I woke up early that morning feeling tired. Last night, we adopted a system that essentially had one of our promoted units with a team of soldiers keeping watch on rotation. Even so, I didn't feel safe and barely managed to get any sleep. Ugh, I wonder if they have coffee here. Maybe I should ask Phildina about it, I thought to myself as I groggily rubbed my eyes and got up from bed. Venturing out of the tent, I saw Lucia keeping watch with some soldiers a few yards away. She must have been st on the list, I thought to myself as I started to approach her.

  "Oh, Daphne! Good morning," She spotted and greeted me warmly.

  "Good morning, Lucia. Did you sleep well?" I asked.

  "N-not really," She answered while averting her gaze. I wouldn't pretend that I knew all that much about her, but I was starting to figure out her mannerisms.

  "Is there... something you want to tell me?" I asked and at this, she turned to me with a surprised look and nodded.

  "Yes," She answered, still looking a bit unsure about what she was going to say. "It's about Matilda."

  "Oh?" Matilda? This is going to be juicy. But it wasn't the gossip I was expecting to hear.

  "I suspect she has a special, intrinsic magic that allows her to catch glimpses of the future," Lucia expined.

  "So, like, precognition?" I asked, but Lucia furrowed her brow at this unfamiliar word, asking,

  "Precog—what?"

  "Never mind. Please continue," I said, not wanting to expin comic book heroes and superpowers to her.

  "Um, okay," I could tell she wanted to pursue the matter. Still, by some impressive feat of self-control, she managed to put aside her questions and continue, "When she talked about 'bad vibes,' I'm willing to bet she saw something about this forest that was... unsettling, something dangerous, maybe even deadly."

  "How can you be so sure?" I asked.

  "Because she has been right about these things many times before," She said with a grave expression. Lucia discussed Matilda's previous feats at length, recounting how she told them not to take the mission where they would encounter the Cyclops. "We all ignored her and paid for it dearly. I wouldn't want history to repeat itself," She said with a sad look on her face.

  I couldn't afford to remain skeptical when I heard this. I'm in a video game world with monsters and magic, so I might as well believe anything at this point. I was always quick to adapt, but now, I needed greater adaptability, especially if I wanted to come out of this alive. What exactly did she see? And what can we do differently to prevent such a fate? I wondered and just then, the idea hit me."Why don't we ask her directly about what she saw?" I asked. Going back now is impossible, so we'll determine the best way forward with her help...

  "I once tried asking her about her ability, but it seemed like she wanted to avoid talking about it."

  "Well, we'll get her to spill the beans today!" I decred proudly. Don't worry, I have ways of making people talk, I thought with a devious smile.

  "Don't get any weird ideas!" Lucia said with an exasperated look on her face. Nooo, she's learning to read my mind! But in all seriousness, I would try to be nicer to her this time. So, with that resolve in mind, we got Batti, who had recently woken up to take our pce before walking up to Matilda's door.

  "Hello? Is anyone there?" I asked with a knock.

  "D-Daphne?" I heard a surprised voice come from the other side of the door.

  "Can we come in?" I asked.

  "Y-yeah," She answered after a few moments. We opened the white door to see her looking at us intently from her bed. Her hair was messy, and she had several bags under her eyes. Guess I'm not the only one who didn't sleep well, I thought, but she chose that moment to ask an interesting question, "You're here to ask me about my dream, right?"

  "Y-yes, we came to ask you about what you saw" I answered, a bit startled by her question. How did she know? But that was only the beginning of the surprises.

  "I'm willing to cooperate with you this time," She said. "I understand you don't want to waste time or supplies and that I was probably being unreasonable when I asked you to turn back."

  "No, i-it's fine," I tried to speak, but she wouldn't allow me.

  "Please, could you find it in your heart to forgive me?" Hmm, now that I've gotten a good look at her face, she's really cute, I thought to myself as I gazed into her eyes. Before long, my mind wandered into forbidden territory, and I almost felt like spping myself, thinking, What's wrong with me? We came here to discuss matters of life and death! This is no time to be horny!

  "Yes, I forgive you," I answered, perfectly masking my inner turmoil with a smile.

  "Thank you," She said, relief written all over her face. She must have a really strong conscience, I thought to myself as she moved on to the main topic of discussion, "In the dream, we were ambushed by a monster. I couldn't remember if it was a Cerberus or a Queen Spider, but it attacked us at night, killing Daphne, who was struggling to stay awake by that time. From there, everything fell apart, and I remember being covered in blood as the monster turned to look at me. I felt like I couldn't even breathe as it charged at me, and that was when I woke up." Hmm, struggling to stay awake. Interesting... The silence persisted for a while after this, but I eventually came to a satisfactory conclusion: Acting hastily here would probably cost us our lives.

  "Thank you for sharing this with us, Matilda. You've saved us all," I said, truly convinced of that fact.

  "What are we going to do now?" Matilda asked with a worried look on her face.

  "Well, I'll start by going back to sleep, and I recommend you do the same." I'd never forgive myself if I died and took everyone with me because of that. "Also, I think we'll start moving by night and sleeping during the day. I'll work out a few more details and tell you guys about them ter, but thank you once again, Matilda. I really needed to hear this."

  "No, I mean, I'm gd you're actually... listening to me. No one takes me seriously when I say these things, so it's a first for me." The way she spoke while fidgeting around shyly pulled at my heartstrings differently from any of the girls I'd met so far. I left her room thinking, She's the type who triggers a desire to protect in everyone she meets. I mean, it was appropriate for a healer, but Damn, even I'm kinda falling for it. I would try my best to sleep well this time. After that, we'll be the ones ambushing the monsters, I thought to myself as I entered my room.