Deep in the forest, far from the procession of the delegation that had set out again.
Beneath the shade of trees where almost no light reached,
a figure stood in black armor set with a red fibula.
His face was hidden behind a mask.
A moment later,
two others dressed the same way walked out from between the trees.
“You’re here.”
The one who had arrived first spoke.
One of them jerked his chin.
“So, Tiller. The target?”
Tiller answered.
“Confirmed. A black-haired brat carrying a sword.”
“So, Hardin.”
Tiller turned his gaze aside.
“Who’s the one beside you?”
Hardin said irritably,
“Shell.”
Tiller clicked his tongue briefly.
“So the maniac killer came.”
Shell gave a faint laugh.
“I got rid of Dina.”
“What?”
Hardin narrowed his brows.
Shell said casually,
“She was leaking information to the Silver Moon Corps. She was an eyesore.”
Tiller muttered lowly,
“No wonder.”
Hardin asked,
“So what’s the situation?”
Tiller glanced once toward the outside of the forest,
in the direction the delegation had passed.
“There were mercenaries, so I laid them out on the road.”
Shell asked as if amused,
“You killed them all?”
Hardin snapped,
“What a pointless thing to do.”
Tiller continued dryly,
“That redhead was alive.”
Hardin immediately asked back,
“You said you confirmed she was dead back then.”
Shell shrugged.
“Stubborn, isn’t she?”
Tiller spoke as if it were nothing important.
“Anyway, there’s one more. A white-haired Haraya.”
Hardin asked,
“Strong?”
“Sharp instincts. If it weren’t me, I’d be caught just by getting close.”
Hardin sounded incredulous.
“She sensed your presence?”
Tiller shook his head.
“Not my presence. My gaze. She could feel that I was watching.”
Shell laughed lowly.
“Then take his head first.”
Tiller cut him off.
“Not yet.”
Shell clicked his tongue in displeasure.
Tiller continued.
“If they get inside the city gates like this, it’ll become troublesome.”
“We finish it before they reach Carmen. I’ve found a place.”
Hardin gave a short nod.
“Understood.”
Shell tapped the hilt of his sword.
“We just have to kill them all, right?”
Tiller answered.
“There’s nothing special besides the white Haraya.”
“Don’t let the target slip away.”
After a brief silence,
the three said nothing more.
And then,
the three figures in black armor soon scattered into the shadows of the forest.
—
Before long, the sun had set,
and the delegation was preparing to camp again.
While fires were being lit and baggage unloaded,
Raymon, Miryeong, and Jincheong gathered a little distance away and spoke quietly.
Jincheong opened his mouth first.
“After we go a little farther, the road narrows. One side is a slope, and the forest gets much denser.”
Raymon’s expression hardened.
“Then tomorrow morning, as soon as it gets light, we should get through as quickly as possible.”
Miryeong nodded as well.
“Whatever comes, there’s a good chance it’ll come out there.”
Raymon added in a low voice,
“That’s right. It’s terrain where bandits would normally find it easy to set an ambush.”
Miryeong thought for a moment, then said,
“Jincheong and I will move first. We’ll sweep the surroundings first,”
“and if it seems fine, push the formation forward then. We break through in one go.”
Jincheong gave a short nod too.
Bido was quietly listening to their conversation from a short distance away.
Everyone was deciding what came next with faces as if nothing were wrong,
but that calmness only made her unease grow stronger.
Bido slowly turned her gaze.
She saw Ayla sitting by the fire a little ways away.
She was eating, but it did not look as though she was properly swallowing.
The tips of her fingers holding the spoon were trembling faintly,
and her eyes seemed to be somewhere far away.
Though she was sharpened like poison,
an undisguisable fear flickered beneath it.
Bido looked at Ayla for a moment,
then unconsciously pressed her lips together.
Ayla looked like someone who was still seeing the corpses they had buried.
After hesitating for a long while,
Bido slowly sat down across from Ayla.
“Um… are you all right?”
Ayla slowly lifted her head.
Her eyes, visible between her red hair, shook violently.
“…Little ear-grabber.”
Bido moved her lips faintly.
“What happened…? Ever since you saw those mercenaries, you’ve been…”
Ayla’s gaze narrowed sharply.
“You don’t know.”
It was a short, low voice.
A sound like she was gritting her teeth and forcing it down.
“That was definitely… him.”
Bido asked carefully,
“Him…?”
Ayla did not listen to the end of Bido’s words.
“Brak and Liber both.”
The moment she spat out those names,
Ayla’s fingertips trembled again.
“They died by his sword.”
The firelight flickered.
Ayla was not looking at Bido for even a moment.
Her face looked as though she was seeing another scene that was not before her eyes.
“You think I’d forget those sharp sword marks?”
Bido swallowed her breath.
Ayla’s voice grew lower and lower, but that only made it feel more brutal.
“You don’t know, kid.”
Ayla muttered as though grinding her teeth.
“He has no hesitation. No fear, no anger.”
“When he cuts people down, he doesn’t think anything at all.”
Her hand slowly set down the spoon.
The wood touched the bowl with a small trembling sound.
“He just swings to kill.”
“To make sure of it, in one stroke, to end it.”
Bido could not say anything.
Only then did Ayla look at Bido.
Her gaze was still sharp, but inside it remained a fear she could not hide.
“If he’s targeting us, then it’s over…”
“What are you so scared of, chain-handler?”
It was Miryeong’s voice.
Bido flinched and looked back.
Miryeong had come right up behind her before she knew it.
Without even lifting her head, Ayla spat,
“Shut up… Someone like you isn’t even a match for him…”
Miryeong did not waver in the slightest.
Instead, her voice grew even lower.
“Shadow?”
Only then did Ayla slowly lift her head.
Looking straight into Ayla’s eyes, Miryeong continued,
“Yeah. Judging from the way he dealt with the mercenaries, he’s not an easy one.”
A brief silence flowed.
“But.”
Miryeong’s voice grew firmer.
“What gets solved by sitting here trembling like this?”
Ayla bared her teeth as she growled.
“What would someone like you know…”
Miryeong did not sneer.
She merely spoke calmly.
“Well. I probably don’t know everything.”
She took one step closer.
“Still, I’ve never run away.”
Then she placed a hand on Bido’s shoulder.
“And neither has she.”
Bido looked up at Miryeong in surprise,
but said nothing.
Miryeong spoke to Ayla again.
“I heard the rough outline of your story. But that life your comrades went to such lengths to save,”
“are you going to throw it away now?”
Ayla’s lips trembled.
With her teeth clenched, she barely swallowed a breath.
Miryeong drove in the final nail, short and clear.
“Make it clear.”
The firelight brushed beneath her eyes.
“Don’t make your comrades’ deaths meaningless again with your own hands.”
Ayla could not give any answer.
A little while later,
Miryeong lightly pushed Bido’s shoulder.
“Bido. Go to sleep now. We’ll be setting out earlier tomorrow.”
“…Yes.”
Bido slowly rose from her seat.
Then, after glancing back at Ayla once, she said in a very small voice,
“Rest…”
Then she quietly returned to her own place.
Left alone by the fire, Ayla lowered her head again.
Her breath would not come easily.
“Brak… Liber…”
Those names leaked out between her lips.
“I…”
The words after that never came.
Only the firelight by the hearth flickered faintly,
and all that remained in the camp were the sounds of exhausted breathing and burning firewood.
Even after lying down in her place, Bido could not close her eyes for a long while.
Ayla’s trembling voice from moments ago,
and Miryeong’s low, firm words kept lingering in her ears.
A little distance away, Ayla sat by the fire, unable to lie down in the end.
Her head was bowed, and her shoulders were faintly stiff.
Whenever the firelight flickered, deep shadows passed over her face.
Miryeong also could not sleep for long.
Even after lying down with her eyes closed, she rose again and again to look outside the forest.
There was no presence.
Even so, the unpleasant sensation brushing the nape of her neck never disappeared.
The night was long, but sleep was short.
Before dawn broke, the first to rise was Jincheong.
Without a word, he went outside, swept his gaze around the area once, and returned.
Following him, Miryeong also rose from her place.
The embers were almost out,
and the blue oxen were breathing low in the faint dawn light.
Raymon woke everyone at an hour earlier than usual.
“Let’s get up. Today, we need to finish preparations as much as possible before the sun rises.”
The campsite quickly grew busy.
Loose straps were tightened again, covered baggage was loaded onto carts,
and pots that had not completely cooled were hurriedly put away.
People did their own work while sparing their words.
Everyone already knew what kind of passage they had to go through today.
Bido also quietly rose.
Her body was not heavy.
But it was not completely refreshed either.
She blinked once and recalled the sense Miryeong had spoken of.
See first, react first.
Those words were still clear in her head.
A little distance away, Ayla slowly rose as well.
In the end, her face looked as though she had barely slept a wink all night.
The shadows under her eyes were darker, and her red hair was somewhat disheveled.
But without a word, she took up her chain and wrapped it around her waist.
Her fingertips were still stiff, but she did not avert her eyes as if fleeing.
Jincheong finished preparing to step out ahead once more.
Raymon climbed onto the cart and looked over the people,
while Miryeong looked toward the forest ahead.
Jincheong said lowly,
“It narrows just a little farther ahead.”
Miryeong let out a short breath.
“Yeah.”
Her gaze settled.
“From here on, then.”