As Harang swung the sword, the once blue sky crashed down to meet the ground below.
With each step she took, everything around her began to lose its color.
A world completely devoid of light, in perfect black and white.
Cheon Ha-rang walked quietly in that place, moving forward.
There was no one to stop her.
The speed of her advance was so swift that simply being next to her was enough to drain one’s vitality due to overwhelming stress.
Focused solely on the path ahead, Harang noticed the texture beneath her feet change and smiled faintly.
The snow was so deep that it made her feet sink in.
“…Is this where I soon meet Camilla?”
Remembering Camilla, who had entered solitary training, Harang’s smile turned bittersweet.
She should have been out by now.
If that were the case, she might have to face her.
“Ugh, I don’t want to…”
Still, she couldn’t skip Ellen.
Every place the Hero and Saint had traveled with her was a location she intended to visit.
With all other places visited, Ellen was the last remaining location.
There was no longer any reason to delay.
“Well…”
To be honest, confirming things with the Hero and Saint was the most reliable way, but remembering the small hatred she felt due to her misunderstandings made her hesitant to see their faces.
…What if the person she was looking for wasn’t with Ellen?
She would have to meet them regardless, though.
“…”
The smile on Harang’s face disappeared.
*
“So, you’re saying that the Saint will be coming here, correct?”
“…Yes.”
Lucius frowned slightly and turned his head in the direction Elia was pointing.
A small figure gradually began to grow larger in the distance.
Lucius instinctively realized that it was the Iron Blood he suspected.
However, a question arose.
Why was the Iron Blood leaving Northern Ellen to come this way?
He didn’t mean that the Iron Blood should still be in solitary training.
It was simply that the expected route of Cheon Ha-rang was headed toward Northern Ellen.
Thus, they would inevitably move there without any need to come to this place….
“Well…”
Since the Iron Blood was already on their way here, there was no longer anything to worry about.
From what he observed of Camilla’s pace, even if she came to this place, it wouldn’t take much time. Cheon Ha-rang’s speed of advance was also relatively slow.
As Lucius pondered on such things, the distance quickly closed, and soon Camilla’s expression became clear.
“…The Iron Blood seems to be in a bad mood.”
“R-really?”
Seeing Elia shrink back in fear made Lucius smile slightly as he shrugged his shoulders and faced Camilla, who had arrived right in front of him.
-Thud!
“Iron Blood, it’s been a while.”
“Hey, you. Save the pleasantries. What do you want?”
Waving her hand, Camilla approached Lucius while frowning as she added,
“Tell me everything you know about the old hag.”
Thinking he had also grown a bit, Lucius felt small in comparison to Camilla and awkwardly nodded.
“…Yes.”
He had initially planned to share everything with her anyway, as he had no other choice.
“I may not know everything either since it was sudden… but I’ll tell you all I know.”
“Spit it out already.”
“It all started at a place called ‘The End of the World’…”
Listening to Lucius’s story, Camilla was comparing it with the information she had previously received from Sebas to see if anything contradicted.
First of all, since ‘The End of the World’ was quite close to Northern Ellen, the timing of Cheon Ha-rang’s initial appearance was the same.
However, she didn’t know what Cheon Ha-rang had done after that or what her next destination was, which Lucius started to reveal.
“…No way. The old hag? Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Lucius’s explanation was succinct and that made it impactful.
“So….”
It was a moment where the sky vanished in the path Cheon Ha-rang had taken. It was reminiscent of a calamity.
Moreover, based on testimonies of those who witnessed her, if one were to describe her appearance…
“Did they say she grew horns on her head?”
“…Yes, though I haven’t verified it myself.”
“This is insane.”
Camilla sighed deeply, though.
Horns?
Was there really a possibility that the woman she knew had actual horns sprouting from her head?
No, is that even possible?
It wouldn’t be unusual for a former… well, not exactly ordinary, but still, a human to suddenly grow horns on her head.
Not a beastfolk, nor even a half-blood; a human with horns!
If it were a prank by Nameless during some bizarre acts, she could understand, but judging by Lucius’s serious demeanor, it seemed to be ‘real’ horns.
All right, well.
I mean, if we stretch it a bit, maybe she did grow horns.
Given her distant ancestry, there could’ve been demon lineage, and it’s not impossible that as Cheon Ha-rang achieved something she couldn’t, there might have been a change in her mentality.
So that much could be understood.
However.
“Why is the old hag doing that?”
“…I don’t really know the reason behind it.”
She couldn’t even begin to guess why she’d go around acting like that.
At that moment, noticing Lucius’s puzzled expression, he seemed to have come up with something.
“Oh.”
Lucius, letting out a short exclamation, began to speak, looking serious.
“…This is merely my guess, but…”
It seems Cheon Ha-rang had an armed group that they were unaware of from the start.
The source of that armed group was suspected to be demons, which was backed up with valid grounds.
“At that time, I was too flustered to think deeply, but it definitely had the presence of Jackal’s magic.”
“Jackal? Isn’t he the one you were chasing?”
Indeed, the magic Lucius sensed while in Ellen had an aura from Cheon Ha-rang’s cabin.
Initially, he thought, “It must be my imagination; I’m just being overly cautious.”
But given what was happening now, it seemed Lucius’s first suspicion might’ve been correct.
“So, what you’re saying is, she’s been approaching us with a purpose from the very beginning?”
Camilla narrowed her eyes, and Lucius awkwardly responded.
“…That’s what I’m saying, though it may be just a possibility.”
Lucius’s theory was merely a hypothesis without certainty, but it also had some plausibility.
Camilla furrowed her brows as she plunged her sword into the ground, feeling overwhelmed by the flood of information.
“…Then where the heck is that guy?”
“That guy…? Who are you referring to?”
Lucius tilted his head in confusion, and Camilla, feeling frustrated, stomped her foot.
“That pervert knight, the old hag’s disciple.”
“Oh, Nameless.”
Finally realizing who Camilla was talking about, Lucius showed a troubled expression.
Camilla didn’t understand why he suddenly went quiet.
“Why were you talking so freely before?”
She had no idea why Lucius clammed up about the pervert knight after talking so freely about Cheon Ha-rang.
“What the hell is the problem—”
Just then, out of the corner of Camilla’s eye, she spotted a strangely familiar man.
“Isn’t that the pervert knight over there?”
“Camilla, wait a minute…!”
So familiar was the aura that she didn’t even think to care, but he was right there?
“Move.”
Camilla brushed aside Lucius’s hand that was trying to stop her and approached Nameless.
And then she confronted him.
“What’s up with him?”
“…”
He looked somewhat unwell.
Well, “somewhat” might be an understatement.
Anyone could see he hadn’t slept in days based on the noticeable dark circles and bright red eyes.
Even a passing dog would have understood that he looked pitiful.
However, for Camilla, seeing Nameless in this state was unbearably frustrating.
-Slap!
While Lucius and Elia might’ve let him off because of their kind personalities, she was not going to let it slide.
“Hey. Get a grip.”
Camilla slapped Nameless’s cheek and grabbed his collar, questioning him.
“Do you even know what your master is doing right now?”
“…”
Silence.
Her frustration peaked. Camilla sighed deeply and kept her voice low.
“If you say nothing, it’s going to look like the old hag attacked the Empire.”
Of course, she had already attacked, but… there were no casualties, right?
If she kept insisting, maybe it could turn out okay.
While it pained Camilla to say it, addressing the immediate issue came first.
In fact, the pervert knight had been unresponsive until now, hadn’t he?
“If you tell us what you know, we might avoid a situation where the Empire goes to fight with me and that garbage Hero.”
Camilla thought this was her last chance as she pressed him.
“If you say it right, there might be leniency. You know that it won’t end well if the old hag goes against the entire Empire, right?”
To be honest, Camilla thought that if such a confrontation occurred, the Empire would probably lose.
But if she said that, the pervert knight might just stop speaking altogether.
So, she added a little white lie as a seasoning to her words.
“So, spill it. Unless you want to die.”
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