Charade

Leroy shuddered as he stared at the four men gathered around each other, and then he quickly increased his pace towards Harry.

The three men had already noticed Leroy but strangely, all they did was smile.

Quickly arriving in front of Harry, Leroy recounted what he had seen on his way here.

"So you saw three others standing together with Weltist, laughing and joking together with the same strangeness around them as Weltist himself?" Harry asked on reflex as he thought about the situation that had appeared right in front of them.

"Yes, they felt just like him. As if they were faking their emotions completely" Leroy answered with conviction that what he saw was the truth.

Harry stood there in silence for a few moments.

'This forest really is cursed or something isn't it?' Harry thought.

Finally sighing, Harry crossed his hands in front of his chest and said.

"We can't confront them at the moment, it's dangerous to cause a commotion in this accursed forest we have found ourselves in. Let's wait until we get out of here first, however, remember to always be on guard against them, no don't even go close to them or let them get in close proximity with you" Harry said to Leroy, he had already made a plan in his head with how to deal with the irregulars it seemed.

Leroy just nodded his head and headed towards his spot next to the driver.

Arriving at his spot, he sat down and stared at the road ahead of them, waiting for the driver to start the trek through the woods once more.

A few minutes later, everyone got in their positions and the carriage started moving.

Just like yesterday, Leroy started looking around him for anything suspicious but he found nothing besides some random rabbits, squirrels, and the random deer on the horizon which disappeared quickly behind the cover of trees.

Their journey continued the same just like the last day with nothing strange happening around them.

And just like yesterday, when night came, Harry ordered the group to stop and camp out the night.

During the entire trek, Leroy had been staring at the three men and Weltist and he had noticed a couple of things.

'If I look at them, they will feel it as if I'm touching them physically and will quickly locate my position.' Leroy thought as he went inside his tent, laying down on his makeshift bed once more.

'Second, their senses have been increased overall by severalfold, they react to even the tiniest noises, though they tried to hide their reactions from the others.' Leroy continued to think as he came to the last strangeness he had noticed.

'They aren't eating, they act as if they are but through the entire day they simply bit off the dried jerky, and then when they thought no one was noticing they spit it out. I managed to notice this without them noticing me by simply not looking at their physical body but by looking at the entire area around them.' Leroy thought as he finally came to a conclusion.

'They aren't human, that's become quite clear now, but what are they?' Leroy thought as shivers went down his entire body by simply thinking of the monsters in human skin.

Huffing out, his breath formed a little mist. The nights were still quite cold inside the forest.

'I need to sleep otherwise I won't be in my best condition tomorrow.' Leroy thought as he tried to sleep but he just couldn't manage to.

The entire night went and morning came but sleep didn't come to Leroy.

Finally, when Leroy noticed sounds coming from the other side of the tent, he opened his eyes and stood up as well.

"You're awake early today, good," Harry said as he nodded toward Leroy in satisfaction.

Leroy just nodded and started getting ready for another day.

A few minutes later Harry went outside the tent and Leroy started packing it up once more, finishing his job much more quickly this time, having already gotten used to doing it.

Finally, with his job done and the tent placed in its compartment in the carriage, Leroy turned back and started walking towards his place once more.

Leroy Looked around him just as he had done yesterday to notice anything different and indeed things had changed once more.

With Weltist included, there were now seven people showing irregular behavior.

"That basically means half of the group," Leroy said in a whisper to himself.

'The only ones left are me, Harry, Gorkuis, Ordio, Jakins, Henry, Jakob, and one archer.' 

Leroy thought as his expression turned grim, his face dark.

'That means that anyone that was on the outer circle was basically turned and only those that were closer to the carriage were spared. We don't have any more time.' Leroy thought as he changed his direction and headed towards Jakob.

"Hey Jakob, how long until we get out of the forest?" Leroy questioned in a whisper once he arrived.

"Huh, Leroy? Well, it should be in another day and a half or so." Jakobs replied to Leroy, confused as to why the boy was whispering.

Leroy simply nodded as he headed towards the front of the carriage, to Harry.

Arriving there, he motioned with his head as discreetly as possible for Harry to come closer.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, seriousness oozing from his body as even he had noticed the much larger number of people around Weltist.

"We don't have time, if things go like they have been then tomorrow a lot more people will be turned, and most if not all of us that are left will become like them," Leroy whispered.

"I see, so that's why you talked with Jakob, how far away is the exit of the forest?" Harry asked as he nodded slowly, his eyes darting around to see if any of the irregulars would approach them.

"He said one and a half days and we don't have that much time," Leroy replied, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.

"All right, I'm going to talk with the heir and explain the situation to him. We will end this today in the afternoon. What I want you to do is walk alongside us today and go around during the trek and tell all the others that are still normal the plan, make sure you do this before the sun reaches its highest point." Harry said as he turned to walk towards the side of the carriage.

Leroy nodded as his eyes turned icy.

It was time to finally end this charade.