“Who sent them?”

“Greg is dead… it must be the Emperor.”

Zeno and Caleb looked at Rudbeckia with puzzled expressions.

Why would Emperor Adam, who had willingly given them the prize money and rewards from the lance competition, want to kill them?

“Pergos never leaves any members of the royal family alive from territories they occupy. They always order the bodies to be brought back.”

Rudbeckia recalled Adele being dragged like a dead animal’s corpse by a horse.

And during the Fabio War, they had killed all the Fabio royal family members and arranged their bodies for Greg to verify.

“Cal. You being alive was thanks to Greg. Or should I say because of him? Seeing Greg personally putting poison in your glass, I think… that was probably his final gateway to becoming a true noble of Pergos.”

“Glass? Poison?”

Zeno, who hadn’t been at the banquet, asked with eyes like a startled rabbit.

Rudbeckia briefly explained what had happened at the victory banquet and continued with her speculation.

She was as accurate as if she had heard the conversation between Adam and Greg, or as if she had entered and exited Greg’s mind. It was almost regrettable that there was no one to verify her answers.

“So that’s why he readily prepared the rewards immediately. He planned to take them back from the start.”

“That must be it, right?”

“Cal, how many people are following us?”

“One.”

To Zeno’s question, from which no sense of hostility could be felt, Caleb answered with a confident voice. Just one person. What kind of skills must they have to send just one person against three?

“I’ll be up above.”

— Tap!

With a light footstep sound, Rudbeckia climbed up a tree. Caleb and Zeno hid their bodies a few steps away from the tree she had climbed.

How many minutes had passed? A faint footstep sound was heard. The fact that they could hear it despite the person trying their best to conceal their presence meant they were quite close. Rudbeckia, whose eyes had grown accustomed to the pitch darkness, threw the dagger tied to her thigh toward the sound.

— Swoosh

After the sound of the dagger falling futilely to the ground, a chilling voice, impossible to tell whether male or female, was heard.

“So leaving footprints this way was to lure me.”

“If you knew it was a lure but still followed, that means you’re prepared to die, right? Who sent you?”

Caleb shouted from behind a tree. It was okay if his position was revealed by his voice. Rudbeckia was covering them from above.

“I’d be disappointed if you saw me as such a trivial assassin who would disclose my client.”

— Ssswaaak!

A sharp and unpleasant sound like a rattlesnake split the air.

— Thwack!

That air became a form and stuck into the tree behind which Caleb was hiding.

Arrow? Dagger? What was it? Nothing was visible, but it was gradually cutting through the tree.

“It’s magic! A wind mage!”

Simultaneously with Rudbeckia’s shout, the tree crashed down with a cracking sound.

As Caleb emerged from behind the tree, the mage blocked his vision by sending leaves flying in the wind. Only Rudbeckia, who was up in the tree, could see the mage’s position accurately. She threw her dagger toward where the whirlwind of leaves was starting.

“Quite a cute attack.”

The mage sneered with a snake-like voice.

“Is this cute too!”

The dagger was merely to measure the exact location of the mage.

Rudbeckia instantly advanced by stepping diagonally across the tree, and Zeno and Caleb split to both sides and rushed toward the direction her dagger had flown. The attack of the three was perfect, reflecting their years together.

— Swoosh!

— Slash!

Rudbeckia struck down with her spear from above the mage’s head, and Caleb and Zeno slashed at him diagonally from both sides.

But their attacks only cut through empty air. The mage had moved position with a whirlwind.

“What, is this possible too?”

The three were bewildered by the unexpected event.

The mage, having changed position, once again sent sharp wind like blades toward the three.

“Cloaks! Behind the trees!”

“You have something interesting. Normally, it should have been torn immediately.”

Rudbeckia’s shout. The wind whipped their cloaks, then fell still. The cloaks Anesio had made weren’t just for warmth—they were protective gear, built with insulation and defensive enchantments.

But no follow-up came. Magic that could move a body with the wind? Before they could even process it, the wind curved behind the trees.

Then, suddenly, the invisible wind took shape and coiled around all three of their necks. It felt like a rope tightening. They couldn’t breathe.

“Ugh…!! Kuk…!!”

Though clearly wind, its shape could be felt and even grasped by hand. As breathing became increasingly difficult, the three dropped their weapons and tried to tear away the wind with both hands.

But what initially felt like grabbing a thick rope changed to feeling like a thin fishing line as they applied force to remove it.

Their breathing was so constricted they couldn’t even make groaning sounds. The soles of their shoes lifted from the ground, leaving them suspended in mid-air. They tried to create a breathing hole between the wind and their necks by inserting their fingers, but it was futile.

“Cal. I couldn’t… keep… my promise… Sor……”

Zeno opened his mouth with great difficulty. What he wanted to say wasn’t heard till the end.

“Ze… Zeno!”

— Pop!

With a bursting sound, Zeno’s head rolled down to Caleb’s feet.

— Thud

Zeno’s body slumped forward as if kneeling.

How could life end so futilely…? It was hard to believe even while seeing it. They didn’t want to believe it.

Already suffering enough from the neck constriction, and now Zeno’s death……

Rudbeckia was engulfed in a wave of fury. Her mind filled with nothing but the thought of killing the mage before her. As the anger rising to the tips of her hair reached its peak, her blood suddenly cooled, like a wrist that had been wringing a sheet suddenly relaxing.

“You ask the wind. You communicate with the wind.”

Daniella’s words flashed in her mind. Communication. Both that mage and Daniella used their mouths when casting magic.

Rudbeckia removed her hands from her neck and tensed her waist. She firmly tightened her lower abdomen, used her core strength to pull up her legs, and took out a dagger from her thigh. Then she threw it toward the mage’s mouth.

— Swoosh!

The mage, who had been watching what seemed like mere desperate struggles to survive, flinched in surprise as the dagger grazed his mouth.

Caleb and Rudbeckia didn’t miss that moment when his concentration wavered. They tore away the wind, scratching the raw flesh of their necks, and rushed at the mage.

“Block his mouth!”

Caleb quickly grabbed the mage to prevent him from moving his mouth. Meanwhile, Rudbeckia found a suitable-sized gag and forced it into the mage’s mouth.

“Mmph, mmph.”

“Ah, really. How are we supposed to hear who hired you like this?”

“He has fingers, doesn’t he?”

— Thwack

Rudbeckia kicked the mage’s shin, forcing him to kneel. Caleb grabbed a fistful of the mage’s hair with one hand.

“Whose instructions did you follow? Who do you work for?”

While he interrogated, Rudbeckia approached Zeno. She closed his eyes, which she hadn’t been able to do earlier, and laid him in a proper position. Then, whispering “Just a moment,” she picked up a sword that had fallen nearby and handed it to Caleb.

Caleb’s voice was filled with anger, and he placed the sword blade against the neck of the mage, who showed no intention of moving his hands, and asked once more.

“Not going to answer?”

“Cal, it seems he still doesn’t want to use them? I’m sure he can write even without one leg?”

“Mmph. Mmph. MMPH!!”

When Rudbeckia coldly spoke and moved to stab his thigh with her dagger, he hurriedly cleared away the fallen leaves on the ground.

How ironic that he so easily took another’s life, yet he hated the thought of losing even one leg.

[ Crown Prince ]

“Huh, the Crown Prince? Ah, since his lackey Greg failed, you’re trying to clean up after him.”

“Mmph mmph mmph.”

He nodded vigorously as if confirming they were correct.

“Cal, what are you going to do?”

“If we let him live, will he go to Baningo and report that he failed his mission?”

“Then, let Baningo kill him. I’m curious to see how the imperial family will respond.”

They had no intention of avoiding the coming fight, and if Baningo personally marched to their territory, that would actually be welcome. It would save them the trouble of visiting him directly.

Caleb withdrew the sword from the mage’s neck and released his grip on his hair.

And they truly spared the mage’s life. But in a state where he could never again communicate with the wind and kill people.

Leaving behind the mage who was writhing with indistinct screams, the two approached Zeno. It was so futile that tears wouldn’t even come.

“Cal, rest here. I’ll go bring Grandfather.”

He quietly nodded.

Rudbeckia raced quickly to the village. Her hands gripping the reins were filled with strength, and her mind flooded with memories of the many times she had spent with Zeno.

“Sob… Zeno……”

After sobbing for a long time, her crying finally subsided when she reached the village.

The wagon was parked at the entrance of the village, making it easy to find the inn where Anesio was staying. Rudbeckia quietly knocked and entered the inn, asking them to call for him.

Appearing with a disheveled look, Anesio was startled to see her face in a mess of tears.

“Who… who……”

“Sob, sob… Grandfather… Ze… Zeno……”

He urged her along while patting her back. How could such a tragedy happen? They’re children who had survived countless battles in war. He couldn’t hide his grief.

At the place where she led him, Caleb had tended to Zeno’s body and was sleeping beside it. His face and sleeves were completely wet, as if he too had cried until all his energy was drained.

“Ah… you’re here… and Master Anesio……”

“Yes, yes, you did well. You did well. Are you two alright?”

Both nodded. Anesio, examining the two who claimed to be fine, sighed when he saw the wounds on their necks.

“What do you plan to do with Zeno?”

“We should take him to Sanders. I want to bury him beside his parents. But……”