The Demon King's Paladin Part 2. All Out War.

Chapter 414. Take Off To The Forest

" Like I'm saying, it's pure folly to send the Hero Party into the forest without first scouting it out!"

" Fine, pick out 10 men you think can scout and make it back to us to deliver a report. Who could you pick besides the key figures currently in this room? The best course of action is to send you along with a logistics division to manage the supplies. Right now, this place is the only outpost we have to send reports in case the Demons advance!"

Old man Ben was currently arguing with Frank, the leader of the Adventurer Village. Honestly, I'm in favor of Frank's argument, the people here of mostly those with Support or Defensive type Jobs, for some reason the offensive Jobs seemed to have said no to this job. The arguing had been going on since we received the news in the afternoon, it was now firmly nighttime, at least that's what I can see while looking out of the few windows in the room. The forest seemed to grow in size along with the shadows. I wonder if that's caused by the Demons. While I was thinking about such thoughts, Luke finally seemed to have enough with the argument.

" Look, this is getting us nowhere. We'll do as Frank said, if there's too many Demons, we'll come back with at least a somewhat decent scouting report."

" You'd be going against the King's Royal Orders, Hero Luke, are you sure about that?"

" He'll get over it. He's spent too many resources to Summon me to this world along with my Party. He can't afford to lose us just as the Demons had begun to move against us. Especially now while their attention is split between us and the Elves."

Luke brought up the news that we all found out about the other day. The Demons, Beastmen, Dark Elves and Elves seem to be preparing for war against each other. The Elves apparently fired the opening shot and kidnapped that Paladin we had met before. It made me wonder why they would go to such trouble to capture him? I mean, what reason would you have to capture an enemy? Sure, last I heard he became a Marquess in Diablos, but it's not like he's Royalty or anything?

" So, you're simply gambling on yourself being too important to stay mad at?"

" He ordered us here to kill Demons already, we've done that, all the rest is really a bonus for him. And I'm going to see what else I can do, I'm the Hero after all!"

Luke confidently explained his perspective. If I was being truthful about it, I'd say it's a bad idea, but Luke only truly listens to Jessie and occasionally the King. There's no point in voicing our complaints since we're all viewed as less important compared to Luke's opinion. Along with that, Laura simply didn't care, Jaime seemed to be thinking about different strategies to use moving forward... But Ash and I... We both had the same look in our eyes. We wanted to find those Demons we fought. And we wanted to even the score. I know it doesn't make sense, but the way that Demon looked at me, like I was simply a child trying to play at fighting, it would make anyone's blood boil. I don't know what it is, maybe it's my Job affecting me like Jaime said? Maybe I'm being selfish? Either way, I want to fight her again. And this might be my only chance to fight her again, to defeat her.

" Kid, I'm telling you this is a ba-"

" I'm not a " kid", Ben. I'm the Hero, I appreciate you coming with us so far, but if you think this too much, then you're free to turn back. Whether you like it or not, the King ordered us to go, we're going and we're going to see what we can do."

Luke seemed to end the conversation with that, not because of Ben no longer having anything to say, but because Luke had walked out of the room. With that, the discussions more or less broke down between Frank and Ben. There's not much more Ben could do considering the Hero agreed with Frank in this instance. We all left the room shortly after my brother.

" So, in the end, we're heading back out into the fire? We should be alright."

Laura seemed to wrap the meeting up for us as were walking back to our living quarters. We gathered all of our equipment and waited till the morning of the next day to take off. Once we, the girls had a light breakfast of oatmeal, we made our way to the Western gate of the village without much fanfare, what awaited us was Luke, Jessie and surprisingly, Ben. That and we had 2 others, they were 2 men who looked older than Jessie but a bit younger than Ben.

" So then, let's begin our journey. Remember, if it looks like we're in over our heads, we run back here to make a report as best we can. With that, there's nothing left to do but to get walking. Everybody get in the carriages."

 With Jessie going over the objectives of this " mission", we all did as we were told. There were 2 carriages, the men and girls split the carriages, and we were off fairly quickly.

" I'm not a fan of the weather today..."

Laura placed her hand on top of her forehead as she squinted to see up the dirt road we were following into the forest. The cause of it was due to the sun, its bearing down on us heavily today. It was already the fall, but it looks like the weather report failed to mention it today. The only saving grace were all of the clouds that were beginning to form, it looked like it was going to rain in a few hours because of it. I just wish one of them would cover the sun for a few minutes.

" We told you to let one of us take the first shift."

Jaime quickly pointed out that she was adamant in taking the first shift of driving the carriage. The horses were pushing us along without much of an issue, you'd almost think we were good at it. Honestly, it's just that we know the bare minimum from taking a few quests the past 2 years. Laura rubbed her eyes and explained why she did this to us.

" Hmm... I didn't sleep well... I'll plan on taking a nap in the afternoon... It looks the clouds are beginning to run into the sunlight. I'll be able to get some sleep then."

" So, you'll be napping while we're on alert, how fair."

I teased Laura, after all, she does seem somewhat tired, but not to the point where she's not alert. It doesn't really matter anyways, with Luke and the rest of the men behind us, we only really needed to keep our eyes on the road ahead of us, until we found signs of Demons.

" A well-rested warrior is better than a tired one."

" And who told you that phrase?"

" No one, just thought it up now..."

" Do you get more honest when you're tired?"

" No... Yes? Who knows? I just want to go and sleep in 3 hours..."

" Sure, just don't pass out with the reins in your hand."

" If I do, the motion will wake me up... Haaahhh..."

Laura let out quite a loud yawn as we continued moving forward down the road. Soon we'll be entering the forest, by then, it'll be more important to keep our wits about us. Even though we were somewhat casual about it so far, we are heading into enemy territory after all. Sure, Laura could nap, but that's only because Jaime and I were able to think ahead, and we found a good spell to place on the carriage in place of surprises. Hopefully it won't need to be used.

" I wonder if they're all actually still here?"

Ash spoke out loud. She's been staring into the distance ever since we took off. Is she afraid somewhat? No... She's antsy.

" They're probably still there. Demons like fighting after all. They know that the Hero Party is in the village, there's no way they're passing up the chance to get a crack at us."

" How can you be so sure?"

" There's nothing to prove otherwise? I mean, think about it. Every time we've ran into Demons, they've been more than happy to make any fight a one-on-one duel. That's not strategic, that just comes from wanting a good fight and just picking who ever looked strong. They'll be there, and they'll want a good fight as well."

Ash seemed to accept my explanation. It looks like everyone else did too. It's the only thing that made sense to me anyways. Or maybe that's the way I want it to be? I mean, if not, she's gone... And I'm not going to get my chance at revenge.