To Be a Hero

As the group took a portion of rations from one of the metal food containers, they sat on moss-covered tree roots next to the van.

Even during the night, the jungle was alive with the sounds of life.

They could hear various sounds around them, from disproportionally loud buzzing to the passing bestial cry that echoed through the dark.

These sounds were believed to be from either a Magical Creature or an Unknown, but sadly, none of them volunteered to verify this.

As long as they left their little group alone, whatever was in that jungle was of no concern to them.

While they quietly ate their pre-made MRE rations, some glanced at Blaine, who was abstaining from eating his share.

Delsie decided to take one for the team and ask him.

"Aren't you going to eat, Blaine? Are you not hungry?"

Blaine nodded his head.

"Ah, you must've already eaten. To be honest, I should have done the same… If I knew how long this mission was going to be, I would have enjoyed a nice home-cooked meal... One fit for royalty."

Remembering that Cecelia, a bonafide princess, was dining with them, Delsie faced the blue-haired girl.

"How are you holding up your highness? Sorry, we don't have anything better than standard-issue MREs for you."

Cecelia shook her head as she slowly ate her macaroni and chilli straight from the brown pouch MRE pouch.

"I'm doing quite alright. You don't need to worry about me."

There appeared to be small chunks of cooked meat in her food pouch, which were harvested from the corpses of Unknowns and Magical Creatures either killed by the army or those that they simply found dead.

The latter typically consisted of Unknowns that died from asphyxiation right after coming through a tear.

Since almost all of them possessed characteristics suited for aquatic life, many of them unceremoniously choked to death in the absence of water.

Due to the abundance of meat that the military collected from butchered creatures, much of it was either sold off or fed to the soldiers.

After all, they were a good source of protein.

Just as they ate humans, humans also ate them in turn.

Although Cecelia claimed that she was okay, truthfully, she was finding the MREs a little hard to stomach.

Not only was her chemically heated meal tasteless by her standards, but eating it out of a plastic pouch was awkward.

Furthermore, chilli mac was apparently the most popular MRE meal, with the soldiers giving her preferential treatment by leaving it to her and eating even more unpalatable meals themselves.

Some of the other soldiers were calmly eating a mashed-up yellow brick of an abomination, somehow even more horrible looking than the Rank-2 Goblin Unknowns that Blaine had killed less than a day ago.

Apparently, that nightmarish creation was supposed to be a vegetable omelette, but Cecelia refused to acknowledge it as anything more than a biohazard.

But she didn't let any of her displeasure show.

These people were all risking their lives to protect her… She had no right to act like a spoiled, entitled brat.

Thinking about this, she threw a glance in Blaine's direction and couldn't help but remember Mavis's words from the afternoon.

'I wonder how much better his cooking is… No! You aren't pathetic enough to go beg him for food!'

Internally cursing herself, Cecelia forcefully shovelled the rest of her meal and several side snacks into her MRE container.

The only thing remotely appetizing to her was the piece of dried carrot cake she had for dessert, but even that paled in comparison to the ones made by proper patissiers.

After disposing of their empty MRE bags in a garbage bag in their van, Cecelia and a few others got back into the white van.

Only two of them remained outside.

The two were Rick and Delsie.

After exchanging a tense look, they nodded their heads.

They had already returned their night-vision goggles to the van and grabbed their respective weapons instead.

Rick carried a large two-handed war hammer that was made from the bones of a Rank 2 Goblin, while Delsie's sleek rapier was made from the claw of a particularly sizable Rank 2 Imp.

However, unlike Rick, Delsie also wore white soundproof earmuffs that rested on her neck.

Taking a step forward, they both walked into the tunnel's entrance, feeling like they were walking into the maw of a large, horrifying monster.

As the two walked ahead, the van came up behind them. Once it had sufficiently entered the tunnel, its front lights turned on, sufficiently illuminating their surroundings.

Just as the van completely entered the tunnel, Rick took a quick second to close the entrance behind them, lest something or someone discover their tunnel and follow them in.

They last needed to be caught unexpectedly in a pincer attack.

Once that was taken care of, Rick rejoined Delsie as the two walked a short distance ahead of the slowly moving van.

Their job was to intercept anything lurking in these tunnels and ensure they didn't damage the van.

If the van were somehow damaged, they would need to drop a sizable portion of their supplies without a way to continue carrying them.

The two would keep protecting the van for about an hour before they were substituted for the next pair. With the exception of Princess Cecelia, who was a combatant, the other six would continue cycling through the three pairs every three hours.

It just so happened that Rick and Delsie were the first such pair.

At their estimated speed, it would take the group at least three to four days of non-stop driving to reach their designated exit, so each pair would have more than their fair share of work, not even including the fact that some of them may become injured, incapacitated, or worse.

They had no idea how strong the cave dwellers were or what abilities they might possess.

Luckily, they just happened to have a prototype invention courtesy of the princess.

As Rick and Delsie tensely observed the headlight-illuminated expanse of the tunnel, they gripped their weapons tightly.

Who knew what abominations hid in the dark, anxiously waiting for their group to draw closer?

And such… It wasn't long before they encountered their first battle.