Chapter 170: 168

With the carriage finally in an acceptable state it was finally time to leave the Forest of Darkness. Even though I planned to be visiting again rather soon, I was still somewhat reluctant to leave, much like the Yin-Yang village. I found this manor to be comfortable and somewhere I would like to stay, something that couldn't be said of the Eldur House anymore.
The sole regret I had while leaving was that I had never managed to figure out why the Greater Alraune had apologized, she had disappeared, or perhaps had simply been avoiding me so even though I knew that the others had run into her, I hadn't seen her since the first day. It wasn't a big deal, and I would be back soon enough so it didn't really bother me, but it was still something that I wanted to resolve before I left for Melarc.
With enough supplies for the journey, and the well wishes of the manor residents we finally set off, just a few hours before noon. Despite the fact that she didn't need to, Renae insisted that she sit in the driver's seat while the rest of us relaxed inside. It never ceased to amaze me at how professional she kept our relationship, especially since I was the only one subject to said treatment. She was much more relaxed and casual when I wasn't around according to the others, though she was more akin to a friend rather than the kind of closeness Arya and Steria shared. Ashara was still uncertain and wasn't really sure how she fit into the web of my many romantic entanglements, and though I got the sense she was skeptical, I did always reassure her that there wasn't a hierarchy of any kind, at least not one that I would ever enforce. If everyone else decided on a certain rank, I would voice my disapproval, but if they were all okay with it then it wasn't like I would force them to change.
Unlike when we had made our way into the Forest of Darkness, leaving was much easier, though that was in part due to the fact that I was essentially the real master of the forest since I had control of the artificial cursed energy that was slowly replacing the original curse, and could with very minimal effort invert the energy and make a pathway that naturally repelled nearly all the monsters, though it also made Renae and Ashara somewhat queasy if I made the Yang mana too dense or pure.
The journey out was also much slower, as the electric motor I'd made was basic and unable to produce that much momentum, the undead horses easily outperformed it, and were actually better in essentially every aspect. The motor required mana to be poured in instead of being charged so I didn't have to worry about it running out, though for anyone but me it was rather expensive, though Ashara actually had a decent mana pool and could manage for about an hour.
Once we got close to the walls that surrounded the forest, everyone disembarked and we made a show of pushing the carriage, though in reality it was still moving by itself. When the gate guards first saw us they had actually readied their weapons thinking we were some kind of new monsters, but with a bit of talking and showing my Status Plate they realized that we weren't dangerous, though I was actually forced to sit through a few questions since the situation I was currently in was vastly different to that of when I'd entered.
I was honestly surprised at the thoroughness of the details that my arrival had warranted, as not only did they mention the now gone horses, but the fact that the carriage had obviously changed, and we had a new person that we didn't when we'd entered. For the most part I answered truthfully, though I left out much of the actual story since I doubted that telling them about a city of intelligent monsters in the center of the forest would do anyone any good. I did however mention that I was able to seek shelter with an Arachne, something that caused a small amount of panic amongst those questioning me, but I easily explained away that I could communicate with them, something I'd learned as a child before I was taken in by the Eldur House. It was technically true, and since I was able to provide a 'gift' of Arachne silk from said Arachne, they could only take my word, no matter how much it ran against their common sense.

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It took about half an hour before I was finally allowed to leave, and much to my delight they even provided two horses for the carriage, both of which were warhorses, and not something I would normally be able to acquire without using the Eldur name. Unlike the weakened horses I had bought at the Academy, I thought it would be better if I did a different ritual since raising them as zombie horses seemed like it would be a waste.
The best part about the warhorses was that despite the clear fear that they had of Ashara, Steria, and Renae, they did their job admirably and stayed rather calm, even as Renae guided them off the road and into a small patch of woodland. The ritual I was planning was going to be more complex and take longer than when I'd just raised the undead. Part of this ritual also required human blood, something that was severely lacking in any of the members of my current entourage, so I had Ashara and Steria go look for bandits or some other kind of criminal.
Steria was easily the fastest of the group, her Khetoran form perfect for hunting down other creatures, though Ashara wasn't that far behind. While she enjoyed being an Arachne, but in technicality that wasn't actually her true form anymore, rather her true form was that of a giant spider, one covered in a thick black chitin carapace that was full of sharp and jagged edges, and was honestly something that if I were to see coming out of the dark would probably terrify me, despite the fact that I had the same kind of heritage.
Ashara had the greatest scouting potential out of all of the group, as her ability to control spiders allowed her to cover a massive amount of ground in a single moment. Arya could do the same if we were in a rather flat plain, or if she had a high vantage point, but Ashara's control meant that in areas like this woodland, she could search every nook and cranny without missing anything.
I didn't think there would be too much criminal activity since we were pretty close to the edge of The Forest of Darkness as well as being not too far off from Phoenicia, but I hoped that they would be able to find something since I'd much rather have tireless horses, as they would be the only limiting factor of how much we could travel in a day.
Thankfully, despite the relative safety of the area, there were actually quite a few hideouts according to both Ashara and Steria. Some were currently empty, but there had been two that had a gathering of criminals, all of which had been rounded up, and restrained before being brought before me. Much to my delight and surprise, I actually recognized three of the criminals, they were rather infamous and I'd seen wanted posters for them during much of my childhood. It was no wonder they had never been caught, as not only were they hiding out in a typically well-patrolled area, but their method of hiding their hideout was almost as good as an Arachne's lair, so it would take a special kind of person or inspection to discover it. Not only could Ashara easily spot that kind of hideout, but there was no way they wouldn't have at least one spider somewhere, it was the perfect kind of place for certain kinds to live after all.
Aside from the three bounty bandits, the rest were strapped to pillars much like the poor fools who had tried to rob my carriage and brought Renae into my service, though there were far more this time as unlike the ritual for creating a Reborn, the ritual I had in mind was far more sinister and required far more blood to be spilt, it was something that I was actually rather surprised existed in the black book, since for the most part, all of the magic described within was rather neutral as far as I was concerned, but there were a few, including the one I was preparing that I would consider evil, though since I was a Demon Lord and a Hero, and the Archangel Gabriel was out for my death, I didn't think good and evil ought to be considered much.

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