The Tale of the Redeeming Villain

Although they found the trap and a slight flame of hope ignited within her, they weren't able to find Blake at all. His presence was not perceivable. None of them had much experience in investigation except for Charlotte, who had spent some months as an adventurer.

However, despite her knowledge, even she couldn't find any clue about Blake's whereabouts.

"It seems he has hidden himself quite well or he isn't here at all." These were Charlotte's words as they drank water and took a break in their search operation.

It has been two hours since they located the trap however after that all they found were traps and traps all around. Some for beasts and some for humans.

Hearing Charlotte's words, Catherine was about to retort but Carlson stopped her knowing how her response could become the base of an argument.

Handing Charlotte the water container he said, "Even if assume that Blake isn't the one who has set those traps, it's a fact that there is a human living in the Eastern forest—most probably a student. Even if we don't find Blake we might be able to save a student from the wilderness."

His words held two intentions. First, to let this search operation continue, and second, to motivate Charlotte to stop being so half-hearted about this.

And as he expected Charlotte's eyes parted wide hearing the possibility of a student being stuck here. It wasn't something uncommon for students to disappear or die while studying in the academy. That's why she became even more encouraged to continue this rescue mission.

"We can't waste time like this,", Charlotte began, "We need to go different ways and search for the person as soon as we can." Looking at the sky she warned, "It's almost three hours to dawn and if the warden doesn't find us in the dormitory, the situation might become messy."

Wordlessly, Catherine and Carlson agreed on that last point. However, Carlson was reluctant about something as he asked, "Is it really necessary to go separate ways? You know how risky it is here right?"

Charlotte rolled her eyes before counter-questioning, "You know my survival skills and after witnessing that behemoth Catherine summoned last time, do you think she or I would need your protection?"

Suddenly the brunette paused before a thin grin extended her lips, "Wait...is it that you are scared of the dark that's why you don't wanna go alone?"

A barely visible blush adorned his cheeks as he retorted, "There is nothing like that! Shut your crap."

Charlotte smirked while Catherine let out a soft chuckle seeing the banter.

In the end, it was decided that they would go separate ways to search more efficiently. The one who would find the person living here first has to inform others through a beacon.

For Carlson and Catherine, it wasn't a problem to send a lump of mana into the air to signal SOS and as for Charlotte, she had a flare stick with her.

"Remember, whatever happens, don't approach the person residing here, all alone. Even if the person is Blake, you have to first inform the others." Although he was speaking to both girls, he was more focused on Catherine.

She and Charlotte diligently nodded before they separated

********

Catherine was the most enthusiastic one among the three while searching for Blake. Although Carlson suggested that there was a chance for someone else to be residing here, her heart whispered to her that Blake was here. She knew he was here.

She was prepared to risk being labelled as a traitor but returning to the Academy without meeting Blake was not acceptable.

A cyan orb levitated ahead of her, illuminating a great distance for her to gaze at. She kept on looking around and her Detection skill was always in use. She could faintly feel Charlotte due to her low mana count and Carlson's presence was profound enough for her to locate him with her eyes closed.

Blake's mana count was lower than Charlotte that's why she didn't feel dejected to not sense him on her radar. She knew she had to visually look around for any clue that could lead her to him.

"Hmm?" A frown suddenly marred her face as she sensed a huge monster in the proximity.

She chose to head towards the monster to see if she could find any indication.

'C-rank...?' The amount of mana she could feel from the beast allowed her to get prepared. Unlike humans, beasts don't know how to suppress their presence and at the moment, the beast hasn't sensed Catherine yet.

However, she could sense that the beast was heading in a certain direction.

'Its shelter? Possible...' She discerned there was no point in pondering the possibility as such, while maintaining a safe distance she began to follow the three-crowned ostrich.

It had a massive feathery body with three long necks protruding into different directions and a single pair of long legs with sharp talons. Along with its speed, one must be wary of its shockwaves which they could create to hunt and escape.

Catherine didn't show any sign of being terrified even though a C-rank beast was a few meters ahead of her since she had already faced quite a few A-ranked ones when she used to regularly participate in raids with Carlson, Charlotte and 'her'.

'---!!!' Suddenly, her eyes widened upon finding the bird heading toward a source of illumination. Since she could still sense Carlson, albeit faintly now, she knew this source of illumination wasn't coming from him.

'This region...' The area where they were headed was very close to the Northern border of the forest. They deliberately ignored the border areas since they thought that Blake wouldn't try to live around the place where the soldiers were stationed.

However, they underestimated Blake.

She kept her eyes fully open and focused on the flames. Faintly she saw that the source was quite small and once she reached around fifty meters away from the source she found it was a campfire being lit in the middle of nowhere.

The beast suddenly squatted—preparing to lunge at its prey however, before the bird could move even an inch forward a set of greenish chains bound around its body and the bird was rendered motionless.

Being a nun she doesn't generally prefer to hurt other beings, but this one might alert the whole forest so,

*SQUELCH*

Stabbing the bird with the dagger she carries she did a small prayer for the dead beast before marching forward.

She looked around a bit and found that there was some evidence of humans living there. A perfectly shaped bamboo stick to hunt, a bunch of leaves arranged over a small rock that seemed like a makeshift bench, and most importantly...

'Footprints...' Her eyes glowed in the dark as she traced the footprints and where it led her to.

*Scruff*

Her eyes widened in shock as suddenly someone jumped right in front of her and covered her mouth.

If only a moment later she had realised the identity of the person, the dagger in her hand would have met its second prey tonight.

"Don't shout....ish me..." There was no doubt in the fact that the person currently covering her mouth was Blake. However, what surprised her was his current condition.

He seemed to be....drunk.

**********

A/N:- *Ahem* Are we heading toward an R-18 already?