A few meters away from the entrance of Country Side Inn, the leader of the Royal Army’s Special Ops, eyed the entrance intently.
The reason why he and his companions were here was simple. They had found their target’s trace here.
To be precise, he, Muto, found his trace.
As to how he did it, it had something to do with his innate ability. In addition, once he used his magic, his innate ability would be amplified thus there would be little that would miss his senses.
Everything started after they received an update from the Grand Marshal that their target went South.
There had been little to no trail at all. But after entering Bearch City and acquiring some seemingly ‘unrelated’ clues, he decided to go to Tarrin. Upon arrival, it was not long after they found out the anomaly that happened in Misty Forest. But since they had no way of entering there, they decided to continue their search outside.
Then they found the wreckage of a caravan. It had been there for more than a day, and some of its clues were already destroyed by the forest beasts. However, with Muto’s ability, he soon confirmed that the wreckage had nothing to do with their target.
And so, they were at a dead-end once again.
But after a while, his ability detected traces of carnage deep in the woods. What was more, he detected a faint trace of their target.
The three of them went to check the woods and soon found corpses that had been half-eaten by forest beasts.
After investigating further, Muto finally found their target’s trace. It led them outside Nhadal. But since they knew their target avoided towns, they tried to find his trace outside.
They picked up his trace once more going to Valley of Morte.
Muto had to admit that they hesitated in venturing inside the valley. Their magic levels might be high enough to enter almost every dangerous place within the empire, but the Valley of Morte was not one of them. If there were more of them, maybe they would not hesitate.
Just when they were planning to retrace their steps, Cora, his female companion, found a different kind of ‘trace’ from their target. After using the trace, it soon led them to Hanaan.
Now, after days of travelling without rest, they finally arrived at Hanaan, and once again, Muto found their target’s trace. As to what this trace was that only he could detect, it was his ‘scent’. To be exact, it was the scent of carnage that lingered on him after killing off all those bandits. And the trace that Cora found outside the Valley of Morte, was a trace left when someone used teleportation tokens.
“Leader, are we really going to camp right here?” The other man, whose name was Sen, asked.
To others, they might think that he was only concerned for standing out while they watched the inn in the middle of the street. But he was not actually worried about it. With their coat’s enchantment, no one could see nor hear them.
“Yes,” Muto replied without looking at him.
Cora also looked at him indignantly and said, “Won’t you stop complaining?”
Sen shrugged and replied, “I’m not. It’s just we’ve been travelling for days without rest. I want to sit down at least.”
“Go find somewhere to sit then,” Muto told him.
Sen looked at him and laughed uneasily, “Ahaha, I am just kidding.”
Muto ignored him and kept his attention at the inn’s entrance. Right now he could ‘smell’ him. It was a little faint, but he was sure he was inside.
However, there was another scent that he could not help but be wary of. And this scent was from someone he knew was not supposed to be here.
“Stay alert, both of you,” Muto told them.
“Cora, prepare that. We might need it,” he added.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Make sure you’re magic reserves are also full, Sen. I don’t want to hear you complaining that you can’t say your magic because you don’t have enough magic energy,” Muto also reminded Sen.
“Fine~,” Sen replied.
====================
Inside the Country Side Inn, Kyran and Cyneah walked along the hall toward the stairs leading downstairs.
A guest couple from the room close to the stairs stepped out just as they were a few feet away. Immediately the man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties caught sight of Cyneah and his expression turned from looking indifferent to looking mesmerized.
The young woman with him caught his expression and she immediately nudged his side with an angry scowl. She then looked at Cyneah and was about to send daggers her way but, instead, her expression softened and even had a look of awe.
Kyran who watched the event unfold felt a sudden headache as he took a side glance at the girl beside her. He had to admit that Cyneah’s beauty also caught him off guard. He already expected she would look pretty once she ‘grew up’ after he saw her cleaned up back at the cave. But meeting her again really caught him off guard.
Truth be told, Kyran had met his fair share of beautiful women. Heck, he had been living with one—his mother—for almost all his life so he was pretty immune to it. But he was no saint and would still appreciate a woman if he met one; like Stella for example. However, because of an incident when he was still in military school, he refrained from showing any reactions. From that incident, Kyran realized that some woman could look as beautiful as an angel and be cunning like a devil, at the same time.
Looking at the innocent-looking girl before him, Kyran was still unsure if he could fully trust Cyneah’s ‘facade’. But her will to live already won him over, that was why he decided to help her. Still, he did not plan to get close to her. He might have told Anette that he did not care whether she was part of the Royal Family, but that did not mean he would befriend her.
Pushing these thoughts at the back of his mind, Kyran turned his attention back at the young couple before them before clearing his throat.
Just how long were these two planning to stare at Cyneah?
The young couple snapped out of their reverie after hearing Kyran and looked at him with an embarrassed smile.
Without saying anything, the two hurriedly turned and went down the stairs.
“Is something wrong?” Cyneah asked a few seconds after hearing Kyran clear his throat. She lowered her hand for a moment thinking that he might be telling her to let go.
Kyran watched until the young couple was out of sight before he replied, “Nothing.”
He turned to Cyneah while tapping his pouch to take out a black cloak. Then he draped it over her shoulders and covered her head with its hood.
“I know it’s a little stuffy, but bear with it for a while,” he told her.
“Okay,” Cyneah replied as she lifted her head a little.
“Let’s go,” Kyran turned again and was about to move when he remembered something. He then looked at Cyneah’s left hand and guided it to his sleeves again.
“Don’t let go,” he told her.
Cyneah nodded at once, “Okay.”
Kyran did not know that his words, actually made Cyneah happy. Although Kyran only meant not to suddenly let go so she wouldn’t trip or something, to Cyneah it was almost as if he was telling her it was okay for her to hold on to him.
Of course, if Kyran knew what Cyneah was thinking, he would probably give her a dull expression and flick her forehead.
When they arrived downstairs, Kyran saw that the owner was at the reception this time. After saying a few words, and giving another small bag of coins, he and Cyneah finally left.
The moment Kyran stepped outside, a cold chill run down his back.
‘This…’ Kyran could not help but frown internally. This cold feeling was pretty similar to what he felt back when he was facing a forest beast, and it was looking at him as if he was a good prey.
Kyran had a sudden impulse to grab Cyneah and run, but he immediately calmed his heart and mind because he knew if he acted like that, he would only look even more suspicious.
Though all of this seemed to have happened for at least a minute, in reality, it only took two seconds.
Cyneah did not sense any change in Kyran as he led her outside.
‘You’re using Nar’s face. It’s okay,’ Kyran started to remind himself. ‘Even if Nar had a record of entering Starhorn, it has been almost two weeks since then. If he is seen here, it is nothing suspicious because there is enough time for him to travel from Starhorn to here.’
However, as soon as he thought this, he felt eyes zoning in on him.
Before he could even decide whether these eyes were hostile or not, a hand grabbed his left arm followed by a familiar voice saying, “Master. You’re late.”