When morning broke,
the procession took to the road again.
Miryeong looked somehow exhausted.
It seemed she had not slept properly last night, either.
Bido, too, felt his body was a little heavy.
Taking the sword’s power head-on like yesterday was still a considerable burden.
From inside the wagon, Raymond called out to Miryeong through the window.
“You look rather tired.”
Miryeong answered curtly.
“Yeah, well. A little.”
The scribe beside him spoke up cautiously.
“But isn’t it strange? It’s already the third day,”
“and aside from bandits, we haven’t encountered anyone.”
Raymond also swept a glance outside the window before replying in a low voice.
“It is strange. It’s rare for this road to be this deserted.”
Miryeong slowly scanned the surrounding forest, then narrowed her eyes.
“Hmm… something smells fishy.”
A short while later,
Miryeong narrowed her eyes as she looked ahead.
“Jincheong has stopped.”
She tilted her head slightly.
“…He’s with someone.”
Bido asked with a tense expression.
“Surely… not bandits again…?”
Miryeong answered briefly.
“Who knows. Doesn’t feel like that.”
“I’ll go take a look. Keep the formation.”
Leaving those words behind, Miryeong quickly headed toward the front.
As she drew a little closer,
she saw Jincheong stopped on the road ahead, along with several unfamiliar people.
They wore simple armor, each equipped with different gear.
They were not uniform like an army,
but they did not look like ordinary travelers, either.
Miryeong approached and asked,
“What is it. What’s going on?”
Jincheong turned his head toward Miryeong.
“Ah, Miryeong.”
Just then, one of the Harayan men who had been speaking with Jincheong narrowed his eyes at the sight of her.
“What’s this. White hair?”
Miryeong’s expression instantly turned cold.
“So?”
Jincheong explained briefly.
“They say they’re mercenaries. They came from Carmen.”
The Harayan mercenary said with his arms crossed,
“In any case, you can’t go any farther.”
Miryeong immediately shot back,
“Why?”
Jincheong answered in his stead.
“They say demonic beasts are swarming around this area. A subjugation force is moving right now.”
Miryeong’s face twisted.
“Demonic beasts?”
She swept a glance toward the forest, then looked back at the mercenary.
“We need to pass. Whether there’s a subjugation or whatever, just open the road.”
The Harayan mercenary curled the corner of his mouth in a sneer.
“You must be confident. There isn’t just one or two of them.”
“If you don’t want to die for nothing, turn back. Don’t get in the subjugation force’s way.”
At that moment, the procession drew closer from behind.
Raymond got down from the wagon that had stopped and asked,
“What is the matter?”
“Well, they’re saying there’s a demonic beast subjugation going on, so we should turn back.”
Miryeong said that and looked back at Raymond.
Raymond took one step forward.
“Whose command are you under?”
The mercenary standing in front furrowed his brows.
“What?”
“You said you are controlling this road. I am asking whose command you are under.”
The mercenary spat out his answer with an irritated face.
“We’re just mercenaries.”
Raymond did not back down even at that answer.
After sweeping a glance over the placement of the people around them and the forest behind them, he asked again.
“Are you the subjugation force?”
“No. We were only put in charge of controlling the road.”
“Then who is commanding the subjugation force?”
The mercenary’s expression grew even rougher.
“I told you, stop asking so many damn questions and turn back.”
Raymond’s voice lowered, but became even firmer.
“We are an envoy delegation headed for the Duchy of Carmen.”
“You have no authority to stop us here.”
The mercenary snorted.
“Envoy or whatever, I don’t know anything about that.”
“The job we took was to block this road. Understand, envoy sir?”
Just then, from the direction of the second wagon, there came the sound of someone jumping down roughly.
It was Ayla.
She strode over and glared at the mercenary.
“Hey, dog-mouth.”
The mercenary’s gaze immediately turned vicious.
“What did you say, redhead?”
Ayla twisted the corner of her mouth in a sneer.
“Control, you said? What a joke.”
“How big is this subjugation force? What kind of demonic beasts are they?”
The mercenary replied irritably,
“How would we know? I told you. We were only put in charge of controlling the road.”
Ayla cut him off.
“Ha, unbelievable.”
She took a step closer and looked over the mercenaries.
“You think I’ve only done mercenary work once or twice?”
“You say demonic beasts are swarming? You say a subjugation force is moving? But you don’t even know what’s actually appearing,”
“you don’t know how many are moving, and you were just told to stand by the road and block it?”
Ayla gave a derisive snort.
“There are only two kinds of fools who’d accept a request like that on the spot.”
“Either they’re fearless idiots, or they were paid enough to buy a house.”
A murmur spread among the mercenaries.
“Uh… is this really right…?”
“We were just told to block the road…”
“Yeah…”
“Quiet!”
The Harayan mercenary standing in front shouted fiercely.
Ayla said mockingly,
“See? You were standing here without knowing a damn thing.”
The Harayan mercenary gritted his teeth.
“That changes nothing.”
As he said that, he placed his hand on the hilt at his waist.
Ayla laughed briefly.
“Heh… you sure you can handle it?”
She glanced back toward Miryeong.
“I’ve done enough. You take it from here, mutt.”
Leaving those words behind, she returned to the wagon without the slightest hesitation.
Miryeong walked forward with her expression twisted.
The moment she drew up Idrin, the surrounding air sank heavily.
Then the wind crept up as though rising from the ground and wrapped around her,
and a nearby blue ox, startled, let out a cry and breathed harshly.
The mercenaries’ faces visibly stiffened.
“B-Boss. That’s a little dangerous…”
“I… I don’t want to bet my life for this much money…”
The Harayan mercenary bit his lip once.
Strength entered the hand gripping his sword hilt, then slowly eased away.
In the end, he raised both hands.
“…Fine. We don’t plan on risking our lives for chump change, either.”
Miryeong asked, still without withdrawing Idrin,
“So. What the hell is going on?”
The mercenary answered with a frown.
“It’s true that demonic beasts appeared in the forest ahead.”
After a brief pause, he added,
“There is no subjugation force. We were just told to block the road here. We don’t know anything beyond that.”
Miryeong’s gaze grew colder.
“Who told you to?”
The mercenary shook his head.
“I can’t say that.”
He turned back and spoke briefly to his group.
“Let’s go. Don’t get tangled up any further.”
Unable to hold out any longer, the mercenaries began stepping away from the roadside one by one.
Raymond looked at Miryeong and asked,
“Will it be all right to continue?”
Miryeong answered as if it were nothing.
“It doesn’t matter. That’s exactly what we came along for, isn’t it?”
Then she added briefly,
“Though it’d be another story if demonic beasts really were swarming like those guys said.”
Jincheong said calmly,
“That won’t happen. Demonic beasts don’t move in groups. Their territories are clear.”
Raymond let out a small breath.
“Then let us set out again.”
After looking ahead for a moment, he added in a low voice,
“Somehow… it seems this side does not welcome us.”
Miryeong also turned and walked back toward the formation.
“Well, it’s not as if we can turn back.”
A moment later,
Miryeong said shortly,
“We go.”
—
In the deep forest to the north, some distance away from the envoy delegation’s procession.
Raen’s tail was standing stiffly on end.
Maho’s right arm still retained a slight shape of flame,
slowly returning to a human arm.
And before them lay one enormous demonic beast.
It was already dead.
In the middle of its dark, bark-like hide, a large hole had been punched through.
It was not a mark left by a sword or spear piercing it.
There were no signs of flesh being torn or shoved aside, either.
It was as if only that part had been burned away entirely.
The edges were curled black, and the inside was empty.
Not even dark red fluid remained.
Ordinarily, its body would have writhed tenaciously and endured, but this was different.
The spot where its core had been was pierced through precisely, and it had stopped, its functions lost just like that.
Raen asked in a slightly trembling voice,
“This… is a demonic beast, right?”
Maho stroked his chin once with his restored hand and said,
“Well. At this level, it’s a lower species.”
Raen looked down at the dead demonic beast, then said quietly,
“It’s… dead, right…?”
Maho nodded.
“I burned out its heart, so it won’t move again.”
Raen seemed to think of Bido at once and looked up at Maho.
“What if one appears near Bido?”
Maho lightly shrugged his shoulders.
“At this level, they’ll be fine. It’d be another matter if it were a higher species.”
Without taking his eyes off the dead demonic beast, Maho asked,
“More importantly, are you hurt anywhere?”
Raen shook his head a little.
“No… thanks to you.”
After hesitating for a moment, Raen opened his mouth again.
“But… do demonic beasts usually live here like this?”
Maho answered as if it were nothing.
“No. Things like that usually live in the Black Forest or down south.”
Raen blinked.
“Then why did it come all the way here?”
Maho looked down once at the demonic beast’s charred body.
“Because there are no sentinels anymore. Things like that are spilling out into the outside world now.”
Raen’s ears twitched slightly.
“Sentinels…?”
“The ones who used to guard the outskirts of the Black Forest.”
“Why are they gone?”
Maho answered indifferently.
“Well, it’s a boring old story.”
After a brief pause, Maho added in a low voice,
“Because that village disappeared because of the Empire.”
Raen looked up at Maho in surprise.
Maho did not avoid his gaze as he said,
“Roan and I were both from there, too.”
But after those words, he said no more.
Maho soon turned around.
“Enough. Let’s move again.”
Raen wanted to ask more, but seeing Maho’s back, he closed his mouth.
The deep forest was quiet.
So quiet that it seemed to be hiding even the fact that something had just died.