The weather was unusually pleasant that day.
A cool breeze drifted through the mountains, while large, soft clouds floated lazily across the clear blue sky.
Sunlight filtered through the dense branches overhead, scattering patches of light and shadow across the grass below.
It was rare to get weather this good.
Even Evelyn Sterling, who usually had no shortage of complaints, found herself in a slightly better mood.
She had been cooped up inside that abandoned haunted estate for days, and she was starting to get tired of staring at the same old walls.
So, while no one was paying attention to her, she simply wandered deeper into the mountains alone, hoping to find somewhere quiet to sit for a while.
Calling it “sneaking out” was probably giving the situation too much credit.
Hardly anyone cared where she went in the first place.
Her estate was remote, and as long as she didn’t deliberately appear in front of anyone, there probably weren’t many people in the entire White Tiger Clan who would suddenly remember that she existed.
Besides, this was deep in the mountains.
The forest was dangerous, and very few people dared to come this far without good reason.
Those who already went out of their way to avoid her haunted estate certainly weren’t going to wander all the way into the mountains just to look for her.
So Evelyn took her time.
She walked when she felt like walking and stopped whenever something caught her attention.
By the time she began to feel tired, she had reached a grassy clearing that looked as though no one had visited it in years.
The ground was flat and open.
Soft blades of grass swayed gently in the breeze.
Evelyn sat down, stretched out her short legs, placed both hands behind her for support, and tilted her head back to watch the clouds drifting slowly across the sky.
For once, she thought her life didn’t seem quite so terrible.
Technically, she was enjoying the scenery.
Of course, after a while, her thoughts started wandering again.
She had been in this world for five whole years.
And for most of that time, she had been alone.
She didn’t know what a normal childhood was supposed to look like.
Her own consisted mostly of farming and dealing with one problem after another.
When she was around living people, she had to watch out for sweet-faced schemers, fake innocents, and a stepmother who seemed to take personal joy in seeing her suffer.
When she returned to the haunted estate, she had to deal with restless ghosts, wandering spirits, and all sorts of strange things that seemed to appear from nowhere.
Really.
Was her life easy?
Not even slightly.
So getting to sit quietly in the grass and stare at the sky without anyone bothering her almost counted as a rare luxury.
Thinking about that, Evelyn let out a slow breath.
Then she decided to stop thinking about all the annoying things in her life.
She simply leaned back and watched the clouds drift farther and farther away.
That was when a small red figure suddenly emerged from the grass nearby.
It was a little red fox.
The fox quietly approached Evelyn’s feet, circled around her twice as though looking for the most comfortable position, then flopped down on the grass beside her.
Its tail curled around its body.
A moment later, it closed its eyes.
Evelyn noticed the movement and looked down.
When she realized it was the same little fox again, she wasn’t surprised.
She simply reached down and lifted it onto her lap.
Her small fingers gently ran through the soft fur a few times before she looked back up at the sky.
She had known this little creature for quite a while.
It was a young fire fox from the fox race.
Still very young.
And strangely enough, it was not afraid of her at all.
It often wandered over on its own.
Sometimes it circled around her feet.
Sometimes it did nothing more than lie beside her as though it owned the place.
Honestly, it seemed more comfortable here than she did.
Evelyn had never figured out why it liked approaching her so much.
After thinking about it several times, the only explanation she could come up with was the Core Crystal inside her body.
After all, that crystal had once belonged to Selene Veyra.
Other than that, Evelyn really couldn’t think of any reason a young fox would trust her so completely.
After being lifted onto her lap, the little fire fox lazily opened one eye.
When it saw that Evelyn was the one holding it, it closed its eyes again almost immediately.
Then it settled down comfortably and let her stroke its fur.
Evelyn glanced down at it.
Without realizing it, her touch became gentler.
It wasn’t often that something willingly stayed near her without fear or dislike.
There was no reason for her to chase it away.
And so, girl and fox sat quietly together for almost an hour.
The surroundings were peaceful.
Other than the occasional breeze, the only sound came from the grass brushing softly against itself.
At first, Evelyn still let her thoughts wander.
After a while, she got too lazy even for that.
She simply sat there and enjoyed the wind.
Unfortunately, the peace clearly had no intention of lasting.
A sudden burst of noise came from somewhere in the distance.
There were hurried footsteps mixed in with it.
Evelyn’s hand, which had been gently stroking the little fox, paused.
She turned toward the sound.
The fire fox also woke immediately, raising its head as both pointed ears stood straight up.
A moment later, three figures appeared in the distance.
All three were boys, clearly older than Evelyn, and they were running toward the clearing at full speed.
Behind them— a group of men dressed in black followed close behind.
The men were tall and heavily built.
Black cloth covered the lower halves of their faces, leaving only their eyes visible.
There was no way to make out their true appearances.
But judging from the way they were chasing those boys, they obviously weren’t playing some harmless game of tag.
Evelyn looked at the three boys.
Then at the black-clad men behind them.
For a moment, she didn’t move.
She had only come out here to sit around for a while.
How had trouble managed to find her even here?
“There!”
One of the boys suddenly raised an arm and pointed toward the open clearing ahead.
He was almost ridiculously good-looking.
Even after running hard enough to leave his breathing uneven, it still didn’t take much away from his delicate features.
“There’s nowhere else suitable. We can deal with them here!”
“Are you stupid?”
The boy beside him, dressed in dark green with neat black hair, immediately shot him an irritated look.
Then he pointed toward Evelyn, who was still sitting in the grass.
“There’s someone up ahead!”
“It’s only one person! That’s still better than running until we drop!”
The third boy, dressed in blue, cut in between heavy breaths.
“Let’s just deal with them here! I seriously can’t run anymore!”
“Shut up!”
The green-clad boy and the pretty boy snapped at him at the exact same time.
“You don’t get to say that!”
“We’re being chased like this because of you!”
The blue-clad boy shrank his neck slightly.
His feet, however, did not slow down at all.
Truthfully, the three of them had every reason to complain about how they had ended up in this situation.
Two of the boys were from the Black Tortoise Clan.
The third came from the Vermilion Bird Clan.
The boy in green was nine years old and was one of the more highly regarded successor candidates among the younger generation of the Black Tortoise Clan.
The boy in blue was one year younger.
He was his younger brother.
As for the particularly good-looking boy— he was only seven.
He was their cousin and belonged to the Vermilion Bird Clan.
And the reason for all this trouble?
That cousin.
Something had happened inside the Vermilion Bird Clan, and the seven-year-old boy had become the target of people from within his own clan.
When news reached his aunt, who had married into the Black Tortoise Clan, she nearly lost her mind with worry.
After all, he was her own nephew.
How could she possibly sit still?
First, she begged her husband to bring the boy back safely.
When he failed to act quickly enough, she nearly moved on to crying, arguing, and threatening every dramatic thing she could think of.
No matter what happened, she wanted her nephew brought back.
Unfortunately, the Lord of the Black Tortoise Clan had one major weakness.
He couldn’t stand seeing his wife cry.
The moment she started crying, whatever principles he had seemed to disappear.
As for whether his two sons were old enough or strong enough to protect themselves— apparently, those details had not seemed very important at the time.
So, without thinking too hard about it, he handed the entire problem to his sons.
A nine-year-old older brother.
An eight-year-old younger brother.
Their task?
Sneak into the Vermilion Bird Clan and rescue their seven-year-old cousin.
Three children who weren’t even that old combined had somehow been assigned the whole thing by their own elders.
And just like that, two boys who should have been spending their time playing around were shoved straight into a difficult mission by their completely irresponsible father.
Fortunately, the older brother was clever.
After some planning, he managed to sneak into the Vermilion Bird Clan successfully.
He even found their cousin without too much trouble.
Originally, the plan was simple.
Find him.
Take him away quietly.
Then leave before anyone realized what had happened.
Unfortunately, right at the most important moment— the eight-year-old younger brother gave them away.
And just like that, a quiet rescue mission became an escape for their lives.
With a group of pursuers behind them who refused to give up.
The three boys had been running for a long time already.
This wide clearing was the first suitable place they had found.
If they kept going, there was no guarantee they would find somewhere better.
But if they simply stopped wherever they happened to be, they risked dragging innocent people into the fight.
Before leaving, the adults had repeated the same rules to them over and over again.
Don’t hurt ordinary people.
Don’t involve innocent civilians.
Don’t cause unnecessary trouble.
Don’t do this.
Don’t do that.
A whole list of restrictions.
The green-clad boy felt his head begin to hurt just thinking about it.
Why was being a child of the Black Tortoise Clan so exhausting?
They were already being chased across the mountains.
And somehow, while running for their lives, they still had to worry about all these rules.
Who had decided there needed to be so many of them?
The black-clad men were drawing closer.
Finally, the boy clenched his teeth.
There was no point arguing with his younger brother right now.
“We’re not running anymore!”
His eyes swept across the clearing.
Then they landed on Evelyn.
“Julian, you’re the best with hidden weapons. Go protect that little girl.”
After saying that, he turned toward his younger brother.
“We’ll deal with these people.”
If they continued running, there was no guarantee they would lose their pursuers anyway.
Better to use the open terrain here and turn around to fight.
The pretty boy immediately looked toward Evelyn.
The blue-clad boy, however, suddenly seemed full of energy.
“Oh—”
He drew out the sound and looked at his older brother with obvious admiration.
“As expected of the future Lord. So decisive.”
He even nodded seriously.
“That’s my big brother!”
The words had barely left his mouth before two murderous-looking glares landed on him at once.
He didn’t seem to notice anything wrong.
The same person who had just been complaining that he couldn’t run another step suddenly spun around and rushed straight toward the black-clad men behind them.
Fast.
Very fast.
There was no trace of the boy who had been panting like he was about to collapse.
Evelyn sat where she was and felt the corner of her mouth twitch.
Seriously?
So that whole I’m about to die from exhaustion act had been fake?
She couldn’t help looking at the blue-clad boy again.
For a moment, she couldn’t decide whether he was simply too carefree or had far too much energy for his own good.
Just a moment ago, he had shrunk his neck obediently while the other two yelled at him.
Now he was bouncing around again as though none of it had happened.
Calling him a runaway horse didn’t even seem accurate.
He looked more like a monkey that had just been released from a cage.
Since he had already rushed back toward the pursuers, the other two could only follow their plan.
The boy in green immediately turned to face the black-clad men.
Meanwhile, the especially good-looking boy ran straight toward Evelyn without hesitation.
As for Evelyn herself— she still hadn’t moved.
The little fire fox remained quietly curled in her lap.
Her face wore exactly the kind of confused expression one would expect from a five-year-old child who had no idea what was happening.
She had to make it look believable.
A five-year-old girl suddenly watching three boys get chased by a group of masked men should not look completely calm.
That would be strange.
Looking stunned made much more sense.
Inside, however—
Evelyn had already complained about all three boys several times.
The mountain was enormous.
Out of every possible direction they could have run— why did they have to come here?
She had finally managed to steal half a day of peace.
Why was getting a little quiet so difficult?
The little fire fox raised its head as well, silently watching the people coming closer.
Evelyn rested one hand lightly against its back.
Her expression still looked blank and harmless.
But her eyes had already shifted quietly toward the black-clad men.
At the same time, the masked pursuers were clearly surprised when the boys suddenly turned around.
A moment ago, those children had been running as fast as they could.
Why had they suddenly stopped?
The surprise quickly turned into satisfaction.
They had chased these brats for so long without managing to catch them.
Now the boys had actually chosen to come back on their own.
That saved them the trouble of continuing the pursuit.
Their pace immediately quickened.
Without slowing down, several of the men rushed toward the two boys who had turned back to face them.
Then, at almost the same moment— several hands shot forward, reaching straight for the boys.