"Aaaagh!"
A piercing scream rang out.
Inside the Black Dawn Knight Order's officers' room.
A silver-haired woman clutched her eye.
Dark red blood soon streamed between her fingers.
"Lady Muria!"
The guard beside her approached in alarm at the sight.
"Leave me."
He reached toward her, but Muria slapped his hand away and rose from her seat.
The pressure in her eye had ruptured every blood vessel leading to it.
She avoided sharing vision with her familiars precisely because of this danger.......
It had happened because the familiar's death forcibly severed the shared vision.
But anger radiated from her far more intensely than pain.
"You dare deceive me?"
By sharing her familiar's vision throughout the day, she had witnessed many things.
Covering her eye, Muria rapidly organized the information.
'The report was false.'
The report claiming that a third of the White Wolf Knight Order had been poisoned was a lie.
She did not know how or why a false report had arrived through the familiar, but the knight order she had seen was intact.
'The entire infiltration cell is dead too...'
She had seen the heads of four of the five spies planted in the White Wolf Knight Order mounted on poles.
Hans's head, the remaining one, had not been there, but it was reasonable to assume he was already dead.
And finally.
'What is that brat?'
The one responsible for killing the crow.
He had also stood on the platform after receiving credit for helping kill the spies.
In other words, that brat had killed both the spies and the familiar.
'Unless he noticed the familiar's presence.......'
No, he undoubtedly had.
Judging by what happened, he had removed Rainer's eye and used it to summon the familiar.
Muria had vividly witnessed all of it.
The familiar responded to the eyeball and descended toward the boy, who twisted the crow's neck the moment it landed.
He had done it without the slightest hesitation.
"Ahahaha!"
Muria suddenly burst into hearty laughter.
Thinking about it, the fact that a young boy carried Rainer's eyeball was absurd in itself.
The whole thing was unpleasant, yet it also provoked Muria's intense curiosity.
'How much do you know?'
Muria wiped away the blood caked around her eye.
Knowing about the spies was one thing, but he even knew about the familiars and how to summon them?
No one but one of Muria's closest aides could possibly know that.
'No. That isn't what matters.'
She collected her thoughts.
The boy's identity was a secondary issue.
The greatest problem was that their operation had been exposed... and that the enemy had nearly turned it against them.
Having organized her thoughts, Muria called her guard.
"Bedef."
"Y...yes!"
"Summon the officers immediately. This is an emergency meeting."
"The officers... all of them, my lady?"
It was still before dawn, when everyone was asleep.
Instead of answering, Muria slowly turned her head.
Her bloodshot eye, every vessel burst, fixed on Bedef.
Bedef flinched, swallowed dryly, and answered.
"Yes, understood. I will summon every officer immediately."
Bedef left the officers' room, and Muria swept back her silver hair as she watched him go.
'What is that brat?'
The boy had worn an expressionless face throughout.
He was a child with empty eyes that seemed devoid of emotion.
Yet the expression on his face in the familiar's final memory had been...
A smile.
'What an interesting boy.'
The corners of Muria's mouth twisted upward.
She had a feeling she would soon become deeply entangled with him.
***
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG—!
The signal announcing morning rang out.
Rohan had stayed awake all night.
As always, meat had been placed on the Fourth Squad's serving tray today.
Judging by its appearance, it seemed to be a bird.
"Where in the world do you keep finding all this game?"
Kaisen spoke through a wide yawn.
Rohan shrugged and answered.
"Eat."
"No thanks."
Now accustomed to it, Kaisen paid the matter little mind.
Besides, today's catch carried a strangely sinister aura and looked thoroughly unappetizing.
While the squad members prepared, Creed finished arranging his bedding and spoke.
"Let's go."
Everyone followed the Squad Leader to the training ground.
An unusual tension hung over the camp.
The deployment order had been issued.
The mission assigned to the White Wolf Knight Order was the supply transport operation.
Transport operations put those carrying them out at a severe disadvantage.
Those who left their refuge and traveled while guarding cargo were no different from weak prey separated from the herd in the eyes of the enemy.
Disgruntled whispers came from soldiers all around them.
- Fuck. Why did it have to be the supply transport operation?
- What are they thinking, taking us through Niagara Gorge?
Niagara Gorge.
It was a long gorge also known as the Gorge of Death.
Unless they took a fifteen-day detour, they had to pass through it to reach the imperial capital.
Its narrow, elongated terrain disadvantaged anyone passing through.
The threats that could arise in the gorge were countless.
'I'll take the egg during this battle.'
Rohan looked toward the supply wagons.
The goods they had to transport included the Phantom Beast Egg.
The egg had not yet hatched.
No one knew what would emerge, but it was precious enough for the Empire to order its direct recovery.
'The problem.'
Possessing the egg did not mean one could control the Phantom Beast.
He did not know whether the hatched Phantom Beast would obey its owner.
Nor did he know how it could be tamed.
But there was a way.
'Muria.'
The silver-haired woman he had seen in the crow's memories.
She had been sharing the crow's vision.
She controlled the familiar from far away.
And used the crow's eyes to watch this place.
Perhaps the skill used to control familiars could help him tame a Phantom Beast?
That might also be why Muria was so fixated on the place.
'I need that woman's memories.'
Killing Muria would give him the answer.
The Phantom Beast Egg, and Muria's memories.
There were two things he had to obtain during this operation.
'But how?'
The memories of the crow and the Noxis soldiers he had killed.
The Muria in those memories was strong.
Fast, agile, and no less powerful.
He could not defeat her as he was now, but...
'Then I'll create a way.'
Rohan swept his gaze over his surroundings.
It soon came to rest on one place.
In a corner of the training ground, Kaisen was bickering with the person beside him.
'I need a single blow that can catch her off guard.'
The answer was over there.
His thoughts did not continue for long.
"Everyone, get ready!"
The Company Commander had given the order.
Basic drills were underway on the training ground.
When it was time for the Fourth Company and Fifth Company to run, the soldiers formed ranks.
Rohan also took a starting stance in the formation.
"Soldiers. Run!"
At the shout, both companies began running at once.
It was a grand sight: roughly 200 soldiers from the Fourth Company and Fifth Company running in lines.
Even the men who normally took it easy ran as though their feet were on fire today.
Roughly half a month of peace had been more than enough to erode the lazy soldiers' endurance.
The soldiers knew it too.
Soon, even men who had survived countless battles were panting.
"Huff, huff. What is that?"
Someone was overtaking those soldiers.
It was Rohan.
Before anyone knew it, Rohan was passing the others without even gasping for breath.
The soldiers watching him whispered.
"Huff...... What the hell is with that bastard?"
"Wasn't he dead last until recently?"
"Huff, huff. D-don't talk to me."
By the time Rohan completed all ten laps around the training ground, countless soldiers were lined up behind him.
But Rohan looked forward.
There were just as many who had finished ahead of him.
Despite his rapid growth, he still could not catch soldiers who had maintained their fitness and exercised consistently.
'I still have a long way to go.'
Rohan thought as he watched them.
One of the soldiers panting behind him put a hand on his shoulder.
"You...... You've gotten really fast."
Rohan did not answer.
***
During personal time after the morning run, Rohan and Creed faced each other in a deserted place.
Creed asked Rohan a question.
"The Knight Commander still doesn't know we fed the enemy false intelligence. When will you tell him?"
"He doesn't need to know. They discovered the lie anyway."
"What? How?"
"They had a familiar."
Rohan gave a brief explanation.
He described using Rainer's eyeball to lure the familiar, and the memories he obtained by killing the crow.
After hearing the entire story, Creed sank into thought.
"A familiar... I've heard of familiars, but this is the first time I've heard of someone actually sharing a familiar's vision."
Rohan reflected anew on the White Wolf Knight Order's intelligence capabilities.
The enemy dispatched spies and used familiars to wage a battle of intelligence, yet the knight order seemed completely uninterested in that sort of thing.
Reading Rohan's expression, Creed spoke briefly.
"Don't think too poorly of us. Our knight order is weak at intelligence warfare because our combat strength makes up for it."
"Is that so?"
"It is. Otherwise, how could our knight order have become the Empire's foremost knight order? Those men may not look like much, but they're incredibly strong when united."
Strong when united.
Did that mean they excelled at cooperation?
Rohan committed Creed's information to memory.
"So, what will you do now?"
"I have a request."
"A request? Another one?"
Creed's eyebrow twitched.
But he soon regained his composure.
He also needed to find his sibling, who was being held prisoner.
Ultimately, he had no choice but to follow Rohan's lead.
However.
"Not for free. You've been training constantly, so come at me."
SHING—! Creed drew his sword.
At some point, Creed had stopped using a wooden sword when facing Rohan.
Rohan watched him, then pulled aside the robe he wore.
Creed's eyes widened.
"Those are......."
A one-handed sword hung on the right side of Rohan's waist.
On the left was Meiwa's crescent-shaped sword.
"A one-handed sword? You'll be at a disadvantage."
Creed tilted his head.
The one-handed sword Rohan had brought had roughly half the reach of a longsword.
It was generally used by agile assassins or as a secondary weapon for knights.
It was not well suited for Rohan, who primarily used the swordsmanship of Carnia and Noxis.
The crescent-shaped sword he had taken from Meiwa was the same.
The Nakandiya tribe's sword had a rounded curve and was about as long as a dagger.
Then why had Rohan chosen these weapons?
Creed already knew the answer.
"You've already learned Meiwa's swordsmanship? So that's why you asked to meet here."
Creed surveyed the surroundings.
Rohan had requested their spar in the thickly wooded area between the training ground and the camp.
Tall trees grew densely around the two of them.
Considering that the Nakandiya tribe's swordsmanship had originated in dense jungle, there could be no better environment.
"Who knows?"
SHING—!
After giving the suggestive answer, Rohan drew his sword.
Contrary to Creed's expectations, the sword Rohan drew was the one-handed blade.
Rohan assumed a ready stance and spoke.
"There's something I need to practice."
"Fine, come... at me."
CLANG—!
As always, Rohan attacked before Creed could finish speaking.
Creed nearly lost sight of his movement.
Rather than charging from the front, Rohan stepped on a tree, leaped, and attacked from the side in an instant.
'It's harder to block than Meiwa's sword.'
It was not simply an issue of strength.
In terms of power alone, Meiwa had undoubtedly been overwhelmingly stronger.
Meiwa's movements had also been more agile.
Yet for some reason, Rohan's sword was harder to block than Meiwa's.
Rohan ran up a tree and charged again.
A straightforward thrust.
Creed laughed inwardly.
'Did you think I would fall for that again?'
CLANG—! Sparks flew as Rohan's sword bounced away.
Just as Creed thought it was time to counterattack.
'What is this?'
He saw Rohan rotate once in midair.
Then a blade flashed. SLASH— He heard something being cut.
He watched his severed hair fall as if time had slowed.
'What? I definitely knocked his sword away.'
Creed could not comprehend the situation.
The thought that a slightly deeper cut would have slashed his face sent a chill down his spine.
"How... did you......?"
Creed stared at Rohan in disbelief.
Rohan stood before him, panting.
"The practice paid off."
Rohan smiled. Meiwa's crescent sword was in his left hand.