Miryeong was flustered.
She had been reading the movements of the search parties spreading out from the abandoned house,
waiting for the moment to break them all at once.
But that knight had seen her.
It made no sense.
‘How?’
Miryeong reflexively held her breath.
In the forest, being “seen” usually meant someone had made a mistake.
But just now,
she had definitely made none.
She had held her breath and erased her presence.
But that knight had not simply cast his gaze her way.
He had pinned it on her.
The moment his eyes touched her,
the flow of wind bent from the line of Miryeong’s spine.
As if the very air of the forest were making a “path” for him.
Miryeong gritted her teeth.
Now was not the time to search for reasons.
She had to salvage the situation.
Miryeong lifted her fingertips and sent a brief signal.
Retreat.
Scatter.
Deeper in.
The distance was still great.
The forest was wide, and not all of the search parties were looking this way.
Even if pursuit caught on, they could take position first,
then set another ambush.
The instant she thought that,
Miryeong sensed the air being “torn.”
Someone was approaching her quickly,
too quickly.
The knight who had just seen her.
Before she could even hear footsteps, the arc of a sword drove in first.
“I am Cedric Belhardt.”
A low voice.
And a slash that followed.
Miryeong hastily twisted at the waist.
The wind where the blade passed brushed her cheek.
Had she been late, it would not have been skin, but bone.
Then she saw the knight’s face up close.
Blood vessels bulging abnormally.
Skin flushed red.
His breathing was not rough, yet his body was already heated.
As if something inside him had been forcibly dragged upward.
Heat flowed from Cedric.
Not the heat of skin,
but heat boiling up from within.
That heat seeped through the gaps in his armor, thinly warming the air.
Miryeong sensed it vaguely.
This was not the scent of a “technique.”
It was the trace of someone’s hand, someone’s power,
having forcibly pushed a person’s limits higher.
Which made it all the more dangerous.
Miryeong narrowed her eyes.
‘That speed wasn’t made by him alone.’
She chose to counterattack.
The opening was brief.
She had no intention of piercing his armor.
Instead, she would shake the “inside.”
Miryeong’s short fist struck the surface of the armor below Cedric’s solar plexus.
At the same time, she drove wind into it.
A brief shock traveled along the armor and seeped into him.
Cedric’s body was pushed back one step—
no, half a step.
Without missing that recoil,
a thick crossbow bolt flew in from afar.
Soundlessly, in a straight line.
Cedric twisted his body.
Miryeong’s breath caught.
That reaction speed.
The crossbow bolt split the air and lodged itself in a tree trunk.
Cedric laughed softly.
Rather than laughter, it was a breath close to certainty.
“As expected.”
His gaze caught on Miryeong’s hair.
“That hair… Are you the White Weasel?”
In the distance, leaves shook once, violently.
It was not the sound of footsteps,
but the feeling of footsteps “multiplying.”
The forest split thinly, and several breaths were converging in the same direction.
Miryeong blinked once.
If it were her usual self, she would have tossed out a joke or two,
then used that opening to seize the flow again.
But now, there was no time to joke.
If she were tied down any longer here,
her squad members would be in danger before she was.
Miryeong pressed her lips together.
She discarded words,
and chose a direction.
Instead of inhaling,
she gathered more wind.
The air thinned.
The leaves shook once,
and before that trembling ended, a vermilion light blazed in Miryeong’s eyes.
Cedric’s expression hardened as he corrected his stance.
He raised his sword with both hands, wrapping a thin flow of Idrin over the blade.
The power amplifying his body flowed into the sword as well,
and the metal hummed low, as if alive.
Miryeong murmured.
“You should have run.”
In that instant.
Miryeong’s fist stabbed into empty air.
Before her fist could reach him, a spear of compressed atmosphere struck Cedric first.
Cedric clearly felt something invisible.
A pressure that pressed against his skin first and broke his breath first.
Its direction and speed were both precise.
Instinctively, he raised his sword before it.
The flow of Idrin thickly enveloped the blade and held firm.
The metal let out a low, long wail, as if resisting being shattered.
But Cedric soon realized.
If he held out, he would break.
Rather than oppose the force, he entrusted his body to it.
Carried by the pressure, he flew backward, then stabbed the ground with the tips of his feet just before colliding with a tree.
Boom—.
The impact spread through the forest.
Along the sword blade, a single hairline crack caught the light.
Cedric’s breath turned rough for a moment.
He immediately raised his gaze to find Miryeong.
And,
there was no one before his eyes.
Only the wind remained, brushing once through the trees as it passed.
—
Miryeong ran with her squad members.
She did not breathe deeply.
Instead, she remembered sounds.
A sound made once became the direction of the feet that followed.
“Ed.”
Miryeong spoke briefly.
“We’ll scatter the surroundings as we go.”
Ed nodded.
Miryeong and Ed scattered wind around them at the same time.
The forest shook once, violently, and grass and branches bent in absurd directions.
The “meaning” of their footprints blurred,
and the signs for their pursuers to read vanished.
After moving a little farther, Miryeong raised a hand and made them stop.
They scattered without a word—
then gathered again without a word.
It was just enough,
a place where they could catch their breath.
From atop a tree, Rag pricked his pointed ears and whispered low.
“Miryeong. I don’t see them for now.”
“Keep looking anyway.”
Miryeong said without taking her eyes away.
“Stay alert, Rag.”
A short while later, Muryeong’s squad joined them.
Muryeong looked at Miryeong first.
“Miryeong. That knight… what was he?”
Miryeong exhaled briefly.
“His face was strange. It wasn’t normal power.”
Ria and Rion, who looked exactly alike, glanced at each other once,
then spoke at the same time.
“If it’s the Empire… could it be the priest’s Mirkin?”
Miryeong turned her head.
“Ria. Are you sure?”
Ria lifted her shoulders ever so slightly.
“I’m not certain. But… that kind of ‘excessive’ sensation is usually…”
Miryeong cut her off.
“Good. We’ll leave it as a possibility.”
Miryeong asked at once.
“Wollyeon and Jincheong?”
Muryeong answered.
“I stationed them at a distance. To support our side.”
Miryeong recalled the thick crossbow bolt that had flown in earlier.
Soundlessly, in a straight line.
If not for that one shot, Cedric might have closed in even further.
“That knight bastard… couldn’t chase us right away, either.”
Miryeong spoke low.
“It may be a temporary power. Or… its duration is short.”
Muryeong nodded.
Aslo reported briefly from beside them.
“We also clashed once with soldiers on the outer side. At a passage.”
Ria and Rion raised their hands at the same time.
Like a signal that it was over.
“We shook off the pursuit.”
Aslo continued.
“The soldiers are at the level of trained troops. But their numbers…”
Hurta gritted his teeth.
“There are too many.”
Miryeong nodded.
“I know.”
Miryeong looked over everyone once.
Not at their faces, but at their breathing.
What mattered here right now was not victory or defeat.
“It’s fine.”
Miryeong said.
“What we need to do is not get caught, and wear them down.”
Muryeong replied shortly.
“We just need to watch out for the knight.”
Ed immediately cut in.
“And the priest.”
Ed’s voice was small but clear.
“We don’t know what Mirkin might do. That sensation earlier… that wasn’t ‘human.’”
Miryeong nodded.
“Right.”
Then she raised her hand and chose a direction.
“We move to the next position.”
“Erase the traces even more.”
At those words, Ria and Rion rubbed their fingertips together very faintly.
Heat and smoke rose,
covering the scent and erasing the remaining presence.
When Aslo drove his sword into the ground, the earth turned over once.
It was the moment footprints ceased to be “footprints.”
From atop the tree, Rag whispered one last time.
“For now… they’re not following.”
Miryeong answered.
“For now.”
—
Cedric was walking slowly.
His footsteps were not hurried.
They were the steps of a man who knew that the more one hurried, the more traces one left.
The priest caught up from behind.
The escort spread thinly around the two of them.
The priest asked in a low voice.
“Sir Knight. Did you find them?”
Cedric turned his head only very slightly.
“We are in pursuit.”
The blood vessels that had risen across his face moments ago had subsided.
But the heated air about him had not completely faded.
It was as if heat were still circulating inside his body.
Cedric added.
“Can you… do it again?”
“With that sensation from earlier, I think I could catch up immediately.”
The priest shook his head at once.
“No, Sir Knight.”
“If it is used repeatedly, your body will not endure it. Once a day is the limit.”
Cedric’s jaw stiffened almost imperceptibly.
He disliked the word “limit.”
On the battlefield, limits meant defeat.
The priest did not avert his gaze.
Instead, he lowered his voice.
“Right now, your body has heated first.”
“Next time… the red lines will rise higher.”
Cedric opened and closed his fingers once.
The inside of his glove was damp.
Not with anger,
but as if the body heat of the beast he had let slip still remained in his hand.
Cedric clicked his tongue once.
“…Hmm.”
He looked toward the forest for a moment.
The shadows were deep, but not eternal.
“Very well. We have already spread out the squads… so let us watch.”
The priest said cautiously,
“They have likely prepared thoroughly.”
Cedric answered sharply.
“It does not matter.”
“Where the Empire’s hand reaches, no method of hiding lasts long.”
As those words fell, Cedric’s hand lifted lightly.
One brief gesture.
The search parties silently began to spread wider.