The next morning, Clevatess confiscates Alicia’s sword, leaving her devastated. But he assures her that having it out would draw too much attention, so he’s just storing it in his shadow until it’s actually needed. Meanwhile, Nelor has finished packing a bunch of the bandits’ gear for the next leg of their journey—and she even found some nice clothes for Luna to wear.
Alicia asks if she’s seriously carrying all that luggage on her own, because it looks ridiculously heavy. But Nelor says it actually feels pretty light. That’s when Alicia remembers—Nelor lost a huge portion of her body when she nearly died yesterday. So clearly, Clevatess must’ve replaced her missing parts with something that somehow made her stronger. What exactly he did, though, is still a mystery to her.
Nelor approaches Alicia and kindly offers to carry her sword for her. But Alicia admits she doesn’t actually have her sword anymore. So Nelor tells her that she remembers hearing something about Froco keeping a bunch of cool swords in his desk.
Alicia lights up with excitement and immediately begs Clevatess to at least let her have one regular sword. Knowing that Alicia is basically useless in battle without a blade, Clevatess gives her the green light. She dashes off to raid Froco’s desk. With Froco and the rest of the bandits dead, and all the slaves having already escaped, the place is basically a ghost town now.
Clevatess asks Nelor if she’s going to miss this place. But she says no—she’s had nothing but awful memories here. If anything, she only wishes she could’ve said goodbye to Karm before leaving. Hearing her say that, Clevatess realizes he might’ve made a mistake earlier. But before he can say anything about it, he’s suddenly ambushed from above.
At the same time, Alicia kicks down the door to Froco’s office and begins rummaging through the desk. She finds some money, a set of leather armor, and a decent sword. Satisfied, she turns to head back—only to have Clevatess come crashing through the wall, slamming into the desk.
“I still haven’t gotten used to how easily this human body gets ragdolled,” he groans.
Before he can explain, a new threat enters—Gart, stepping through the massive hole in the wall. One look, and Alicia can tell—this guy is strong. She draws her sword, ready to fight.
In the blink of an eye, Gart launches a kick so powerful that the air pressure alone cuts Alicia across the face. He’s impressed she dodged at all, but he doubts she can hold out for long. He starts hitting her with a barrage of kicks until she finally loses her footing.
Then Gart jumps back and unleashes a tornado of wind, launching Alicia through the roof. She crash-lands outside, battered but still standing—much to Gart’s surprise. Impressed, he makes her an offer: he’s only interested in Clevatess, so if she puts her sword down and leaves, he won’t fight her anymore.
But Alicia doesn’t buy it. She assumes he must be one of the surviving bandits. Right now, she really wishes she had the Stream Splitter sword. Since she doesn’t, she falls back on a technique she learned from King Heiden.
She clears her mind of all distractions. The only thing left in her head? Running the fade with Gart.
Her sudden burst of speed catches Gart off guard, and just as her sword is about to make contact, Clevatess shouts for her to stop. Her body obeys instinctively—but her mind is still dead set on murder, so Clevatess has to literally knock some sense into her.
Once Alicia calms down, Clevatess explains the truth: this was all one big misunderstanding. There’s no need for a fight. Besides, if he hadn’t stopped her just now, Gart would’ve straight-up obliterated her with his next kick before she could land a hit.
Gart is a pretty reasonable guy, so he asks Clevatess to explain exactly what he meant by “this is a misunderstanding.” Because no matter how you spin it, Nelor over there smells suspiciously like a Western troll—and Gart had been told that a troll was being controlled in this camp before he even arrived.
He’s already explored the caverns beneath the camp and found the troll’s corpse—except several parts were missing, like someone had intentionally harvested them. Gart‘s current theory? That Clevatess is the camp leader who killed the troll for fun. But, of course, that’s not even close to the truth.
Clevatess calmly tells Nelor to take Luna and wait by the front gate, saying he needs to speak with Gart alone. Once they’re gone, he quietly informs Alicia that Gart is actually a dark beast in disguise. This stuns her—she had no idea other dark beasts could transform into humans like Clevatess can. But Clevatess clarifies: Gart is under a powerful illusion. As far as he knows, there’s only one being who can pull off illusion magic that convincing—none other than the Dark Beast Lord of the West, Zathier. And just for the record, Clevatess doesn’t get along with Zathier at all and would prefer to avoid crossing paths.
Gart, surprised by how much Clevatess has deduced in such a short time, asks him directly who he really is. Not ready to reveal his true identity, Clevatess lies and claims he’s just a servant of the Dark Beast Lord Clevatess—yes, a little ironic. Gart buys it and cancels the illusion magic, revealing his true form: a bird monster serving under Zathier.
Now that he’s out in the open, Gart wants proof that Clevatess is also a dark beast. In response, Clevatess summons one of his shadow tails, which is enough to convince him. So Gart proposes a truce.
Meanwhile, Alicia is mentally spiraling. First, she finds out there are other beasts who can shape-shift and speak fluent human like Clevatess. So what was even the point of the heroes fighting Clevatess back then? Clevatess notices her distress and reassures her: she doesn’t need to worry, since very few dark beasts can disguise themselves as humans. And aside from Zathier, most wouldn’t bother interacting with humans unless there’s a really good reason.
With that cleared up, Gart wants to know something else: why is Clevatess willingly traveling with a human woman? Clevatess explains that Alicia is a human he turned into his servant. She’s now bound to obey his every command, and he’s keeping her around as a guide to help him understand the human world. Same goes for Nelor and Luna—though he’s not planning to tell Gart anything more than that.
Gart accepts the explanation but makes one thing crystal clear: if Clevatess interferes with his mission, he will kill him. Clevatess, unfazed, replies that he’s welcome to try—but it won’t be easy.
With that tension diffused (for now), Clevatess decides it’s his turn to ask a question. Earlier, Gart had mentioned something about Zathier considering wiping out all of humanity. That struck Clevatess as strange—because last he heard, Zathier actually enjoyed watching humans and was even worshiped as a god by the Orgites in the west. So what changed?
Gart agrees to explain. Three days ago, he discovered several dark beast families had lost their children. That alone wouldn’t have been alarming—but he also found a vial at the scene, which made him suspect human involvement. He reported the situation to Zathier, along with nine similar incidents he had found. Zathier agreed that the humans were likely behind the disappearances. Although she was surprised they’d betray her like this—especially after how well she had treated them—she tasked Gart with investigating. If it turns out that humans are kidnapping the children of dark beasts in the forest, she plans to wipe them all out.
Hearing that, Clevatess starts putting pieces together. Last night, while interrogating Karm, she told him that all children born in the camp are sold to a mysterious group of men because of their “talent.” That was Froco’s plan for Luna too.
Clevatess now suspects that the kidnapped dark beast children and the human kids being sold off might be connected. He recalls that Karm mentioned a “talent,” and he’s pretty sure that talent involves magic.
When Alicia hears the word “magic,” her expression sours. Clevatess picks up on it and asks if she knows anything. She says magic still isn’t her area of expertise, but kidnapping children for their magical potential? That absolutely sounds like something the Wizards would do—those are the people who’ve been changing the face of warfare in human kingdoms over the past few years.
Right now, the outcome of battles depends almost entirely on the skills of the wizards each side has, as a single wizard is capable of wiping out dozens—if not hundreds—of soldiers with a single spell. Granted, wizards are also vulnerable to attacks from other wizards, so they’re not unstoppable, but they remain a devastating force on the battlefield.
The first person to introduce wizards into warfare was General Drel, also known as The Dragon Slayer. He’s the same man who killed Alicia‘s father when she was a child, so she has held a deep grudge against him for years.
Clevatess finds that story interesting but questions why Alicia wasted her time coming after him instead of targeting the man who actually killed her father. After all, Clevatess had never harmed humans until they attacked first. Alicia explains that it was her father’s dying wish. So, she put aside her personal feelings and committed herself to the mission—to push forward through Clevatess’s territory.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the human kingdom, General Drel is leading an army of 50,000 men southward. His objective is to capture the Ruins of Heiden and claim them for himself. The remnants of the Heiden army, however, number only around 6,000 men, and they have very few wizards left. There’s no way they could stop him in a head-on confrontation.
Migle asks if reinforcements are on their way, but given the current state of communication and travel, it’ll take at least three days for help to arrive. For now, they’re on their own.
The commander has a last-ditch plan to give them a fighting chance: if they can reach the fortress at Highgate and seal it from within, they might be able to hold off Drel‘s forces despite being vastly outnumbered. However, this strategy depends on cooperation from the soldiers already inside the fortress. Although the commander sent them a letter explaining the situation, he’s received no response. He assumes things must be chaotic inside as well.
At this point, the commander and Migle are still unsure whether the rumors of Clevatess destroying Heiden are true. But since Bolate was bold enough to send General Drel to conquer the region, he suspects the worst: that Heiden has indeed fallen.
If he had to guess, Drel is after Heiden’s Forge, because without it, no one can produce magical weapons. Migle agrees—it would be disastrous if the Bolates managed to get their hands on the forge and began manufacturing magical arms. But the threat goes beyond simple weapons. The Royal Forge of Heiden is one of the oldest magical artifacts in existence. If the magic-obsessed Bolates were to obtain it, there’s no telling what secrets they might uncover. With that kind of power, they could potentially take over the entire continent. That’s why the commander insists they must be stopped at all costs.
At the same time, General Drel meets with the most powerful wizard under his command—Meynard. Meynard informs him that he has confirmed Heiden was indeed destroyed by Clevatess, and all members of the royal family have been killed—except for the six-month-old crown prince. He’s the only surviving member of royal blood, but his current whereabouts are unknown. Meynard can’t say for sure whether the child is alive or dead.
However, in other news, he recently received a report from a group of bandits who claim to have found a baby matching the prince’s description. Meynard believes it’s worth investigating, and General Drel gives him full authority to do whatever it takes to locate the child and bring him in.
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