Three days later, Hajin's group followed a rough dirt path toward an unranked Gate that had appeared just outside the capital's territory.
He walked at the front with his hands in his pockets, looking perfectly relaxed for a man leading five people into the unknown.
Juna kept pace beside him, close enough that her shoulder brushed his arm every few steps, her tail swaying in a bright happy rhythm.
Loccy skipped a few steps ahead of them, chasing bugs between the ruts, while Vella drifted along at the rear of their little circle.
None of them were actually last on the road. Cassie and her party trailed twenty feet behind with expressions of profound misery.
The three adventurers were bent under enormous supply backpacks, sweating so badly that they looked less like fighters and more like rented mules.
"I cannot feel my legs," the large man wheezed, shifting his straps for the tenth time. "Cassie, remind me why we ever agreed to any of this."
