“I hear that there is a ghostly creature inhabiting these woods that slays and devours everyone who dares to enter! Is that true?”

  The sight of an elderly man resounded like the toll of a bell. The old man looked down upon his healthy right arm, at the woods, and then back at the person who had just, a youth that wasn’t from any nearby village.

  It was clear what that young man was thinking and up to. It was always obvious.

  “Listen, Kid… I wouldn’t recommend going deep into the forest. It’s dangerous, especially since it's the season during which Behemoth Bears are accompanied by their young. They’ll tear you apart if you dare get too close or stare for too long”

  As per usual, his warnings went unheard. The youth was hearing him, but wasn’t listening in the least. How many times this exact same interaction had happened, the elder couldn’t count.

  “Come on, Old Man! I know that no one actually dies there. Everyone who went was just scared by ghosts, but was otherwise unharmed! Listen… I have a business deal for you. I am a recently promoted knight instructor from a nearby city, and I was thinking that we could turn Louwoods into a big bravery test”

  The elder raised an eyebrow. Now that was new… A bravery test? Did that mean that there would often be new people going into the forest? He thought that this should please the Woman-Beast.

  “What do you mean by… Bravery test, exactly? Something that would be part of their training regimen?”

  “Well… The bravery test would only be one part of it. I was thinking about fashioning a trail throughout the woods, making them run, climb, crawl, and all of that good stuff. Not only do I believe that pushing them in a forest environment is a good idea, but I think that the reputation of the woods and the ghostly activities could really allow us to see who has the guts to be a knight, and who needs to grow a pair”

  The old man rubbed his chin in thought, pretending to be mulling over the idea. In truth, he was just thinking about what the Woman-Beast would think of such an arrangement. He did not truly understand what she wanted or was after, but from what he had observed, she had a knack for scaring people but letting them go alive.

  In the vast majority, she seemed to only kill people whose death or disappearance would go unnoticed, strangers who were travelling alone or in small groups… People no one would miss, or people whose loved one had no way of knowing where the person had last gone.

  Anyone else, people from nearby cities, stupid kids who wanted to see who was the bravest, mediocre adventurers who thought they could defeat the so-called ‘Mother Beast’, and all of the people like them… They would get to leave alive, albeit terrified beyond belief in most cases.

  As such, despite the very real deaths that had occurred and were known about, Louwoods earned a reputation of being haunted, but generally not dangerous. This fact was highlighted since people who met their demise and were sought out would always turn out to have died because of their own inattention, or due to a bad encounter with the more dangerous wildlife.

  Such as Behemoth Bears, who, although usually non-aggressive if they didn’t have cubs, could sometimes view a person as a potential snack.

  The elder deemed that this training trail idea was a good one, but he couldn’t just agree immediately lest it seem suspicious.

  “I truly wouldn’t recommend it, but… What exactly do you offer, not only to this village, but to the other surrounding villages? Loudwoods might not be our genuine property, but we are the ones who do all of the harvesting and live here. Many will want something… People aren’t exactly thrilled about city folks coming and going all the time”

  The youthful knight instructor raised both of his hands with a slight chuckle.

  “Don’t worry! Our knight establishment isn’t poor. We could give a hefty sum to every village in the area for the right to this trail”

  Almost forgetting about his deal with a monster of steel, the old man’s eyes gleamed with greed.

  “...How much are we talking about?”

  No village refused the deal as it was quite generous. New tools would be bought using that money, speeding up the harvest of wood and essentially increasing profit for everyone, on top of allowing for renovations to certain structures, such as the places where harvest was kept.

  The knight establishment settled down their trail, which went right through the woods into a winding path… It wasn’t for the faint of heart, for certain, to complete such a trail, one would really need exceptional stamina, strength, dexterity, and determination… That was without counting the ghosts and general creepiness of the woods as well.

  For the first few months, everything went as expected. No aspiring knight was severely injured or killed whilst trying to take on Louwoods. At most, they would sprain an ankle, break a bone, or collapse from exhaustion, but that had nothing to do with the reputation of the woods.

  Though quite a lot of trainees would end up scared beyond belief, and many more injuries would be attributed to the intervention of ghosts playing tricks or distracting the trainees at unfortunate times.

  However, that was sort of the point of making this trail in the first place: To train the nerves of the young men and women who wanted to embark upon the path of knighthood. Not all knights were equal, but a knight still needed certain qualities to qualify for the genuine title.

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  Many would claim that being a knight was only about strength and wearing armour, and indeed, many who called themselves knights simply dressed up like one without having actually earned the right to call themselves one.

  But a true knight, one recognised by the nation, by the crown–Had to go through many trials and demonstrate their loyalty and their allegiance, one needed to be brave in the face of adversity, and to be able to stare death right in the eyes!

  Of course, that was easier said than done, and many ‘true’ knights did not truly fulfil these conditions, but what was truly valued the most was a certain amount of self-control and patience. Knights didn’t just wear armour in case they were hit. The suit of steel was an integral part of a knight’s combat style. It could be used to deflect and block attacks just like a shield could.

  One needed to trust in their defences and not be afraid to take a hit. Sometimes, dodging was simply the wrong or less effective option.

  With this trail, this particular knight establishment hoped to grant a certain level of impassiveness to its soft-skinned trainees. Teach them to ignore the ghosts, or accept that sometimes, if a branch or pebble was thrown at you, you should just keep moving like nothing was wrong and let it hit you.

  It seemed to be working rather well so far, but of course, such a place inevitably attracted unwise thoughts into the minds of certain trainees.

  One night, a group of several of them sneaked out. They were fresh recruits, having barely endured any training or teaching. They had been brought out to Louwoods on their first day to test their capabilities, and one of them, with enough charisma to quickly gain a voice amongst his fellows, thought it a good idea to come back to the woods at night.

  Why?

  This was certainly a question he himself did not think too deeply about…

  “Draklim… What even is the point of us being here? We're going to come to this trail eventually anyway…”

  Another knight trainee, with a better head on his shoulder–But one still not filled with enough juice to consider not following the group–Spoke up, addressing the mastermind of this plan that was doomed to probably get them in some sort of trouble.

  Insubordination was not seen kindly by any knight establishment, and sneaking out at night like a bunch of thieves certainly counted as such.

  “Is it not obvious? If we want to amount to something as knights, how can we solely rely on the teachings? A true knight is created through trials of blood and steel! Namely, through self-imposed challenges and obstacles encountered outside of a safe environment! Thus, we are going to challenge the trail that even some of our seniors can not complete to temper ourselves. That, without any instructor nearby to assist us, we can only rely on ourselves and one another, like a true group of knights!”

  As idiotic as the idea might sound, Draklim was making an awful lot of sense… And he spoke with such oomph as well! The other trainees were simply being hypnotised by his speech, full of determination. They could just feel his desire to become a knight course through them with every word.

  It also helped that Darklim already had a trained physique, and also, he was older than most of the other trainees. Most were young, still having fat on their faces. That was the norm for knight establishments. It was best to start the training and education at a young age.

  In short, Draklim had all the qualities necessary to convince his fellows to follow him into the night, walking all the way into Louwoods. They carried torches, but they knew that certain obstacles of the trail would require both of their hands, so past a certain point, they would have to make do with the faint moonlight that managed to peer through the canopy.

  “What do you all think? Should we do the trail all at once as one big team, or as separate, smaller teams?”

  He asked, and after some discussion, they decided to go with the second option, going into groups of four, and since Draklim wanted to make sure that they didn’t forget anyone once they were done, he and his group would go last to make sure that anyone who might have given up along the way was picked up.

  The last thing he would want was for his little stunt to lead another trainee to go missing inside the woods.

  He was already in the wrong for disobeying orders… So it was best not to add anything worse to it.

  As expected, some screams resounded throughout the woods as trainees were ambushed by the titular ghosts of Louwoods. It was said that there were dozens of spectres haunting the forest, but five in particular were memorable as they didn’t look like faint, translucent figures, but had distinct appearances.

  Draklim had forgotten the nicknames they had been given already, but he had heard that they were especially awful to deal with. The other spirits were more predictable and seemingly less intelligent, but the five? They were apparently a nightmare to deal with.

  The instructor who had shown the trainees around had even said that quite a few instructors struggled to deal with the five ghosts, which said a lot.

  Quickly, once his team’s turn came, they encountered a series of obstacles that forced them to abandon their torches, making everything even more difficult as they could barely see their own feet at times.

  Because of it, Draklim ended up stumbling into a pit, crashing against someone else who was already down here.

  “Ouch… My bad”

  He apologised and squinted in an attempt to recognise who it was that he had accidentally fallen on, but it was so dark, he was fairly certain that the silhouette he was seeing was just a part of his imagination.

  “I am fine” a feminine voice replied to him, instantly letting him know that it had to be the only female trainee of the group.

  “Weren’t you with the second group? Why did you stay down here?”

  “I got scared”

  “Ah… Well, don’t worry, just come with me, I’ll accompany you the rest of the way”

  He extended his hand toward her, but just as she grabbed his hand, he felt her glacial grip… Draklim realised that this didn’t make sense at all.

  Women were less common as knights in Rootiska because human women weren’t as athletic as human men, but there were plenty of other sapient species living within this kingdom, and the female trainee of this group was an ink-skinned demon. Not only was she naturally pretty strong compared to a human, but he had learned from trying to smoothly flirt with her earlier that she could actually see in the dark pretty fine.

  This particular obstacle should have been as easy as pie for her to complete, and furthermore… Her voice didn’t sound the same. He didn’t realise it immediately, as he wasn’t very familiar with her just yet, but the icy touch of that hand completely buried any notion that this could be who Draklim thought this was.

  Nonetheless, Draklim decided that he should play it cool and grasped the hand offered to him like everything was fine.

  “Let’s get out of here first, alright?”