The Domain's Owner
A full-powered sprint, like riding the wind itself. Asili, dashing forward with everything she had, soon spotted the figure of a lone girl heading straight for the Delusion Forest.
“Found her!”
On the road leading from the kingdom to the Delusion Forest, amid the stream of mercenaries traveling back and forth, one girl stood out. She was the only one not wearing armor, dressed in plain clothes, with pure white long hair and vivid red eyes. The bag slung across her back and the single sword hanging at her waist removed any doubt about her identity—she looked exactly like a girl who had just run away from home.
“So that prim little lady is the one who ruined my vacation?”
Part of her wanted to fling a pebble at the insolent girl, but Asili’s orders were clear: tail her without being detected and step in only if she faced real danger. She couldn’t afford to ruin Kael’s command over something so petty. Instead of a stone, she pulled out her communication orb.
“Kael.”
She poured mana into the orb and murmured his name. The connection clicked through almost instantly.
“Yeah, I hear you. So, did you find my daughter?”
“Ah, can you hear me, Master?” Asili asked, impressed that he had been waiting.
“Good work. Keep tailing her exactly as you are. Unless she’s in actual danger, don’t release any more mana than necessary. My daughter’s senses are sharper than you’d expect.”
“Come on, I wouldn’t make a rookie mistake like that.”
Only an idiot would radiate mana while tailing a target. Aside from the tiny amount needed for the communication orb, Asili was a true professional. When she stalked someone, she altered her footsteps, gestures, and even her breathing. If she kept this much distance that the sound of the orb couldn’t reach, no one short of a monster like Kael would notice her even if she acted normally.
That was how it should have been.
───.
“…?!”
Suddenly Elia’s head turned in her direction. Asili instinctively held her breath and pressed herself flat against the tree.
She sensed me?
It wasn’t a casual glance. Elia had scanned the empty branches with deliberate focus—centering exactly on the tree where Asili hid.
“…I thought I felt something. Must have been my imagination.”
Elia dismissed it as a trick of the mind and kept walking. Asili clutched her pounding heart, then finally let out the breath she’d been holding.
“Phew… Wow, she really does have sharp senses. How did she pick up my presence from all the way over here?”
“Haven’t you heard? They call our daughter a genius. Learning all my sword forms was just the beginning. Last year she even beat the knights of the Shardena Order in sparring matches.”
“…Excuse me? Isn’t she only fifteen right now?”
The ridiculous claim made Asili’s head tilt in disbelief. Elia was fifteen this year. Last year she had been a fourteen-year-old child. Yet that child had mastered Kael’s sword techniques and defeated the Shardena knights?
If anyone else had said it, Asili would have laughed it off as nonsense. But the words came from Kael. No matter how doting he was, he wasn’t the type to lie about something like this. Which meant Elia truly was one of those rare, monstrous geniuses. It suddenly made perfect sense that she had sensed Asili’s presence and turned.
That realization brought up another question.
“…At that level, do you even need me to tail her? I doubt ordinary thugs could even touch her.”
“The world is dangerous these days. No matter how talented she is, there may be things she can’t handle alone.”
“If a fourteen-year-old who can beat an entire knight order finds something difficult, everyone else would’ve died—”
Asili’s vein throbbed as she shot back, but Kael ended the call before she could finish.
Click.
The dry sound of the severed connection left only the chatter and laughter of the mercenaries below the tree. Asili let out a long, deep sigh.
“Haa… Fine. I’ll just do what I’m told.”
If he was that worried, the only thing she could do was continue the tailing. With a sigh full of resignation, Asili resumed following the now-distant figure of Elia. This time, like the professional assassin she was, she moved without a single trace of presence.
Asili’s body melted into the wind.
The Delusion Forest never changed much.
Most of the monsters here were weak enough that a farmer could defeat them under the right conditions. Occasionally a slightly stronger one would appear. Because the forest wasn’t particularly dangerous, requests for gathering herbs or collecting monster corpses constantly appeared on the mercenary guild board. As a result, the Delusion Forest was always crowded with mercenaries.
That had been its daily state for years—until someone came along to stir the waters.
Step. Step.
“Is this the place? Where that monster is supposed to be.”
People like these, for instance—Worst’s executive and her band of remnants, radiating thick killing intent.
Cali, the woman with red-black hair tied in a ponytail, fifth executive of Worst. She had arrived at the Delusion Forest with ten subordinates and now walked forward, following the map in her hand.
“Right then. Let’s go carry out the leader’s orders.”
To fulfill the command given by Chain, leader of Worst, Cali headed deeper into the heart of the Delusion Forest.
Elia finally reached the Delusion Forest after following the road from the kingdom’s north gate.
She had felt embarrassed the entire way by the strange looks the mercenaries gave her plain clothes, but she had arrived at last.
“Ugh… Next time I’ll have to buy some armor.”
She refused to be treated like a weird kid again. Elia made a firm promise to herself to get proper armor before her next visit. Once she shook off the lingering embarrassment, she stepped into the Delusion Forest without hesitation.
“I’m not interested in the small fry, so I’ll skip them all.”
Before sparring with the Shardena Knight Order last year, Elia had already fought monsters captured from the Delusion Forest back when she was twelve, thanks to Martin’s arrangements. The result had been her total victory. The monsters had attacked with the full ferocity of wild beasts, yet none of them could even touch her. In fact, she had been disappointed by how weak they were.
That experience taught her that trash mobs could never be proper opponents. So Elia moved quickly past the outer areas and headed straight for the depths.
The whole reason she had come to the Delusion Forest today was to experience real, grueling combat.
“If it’s a monster called an Area Boss, it should be a worthy opponent, right?”
What Elia sought were the creatures that had claimed their own territories after living in the forest for decades. She believed they would provide the challenging fights she wanted. Of course, if Kael had known, he would have turned pale and tried to stop her, but he wasn’t here.
“Heung… I’m getting excited.”
Humming a cheerful little tune, Elia skipped over the outer region and stepped into the deep heart of the forest. The further she went, the fewer signs of people she encountered. The mercenaries who had warned her of danger and the monsters that had fled from her killing intent were nowhere to be seen.
After walking through the now-silent depths for several minutes, Elia’s eyes sparkled at the first clear signs of a claimed territory.
“…Found it!”
Rough claw marks gouged deeply into the trees. Scarlet fur was deliberately caught on thorny bushes, and the trail continued deeper inward. These were unmistakable markers of a monster’s domain—and a path leading directly to its owner.
Elia followed the traces, deliberately radiating a powerful aura to announce her presence.
Thud. Thud.
She walked forward, emitting an intense pressure that no true Area Boss could ignore. Before long, a monster’s growl reached her ears. Elia lifted her head with a smile.
“Grrrrr…”
“…As expected, you look incredibly strong.”
Perched on a thick branch was a monkey-shaped monster letting out a blood-chilling cry. Its mouth was filled with far too many razor-sharp fangs for any ordinary primate. The creature bared those teeth in a snarl, and Elia drew her sword.
The aura rolling off it was stronger than any opponent she had faced before. It was filled with genuine murderous intent. Elia’s hand trembled with excitement as she raised her blade.
“Come on, then! Attack me!”
“KRAAAAAWNG!!!”
With that short cry, the battle began. The clash between the Area Boss and the young genius girl.