Reunion in the Forest
At the end of the passage leading up to the surface, I shoved the stone door aside and cold air, fresh from the world above, flooded in after months underground.
The stale breath trapped in my damp, subterranean lungs was washed clean at once by the crisp wind.
...I feel like I can live again.
Exhaling a cloud of murky breath, I looked around. The place I’d crawled out of was a secluded patch of forest on the outskirts of Valderk Manor.
I had [Invisibility] wrapped around me, so no one could sense my presence, but the atmosphere around the manor was clearly unusual.
Private soldiers were moving briskly across the garden.
Carriages came and went without pause, hauling crates that looked to be packed with weapons and provisions.
What, did a war break out or something?
It was a scene that should never have existed in peacetime.
I remembered something I’d heard at the exchange a few months ago.
There had been rumors that the Kran Kingdom was gathering troops on the border.
They said it was a bad omen back then.
Could it really be that the Kran Kingdom had already invaded?
This was no time to act rashly.
Keeping [Invisibility] active, I slipped out of the unsettled manor grounds without a sound.
The streets of Rowen were even more frantic.
Most of the shops were closed.
There were signs of evacuation, too.
Carts crudely tied down with household goods, people with packs on their backs—they were streaming out of the city one after another.
“Is it true that the Bergen family sided with the Kran Kingdom?”
“Shh. Don’t say that out loud. You’ll lose your head if it’s not confirmed.”
“Not confirmed? Come on. Who doesn’t know that the Bergen family is married into the Broi ducal house of the Kran Kingdom? That rotten Earl Bergen opened the border defenses wide for them!”
“Damn it! Then Rowen’s finished too. Let’s get out of here already.”
The words brushed past my ears.
They were shocking.
The Bergen family? They sided with the Kran Kingdom?
Ridiculous as it sounded, it wasn’t really that hard to believe if I thought about Felix, Sophia, and Earl Bergen.
Given the kind of people they were, it made perfect sense.
They’d been the first to betray us the moment the tide turned.
When I stepped onto the main road, a familiar building came into view.
The Rowen Securities Exchange, where huge sums of capital had once flowed in and out.
Its heavy marble gates were wrapped tight in thick iron chains.
The mage tower branch was even worse.
Even the sign had been violently torn away, leaving only an empty shell behind.
The exchange and the mage tower both evacuated.
It was the clearest proof yet that this city was about to become a ruin.
“Are imperial reinforcements coming?”
“How would we know? You think those nobles are going to protect us? I heard Lady Valderk took her escort and fled to the imperial capital ages ago.”
Amid the uproar of the crowd, one familiar name snagged on my ear.
Lady Ellen of Valderk.
...So she made it to the imperial capital after all.
My mind went back to the scroll I’d handed over through Nen a few months ago.
It contained information that would help Ellen advance as a mage beyond 3rd Tier.
It had been my way of repaying her for the way she’d looked after me in her own way.
If she uses it well, she should be able to break through to 3rd Tier quickly.
Of course, that depended on Ellen herself.
If she couldn’t manage it even after I’d told her how, then it was a matter of aptitude or effort.
Knowing how ambitious and clever she was, though, I figured she’d handle it just fine.
So I decided to worry about myself instead.
I need to leave too.
First, I already knew where to go.
Luber Village, my mother’s hometown, where my maternal grandfather still lived.
My parents had closed the cloth shop and gone back down there.
When I pictured the faces of the two people who had fought poverty all their lives just to raise a single child, my chest tightened with urgency.
They have to be safe.
Still, there was somewhere I needed to stop first.
I had to buy thread, fabric, and everything else I’d burned through during my training.
Fortunately, my usual textile shop was still open.
The owner, looking anxious, recognized me immediately.
“Oh? If it isn’t Mage Jeron!”
“And you’re still doing business in the middle of all this?”
“I was planning to shut up shop and leave anyway. I can’t sleep easy not knowing when the enemy might come crashing in.”
“Half the city’s already empty. I’m leaving too. So what are you going to do with all that fabric?”
At that, the owner made a miserable face.
“That’s the problem—I’m about to tear my hair out. I can’t just throw away all this perfectly good fabric... but I can’t take it all with me either... Finding a carriage right now is harder than plucking stars from the sky.”
“If you’re just going to leave it behind, sell it to me.”
“Y-You’ll really buy it?”
“If the price is right, I’ll take all the fabric and thread you’ve got.”
“Then I’ll only charge you half the wholesale price. It’s not like I can carry it on the road anyway!”
“Fine. Here.”
“Heh... thank you. You’ve saved me, Jeron.”
When I handed over the gold coins, he bowed again and again.
“Did you hear? It’s not just the war—monsters are swarming everywhere these days, too. They say unknown hordes have been attacking villages in the forests near the border and out in remote mountain valleys.”
“Monsters traveling in packs?”
“Yes! They usually only come out from deep in the woods, but lately their numbers have been abnormal. No matter how skilled a mage you are, don’t take any lonely forest roads when you evacuate. You might run from the war straight into a monster’s jaws and get torn to pieces!”
Those words made my heart drop.
Monsters are increasing?
Luber Village.
The village where my parents lived was deep in the forest, surrounded on all sides by dense woods.
If those unusually violent monsters were surging down through the forest, that would put the village in danger first.
I need to get there fast.
Anxiousness flared hot inside me.
I had to see for myself that they were safe before I could even begin to breathe easy.
Hurry up and pack this stuff away.
The mountain of fabric and thread in the storeroom vanished piece by piece into my Subspace Crease.
Now let’s go.
I blended into the evacuation line and slipped out through the city gates.
I’m finally out of Rowen.
I didn’t need to wear that suffocating mask anymore.
The moment the city fell behind me, I took off the Jeron mask and stored it in subspace.
Much better.
Then I headed south, toward Luber Village.
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Five figures were surveying the main road from atop a dirt floor spattered with blood.
The man standing at their center was Kalik, a Sword Expert who led an elite scouting unit of the Kran Kingdom.
“Haa...”
At his feet lay a corpse.
It was a Valderk family knight whose life he’d just snuffed out.
“I thought the imperial knights were all just crude rabble... but that woman from earlier was pretty damn skilled. To think she actually managed to wound me.”
Kalik clicked his tongue, rubbing the shallow cut in his side.
He’d run into an unexpected thorn in his path.
A mere maid in servant’s clothes, and yet her swordsmanship had been on par with a knight’s—she’d even been able to use aura.
“Lord Kalik! What do we do now?”
“That imperial bitch was cut by my sword and still managed to flee into the woods.”
Kalik gave a cold smile.
“The trail says she couldn’t have gotten far. Her insides must be ripped to shreds, so she’ll be crawling around somewhere in the nearby forest at best. Find her.”
“Yes, sir.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
A chill wind slid through the brush.
As I walked toward Luber Village, a heavy, fishy smell of blood snagged at my nose.
...What is that?
Then something tumbled out through the vines.
A girl, collapsed on the ground and breathing in ragged, miserable gasps.
“Agh...”
Her maid’s uniform was soaked in blood.
Raw flesh showed through the torn sleeve.
She clutched her side with one hand, but blood kept gushing through her fingers.
I stopped short.
“Nen...?”
Nen, who had been crawling on the ground, jerked her head up.
“H-Hans...?”
Her eyes flew wide.
“How... are you...?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing. What happened?”
But this was hardly the time for a leisurely conversation.
Behind Nen.
Beyond the thicket.
Five men were closing in from all directions, trampling through the fallen leaves.
“So you finally stopped running, imperial bitch.”
The man in front had a sword in his hand.
Behind him followed others armed with daggers and bows.
“We found her, Lord Kalik.”
Kalik chuckled.
“Heh... to think the one she ended up running into was some worthless commoner. That woman really has no luck.”
With a lazy tilt of his chin, he motioned to his underlings.
“Kill them. Both of them, quietly.”
“Yes, sir.”
One of them raised his bow and drew the string.
Without warning, without so much as a word of warning, the arrow came for my chest.
Clang—!
A sharp metallic ring, like steel striking a hardened plate.
The arrow was harmlessly stopped by the edge of my mana armor and dropped at my feet.
...Idiots.
They’d tried to shoot first and ask questions later.
There was no time to think long about it.
[Space Stitching]
The moment space folded, I was standing behind the man who’d fired the bow.
“Huh? Wh-Where’d he go...?”
Before he could even turn his head, compressed mana at my fingertips shot out like a blue thread and pierced the back of his skull.
Thud—!
He didn’t even get a scream out.
The man collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
“...When did he get over there? He’s no ordinary bastard!”
“He’s a mage! Swarm him all at once!”
“Yes, sir!”
They came charging in.
But I was faster.
[3rd Tier Alteration Formula: Needle Storm]
My cast had already been completed.
Dozens of silver needles poured out.
Pop-pop-pop-pop—!
Thunk! Thunk-thunk-thunk!
Eyes were pierced.
Foreheads and temples were speared through.
Dead on the spot.
It was over in an instant.
Now there was only one enemy left—the one called Kalik.
“...You bastard!”
Veins bulged red in his eyes.
“I’ll kill you!”
Aura shimmered blue along the blade of his sword.
In the blink of an eye, the distance closed.
Faaat—!
The space where I’d been was cut in a straight line.
Fast.
But I was a step faster.
After reading his movements with [Hyper-Precise Sight], I slipped away with [Space Stitching].
“You think you can keep dodging?”
Phat! Faaat—!
Kalik came at me like a madman, slashing as he pursued.
[Space Stitching] [Mana Needle]
While I bought distance, I sent mana needles flying at him.
Clang! Clang-clang!
But Kalik either dodged them or knocked them aside with ease.
“Tch... Pathetic. You think I’ll be stopped by something as small as those needles?”
The instant his hand touched his belt and came away again—
Flash—!
A single dagger, sharp as a beam of light, flew straight for my throat.
I dodged with Space Stitching and swept my hand.
[Needle Storm]
Pop-pop-pop—!
Needles flooded the air.
But Kalik batted them all away too.
At the sight of that, my chest went cold.
The level of a Sword Expert.
Even if I created distance, he closed it again in the blink of an eye.
...If I do nothing but dodge, I’ll run out of mana first.
[Invisibility]
“There you are!”
It was useless.
His sword swept through the exact place where I stood.
He had already read the pattern of my mana.
Stealth in the middle of combat meant nothing before a powerhouse at the Sword Expert level.
A bead of cold sweat ran down my back.
I can’t win like this.
Mana Needle. Stealth. Neither of them worked.
If I only kept dodging, I’d be the first one to dry up.
That’s why I made something for this kind of situation.
The product of the obsession I’d churned out like a madman over the past few months in the underground cave and stockpiled in subspace.
“Die!”
Kalik swung his sword again.
As I dodged, I let a single sheet of mana armor drift in front of him.
Shrrk!
The razor-blue aura split the cloth with ease.
One sheet gets cut through without resistance.
Then two.
Shraak!
Still.
It was just a fraction slower.
The magical formula woven into the fabric interfered with the flow of aura and mana.
Three sheets.
Kraaaak—!
The blade barely managed to cut through the three layers.
An ugly grinding sound rang out, like leather being torn apart.
Not bad.
Three layers of mana armor that even arrows couldn’t pierce.
That was the terrifying power of aura.
But I could also clearly see the limits of his sword strikes now.
So what about four?
I threw four layered sheets of mana armor in front of him.
Kalik snorted and swung his sword.
“You’re a funny one. You think some flimsy cloth like this can stop my sword...?”
He stopped speaking and stared wide-eyed.
The blade had stalled.
“Is three your limit?”
A smile bloomed at the corner of my mouth.
“What the hell are you playing at?”
“Well now.”
This exact sort of trick.
Shra-rak! Shrarararak—
The gap in subspace opened wide, and from dead ahead of him, from both sides, and from behind as well,
bundles of four-layered mana armor came flying in from every direction, forming a massive wall of fabric.
Kalik flinched and hurriedly swung his sword, but the mana armor didn’t budge.
Layered mana armor would never tear unless it was cut through all at once.
“You dare! This kind of cheap trick!”
Clang! Kakaang!
The fluttering cloth completely blocked Kalik’s view.
“Damn it!”
The instant he staggered and lost his balance, I didn’t let it go to waste.
Pop-pop-pop-pop—!
The Needle Storm shot through the cloth.
With his front blocked, Kalik reflexively swung his sword.
But the silver needles that had slipped into his blind spots sank into his shoulder and thigh in clusters.
“Ghk...! You bastard!”
The instant he screamed, I cast another spell.
[3rd Tier Standard Spell: Frost Floor]
The dirt beneath Kalik’s feet, already wracked by the pain of the needles, froze over like a mirror.
“Wha—!”
For that split second as his balance faltered, I layered another spell on top.
[3rd Tier Standard Spell: Pressure]
Kwaaaang—
An invisible weight slammed down on his shoulders.
“W-What the hell is this...!”
Kalik clenched his teeth and tried to force himself upright, but it was useless.
Swish. Swish-swish-swish.
By then, I’d already spread invisible threads across the area like a spiderweb.
[Reinforced Mana Thread]
They were the threads I’d scattered every time I moved around him with Space Stitching.
An invisible net of death.
“...!”
The moment Kalik, straining against the pressure, forced one foot forward,
an unseen thread carved deep into his calf.
Blood burst out like a fountain.
“Gah!”
He jerked back in shock, only for his forearm to be sliced next, and when he twisted his body, another thread wrapped around his wrist.
An unseen forest of razor-sharp blades.
If he moved, he was cut. If he stopped, he was strangled tighter.
“What is this...! Why can’t I get free?”
Color drained from Kalik’s face.
He thrashed miserably like an insect caught in a web.
Only then did fear creep into the eyes of the arrogant man.
“You... What kind of monster are you...?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
I stepped forward and curled my fingers in.
Shrrrk—!
The threads from all sides tightened at once.
Their taut lines cinched around Kalik’s limbs like a spiderweb, then yanked him up into the air.
“W-Wait... hold on...!”
Not worth hearing.
The instant one thread looped around his throat,
I gave my wrist a cold, decisive pull.
Schk—!
With a heavy tearing sound, his head was severed cleanly from his neck.
“Haa...”
I drew in a rough breath.
The five of them—including the Sword Expert who wielded aura—were all dead by my hand.
Nen was staring blankly, as if she still couldn’t believe it.
“Hans... how...?”
“Don’t talk. You’re still bleeding.”
I checked her wound.
The gash in her side, torn open by aura, was far too deep for ordinary hemostasis to handle.
The red blood spilling in pulses refused to stop.
...At this rate, it’s dangerous.
My hand moved on instinct.
First, I had to stop the bleeding.
I didn’t need some complicated, inefficient healing formula.
I would change it into my own method.
[3rd Tier Composite Formula: Trace Erasure + Seam Repair + Biotic Synchronization]
Flash—
Trace Erasure, which wipes away stains from cloth, sterilized the wound perfectly so it wouldn’t become infected.
Seam Repair, which mends torn fabric without a trace, restored the skin.
Biotic Synchronization blended the new flesh naturally into her body.
Swish, swish, swish.
The gaping wound sealed smoothly, and the rushing blood finally subsided completely.
At last, some faint color returned to Nen’s face.
“Thank you... Hans...”
She looked up at me through blurred eyes.
Her face said she had a mountain of questions.
So did I.
Why was Nen, Ellen’s maid, being chased by a Kran scouting party in this remote side path?
“It’s dangerous here, so let’s move first.”
I slipped an arm under her and lifted her onto my back.
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