...
On the other side.
After walking a short distance...
Eve suddenly stopped.
She turned her head, her gaze sweeping across the formation.
Then, her brows furrowed slightly.
“Someone is missing.”
Her voice was very light.
Yet when it reached the formation, it sounded as clear as if spoken right next to everyone's ear.
The leading Holy Church Mage turned around.
He looked at Eve.
Several nearby knights exchanged glances.
Then, the old man spoke.
“In reply to Lady Saintess, that knight... has another task.”
His voice remained respectful.
Yet there was no panic whatsoever in his eyes.
Eve looked at him.
For a long time.
Those purple eyes seemed capable of seeing through all disguises.
And the old man showed no dread either.
He simply stood there quietly, facing the Saintess's questioning gaze.
Finally, Eve smiled.
That smile was very beautiful.
Yet there was no warmth in those eyes.
“Then let us wait for him here,” she said softly.
“I expect he will return very soon.”
“Right, Grover?”
Grover's brow twitched slightly.
He looked at Eve.
He could see the confidence in her eyes.
Yet he did not understand.
What did she have to be so confident about?
Every Disciplinary Knight was a true elite selected through layer upon layer of trials from devout believers.
The lowest among them was a High-tier Transcendent.
And that black-haired mage reported by Daniel...
He had just seen him.
He was merely a High-tier High Rank.
It was completely impossible for him to escape the knight's pursuit.
Time passed bit by bit.
Fifteen minutes.
Half an hour.
An hour.
Then...
A white figure darted out swiftly from the mist.
It was the Disciplinary Knight who had gone to hunt down Lin Gui.
He returned very quickly.
Matching the expected outcome of a High-tier Transcendent crushing a lower rank.
Yet the expression on his face carried obvious confusion.
He stepped up to the old man quickly.
Whispering into his ear...
“Lord Grover, that person... is gone.”
Grover's brow furrowed.
“Gone?”
The knight nodded, a trace of shame in his voice.
“None of my senses could detect any trace of him.”
Grover stared at him.
“He is just a High-tier High Rank mage.”
The knight lowered his head.
“My apologies, Lordship. I... I truly could not sense his presence.”
“After you all left, I tracked his trail the entire way.”
“But suddenly... he just... disappeared.”
Grover interrupted him harshly.
“Do not make excuses for your carelessness and weak perception, Weiss.”
His voice was low.
“Do you think a High Rank mage could hide from the perception of a High-tier Transcendent knight?”
Weiss hung his head in humiliation.
Grover looked at him and sighed.
“Forget it.”
“He is merely a High Rank mage; he cannot stir up any major trouble.”
“Lord Daniel also let the Saintess leave back then out of this very consideration.”
To the side, Eve watched with a faint smile.
She closed her eyes, then opened them, looking at the old man.
“Lord Grover, since everyone is here,” she said softly, “can we set out now?”
The old man cast a glance at her.
Then, he waved his hand.
The Disciplinary Knights reformed their ranks.
Arranging themselves in a formation to protect the Saintess at their center, they began to march forward.
The party moved forward.
Eve's hand was gently clenched inside her sleeve.
In her palm was a tiny piece of gray fabric.
She raised her head.
In her eyes, star tracks rotated faintly.
Her gaze swept across the formation, across the meadow, across the surface of the lake.
And landed on a treetop not too far away.
Then, her lips parted.
She mouthed something silently.
In the depths of her eyes was a soft smile.
The party continued forward.
Soon, they disappeared at the end of the forest.
...
A long time later.
Upon that treetop.
A patch of air shimmered gently.
As if something unseen had brushed aside the branches and leaves.
...
On the flying vessel, Lin Gui's thoughts were in turmoil.
He sat at the front, letting the flying vessel move forward on its own, his gaze falling upon the mist below without focusing.
The Dark Tide was actually going to erupt in the borderlands.
Whether it was Caleb's warning or the omens at Eagle Fortress, both had told him that the Dark Tide might originate around the Carter Royal Capital.
Yet in Eve's omens, the future Carter Royal Capital existed.
The Dark Tide could not possibly erupt right beside it.
Yet the truth was that the Dark Tide really had erupted.
And it was at the Withered Rift, extremely close to the Carter Royal Capital.
Was Eve's prophecy wrong?
Or... had she hidden the true prophecy?
Lin Gui's brows furrowed tightly.
He remembered Eve's help along the way.
He remembered the anxious way she called his name outside the Voiceless Abyss.
He remembered her hugging his waist, pressing her face against his back, saying that this was an experience she would never forget for the rest of her life.
That occasionally mischievous girl would smile slyly after drugging him.
She would act like a little girl when playing games with the glass bead.
A person like that...
Lin Gui shook his head.
She was not that kind of person.
...Regardless, the Dark Tide was indeed going to originate near the Carter Royal Capital.
The destruction of the Carter Royal Capital had become an inevitable reality.
He only hoped...
That fellow Elvia would take his warning to heart.
Even if only a few more people managed to escape.
He took a deep breath and withdrew his gaze.
He steered the flying vessel, flying toward Bounty City.
He did not head directly toward Shield City.
Because among the letters sent from Avalon, a few were addressed to several tiny city-states surrounding Bounty City.
He needed to stop by and deliver these letters along the way.
Although the population of those city-states was extremely small—so small that they did not even meet the criteria to trigger the System's Weekly Commission rewards.
Yet Lin Gui was still willing to make the trip for the sake of these tiny longings.
Even if there were no System rewards at all.
The flying vessel sliced through the sky, flying toward the distance.
Over the next few days.
Lin Gui passed swiftly through the skies above city-states scattered across the Blackwater Corridor one after another.
The Shroud of the Gloomy Night protected him, preventing anyone from seeing an oddly shaped flying vessel passing overhead.
Nor did anyone notice a mage riding a staff floating silently through the crowds.
And no one paid attention to the sudden appearance of letter delivery commissions on the omnipresent Adventurer's Guild bulletin boards.
Rate on N.U.
