Shark ignored their gazes and swung the staff around.
At his nonchalant behavior, everyone got up as if they had given up and continued what they were doing.
They covered with dirt the pit piled high with corpse pieces, holding a simple joint funeral.
The party hurried their steps once again.
* * *
“Rest here.”
At Shark’s words, everyone flopped down onto the ground.
It took the party three whole days to get here.
Fortunately, they hadn’t encountered a horde of orcs, but they were extremely exhausted from practically running while changing directions around under Shark’s instructions.
During that time, Shark wore a serious face, saying nothing more than what was necessary, as if lost in thought.
“Prepare the meal.”
Today as well, Shark invariably found a good spot to sit and gave orders.
However, no one rebelled and simply moved.
Since today’s dinner duty belonged to Bash and Gipel, Eliza and Ren went into the forest to gather wood.
Gipel grabbed the empty bowls and prepared to boil soup, and Bash took ingredients out of his bag.
There was a reason they acted like this so naturally.
On the first day, even though Bash was on meal duty, he stubbornly refused, saying that as a knight, he couldn’t get his hands wet.
Shark resolved this refusal in a fiery manner.
“A knight wouldn’t avoid a duel, right?’ he said, goading Bash into picking up his sword and then unleashing a one-sided beating.”
The three of them, including Eliza, saw with their own eyes just how long Bash hadn’t bathed and how much dust had piled up on his body.
Shark’s atrocities didn’t end there.
He didn’t even give Bash the chance to admit defeat and give up the duel.
Even when Bash tried to collapse, Shark exquisitely propped him up with his staff to maintain his posture.
In the end, it was only after Bash shed tears and begged for the first time since becoming an adult that he was able to escape Shark’s clubbing.
After that incident, no one in the party did anything to go against Shark’s words anymore.
“Ren, why haven’t you said a single word lately?”
While gathering wood, Eliza asked Ren.
She was originally quiet and calm, so she didn’t talk much, but her silence had been particularly pronounced the past few days.
Ren looked around, approached Eliza’s side, and whispered in her ear.
She seemed to be afraid of something.
“That person named Shark, I don’t have a good feeling about him.”
“Isn’t that something everyone is feeling?”
“I don’t mean it like that.”
“Then?”