Time passed, and by evening,
a procession was making its way toward the open city gate.
The goods loaded on the carts were varied.
Sacks of food, water barrels, blankets and tent cloth,
as well as weapons and repair tools.
On some carts sat the elderly, the infirm, and children,
while on others, people wrapped in bandages leaned their bodies for support.
There were carts drawn by beasts,
but in the stretch near the city gate, people took hold of the handles and pulled them by hand.
Each time the wheels rolled over gravel, a long creaking sound followed.
The military police in front of the gate stopped the carts one by one to check the goods and the people.
They went through the list, counted those in bandages once more,
and searched with eyes and hands to see whether weapons had been surrendered and whether anything was hidden.
Then, with a brief gesture, they opened the way.
The city, its lockdown already lifted, was crowded with people.
Citizens passing near the gate slowed their steps as they avoided the procession,
murmuring in low voices.
“Are they… the cooperation group from the official notice?”
“But… a lot of them don’t look like they know how to fight….”
“Huh, that person… I think I’ve seen them at the market before.”
“Are they refugees?”
“They must be the people who were said to be going to the protection zone, right?”
“They’re really taking them in…?”
Voices mixed with rumors and unease brushed past the procession.
Passing through that murmur,
the Silver Moon Corps slowly entered the city under the guidance of the military police.
As they followed the designated path,
the protection zone the city had prepared came into view.
Rather than a residential area, it was an empty lot hastily divided into sections.
Boundaries had been marked with stakes and ropes,
and tent cloth had been draped over them, fluttering in the wind.
The ground was uneven, sinking underfoot,
and moisture still rose from the freshly tamped earth.
Makeshift tables stood in rows,
and beside them were piles of water barrels and dry cloth.
In one section, several shallow pits could be seen.
Anyone could tell they were “facilities” made in a hurry.
The moment someone saw them, they spoke as if letting out a breath.
“We’re here… finally….”
But others stiffened as they looked at the tents and mud.
The greater their expectations had been, the more sharply reality struck their eyes first.
There were those who had believed that once the empire threatening the city was driven away,
warm food and comfortable beds would be waiting for them.
That made this place feel all the more unfamiliar.
The military police and guards immediately set to work unloading the carts.
They untied ropes, moved sacks, and carried supplies under the tents.
Some bowed their heads as they helped,
while others shrank under unfamiliar gazes.
“Weapons over here!”
One military policeman shouted.
Boxes filled with weapons and arrows were directed to a warehouse on one side.
The sound of small lead seals being stamped rang out sharply.
It was not “permission,” but “storage.”
On the other side, people lined up.
A clerk wrote down names and identifying details,
and once confirmed, a wooden tag was placed in each hand.
A number was written on the roughly carved tag.
Not a name, but an order.
And that order
meant their place here.
The Silver Moon Corps was now
beginning in earnest to step within the city’s framework.
“Thank you… for everything.”
Someone was greeting Rangnan.
They were people who had originally lived in Arku.
Those who had sensed the empire’s darker side first and entrusted themselves to the Silver Moon Corps.
And now,
they had returned home.
No longer to be “cared for,”
but to a place where they could stand on their own feet.
From another direction, Yun slowly walked over with Raymond.
Yun gave Rangnan a light bow,
and Raymond spoke first.
“Welcome.”
“Were there any notable incidents on the way to the city?”
Rangnan replied.
“There were some injured by demonic beasts, and some who fell and were hurt on the road, but…”
“No one was left behind.”
He lowered his head.
“Thank you for welcoming us.”
Raymond looked around the protection zone.
Ropes and stakes, fluttering tents, muddy ground.
“For now… this is all we can provide.”
“We ask for your understanding, even if it is inconvenient.”
Rangnan answered at once.
“I understand.”
“I will manage the people so we do not become a burden.”
Just then,
Aslo, Bido, and the twins walked toward the protection zone.
When Miryeong, who had been standing beside Rangnan, saw Bido,
she smiled and waved.
Bido also smiled faintly
and raised a hand in response.
Rangnan said,
“So, Aslo. As you said… you were at the place where you stayed with Bido?”
Aslo nodded.
“Yes. Fortunately, it was still as it was.”
It was then.
Tatadada—!
“Bido!!”
A bright voice cut through the protection zone.
It was Raen.
Raen ran straight to Bido and hugged him.
“Bido… I missed you….”
Raen’s thick tail swayed gently.
For a moment, Bido’s breath caught, then he smiled faintly.
“Ah… Raen. Have you been well?”
Raen held Bido by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes.
Her gaze held worry and joy all at once.
“Do you know how worried I was?”
Rangnan watched the sight for a moment, then said,
“Miryeong.”
“You will stay at Bido’s house with Raen and Mendel.”
Miryeong nodded as if she understood his meaning immediately.
“Got it.”
Ria cautiously raised her hand.
“Um… Lord Rangnan. Can Rion and I keep staying at Bido’s too…?”
Rangnan nodded.
“Yes.”
“But go through the registration process and receive your wooden tags first.”
The twins cheered inwardly.
“Yes!”
The two of them ran off, almost leaping as they went.
Bido looked over the protection zone once.
The muddy ground, fluttering tents, ropes and stakes.
It was not so different from the environment in the cave.
But—
now people could sleep not beneath the cold earth,
but under city walls and rules.
That fact
quietly pressed against one side of Bido’s chest.
A little more time passed.
Miryeong, Raen, Mendel, and the twins.
All of them finished the registration process and received their wooden tags.
When the lines began to loosen
and the sound of people’s breathing grew a little calmer,
Aslo took a step back and said,
“I’ll stay here. There are still things to sort out.”
“You all go ahead.”
He looked at Bido.
“Bido. You still have the metal plaque, right?”
Bido nodded.
“Yes….”
“Good.”
Aslo answered briefly.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
Miryeong waved from beside him.
“Yeah, see you tomorrow, Aslo.”
“Don’t worry about the kids.”
And so Bido, Miryeong, Mendel, Raen, and the twins made their way toward the alley.
The sun was already hanging low,
and the streets were once again filling with the footsteps of people freed from lockdown.
Passing gazes lingered on Raen.
Whispers followed like the wind.
“What is that… blue skin….”
“She has a tail too?”
“Looks like a race I saw in a book….”
“I heard one of the leaders of the Silver Moon Corps is of the Dullam tribe too….”
Raen did not even turn her head, as if she was used to it.
She merely swayed her tail once and walked forward.
Watching her from behind, Bido suddenly realized.
At some point,
his own ears had once again become hidden beneath his disheveled hair.
Bido hesitated for a moment.
And then—
Srrk.
He forced his messy hair back behind his ears.
His long, pointed ears, different from a human’s, were revealed.
A passerby tilted their head and looked at Bido once more.
Their eyes met briefly, and then the gaze dropped away.
Bido felt his heart beat a little faster.
But this time—
he did not let his hair fall back down.
Whether his appearance was unusual,
or his race was different.
Bido no longer
wanted to hide what he looked like.
—
At the same time.
East of Arku,
in a small village on the border of the Duchy of Carmen.
The sun had already slanted downward, and long shadows stretched across the dirt road.
“S-someone, please stop him…!”
“…What are we supposed to do!”
Thud.
A man collapsed to the ground.
There was no blood flowing, and no external wound.
The hand that had been clutching his neck simply fell away as his breath ceased.
Before him
stood the one who, until just a moment ago, had been gripping the back of the man’s neck.
The being feared in the world as the “Demon of the Moon.”
Roan.
Two days ago, on the night of the full moon,
he had followed the power of a moon fragment that had grown even stronger and drifted all the way here.
And just now—
he had accepted that fragment.
Roan’s eyes no longer shed tears.
They were merely dark and dry.
Not the eyes of someone who had lost something,
but like ashes left behind after everything had already burned away.
“What… what did you do to my son!!”
A farmer charged at Roan with a sickle in hand.
Tak.
Roan stopped the sickle’s blade with his bare hand.
He twisted it slightly, prying it from the farmer’s grasp,
and instead of dropping it, carefully set it down on the ground.
Roan said nothing.
He simply looked on,
as if preparing to leave.
It was then.
Fwoooosh—
Blue flames poured out with Roan at their center.
The fire did not lick the ground.
It did not burn people.
Instead,
it burned “something” that had been clinging around Roan.
As if shadows hidden in the air
were revealed by the fire, wavering into form—
before breaking apart and scattering like ash in an instant.
“Roan.”
A heavy voice settled over the area.
A person walked through the flames.
It was Maho.
His usual green eyes were burning blue,
and his right arm seemed to be made of the same blue flame—
its shape flowing and crackling.
Roan was unharmed.
Only the air around him
had split coldly, like the place where the fire had just passed.
Only then did the villagers let out the breaths they had been holding.
Some collapsed where they stood,
while others stepped back, swallowing their screams.
“A… a demon….”
“Even a demon of… fire…”
Before the words could fully leave their mouths,
the people fled in panic.
In an instant, the scene was emptied.
What remained—
were Roan and Maho.
Only the two of them
glared at each other.
The blue flames rumbled low,
and Roan’s dry eyes received that fire without the slightest tremor.