He instinctively closed his eyes. It wasn’t something a warrior should do in front of an enemy, but considering he had let the opponent reach right to his face, or rather, froze when he saw the blood, he had already made a mistake.

The burning sensation in his pupils quickly disappeared, but separately, his mood had sunk deeply. More than anything, disappointment in himself was the greatest.

He had attacked first and gained nothing.

Because he had been lacking.

Slowly lifting his hands from his closed eyes, he asked,

“…What did you take out?”
My palm was red, perhaps stained with the blood that had flowed from Vainka’s wound when the author touched it. I blinked slowly and lifted my head to find him replying gently from a few steps back.

“My specialty.”

Yes, the author is a sorcerer.

Suddenly, I remembered what Sahak and Sajeo had said.

That sorcerer, pretending to be the eldest son, might have altered his appearance and did something to only my eyes, allowing me to see his true form. It seems likely that this is the case.

“When did you put it in?”

“You know what I mean?”

“Answer me.”

“Almost immediately after you arrived at this academy.”

“Ah…”

I slackened my grip on the sword and let out a sigh. As much as I didn’t want to believe it, something came to mind as soon as I heard the author’s words, confirming their truth.

When I had been led to the quarters that I would use for accommodations upon arriving at the academy, I clearly felt an unexplained discomfort from the wind that blew in. I even remember my eyes feeling a bit uncomfortable the next moment.

‘So it started then.’

Even if my opponent showed no signs of initial aggression and backed away, I know that we can’t continue like this.

Honestly, I felt rather empty.

Looking back at everything that had happened so far… at the very least, I had been moving on a board laid out by the author, and beyond that, by the evil religion.

‘I’ve been careless. Still am.’

I tightened my grip on the slackened sword, but I knew very well that it meant nothing. If the author had attacked me instead of standing still, I would already be dead.

When I spent time peacefully practicing the sword on the volcano, I never felt such a sense of crisis or emptiness. That’s because when you’re atop a lofty mountain filled with friendly people, you can’t see what lies beneath the clouds.

‘So, was it too much power to put into the hands of a dog, I had even the leisure to think so.’

All the adults praised me, and the talent that I clearly felt in myself was not used properly in such a real battle. If the author’s goal was to kill rather than meet me, I would already be a corpse.

Perhaps this was a foreseen situation, considering that my only goals were to safely become an adult, to find the owner of the body, and that was about it.

If I could just survive the year ‘Baek Yeo Heun’ died in the original work, anything would be fine. I had been living so vaguely, thinking that I would have to consider the aftermath after avoiding death.

“You seem to be in a bad mood?”

“If you’re going, leave quickly.”
I heard harsh words from the priest, interesting. I’ll do as you wish. But let me say this last thing. About your priest…

The other person faintly smiled.

“Is it true you were attacked?”

“What?”

I reflexively asked back, but he seemed done talking. He tucked his hand into his sleeve, looking satisfied. I stepped back, suspecting he might have hidden a weapon, and at that moment, an unknown powder dispersed into the air like fog from his hand.

“Don’t bother chasing. Let’s meet again next time.”

The powder dispersed quickly and widely, its particles quite fine.

At first, I thought it was just for a smokescreen effect. But soon after, I witnessed the grass on the ground where the powder had touched turned yellow.

It was poison.

“No…”

I hurriedly retreated further and covered my nose and mouth with my sleeve. Meanwhile, the sorcerer from the cult, who had been posing as the eldest son for some unknown time, had already disappeared over the fence and out of sight.

“Are you insane?”

Even for a cult, sprinkling poison while running away? Just so I wouldn’t follow?

I clenched my teeth and mentally marked the buildings around here. I can’t purify it immediately, so I have to remember the location to prevent innocent servants working here from getting hurt later.

Feeling confident that I remembered all the locations, I turned my body.

As I ran, I thought about the sorcerer I had just confronted. His behavior was paradoxical upon reflection.

‘He was strangely… kind to me.’

I was certain that this kindness did not spring from pure goodwill. There was a twisted aspect to it.

However, as the old saying goes, if you don’t try to understand the minds of strange people and move on, it’s also true that I got some information worth checking.

The same goes for the last words he threw at me.

‘He said the attack on Ha Hyun is real.’

Of course, I know now. My going wouldn’t necessarily be helpful.

But that doesn’t mean I can just stand here, doing nothing. It’s the right thing to do to check if the priest is unhurt.

I started to run, retracing the path that the fake eldest son, who was posing as a servant, had led me on.
Having found the real eldest son in the outskirts of the estate, and now being in an even more remote part, I figured something would eventually come up if I headed in the opposite direction. Feeling the need to shake off my sinking mood before encountering anyone, I put more force into my sprinting steps.

After a few minutes like this.

Fortunately, whether I had the right direction or not, the faint murmurs of people started to reach my ears. Following the clamor, I passed a few more halls and slowly realized something odd.

The shouts of the people coming through carried a sense of urgency and anxiety. Upon noticing, there was also a smell as if something was burning in the air.

Above all, despite it still being deep into the night, the surroundings were…

‘Bright, isn’t it?’

I belatedly recognized this fact and looked up. A gigantic flame entered my field of vision, so massive that I couldn’t believe I had only just noticed.

“…They’ve even set a fire.”

Over the fence about as high as where I stood, a large hall was ablaze.