Blocking his vision actually made the rest of his senses come alive. His hearing and sense of smell were more acute than usual.

The smell of damp earth, the sound of leaves rustling in the cool breeze, the call of insects. If the man guiding Cadel wasn’t an assassin, he’d hear the sound of footsteps walking side by side.

“……You’re next to me, right? I just have to keep walking forward, right?”

“In ten steps, turn left.”

It was like walking alone in a vast forest, with no voice to be heard. Having determined from their brief conversation that the mysterious man was far from a crazed killer, Cadel periodically checked his presence to shake off the feeling of being alone.

“If this is fate, then it is fate. Shall we have a mutual introduction?”

“Better not to know.”

“……I see. So you live in this forest?”

“Once in a while.”

He was a tough man. Cadel, who had been trying to secretly guess the identity of the assassin, gave up on the interrogation when faced with a fairly thick iron wall.

‘If I get greedy for no reason, I could lose my head without even realizing it.’

The man was at least an A-grade assassin, if not more, seeing as how he kills people with such horrifying perfection. If Cadel provoked him, he’d be dead before he had a chance to create a barrier. Thinking about it, Cadel felt like it was crazy to ask for directions again, and he started swallowing dry saliva.

‘If he had a personality like Lydon, I wouldn’t have asked for a favor either. I didn’t just close my eyes and ask for something because the person seemed friendly.’

He could have killed the intruders in one fell swoop, but instead, he asked who they were, gave them a chance to live, and gave them the information they needed. He might have been a little quirky, but he seemed to have common sense, and it made it easier for Cadel to find his subordinates now.

Just as Cadel was beginning to glorify the assassin’s existence as a cuddly teddy bear. A man’s gravelly voice interrupted.

“I guess you’re not that scared of me.”

“……Why should I be scared? You’re helping me.”

“People are usually scared. Your breathing is steady. It’s easy to listen to.”

Why did he care about other people’s breathing? Once Cadel started being conscious of it, even the most natural breathing became awkward. Cadel made a concerted effort to make his breathing as unobtrusive as possible.

“To sum up what you said, I am a person with an honest heartbeat and a steady breathing sound, right?”

“For now.”

“Yeah, well. I don’t know about that, but…… Your voice is also quite soothing, too. It’s laid back.”

“……Not creepy?”

“Creepy? I wouldn’t normally call this voice creepy. It’s a sleepy voice at its worst.”

Sure, it would be creepy if it just popped up out of nowhere and whispered in your ear, but it wasn’t the voice that was creepy, it was the situation.

At Cadel’s words, the man fell silent once more. Treading cautiously in the returning silence, Cadel narrowed his brow at the question that suddenly occurred to him.

‘……Maybe the assassins want to be creepy?’

Maybe this man wanted to be an object of fear. In that case, he should have said each and every word in a horrifying way that made the hairs on your back stand up.

Wanting to be as accommodating to the assassin as possible, Cadel tried to correct his mistake in the prolonged silence, but the man beat him to it.

“After five steps, open your eyes. Keep walking in that direction and you’ll find your comrades, the other two having already met each other.”

“Ah……. Thanks.”

“You’d better get out of the forest fast.”

“Huh? Why?”

Cadel asked, but there was no answer. No matter how many times he asked, Cadel realized that the assassin was gone.

‘At this level, he’s not a person, he’s a ghost.……?’

He felt like he was having a strange dream, for he hadn’t seen anything tangible from start to finish. Opening his eyes five steps after the man’s words, Cadel looked around cautiously. Sure enough, there was no sign of the assassin.

“……Who it could be.”

Whoever it was, they passed with flying colors with just their personality. Nodding slightly, Cadel moved to find his two subordinates.

* * *

Meanwhile, Van and Lumen fell into the same forest and were the first to find each other. The two men were on an irritating journey to find Cadel.

“I can’t believe I got separated from Commander and fell together with you. Nothing works.”

“While you’re complaining, why don’t you swing your greatsword one more time? Do I have to give it blood again this time? Find a nanny somewhere else.”

“Don’t be disgusting. Because I can cut you up and fill it with your blood.”

“Are you going to cut me up at that slow speed? Your dreams are wild, too. Every time I look at it, there’s a stupid part.”

Searching Cadel, they slayed a total of 34 monsters. It was a crazy forest, and with every step they took, monsters leapt out at them.

Van furrowed his brow as he nervously kicked the goblin’s shredded corpse.

“I’m sure he’s running low on mana because of the movement magic. Where the hell is Commander?”

“Maybe he’s not in this forest, because he could have fallen somewhere else entirely.”

“Spouting such unlucky words, just like yourself.”

“Better than stupid.”

“……Doesn’t this forest strike you as a good place to bury a corpse?”

“I’ve seen some good sites on the way back.”

If it weren’t for Cadel, there would have been a sword attack right away. The two men, who had stopped walking and exchanged bloody glances, suddenly turned their heads when they heard a familiar voice coming from the other side.

“Van! Lumen! Where are you?”

It was Cadel’s voice. Without worrying about who would go first, they stopped fighting and ran towards the direction from which the sound was heard.

“Commander! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Where the hell have you been? I thought you went to hell alone.”

True to the assassin’s word, it didn’t take him long to find Van and Lumen. Cadel was greatly relieved to see the two seemingly unharmed subordinates, but they were not so easily reunited with their commander. They insisted on asking if he had overdone it, if he had been injured, if he hadn’t used too much mana against the monsters he had never seen. It was a ridiculous concern for Cadel, who had been feeling more like a walk in the park.

“Monsters? I haven’t seen a single one.”

“You didn’t see a single one? How is that possible? I was wondering if there was some kind of broken Demon Realm’s seal here.”

“I’m glad I didn’t meet them…….”

With over 30 demons to kill in less than fifteen minutes, the two men were left to wonder if they were just unlucky or if Cadel was exceptionally lucky.

Cadel quietly rubbed his chin as if he had something to point out.

‘Was it because of the monsters that he told me to quickly get out of the forest? I didn’t see a single one on the way, so maybe that’s…….’

Maybe it was because the assassin cleaned them all up. Aside from that, Cadel didn’t hear a single scream from the monsters, but a good assassin would have struck the monsters before they even noticed.

‘If that’s true, he’s not an A-grade assassin, he’s an S-grade assassin.’

As expected, he should have known the name. He should have built relationships more boldly.

The thought that the man might have been an S-grade knight immediately made Cadel sad, but that didn’t mean he could do much about it. Finding a hidden assassin was next to impossible, and they had more pressing matters to attend to than recruiting a new knight.

After a brief pause, Cadel shook off his regret and rummaged through his bag.

“Earlier, I failed to control my mana and went all the way to Dunkelhai, but now I know what to do. I’ll drink the potion I brought with me, and I’ll have enough mana to get to the White Kingdom, so let’s go.”

“……This is Dunkelhai, Commander?”

“We’ve come a long way.”

His subordinates were curious to know how he knew this was Dunkelhai, but Cadel dodged the question with a sideways glance. It was hard to explain. How do you explain the help of an assassin whose name, face, and identity you don’t know?

“Keep your guard up while I’m done drinking.”

It would take at least eight vials to fly from Dunkelhai to the White Kingdom. Cadel sat down on the ground and began to drink the potion in a combative manner.

And while Cadel drank the potion like a hippo, Van and Lumen dealt with the monsters that seemed to be waiting for them. It was a surprising number for Cadel, who hadn’t even realized there were monsters in this forest.

After shoving the potion he was about to regurgitate into his stomach, Cadel soothed his rumbling stomach and drew a delicate circle of movement magic on the ground.

“……Done. This time it will really work.”

“Absolutely, Commander, I trust you.”

“Of course. This commander must succeed for the sake of his bulging stomach.”

Cadel stood in the circle, breathing heavily. Now that he’d figured out the problem after one failure, he was confident that this time he would succeed.

Once he was satisfied with the amount of mana he had, he called his subordinates inside.

“Alright, here we go!”

Cadel wasted no time in casting the spell, a blinding flash turning his vision white, followed by an odd sensation of being sucked somewhere, sweeping through his body.

“Yozen Vardikta. That’s my name.”

The voice that had guided Cadel here pierced his ears like a vague auditory hallucination.

__________

T/N: Yup, this is our last hubby. Remember when dealing with Ergo’s core, Cadel dearly wished for Yozen’s skill, the Inevitable Death, as it dealt a large amount of damage in one swoop? Yup, cheer for the wish that came true!