Chapter 38

The sound of clapping came from deeper within the forest.

The sustained applause stopped abruptly, and at the same moment a man slowly walked out toward the clearing.

“Correct.”

Black hair hanging to his neck.

Narrow eyes curved like a fox’s.

His mouth formed a crescent of a smile.

He spoke with his spear slung over his shoulder.

“I’ve badly miscalculated my fee for this.”

The narrow-eyed man shook his head, feigning regret.

“Had I known you were this sort of person, I would have charged ten thousand more marks.”

“Who are you?”

Hamel asked coldly.

The man shrugged and answered.

“We’re not knights, and isn’t it a bit tacky to start naming titles the moment we meet?”

“So you’re saying you’re not a knight.”

“Oops.”

Absurdly, the man scratched his head as if he’d been struck and laughed awkwardly.

He looked sloppy.

But……

‘…There is no opening.’

Hamel’s fingers twitched on the scabbard.

From the moment he appeared Hamel had been scanning for an opening to strike, yet for some reason he couldn’t move a finger.

A feeling came over him.

The sense that the moment he swung his sword, he would be the one who suffered.

Then.

“Lord Hamel! Get down!”

Benjamin’s voice rang from somewhere in the woods.

─pat

As Hamel reflexively dropped, arrows flew toward the man.

“Damn!”

The man gave a short sigh and spun his spear.

The lightly twirled spear knocked the incoming arrows to the ground with precise taps.

It was clearly no ordinary skill.

“You surprised me.”

The man muttered as if disappointed and tapped the ground with the butt of his spear.

And the next moment.

─crack

A sound of flesh and bone tearing rang out.

Behind Hamel.

Something suddenly shot up from the bushes.

On closer look, it was a long spear.

Skewered on each spear were two people.

“Ugh!”

They vomited blood and viscera from their torn lungs.

Hamel recognized the faces of the men.

“R-run. Hamel. Ben…jamin.”

A man clutching spilling entrails mumbled with a pale face and then his head lolled forward.

‘Benjamin’s guards.’

As Hamel furrowed his brow, Benjamin emerged from the bushes.

Benjamin, sweeping his white hair back, had eyes that were terrifyingly cold.

“Are you all right?”

Benjamin nodded slightly in response.

“I’m fine… but for now you must withdraw.”

“You know who we face.”

Benjamin nodded at Hamel’s words.

Was it anger?

Or fear?

Contrary to his expressionless face, the corners of his eyes trembled faintly.

“A murderer said to have committed massacres in the Maron civil war. The smiling fox of the Pale String.”

“The Pale String.”

Hamel muttered under his breath.

He had heard of them.

A notorious assassin group active not only in the empire but across the continent.

Comprising fewer than ten members, each member was said to possess monstrous skill.

“Oh my.”

The man who had been listening from a distance laughed sheepishly.

“I didn’t expect you’d recognize me straight away. As an assassin I don’t know whether to be pleased or sad.”

He said it but didn’t look particularly troubled.

Members of the assassin band ‘the Pale String’ were notorious for not hiding their identities.

When they killed, they did so flamboyantly enough to be recognized.

When enjoying life, they strolled the city center in broad daylight.

As if daring anyone to hire or kill them at any time.

Some speculated that such incomprehensible behavior meant they had powerful backers.

“…”

Benjamin stared at the grinning man for a moment and clicked his fingers.

─Rustle

The caravan’s guards emerged from between the bushes.

There were ten of them in all.

Even though their comrades had been brutally killed, they did not waver.

They were remarkably skilled soldiers, unlike typical caravan guards.

“We’ll stall them. Lord Hamel, you should withdraw.”

Hamel tilted his head in puzzlement at this.

“…Why?”

Why was Benjamin volunteering to sacrifice himself?

Hamel couldn’t understand.

Benjamin calmly cleaned his monocle and answered.

“It’s simple arithmetic. If anyone can make it out of here alive, it’s you, Lord Hamel.”

Benjamin was already resigned to death.

No matter how strong Hamel was, the opponent was a member of the Pale String.

There was no chance of victory.

Then.

‘At least let Lord Hamel live so I should send him away.’

That was Benjamin’s conclusion.

Fortunately, Hamel was an exceptionally honorable man.

He would at least pick the remaining caravan members in the village and help them flee.

That was all he could hope for.

As Benjamin steeled himself.

“No.”

Hamel shook his head and took a step toward the laughing man.

“We will all get out of this forest alive, not a single one left behind.”

Hamel drew his sword.

─keeee

The chilling sound made Benjamin shiver unconsciously.

But Benjamin quickly regained composure and urgently tried to stop Hamel.

“This is impossible. Lord Hamel, aren’t you exhausted?”

“I’m fine. Mr. Benjamin, withdraw with Arandel. If you make it to the village, he won’t pursue further.”

There are palisades and soldiers of the Blue Mane clan at the village.

Even the Pale String would find it troublesome to pierce through raining spells and a barrage of arrows.

To begin with…

“He’ll probably withdraw if he kills me.”

When Hamel said this calmly, the smiling fox next to him laughed as if intrigued.

“Huh, and why do you think that?”

“The stakes that sickened Lord Tarka were likely the work of Sorn the lord. He would need a justification to wipe out the Blue Mane clan from this forest.”

The lord gathered iron and soldiers.

The reason was clear.

To remove a thorn of a clan from his domain that had been recognized by the first emperor.

If not for them, more land and resources would fall into his hands.

Which means.

“The order was reversed. It’s not that the Blue Mane clan seized the road and were purged; rather, a situation was engineered so the clan would have to seize the road to be purged.”

How the lord of Sorn obtained such stakes remained a mystery; for now it was only conjecture.

“Interesting theory… please continue.”

The fox’s smile stiffened and became awkward.

Hamel, seeing that, grew more confident in his deduction and spoke on.

“But if I remove all the stakes and restore Tarka and the forest to normal, the lord’s plan will be ruined. That’s why the Lord of Sorn would have commissioned you.”

Hamel stopped speaking and turned his head.

Following his gaze revealed the cold corpse of Tarka.

“To create a new pretext.”

With their God, Tarka dead, the clan would not retreat.

It meant the originally intended all-out war was already inevitable.

“Separately, trying to kill even me would be to swallow Haidern whole.”

So the fox would have no reason to fight further if he killed Hamel alone.

Hamel’s inference was that if he were killed, the fox would withdraw.

A brief silence followed Hamel’s words.

“…”

Only for a moment , the fox burst into a harsh laugh and shook his head.

“What an amazing deduction. Have you switched careers from priest to detective?”

Hamel didn’t react, but he partly agreed with the fox’s remark.

The work of an Exorcist priest is to seek out unknown enemies and reveal their identities to resolve threats.

In a way, it’s not so different from being a detective.

The fox let out a snickering laugh.

It was a somewhat fishy, sinister laugh.

“But you are wrong about one thing.”

The laughing fox twirled his spear and faced Hamel, continuing.

“I’ll kill those behind you too. There’s no reason not to.”

The fox’s words cast a cold silence over the surroundings.

Hamel, who had watched the fox for a moment, nodded.

If someone crosses a moral line, there’s no reason for him to show mercy.

“Do it then.”

No more needed to be said.

Hamel popped the cork from the flask in his hand and tossed its contents into his mouth.

---

The fox watching this burst into laughter.

“A potion? Or a stimulant? Whatever it is, taking one of those won’t change the tide of battle…”

─Flinch

The fox’s laugh froze in an instant.

‘What is this?’

A strange sensation washed over him.

A sharp tingling ran through his body.

The air around him felt heavy.

The atmosphere was completely different from before.

This was supposed to be his hunting ground and playground.

Suddenly a foreign sensation and déjà vu hit him, as if he’d been dropped into a jungle.

‘I’ve definitely felt this before…’

Just as he tried to recall it.

─crack

Hamel’s figure in front of him vanished.

The fox reflexively drew his spear closer to guard his solar plexus.

─thud!

At the same time, a violent impact sent his body sliding backward.

His hands shook as the shock reverberated through him.

“…Ho? What did you do?”

“…”

Hamel didn’t answer.

He simply stood where he’d pushed the fox and watched him with a calm gaze.

A chill crawled down the fox’s spine and he trembled.

Goosebumps rose on his skin.

Hamel’s blue pupils fixed sharply on the fox.

Eyes of an arrogant, aloof predator.

‘It came back.’

He had only ever felt such overwhelming intimidation once in his life.

The feeling he had when he had met the leader of the Pale String.

‘I’m afraid… because he is a member of the Pale String?’

“…”

Hamel silently twirled his sword and slung it over his shoulder.

Then he sprinted forward with explosive speed.

Hamel’s movement left afterimages as he split left and right.

The fox watching this suddenly sighed and tightened his grip on his spear.

“This really… doesn’t add up profit-wise.”

A bluish aura gathered at the tip of his spear.

Even after experiencing Hamel’s overwhelming strength, the fox did not retreat.

The Pale String never avoided any unfavorable fight.

It was their rule.

Rather…

“This is troublesome, truly.”

Contrary to his words, the fox smiled faintly and thrust his spear.

A fierce light burst from the void.

Aura.

The kind of aura usually reserved for knights manifested at his fingertips.

─clang!

With a ripping thunder unlike any metallic sound, sparks flew.

For a moment, spear and sword hung suspended in the air.

The exchange did not end in a single strike.

Hamel, moving like a beast, swung his sword again and pressed the fox.

─clang kaggagak clang clang!

And the fox at a speed too swift to track with the eye swung his spear and parried every strike.

“Hahahaha! Terrifying. Like a beast!”

The fox laughed as if delighted and thrust his spear.

After a few exchanges, finding an opening in Hamel’s full-bodied swing, the fox lunged his spear quickly toward Hamel’s throat.

However.

─clang

Hamel flicked his hand and effortlessly deflected the attack.

“You just struck a spear blade wrapped in aura with your bare hand?”

The fox clicked his tongue and stepped back.

Hamel’s sleeve had been slightly torn by the fox’s attack and fluttered.

Beneath the torn sleeve, Hamel’s pale hand showed reptilian scale-like patterns.

“It doesn’t look like Divine power or sorcery… could you also be from a western house?”

“…”

When Hamel didn’t answer, the fox awkwardly scratched his cheek and spoke.

“You’ve grown very taciturn. Have you really become a beast? Well, anyway… I just hope this isn’t a fight between ‘kin.’”

The fox snorted, spun his spear, and tapped the butt on the ground.

The next moment.

─crack

A sharp spear blade suddenly shot up beneath Hamel’s feet.

“…!”

Hamel twisted his neck to barely avoid a spear thrust aimed to pierce his jaw.

The spear blade skimmed his cheek as it passed through his hair.

A cut on Hamel’s cheek split and bled slightly.

The fox watched and chuckled before readjusting his grip on his spear.

“Now. From here on I’ll give it my all. So…”

“…”

“Please. You do the same.”

As he spoke, the fox struck the ground with the butt of his spear.

The earth split and dozens of spears began to surge up.

---

Benjamin and Arandel couldn’t move a single step, unable to believe the sight before them.

Above all.

‘I’m afraid.’

It wasn’t just the smiling fox.

Hamel, who had somehow transformed into a completely different person, looked chilling.

Just looking at that cold, razor-like demeanor made their hands feel as if they’d be cut.

They could barely breathe as they watched the battle.

Because any movement felt like it might cost them their necks.