As Duran raised one hand, the knights surrounding Ricaon, aiming their bows at them simultaneously, prepared to shoot.

“Damn! You cowardly bastards…!”

Geb spat out a rough curse.
Karaf leisurely looked around and muttered, “Come to think of it, I don’t see that leader of yours. I was curious to see what kind of person would dare to target Banetsa without knowing the subject.”

Upon hearing this, Ricaon quickly looked around and expressed a slightly relieved expression.

If even their leader could escape, and if they could quickly leave the hideout with Asha, they considered it fortunate enough.

Karaf sneered at their appearance. “Are you the type who would risk your life to follow a leader who abandons his subordinates?”

In response to his words, Ricaon glared at him. “Don’t babble about our leader when you don’t know anything!”

Karaf loosened his expression and said, “Well, it’s not bad to show your subordinates, who are now dead bodies, the consequences of greed. I should clearly show how the desire to possess something that should not be possessed can lead to a tragedy.”

On the ground, organization members were already sprawled, groaning and bleeding.

Ricaon’s faces turned grim.

Geb grimaced and shouted to his comrades, “We must buy time among ourselves to protect the leader and Asha!”

If Jackal and Sosa weren’t there, the command would immediately transfer to Geb.

Jackal felt something warm surging from inside his chest at Geb’s words.

His subordinates, who followed his opinion of prioritizing Asha, were invaluable to him.

Leaving behind such subordinates… he couldn’t run away alone and find happiness.

As Ricaon immediately raised their weapons and formed a defensive formation, assuming an attacking posture, Karaf raised an eyebrow and, pointing at Geb with his index finger, said coldly, “Kill him first.”

Just as Duran aimed a bow and shot an arrow at him, Jackal, who was nearby, transformed into a human in an instant and threw his body toward Geb.

The arrow narrowly missed over Geb’s head, and the two of them tumbled together on the ground.

At that moment, everyone’s eyes widened.

Karaf’s eyes also widened.

“What… was this damn shapeshifter you?!”

Jackal, now naked, stood up after transforming back, casually threw the cloak he had been biting in his mouth over himself, and rose from the ground.

His blue eyes that looked at him sparkled with a chill.

Karaf burst into laughter as if really amazed. “Such an astonishing thing exists in the world! A human who transforms with words…! How long do you, the minority, plan to keep surprising me?”

However, Ricaon was also greatly surprised, standing frozen in place, staring at him with widened, perplexed eyes.

Jackal glared at Karaf with a silent storm in his eyes.

Karaf smirked. “Looking at it now, that arrogant gaze and the words were all part of the act… You, the talkative one, dared to aim for Banetsa without any fear, huh?”
“Without butterflies, it’s much better than a slightly inferior flower that can’t bloom alone.”

Karaf frowned at those words. “All you know how to do is hurt others with thorns all over your body. I can’t let Asha go back to someone like you. I will never let Asha die twice because of you.”

“What? Who’s going to die?” Karaf snorted.

“Not me, but if you stay with someone like you, you’ll end up dead. From now on, I’m going to kill every one of you here without exception.”

As if engulfed in madness, he blinked his red eyes intermittently.

He seemed already out of his mind when he came here, but now he looked completely insane, as Jackal spoke.

Karaf felt an intense sense of betrayal internally. Unable to endure the thought that secretly he had shared sweet liaisons with Asha whenever he found a chance in the royal palace, he couldn’t bear it.

While Karaf was trembling like an alcoholic, Jackal cast a fleeting glance at the white horse a little distance away.

It meant that now, during this confrontation with him, he should quickly go to Asha.

Jackal calmly conveyed his thoughts to Sosa. [Go quickly. Take Asha and go far away. Set her free.]

It was a telepathic ability unique to the Kelphi tribe, especially to the ‘successors’ of the tribe with innate abilities.

As it was a skill that could only be used among the same tribe, it was inevitably accepted as an ‘order’ that could not be refused among the tribe.

Jackal closed his eyes as if saying something without words and then opened them.

Tears welled up in Sosa’s large sky-blue eyes.

He was not giving an order now but sincerely pleading.

Being of the same Kelphi tribe and the leader of Ricaon, Jackal intended to protect Sosa as much as possible.

Understanding his heart, unable to leave alone and go away, Sosa gritted his teeth and started running like crazy.

Not missing it, Karaf, with an emotionless face, picked up his bow. “One must be killed if they don’t listen and keep seeking their own end.”

At the moment Sosa was about to be hit by his arrow, a desperate cry echoed from somewhere, and a strong wind blew in.

“Stop it…! Stop it, please…!”