The inside of the Silver Moon Order was quiet.
Most people had fallen asleep,
and only the diminished bustle of the day remained.
At the end of the corridor, Mendel was waiting for them.
And when they stepped under the light, Mendel’s face was the first to harden.
“Ah… Lady Sienna….”
Mendel’s gaze fixed on Bido’s and Sienna’s hems.
Traces of dried blood.
Bido saw Mendel’s breath catch for an instant.
Mendel’s hands moved first.
He pulled out a cloth and took hold of Bido’s sleeve,
then immediately froze.
Sienna said,
“Mendel. Lord Rangnan.”
Mendel hurriedly nodded.
“Ah… he should still be in the meeting room. He was waiting for Lady Miryeong and Lord Bido.”
Sienna asked nothing more and walked straight toward the meeting room.
Bido also gave Mendel a brief bow,
then followed Miryeong and Sienna.
—
The meeting room door opened.
“Lord Rangnan.”
Sienna’s voice was not loud.
At that single word, Rangnan and Yun exhaled at the same time.
It seemed like relief,
or perhaps like the release of tension they had been holding back.
Rangnan said,
“Good. Sienna. You’re unharmed.”
Sienna immediately said,
“Thanks to Miryeong and this—”
Beside her, Miryeong interjected in a very small voice.
“Bido.”
Without even taking a breath, Sienna corrected herself.
“Thanks to Bido. Bido helped me escape.”
Only then did Bido realize it.
Right now, Sienna’s face—
looked just a little less cold than it had in the warehouse.
Sienna took several sheets of paper from her robes and spread them out on the table.
Bido recognized them.
They were the posters and wanted notices he had seen in Rendall’s shop.
Rangnan slowly looked over the papers.
“Good. Sit down first.”
Even as Sienna sat in a chair, she did not wait before continuing.
“Lord Rangnan. Lord Yun. This isn’t the end of it.”
The air in the meeting room tightened once more.
Everyone looked at Sienna.
Sienna spoke in a low voice.
“When I was behind the bars… there were things the military police said in front of me.”
“They said the council requested support from the Empire.”
As if he had expected it, Rangnan gave the faintest nod.
He was not surprised.
Rather, as if confirming it, he tapped the edge of the table once with his fingertip.
“However.”
Sienna continued.
“Some of the councilors opposed it. Even in a situation like this.”
“They may not have gained support… but there are still those who are reluctant to let the Empire set foot here to the very end.”
Without raising his gaze, Rangnan looked over the papers once again.
Yun quietly exhaled.
It looked like a brief moment of relief.
There was a crack.
Sienna did not stop there.
“And right now, Arku is under a blockade order.”
“Inspections have been strengthened, and they do not hesitate to carry out surprise searches. Information gathering will be difficult for the time being.”
Rangnan said lowly,
“I see.”
That single phrase was not despair, but organization.
“That is why I sent Miryeong and Bido.”
Miryeong clenched her teeth.
“What are we going to do now, Rangnan?”
“Are we supposed to just keep taking it like this?”
The air in the meeting room tightened once more.
Rangnan spoke first.
“No.”
It was decisive.
Because it was short, it was all the more decisive.
As if taking up that decisiveness, Yun said,
“We will not let things flow the way they want.”
The air in the meeting room was still taut.
The notices on the table lay spread out silently,
and the ink on those papers seemed to create a weight like a real crime.
Rangnan lowered his gaze for a moment,
then looked at Bido.
“In the end, it’s that.”
Rangnan said.
“The reason the Empire is going this far… is because of that sword you possess.”
Bido inhaled.
Miryeong’s brows moved faintly.
Sienna’s expression was blank,
but at those words, she lowered her gaze by the slightest degree.
Rangnan continued.
“The explosion is the pretext, and the target is the Silver Moon Order.”
“But their true purpose lies elsewhere.”
Rangnan tapped the table once with his finger.
“They intend to drag this into a conflict of group against group,”
“fix everyone here as the ‘enemy’…”
“and in that opening, take the sword.”
Miryeong clenched her teeth.
“Then we have even more reason to stop—”
“Not stop them.”
Rangnan cut off Miryeong’s words.
His voice was low, but firm.
“We turn it against them.”
Yun quietly nodded.
Then he added,
“Lord Rangnan is right.”
“What the Empire wants is to solidify the board in the form of a ‘war.’”
“If that happens, both the council and the citizens will have fewer choices.”
Rangnan tilted his head slightly to the side.
“Right. But that side has limits too.”
“No army can keep its troops tied down in another country for long.”
Yun naturally took over.
“The longer the garrison remains, the greater the cost becomes. Requisitions, encampments, clashes over public order… there is no way Arku will quietly accept it.”
“And the fact that there are ‘opposing councilors,’ as Sienna said, means there is already a crack.”
Sienna said briefly,
“That’s right. The opposition faction is weak… but it has not disappeared.”
Rangnan seized upon those words.
“We will make that crack grow wider.”
“If the Empire fails to produce results, Arku will be the first to turn away.”
Bido asked quietly,
“Making them… fail to produce results means…”
Rangnan shifted his gaze.
This time, he looked not at the notices, but over the people in the room.
“It means we do not fight them head-on.”
Miryeong leaned forward as if pushing her chair back.
“You mean we’re going to hide again?”
Rangnan looked straight at Miryeong.
“We’re not hiding. We’re splitting them apart.”
Yun explained a little more gently, but clearly.
“When the Empire arrives in Arku, they will send out search parties in several directions under the pretext of ‘rooting out the Silver Moon Order.’”
“They will most likely be composed of small numbers of priests, knights, and soldiers.”
“They must produce results in order to maintain the justification for their garrison.”
Rangnan took over.
“So what we have to do is simple.”
“We keep striking those search parties. So they cannot produce results. And so they are worn down.”
“We move with small elite groups.”
“Do not think of winning. The goal is to exhaust them.”
Rangnan opened his palm.
Four fingers spread out, then slowly folded.
“Avoid large battles.”
“Ambushes and raids.”
“Erase our traces, then appear somewhere else again.”
Yun nodded and added,
“If we do that, the Empire will lose two things at once.”
“First, because the search parties fail to produce results, the justification for their internal garrison will weaken.”
“Second, the longer the garrison continues, the more resistance will grow within Arku. The opposition faction in the council will also gain strength.”
Sienna said lowly,
“If the blockade drags on… the citizens will be the first to explode.”
Rangnan continued,
“Right. That is the direction we want.”
Bido asked cautiously,
“Then… what about the false charges against us?”
The meeting room fell silent for a moment.
Bido realized he had asked a strange question.
But he could not stop himself.
Rangnan answered,
“Clearing the false charge of the explosion comes later.”
It was like a single stroke of a blade.
“Right now, there are two things.”
“Not letting the sword be taken.”
“And ensuring the Silver Moon Order survives.”
Bido’s hand clenched his robe of its own accord.
The word “sword” tightened around his throat again.
Miryeong said lowly,
“Then Bido…?”
Rangnan fixed his gaze on Bido.
“Bido will not move.”
Bido raised his eyes in surprise.
Rangnan spoke without wavering.
“If you go outside now, the Empire will reach its conclusion faster.”
“If the hand holding the sword becomes visible, that side will hurry the war along.”
Yun immediately added,
“Lord Bido is currently the ‘target.’”
“If the target moves, the enemy will concentrate their forces.”
“Conversely, if the target disappears, the enemy will have to search more widely.”
“That widening… will give us time.”
Bido bit his lip.
The words telling him not to move
also sounded like they were saying he was useless.
At that moment, Sienna looked at Bido.
Her voice was short and cold.
“It doesn’t mean you should just sit still.”
When Bido raised his gaze,
Sienna continued.
“It means you should hide. Remain in a state where you ‘cannot be found.’”
Miryeong suddenly said,
“Then what are we supposed to use to strike and withdraw?”
Rangnan answered,
“Our own way.”
Yun added the specifics.
“If we move large numbers of people, we will be caught immediately.”
“It is the way we have always operated. Only… this time, it is not against a ‘city,’ but against an ‘army.’”
Rangnan nodded.
“Right. A shadow war.”
When those words fell into the meeting room, everyone felt their weight.
It meant that the Silver Moon Order’s original, breathless battle of “shadows”
would now transform into the shape of “war.”
Rangnan delivered the conclusion.
“We make time our ally.”
Yun drove in the final nail.
“The echoes of the explosion incident will also weaken with time.”
“When that time comes… the false charges will not be cleared. They will collapse on their own.”
Miryeong exhaled with a bitter expression.
“In the end… it’s a fight to endure.”
Rangnan said briefly,
“It is not enduring.”
“We are the ones who will wear them down first.”
Sienna rose from her chair.
“When the search parties emerge, I will be the first to pick up their scent.”
Yun nodded.
“I will also look for a way to contact the opposing councilors. Without exposing ourselves.”
Even after hearing those words, Bido’s heart did not settle.
The phrase “shadow war” still lingered together with the smell of blood.
And what remained even more deeply
was the expression Sienna had shown in the warehouse.
Bido knew.
This plan began not from “justice,” but from “survival.”
And the moment he accepted that—
would perhaps be an even harder battle for him.