I was surprised, as she was acting all friendly all of a sudden, but with my current persona, I should smile and return her handshake.
“Call me Leon; I’m the leader of the Masked Brigade. I’m not from any family and of humble birth.”
As I replied, Yulia tilted her head, her long red hair swinging down to her sides.
“Really? Don’t you have the Seimei bloodline?”
My heart skipped a beat when she mentioned this. I tried faking a calm appearance as I asked.
“What do you mean? I don’t know anything about having such a bloodline.”
She let go of my hand and stared at it, saying, “That’s weird.”
“You do have Seimei blood; I can’t be mistaken about it since I’m a Seimei too. I can feel the special wavelength of our bloodline from you.”
When she mentioned this, the three girls quickly became alert. Depending on how she proceeds, a fight may ensue in the next instant.
“Are you an illegitimate child of the family head, perhaps? Even if I’m from a branch family, your Seimei blood is thicker than mine.”
She added this while scrutinizing me from head to toe. She then seemed to realize the three standing in attention behind me and went “ah” before she quickly backed off, waving her hand.
“I-I don’t mean any harm, okay? I was just curious. If you say you’re not a Seimei, then okay, you’re not. Then, see you guys later!”
She quickly regrouped with her party and started to return to camp. I wiped the cold sweat on my forehead from being tense. Luckily, she seemed to really be asking out of curiosity. However, her words gave me another bit of information that was useful to us.
“So the Seimei can feel those of the same bloodline. Gotta be careful then.”
I muttered as we, too, started returning to camp. As usual, we were the only ones running back. By the time we returned to the camp, we had gained the nickname “masked runners” from the regular army.
It’s not like we love to run, though; we don’t really have any convenient traveling methods. If Igni was still in her dragon form, then maybe we could fit on her back, but now that she’s a humanoid, she can’t carry us all while flying.
I’m thinking of asking Ember to make some vehicles later on, but that would be in the future when we could have long, peaceful breaks.
When we returned, the sun had already set hours earlier. We were led to our lodging, which was more of a small stockroom than a room for a group of four. There were beds prepared—at least, two single beds.
“What to do…”
Igni had wings on her back, so she probably can’t sleep in such a cramped bed, let alone sleep with one more. After a bit of consideration, I took out a sleeping bag from the storage ring and placed it by the side of the door.
“Igni will take one bed while Fang and Ember take the other. I’ll be using this sleeping bag.”
“Master, I disagree.”
Ember quickly raised her hand and rebutted.
“I believe that you should take the bed with one of us, and the other would be using the sleeping bag.”
Technically, I could do as she suggested. However, as a gentleman, my conscience wouldn’t allow such an act.
“Wouldn’t the one who gets the sleeping bag be a bit pitiful? How would you even decide that?”
“A fair duel. Rock-paper-scissors.”
Fang muttered, raising her fingers in the shape of scissors going snip-snip. I still think that even with such a method, whoever wins or loses, bad blood will remain between them.
“No. Master’s orders. You three, sleep on the bed.”
I said it a bit strongly. Ember still looked like she disagreed, but she still followed my order.
We were pretty tired, given the busy day we just had. Not to mention that we only had a few hours of rest for consecutive days. Igni wasn’t completely healed yet; she needed rest more than anyone else among us. Now that we’re staying in a safe location, the three girls fell asleep almost immediately.
Seeing the three resting peacefully, I too decided to take a well-deserved rest. I closed my eyes and let myself slowly drift into the world of dreams.
—
I don’t know how long I was asleep, but I woke up.
For some reason, my instincts were telling me to run away right now. However, I can’t hear any indication of trouble outside our room… No… I can’t hear anything outside, not even the sound of insects.
“Fang, Ember, Igni! Wake up! We need to go.”
This instinct of mine, which enables me to detect danger right before it happens, has saved me numerous times already. I’m not going to doubt it this late in the game.
“Master…? *yawn*”
Ember muttered with sleepy-looking eyes. Besides her, the other two quickly became alert as soon as they woke up.
“My Lord, something is strange.”
“Leader, I can’t feel any presence outside…”
The two muttered as their gazes became sharper.
“…!”
At that exact moment, I felt all the hairs on my body stand on end. I tried to stand up and roll forward, but it was too late.
*SPLAT!*
A large claw broke through the wall beside the door, piercing through my body cleanly. 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝑙．𝑜𝑟𝘨
“Cough!”
I quickly pulled myself out of the enemy’s claw while blood spewed out of my mouth. An instant later, the familiar golden glow from the system’s halo healed my injuries; however, the pain remained.
“Sh*t! Too late!”
I cursed as I donned the mask before breaking through the flimsy wall on the other side. As we got out, I turned around and looked towards the one who impaled me.
“No… No way…”
The figure was gigantic, as can be determined by how its claw was as large as my torso. It was black all over, with its body covered in what looked like a smooth exoskeleton.
“An 8th-stage beast…”