After coming out of the cave, I didn't dare let my guard down for even an instant as I dragged our group away from that mountain.
Only when we were in the middle of the forest did I finally let out a sigh of relief.
But then I looked right at Ronnie who I had dragged out with me.
She looked away and had her head lowered when I looked at her.
Since I couldn't get anywhere with her, I turned to look at Ron and Shaka. Though most of my gaze was directed at Shaka.
I didn't rely on Ron on this, but Shaka was different.
Shaka had his cloak on, but I was still able to see his embarrassment through it. After all, we had been together for a long time now, so I had a good idea of what kind of personality he had.
I was also aware of the small habits that he had, which allowed me to figure out what he was thinking.
In the end, I just gave a sigh and dropped this matter.
I didn't know what the circumstances were, but there had to be something that made even Shaka drop his guard and let Ronnie escape.
There was nothing to gain from getting angry now since there was a more pressing matter we had to handle.
Shaka could see the serious look on my face, so he calmed down too and asked, "How many were there?"
I gave another sigh as I said, "Much more than we expected, at least two thousand of them."
Shaka trembled when he heard this before slowly repeating, "Two…thousand…?"
I just gave a simple nod in response.
After a moment of silence, he asked, "Are you sure?"
I once again gave a simple nod, but this time I added, "There's also a demon there that seems as powerful as the commander from before."
This wasn't something that I could say with certainty, but at least when it came to the amount of magic power that came from that attack…it was on the same level as the demon commander that I met before.
So at the very least, it could be said that this demon possessed the same level of mana as the demon commander.
As soon as Shaka heard this, he immediately knitted his brows.
After a moment of silence, he said, "We need to go back and report this to the duke."
I gave a simple nod in response.
While this hadn't completely cleared all the doubts about the duke, I knew at the very least that the duke wasn't directly involved in this matter.
It would have been impossible for him to hide the matter of the three villages so well. Even if he was on the demon's side, he would have given some clue that he knew about the existence of the three villages since he wouldn't want us to go there.
So he had no idea about any of this.
The leading theory was still that someone close to the duke was involved in this matter…
After another moment of silence, Shaka came closer to ask in a small voice that only I could hear, "Should I send a report back and ask for help from the organization?"
At this, I hesitated a bit.
I was hesitant on relying on the powers of Shadow Garden since I knew what would happen to this organization in the future…but in the end, this was an organization that was created to maintain the peace in the kingdom while also ensuring that nobles wouldn't go too far.
So this was an organization that was perfect for this situation.
After a moment of hesitation, I still gave a nod.
Shaka didn't say anything else and took out a piece of paper from inside of his cloak. He moved to the side and seemed to write something on it before coming back over to say, "It's done. We should get a reply soon."
I gave a nod in response.
Since this was all taken care of, we should go back to the city and report to the duke…
But before that, there was one more thing that I had to do.
I turned to look at Ronnie and said, "Do you know what you've done?"
Ronnie lowered her head even more at this.
She was completely different from before where she had been filled with energy. Instead this time, she acted like a child that had been caught doing something wrong.
But in the end, she said, "I'm sorry."
That wasn't good enough for me as my face twisted in anger and I pointed at the top of her head while saying, "Do you know just how much trouble you've caused with just this? We don't even know how bad the consequences will be."
Ronnie just lowered her head while she kept mumbling, "Sorry."
Her curiosity had gotten the best of her and she had even used a special magic item that her father had given her to sneak away.
But now…she fully realized just how dangerous it was when she saw the horde of undead in front of her.
Even if she was willful, she couldn't deny that she would have died if it wasn't for Zwein pulling her out of the way when that dark lance had flown right past her.
But as she thought about it…she couldn't help thinking that he was indeed quite handsome…
However, for now, this wasn't the time to think about that.
While Zwein was still scolding her, she suddenly looked up and said, "Shouldn't we head back to the city and report this matter? We can't waste any time here at all."
My expression twisted and it looked like I still had more things to say, but I also knew that she was right.
This was an important matter that had to be reported back to the duke and we had no idea what the undead would do, so we should head back as soon as possible.
In the end, I looked at her with narrowed eyes and said with a sigh, "This isn't over yet."
But then I turned to head to the carriage to show that we were heading back.
However, behind me, Ronnie did have a repentant look in her eyes.