A forest path a short distance from Arku.
Past dawn and before the day began to wane, the Empire’s detached unit walked in silence.
There were quite a few footsteps, but the formation did not break.
At the front was Adel.
With a greatsword slung across his back, he did not match his pace to anyone else.
His stride was the speed of the entire procession.
Behind Adel, two knights followed at a measured distance.
Farther back, a priest was carefully steadying his breath,
and ten elite soldiers spread out to the left and right, moving as they swept the edges of the forest.
Who watched the front, who watched the sides, and who watched the rear—
their roles had been divided.
Before long, the road sank beneath a shallow ravine line.
The ground was muddy, soil that would easily hold wheel tracks.
They arrived there.
The site where the cart had been attacked.
As they descended below the ravine line, the smell changed first.
The damp, clinging stench of burning that remained even after a fire had gone out.
Mixed with wet earth, it caught in the throat.
One of the elite soldiers lightly stirred the ash with the tip of his boot.
Beneath the blackened, caked layer, brighter soil was revealed.
A trace that said it had been “covered.”
Not covered by nature, but as though by human hands.
The two knights said nothing.
Only their gazes crossed once.
The traces of that day had not yet been completely erased.
Burnt ash clung to the surface of the earth,
and broken pieces of the cart lay scattered, twisted out of shape.
Metal showed where the axle had snapped,
and the ground was uneven, as if someone had dug it up.
The outside had been covered, but the inside had been hollow—
that much was clear at a glance.
Kyle knelt and brushed the dirt with his fingertips.
Without raising his gaze, he said,
“It is as I reported.”
“There is someone who can enter and leave the ground.”
Kyle pointed with his finger at the sunken traces.
“The attackers destroyed only the carts, then all dispersed.”
“The traces… disappeared too quickly.”
“That is why pursuit was cut off.”
Instead of answering, Adel swept his gaze over the scene.
Ash, fragments, sunken earth.
And the intention hidden behind all of it.
The killing had been incidental.
The objective had not been to “destroy” the supplies, but to render them unusable.
Adel spoke in a low voice.
“Magic is troublesome.”
Adel deliberately spat the word “magic” in a low tone.
Whether earth or wind, whatever the method—
in the Empire, commanding nature was ultimately all bundled together as magic.
He pressed the soil once.
The muddy ground slowly rose beneath his foot and tugged at his sole.
He pressed the dirt again with the tip of his boot.
As if declaring that this was not “the end of it.”
The mud seized his ankle.
Adel deliberately relaxed his strength and slowly pulled free.
‘If I get dragged in, I lose.’
The footprint left in the dirt soon filled with water, its edges collapsing.
Ground where no trace remained for long, no matter who passed through.
And yet, there were too many traces here all at once.
As if they had been left on purpose.
Without lifting his gaze,
Adel chewed a curse in his mouth.
This was a device meant to devour time.
“We continue.”
—
The detached unit walked on for some time.
After the sun had risen high,
an abandoned house appeared before them.
The place where the search party had stayed.
The traces of risen rock still remained.
The remnants of a burnt cart lay slanted to one side,
and on the ground, grain that had been rendered useless had mixed with dirt and clumped into black masses.
Here, too, the evidence was clear that what had been brought down was not “lives,” but “supplies.”
Cedric immediately pointed to one side.
“That is the direction of their escape.”
Without answering, Adel walked that way.
The soil beneath his feet pressed down low.
Suddenly, he remembered the time he had come here before to search for the sacred relic.
Back then—
and afterward as well,
he had always been one step behind.
Adel looked at the priest behind him.
“You said it was the Mirkin of Amplification?”
The priest bowed his head.
“Yes, Sir Holy Knight. That is correct…”
Cedric cautiously added,
“If he focuses his senses… he can even capture the faintest presences nearby.”
“However, it cannot be sustained for long.”
Adel nodded.
“Then that is enough.”
He drew in a breath.
And then he drew up Idrin.
It did not rise quietly.
The life force he had kept suppressed boiled up inside his body in an instant.
The knights’ breathing stopped,
and even the priest instinctively shuddered.
The small living things of the forest reacted first.
Birds flew up from the branches, and the undergrowth stirred low.
Adel spoke to the priest.
“Cast amplification on me.”
The priest parted his lips, then swallowed first.
“…Sir Holy Knight, your life force is too powerful.”
“Most likely… only a very brief moment will be the limit…”
Adel answered firmly.
“A moment is enough.”
The priest’s eyes turned red.
As that redness deepened, the air sank inward once.
Then veins began to stand out on Adel’s face.
“Keugh—”
A pressure surged up in his body as if he would burst at any moment.
But Adel did not waver.
He stretched that amplification—
outward.
In every direction.
Into every gap in the forest.
And he “opened” his senses.
What opened was not his eyes, but his skin.
The texture of the wind brushing past changed,
and the direction in which the leaves trembled was heard as “sound.”
When the priest’s red energy deepened once more,
Adel swallowed the sensation of his insides turning over.
His heart pounded as if it had grown larger,
and the blood vessels rising to his neck urged his pulse to “reveal itself.”
He forced that pressure outward.
The gaps in the forest.
The shadows of rocks.
The empty spaces beneath fallen leaves.
As if reaching out a hand to all of them.
Faint presences he had not been able to feel before became clear, one by one…
A procession of ants, tiny footsteps in the grass, the movement of insects curled up beneath the soil.
All of those presences were fleeing in alarm.
—
“……!”
The first to react was Miryeong.
The air in the encampment grew heavy, as if it had been pressed down in an instant.
The birdsong outside stopped, and the forest swallowed its breath a beat late.
The members looked at one another in confusion and began murmuring.
Amid that murmur, Raen took a step back.
Her ears stood straight up, and her tail froze in place.
“What was that… just now?”
“What…”
Rangnan came out of the room.
His eyes had already hardened.
Miryeong said quietly,
“Adel… It’s that bastard…”
Aslo’s face stiffened.
“Last time… it shouldn’t have been to this extent.”
Miryeong replied at once.
“It must be the priest’s Mirkin.”
“I’m sure of it. It was only for a moment… but he must have sensed this side.”
The murmuring spread again.
Bido, too, swallowed and clutched her necklace.
Her skin went cold.
Rangnan said,
“Power of this degree… is difficult for a human body to withstand.”
Miryeong nodded.
“It’ll only be for a moment. But he must have gotten our direction.”
Yeonhwa said,
“We have to abandon this place.”
Rangnan swept his gaze over the people.
“…If this many people all return to the base, we’ll leave traces.”
Miryeong reached the conclusion in a low voice.
“Someone has to buy time.”
When those words fell, no one could breathe right away.
The word “time”
suddenly sounded like “sacrifice.”
The words were dry.
But within them
was the meaning that someone would have no choice but to pay the price.
Muryeong spoke first.
“I will buy time.”
Jincheong immediately followed.
“Me too.”
“I’ll overturn the ground where we’ve passed so they can’t find our tracks.”
Rangnan shook his head.
“Muryeong. No matter how strong you are, you cannot oppose all of them.”
Muryeong answered quietly,
“…It does not matter.”
Ed hurriedly cut in.
“Then wouldn’t it be better to form a small decoy team and draw their attention?”
Miryeong cut him off at once.
“They aren’t fools.”
“They must have already sensed our ‘scale.’ If we move, they’ll follow us exactly as we are.”
Then she added, a beat lower,
“That… would be the same as handing over our entire route.”
Aslo spoke as if putting a period on the matter.
“If it is Adel’s Mirkin, the number of people loses meaning.”
The air grew heavy for a moment.
Then it happened.
“I… I’ll be the bait…!”
Bido raised her hand with a trembling voice.
Raen reflexively grabbed Bido’s sleeve.
She could not grip it strongly, only hook it with her fingertips.
“Bido… no.”
Miryeong looked back at Bido.
“You…”
Kallen stepped forward and said,
“Bido, are you in your right mind?”
“What they want is the sword you have. Are you saying you’ll just hand it over to them?”
Bido shook her head.
Her shoulders began to tremble.
“I’m not going to give it to them.”
“I’ll draw their attention… to me, and then get away.”
After thinking for a moment, Rangnan said in a low voice,
“…It is not an absurd idea.”
Miryeong immediately refuted him.
“What are you talking about?”
Rangnan continued,
“Considering Adel’s behavior until now, there is a possibility.”
“The moment Bido is ‘seen,’ his attention will be drawn to Bido.”
Miryeong exhaled as if grinding her teeth.
“Ha… that’s too dangerous for Bido.”
Strength entered Bido’s eyes.
“I… I have things I can do too.”
“I don’t want to just hide and run away anymore.”
Bido looked at the members.
Rag with his bandages.
Ed clutching his leg.
“If it’s me… I can block Adel’s Mirkin too.”
Rangnan let out a short breath.
“…Very well.”
And he immediately made the rules.
“But you will not go alone.”
He pointed to each person with a finger.
“Muryeong. Stop the knights from approaching.”
“Miryeong. Control the situation.”
“Jincheong. Make an escape route.”
Rangnan added firmly,
“We cannot increase the number any further.”
“Everyone else heads to the base.”
Raen took one step forward, then stopped.
Her small lips opened and closed.
In the end, Raen looked only at Bido once.
Instead of saying, ‘I’ll go with you,’
her eyes left behind only the words, ‘Come back.’
Rangnan turned his head toward Aslo and Ed.
“You two erase our traces as much as possible.”
Bido was still trembling.
It was not that she had no fear.
But there was something greater than that.
Now, she wanted to be of help too.