of a reinforced stone wall that stretched far and fenced in the territory within.

Embedded within the wall stood a gatehouse of solid stone, and a few meters ahead of them loomed a huge and sturdy wooden gate bound with thick iron reinforcements.

"Hmm." Floki was the first to note that something was different.

’This place is supposed to be a village, yet it has such sturdy walls and reinforced gates. Also, those guys are dressed in pretty high-quality armor,’ he muttered to himself, staring at the well-uniformed soldiers standing beside the gate.

The soldiers had already noticed their presence and were currently scrutinizing their appearance cautiously.

"This was not how you ladies described Wayan Village," Floki turned to Deborah and said.

The three of them continued strolling forward so as not to seem suspicious to the guards focusing on them.

"It was not like this. Wayan did not even have walls when we left," Deborah responded, just as surprised. "I-I think he has finally succeeded in upgrading Wayan from a village to a town."

Floki nodded understandably. That much was clear, and from the look of things, the upgrade had happened more than a few days ago.

This made him change his initial plans.

"Were you well known during your time here?" Floki whispered to Deborah, who nodded in the negative.

"Great. We are going to act as friendly visitors to infiltrate and see what has really happened. Something within me tells me this is not any simple territory evolution," Floki added.

He assigned roles to the two of them.

Garrick is his knight. Deborah is his wife.

He was already dressed the part as a Baron. The only factor that would make them doubt his identity was his young appearance.

However, with a knight and a mature wife by his side, they would have no choice but to believe him.

Thankfully, when they arrived and introduced themselves, the guard bowed respectfully and let them in.

As the gates closed behind them, one of the soldiers turned to his colleagues and muttered,

"Doesn’t that woman look familiar?"

His colleagues dismissed his suspicion with a scoff.

"Of course she would look familiar. There are so many ladies like her. I wonder why such a handsome Baron would pick someone as old and average as her as his wife. People really do have strange tastes."