"I-if I'm da-dating someone?" Luke was startled by the sudden question.
"Yes. If you're not, I thin—"
"I am dating." He spoke as fast as he could, avoiding hearing what she had to say.
"I see... I'm happy for you."
After some more time talking with Meredith outside that inn, Luke found out that Alexis, Yoelona and Matthew had arrived three days ago. The half-wolf was relieved to hear this and, at the same time, anxious to see them.
When she was asked about why Yoelona had taken them so far away from Oukiwa, Meredith replied:
"Look, I know it may sound crazy, but first you have to know that demons really exist." The half-fox was with her arms tucked up, and was looking at Luke as if hoping that he didn't think she was crazy.
Seeing this reaction, Luke couldn't contain his laughter.
"Hey! Don't laugh! I'm telling the truth!" She exclaimed and gave Luke a weak shove.
"Sorry, sorry... It's just that you get a little cute when you're scared. It's rare times I get to see you like this."
Meredith blushed and looked away. "The topic is serious, Luke."
"I know about their existence... pretty well actually. Yoelona knows about them too? That explains a lot of things... but why did she bring you guys so far away?"
For the half-wolf, one of the plausible reasons for wanting to leave Oukiwa because of demons would be that there was a demon in Oukiwa, but he knew there wasn't. The only other reason would be to be close to the Cardinal Kingdom, yet the region they were in now was many days away.
"What do you mean you know about the demons? No one said that to me." Meredith questioned, confused.
"Have you forgotten that I am an Adventurer now?" Luke spoke with a proud tone, as he removed his identity pendant from inside his jacket.
"Bruf! I heard that you are just an E-Class! Hahaha!"
"Alexis told you that and didn't tell you about the demons? She's dumber than I thought." Luke spoke up, bringing his right hand up to his forehead.
"Don't be shy about it, everyone in camp has gotten used to her style already. Now come on, we have to go before nightfall. We're camped more or less a kilometer from here."
After that, Luke picked up Atom and helped Meredith get on the huge black horse.
The region between the Cardinal Realm and Forge Hill City is quite flat, except for a gigantic double waterfall hundreds of feet high. In the vicinity of a prominent river of this waterfall was a building over 300 years old, a fort. The place's walls were already shattered, and weeds practically covered the entire fort. This place was so well camouflaged in a forest, it made Luke finally understand why no map showed its location.
"We have arrived..." Meredith spoke, standing in front of this small ruined fort. "I bet everyone will be surprised to see you." She had a gentle little smile on her face.
"Then we won't keep them waiting. Let's go..."
From the fort entrance, Luke smelled a sweet smell that denoted, by the combination of marked aromas, that a stew was being prepared.
Just as they were about to enter, a middle-aged man, who was standing on one of the walls of the building, exclaimed:
"Halt there! Who's this guy with you, Meredith?" he asked, using his bow to aim an arrow at the half-wolf's head.
"He's Luke!"
The man arched his eyebrows and totally changed his expression. "Ah! Excuse me, then. You may come in!" The man slowly loosened the tensioned string of his bow so that the arrow wouldn't fly without him wanting it to.
"Who's that?" Luke asked the half-fox, as he strung Atom at the entrance to the fort.
"His name is Carlos. He is a good man, and also a skilled archer."
"I will talk to him when I get the chance."
In the center of the fort was a fire with stones around it, where a large iron pot was hanging by a set of five branches and some strands of fiber rope. With the pot lid open, a woman was stirring the root and potato stew that was being prepared over a high fire.
Around the fire, everyone was looking forward to the food, but when Ynosuke saw Meredith arrive and next to her his good friend Luke, he immediately stood up and shouted in excitement:
"DAMN! GUYS, LUKE IS HERE!"
Zack, who was pooping in the back of the woods, pulled up his pants as fast as he could and started running. The little dark-haired and square-rimmed teenager, John, jumped up from the log he was sitting on and ran toward the half-wolf.
Matthew and Yoelona stopped talking and looked away. Shocked, they could hardly believe in their own eyes. "He really came all this way chasing after you guys..." Yoelona spoke, impressed by the gang's bond of friendship.
With his hair slightly gray and messy, Matthew ran to join in the group hug that Zack, Ynosuke, and John were giving the half-wolf.
The S-Class looked on with a smile from the top of the fort. She was as surprised as everyone to see that Luke had come so far to find them and puzzled about how he managed to find them; after all, Yoelona was very careful to hide all their tracks.
"I missed you guys a lot." Luke said, after the group hug was over.
"Did you really? Ynosuke said you were with a white-haired Elf girl who looked like a Moonlight Goddess so gorgeous—" John indicated, looking at Luke with narrowed eyes and a mischievous grin.
The man with long black hair, Ynosuke, immediately put little John's head down, interrupting his speech. "Those are his words, not mine!"
"Han... I think it was you who said that." Zack spoke with his voice slow and thick, like the voice of a giant.
Ynosuke just sighed this time, because he couldn't put Zack's head down, like he did John, even if he wanted to.
"So, you... you know... made it with the cute little Elf?" John asked, while he made the gesture of a finger going into the hole. That was as much discretion as he could manage by putting in the effort.
Noticing from afar the discomfort in Meredith and Luke's gaze, Alexis jumped up from where she was standing and landed behind John, startling him with the noise of the floor cracking.
"WHAT THE FUC—"
After that, the half-dragon disguised that she didn't do this on purpose by turning toward the woman stirring the stew in the fire. "Joelma, is the food ready? I'm starving!"
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