Sharon’s parents were poor, and they both came from commoner backgrounds completely detached from high-society and the politics of the Rockwell Kingdom, but even they had heard the surname ’Balfour’ before and understood what it meant.

Quickly understanding what his wife was implying, Sharon’s father grabbed his daughter and shook her, "You said that two of the women you met today had burning red hair, yes!?"

Taken aback by her father’s suddenly forcefulness, Sharon took a moment to regain her senses before nodding, "En, Lady Sasha and Sister Eris both had fiery red hair. It was really pretty..."

"Tss..." Sharon’s father gasped and stumbled backwards a few steps, needing to grab onto a nearby table just to keep himself from falling over.

Sharon’s mother wasn’t doing much better, collapsing to her knees, her breathing becoming ragged as she gripped the token in her trembling hand.

"Mom? Dad? What’s wrong?" Sharon, utterly confused, asked.

Was there something wrong with the people she had met and showed around the city today?

But they were all so nice to her, and they had even paid her a full 5 Gold Coins! That was the equivalent of 6 months worth of salary for her for a simple half-day tour!

How could such generous people be bad?

"D-Did..." Sharon heard her mother stutter after a few minutes of silence and perked her ears up, "D-D-Did that L-Lady Sasha... s-s-say anything else to you?"

Seeing how serious and even somewhat frightened her mother and father were acting, Sharon thought hard about it before shaking her head, "No, Lady Sasha didn’t say anything else before we parted at the docks."

Suddenly thinking of something, though, Sharon added, "But Little Brother Lucas did say that if I ever wanted a job, he would hire me. Hahaha, isn’t that funny? A little boy saying he wanted me to work... for him..."

Before Sharon could finish her last words, both her mother and father raced over and grabbed her, exclaiming frantically, "Young Master Lucas really said that? He really offered to hire you?!"

"Uh... Young Master? I mean, yes?" Sharon tilted her head in confusion, "It must have been a joke, though... How could such a young boy..."

"He could!" Sharon’s mother shouted, "He could, if he belongs to the Balfour Family!"

"The Balfour Family? Who are they?" Sharon asked curiously, wondering why her parents were making such a big fuss all of a sudden.

Hearing their eldest daughter ask this question, Sharon’s parents didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Their little girl had, completely by coincidence, just encountered the opportunity of a life-time, something people like them, of their social status, couldn’t even dream of having, yet Sharon didn’t even realize it!

It seemed they would have to teach their daughter a bit more about the outside world, lest she suddenly stumble into another such opportunity in the future, only to let it slip because of her ignorance.

.....

Celestina never imagined that after evacuating Herald City, just 21 days later she would be back.

It was also quite shocking how fast nature had begun to reclaim the settlement now that humans weren’t there to actively hold it back.

Docking at what was left of the city’s western port, Celestina and the others of her group swept their eyes around and were greeted by the sight of overgrown plants, crumbling buildings, and numerous small beasts darting in and out of the shadows.

However, none of these masters lingered for long.

They had a job to do, and the sooner it was done, the better it would be for all of them.

After firing a signal flare up into the air, Celestina only had to wait a few minutes before a pack of large, dusty-white foxes rushed over.

Greeting Frey and Bron, the leaders of the pack, Celestina beckoned to them to board the ship, promising that the trip across the Belton would only last a few minutes.

Reluctantly, the Snow Spirit Foxes began making their way up the gangplank, some of them looking a little unsteady on their feet, while others audibly whined, seemingly afraid they would suddenly tumble into the waters below and drown.

It took nearly half-an-hour, but eventually, the warship, its crew, and the 53 Spirit Beasts, all made it to the eastern banks of the Belton where the foxes hurriedly scrambled back onto dry land.

"What a terrible experience," Bron shuddered, clearly feeling unnerved by the short journey across the river.

"And to think, we may need to spend days, or even months aboard such a ship to get home..." Frey, who was thinking ahead to that hopeful yet terrifying future, couldn’t help sighing gloomily.

"Don’t worry," Celestina, who was nearby, comforted the pair as best she could, "I’m sure the ships Lucas builds to carry you home will be much, much bigger and sturdier than these ones. I’ll wager it’ll feel like you’re standing on solid ground the whole time."

The two Sixth Order foxes turned hopeful looks towards their new human friend and nodded, putting their faith in Celestina. She hadn’t lied to them yet, so there was no reason to believe she was lying now.

For her part, Celestina silently apologized to her First Disciple for raising the expectations on him before turning to her left and asking the two men standing there, "Lucian, Corey, it’s getting late, but there’s still a few hours before sunset, should we camp here or head east and spend the night in one of the abandoned villages?"

Lucian Cross and Corey Stone were the two Spirit Adepts who had been sent by the Royal Council to join Celestina in her hunt for the Saberclaw Raptors.

Lucian was the Vice-General of the Steel Shield Legion, while Corey was a former member of the Royal Guardians.

Vice-General Cross still actively served in the military, while Sir Stone was now a Protector for the Royal Family, a position he assumed after ’graduating’ from the 10 Guardians by breaking through to the Spirit Adept Realm, regaining his name and surname in the process.

The two of them were both Low-Rank Adepts, making them significantly weaker than Celestina, or any of the Sixth Order Snow Spirit Foxes for that matter, but they were still veteran warriors who had served the Rockwell Kingdom for more than 150 years each, so neither of them was a pushover.

Still, in front of the famous Shield of the East, both men remained respectful and deferential, the two of them saluting formally while replying, "We will follow your orders, General Balfour."

Pursing her lips, Celestina let out a sigh and grumbled, "You two were so much cuter back when you were kids..."

As terrible memories of being mercilessly trained by this red-headed woman resurfaced in each of their minds, the two men both shuddered slightly but wisely kept silent, waiting for further instructions.

Failing to get a rise out of her former students, Celestina grumbled under her breath again before declaring, "Fine, we’ll rest here for the night then set off at dawn tomorrow."

"Yes, General!" This time, all the human soldiers who had disembarked from the boat saluted and got to work.

Because the bridge had been destroyed, the eastern section of Herald City was still in decent condition as far fewer Wild Beasts had been able to take up residence in the ruins. There was even a number of usable buildings nearby.

Instead of breaking out their camping equipment, the humans simply selected a few of the structures that were in better shape and tidied them up a bit before they started cooking dinner.

As for the Snow Spirit Foxes, a few of them went off to hunt in the nearby forest while most of them stayed behind to get used to the scents of their human allies.

They would soon be traveling and fighting together, so becoming familiar with one another was essential.

.....

Setting out from Herald City, heading east was fairly easy as the Rockwell Kingdom had cleared an official road, linking it to the nearest city in the Southern Province. Unfortunately, the condition of this road wasn’t exactly ideal as it wasn’t frequently used.

The dirt road was technically made wide enough for 2 carriages to pass side-by-side, but with intrusions from the surrounding forest and grassland, and a lack of regular maintenance, most places could only fit 1 carriage at a time.

This posed no difficulty for Celestina’s hunting party, however, as there was no one on her team below the Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate Realm.

25 Spirit Initiates and 3 Spirit Adepts, all carrying their provisions and supplies on their backs or in their Space Bags, was an incredibly powerful and agile force, but even they were no match for the Snow Spirit Foxes

The disparity between humans and beasts only became more obvious once the hunting party left the main road and began trudging through the forest.

For the first couple of days, Frey and Bron had managed to track the fading scent and traces of the Saberclaw Raptor Pack along the road, but about 210 kilometres away from Herald City, the reptiles had suddenly decided to detour and head into the woods.

Naturally, tracking the Raptors became much more difficult after that and the hunting party’s pace slowed considerably, but the further they went, the more obvious the trail became, which could only mean they were slowly but steadily closing in on their target.