Alina just stared.
Wood's words...
They weren't making sense.
"A horde... of corpses?"
Her mind was completely blank.
How?
How could this be?
"Confirm it," she snapped, her voice cracking.
Wood was pale, gasping for breath, his hand on his knee.
"It's... it's confirmed. Someone... someone lured them. Deliberately. From the North."
He looked up, his eyes wide with terror and a new, dawning hatred.
"And Alina..."
"I believe it was that knight who killed our men"
"The pattern on their gear is identical!"
Alina spun around.
Her face was a mask of pure, white-hot fury.
Hereyes locked on the castle gate.
On the shadows where he was hiding.
"YOU!" she screamed, her voice echoing across the courtyard.
"WAS THIS YOUR DOING?!"
...
Roland was completely baffled.
'What the hell?'
'What... what knight?'
'What does this have to do with me?'
Wood, still panicked, quickly described the man.
The heavy armor. The arrogant sneer. The black hawk crest on his red surcoat.
Roland's expression... changed.
It went from confusion...
To cold, hard, understanding.
Absolutely, it was Rena.
That bastard.
That... bastard.
He was supposed to be riding back to the Earldom.
Back to his father.
Unless...
'This is a conspiracy.'
'He never left.'
Roland immediately stepped out from the shadows.
"No," he called out, his voice hard. "I have no connection to that knight."
Alina stared at him, her eyes narrowing.
She was a living lie-detector.
She was scanning him.
"We'll talk later," she seethed, and prepared to leave.
Her men. Her people. They were dying.
She was already turning, gathering her magic.
"I'm coming with you," Roland said.
She stopped.
She looked at him, her face full of suspicion.
"Why?"
Her voice was ice.
"To... to stab us in the back?"
Roland was blunt.
"Let's just say I'm making a friend."
He wasn't just being nice.
He wasn't an idiot.
He felt this woman... Alina... she was worth investing in.
A powerful mage.
And...
That blue and white dot.
It was still glowing on his map.
'In my terms... she's a Special NPC.'
He had to make contact.
He had to find out what that dot meant.
And, even more importantly...
He needed to catch that bastard Rena.
He needed to have a nice, long... "chat"... with him.
...
Alina stared at him for a long, hard second.
She was reading him.
She saw... sincerity?
"Thank you," she said, her voice flat.
"If we get through this..."
"I'll owe you one."
"Anything."
A small, tired smile played on Roland's lips.
A joke.
Just to break the tension.
"Anything? Even... warm my bed?"
Beside him, Violette pouted.
Her eyes narrowed.
She shot a fierce glare at him.
Alina didn't laugh.
She didn't get angry.
She didn't even blink.
She was silent for a moment.
Her face was dead-serious.
Utterly.
"Fine."
Roland's smile froze.
"I'll sleep with you for a few nights."
"And you... you give me back my men."
Roland...
Was struck speechless.
'Whoa.'
'Wait.'
'What?'
His joke... his stupid, off-hand joke...
It had just... crashed into a wall of pure, desperate, ice-cold pragmatism.
'That's... that's not what I meant.'
'This woman is... intense.'
He cleared his throat, his face flushing.
"Forget I said that. Just... a bad joke. My apologies."
"Now... go."
"I'll be right behind you."
Alina nodded, already turning.
"Wait," Roland said, pointing at Wood. "Just leave... his... to show me the way."
He looked back at the armory, his mind already racing.
"I also need Anna to move our supplies. Get them out of the castle. Now."
"Just in case that idiot Kevin tries anything."
...
Not long ago
Miles away.
In the mountain forest.
Knight Rena rode his horse.
He was on a high ridge, looking down.
Behind him, a massive, shuffling, moaning sea of shadows.
A horde of rotting corpses.
Hundreds of them.
He was ecstatic.
He was about to get a huge reward.
He was about to be a hero.
For crushing a dangerous group of bandits.
...
As for why he was here...
And not on the road back to the Earldom...
The reason was simple.
Lord Cassian.
Roland's brother.
A secret order, whispered in the dark of the armory, just before they left.
'Make sure Roland dies.'
'He can't reach the North.'
'Do this, and you will be Captain of my personal guard.'
So, Rena took a detour.
He'd faked his departure at Windsor Castle.
He'd cut through the lethal, whispering Blood Moon Forest.
A natural barrier against the North for a reason.
It was lethal.
But... he got lucky.
On his way, he'd stumbled across two bandit scouts.
He'd killed them.
He'd followed their tracks.
And... he'd found it.
The bandits' main camp.
A temporary one.
Hidden in a mountain basin.
Thirty-odd able-bodied men.
Plus... women and children.
All busy moving plundered supplies.
A direct assault?
Too risky.
So... Rena got an idea.
A brilliant, terrible idea.
He'd ride north.
And he'd... lure a horde of corpses back.
It was a dangerous gamble.
Two of his own men died doing it.
Screaming.
Pulled from their saddles and torn to pieces.
A worthy sacrifice.
Because... he had succeeded.
...
And now...
The pay-off.
He watched from the ridge, a cold smile on his face.
The simple camp was collapsing.
The first wave of corpses... his first wave... was tearing it apart.
Tents were on fire.
People were screaming.
Running.
Dying.
It was... beautiful.
Rena smiled.
He still had another huge horde trailing behind him.
In reserve.
Looked like he wouldn't even need them.
This was... too easy.
Just then...
FWOOOOSH.
A torrent of pure, liquid fire.
It erupted from the center of the camp.
It washed over the entire attacking wave.
It engulfed them.
Corpses, already rotting, turned to black ash in an instant.
Shrieking.
A sound... he didn't even know they could make.
The camp's defenders...
The ones who were still alive...
They were rallying.
A woman...
A white-haired woman...
Was back.
Alina.
Rena stared at her.
'What...?'
'Magic...?'
'A Mage.'
'A real one.'
He wasn't afraid.
In fact...
His smile widened.
'What an unexpected bonus.'
The bounty...
The Imperial bounty...
For killing a hostile, unregistered mage...
Was extremely high.
He reached into his saddlebag.
He took out a small, silk-wrapped tube.
He unwrapped it. Carefully.
Inside, nestled in black velvet...
Was an arrow.
A single, beautiful, terrible arrow.
It was glowing with a faint, pulsing, blue light.
A Glimmerstone Arrow.
A weapon designed for one purpose.
To nullify magic to some extent.
To kill mages.