Chapter 30

Chapter 30.

The night forest was like the innards of a vast living beast. Damp, cold air filled his lungs, and from every direction came the endless sounds of unidentified lives.

Rian moved through it as if swimming.

His feet were no longer those of a conscript thudding against the ground. His center of gravity had sunk low, and his footsteps were light as feathers. Avoiding dry leaves and small branches was not a conscious effort. His body knew first and reacted. With only the sensation touching the soles of his feet, he found the firmest and most silent spot for his next step.

Thick moss-covered rocks, soft earth packed down by rainwater, damp humus. His feet chose to step only on places like those.

The senses of the dead archer Elias.

That did not simply mean the skill to shoot a bow. It was everything belonging to a hunter who had come and gone through forests as if they were his home for decades, tracking beasts. When a subtle flow of wind brushed his cheek, he instinctively turned his body toward the direction the wind was coming from and prevented his scent from spreading. From the cry of an owl coming from far away, he gauged the depth of the night, and from the faint smell of earth mixed into the air, he knew there was a small stream nearby.

Every piece of information in the forest flowed into his senses and drew one vast map. The path that allowed him to hide his body the fastest and most covertly. Before his head could think, his body moved toward that path first.

The image of the terrified conscript who had once staggered in fear was nowhere to be found. He was now a shadow perfectly assimilated into the forest, and a predator approaching its prey without a sound.

How much time had passed? The cries of predators grew less frequent, and the sky, which had been deep navy blue, began to faintly hold light from the east. The boundary between night and dawn. It was a quiet time when every sound in the world briefly stopped.

Rian settled into a crack in the rocks where the roots of a massive oak tree were exposed. There was no sign of exhaustion from traveling all night. His body merely moved efficiently for its designated purpose like a machine made of steel, feeling neither unnecessary emotion nor fatigue.

He took a piece of hard, dried jerky from inside his clothes. He put the leather-tough jerky into his mouth and moved his jaw mechanically. He felt no taste at all. It was nothing more than an act of filling his body with the calories necessary for survival.

The piece of jerky rolled roughly around his mouth, which was dry even of saliva. He lifted his canteen and washed it down with cold water. Only the sensation of the water running down his esophagus and cooling his insides was clear.

After finishing the brief rest, he opened the messenger bag he had taken from Pero. Even in the darkness, his eyes identified the contents accurately.

[Imperial Army Supply Unit Three Weekly Status Report]

[Sender: Outpost Seven / Recipient: Central Army Command]

Two parchment scrolls rolled up into cylinders, and one small wooden box about the size of his palm. It was unchanged from what he had checked beneath the oak tree last night.

Rian grasped the wooden box in his hand. The small box, assembled with precision, was so light that it was almost weightless. Even when he shook it, it made no sound.

‘No need to open it now.’

Whatever this was, it had nothing to do with his current mission. His goal was only one thing: eliminating the target. He pushed the box back deep into the bag.

Instead, he unfolded the old map. Relying on the faint dawn light, he traced his current position and the next target point with his eyes. His finger slowly slid across the map.

‘Eastern ridge.’

The patrol zone of Eric, the Senior Archer of the imperial army. In the area around Gallows Heights, it was where the view was most open, and places advantageous for sniping were scattered everywhere.

After finishing all his checks, he rose soundlessly from his place. No trace remained where Rian had stayed, except for the faint mark of having leaned against the rock.

Again toward the east, with the brightening sky at his back, his shadow stretched long.

***

As noon drew near, sunlight pierced through the leaves and poured over the forest floor like gold coins.

Rian finally entered the entrance of the eastern ridge. A landscape clearly different from the dense forest until now spread out before him. The trees were tall and sparsely grown, and huge boulders that obstructed the view were scattered along the hill.

For a sniper, it was optimal terrain. At the same time, it was also the worst terrain. The more places there were to hide, the more places there were for the enemy to be hiding as well.

Rian lowered his body even more than before. He carefully moved his feet along the shadows created by rocks and trees. His movements were smooth as if he were gliding.

It was right then.

Without any warning, the sensation of the fine hairs on the back of his neck standing on end swept through his entire body.

Rian’s steps stopped for an instant. As if he had struck an invisible wall. He slowly turned his head and looked back at the path he had come from.

The sound of leaves brushing in the wind. Birdsong from far away. The utterly peaceful scenery of the forest. Other than that, there was nothing.

‘A beast?’

It could have been a predator in this area. But his senses were telling him. This was not the presence of a beast. It was something sharper, something more persistent.

He moved forward again. But it was not at the same speed as before. His steps became markedly slower, one by one placing his weight with caution, as if trying to absorb every change in his surroundings.

The nerves throughout his body sharpened sensitively like a taut bowstring. In his ears, aside from the sound of the wind, only the low, heavy sound of his own heart rang out.

Caw, caw.

An ominous sound came from above his head. A crow circled once around Rian, then flew beyond the ridge.

It was different from an ominous feeling. This was something alien. A clear signal that, in this space, there was something else besides himself.

Rian’s gaze naturally turned toward the ground. He saw faint footprints left on the soil. Imperial army bootprints. But they were too old. Their edges had collapsed, and traces showed they had been washed by rainwater. They were at least several days old.

Even so, the sense of wrongness, as if something were glaring at the back of his neck, did not disappear. Rather, as time passed, the sensation that had been rising like fog gradually condensed into a clearer and more distinct form.

This was not an illusion.

It was the unmistakable sensation of a gaze, as if someone were watching him intently from very far away, using a spyglass.

Rian did not go any farther.

He soundlessly slid his body behind the nearest boulder, one as large as a house. As if water were seeping through a crack in the rocks, there was not an inch of hesitation or unnecessary motion in his movements.

With his back against the cold rock, he killed even the sound of his breathing. He minimized the movement of his lungs and forced his heartbeat to slow.

Thump. Thump.

The beating of his heart, slightly heavier than usual, seemed to travel through his ribs into the rock behind his back.

‘An enemy ambush team? No, this is different.’

It was not the scattered presence felt from several people. Only one. A single presence, highly focused and sharp as a honed blade.

It was the same kind of thing as himself.

Rian slowly drew the dagger from his waist and reversed his grip. When the touch of cold steel reached his palm, even the last remaining human wavering vanished from his eyes. His eyes, which had seemed empty, sank coldly and revealed an abyss whose depth could not be known.

From hunter, he had become prey again.

***

Time seemed to have stopped. Rian became completely one with the boulder and did not move at all.

He moved only his eyes, thoroughly sweeping over the surrounding terrain. The direction the wind was blowing from, the angle of the leaves shaken by that wind, even the movement of a small bird passing between branches, he took all of it into his vision without missing a single thing. Everything was as usual, but that tranquility itself created a strange sense of wrongness.

He could still feel the gaze. Tenacious and persistent, it was aimed near the boulder where he was hiding. Like a viper waiting for its prey to grow tired and reveal itself.

‘Where are you?’

Rian took out the map from inside his clothes again. To prevent even the parchment from making a rustling sound, his hands were extremely slow and careful.

He confirmed the location of the boulder where he was hiding and drew every possible sniping point in the surroundings inside his head. Places that could look down on this boulder perfectly.

There were three. To the northeast, a small hill rising gently. To the west, an exceptionally dense-branched giant tree. And straight ahead, the top of the highest ridge in this area.

Rian raised his head very slightly, so little that the movement was almost impossible to sense, and examined the northeastern hill. Trees and undergrowth were dense, but the scenery visible between them was perfectly natural. There were no signs of an ambush.

He shifted his gaze and checked the giant tree to the west. It was the same. A few small mountain birds sat on the branches, chirping peacefully. If someone were hiding there, those birds would not be so calm.

Finally, he moved his gaze to the highest ridge straight ahead.

The distance was roughly four hundred meters. With the old oak longbow he had, it was a distance at which his arrow would not reach, let alone pose a threat.

‘But from there, this side is perfectly visible.’

The top of the ridge was the best sniping point, a place from which one could look down on every part of the terrain in this area as if it lay in the palm of his hand.

He pressed his cheek to the rough, cold surface of the boulder and fixed his gaze on the ridge. Dense leaves and jagged rocks blocked his view, making it difficult to identify anything.

Rian narrowed his eyes. He perceived the entire ridge as one enormous picture and tried to find the unnatural point within it. A foreign color, an unnatural shadow, leaves shaking differently from the direction of the wind. All of his concentration gathered at the end of his gaze, sharp as a needle.

Time flowed soundlessly. The only change was the sound of wind brushing past his ears.

There was no impatience. Only ice-cold endurance ruled his inner self. Like a beast waiting for prey, he could wait indefinitely until the perfect opportunity came, or until the threat disappeared.

‘Was it a mistake?’

When he gained nothing despite persistent observation, that thought faintly raised its head. He was just about to withdraw his gaze and consider another measure.

At that exact moment, among the leaves on the distant ridge, one tiny point caught the sunlight and glittered.

It was a fleeting instant. A sharp, cold light like the tip of a needle, something he would have missed entirely if he had blinked once.

Every movement of Rian’s stopped. Even his breathing ceased.

He felt his heart drop coldly to the floor with a thud.

That was not the gleam reflected from a beast’s eye. Nor was it a piece of quartz shining between the rocks. It was not natural light.

It was unmistakably artificial light, the kind created when sunlight struck polished metal or the lens of a spyglass.

Rian held his breath. Even the last remaining trace of movement completely vanished from his face. Over his stone-hard face, only his eyes emitted a chilling light.

‘......Eric.’

One of the empire’s finest master archers. His next target.

He had found Rian first. Rian had come to hunt, only to become the prey instead.

At the same moment he thought it, Rian completely hid his body behind the boulder.

Whoosh!

A sharp tearing sound ripped through the air.

Thwack!

A dull impact burst right beside his ear. In the surface of the boulder where Rian’s head had been just moments ago, a black arrow tipped with steel was buried deep.

The arrow shaft trembled minutely, as though alive.

Rian’s eyes shone not with shock, but with a fighting spirit cold as ice.

Four hundred meters. It was a sniping distance beyond common sense. Unless it was a strong bow made with the empire’s supplies and technology, such a thing would be impossible.

Rian stared for a moment at the arrow embedded in the rock. The arrow trembled faintly before his eyes, as if mocking him.

‘The hunt has begun.’

Keeping his body curled as tightly as possible, he did not move behind the boulder.

On the distant ridge, between the camouflage screens made of leaves, he did not know that a red-haired man was lowering his bow with a faint smile.

The roles of hunter and prey had reversed in an instant.

Between ridge and ridge, in the quiet forest beneath the sunlight, there drifted only a tension like a bowstring drawn taut.

Rian tightened his grip on the dagger.

‘How do I get out of this?’