"I will ask them again to reconsider living in the capital for a while"

I pack my stuff and put it on the carriage, I don't have anything to do anyway, not many traders want to take a risk on the winter like now, especially with a news about the increase of the magical beast number out there makes us traders choose to not doing any business trade this winter, I'm so worried about Erwin and Ilya, I can't leave them alone in that village, but they won't go to the capital they said, but now, if they won't go to the capital I will also stay there with them, I really want to try to convince those kids to leave that village for a while, that village's location is near the south forest and I heard that Gaisras family won't do any hunting of the magical beast.

Honestly, I think that Erwin may be able to fight a magical beast, maybe one or two since he was able to use magic and even Rosaku-san takes interest to him so I thought, maybe I will take Erwin to Rosaku-san's place if they're willing to live in the capital.

I pack my last change of clothes and put it in my bag, I also bring along some snacks I can eat while I am on the way later.

My house is near the market and it's really crowded on a normal day, but it's so quiet this day, I understand people won't be coming out from their house on this cold day, even my horse, I tried to warm them as much as I can.

"I'm sorry boys, but I need you guys to take me to Ilya's house, I need to ask them one more time to live here in the capital"

I gently stroke both of my horses and start to go to the south, It will take almost 2 days to go from the capital to that village, I stop by some villages to rest sometimes and rest in the night.

I saw some adventurers on the way to the south, I wonder if they're after the price of magical beast hunting, I heard it from someone from the guild that they will award and buy the drop from the magical beast.

I'm kinda curious I saw few of them coming back with injuries and depressed expression on their face, I wonder just what is actually happened to them

After seeing things like that, I'm now more worried about those two Ilya and Erwin, they live on their own without parents, their safety is something I really need to worry about and I hope nothing bad happens to them and suddenly I'm feeling uneasy now, I almost arrive at the village, and when I enter the village, suddenly someone is running and almost hit the carriage, I look at him and recognize it's Erwin, I look at their house's direction and I see two girls, one girl is crying and the other one seems to calm her the other one down.

I quickly take the horses and approach them to ask what happened and why does Erwin is running with a sad face a moment ago and I told the red-haired girl to bring Ilya inside the house, I need to find Erwin as quick as possible because he's running towards the south forest direction before so I took my jacket and start running chasing Erwin to the south forest, Please God, save Erwin.

I keep praying for Erwin's safety because I can't let anything bad happen to him and I guess I'm lucky this time, when I'm about to enter the south forest I can see Erwin's footprints on the ground and right after I saw it, I quickly run inside the forest following the footprints without worrying about my own safety because right now I'm just thinking about Erwin's safety, nothing else.

The deeper I went inside the forest I smell a lot of blood smell and I look around, wolves laying around on the ground died and I see a giant bear laying on the ground with a pretty big hole in its chest

I can't hide my terrified expression, something horrible is right in front of me, and the smell of the blood and flesh makes me want to throw up.

"Who did this"

I quickly run following the footprints and pinch my nose then suddenly giant ice spikes appear from the direction in front.

"What was that.."

I run to its direction immediately, hoping I can find somebody I can ask where Erwin is running to but then the rain starts pouring down.

"What is that rain, only in one place?"

I look up and there's a black cloud up 20 meters in the sky, the cloud looks it only gather in one place.

"I can feel something is bad with that cloud"

I decided to stop for a moment and suddenly the air feels colder, way colder than before that even my jacket can't cover me from the cold.

The Cloud blackened and suddenly, right in front of my eyes, it turns into a sword, a million of them coming down from the sky.

"What in the world..."

I gasped, if I didn't make a decision to stop I would've died there, what kind of monster that able to pull out this magic, I fell down on the ground still looking up and gasped, my legs are trembling because of the fear of me to what I just witness right before my eyes.

I slowly get up after the rain of those swords over but my feet are still trembling, I slowly walk and just keep walking until I saw something that makes me freaked out.

"Erwin!"

He's in the middle of the most terrifying scene that's happening right in front of my eyes and I see the swords that seem to be made of ice all stick to the ground and Erwin is in the middle of the open field got surrounded by it.

I look at the giant ice spikes and there's seems to be blood over there at the tip, and I see a black dust flying and disappear, right after that my feeling turns uneasy, I can feel that black dust is something really dangerous.

I run and approach Erwin who's sitting on his knees, his face looks pale and he looks like he's about to faint anytime.

I grab him and hug him, I told them that his sister is worried about him and everything, then I pick him up and carry him on my back.