CHAPTER 56: DON’T LISTEN

I could slightly hear a bit of the conversation between Liora and Cynthia but I wasn’t going to focus on it too much. We are going to get through this all together regardless of how people feel.

I’d be questioning things in her shoes too since she was previously an enemy of ours before we left her join us. I just happen to have the best tricks up my sleeve in every fight.

"You’re going to hear voices that want to help but they are just trying to deceive you. Trust me." The girls voice whispers in his ear.

Don’t listen, simple as that.

"Just follow behind Shimada quietly, he did warn us that the mountains will try to trick us so let’s just get through this." Artemis instructs.

They all seem to be in agreement as they follow behind Shimada. As they started to head further into the mountains they could see the walls of the path starting to take on different shapes.

Skeletons were hanging from the walls, dried blood below them and around the bodies that hung there. It wasn’t as beautiful as it looks from the outside.

People died just trying to make their way through the mountains, it’s not ever been an easy feat for anyone to make it through without an issue.

Magical mountains, or would it be better to refer to them as cursed mountains instead? It’s quiet the thing to think about in all honesty.

I wonder who wanted the mountains to be like this? Someone really wanted to make it impossible for travelers to make it through the mountains.

Maybe it was done during the war times since people had to fight all over the world right. That would make a lot more sense but it still doesn’t explain why they would leave it this way.

"Artemis come here, I miss you so much." A familiar voice calls out.

It sounds like moms voice but I know that it’s just a trick to get me to leave the group behind. If I was by myself and I didn’t have any sort of warning from the girl, that would’ve gotten me.

I’m not going to fall for such simple tricks like that. "Don’t you miss us?" They call out to him once more.

Artemis kept walking with the party as the voices begin to get louder, each one playing a close family member to one of the party members. Everyone has someone special that they are hearing as they travel through the mountains.

The surroundings only look worse and worse as we continue to travel throughout the mountains themselves. Making camp here feels like suicide so hopefully it doesn’t take us a long time to reach the end of the path.

I don’t think everyone can resist it overnight in a camp which is my main concern but everyone seems to be doing okay for the time being.

A few hours go by. (Somewhere in the middle of the mountains.)

"We’re halfway there, just stick to what Artemis said. Follow behind me and keep silent." Shimada instructs once again.

We’ve been walking for quite a few hours at this point— Everyone is starting to feel exhausted from all the climbing of these stairs that we’ve had to do.

It’s definitely not the easiest path to take but Shimada seems to have a good reason for us to take this path over the alternative. I trust his judgement since he’s proven that he is worth trusting.

We’ve sailed across the sea with him, he’s proven that the information I had from Liora was right, and he’s kept everyone alive by fighting with me.

Everyone is doing great with the current circumstances we’re in so I’ll try to treat everyone when we reach Theos. Or would it be better to ask Shimada to treat us all since he’s got the money.

I’ll have to start getting some sort of money myself soon so that I don’t have to rely on him every time. Amelia also might have some money since she did come from a noble family.

I’m not entirely sure since I haven’t asked her much about money.

They continue to travel throughout the path while ignoring everything that tries to speak to them until finally they can see beyond the mountains.

This part of the path was almost the end of the mountains and you could see a lot of things in the distance. A small town in the distance that actually looked like something nice to rest at.

"We’ll be out shortly, just follow my lead and run now!" Shimada shouts before beginning to sprint.

I didn’t understand why we needed to run at this last part of the path until I heard the distant growling behind us. Something big was chasing us as we ran down the remainder of the path.

"W-What is that thing chasing us!?!" Cynthia shouts with a bit of fear in her voice.

"I’ll tell you about it when we reach the end of the path okay! Just keep running!" Shimada shouts back.

I’ve never gotten to see him serious for this long so it was new to me, well new to us all. He genuinely does care about the party so I’m glad to have him with us to get us through this situation.

They finally made it to the end of the path after running for a few minutes away from the beast that was chasing them. At the end of the path they could see lots of beautiful green grass painted with a variety of flowers.

The trees all seem to be lively as well and in the distance was yet another town, the one they saw from the peak.

"Thank you for guiding us Shimada." Artemis says with a grateful tone in his voice.

We probably wouldn’t have made it through any of this without him after all.

"No problem, I care about everyone here so obviously I’d take you all to safety." Shimada replies before going back to his usual self.