They came to the hollowed heart of a tree, a chamber carved smooth by Wind Magic, rings of wood like ripples around a round oak table. Stools circled it like mushrooms after rain, a broad map and a sandy model lay spread like a river and shore.

“Phiby, right? Good to meet you. Welcome to our Vortex Squad.” Medith offered her right hand, voice steady as a drawn bow.

“No, no, please don’t, Captain.” Phiby flapped her hands like startled sparrows. “I’m just a regular member...”

Medith eyed the timid girl and felt a thorn in her palm; small body and child-soft voice tugged old nerves, like hearing a baby cry in a quiet night.

“How strong are you?” Medith cut straight, like a blade through reeds.

Perched on a stool, Phiby twisted at her tiny nails, breath tight as a trapped butterfly. “Um... at full power, I can press about five hundred meters flat... like a pancake?”

“Uh?!” The Lita Sisters’ bright eyes almost split, shock flaring like lightning behind clouds.

“By ‘pancake’ you mean...” Medith tilted her head, curiosity brushing like wind through leaves.

“Eep...” Medith’s look spooked Phiby; she dove and buried her face against Melia’s stomach, clinging like a kitten to warmth.

Medith watched her shake like a leaf and sighed, the sound a tired wind. “This is why I hate dealing with lolis... you can’t hit them, can’t scold them, raise your voice and they cry...”

“The Captain did look terrifying. I cried the first time too.” Rita remembered those hellfire eyes and that crushing aura, the scene of being dragged by her long hair a shadow stitched to her spine.

“Am I that over the top...” Medith flinched like pricked by a thorn and showed a rare flicker of self-reflection.

“There, there, don’t be scared...” Melia stroked Phiby’s trembling back, palm warm as sunlight through leaves. “You don’t know what you look like in that armor. Those eyes could scare off a dragon.”

“If we hadn’t pranked you the other day and proved you’re a woman, I’d have thought you were a pretty boy in disguise.”

“In your last life, you were surely a human grand general—one step beneath the throne, riding dust ahead of ten thousand—otherwise why that weight and war-sense?”

“Ha... haha... hahahaha...” Medith’s laugh came brittle, cold sweat beading like dew. Inwardly she bared her teeth. The old crones of the Elf Clan all have a sixth sense this sharp?

Smack! Melia’s palm flashed for Medith. Medith raised an arm and flicked it aside like brushing off rain.

Then Melia blurred faster than a striking viper and snapped a slap across Medith’s lips. Smack— Medith’s mouth took the sting, heat blooming like a brand.

“Ah!” The Lita Sisters jolted, almost tumbling from their stools, eyes wide as moons on the brink of night.

Medith didn’t explode like they feared. She muttered low, voice a rasping wind. “Damn it, do Elvenfolk women all do mind-reading?”

“All right, enough fooling. Phiby, you too. Man— I mean, we keep iron in our bones. Heads can break, blood can spill, but don’t wail at every breeze. With a little loli like you, if a human saw you, they’d swallow you whole.”

“I don’t want that, I don’t!” Phiby popped free of Melia’s arms, head shaking like a rattle-drum, hair waving wildly until it veiled her face like rain.

“You...” Melia, all mother softness, parted the messy locks with fingers gentle as combing streamwater.

The others laughed, easy as campfire sparks in dusk.

“Captain!” The wooden door banged open under Iling’s shove, sound sharp as a snapped twig. Urgency clung to her like storm scent. A black robe wrapped her head to heel, hiding the lure of dress and curve.

She stripped the robe and tossed it aside. “Captain... bad news...”

Medith hooked her by the wrist and sat her at her side, grip firm as an anchor. “What happened? Did they march?”

Iling seized a cup and poured water down in gulps. Glug, glug—ha—hoo. “No. We confirmed they left Verdant Spirit Mountain’s bounds. Here’s the strange part. We tracked signs of them crossing the forest. But days passed and no human army pressed our border.”

“I didn’t dare go deeper. Beyond Verdant Spirit Mountain isn’t our range. I feared an ambush by unknown strength, so I rushed back to report.”

Heads nodded around the table, approval like nodding pines. In just a dozen days, Iling’s change showed to the naked eye; she could shoulder scouting alone like a stag bearing its antlers.

Medith frowned, a crease like a canyon. “How? It’s been over ten days. A messenger should need only a few. Add time to rally and gear up. Even slow, they’d be near our lands.”

“Did they not mobilize? Or are they still not here?”

Silence pooled like a deep lake. Medith pulled the map free and bent over the sand, eyes sweeping like hawks over a valley.

Moments later, she beckoned them in. “Look. This is the range of Verdant Spirit Mountain.”

“This is the summit zone. Here’s the river. Here’s the forest at the foot. This is the main road. And here’s a path that may or may not exist. Iling and Rita, confirm it later.”

“Because of unknown terrain, we hold the forest at the foot. Glimmering Green Forest sits under a barrier, so it’s less worry. Our job is making sure reports arrive fast, so we have time for staging and plans.”

“Iling, from today you lead your squad to garrison the foothill zone. The Rita unit supports. Spot anything, report at once. For suspicious forces or events, use a sharp bird-call to alert the mountain.”

“If you see a human army or an extreme situation, shoot an arrow that trails black smoke into the sky, so we know at first glance.”

“You know how to make those?”

“Snap the arrowhead off. Wrap the shaft-tip in cloth filled with black powder. Light it, shoot it high, and you’ll get a lot of black smoke.”

“We have black powder, right?”

“We do.” Milia stared at Medith, eyes round as coins, and answered.

Medith rolled up the map in a clean sweep. “Iling, take ten B‑rank sharpshooters. Use the Sprites you trained. Hold the forest’s four directions. You sit in the center. Stay put until I call you. All good?”

“Got it!” Iling rewrapped the black robe and darted out, a shadow arrow vanishing between trees.

“Rita, take twenty C‑rank Sprites and see if that side path even exists!”

“Yes!”

“You’re good!” Melia lifted a thumb, praise bright as sunlight on steel.

“No time to dawdle. Train hard. The calmer the surface looks, the more my heart sinks like a stone. I hope I’m just overthinking. Melia, Lina, Phiby, I’m leaving this place to you three. Lina knows the drills.”

“I’m going to find Sais, see if she has a way to make me more Sprites.”

Medith finished and surged out, turning into a clean slip of wind, vanishing into the forest as the sky darkened like ink.