"Honestly, Nonna, don't bother Su'er at such a busy time." Nonna's mother, also drawn by Lenny's shout, came over from her husband's side and scolded her repeatedly. Her husband was also part of this expedition, but he was in Riku's team, not Su'er's.
"It's okay, Marta," Su'er said first, looking at Nonna's cheeks, puffed out from her mother's scolding, with some amusement. "I've finished tidying up here too; there's nothing to cause trouble about."
"Oh? Is that so?" After a slight pause, Marta hugged Nonna close and said slowly, with a hint of hesitation, "Please be extra careful out there, and... thank you for your hard work this time."
It wasn't just a blessing for Su'er; such words were spoken to everyone in the expedition, and not just by Marta. As Su'er looked around, he saw that all the people who remained in the settlement silently bowed and prayed towards them.
Every time they departed on an expedition, they performed this prayer like a ritual, even though the people praying didn't know who they should pray to. After all, humans were the only ones in this world without their own gods...
Thinking of this, Su'er couldn't help but smile bitterly. After nodding to Marta to indicate his understanding, he pulled up his mask and turned away.
"Su'er!"
Nonna's voice suddenly rang out from behind, her childish shout sounding almost sharp.
"Dad, Su'er, and Riku, you're all heroes! You're the best!!"
The little girl raised her hands high, smiling brightly, extending her index and middle fingers. This gesture, representing victory, had been taught to her by Su'er.
Without replying, Su'er, with his mask now pulled up, seemed to have become a different person. He turned silently and simply extended a clenched fist, raising his thumb.
Nonna knew what this meant.
---
Hero.
A title inlaid with gold, shining brightly all the time.
Even in this war—a war that belonged only to the superior races, with no idea when it began or when it would end—humans, struggling to survive, had done their best to preserve the books and oral knowledge, and the meaning this word contained.
"...If heroes are all like us, then it's really ugly, isn't it?" Sliding down slowly from the highest point, Lenny suddenly spoke, looking at his companions, disguised like dead trees.
It seemed Nonna's last words had reached him too, but the answer he received was a merciless glare from Su'er.
There was no verbal communication at all. Su'er simply gestured quickly for Lenny to get closer, and instructed another person to climb to the highest point to stand guard.
No more joking. Lenny put his lips close to Su'er's ear and quickly, quietly, and concisely reported everything he had just observed from the height. This seemingly ambiguous action was actually a necessary measure, precisely because of the predators in this vast area—the Werebeasts.
A race that was completely close to the physical limit of the flesh, and in some special cases, even completely exceeded that limit. What Su'er saw when he first absorbed information about the Werebeasts made him simply disbelieve how such an outrageous race could exist.
It only took two steps to run a hundred meters, their speed not even calculated by time. If there were no obstacles, their sharp eyes could even see things thirty kilometers away. Their five senses were so incredibly sharp as to be unrealistic. No matter how much information was currently available, it was impossible to know more, because any humans who had encountered Werebeasts were dead, and even if someone accidentally noticed one, they couldn't record it.
However, even this outrageous race, which rendered the fragile human body negligible, was just another race struggling to survive on this continent. They could only maintain their tribes through hunting and gathering, not even dreaming of settling down and farming.
It was precisely because he knew how terrifying this race was that Su'er had been angry at Lenny's loud talk just now—you see, Werebeasts, in their hunting process, also maintained the highest level of vigilance. What if they had heard Lenny's voice outside the range that the group could notice...?
Clenching his fist and waving it in front of Lenny as a warning, Su'er took out a map from his arms and marked on it. Fortunately, the terrain of this wasteland hadn't changed much; at least it wouldn't require them to immediately start re-mapping. But that was also its disadvantage.
This was still a wasteland, or more accurately, a flat terrain that had been bombarded by some race Su'er didn't know. There was no obstruction on it, which made the figures of several people wanting to pass through here particularly obvious.
**[Go around here along the gap on the edge, and keep silent before that]**
After a moment of thought, he made a decision. Su'er used sign language to signal this to his team members. Although choosing a detour here would extend the support time of the supplies they carried, Su'er didn't want to take such a meaningless risk compared to such a small matter. The last reminder was also a special emphasis for a certain guy.
The few people moved like silent ants, using only quiet gestures as antennae to communicate briefly, constantly climbing and moving along the edge of what seemed like a tilted plate. They never stayed in one place for too long, except for short meals and rests.
Although it sounded very hard, it wasn't actually very tiring, because intense running and a lot of exercise would cause sweating, and sweating would increase the odor emitted by the body. So the group's journey even had a sense of peace and tranquility—aside from everyone's tense spirits, this was also a characteristic of activities in places where Werebeasts appeared.
Su'er once thought that he would never return to this area, but soon after having that thought, he violated this rule. This was because he was more familiar with this place than anyone else in the settlement, and the supplies in this area were indeed richer than other places. But it was also because of this that those Werebeasts had appeared here in the first place...
Standing at the entrance of this stone cave, Su'er quietly looked into the distance, even though he couldn't see what was there.