Ten days had passed.
It was finally time for everyone to return to the camp.
One group after another began making its way back.
But not everyone had returned yet.
### Arthur
Arthur glanced toward the depths of the forest.
It’s time to return.
He had no idea what had happened to Nameless.
After thinking for a while, he decided not to collect all the remaining Beast Cores.
There was no point in carrying everything back at once.
He could deal with the rest later.
With that decision made, Arthur led his group back to the camp.
### Alice
Alice arrived at the camp that afternoon.
Or at least, she initially thought she was the first to return.
However, as soon as she entered, she noticed someone was already there.
Noctis.
Her expression changed slightly.
“Noctis.
Come with me.”
Her voice was serious.
Noctis casually nodded.
“Sure.”
As they walked away from the others, Alice asked, “When did you return to the camp?”
Noctis smiled.
“Not long ago.
I came back yesterday.”
Alice stared at him for a moment.
She seemed to be considering something, but she didn’t ask any further questions.
Instead, she turned around and walked away.
Noctis watched her leave.
He didn’t say anything either.
Slowly, the other groups began returning.
One after another, everyone arrived at the camp.
Everyone except Nameless.
At first, nobody paid much attention to his absence.
Perhaps he had simply been delayed.
An hour passed.
Then another.
Yet there was still no sign of him.
Ronan and Arthur began to wonder what had happened.
For a brief moment, an unpleasant thought crossed Arthur’s mind.
Could he be dead?
But after considering the possibility, he quickly dismissed it.
Someone capable of killing so many beasts wouldn’t be easy to kill.
At least, that was what he believed.
Noctis and Alice showed no signs of concern.
Both remained as calm as usual.
Ronan, however, was becoming increasingly worried.
Nameless was important to them.
More importantly, Lady Alice had personally assigned him a task.
If he died here, it could interfere with her entire plan.
Ronan didn’t want anything to jeopardize Lady Alice’s plans.
That was precisely why he was worried.
Afternoon gradually gave way to evening.
Then evening turned into night.
Still, Nameless hadn’t returned.
Eventually, Alice decided to stop waiting.
She summoned everyone in the kingdom.
More than a thousand people gathered before her.
Alice stepped forward and addressed the crowd.
“I have something to tell everyone.”
The murmuring gradually faded.
“I have decided that we will leave this place five days from now.”
The crowd immediately erupted into whispers.
Alice waited for them to quiet down before continuing.
“However, I won’t lie to you.”
Her blue eyes swept across the crowd.
“Many people will die if we attempt this.”
“But those who survive will finally have a chance to escape.”
Everyone listened attentively.
“There are people among you who have been trapped in this place for more than ten years.”
“I hope all of you will come with me and finally leave this place behind.”
Her expression remained calm.
“But I won’t force anyone to follow me.”
“If you aren’t prepared to take this risk, you can leave now.”
Alice fell silent.
The entire crowd became quiet.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Not a single person stepped forward to leave.
A faint smile appeared at the corner of Alice’s lips.
But it vanished almost immediately.
She looked at the thousands of people standing before her.
“We will definitely win.”
With those words, Alice turned around and left.
### Noctis
I watched the crowd from a distance.
A faint smile tugged at the corners of my lips.
Humans really are foolish.
They hadn’t even realized what they had just agreed to.
People were always looking at the surface.
They saw what was directly in front of them and believed they understood everything.
Very few bothered to look beneath the surface.
And that was precisely why they so often failed to understand the truth.
I shook my head slightly.
How interesting.
### The Meeting
Night had fallen when Alice, Arthur, Noctis, and Ronan gathered for a meeting.
There were five seats in the room.
However, one of them remained empty.
Nameless still hadn’t returned.
Arthur and Ronan exchanged glances.
The same thought crossed both their minds.
Could Nameless really be dead?
When he had first entered the forest, his strength had been the lowest among them.
Perhaps something unexpected had happened.
They were just about to take their seats when—
Whoosh!
A black shadow suddenly swept through the room.
It rushed toward the empty chair.
In the next instant, someone appeared and sat down.
Everyone froze.
Their eyes immediately turned toward the figure.
It was Nameless.
He had finally returned.
Noctis’s eyes lit up.
“Nameless!”
Without hesitation, he rushed toward him.
However, Nameless raised one hand.
“Stop.”
Noctis froze in place.
His expression immediately turned sour.
“What kind of behavior is that?”
He crossed his arms and glared at Nameless.
“Your friend is trying to hug you, and you’re stopping me?”
Nameless ignored his complaint.
“Tell me how to get rid of killing intent first.”
Noctis’s expression changed.
A playful smile spread across his face.
“You should have asked me that earlier.”
He stepped forward and placed a hand on Nameless’s shoulder.
A strange force immediately spread through Nameless’s body.
In the next instant, Noctis absorbed all the killing intent radiating from him.
Alice, Arthur, and Ronan stared in disbelief.
Impossible.
Nobody should have been able to absorb another person’s killing intent so casually.
And Nameless’s killing intent was especially terrifying.
Just looking at him had felt like standing before death itself.
His killing intent was so overwhelming that it had become difficult to breathe.
He hadn’t even broken a sweat.
After finishing, Noctis immediately wrapped his arms around Nameless.
“I know you missed me!”
Everyone in the room could see the truth.
It wasn’t Nameless who had missed Noctis.
It was obviously Noctis who had missed Nameless.
Surprisingly, Nameless didn’t argue.
In truth, he was happy to see Noctis as well.
For a long time, he had struggled with the pressure building inside him.
There had been moments when he had wanted to end his own life simply to escape it.
Somehow, he had always managed to restrain himself.
And strangely enough, he didn’t mind it when Noctis corrected him.
So this time, he simply allowed Noctis to hug him.
After a moment, Noctis finally released him.
“Why were you so late?”
Nameless shook his head.
“It’s a long story.”
He glanced at the others.
“Sit down first.”
Alice, Arthur, and Ronan took their seats, pretending that nothing unusual had happened.
Noctis sat down as well, though his attention remained fixed on Nameless.
“So, what happened?”
Nameless leaned back slightly and began explaining.
“After killing the beasts, I couldn’t find any others.”
“I wandered around the forest for a while, looking for something else.”
“Eventually, I discovered a cave.”
He paused briefly.
“I thought it might be a beast’s den, so I entered carefully.”
His expression grew serious.
“But what I found inside surprised me.”
“There were three skeletons lying inside the cave.”
“At first, I thought they were ordinary remains.”
“Then I noticed that one of the skeletons was holding a diary.”
“I picked it up, opened it, and started reading.”
Noctis suddenly leaned forward, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
“Did you find a treasure map?”
Nameless looked at him expressionlessly.
“No.”
“I didn’t find a treasure map.”
Noctis’s excitement immediately faded.
“Boring.”
Nameless ignored him and continued.
“There was something else in the diary.”
“It mentioned a particular place, and the diary recorded the entire life of the person who had written it.”
The atmosphere in the room changed.
Alice, Arthur, and Ronan became noticeably more attentive.
Nameless continued.
“The most important thing I discovered was that this place was originally a One-Star Gate.”
He paused, allowing the others to process his words.
“But over time, it changed into a Two-Star Gate.”
Nameless fell silent for a moment before adding, “In my opinion, a Star Gate shouldn’t be able to upgrade itself.”
He looked around the room.
“So, once it changed, the people trapped inside could no longer return.”
Arthur immediately interrupted.
“We already knew that.”
Nameless slowly turned his head toward him.
“Listen to everything first.”
His voice became cold.
“I don’t like people interrupting me in the middle of a conversation.”
Arthur’s expression stiffened.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Arthur lowered his head slightly.
“Sorry.”
Nameless nodded and continued as though nothing had happened.
“There are thousands of people here who originally entered this place when it was a One-Star Gate.”
His expression remained indifferent.
“But unfortunately for them…”
He paused.
“They became trapped here when the gate changed.”
The room fell silent.
For the first time that night, everyone began to understand that the truth behind the Star Gate might be far more complicated than they had imagined.