家庭老师的姐姐

Crossing the bridge.

[Third person POV],

As Ace's teammates became more vigilant and slowly began to circulate mana in their bodies in case a fight broke out, Ace calmly observed the people who were making their way toward him and his teammates.

Though his teammates' reactions were a little strong, they all thought that it was better this way than being sorry later for not acting sooner.

There are ten people. Six men and four women were divided into two groups of five people, each with three men and two women.

However, based on the close distance between them, they appeared to be together or perhaps as a temporary team.

Ace spoke as he looked at the two groups that had both stopped exactly when the distance between them was 10 meters.

"What do you want?" Ace inquired as he observed the two groups.

"We just want to talk", A middle-aged man who appeared to be the leader of one of the groups walked out and responded to Ace.

Perhaps it was because he felt the atmosphere between his group and Ace's was too tense, and he tried to relieve it by speaking with a smile, but this only made Ace suspicious.

Ace who heard the middle-aged man reply spoke back immediately.

"Then talk," he said, as the air around both groups turned awkward.

Ace's words surprised the middle-aged man and the group of individuals behind him. They had all met direct people once or twice in their lives, but never one as direct as this. As a result, there was a brief period of silence in the air.

Because they weren't exactly whispering and were speaking in normal voices, anyone who wanted to listen to them could if they paid attention, which everyone else near the bridge did.

Perhaps because they'd been there a long time, most of them decided to divert their attention away from the bridge and listen to the conversation between Ace and the team that approached him.

Of course, they decided to listen not only because of this, but also because Anna, who had sent the crow earlier to scout what was inside the fog across the bridge, was in Ace team, so they decided to take a listen and see if they could get some information as Ace group was the first group here that took the initiative to see what was inside the fog.

The middle-aged man addressed Ace once more, taking a breath before speaking.

"We have a proposal," he stated.

"What proposal?"

"What do you think about crossing the bridge together?"

After the middle-aged man said this, there was a little stir of emotions in the heart of the people that heard this.

They'd all seen what happened to Anna, who didn't even cross the bridge but was nonetheless injured, and now someone is proposing crossing the bridge?

He has to be insane!

This was the thought that some of the people who were listening to the middle-aged man and Ace's conversation were having.

What they didn't expect was Ace's response.

"I was already planning on crossing it on my own, so why should I go with you?" Ace inquired as some of those who had just calmed their emotions felt them stir once more.

'Heavens! These people have to be insane! 'Don't they fear death?!' they wondered as they continued to listen to their conversation.

The middle-aged man had expected a question as a response, but he had not foreseen Ace's response.

After a few seconds of contemplation, the middle-aged man responded and spoke.

"As you know, the fog has the ability to cause someone to lose their sense of direction," the middle-aged man said as he paused and pointed to the fog area of the road path that led everyone present to this location, and only after Ace nodded did he speak again.

"And I believe that going back to the fog now is more dangerous since we'll be walking around aimlessly and looking at the way the world is now, perhaps we will die in that fog and not even know what killed us before we died," the middle-aged man stated.

After Ace gave a nod as a reply did he speak again.

"So, while we can't determine the danger in the fog surrounding the bridge, I believe it's far preferable to walking aimlessly in the fog with no sense of direction. At the very least, the bridge here is taking us somewhere ", the middle-aged man said, pausing to await Ace's response.

"So you want to work together to reduce the risk?" Ace inquired, to which the middle-aged man responded with a positive nod.

Ace, seeing this, asked a question.

"However, why us?" Ace inquired, adding, "There are others besides us, no?"

"We decided to team up with you guys because of the young miss there," the middle-aged man explained, pointing to Anna and adding, "I believe with her powers and the crow she commands..."

But before the man could finish, Ace had already spoken.

"So you want to test the waters with us?" Ace inquired as the face of the middle-aged man who heard this grew increasingly unappealing.

Ace was right. The middle-aged man intended to use Ace and his team to test the waters because, based on what he had seen from Anna, he thought they would be useful.

And if perhaps they were lucky enough to cross the bridge without any casualties, that would be great news for everyone.

What he didn't expect was for them to catch his motive so quickly, despite his best efforts to appear nice at first.

"So am right," Ace said, breaking the middle-aged man's reverie.

Hearing Ace's words, the middle-aged man turned more ugly as he snorted and left with his group.

Seeing this, Ace turned his attention back to the bridge, ignoring the middle-aged man and his group as a whole.

"So what do we do now?" Emma asked as he stood there observing the fog around the bridge.

Hearing her question, he spoke.

"We....