Chapter 28

Chapter 28.

A narrow valley lay beneath moonlight faintly shining through the clouds. On both sides, sheer cliffs too difficult for a person to climb enclosed the road like folding screens.

Rian pushed his body into a crack in the rocks halfway up the cliff, a place even an animal’s steps were unlikely to reach. It was the perfect hiding place he had found after crawling upward through the darkness for hours.

From his view, the narrow dirt road below the valley came into sight at a glance. Whoever passed through this place would fall beneath his gaze.

‘A perfect hunting ground.’

Rian carefully lowered the oak longbow from his back without making a sound. The motion of running his fingers once over the surface of the bow carried a familiar sensation.

He drew one straight, smooth arrow from his leather quiver. He did not nock the arrow to the string, but laid it neatly beside the body of the bow, in a place where he could grab it immediately by merely stretching out his hand.

It was a preparation stance without a single inch of error, allowing him to lift the bow and draw the string at any moment.

After finishing his preparations, he carefully examined the surrounding terrain again. He was not merely looking with his eyes. The senses throughout his body stretched out like sensitive feelers, absorbing every piece of information around him.

The direction of the wind flowing along the cliff, the subtle resonance of sound that wind created in the narrow passage of the valley, even the position and depth of the shadows cast by the remaining moonlight.

After the senses of the dead archer Elias had been engraved into his body, the world approached him in an entirely different way. Every natural phenomenon flowed into him as information with meaning.

Once he had finished all analysis, Rian leaned his back against the rock and quietly closed his eyes.

He no longer moved. Even his breathing blended into the sound of the wind around him. Like a part of the valley that had existed there from the beginning, like a nameless rock.

Time passed.

The cold curtain of night slowly lifted, and the eastern sky began to turn ash gray. The chill that had filled the valley through the night mixed with the dampness of dawn, creating humid air.

Rian slowly opened his eyes.

There were no signs of having stayed awake all night. Instead of the fatigue of sleep, his eyes were filled only with cold concentration like a sharpened blade.

Rustle.

At that moment, a faint sound reached Rian’s ears.

‘That isn’t the sound of horse hooves.’

The sound of gravel being stepped on. The sound of leather and metal striking together in time with footsteps. It was not a sound made by one or two people.

Rian’s gaze turned toward the entrance of the valley where the sound was coming from. While his body remained hidden by the crack in the rocks, only his head turned slightly.

A short while later, four silhouettes appeared at the boundary between darkness and dawn. The imperial army’s leather armor and helmets. Spears and swords were held in their hands.

It was a foot scout patrol. As if they had finished scouting through the night, their gait and shoulders were plainly marked by fatigue.

Rian held his breath and observed them.

By coincidence, the scout patrol stopped in a small clearing directly below the cliff where Rian had positioned himself.

One soldier grumbled as he breathed roughly.

“Damn it, we didn’t see a single rat bastard all night. This is just wasted effort.”

The soldier who seemed to be the squad leader roughly looked around as though keeping watch, then opened his mouth.

“We’ll rest here for a bit. There’s still time before shift change.” 

No sooner had those words fallen than the soldiers sank down where they stood. They took off their heavy helmets and set them on the ground, then pulled out the canteens at their waists and began gulping water down.

Rian’s brow narrowed very slightly, almost imperceptibly.

‘Obstacles.’

He slowly released the strength from the hand that had been gripping the bow.

Shooting an arrow at them now would be foolish. The sound of the arrow cutting through the air and the string vibrating would echo several times louder because of the narrow valley terrain.

The true target that would soon pass through this place, Messenger Team Leader Pero and his party, would undoubtedly change their route or flee at full speed the moment they heard that sound.

‘I can’t just wait, either.’

He could not know when they would leave. There was no guarantee they would vacate the place before Pero’s party arrived. If the two groups happened to meet here, the plan would be completely ruined.

Rian’s gaze turned toward the scout patrol below.

They had completely lowered their guard and were chatting about what had happened through the night. One of them had even leaned his back against the wall and begun to doze.

Rian quietly, soundlessly set the bow down on the ground. There was not an inch of hesitation in his touch.

Shing.

Then he drew the short dagger from his waist.

The keenly honed blade caught the faint dawn light and reflected a cold, frigid gleam.

He turned his body and slipped out of the crack in the rocks as though gliding.

With his eyes, he swept over a different route from the one he had used to climb the cliff. A path more hidden, where his footfalls would make no sound. His eyes found the optimal descent route in an instant.

Rian grabbed a protrusion in the cliff and lowered his body.

His movements were quiet and flexible, like a lizard. Every movement of his muscles was focused on minimizing noise.

Clack.

It was right then. A small pebble slipped beneath his foot and rolled downward.

Rian instantly stopped moving and pressed his body tight against the cliff like a shadow.

A sound came from below.

“Didn’t you hear something?”

One soldier looked toward the direction of the sound, toward the cliff where Rian was hanging. Rian did not even breathe. His body had completely blended with the rock.

Another soldier answered as if annoyed.

“Must’ve been the wind. Or some beast. Forget it.” 

“Guess so.”

The soldier did not erase his doubtful expression, but soon shook his head and focused on his conversation with his comrade again.

Rian waited until they had completely turned their gazes away and fallen back into idle chatter. One minute, two minutes...... Time that felt like eternity passed.

The moment he judged that their guard had finally dropped completely, he carefully began descending again.

This time, he did not make even a single sound. He felt out the rock with the tips of his toes, supported his weight with only the strength of his fingers, and flowed downward along the shadows.

At last, Rian lightly set foot on the valley floor and soundlessly hid himself in the deepest shadow beneath the cliff.

***

From Rian’s perspective, the scout patrol was visible. Their backs were exposed in a state of perfect defenselessness.

He observed them from behind a rock, suppressing even the sound of his breathing.

Four. One was standing watch a little apart from the others, while the remaining three were sitting together.

Rian’s first target was the soldier on watch.

He moved soundlessly along the shadow cast by the rock. There were no footsteps. As if he were floating over the ground, no weight could be felt in his movements.

He approached five steps behind the soldier’s back. The faint scent of sweat mixed with old leather armor brushed the tip of his nose.

Rian held his final breath and kicked off the ground.

Only two steps. In the blink of an eye, the distance vanished.

Thud!

His left hand shot out like lightning and clamped over the soldier’s mouth. He did not give him even a moment to scream.

At the same time, the dagger in his right hand stabbed deep into the side of the soldier’s neck, into the area his armor could not protect.

“Ghk......!”

A sound that could not even become a scream was swallowed in Rian’s palm.

Rian supported the soldier’s body as it went limp and collapsed, then laid it down on the ground without a sound. In the process, not even the sound of a weapon hitting the ground rang out.

He hid himself in the shadows again.

One of the seated soldiers shouted toward the side where the sentry had been standing.

“Hey, Marco. Isn’t it time to switch? How long are you planning to hog the easy work?”

There was no answer.

“That bastard, is he dozing again?”

The soldier grumbled and rose from his seat.

He came trudging toward the place where the sentry, Marco, had been.

Rian hid behind a rock along the path the soldier would pass and waited. His heartbeat remained calm.

The very moment the soldier passed by the rock, Rian sprang out from the shadows.

“Huh......?”

The soldier widened his eyes at the black form that appeared before him, but it was already too late.

Slash!

Rian’s dagger pierced from below upward, through the soft flesh beneath the soldier’s jaw and into his brain.

Rian dragged the body and disappeared back into the darkness. The second corpse was laid on the ground without a sound.

The two remaining soldiers finally noticed something was wrong.

“Why is it so quiet? Marco! Yohan!”

One called his comrades’ names, but only the sound of wind returned as an answer through the valley.

The two soldiers leaped to their feet at the same time. They were gripping swords in their hands.

Rian did not wait any longer.

He burst out from the darkness and charged at both of them at once.

“Who are you?!”

One shouted, but Rian showed him with action instead of answering.

His movements were like those of an unpredictable starving beast. He seemed to charge straight ahead, only to change direction in an instant and dive into the left soldier’s space.

Squelch!

At the same time that he drove the dagger into one man’s neck, he used that man’s body as a shield to block the sword swung by the other soldier.

Clang!

With a dull sound, the blade sank into the corpse’s leather armor.

Without hesitation, Rian kicked the now-dead soldier and shoved him toward the last soldier.

“Grkh!”

The final soldier staggered after colliding with his comrade’s corpse. His chest, flailing as he lost his balance, was left perfectly defenseless.

Rian did not miss that brief instant.

His dagger closed the distance in a single step and stabbed precisely into the staggering soldier’s heart.

As the fourth soldier collapsed with an expression of disbelief in his eyes, complete silence returned to the valley.

***

Four corpses lay strewn across the clearing.

Rian did not steady his breathing. His breathing had been even from beginning to end. He looked like a person who had merely finished a light stroll.

He immediately began disposing of the corpses.

He grabbed them by the ankles one by one and dragged them away, moving them deep into a nearby thicket. It was a place human eyes were unlikely to reach.

After hiding all four bodies, he returned to the clearing. He gathered up soil and carefully covered the bloodstains that had splattered across the ground.

A short while later, the traces that four soldiers had stopped there to rest, and the traces that there had been a brief fight, had almost completely disappeared.

Rian wiped the blood from the dagger clean with leaves and sheathed it at his waist again.

As if nothing had happened, he began climbing the cliff he had descended.

After returning to his sniping position, Rian picked up the oak longbow he had left on the ground. The feel of the bow wrapped familiarly around his hand once more.

His gaze turned again toward the empty road below the valley.

There was no trace on his face of someone who had just taken four lives. No emotion surfaced. It was merely calm and cold.

As the sun tilted westward, long shadows began to fall across the valley. Morning had passed, and noon was drawing near.

‘They should be coming soon.’

Rian nocked the arrow he had prepared onto the string.