Chapter 29: Chapter 28 – The First Night

“You said you found a cave, right Leo?” 

Kazu asked while everyone listened 

“Yeah, at the base of a cliff there was a cave that seemed to be pretty big.” 

“Do you think it’s worth exploring?” 

Huh? Explore it? Why? That sounds unnecessarily dangerous, the mission is survival not exploration... 

“I think we should!” 

I heard a voice from my left, it was another member of the exploration team, Oscar. 

What? Why? 

“I’m opposed to exploring it.” 

Another member of the exploration team said; it was Violet. She continued to speak. 

“We weren’t told to explore; we were just told to survive in the forest for a week.” 

“But don’t you think we need to know if there’s anything that we should be wary of in that cave?” 

An unexpectedly smart point, it was good to know if there was a bear in there or something. But I didn’t see any dead animals or signs there would be a bear though... 

“I also think we should have that cave explored.” Another student said; it was someone from the camp team. 

“I don’t think we need to, if we don’t bother it then it shouldn’t mess with us. At least for this week.” Someone from the food team spoke this time. 

Eventually everyone was having a small discussion on the matter, it was an even split between on exploring it and not exploring. 

Hm... Forest... Cave... It was on the tip of my mind; I was trying to remember if anything special happened on this mission. 

“Did you happen to see anything that would dictate there being a bear, Leo?” 

Kazu asked 

“I don’t think so.” 

There may have been some signs that an experienced hunter would see, but I didn’t know much about that. No dead animals, no bear was what I thought. 

“Hm... Leo, Calvin, what do you two think?” 

Since we were the ones who’d be exploring it, our opinions probably mattered the most. 

“I think we should... Oscar brought up a good point, we need to know if it’s something we should be worried about.” 

Calvin stated his opinion. 

“What about you, Leo?” 

“I don’t want to explore it.” 

I decided to just say my true opinion on it, I didn’t really care if it was something we should or shouldn’t explore. I just didn’t want to do it. 

“Hm... Rose, do you have any opinions on this?” 

He eventually decided to ask Rose, she knew the most about the forest after all. 

“I-I... Think we should... But... With people who want to...” 

Kazu closed his eyes for a moment then spoke. 

“Alright, how about this, Violet and Leo should switch teams with the people who want to do it.” 

“That’s fine with me.” Violet replied. 

I nodded my head. 

Eventually I was on the gathering team with Rio. The exploration team had started planning tonight and were going to explore it tomorrow, we gave them our devices and wished them luck. 

We were around the campfire and Kazu asked me a question. 

“Hey Leo.” 

“Huh?” 

“You know what being around a campfire means... Right?” 

Huh? I didn’t. 

“No?” 

Everyone around the campfire looked at me. 

Rio also looked confused and whispered to me. 

“Uh... Leo? Why are they all looking at you?” 

“I don’t know?” 

“You got to sing a campfire song!” Kazu suddenly shouted 

What? A campfire song? What’s that? 

Did they just want to hear a song? I didn’t mind singing, but I didn’t see how being at a campfire would be the time for a song? 

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“You’re gonna sing Leo?!” Rio looked at me with excitement. 

“I guess.” 

I took a deep breath and began to sing. 

… 

A few dozen minutes later the mood was raised quite a lot. Kazu had pulled me to the side as he wanted to say something to me. 

“Thanks for singing.” 

Huh? What was this sudden gratefulness? 

“Sure?” 

“To be honest, I was trying to ease the mood and your singing is perfect for it. Everyone’s probably worried about this mission still, so, thank you.” 

Ah, I get it. He just wanted me to calm everyone down, it’s mostly everybody’s first time sleeping outside for the first time. 

“Anytime.” 

After our conversation we went back around the campfire where everyone was talking to each other. 

I felt a tap on my arm, it was Rio. 

“Hm?” 

He whispered in my ear. 

“Um... I need to use the bathroom...” 

“Behind one of the trees should be fine.” 

“...” 

He looked sort of embarrassed. 

“...Could you keep watch?” 

Oh. We are in a forest, there could be a dangerous animal here. 

“Sure.” 

While we were heading out Kazu stopped us. 

“Huh? Where are you two going?” 

Wasn’t there like a saying or something about flowers? Eh, whatever. 

“Rio needs to pee, I’m keeping watch.” 

Rio’s face turned red and Kazu had a confused expression before speaking. 

“U-Alright.” 

Some other students overheard and squiggled their legs, it seemed like they all kind’ve somehow forgot about the bathroom situation. 

… 

We walked a little into the forest and I stood far enough away where I couldn’t hear anything. 

A few dozen seconds later I felt a tap on my shoulder. 

“Done?” 

Rio nodded his head. 

We went back to the camp and sat around the campfire. 

It was really getting dark; in a few dozen minutes it’ll probably be pitch black without this campfire. 

We ate some of the meat that the food team hunted, it tasted bland but that was fine for me it was food I was used to, some of the others wanted to complain but they couldn’t. 

A few minutes later after a lot of duos went into the forest and came back, Kazu began to speak to everyone who was gathered around the campfire. 

“We should determine some night shifts.” 

There were 17 of us here, two of us would keep watch and every hour we’d change. Since we had an odd number only one person would watch the camp at the end, it was when the light was starting to come back anyways. 

We didn’t exactly have a clock that could tell us the time, but Oscar had a device that would beep every 30 minutes. So, after 2 beeps we’d wake up the next people to be on watch and so on. 

The tents were mostly set up by Gene, someone with the ‘Carpentry’ talent; the tents could fit around 4 people each. Around 3 people brought 1 tent while 2 people brought 2, so we had enough to keep the genders separated.  

To make things easier though, Ayaka, Rio, Taku and I shared a tent, they didn’t feel comfortable being with people they didn’t know. 

Rio and I would be keeping watch towards the middle of night, and after us was Taku and Ayaka, the shifts made sense with who stayed in which tent. 

It got dark and it was time to sleep. 

Me and Rio slept on 1 side of the tent while Taku and Ayaka slept on the other, Taku and I were both in the middle. 

“Goodnight.” 

We all said goodnight to each other before I closed my eyes and went to sleep. 

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