“Maho. If we go any closer, Roan will notice.”
Raen’s voice was low.
But she was not speaking of a distance “right before their eyes.”
The lunar spiritual power Roan possessed
extended its range of detection even beyond sight.
And Raen was the one who caught hold of that presence first, from even farther away.
Maho turned his head slightly.
“Is that so?”
He looked around and muttered.
“There aren’t any villages nearby… What’s he doing in a valley like this?”
Raen closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them.
“His energy… keeps cutting out and coming back.”
“He might need time to settle the fragment he absorbed.”
Maho let out a short breath.
“Could be.”
He swept his gaze once more toward the shadow of the rocks.
“Or he might be wary of the moonless night.”
Raen tilted her head.
“The moonless night? Why?”
“You said lunar spiritual power loses its strength then.”
Maho tossed the words out casually.
“There’s no way Roan doesn’t know that. There may be some other circumstance.”
Raen pressed her lips together for a moment.
“…Hmm. Maybe.”
Maho turned his head.
“Then we should get ready.”
“How long was left again?”
Raen’s eyes shifted as though she were quickly calculating in her head.
“About three days.”
Then she added,
“But… how are you going to tell them?”
Maho did not answer.
Instead, he lowered his body,
then leaped in one breath in the opposite direction from where Roan was.
Where the forest shadows grew darker.
A place far from the boundary of the valley and the detection range.
Maho came to a stop,
caught his breath once, and called in a low voice.
“Hey. Come out over there.”
A beat late,
a person appeared as if the darkness were slowly splitting apart.
As though he had been there from the beginning,
far too cautiously.
Maho’s gaze sharpened.
“You. You’re the one Rangnan sent, aren’t you?”
The man silently lowered his head.
Maho clicked his tongue.
“Tsk… Well, still.”
“You’re alive because you kept your distance. If you’d been loitering in front of me, I would’ve killed you long ago.”
The man’s shoulders flinched ever so slightly.
His fear showed in his breath.
“Don’t be scared.”
Maho waved a hand.
“Just deliver the message.”
Maho stepped closer and said,
“Tell Rangnan. Roan’s location is confirmed.”
“And… tell him to come here.”
He pointed down the valley with his fingertip.
“You know where this is, don’t you?”
The man hurriedly nodded.
“Good. How long from here?”
“…About a day.”
The man answered cautiously.
“If we’re fast, half a day…”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Maho cut him off.
“Run. There are three days until the eclipse.”
The man lowered his head again,
then vanished into the shadows without a sound.
Only then did footsteps draw near from behind.
Raen was running over, gasping for breath.
“Maho! How could you just run off like that!”
Instead of answering,
Maho glanced once at the shadow that had already disappeared, then turned his gaze back toward the valley.
—
The end of the ten days was drawing near.
Two days until Operation “Lunar Eclipse.”
The inside of the Silver Moon Order was as it always was.
The stone walls were quiet,
and the lamplight flickered low.
People moved their hands before they spoke.
Bido gripped his sword.
Before his palm could grow damp with sweat,
he adjusted his hold once more.
“Don’t stick too close.”
Miryeong’s voice was brief.
The eyes with which she looked at Bido were not so much cold as precise.
Bido nodded.
He drew the tips of his feet back by half a step.
The two matched their forms.
The lines of their swords brushed past, and a faint wind rose and vanished.
One exchange.
Then another.
Just as Bido’s breath was about to lengthen,
Miryeong raised a hand.
“That’s enough for now.”
Bido stopped at once.
But he put more strength into his wrist so the tip of his sword would not waver.
“…Yes.”
That was all he said.
The number two days
caught in his throat before his breath could.
Before the training ground had even emptied,
a busy presence could be heard from the other side.
Hands were sorting the supplies needed for the journey.
It was not on a large scale.
Jerky and bread were wrapped and tied in thin cloth.
Waterskins were checked again and again with pressing fingers
to make sure their stoppers were not loose.
Ropes were gathered and rolled by length,
and bandages were divided into bundles by count.
Among them, Mendel and Erdin stepped in to lend a hand.
Mendel lifted a bundle of jerky wrapped in cloth and said,
“I think… we should pack a bit more jerky.”
When someone looked at him as if to ask whether they needed that much,
Mendel gave a short shrug.
“If you’re hungry, your judgment gets clouded. Especially on the way back.”
Erdin pushed a sack of bread to the side and cut in.
“It’s not that far, is it? Then what about ingredients we can cook?”
“Things like dried vegetables. Even one hot meal would—”
Mendel immediately asked in return,
“Will we have that kind of room?”
Erdin fell silent for a moment.
Instead of answering, he twisted the stopper of a waterskin shut again.
“…I don’t know.”
Before those words had even ended,
footsteps burst from afar.
They were urgent.
Even the sound of torn breathing was mixed in.
Someone came running toward Rangnan.
Wary gazes focused all at once.
The moment Rangnan saw him,
he spoke first.
“You’re here.”
Instead of answering, the man swallowed his breath.
Then he approached Rangnan and lowered his voice.
Words flowed out like whispers.
It was a short, broken, urgent report.
Rangnan listened in silence.
His expression did not change much.
Only when he heard the final words
did his gaze sink ever so slightly.
He turned his head toward Muryeong, who stood beside him.
“We’ll have to convene a meeting.”
—
The conference room lay beneath low lamplight.
Hands gathered over the map.
Rangnan spoke.
“The Moon Demon’s location has been pinpointed.”
“A day with our people. Half a day if we’re fast.”
“We’ll arrive, join up with the Fire Demon, and prepare there.”
For a moment,
a breath passed.
“We depart tomorrow morning.”
“Tonight, inspect all equipment.”
“Don’t neglect your personal supplies either.”
Then someone raised a hand.
It was Kalen.
“Lord Rangnan.”
“I have a question.”
Rangnan nodded.
“Speak.”
Kalen glanced once at Bido.
Bido’s shoulders stiffened ever so slightly.
“In the end, our operation hinges on Bido.”
“Bido’s Mirkin has become fast enough now.”
Kalen continued.
“Then… wouldn’t it be over if he just blocks the Moon Demon’s Mirkin?”
“If Mirkin alone is stopped, the reason he’s so dangerous…”
Rangnan did not answer right away.
Instead, he asked in return,
“Kalen.”
“How far can you handle Idrin?”
Kalen answered briefly.
“Uh… only physical enhancement.”
“Yes.”
Rangnan shifted his gaze once.
He looked over the people in the conference room one by one.
“Most of those here use the flow of Idrin not only in their bodies,”
“but through their weapons and armor as well.”
His gaze stopped on Bido.
“The same goes for Bido.”
“If he couldn’t carry the flow into his sword, he wouldn’t have been able to handle that sword properly.”
Bido’s eyes trembled,
then soon settled.
Rangnan moved his gaze again and looked at Miryeong.
“Miryeong can even enhance her senses.”
“She raises the speed of her eyes and ears, and of her reactions.”
And lastly, he looked at Muryeong.
“But.”
At Rangnan’s single word, the air thinned.
“Among the Haraya warriors of the south… those who have reached the realm of a Dragon Warrior”
“use a combat art called Dragon Fighting Arts.”
Kalen asked reflexively,
“Is that… Dragon Fighting Arts, a higher technique of Idrin?”
Rangnan shook his head.
“Calling it a higher technique would be insufficient.”
“It is a combat art that operates the enhancement of body, equipment, and senses all at once.”
He added briefly,
“One who has mastered it cannot be explained simply by saying he is strong.”
Kalen’s throat moved.
“…So the reason you’re bringing that up now is…”
Rangnan answered quietly.
“Yes.”
“The Moon Demon is one who has reached the realm of Dragon Fighting Arts.”
And finally,
he pierced straight through Kalen’s question.
“Even if Bido blocks his Mirkin.”
“That is only the beginning.”
“The Moon Demon without Mirkin is by no means an easy opponent.”
When Rangnan finished speaking,
a brief silence settled over the conference room.
Only the faint sound of someone swallowing could be heard.
“Any more questions?”
No one raised a hand.
Kalen also closed his mouth.
Rangnan pressed a point on the map with his fingertip.
“Good.”
When the words ended,
chairs slid back quietly.
People exchanged only glances and dispersed.
It was not a night for many words.
As though everything necessary had already been said.
Unable to rise from his seat,
Bido stared at the map for a while.
A single point was as small as a breath.
That tiny point would become tomorrow’s path,
and the battle two days later.
Bido touched the leather cord of his sword with his fingertips.
The feel of the hilt was colder than he had expected.
The word “Lunar Eclipse” caught deep in his throat.
Miryeong went outside first and said,
“Bido.”
“Let’s go sleep.”
Instead of answering, Bido only nodded.
But his feet did not easily move.
When the two went outside,
the passageways of the Silver Moon Order were even quieter.
The sound of packs being tied.
The sound of ropes being tightened.
The sound of waterskin stoppers being twisted shut again.
Everyone was doing the same thing.
With movements no different from usual.
Only, those hands were a little firmer today.
Bido gripped his sword more deeply.
Two days.
Two fingers.
He had to reach him, no matter what.
Bido slowly drew in a breath and let it out long.
Only then did his feet move.