The Shield Rolled Before the Nest
The western path was quieter than the northern path.
But that silence did not mean safety.
Mirea paused her steps every three paces, and Neris, whenever she spotted scratches on the tree bark, traced the direction with her finger instead of writing on her observation board.
Both had grown quiet.
The two, who had been bickering over scents and maps just moments ago, were now moving in sync, as if filling in each other's blanks.
Observing this shift, Cerise adjusted their formation.
"Keep it down. If the vanguard stops, everyone stops."
Dorman pulled his shield closer to his chest.
"Should I hold my breath too?"
"If you can."
Ben spoke in a low voice.
"Even your shield sounds like it's breathing."
Dorman looked down at his shield with a deadpan expression.
"I'll tell it to be careful."
Lya swallowed her laughter and looked at Ronan's wrist. It was the hand he had used to repeatedly manifest his Phantom Sword as they passed the ember buckets and trail markers. Though it looked fine on the surface, she knew that the more Ronan insisted he was fine, the less fine he actually was.
"Your fingertips are trembling."
Ronan stretched out his fingers.
"It's just the wind."
"The wind isn't making Neris's board shake."
Neris immediately held up her board.
"My board is not shaking."
Ronan chuckled.
"Calling a witness is cheating."
Instead of replying, Lya folded a handkerchief in half and wrapped it around the back of his hand. It wasn't a tight knot like a bandage. It just lightly covered his knuckles.
"If you overexert yourself, it'll come undone immediately. That's how I'll know."
Cerise glanced at them from the side.
"Is that a monitoring device?"
"It's a medical device."
"Practically the same thing."
Just then, Mirea raised her hand.
Everyone froze.
A very faint breathing sound echoed from the forest floor. It wasn't human. It was a tiny, trembling breath beneath the damp grass—the breath of a creature whose lungs had grown faster than its teeth.
Mirea moved only her lips.
"A nest."
Ronan lowered his head.
Through the bushes, he saw a circular depression of dry leaves. Inside, three monster cubs were huddled together. Their ears were still folded, and thin spikes sprouted along their backs. One of them twitched, its nose snuffling.
Lya's expression shifted instantly.
"They're hurt."
"Don't go near them,"
Mirea whispered softly.
"If you leave a human scent on a wounded cub, the mother won't distinguish between treatment and an attack."
Lya's hand hovered over her herb pouch.
She was someone who acted first whenever she saw the injured. But this time, she didn't take a step forward. Biting her lip, she merely stared at the cub's flank.
"Their breathing is shallow but steady. Touching them now would probably be more dangerous."
Mirea gave a brief nod.
Cerise surveyed the path. To the left of the bushes lay dry roots; to the right, a muddy ledge. If they wanted to bypass it quietly, the right side was slower but safer.
"We bypass. Ben, widen the gap at the rear. Dorman, keep your shield up. It's for concealment, not blocking."
Dorman raised his shield.
"Understood. I will block the nest from view."
"Don't block the cubs, block our rear."
Cerise's gaze drifted toward the forest behind them.
The red-band team, having returned from the northern path, was tailing them from a distance. They couldn't hide their mud-stained ankles, and they still clutched the pieces of bark they had gathered. Yet, the light in their eyes hadn't faded.
Shame did not automatically translate into self-reflection.
Ronan muttered, looking in their direction.
"They're carrying something else."
Neris narrowed her eyes.
"A spare shield. It has the training ground mark on the rim. It's a round shield originally used to block falling debris."
"Why are they carrying a shield around in the forest?"
Mirea's voice sank.
"To roll it."
Before she could even finish her sentence, a dull thud echoed from behind the bushes.
A round shield came rolling down the slope.
It was slow at first.
But after bouncing off a dry root, it gained momentum. Every time the shield's iron rim struck a rock, it let out a sharp clang, and the sound rolled straight toward the nest.
Lya's face turned pale.
"It's heading for the nest."
Dorman prepared to spring forward.
"I'll block it!"
Cerise grabbed his shoulder.
"If you crash into it, the noise will double!"
Ben lowered his spear shaft.
"What if we push it aside?"
"If we hit it wrong, it'll bounce straight into the nest."
Ronan stared at the shield.
If I break it, shrapnel will fly.
If I stop it, it'll make a loud impact.
If I push it, it might still graze the nest.
Suppressed snickers drifted from the direction the shield had been rolled. The red-band cadets, who had been left speechless back on the northern path, were hiding behind the trees. Their faces showed they believed that once the shield hit the nest, Ronan's team would bear the brunt of the mother monster's wrath.
One of them muttered in a tiny whisper.
"Try blocking that, you failure."
Before the words even fully left his mouth, the air in the forest shifted.
A low growl echoed from the distance.
The mother.
Though she was not yet in sight, heavy footsteps reverberated through the damp earth. One of the cubs raised its head in response to the sound. The shield kept rolling.
Lya gasped.
"If the cub moves, it'll get hit."
Cerise's hand went to her scabbard.
"Ronan."
There was no question in that single word.
Nor was it an order.
It meant she was leaving the field to him.
Ronan looked at the knot of the handkerchief on the back of his hand. The monitoring device Lya had tied fluttered ever so slightly. He didn't clench his fingers. Instead, he relaxed his grip.
"I won't break it."
Mirea looked up.
"Then what?"
"I'll make it turn back."
A Phantom Sword materialized in the air.
It was just a single blade.
But that single blade pressed precisely against the rolling shield's center of gravity.
The force didn't vanish.
Only the direction changed.
For the first time, the edges of the blade barely trembled.
The blade wasn't large. However, a thin centerline stood straight within it. As the dim forest light touched the line, a brief white afterglow lingered before vanishing.
Neris held her breath.
"The centerline."
Lya didn't speak. Instead, she gently pressed down on the handkerchief on Ronan's hand with her fingertips to keep it from slipping. Feeling the warmth of her touch, Ronan focused on the iron rim of the shield.
One point.
Half an inch.
For a rolling object, angle mattered more than force.
The Phantom Sword didn't block the front of the shield. It merely scraped the bottom right of the rim, right where it met the ground.
Screeech.
The metal shrieked faintly.
The shield's rotation skewed.
The rolling circle, which had been heading straight for the nest, veered to the side. It didn't even graze the cubs. It merely flipped a single dry leaf and curved along the muddy ledge outside the nest.
The laughter of the red-band team cut short.
"Huh?"
The shield didn't stop.
Instead, it rolled back up along the side slope of the hill. It followed a slightly different trajectory than the path it had come down. Each time the scraped iron rim bit into the dirt, the circle curved wider.
Cerise immediately shouted.
"Everyone, fall back. Quietly."
This time, no one argued.
Dorman raised his shield to block Lya's line of sight. Ben pressed down on dry branches with his spear shaft to prevent them from snapping. Mirea crouched low on the opposite side of the nest, calculating the mother's line of sight. Neris traced the faint residual line left by Ronan's Phantom Sword with her eyes, then shut her observation board as if suppressing the urge to look closer.
The shield slammed into a tree root.
Crash!
The sound erupted not near the nest, but right where the red-band team was hiding.
The ground beneath the thick root must have been hollow. The dirt wall collapsed under the impact, sending the three cadets hiding behind the tree tumbling down together.
Mud splashed everywhere.
"Agh!"
"Shut up!"
"You're the one who pushed me!"
They tumbled over each other. The noise they had tried to inflict on Ronan's team was now bursting from their own throats.
And then, the mother monster raised her head.
Two yellow eyes glared through the bushes. She was as large as a horse, with thick spikes lining her back just like her cubs. The mother looked not toward Ronan's team, but toward the muddy pit where the noise had originated.
Mirea spoke, barely moving her lips.
"Don't make eye contact."
Lya looked at the nest.
The cubs were safe. Even the injured one curled up, perhaps recognizing its mother's scent. Lya's shoulders relaxed slightly.
Ronan didn't miss her relief.
"Are you okay?"
"What about the cubs?"
"I asked about you."
Lya stared at him for a moment. Then, she tapped the back of his hand where the handkerchief was tied.
"Patients shouldn't ask questions. Just follow me."
Ronan almost laughed but held it in.
Cerise lowered her hand.
"Continue the detour. Our goal right now isn't to win, but to slip away."
Those were words the old Cerise would never have spoken.
The girl who used to charge forward just to make up for mistakes was now the first to order a retreat. Hearing the command, Dorman lowered his shield further. Ben cleared the path ahead without looking back.
The red-band team struggled to stand in the muddy pit.
But when the mother monster let out another low growl, they all froze. One of them still had the leather strap used to roll the shield wrapped around his hand. Inside the shield, the Royal Academy of Knights spare shield mark was clearly visible, along with their team's red band tied to it.
The evidence hadn't rolled away.
It was planted right at their feet.
Instructor Hagen's voice fell coldly from behind the trees.
"Do not move."
He had already arrived, accompanied by two assistant instructors holding bows. He didn't aim his weapon at the mother monster. Instead, he stood between the muddy pit and the nest, spreading his cloak to prevent the human scent from spreading further.
"Who rolled the shield?"
The red-band cadets looked at one another.
No one spoke first.
But the shield answered for them. On its rim was the half-inch scratch left by Ronan's Phantom Sword, and caught at the end of that scratch was their red band.
Hagen looked down at the shield.
"When you roll danger toward another, the forest does not ask for directions. It simply goes toward the sound."
He gestured with his chin toward the red-band team.
"Do not even think about leaving that pit until roll call. Once the mother retreats, you will carry back the shield you rolled with your own hands."
"Instructor, we didn't mean to—"
The mother monster growled low.
The cadet shut his mouth instantly.
That silence was the forest's final verdict.
Meanwhile, Ronan's team bypassed the muddy ledge. They were late. It was much farther than the northern path, and the detour kept catching their ankles. Yet, no one complained.
Only after they were far enough from the nest did Lya let out a long sigh.
"We survived."
"The cubs?" Ronan asked.
Lya glared at him.
"Everyone."
Mirea chuckled as she stepped over a branch.
"For someone who doesn't smell like the city, you're pretty good at retreating."
Cerise immediately spoke up.
"I was the one who ordered the retreat."
"Then the knightly scent isn't so heavy either."
Cerise didn't reply, but she didn't look displeased.
Neris was staring at the back of Ronan's hand.
"The trembling at the edges of the Phantom Sword has decreased. The centerline remained stable when you altered the shield's contact angle, and though the afterglow was brief, it was clearer than before."
"You can breathe while you talk, you know."
"If I don't write it down now, I'll forget."
Lya untied the handkerchief.
The knot hadn't slipped at all.
Only after confirming this did she let out a small smile.
"You pass this time."
Ronan went to hand the handkerchief back, then stopped.
"Can I borrow this a bit longer?"
The tips of Lya's ears turned slightly red.
"It's not even bloody."
"It's covered in smoke, mud, and monster scent. Let's call it today's record."
Neris looked up.
"It is only logical that I manage the records."
Lya gripped the edge of the handkerchief tightly.
"No. This is a medical supply."
Mirea chimed in from the side.
"It could also work as a scent sample."
"Absolutely not."
Cerise spoke curtly from the front.
"Enough chatter. Maintain formation."
Yet, the corners of her mouth had softened slightly as well.
From behind, they could faintly hear the red-band team being reprimanded in the muddy pit. Unable to retrieve the shield, they remained flat on the ground until the mother monster picked up her cubs and moved deeper into the forest.
Someone asked them.
"Why are you guys down there?"
No answer came.
Instead, a mud-covered shield slowly rolled to a stop at the edge of the pit.
This time, no one laughed.
Ronan's team arrived late.
But no one could look down on them.
The shield rolled before the nest had failed to wake the cubs, leaving only the hands that had pushed the danger exposed under the forest's watchful gaze.