Chapter 64 : Pursuit

(End of Chapter 63 – Included for complete context)

Violet wiped the blood from his sword on a tree, as if it were dirty, and frowned.

“Where did the remaining two go?”

The soldier he questioned replied, sweating.

“Well, we’ve released Osteons to search in all directions, but… we can’t see where they went. I’m sorry…!”

“…I understand. Keep searching.”

Violet sheathed his sword and glared at the girl he had just cut down.

“…If only that girl hadn’t done something useless…”

Violet, who had almost caught Saya, had to let his target escape right in front of him due to the unexpected interference.

(Start of Chapter 64)

“Sora, duck!”

I stretched out my huge hand like a whip and knocked away the Spirit Masters rushing toward Sora. As I mastered the power of Sarkas, I realized there were endless ways to utilize it. Sora, whom I had just helped, turned to me with an annoyed expression.

“Who asked for your help?”

“…”

Sora was still prickly toward me. It had already been six months since we became companions, but she rarely opened up. As she walked past me with quick steps, she stopped and muttered quietly.

“…Well, it wasn’t bad.”

‘…?’

I doubted my ears for a moment. Did she just compliment me?

Strange things happen when you live long enough, I thought.

64 – Pursuit

Chris stood in front of a blackboard covered in writing, wearing a satisfied expression.

“Amazing, Saya. Since you joined, our mission success rate has doubled—no, tripled. At this rate, it won’t be long before we can launch the assassination operation on Violet…!”

“…It’s not that great.”

I scratched my face, embarrassed, and Dustin, standing next to me, patted my shoulder with a laugh.

“Not at all! Since Saya came, things have been going smoothly!”

Feeling unnecessarily shy, I looked away to see what the others were doing. Sora seemed uninterested in me as usual, while Huey was constantly studying some paper. Chris, noticing Huey’s lack of focus, called out to him.

“Huey, add something to the conversation.”

Startled at the sound of his name, Huey crumpled the paper into his pocket.

“…Sure! Do I really need to say that Saya is our squad’s number one contributor?”

“…”

Lately, Huey had been acting this way. He often couldn’t concentrate during missions and would shut himself in his room whenever he had the chance. Chris must have noticed too, because he asked Huey with a worried look.

“Huey, you’re not sick, are you? If you’re tired, just tell me.”

“Who are you calling a patient? I’m fine! I’m overflowing with energy.”

“…Then that’s good.”

To shake off the strange feeling that had been lingering lately, it had become a habit for everyone to laugh at even the smallest things.

That day, as usual, we finished our mission and were heading back to the mansion, exhausted. As we passed a large rock and approached the middle of the forest where the mansion was hidden, Chris stopped us with a hand gesture.

“…Everyone, stop right there.”

Dustin, puzzled by his odd behavior, asked Chris.

“What’s wrong, Chris?”

Chris didn’t answer Dustin’s question. Instead, he quietly pointed toward the mansion with his eyes.

‘…!’

The mansion, which should have been empty, was now a scene of chaos. Soldiers in armor were rummaging through it, pulling out all sorts of items and documents and setting them ablaze. Our hideout was turning to ashes in an instant.

Chris, looking tense, muttered as his eyes darted around.

“…This is impossible. We never left any evidence that could reveal our location…”

“…Chris, wait a moment.”

At that moment, Huey pushed past him and stepped forward, addressing us.

“I’ll go check out the escape route. When I come back, everyone can follow me.”

With numerous Spirit Masters stationed around the mansion, scouting alone was practically a death sentence.

“…Are you really sure you’ll be okay alone, Huey?”

“What’s the big deal? I’m all about loyalty, you know. I’ll be back.”

“…?”

But Chris grabbed Huey’s wrist firmly as he started to leave with confidence.

“Huey. Stop for a moment.”

“What are you doing…? We’re in a hurry.”

Unlike before, Chris glared at Huey with cold eyes.

“Take out the paper in your pocket.”

“…What?”

Huey didn’t comply with Chris’s request and instead grew angry.

“Paper? What are you going to do with it…?”

He glanced down at his pocket, then scowled and shouted at Chris.

“Ah, I get it. You’re suspecting me now, right? Is our relationship only worth this much?”

Despite Huey’s furious outburst, Chris showed no sign of dropping his suspicion.

“Take out the paper, Sora.”

“Yes.”

Before Huey could refuse, Sora, standing behind him, snatched the paper from his pocket.

“…Ah…!”

Sora unfolded it, read it slowly, then frowned and threw it to the ground.

“…You piece of trash.”

Written on the paper was a huge reward for reporting me. Chris picked it up and confronted Huey.

“…You deliberately revealed the location of the mansion, planning to sell all of us, including Saya.”

Huey, sensing the gravity of the situation, made a pathetic excuse.

“Hey, how could I sell you guys out…! I was only going to sell that woman! Really…!”

“There’s nothing more to hear.”

The moment Chris drew his weapon, Huey cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted loudly.

“Hey—! Over here—!”

Because of that, all the Spirit Masters wandering around the mansion heard him and started moving.

“Commander, it’s the informant’s voice!”

“Follow him and capture them!”

Now in a dire situation, we left Huey behind and began running as a group.

“Huey, that bastard…!”

Huey, watching our retreating backs, smiled bitterly and muttered.

“I’m sorry. Honestly, how long can we keep risking our lives for this kind of thing? I believe you’ll understand.”

We had no choice but to run like mad, pursued by the Spirit Masters.

Violet, fully clad in armor, approached Huey with a gentle expression.

“You did well. You made a wise choice.”

“Then, the money you promised…”

In that instant, Violet’s sword flashed, drawing a line across Huey’s neck. Huey, unaware of what had just happened, looked down at his neck as blood began pouring from his mouth and dripping from the wound.

“…Why…?”

Violet, watching him collapse to his knees clutching his neck, wiped the blood from his scabbard as if it were dirty.

“Once trash, always trash. Just because you’ve changed your attitude doesn’t mean you can be recycled.”

Stepping over the pool of blood and Huey’s corpse, Violet moved on.

As I fled, I glanced back, out of breath. About twenty Spirit Masters were chasing us, and with more joining on Osteons, the distance between us was shrinking fast. Chris, breathing heavily, shouted to us.

“A little further on, there’s a river. Jump in…!”

As he’d said, a large river soon appeared before us. Just as we prepared to leap in, an arrow flew out of nowhere and pierced Dustin’s waist.

“Ugh…!”

“Dustin!?”

The arrow was lodged deep, and Dustin, unable to jump, sank to the ground. Chris, who had leapt into the water first, gestured to him urgently.

“Don’t worry and jump in, Dustin! I’ll pull you along…!”

Dustin, sitting in pain and looking back, shook his head.

“…If I do that, you’ll become a porcupine with arrows. Don’t worry about me— the three of you escape.”

Clutching his waist, he stood and drew his mace.

“Dustin, don’t tell me—”

“Uaaaaaa—!”

With a heavy roar, he charged toward the group of Spirit Masters.

“…!?”

The Spirit Masters, who had been closing in at a terrifying pace, were forced to slow down as their large target suddenly turned and attacked.

“Kill me, you bastards…!”

Dustin swung his mace with all his might, breaking their legs as he fought. Then, Violet’s sword pierced his abdomen.

“…Some small fry…”

Dustin, still gripping his mace until the end, collapsed face-first into the ground.

“Damn it, damn it…!”

I grabbed Chris’s hood as he cried out and pulled him forcefully.

“Let’s go, Chris…!”

When I glanced at the riverbank, the Spirit Masters who had taken down Dustin were approaching the water one by one. I transformed both arms into large ones, holding Chris and Sora, and quickly began crossing the river.

Violet, watching from afar, clicked his tongue.

“…I missed you, Saya, unfortunately.”

He turned away from the river and ordered his subordinates.

“We’ll go around the river and continue the pursuit. Move!”

“Cough…!”

After crossing the river with two people in tow, I vomited a large amount of water as soon as we reached land. It seemed Chris and Sora had swallowed plenty too.

“…Dustin…”

Sora, soaking wet, said his name with a sorrowful expression. Chris wiped what might have been water or tears from his eyes and was the first to stand.

“Get up. For Dustin’s sake, let’s survive and escape.”

There was no time to grieve the loss of our companion. The Spirit Master unit led by Violet would soon cross the river and catch up, so we had to get away as fast as possible. We began running in the opposite direction, not even sure where we were headed.

After running for a while, Chris spoke.

“There’s no safe place in Semal anymore…! We have no choice but to hope we can steal a carriage and cross into another region…!”

I looked around frantically, but there was no carriage—not even a road for horses to travel.

There are too many people to ride on Invidia…

Invidia’s speed would be halved with two riders, and there were three of us, including me. Sora, scanning the area alongside me, looked up at the sky.

“…Then what about the mountain?”

“…Mountain?”

Near the mountain was a forest of dense bamboo trees, where we could hide for a while. We agreed and immediately ran toward it.

“Huff… huff…”

We ran until our hearts felt like they’d burst, then hid under a small hill in the middle of the mountain to catch our breath. Sora, still reeling from Dustin’s loss, spoke softly.

“…How did it come to this?”

Chris, staring at the ground with a cold expression, answered quietly.

“Why? Because of—”

He stopped himself mid-sentence, noticing Sora’s face. About to blame Huey, he fell silent. Sora, who had always seemed fearless, was crying, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“…I’m scared, Chris… I’m scared…”

“…”

“It was like that from the beginning. Taking over the government with less than a hundred people, regaining human rights… it was all nonsense from the start…!”

“Sora, that’s—!”

She looked at us through her tears and continued.

“We were all living in a dream, in a fantasy that if we just killed the emperor, this life would change…!”

Neither Chris nor I could respond. We simply listened to Sora’s outpouring of emotion. When her tears finally subsided, Chris spoke.

“…Sora, if you’ve calmed down a little, let’s move now. They’ll catch up soon.”

“…Yes.”

We prepared to run again.

—Whoosh

At that moment, an unnatural sound cut through the air, and something flew past.

‘…That’s…?’

Upon closer inspection, its artificial shape and blue light revealed it to be an Osteon. The flying Osteon, its owner unknown, locked its glowing eyes on us and began flying in another direction. I immediately called out to Chris.

“Chris, it’s scouting…! If we leave it alone, it’ll return to the Spirit Masters and reveal our location!”

“…No problem.”

Chris, grasping the situation instantly, drew his bow, nocked an arrow, and pulled the string taut. If he didn’t destroy its core with one shot, the Osteon would survive and report back.

…Please…

Chris released the arrow, and it pierced the Osteon’s core with astonishing precision.

[Kuoooo…]

The Osteon flashed brightly in the air, then lost its light and plummeted to the ground.

I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when my eyes widened at the sight before me. Beyond the falling Osteon, dozens more appeared, their blue eyes glowing like a flock of crows filling the sky.

“Run…!”

Our location exposed, it was only a matter of time before the Spirit Masters caught up. Sure enough, they soon appeared at the base of the mountain. We raced upward, unleashing every attack we could muster.

Chris fired arrows until his hands swelled, and I cast spells with all my strength, but the sheer number of enemies meant our efforts only delayed them momentarily. We couldn’t widen the gap.

“…Ugh…!”

Chris, preparing to fire his last arrow, was struck hard in the head by a flying spell and thrown backward.

“…Chris!”

Sora and I quickly lifted him, but he was already unconscious. I transformed my arm into a large one to drag him along, but as the Spirit Masters’ spells intensified, I realized we’d soon be overtaken.

“…”

Sora, gazing silently at the fallen Chris, asked me.

“Saya, can you run faster if you ride your Osteon?”

I understood her meaning immediately.

“…Sora, no.”

But Sora shook her head, drew her remaining axe, and gripped it tightly. Without a word, she stood facing the opposite direction and gestured firmly for us to go.

“…I’ll catch up soon.”

Suppressing the tears welling up, I summoned Invidia, placed the unconscious Chris on it, and ran. I knew Sora’s words were a lie, but I wanted to believe them.

Be safe, Sora…

“…”

Sora seemed to mutter something as she glanced back at us, but I couldn’t hear it.

Levi frowned, wiping the blood from his sword on the wood as if it were dirty.

“Where did the other two go?”

The soldier he questioned replied, sweating.

“Well, I’ve been looking all over with the Osteons, but… I can’t see where they went. I’m sorry…!”

“…I understand. Keep looking.”

Levi sheathed his sword and glared at the girl he had just cut down.

“…If only she hadn’t done something useless…”

Levi, who had nearly caught Saya, was forced to let his target slip away right in front of him due to the unexpected interruption.