Starting with the goblin extermination

cold.

This was Elsa's first sensation after regaining consciousness.

Then came the pain, which spread from my abdomen to my whole body.

She opened her eyes abruptly, instinctively trying to find her dagger, but the excruciating pain immediately pushed her back onto the floor covered with clothes.

"hiss......"

She gasped.

As the view gradually focused, a dry, natural cave came into view.

The air was filled with the smells of herbs and blood, as well as the smoky aroma of burning.

She lowered her head and then froze.

The tattered gray cloak was ripped aside, and his close-fitting linen lining was roughly torn open from his chest to his lower abdomen.

The original wound was now wrapped in thick bandages, and she could smell the pungent odor of the ointment inside.

Beneath the ointment, one could vaguely sense the [Basic Healing Potion] working its magic to rebuild flesh and blood.

But this is not the point.

The key point is that her body was seen naked, and she was even touched by someone else for the first time.

For a wanderer accustomed to hiding herself in the shadows and behind a mask, this exposure brought her a surge of intense shame and unease.

A blush, tinged with anger, quickly crept onto her pale face.

She frantically grabbed her tattered cloak and covered her chest.

"Don't move around now that you're awake. I don't want to waste time wrapping your bandages again."

A hoarse, weary voice came from across the fire.

Elsa looked up.

Logan was sitting by the fire, shirtless, with his back against the rock wall.

His once strong body was now covered with crisscrossing bruises and bloodstains, wounds inflicted by the [Abyss Thorns].

He was struggling to wipe the stains off his longsword with a fairly clean rag, without even glancing at her.

"You..." Elsa bit her lip, "You applied medicine to my wound?"

"What else? Do you expect a priest to jump out of this desolate wilderness and cast a spell for you?"

Logan sheathed his longsword, picked up the water pouch, and took a sip.

"Don't overthink it. Your wound reopened, and blood was flowing everywhere. I couldn't just apply the ointment through your clothes, so I had to cut your clothes open."

He casually tossed the water pouch over.

"But don't worry, you were covered in blood and mud, so to be honest, there wasn't much to see."

After saying that, Logan kept his gaze on the leaping flames, but subtly avoided Elsa's eyes, as if he were somewhat guilty.

This joking explanation, while not completely putting Elsa at ease, strangely did help her relax.

She looked at the scars on Logan's body and knew that they were the price he paid for fighting the orcs.

After a long silence, she lowered her head slightly.

"...I owe you my life. And I'll pay you back for that potion."

“No, you don’t owe me anything,” Logan looked into her eyes. “It was a deal. If you hadn’t made that final cut, I would be dead.”

There was something else Logan kept to himself: Besides, I was originally prepared to abandon you.

"And I'm still alive now, so it seems the deal went well and we're even."

"But I still owe you my life."

Elsa also stared at Logan; in the firelight, the girl appeared exceptionally vulnerable.

But she's also very stubborn.

Logan didn't delve into the topic further.

There's a saying in the North: sharing strong liquor doesn't make you friends; fighting side-by-side against a common enemy makes you brothers. Of course, this might not be the most appropriate way to describe a woman, but the meaning is the same.

Elsa paused for a moment, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes.

This kind of straightforward recognition was a completely unfamiliar experience for her.

But she didn't know what to say in response, and for the first time, she hated her own inability to express herself.

"I...I don't have any brothers." In the end, she just buried her face in the shadows, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

"Perfect timing, I'm all alone in Riverwood too."

Elsa stopped talking and just stared quietly at the fire.

But after a bloody battle, the distance between the two inevitably narrowed.

Logan decided to take it a step further.

"You don't have regular teammates, right?"

"......No."

"Are you short of money?"

"......lack."

"Let's team up then," Logan said, getting straight to the point.

"what?"

Seeing Elsa look up in surprise, Logan touched his throbbing ribs.

"You saw today's battle. It's too dangerous to be alone in the wild; any accident could kill us. Thorin and the others are good, but the old dwarf has his own rhythm, and I can't expect them to be available every time I go on a mission."

Logan stared intently into Elsa's eyes.

"I need to find a reliable teammate, someone who won't abandon me or stab me in the back. I think you fit that description. And you need someone like that too."

"So, why don't we team up? Only when we're taking on missions to earn money. We'll split the profits and share the risks."

In the darkness, only the crackling sound of burning wood could be heard.

Logan could hear Elsa's soft, yet somewhat disordered breathing.

After a long while.

"Okay," she agreed sparingly.

Logan breathed a long sigh of relief.

He was fed up with taking risks alone; at least from today onward, he had someone he could entrust his back to.

Their roles changed; the two went from strangers to teammates.

But what followed was a silence, with no one knowing how to continue the conversation.

Neither of them knew what to say next.

In the end, it was Elsa who broke the silence.

"That orc," Elsa said, pulling her cloak tighter around herself, "did you search his body? Did you find a badge?"

Logan did not answer immediately.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out the metal badge engraved with a hyena's head.

In the firelight, the badge glowed with an unsettling red.

The moment Elsa saw the badge, she instinctively reached out her hand, but Logan flipped his wrist and pressed the badge down on his knee.

"Want it?" Logan grinned. "Tell me what it is, and it's yours. As a welcome gift from the captain to the new member."

Elsa's hand froze in mid-air.

A moment later, she dejectedly lowered her hand.

"The Pass for the Bloody Hyena".

"【Bloody Hyenas】?" Logan frowned; the name sounded like a troublesome organization.

"A massive underground organization. They control a black market beneath Riverwood." Elsa's voice was icy. "They say you can buy anything there if you have money. Banned drugs, cursed weapons, even slaves."

"So that orc is a member of the Bloody Hyenas?"

Logan twirled the badge in his hand.

“No, he’s just a black market seller, an adventurer who also works as a slave trader and bandit.” Elsa poked at the fire with a branch. “The black market has its own rules. It only recognizes badges, not people. Without this badge, no one can find the entrance to the black market, let alone get in.”

After saying that, she raised her head and looked directly at Logan: "I need it, but I can't tell you why. It's none of your business."

Logan stared into her stubborn blue eyes.

Everyone has secrets; we shouldn't pry into them.

At least he now knows that the badge is a ticket to the black market.

"Take it."

Logan simply tossed the badge over.

Elsa hurriedly caught the badge, seemingly surprised that Logan accepted it so readily.

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet, being a teammate isn't something you do for nothing."

Logan winced in pain, turned around, and faced away from Elsa.

In the flickering firelight, Logan's once broad and muscular back was covered in horrific bloodstains. In some places, the flesh was torn open by barbs, and in others, it had already begun to fester and become inflamed, requiring immediate treatment.

"I can't reach the back myself."

Logan picked up the jar of ointment from the side and handed it over, giving a wry smile.

"You owe me a favor, and now it's time to pay it back. Help me clean this up and apply some medicine."

Elsa looked at the medicine jar handed to her, then glanced at the man's unguarded back.

She was somewhat at a loss.

This was the first time she had been so close to a man, and she even had to apply medicine to him? This made her feel a strange sense of panic.

Taking a deep breath, Elsa still managed to move her weak body and kneel behind Logan.

He picked up a clump of ointment with his fingertips and placed his hand on Logan's burning back.

"Hiss—! Damn it! Go easy, are you trying to kill me?!"

"Shut up. Bear with it. If you say another word, I'll shove the ointment into your mouth."

Elsa's deliberately cold scolding voice came from behind.

Outside the cave, the night wind of the Ash Forest howled, as if countless monsters were roaming in the darkness.

But by the dim campfire, amidst the man's suppressed gasps and the girl's shy scolding, two lonely souls, both wounded and alone, finally drew a little closer in this strange world.