The night at the jungle was anything but silent.
Even though it was a land dominated mostly by massive monsters, that didn't mean there was no room for the smaller forms of life. Yet, just like their much, MUCH bigger cousins, they were equally as lethal—just not in the same, obvious manner.
In the night, though?
The biggest of the predators went to sleep, declaring truce upon their prey. But their prey?
For them, it was the opposite. The night, free from the presence of the most deadly predators, was when the jungle became their hunting ground.
And just like that, while the day was filled with the sound of monsters crushing trees, destroying entire swaths of the jungle in their fights and duels, and even setting considerable portions of it on fire…
The night was the opposite, filled with just the muted noises of the silent, ambush predators and the constant hum of the jungle itself—the greatest monster that dominated the whole area—rebuilding its devastated regions.
It was with those small shrills, calls, and occasional eruptions of bigger noises when prey put up its one last fight that Selia sat down at the edge of her barrier, her knees cuddled up all the way to her chin.
Her eyes were firmly locked on the dancing light of the small fire, mere leftover from when she first lit it up. And it was this dancing leftover that now cast profound and endlessly changing shadows upon the kid's sleeping face.
Breathe in…
Breathe out.
Selia closed her eyes for a moment.
Not even someone on her level could traverse this place at night.
Big, powerful monsters? She could easily kill them off with just a swing of her sword. But at night?
There was a reason why most of the night-time predators tried to stay as silent as possible, lest they wanted to become prey themselves. A rule Selia was too experienced in her job to ignore.
As such, having little to no other reasonable choice, she decided to take a proper camp for the night and went ahead to set it up way in advance of the night, giving the barrier stones enough time to charge.
The warding stones of the barrier could deal with most of the external threats. The jungle itself wouldn't intervene either, having no interest in a predator as beneficial to its life-cycle as Selia.
She offered her fair share of the bloody carcasses to the jungle whenever she stepped upon its land, after all.
Now, however, with no threats to occupy her mind, she could do nothing but stare at the face of this weird kid. For just a little longer, she just… looked at how the ever-changing shadow continuously changed the look of his face, only to then avert her eyes and hide her face in her palms.
"Aaaaah…" a long whine escaped from her mouth, loud enough to release the frustration in her heart yet too silent to alert any of the potential predators nearby.
'He's legit, isn't he?'
She knew it long before he offered her that weird cup with hot, magically made food.
With her eyes, Selia could tell that he was, just as he stated—pathetically weak. Even for the standards of the peasants or the court nobility, he didn't have a single quality that would allow him to survive in this deadly place.
And with lack of any marks left by bonds on his wrist, any smell of herbs or sleeping agents in his breath, or any unnatural odor signifying the decay of some sort of a potion…
How did he get to the forest?
'Any of the areas he would need to cross to get to the jungle would be too much for him to cross. And since he didn't get here himself nor was he dragged here by someone else…'
Then, Selia's question would be left with no possible answer other than what this kid proclaimed himself.
With her face still hidden in her palms, Selia pushed her fingers apart, allowing herself to peek through at the young man's face again.
He was…
Perfectly ordinary. Not handsome but not ugly either. He had a face that would near perfectly sink into any kind of crowd, making him an untraceable shadow in any sort of group, city, or town.
He was perfectly ordinary, and yet, there was a strange sharpness hidden in the corners of his eyes, at the end of his lips, within that small wrinkle between his eyebrows. A quality that appeared to contrast his ordinary, relaxed look…
Or maybe it was a product of the kid's circumstances that Selia had no clue about?
Sword-Saintess shook her head, instantly annoyed the moment she realized just how much she was thinking about this fated stranger. And so, not to push herself even further down that road, she raised her face from her hands and took a sweeping look around, getting her mind back into the lookout duty.
'Duty, huh?'
She thought, raising her eyes to the sky after confirming there were no threatening presences nearby.
The warding stones didn't act like a physical barrier capable of stopping any threats from approaching. Instead, they erased any kind of traces Selia and her companion would produce, be it sound, smell, or even light, making this particular spot in the jungle a black hole for any keen-sensed predator.
And those monsters wouldn't expend their energy just to investigate some anomaly, not when they hardly had energy to spare for their own hunts and when every activity came with the risk of attracting another, bigger predator upon themselves.
Selia, however, cared not for the inner workings of the forest food chain. She simply stared at the stars for a moment before turning her eyes down, to the last jolts of the dying flame. Then, her eyes involuntarily glanced over to that young man's peaceful, sleeping face.
It was in that moment that an idea popped in her mind.
An idea so simple she was momentarily stunned she didn't think about it before.
'Should I just kill him?'
This was the quickest and simplest solution to all of her problems.
The seal upon her destiny? Gone. The fate determined by the divines? Gone. The impassable obstruction that stopped her from pursuing the path of the star swordsman?
Gone.
All that she had to do was just leave.
On her own, she could still leave the jungle. That kid, however, would have to be personally blessed by every divine within the pantheon to even hope to be lucky enough to somehow cross the jungle with his own strength.
Or, she could take matters directly into her own hands and remove "the one," a man supposed to fulfill her 'saintess' destiny, leaving no other fate for herself but that of a swordsman.
Her constant, unyielding, bloody efforts to twist her fate to favor the path of a star swordsman rather than the path of a saintess wouldn't go down the drain. Her pride as a sword saint and potential star swordsman would be preserved!
All of that with just one, quick strike, an attack that this kid wouldn't even feel, dying before his brain could register the pain, divine fate be damned!
Her hands moved to her hip, her fingers wrapping around the styled handle of her dagger.
Then, Selia froze.
Her fingers unraveled, her hands moved up and, once again, her face ended up hidden within her palms.
It wasn't the fear of the divine that stopped her.
She was strong enough to survive the consequences of going against it.
No.
'Did I just consider killing… an innocent man?' she thought, gritting her teeth to the point her jaws started to hurt. 'No, an innocent kid?!'
There was no doubt about it. Whatever the reason, this man's face lacked the signs of hardship indicating one went through enough shit in their life to mature into a proper, reasonable adult.
Sure, there were marks of it… but nowhere near the level necessary for this kid to know better. And since he wasn't a mental adult, then what else was he if not just a kid?
And if he was just a kid, then…
'Was I seriously considering a murder of an innocent kid, a victim of terrible circumstance, who somehow gritted his teeth, gave up on his pride and actually survived a day in the Jungle of the End?!'
Selia's hands moved off from her face and to the sides, holding her head in place as she squeezed down on it, searching for pain, or rather the retribution it brought with itself.
'Even all those efforts to survive, somehow stumbling on my path, abandoning all his pride…!'
Selia's eyes turned away from the kid's peaceful face, only to lock on the now discarded empty food that he happily shared with her, her expression turning even darker.
"Just what the hell is wrong with me?!" Selia whimpered softly, her hands squeezing hard against her head while she rolled up into a ball of self-loathing.