Astaire followed the trail of the demonic energy and arrived at the bridge leading into the western forest.
In front of it, a group of village children were anxiously shifting on their feet, staring toward the woods.
Sensing something ominous, Astaire approached them and asked,
“Why are you kids standing here? This place is dangerous—go home.”
At his words, one of the children hesitated before pointing toward the forest.
“Well… Noel went in there.”
“Noel? Is he your friend?”
The children all nodded in unison.
“He saw a sister heading into the forest earlier and said it was dangerous, so he went after her to warn her…”
The moment the word sister came out of the child’s mouth, Astaire’s heart sank.
“Was she a young woman with long hair and gemstone-like eyes?”
“Yes! She also had a rabbit doll with her.”
Astaire bit his lip and turned toward the forest, his expression hardening.
Elsez was alone in the place where he had sensed the demonic energy.
At that realization, painful memories from three years ago came flooding back.
Ruel—lifeless and cold in his arms.
The unbearable helplessness of watching the woman he loved die before his eyes, unable to do anything.
“…No.”
He could never go through that again.
After firmly instructing the children to return home, Astaire stood at the forest’s entrance, determination etched into his face.
I will never lose someone precious right in front of me again.
Clenching his fist so tightly it seemed it might shatter, he stepped into the woods.
****
“Hmm.”
Henry hummed a tune as he strolled along the dense forest path.
A moment ago, a thunderous roar had shaken the ground nearby.
It was clear that something dangerous had happened, but Henry showed no signs of alarm.
After all, he was the very cause of that explosion.
Plucking a leaf from a nearby tree, he toyed with it and muttered,
“Being too perceptive only makes life harder.”
The dimensional rifts that had begun appearing around the village recently weren’t natural occurrences. They had been created artificially.
No one in the village had noticed this—except Elsez.
If things continued like this, it wouldn’t be long before she figured out that Henry was behind it all.
Before she could uncover the truth and expose him to the villagers, it was time to take care of things.
Both the woman and her priest companion.
It’s a shame to kill such a pretty face… but for the sake of the village, there’s no other choice.
Suppressing his regret, Henry recalled Elsez’s face.
By now, the distant rumbling had completely ceased. It seemed the situation had been resolved.
“Time to clean up.”
Elsez was surely dead, torn apart by the beasts and monsters from the rift.
All he had to do was recover her body, put on a show of grief, and the villagers would believe it was just an unfortunate accident.
Crushing the leaf in his hand, Henry headed deeper into the forest.
But something felt wrong.
By now, I should be seeing monsters or beasts…
With the rift open, creatures should have emerged from it.
Elsez wasn’t a hero or anything close to one. There was no way she could have stopped them all alone. If everything had gone according to plan, the forest should have been in chaos by now.
Yet, it was eerily silent.
…I have a bad feeling about this.
Henry quickened his pace toward the heart of the forest.
But as he neared the source of the explosion, not a single monster or beast was in sight. Not even the sound of birds.
And when he finally reached the scene—
What lay before him was not Elsez’s corpse.
It was the disintegrating remains of slaughtered monsters—
And unconscious dark mages, sprawled across the ground.
Henry grabbed one of them and shook him.
“Hey! Wake up! What the hell happened here?”
“Ugh…”
The dark mage could only groan in pain, unable to regain consciousness.
Henry’s eyes darted around in confusion.
A few days ago, he had warned the villagers that the mana in the western forest had become unstable and that they should avoid the area.
The only exceptions were the two newcomers who had arrived in town two days prior.
But Henry had orchestrated an accident at the construction site to lure Astaire away. He should still be stuck there.
That meant the only person left was Elsez, whom he had manipulated the stablehand into leading into the forest.
But…
This makes no sense.
A woman who wasn’t even a hero had somehow annihilated all the monsters and subdued the dark mages?
As Henry reeled from the absurdity of his own assumptions, one of the dark mages finally stirred, barely opening his eyes.
“…He…”
His unfocused gaze fixated on the empty space behind Henry, and his lips moved weakly.
“What?”
The moment Henry leaned in to listen, terror flashed in the dark mage’s eyes.
“B-Behind you…!”
Just as Henry processed the words, he felt a presence right behind him.
And then, a voice—calm to the point of being chilling.
“Looking for me?”
When did she—?
Henry was no ordinary man; he was a hero recognized by Dike.
His reflexes were far sharper than those of most people.
But at this moment, he couldn’t react in time.
The attack came in the blink of an eye.
Before he could do anything, Elsez’s fist slammed into his abdomen, sending him crashing into a nearby tree.
A devastating force rippled through his entire body.
“Guh…!”
Still dazed from the impact, Henry barely registered the woman’s face suddenly looming over him—
The very woman who had caught his interest at first sight.
But now, her gaze was filled with nothing but hatred and disgust.
“So it was you.”
“…You’re not just some ordinary woman, are you?”
“Correct. Must be disappointing that things didn’t go your way.”
“Heh… Well, if you die here, then everything will go my way!”
Henry swiftly drew his sword and lunged at Elsez.
She stepped back just as the razor-sharp blade whizzed past her face.
Wasting no momentum, Henry unleashed a flurry of rapid attacks, pushing her back.
Elsez reinforced her gloved hands, blocking his strikes, but the relentless assault gradually forced her into retreat.
Her brows furrowed.
So, he really is a hero.
Unlike the petty villains she had faced before, Henry was on a completely different level. His speed, power, and agility were unmatched.
He wasn’t someone she could take lightly.
On the other hand, Henry smirked, sensing his advantage.
She’s strong, sure… but at the end of the day, she’s just an amateur who hasn’t even become a real hero yet.
Charging his sword with mana, he prepared for a finishing blow.
Elsez narrowly dodged, revealing the thick undergrowth behind her.
Henry’s missed strike tore through the foliage, snapping countless branches and sending debris flying.
“Damn it…!”
By the time he cleared his vision, Elsez had vanished.
“Where did she—?”
Before he could finish scanning the area, he sensed movement.
From above.
Realizing too late, he looked up just in time to see Elsez dropping down from the trees.
BOOM!
“Gah!”
With gravity amplifying her attack, her strike landed squarely, forcing Henry to cough up blood as he collapsed.
Elsez kicked his sword away and pinned him down, grabbing him by the collar.
“You’re a hero. Why the hell are you doing this?”
For a moment, Henry remained silent, as if resigned. Then, in a heavy voice, he finally spoke.
“…To protect this village.”
“What?”
“When the rifts first started appearing, I investigated them, just like you did.”
He had discovered suspicious magic circles at the rift sites and tracked them to the dark mages.
“But their backers were stronger than I imagined. I had no chance of stopping them alone.”
No matter how many dark mages he killed or rifts he closed, it was pointless.
More rifts kept opening. More dark mages kept coming.
He was only one man. He couldn’t be everywhere at once.
And so, he had been forced to watch his fellow villagers—his family—suffer and die.
“You should’ve asked the Central Temple for help.”
“You think I didn’t?”
Henry let out a bitter laugh before his voice dropped to a low growl.
“I reached out to them once. No response. The dark mages found out.”
“…!”
“They told me that if I ever leaked this again, they’d burn the entire village to the ground.”
This village was his home.
Even though his family was long gone, this land held their memories—the place where they had been born and buried.
“So I struck a deal. I’d turn a blind eye to the rifts, and in return, they’d warn me where they’d appear.”
“So you’ve just been playing hero in your own twisted way?”
“I was protecting this village! What the hell do you know?”
“Protecting?”
Elsez scoffed at his anger.
“All while Noel’s father lost his arm, and innocent people were sacrificed for their rituals?”
“That was… beyond my control…”
“You chose who to save and who to let die. And you call that protection?”
He hadn’t just stood by.
He had actively tried to cover the truth—tried to kill her to keep it hidden.
As her cold words sank in, Henry’s gaze wavered violently.
“You know what people like you are called?”
Elsez smirked and enunciated each word with disdain.
“A disgusting hypocrite.”
And the moment she finished speaking—
Henry’s dagger plunged into her side.
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