The Intercepted Signal
Whoooosh!
A small cave dug into the center of the canyon. Unlike the blizzard raging outside, this place offered a brief shelter where they could catch their breath.
Lucael stood at the cave mouth, staring toward the far side of the canyon where the Kar Tribe formation lay. His eyes were more tense than they had ever been. Still watching the outside, he spoke in a low voice.
“Everyone, stay ready. The moment the signal flare goes up… we move at once.”
In the taut air, every member of the special unit nodded.
Then Isaac spoke to Lucael.
“There will be Kar scouts at the canyon entrance as well. We have to account for the time it takes to deal with them.”
“Of course.”
Lucael’s reply was short. It was only light talk about the operation, yet the long silence had broken, and it felt as if they could breathe a little easier.
And then—
“If you untie me… I’ll help too.”
Pweril, still bound and sitting in the corner, lifted her gaze to Lucael.
At her words, one of the unit members immediately furrowed his brow.
“Can’t you tell when to speak and when to shut up? How are we supposed to trust you enough to untie you?”
“…….”
Pweril turned her head aside, as if she had expected exactly that. They might be cooperating, but to them she was still a valuable hostage.
Yet Lucael, watching her, seemed to weigh something for a moment before he spoke.
“Untie her.”
“……Sir?”
He addressed the soldier nearest to Pweril. Lucael continued in a firm tone.
“If this operation fails, we all die. The same goes for the Chebilk who went with Lieutenant Arteon… She has every reason to help us.”
Lucael’s gaze settled on Pweril. She neither agreed nor denied it; she simply met his eyes with a calm expression.
“……Even if it goes wrong, I’m not taking the blame.”
One of the soldiers muttered a small protest as he freed her bonds. Once unbound, Pweril rubbed her freed wrists and fixed them with a serious look. Then her gaze turned toward the blizzard howling outside the cave.
How much time passed after that? The quiet silence pressed down on their shoulders once more, and anxiety began to sprout in their chests.
One unit member spoke to Isaac ahead of him, face uneasy.
“The signal flare… is taking too long, isn’t it?”
“It’s well past the scheduled time.”
Another soldier added, and Isaac looked to Lucael. The air inside the cave had filled with impatience; a strange unease dug into their chests as if it had already become certainty.
Lucael was concentrating with every sense stretched to the limit, yet just as the men said, no signal flare appeared.
But—
“We wait.”
The answer was short and absolute. Still staring outside, Lucael swept away the anxiety that had seized the cave in a single stroke and looked at his men.
“We wait until the signal flare rises. If it’s Lieutenant Arteon… he will not fail. The delay is surely some variable that arose on site. We wait.”
There had to be a reason Legion Commander Velkain and Captain Isaac trusted him. Right now they had to wait for him.
If we move rashly…
They could ruin the entire operation. For now, simply—
“I trust Lieutenant Arteon.”
At Lucael’s words, everyone nodded and waited for the signal flare.
Pabat!
The closer they drew to the target, the bolder their movements became. Iryakle could not hide his bewildered expression as he watched Arteon race ahead, picking up speed. Even though he himself had increased his pace, Arteon’s presence had grown even more stealthy than moments before.
It was as if, though the man was running right in front of him, his existence barely registered.
What is this guy…?
Unless assassination was his true calling, how could such movement even be possible?
Meanwhile Arteon poured every scrap of mana into his legs, maintaining the finest control to erase the sounds of his motion.
Just a little more…
In Vargas Northern Spearmanship, precise mana control was one of the most vital elements. That was what made this kind of movement possible at all—yet even for Arteon, whose control was exceptional, it was grueling work.
And so—
Pabat!
Arteon drove even faster and more boldly toward the tent that held their target. The moment the torchlight before the tent began to wash over his vision—
“……?!”
“Wh-who the hell— Guh!”
With a metallic ring, Iglis shot out in a straight line and in an instant skewered the two Kar warriors standing guard before the tent. The remaining men, faced with a situation that had unfolded in the blink of an eye, frantically drew their weapons.
“Enemy—!”
One of them tried to shout, but—
Pook!
Sharp claws punched through him from behind, and his face froze. Of all people—
“You…!”
They had never even imagined that Iryakle, whom they had used like a slave, would turn on them. Yet there was no time to dwell on it. There were still Kar warriors inside the tent. If they had noticed the commotion outside, then surely—
“Iruakan!”
Iryakle shouted as he burst into the tent. If anything happened to that child, he himself would—
But the moment Iryakle stepped inside—
“Waaah! Waaaaah!”
He saw Arteon cradling the crying infant, soothing it. Beside him lay a Kar warrior collapsed in a pool of blood.
“There, there. This little one sure has a set of lungs.”
Moving carefully step by step as he calmed the child, Arteon looked at Iryakle.
“Take him. From now on… you just protect this child.”
“……Iruakan.”
Iryakle murmured low as he received the baby. Once in his arms, Iruakan stopped crying, mumbled something, and rubbed his eyes hard. Soon the infant was breathing softly in sleep. Iryakle wrapped him in a cloth and held him close, then looked at Arteon.
“Then the signal flare, quickly—”
“We should, but…”
Arteon turned his gaze outside the tent.
“……They’ve already noticed.”
“……!”
At those words Iryakle whipped his head around late. In the direction his eyes landed, dozens of Kar warriors were pouring toward them.
Iryakle spoke.
“We can’t take them all at once. We need to move somewhere else.”
“The signal first.”
Arteon sprinted out of the tent and fixed his eyes on the torch ahead. The enemy was already closing in, yet he calmly drew out the signal flare first.
Chiisss!
Using the torch, Arteon lit the fuse at the end of the flare. Just as the fuse burned inward and the signal shot toward the sky—
Pii— Seogeok!
“……!”
A single strike sliced the rising flare clean out of the air, and with it came a clear voice.
“Did you think you could do whatever you pleased?”
Kereilkarun charged forward, crimson aura blazing. He had spotted Arteon launching the signal and intercepted it first. With that, any chance of calling their comrades was gone.
“I don’t know what operation you prepared… but this place will be your grave.”
Then Kereilkarun’s eyes shifted to Iryakle standing beside Arteon.
“Disappointing, Iryakle. I thought you and I could have built a rather decent relationship.”
“……Holding my child hostage and calling it a decent relationship? That’s madness.”
“Your foolish judgment has doomed not only you…”
Kereilkarun’s eyes flashed sharply.
“but that young baby as well.”
“Hyaaaah!”
“Die!”
The Kar warriors who had come with Kereilkarun charged at Arteon and Iryakle. But Arteon drew up his aura and swung straight into the oncoming men.
Puaaak!
A tremendous blow. The blue aura alone was a crushing threat to anyone who could not wield aura themselves.
Yet—
I can’t stop all of them at once.
Especially not in a place this open. The failure of the signal flare was a serious problem, but—
“We need to change positions first—hurry!”
Just as Iryakle said, time was far too short. If they were surrounded, things would turn disastrous.
If it were only me, maybe…
But Iryakle was with him, forced to fight while protecting the baby. Arteon spun at once and followed on Iryakle’s heels.
Pabat!
“They’re running! After them!”
“Don’t let them escape!”
The Kar warriors raced after Arteon and Iryakle, yet they could not match the speed of two men running with everything they had.
Kereilkarun watched the pair pull away and spoke to the subordinate beside him.
“There’s nowhere for them to go inside this place anyway. Tighten the encirclement… drive them in.”
“Understood.”
Whatever scheme those two were hatching—
With the signal gone… they’re completely isolated.
That left only the two of them in the end. Kereilkarun flicked his tongue across his lips.
“Then from now…”
Shall we begin the real hunt? Already his eyes held the strange delight of a child who had found a new toy.
“Here.”
It might be Kar territory, but to Iryakle it was familiar ground. While fleeing he had spotted a place to hide for a short while. He hurriedly checked the baby in his arms. Thankfully the child had not yet woken; if he started crying, their position would be given away in an instant.
“……Damn it. What do we do now?”
Iryakle’s eyes shook hard. Without the signal flare, calling the Imperial unit waiting in the canyon path was impossible. Or maybe—
“If enough time passes… won’t they come on their own?”
“Hard to say for certain.”
Arteon steadied his breathing and looked at the infant nestled against Iryakle. In a situation like this, even fighting at full strength was impossible—especially for Iryakle, whose specialty was stealth and ambush.
“……Iryakle. Would it be all right if I held the baby while we fight?”
“What?”
A faint killing intent seeped into Iryakle’s eyes. Simply mentioning the child was like touching his Achilles’ heel.
Yet—
“Can you fight properly while holding a baby? You’ll be spotted before you even launch an ambush.”
“That’s…”
“The choice is yours. But…”
Arteon turned his head the other way. Unlike himself and Iryakle, who could hide their presence, the baby’s existence was far too clear. Even asleep, there was no way to silence the rustling and breathing from the cloth.
Arteon said,
“Once the fighting starts, there’ll be no turning back.”
He had already sensed the movements of the men racing toward them. They could keep running, but that could not last forever. Rather, now that the enemy had split their numbers to form the encirclement… they needed to thin them out somehow.
And so—
“……Can I trust you?”
“Well. Asking someone to trust me in a situation like this is almost funny, but I can guarantee one thing.”
Arteon turned his gaze to Iryakle.
“Before my breath is cut short, not a single hair on this child’s head will be touched.”
At those words, Iryakle carefully handed the baby over to Arteon.