Chapter : 226

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Ken, who had been shuffling along at the back of the group, was having his own struggles. His cheap shoes were sinking into the mud with every step, and he had to pull each foot out with a loud, disgusting sucking sound. "My shoes are ruined," he groaned. "These were my only good shoes. I loved these shoes."

"You have seven pairs of identical cheap shoes," Naomi said without turning around.

"Yes, and I loved all of them. This pair the most." Ken lifted his foot and watched mud drip off his shoe like brown honey. "I am going to write a very angry letter to the jungle management."

And then there were the beasts. The first one came from the left, a creature the size of a large dog with scales like wet leaves and teeth like broken glass. Ira's water whip sent it yelping into the undergrowth. But more came. A serpent made of shadow and moss. A bird with feathers like razor blades. A lump of animate mud that Zinia had to punch into submission.

Each encounter cost them time and energy. The beasts were relentless, appearing every thirty minutes or so, as if the jungle itself was testing them. Pushing them. Seeing how far they would go before they broke.

Ken, true to form, contributed absolutely nothing to the beast fights. He hid behind trees, yelped dramatically whenever something came near him, and once tripped over his own feet while running away from a particularly aggressive beetle. Nobody was surprised. Nobody expected anything else from him.

Hours passed. The jungle seemed to go on forever, dark and endless and hostile. Sayma's maps were useless. The terrain shifted. Paths that should have existed were blocked. Landmarks had vanished. The jungle was rewriting itself around them, making sure they stayed lost.

By late afternoon, morale had hit absolute rock bottom.

The team was spread thin across a narrow jungle path. Laxmi's flames had sputtered out an hour ago, replaced by a deep, exhausted scowl. Zinia's usually solid stance was starting to waver. Even Ira's precise, mechanical movements had slowed by a fraction.

They had found absolutely no sign of human civilization. No footprints. No campfires. No broken branches. No carved markers. Nothing. The jungle was empty of everything except mud, vines, and things that wanted to bite them.

Sayma sat on a fallen log, her notebook closed in her lap, her glasses in her hand. She was massaging her temples with a look of quiet, frustrated defeat. "The geographical data from the encyclopedia was too vague," she admitted. "Without specific coordinates or landmarks, we are essentially searching blind."

"We are not searching blind," Iris said firmly. "We know the tribe is in this jungle somewhere. We know the Glayin deer is here. We just need to keep moving."

"Moving where?" Laxmi grumbled. "We have been moving all day and we are still in the middle of nowhere."

Naomi wiped the sweat from her forehead with a dirty hand. She was completely frustrated, her jaw tight, her green eyes scanning the endless green walls on every side. "Finding a mythical deer and a hidden tribe in a jungle this massive is a totally impossible task," she said flatly.

Nobody argued with her. Because nobody could.

---

Princess Iris was about to call for a rest when Ken Eliot let out a loud, highly obnoxious yawn. It was the kind of yawn that started in his toes and worked its way up through his entire body, making him stretch and shudder and groan.

Everyone turned to glare at him. Even Ira, whose facial expressions rarely changed, managed to convey a subtle sense of deep annoyance through the slight narrowing of her pale eyes.

"What?" Ken said defensively, rubbing his eyes. "I am tired. We have been walking for approximately one million years. My legs are made of sadness. My feet are crying."

"Your feet are not crying," Naomi snapped. "Your mouth is crying. It never stops."

Ken ignored her completely. Instead, he reached lazily into the inside pocket of his expensive navy blue suit jacket. His fingers rummaged around for a moment, pushing aside what felt like candy wrappers and old receipts, before finally closing around something small and folded.

He pulled it out. It was a small, hand-drawn map tucked inside a worn leather-bound journal. The paper was old and yellowed, but the ink was still clear and legible. Detailed lines marked rivers, ridges, and paths through a dense forest.

And right in the middle of the map, drawn in bright red ink that stood out like a beacon, was a large, unmistakable X.

"Hey, guys," Ken mumbled lazily, pointing a finger at the red X on the paper. "This book says the Dimitri tribe usually camps near the weeping waterfall just a few miles east of here."

The entire unit stopped in their tracks. Complete, absolute silence fell over the group. Every single person stared at Ken with wide eyes and open mouths.

Sayma was the first to recover. She pushed her glasses up with shaking fingers and stepped closer, her eyes locked on the map in Ken's hands. "Where did you get that?" she asked, her voice strained and controlled.

"This?" Ken held up the leather-bound journal and flipped it open. Inside, the pages were filled with handwritten notes, sketches, and detailed geographical observations. "Oh, I borrowed it from Prince Hephaestus's private library."

"You borrowed it," Naomi repeated slowly. Her voice was dangerously calm.

"Yeah," Ken said, completely oblivious to the storm brewing in front of him. "You know how his engineers were all distracted by that big iron-bound encyclopedia? The one they were all freaking out about? Well, while they were busy with that, I kind of slipped into the back room and grabbed this."

He smiled his goofy, totally relaxed smile. "Thought it might come in handy."

Naomi's face went through about seven different emotions in the span of three seconds. Shock. Disbelief. Rage. More rage. Even more rage. And then a kind of cold, focused fury that made the air around her shimmer.

"You stole it," Naomi said. Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it carried more weight than a shout. "You stole a book from a Royal Prince's private library."

"Borrowed," Ken corrected helpfully. "I was going to give it back. Eventually. Probably."

Naomi lunged at him.

Ken yelped and scrambled backward, tripping over a root and falling on his backside in the mud. Naomi grabbed the front of his suit jacket and hauled him up to eye level. Her green eyes were blazing with a fire that could have roasted a whole cow.

"Ken Eliot, you absolute idiot!" Naomi hissed, shaking him. "Do you have any idea what happens to people who steal from royalty? You could be executed! You could be imprisoned! You could start a diplomatic incident!"

"But the map works," Ken squeaked, his head bobbing back and forth as she shook him. "Look at the red X! That is where the tribe is! We needed this!"

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