[Adrian Spenard Point Of View]
    
    It's already been 4 in a half day since we left the capital. We thought the journey would take us forever to reach but the current trip was only by far the fastest journey that I have ever gone too after my vacation in a small village at the Western Brooch. 
    
    As of today, we had to hunt down some bandits which we never fought back then. We may fight wild beasts, but not demonic beasts or human scums but not actually thugs or bandits. Just as what milady said, we are soldiers that are inexperienced in what truly being a warrior means. 
    
    It pained me to think that we disappoint her but I am willing to learn even if the cost is my own. That is what it means to become a Crambell Knight Troops member, to be as hard as steel as courageous as beasts. If we can't even fight and experience bloody true battles, we may never survive on the battlefield. 
    
    Milady— however, was surprisingly a genius. She has smart insight for a 10 year old, her willingness and her prideful posture of a lady knight. She was the most perfect figure of the knighthood, as she was experienced with the world of bloodshed and bodies. Her eyes don't show much reaction, but whenever I look at her, I can't seem to understand why she looks so intimidating. 
    
    No, more importantly at a young age, the young milady has never been like this. Whenever I meet her, she looks at me with disgust and leaves without saying a word until I heard from the maids that she hated knights which is likely the cause of her disgust against us but her attitude becomes more vile as time passes.
    
    This time, just by looking at the weapon, she began backing away. No, just by looking at the sword, her pupils turned black in horror as she ran away. Although it seems that she has some kind of temporary amnesia or something, milady today has a hard time remembering what happened in the past. 
    
    I worry that she won't be able to rest easily. So, the marquis started telling us to avoid being near her at that moment and we desperately obeyed given the fact that she would faint in the sight of a sword. 
    
    So when she walks in that training area with a grin and confidence. I was shocked, she somehow didn't look like the same lady who would look at us with disgust and irritation, she became someone who has eyes that sore up high like those who experience everything.
    
    I tried of course to stop her from entering but the lady surprised me that day. She held a weapon like nothing and despite being wooden, it took away 20 seconds of my breath from that heavy blow I just received. 
    
    And I knew that day, that "milady has changed" from the moment she released her attacks on me to the way my knee suddenly fell on the ground with the wooden sword was just an inch of cutting my throat. 
    
    I thought I would lose my life. I couldn't even defend myself, I was too slow to defend myself and everytime I dodge, my body would fall as it does. I couldn't control the fear inside of me, because of that feeling, I realized how weak I am.
    
    I asked myself a couple of times. What if that wasn't milady and an enemy? I would really lose my life and I fear it. My neck was just half way from being destroyed, although that was just a wooden sword but that wooden sword can cut any bamboo with its rusted blade. So, I was scared but I recovered quickly and tried stopping milady. 
    
    I thought if I left my eyes and saw her in the ground, I would accept any punishment given to me. 
    
    As I thought, I wasn't ready. 
    
    Today as we scavenge the forest, I realize how scared I am as we venture in the lion's den with only ourselves. This experience of throwing ourselves in that place, it is not likely a reckless plan since milady had something in mind but this forest is making me bow in fear as we walk deep within. 
    
    Soon, we stopped walking and seeing milady's uncertain face made us stop walking. "What's wrong milady? " we ask in worry. 
    
    Yet she only looks at us dissatisfied. "This smokes, " she muttered, putting her head's up. "No wonder it's called hunted, damn it! This is a trap! " She yelled but what she said actually made us nervous.
    
    Trap?  This is an obvious ambush? What does she mean? If that was the case, we better avoid it but why couldn't I stand up? I feel scared. No rather, I feel nervous and that I couldn't help myself from being nervous at all. 
    
    "Don't be fooled! " She looked at us and slapped our faces bringing us back to reality. 
    
    "We are currently in the middle of a test, proving the existence of our fear. I recognize this the moment we walk through that path, smelling this disgusting fetish smoke of flesh. "
    
    I was startled. How did she know that?  Did she also see this in her imaginative dream? It was unbelievable if you guessed it right. No one would even dare to say anything and we thought she had gone crazy, but what if that really happened? And her genius mind came from watching that dream of hers? 
    
    I quietly shook my head in discomfort and shrugged my thoughts. That's no more than important right now. What is important right now is what she said? 
    
    A place of fear. I knew that there was something like that, and it was being avoided by every knight and a place that was supposed to be off-limits to everyone but if I remember bluntly. These kinds of places should be deserted and dead, the tree's shouldn't be alive and the ground was filled with dark soils, the water is filled with malnourished dirty water and this is covered in thick smoke. 
    
    "Milady, you said that this is a place of fear, then why doesn't it look like the way it was described in the books? " I ask. 
    
    She glared at me and then she turned around bending her knees on the floor and she suddenly sat down with both of her legs wide. I was so shocked that I immediately took a cloth from the horse and gave it to her. "Before you answer milady, please don't make such unladylike actions and please put this on and don't sit on dirty ground. "
    
    The marquis will kill me if he finds out what happened in a mere 4 in a half day that we aren't in touch. 
    
    I glanced at her and she just took the clothes without complaining and sat on it. "In any case about what you ask, if I remember there is an exception in other cases. Which is precisely the case, so this place is exceptional because it isn't very obvious at first glance. " 
    
    She then stopped and looked at the surroundings. "That might be the reason why this place is the top choice I have, and I think this would be the reason. " 
    
    I see. Surely, yes it seems that milady was busy studying in the library. I heard about exceptional places of mysteries, but I never thought that one could be this abnormal in a way to describe. Forest filled with hunted presents but it isn't as hostile as the original one, the trees are lively and the grassess is healthy. 
    
    I saw a river ahead, and if I wasn't mistaken that river was lively and not dead. 
    
    "When we enter this place, I could actually feel anxious, which has never happened before and regretful for some reason. " Dores started, that also made me shift my gaze and look at the ground.
    
    "That's unusual, me actually, " I mumbled.
    
    "Yes, I was the same." Milady said with a calm voice and she breathed in. "I have limited knowledge about this place, because it's not written in the book I read in the library back at home. So, according to what I remember, the place of fear is a little forest that fills you with nightmares, seeing what you really fear inside. "
    
    "There is a reason why this forest was hunted, it is because this forest is actually already dead, and this smokes exist to weaken an enemy that would try to invade the forest, using their greatest fear to lure them deeper of your fear. This tree's actually alive, because what it said to be exceptional is what they call strange beings, the causes why people lose their lives here is because of these nightmares that would stop them from going longer. "
    
    I was dumbfounded. It's like living yet also seems to be a dead forest? Reminds me of those kinds of places and cemeteries. 
    
    I remember hearing a song of a living forest in the north about a demonic forest that devours. 
    
    What does this mean?