The only thing Bellona had discarded after leaving Sarotum was her hair.

The crude way in which it had been tampered with made it clear that the mages had cast a simple tracking spell on it.

Still—

Their little trick had worked faster than even the Imperial Shadows.

Unaware of any of this, Bellona felt her world collapse.

Her vision suddenly became too bright, so she squeezed her eyes shut.

A long, pale streak burned across her vision.

Solishar had drawn the longsword he always carried.

“You don’t remember how to ride a horse, do you?”

Considering the situation, he asked his question remarkably calmly.

There was even a hint of certainty in his voice.

However, like any ordinary person in this situation, Bellona couldn’t answer.

Should she run from Sol?

Or from the sheriff?

Could she even run?

At the sight of the long blade, her entire body froze.

“I’ll let it slide just for today.”

Solishar said something completely nonsensical and urged the horse forward.

One of the sheriff’s men hastily drew his bow, but Solishar covered the distance between them in an instant. He knocked the bow aside with his sword and drove the blade straight into the man’s neck.

As he twisted the sword free, blood sprayed into the blue sky.

His movements were effortless and clean to a terrifying degree.

The sheriff, who had felt reassured about bringing a mage along, instinctively retreated behind her the moment Solishar charged.

After all, the only fights he had ever experienced were petty scuffles in alleys and markets.

Magic was the only thing he could rely on.

But before the mage could act, the sheriff was struck and thrown from his horse, killing him instantly as his neck broke.

“Aaah!”

Having been worn down by the long pursuit, the last mage could barely cast a spell. She let out a desperate scream and thr*st out her hand.

Bellona saw it.

The air in front of Solishar rippled and a circular haze formed.

Its edges glowed faintly—red.

Flames began to take shape.

And yet—

Solishar did not stop.

He drove his sword straight through the flames as if they were nothing, striking the mage down.

The moment he moved his blade, the flames shattered and vanished without resistance.

The mage fell, meeting the same end as the others.

Only the abandoned horses remained, scattered across the field and whinnying for their lost masters.

‘What did this person know, when he was alive?’

“No matter how long you stare, a corpse won’t give you answers.”

Solishar, who had already caught the frightened horses before they could flee, approached Bellona once more.

Passing the frozen sheriff, he crouched down beside him.

He began searching the body of the man he had killed.

“W-what are you doing?”

Her voice trembled, barely audible through her ragged breathing.

Solishar held up the pouch he had taken.

“Take it.”

Bellona reflexively caught the coin as he tossed it to her.

Coins clinked inside.

By then, he had already moved on to the next corpse.

He searched swiftly, instantly deciding what to keep and what to discard.

It was a speed of judgement that Bellona could not begin to match.

“What… what is all this?”

“What do you mean?”

In fact, she didn’t understand any of it.

Solishar turned to look at her.

Her face had gone pale.

Her eyes were wide, her lips parted in shock and her body trembled faintly.

“Why did you lie?”

“Because it’s simple.”

That was a lie, too.

It wasn’t simple; it was just easier.

For the first time, Bellona felt wronged by her ignorance.

“It wouldn’t have lasted long anyway.”

“I suppose.”

Solishar answered carelessly.

“Then do you want to go back? There are plenty of horses—just take one.”

Bellona thought that was a terribly cruel thing to say to someone who had nowhere to return to.

“I meant—why did you lie about taking me somewhere? What are you planning to do with me?”

It was not easy to look straight at someone who had just killed without hesitation and question them clearly.

But Bellona did her best.

Her voice trembled, whether from shock or anger she did not know, but she spoke firmly nonetheless.

“Why did you do it?”

“If I answered, would you believe me?”

Strangely, his voice sounded almost gentle.

As if he were quietly telling her to think it through.

Bellona paused, then shook her head.

“No. But I still want to know, so I’m asking.”

She asked because she couldn’t not ask, even though she knew it was a foolish question.

She pressed her trembling lips together.

She had cried in the inn’s courtyard for a long time that morning, but that familiar sorrow rose again.

Her eyes burned.

“Someone who knows you got in touch with me. They said that they would pay me if I took you out. So, I’m taking you to meet them.”

At those unexpected words, Bellona’s head snapped up.

The man who had been speaking so lightly now had his brows drawn together.

“Who is that person? How do they know me?”

‘The man whose name you kept repeating during your interrogation.’

Solishar didn’t want to say it out loud, so he deflected instead.

“Do you believe me?”

“Answering and then asking that is unfair. And cowardly.”

The words slipped out before she could stop them.

She frowned and immediately regretted it.

But Sol simply nodded.

“That’s true.”

He said nothing more.

In silence, he finished what he had started.

After taking whatever money and useful items he could find, he released two of the horses and kept one to carry his belongings.

Then he helped Bellona back onto the horse they had been riding.

They left the corpses behind in the barren wasteland.

They rode on.

Bellona turned to look back.

A cold wind swept over the bodies they had left behind.

‘People die too easily.’

***

Even after riding late into the evening, they found no sign of human life.

They crossed forests and barren landscapes, riding on until their cheeks were numb and their noses were tingling.

Yet the towering mountain range beside them never seemed to draw any closer.

The night stretched on without end.

Stars shimmered overhead.

Below, the wasteland offered nothing but bare earth and stunted, withered plants.

Eventually, Solishar found a suitable place to spend the night, following the uneven terrain.

He gathered stones beneath a cliff and lit a small fire, keeping the flames low so that they wouldn’t be seen from afar.

Wrapped tightly in her robe, Bellona crouched quietly beside the fire.

“Eat. Then sleep.”

He handed her some bread and grilled bacon, then spoke briefly.

It must have been luck to stay at the inn earlier.

Even now, she wasn’t sure she could sleep, so she simply stared at the ground.

Perhaps she had lived like this before.

Maybe sleeping outdoors was normal for her.

She didn’t know her past.

“Those people earlier… was it okay to kill them?”

“It’s better that way.”

She hadn’t expected an answer.

But one came.

“Why?”

“Your ‘friend’ doesn’t know enough to do anything but appoint street thugs as sheriffs. If they see the bodies, they’ll panic. Once we leave the north, they won’t be able to track us at all.”

It was a longer explanation than she expected.

But how much of it could she trust?

Watching Solishar as he prepared their resting place, Bellona hugged her knees tightly.

‘Could she run away?’

Bellona stared into the darkness beyond the fire. It was so deep and black that she could not see what lay within.

From somewhere in the distance, she heard the echo of a beast’s cry.

Startled, she quickly turned her head around.

Solishar watched as confusion, gloom, and resignation passed across her face. He added more twigs to the fire.

Sparks drifted upwards into the air.

The wood blackened, then faded to grey, finally glowing red and crumbling into white ash.

“Go to sleep.”

Even without her memories, she was a perceptive woman.

Perhaps she had already realized that there was nothing she could do at that moment.

So she lay down and pulled the robe over her head.

‘That Momona Kien… she was definitely panicking.’

Lying on the hard ground, she knew there was no way she could fall asleep.

Bellona’s thoughts kept circling.

The woman who had pretended to be her friend had only wanted to keep her close.

But now that Bellona had stepped beyond her control, she must be confused.

At least that thought brought her a small sense of satisfaction.

Even in a situation like this, she managed to find something, however small, that lifted her spirits.

Clinging to that fragile optimism, she lowered her robe just a little.

She quietly glanced towards Sol.