A long tongue scraped against the floor, making a sound. It was quite threatening, but it felt like it was extremely wary of us.

If we were to confront it head-on, Laila and Eustar alone might be able to handle it somehow, but since it wasn’t doing that, it was incredibly tricky to deal with.

Eustar had already raised his sword and was on high alert, focusing all his senses towards where he felt the presence. He knew what this monster was. And he had experienced once before what terrible things happen if it’s left unchecked…

Laila said,

“I don’t think locking the door will solve this.”

“Laila. That thing is in a newborn state right now. No, since it ate two people, it might be hard to call it newborn. Anyway, it feeds on human life force through shadows, and the more victims it claims, the harder it becomes to handle. That’s a monster called a ‘Shadow Thief’.”

“A monster…”

Laila knew it wasn’t a ghost. Because the presence she felt was different from what you’d feel from a ghost. But such a monster? She had never heard of it before.

Eustar quickly continued,

“Right now it’s targeting us, but if it feels outmatched, it will flee. With its current strength, it probably can’t exert physical force. So we need to lock the doors. To prevent it from escaping. If that thing gets out and starts sacrificing people…”

“…it would be terrible.”

“Yes, it would become quite horrific. So while I distract it, Laila, use every magic you can to lock all the doors here. Do you have a stone pen?”

“I have a stone pen and crystal, but nothing else…”

Eustar cut her off as if that was enough.

“It’s fortunate you at least have those.”

“I understand drawing a formation to lock the doors. But what after that?”

“I’ll tell you that after we’ve locked all the doors. Are you ready?”

Laila took out the crystal and stone pen used for drawing formations from the cream-colored silk pouch—almost like an accessory—that Mel had specially made for her, rather than her usual leather pouch.

She nodded to signal she was ready.

Eustar gripped his sword hilt tighter and turned towards the hissing sound, then quickly moved away from Laila using Runner when the sound came very close to his ear.

—Sheeek! Sii-eek!

A chilling sound like wind escaping through a giant’s teeth echoed through the wide greenhouse.

Laila had no time to see which direction Eustar went as she immediately drew a formation on the floor and dropped the crystal. The magic to lock doors was actually just a simple barrier spell, so it wasn’t difficult.

As the formation began to glow brightly, Laila murmured in a low voice,

“Three bell tolls, three knocks. Run out and close the back door. Three bell tolls, three knocks. Dash out and block the windows.”

The semi-circular formation slightly larger than a palm glowed brightly, and then came the sound of locks clicking.

Like beacon fires lighting up in succession—click, clank, click… The sounds continued one after another until they finally stopped.

—Keeek…

Laila shuddered all over, feeling as if someone had stuck a needle in the top of her head, and looked up. The shadow was on the high ceiling. It was clearly visible, hanging upside down with its limbs stretched out like a human’s.

“Get into the shade, Laila!”

Only when she heard Eustar shouting did Laila snap to her senses and hurriedly hide in the shade of a tree. At the same time, the shadow plummeted towards the floor, pouncing on the exact spot where Laila had been standing.

—Sheeeeek—!

A sharp roar that made her hair stand on end rang out. Laila belatedly regretted not bringing her sword, but it was useless now.

Eustar activated Runner again and came running with his sword raised, but the monster moved faster, slipping away. The monster, which had hidden again somewhere in the tree shadows scattered around, made intermittent hissing sounds.

“Damn it!”

Having lost the monster, Eustar grabbed his own hair in frustration and cursed as he flung it aside.

Laila pulled him into the shade and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Just grabbing his shoulder, she could feel how fast and loudly his heart was pounding, the vibrations clearly perceptible.

“Did you use too much of Runner’s energy?”

At Laila’s words, Eustar let out a long sigh and nodded.

“I had to. It moves so fast, I couldn’t let it slip away. Besides, once it realized all the doors were locked, it cunningly evaded me and went for you.”

He took several deep breaths before he could finally calm his pounding heart.

Laila said,

“What did you say its name was? ‘Shadow Thief’?”

Eustar nodded, wishing he had even a sip of water.

“That’s right. That’s what it is.”

He swallowed dryly, then closed his eyes briefly and caught his breath again.

“I saw one once, long ago. It devastated two villages. We lost five skilled knights and even more regular troops.”

It was an enormous loss he didn’t even want to think about. Since it could hide its body wherever there were shadows, no tactics seemed to work.

If only they could lure it out to open ground with nothing around. But this monster had a bit of intelligence and was extremely cunning. It also had a habit of never going anywhere that would put it at a disadvantage.

Eustar looked up at the large glass ceiling with a worried expression. He could already see the sun slowly tilting westward.

‘This is bad.’

Just then, Laila showed him her wrist.

“Look, Eustar.”

There was a faint clicking sound. It was the seeker on Laila’s wrist.

“The needle is moving.”

The seeker’s needle was pointing west. It was clear that a sync had formed somewhere very close, in the greenhouse garden or just outside.

“It might be that thing’s influence.”

Eustar gritted his molars. Of all days, they hadn’t brought proper magical tools today…

They couldn’t even communicate with other branches or passing members, let alone nearby ones. At least he always carried his sword like a part of his body, so that was fortunate.

Laila was in the same situation, without tools. In other words, the two of them had to face this tricky monster essentially barehanded.

Moreover, although Laila didn’t know yet, there was one tricky and important issue in dealing with this ‘Shadow Thief’. A very, very important issue.

“To avoid it, you have to completely hide your shadow in the shade of something other than a human. Just like that thing does. As long as a human shadow isn’t visible, it can’t directly attack the human itself. The problem is, if we just hide in the shade, it will do the same.”

“How do we get rid of it?”

“We need to shine light from all directions simultaneously so it can’t escape anywhere. If we can just make it unable to move, then we can eliminate it the same way as other monsters.”

Eustar paused briefly and looked up at Laila askance.

“Can you use flash magic, Laila?”

Laila’s lips parted.

“No way.”

She made a strange expression mixed with incredulity and dismay, then rubbed her face with both hands.

“Even with flash magic, the difficulty varies greatly. I could manage a small light, but to catch something moving that fast, I’d need to cast a flash over this entire greenhouse, which I can’t do. I’d lack the magical power, and more importantly, we’d both go blind.”

Of course. Eustar calmly accepted her words. The fact that this was an enclosed space was both an advantage and a disadvantage.

The advantage was that the monster had nowhere to escape to find other victims, and the disadvantage was that, as Laila said, capture was extremely difficult.

It was then that Laila, removing her hands from her face, urgently shook Eustar’s shoulder.

“What about at night? Eustar. What if it becomes night? Shadows aren’t… visible at night either. Because it’s dark. Then couldn’t we hide our presence from that monster and get out? Then we could come back with what we need. We could call other members too.”

Magic to conceal their presence was simple enough for the current Laila. Plus, there were doors all over this greenhouse. If they chose the closest one to slip out and then locked it, that monster would be trapped inside.

However, Eustar’s next words shattered Laila’s faint hope.

“That’s the biggest problem. I was about to explain, but if night falls, neither of us will be able to leave here alive.”

Laila’s eyes widened in shock.

“What do you mean? Why?”

“It’s impossible to find a ‘Shadow Thief’ at night. It… becomes one with the darkness. When there’s light, it can only attack humans using shadows. But when the sun sets and complete darkness arrives, it gains physical power.”

Physical power. Laila could immediately understand those words. Being engulfed by the darkness of night was no different from jumping into that monster’s stomach.

“After taking our two lives, its physical strength will increase even more. It will be able to break out of this greenhouse easily. If mages had put up barriers around, it might be a different story, but that’s unlikely. Humans aren’t considerate enough to put up barriers around a mere greenhouse.”

Laila said,

“Then we don’t have much time. We need to deal with that thing before night falls.”

“That’s right. It’s a serious problem, isn’t it?”

Eustar smiled faintly even in this situation. Laila knew he was doing it on purpose to reassure her. In the past, she might have chided him for smiling at a time like this, but not this time.

She couldn’t lose him in a place like this.

She didn’t want to lose Eustar in this beautiful place with the ‘great tower’, jewel-scaled fish swimming up crystal waterfalls.

She had to return with him. She wanted to talk more about the ‘great tower’ tree that had been so majestic and awe-inspiring.

“I’ll find a way, Eustar.”

Laila stared at the shaded areas of the greenhouse with a pale face. The sound like a snake’s tongue darting continued to move quickly here and there. It neither approached them nor moved far away.

Before it gets dark. Laila thought.

“Before it gets dark, I’ll find a way.”

Laila’s palm lightly touched Eustar’s forehead. At that moment, Eustar felt the center of his consciousness fading to black.

“Laila, what are you…”

His head dropped to the side. Laila safely laid down the deeply sleeping Eustar in the darkest shade, and carefully stood up.