Miryeong spoke toward the wagon ahead.
“Is this road usually full of bandits?”
Raymond, who had been watching outside the window, answered.
“It’s a route merchant caravans use often, so it’s not as if there aren’t any.”
“But those fellows this time reacted a little strangely.”
“What was strange about them?”
“What bothers me is that they told them to kill the people before taking the goods.”
The scribe beside him quietly added,
“If they were ordinary bandits, they would have subdued only the guards and those resisting first.”
“They would have tried to keep the rest alive. To use as slaves, or to sell off.”
Miryeong gave a small nod as if she understood.
“True. They were a bit strange for people who were just trying to rob a caravan.”
“Urkan, doing banditry?”
Bido, who had been listening, asked.
“Urkan… why?”
Ed, who had been listening from the back, cut in bluntly.
“Urkan aren’t the sort to move under someone else in the first place.”
“They might go on a rampage on their own, but they’re not the type to join a bandit gang and take orders.”
Miryeong stirred up a breeze with her fingertips and lightly pushed Ed back.
“Hey, you stay in your place.”
Ed shrugged.
Miryeong turned her gaze forward again.
“Right. Their movements were too tactical for bandits, too.”
“And the one giving orders like a boss bothers me as well. They weren’t just some gang that happened to latch on.”
Bido closed her mouth without a word.
Breaking that silence, the scribe cautiously opened his mouth.
“Then… does that mean someone was behind them?”
Raymond answered in a low voice.
“At the very least, it is not the Empire’s way.”
Miryeong picked up his words.
“That’s true. No matter how urgent they were, they wouldn’t be that sloppy.”
Raymond continued, his gaze still fixed outside the window.
“And if their objective was not the cargo, but the people,”
“It is difficult to view it as simple plundering. Someone may have been targeting this procession itself.”
Miryeong’s expression stiffened slightly.
“The delegation?”
“Perhaps… there may be something on Carmen’s side.”
“What?”
Raymond chose his words for a moment, then spoke quietly.
“Carmen’s political situation is known outwardly to be very stable.”
“So much so that it is excessively quiet.”
Miryeong turned her head with a look of disgust.
“Ahh… enough. Political talk like that makes my head hurt.”
From a distance, Ed snorted as if laughing.
“You just don’t want to hear it, do you?”
Miryeong immediately snapped back.
“You shut your mouth and watch the front.”
For a brief moment, something like laughter passed around the wagons, but it did not last long.
After the name Carmen came up,
no one could consider the attack just now a light coincidence anymore.
They had traveled a little farther down the road.
Jincheong, who had been moving up ahead, returned, raised his hand, and called out in a low voice.
“Stop.”
Ed immediately turned back and passed along the same signal.
The procession came to a halt as if stiffening into a single line.
The sound of wheels and hooves died down.
Miryeong asked,
“Why?”
Still looking ahead, Jincheong spoke briefly.
“Looks like we’ll need to use some muscle. A few of you come with me.”
Bido immediately raised her hand.
“Ah, I’ll go too.”
Jincheong nodded once.
“Then only Miryeong and Bido follow me.”
Miryeong stepped out first.
“Everyone, keep watch around the area. Don’t scatter for no reason.”
Ed answered shortly.
“Got it.”
Bido and Miryeong followed Jincheong forward.
After they went a little farther, a huge tree lay sideways in the middle of the road.
Its trunk alone had blocked almost the entire width of the path.
Miryeong narrowed her eyes.
“…It doesn’t look like it fell naturally.”
Jincheong approached the base and bent down.
After running his fingertips over the grain of the wood, he raised his head.
“Here. There are axe marks. And traces that it was pushed farther in after it fell.”
Miryeong said quietly,
“They deliberately laid it down to block the road.”
Jincheong nodded.
“I can’t move it right away with my strength alone. Even with a few more people, it won’t be easy.”
Miryeong also stepped closer and tapped the trunk.
A heavy resonance returned through her fingertips.
“Even with the three of us, this won’t be easy. But they pushed this all the way here?”
After thinking for a moment, Miryeong’s eyes changed.
“…With this much strength, it must have been that Urkan from last night.”
Bido asked cautiously,
“Are Urkan… that strong?”
Miryeong crossed her arms.
“Of course. When it comes to strength, they’re absurdly strong.”
“Anyway, we need to clear it quickly. Whether we cut it apart or push it away.”
Just as Miryeong was about to gather wind at her fingertips,
Bido stepped forward.
“Lady Miryeong. May I try once?”
Miryeong turned her head.
“…Try what?”
Bido slowly drew the sword from her back.
Miryeong laughed as if dumbfounded.
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to cut this with that.”
Jincheong also chimed in beside her.
“Bido. I understand how you feel, but that’s a bit—”
“There’s something I want to try.”
Bido’s voice was low, but it did not waver.
After looking at Bido for a moment, Miryeong finally took a step back.
“…Fine. But if it’s too much, stop immediately.”
Bido nodded without a word.
The moment she adjusted her grip on the sword with both hands,
a crescent-moon mark surfaced on her forehead as if seeping into view.
Soon, her eyes were slowly dyed red,
and red scales sprouted on the back of the hand gripping the sword and beneath her eyes.
Miryeong’s expression hardened.
“…Bido.”
Bido did not answer.
The rough energy writhing inside the sword dug into her through her fingertips.
She forcibly held on to her own life force and layered the energy of the moon over it.
The moment the three powers interlocked, her entire body shook as if it were being torn apart.
Ragged breaths leaked through her clenched teeth.
Bido raised the sword.
And then, following the grain of the wood, she brought it down with all her strength.
Crack.
The blade sank deep into the trunk.
In that instant, the inside split apart as if bursting,
and the thick trunk gaped wide from the center.
Bido staggered, but she gritted her teeth and pushed the sword in deeper.
Thud.
The split tree leaned heavily to one side, opening up the road.
Only after quite some time did Bido pull the sword free.
The red scales slowly sank back down,
and her eyes returned to normal.
The crescent moon on her forehead also faded and disappeared.
Bido panted heavily and wiped the sweat from her brow.
Miryeong strode up to her.
“Hey, Bido. Are you all right?”
Bido steadied her breathing and answered softly.
“Yes. …I’ve been practicing little by little. Though I still can’t use the Mind Sword.”
Jincheong looked at the tree, now split with an opening in it,
and muttered as if he couldn’t believe it.
“…That actually worked.”
Miryeong was silent for a moment,
then spoke as if coming back to her senses.
“Good. We don’t need to cut it completely. This is enough to move it. Let’s push it together.”
The three of them grabbed the split tree and pushed it off the road.
The heavy trunk scraped across the dirt as it shifted aside.
Then, Miryeong murmured very quietly,
“…Strange.”
Jincheong asked while catching his breath,
“What is?”
Miryeong did not answer and swept her gaze over the edge of the forest.
The leaves were trembling, but beyond them, it was strangely quiet.
“It feels like someone is watching.”
Bido flinched and looked at Miryeong.
“Watching…?”
Miryeong rubbed the back of her neck once.
“I can feel a gaze, but I can’t catch any presence. That makes it feel even worse.”
Jincheong also looked around once,
but in the end, he said nothing.
Silence flowed for a while.
Soon, Miryeong clicked her tongue and shook her head.
“…Never mind. Maybe it’s just my imagination.”
“The road’s open enough now, so let’s go back. We need to set out quickly.”
The three turned back toward where the delegation was waiting.
The wagons set off again.
Even after that, Miryeong occasionally frowned and looked around.
The edge of the forest, the grass by the roadside, the dark gaps between the trees.
Even when someone asked her why she was doing that,
Miryeong only answered shortly.
“It just feels damn unpleasant.”
She added nothing more than that.
And so the delegation’s day passed on the road once more.
Nothing in particular happened.
That made it feel even more unsettling.
The sun slanted downward,
and when night came, the delegation stopped again.
The people set up camp with practiced hands,
lit fires, and assigned one another their places.
Even tension dulled little by little in the face of fatigue.
Miryeong spoke as if sighing.
“Ha… I hope nothing happens today.”
Ed immediately shot back,
“…Lady Miryeong, whenever you say things like that, something always happens.”
Miryeong instantly glared at him.
“Hey, Ed. You’ve been getting awfully cheeky lately. Are you even practicing Arkin properly?”
Ed subtly averted his gaze.
“Well, I mean… I am practicing what you taught me. Yes….”
Bido watched the scene quietly, then suddenly lowered her gaze to the back of her own hand.
Her skin was so clean that it was hard to believe red scales had sprouted there earlier.
Bido slowly clenched her hand.
If she wanted to protect them,
she could not let her heart run ahead of her.
She had to become stronger.
She had to be able to handle it more properly.
Then Miryeong looked back at Bido and said,
“Hey, Bido. You go to sleep too. You need to get some proper rest today.”
“Yes….”
Bido took out the comb Mendel had given her from inside her clothes.
She had almost never used it herself, but she carefully brushed through her hair a few times.
Her movements were clumsy, but the tangled parts were slowly smoothed out.
Bido quietly looked down at the comb and smiled very faintly.
Then, after putting it back inside her clothes,
she curled up on the bedding and lay down.
Was Raen doing well right now?
Only after that thought passed through her mind one last time
did Bido slowly fall asleep.