Meanwhile, Laila and Eustar, heading towards the sink, as well as Felix, could hear the roars of the magical beast fighting against the squad members.

The dull sound resonating through the damp, cold air and the narrow, long-stretching valley was enough to make one’s hair stand on end despite the distance.

“It seems to be an enormously large one.”

Felix came down with a swish, stepping on tree branches.

While Laila and Eustar were mostly running on flat ground, he moved his body freely as if performing acrobatics. When a tree blocked his path, instead of dodging to the side, he would leap right onto the tree.

“How on earth did something so massive not get caught by the boundary stones?”

Eustar looked back, perplexed.

The boundary stones were small rocks standing near the Tentinella branch, the first to detect magical beasts, ghosts, or sink energy and send signals to the branch.

Sometimes they malfunction, mistaking ordinary beasts—like wolves—for magical creatures, but they never miss the movement of magical beasts.

“Indeed, I wonder about that too.”

Felix, swiftly treading on a protruding rock, said as he leapt ahead.

“We should check if any of the surrounding boundary stones have collapsed.”

“You should have done that in advance.”

As Eustar chided him, Felix pretended not to hear and swooshed ahead.

“Perhaps,”

At that moment, Laila, who had been running quietly all along, spoke for the first time. Eustar turned to look at her. Her red eyes sparkled unusually in the darkness without moonlight.

“It might have come through the waterway.”

“The waterway?”

“I thought it might be a faster magical beast than it appears, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. You heard it too, didn’t you, Eustar? The sound of our squad members attacking. If it were a fast magical beast, the attack pattern would have been quicker. But since it wasn’t, it’s likely to be a slow magical beast, just as we saw. Although we can’t hear the sound anymore…”

Laila’s gaze briefly glanced back. They were already far from the branch, and nothing could be seen except for the dot-like light.

She continued,

“But that might only be true on land.”

“Like a turtle, you mean?”

“That’s right.”

Felix, who was going ahead, slowed down slightly and said,

“If Lady Kristrad’s guess is correct, there might be more than just one or two of those creatures. If there are multiple individuals and they’ve moved to different places through the waterways…”

Laila shook her head briefly, as if horrified, and said resolutely,

“Let’s hope that’s not the case. And we also need to confirm if this is indeed the magical beast that took the children.”

“The sink is right in front of us, Laila.”

Eustar suddenly said. At the same time, the movement of all three people stopped as if by agreement.

Laila took a moment to catch her breath, hands on her knees. Although she had become accustomed to using the runner, she was still far behind in terms of physical stamina. The squad members who had undergone repeated training, or Eustar, could run at full speed using the runner and still be fine…

‘Maybe I need to exercise more.’

Laila thought.

As Eustar had said, the sink was blatantly revealing itself right in front of the three. It was so large that they wondered why they hadn’t detected it until now.

“Somehow, it feels unpleasant.”

Felix grumbled. Along with the characteristic humming sound, the energy possessed by the sink could be felt rippling.

“I feel the same. How could something this enormous not be caught by the sicker?”

Eustar, bewildered, took out his sicker and checked the needles inside the glass panel. Ridiculously, the sicker was working perfectly fine. The needles were visibly trembling, pointing to the sink right in front of them.

“If that magical beast came out of here… It doesn’t seem like it moved through the waterway, what do you think?”

Eustar’s brows furrowed as he looked down the valley. Felix continued to explain.

“If you go down to the west, there’s a waterway leading to the Solarus River, but although the current is fast, it’s narrow. And if it enters the Solarus River, it leads straight to the sea. Moreover…”

“There are no traces at all.”

Felix nodded at Eustar’s words.

“You clearly saw it earlier, Sir Eustar. It was a walking magical beast. It’s impossible to move without leaving traces in this dense forest.”

“But we only found one trace, as you know.”

Felix’s expression became even more serious.

“That’s why I’m telling you…”

It was at that moment. Eustar, lost in thought, suddenly realized that his side was oddly empty and looked up with a start.

“Where’s Laila?”

“Pardon?”

Felix looked around with a puzzled face.

“Laila!”

“Lady Kristrad!”

The voices of the two men shook the quiet forest. An owl, which had been staring intently at a field mouse, fluttered away.

“I’m here, Eustar.”

Laila’s answering voice was heard. It was close. Startled and looking around, Eustar saw that she had approached right in front of the sink and widened his eyes.

“Laila, what are you doing! Get away from there!”

As Eustar strode towards her, the unpleasant energy emitted by the sink turned his stomach.

Eustar instinctively covered his nose and mouth. Although there was no smell coming from the sink, he felt like retching as if surrounded by a terrible stench.

“Lady Kristrad, you’re in extreme danger right now. Please come over here.”

Laila was crouched at the edge of the sink, looking down into it. She looked like a child intently peering into a deep hole…

Felix glanced at Eustar with an expression that seemed to ask what on earth they should do. That gaze also included the question ‘Why is she acting like this?’

“Laila,” Eustar said, trying to calm his churning stomach.

“Come over here. It’s dangerous.”

As he reached out his hand, Laila turned her head. But her expression seemed somewhat dazed.

What on earth? Eustar felt a sudden uneasiness at her inexplicable behavior. Although they had seen sinks many times before and even eliminated them with Laila’s power, this was the first time something like this had happened.

When Laila first encountered a sink, she approached it as if entranced, drawn by its energy, but the current situation was different. Back then, she was pulled towards the sink, but now it seemed Laila was voluntarily making contact with the sink.

Laila stood up and looked down at the sink again.

“Eustar, this… it’s wanting. It desperately wants to eat.”

Eustar’s brow furrowed even more.

“Come over here first.”

Laila approached him gracefully, as if there was nothing wrong.

Eustar noticed a strange scent mixed with Laila’s usual scent but didn’t mention it. He didn’t want to alert Felix to this inexplicable change.

“Laila, are you alright?”

Laila nodded.

“I’m fine.”

She glanced back at the sink with indifferent eyes, then looked up at Eustar and said,

“It’s filled with thoughts of wanting to eat. Somehow… I can understand it.”

Eustar asked,

“What exactly, what does it want to eat?”

Laila’s eyes blinked slowly. Eustar gently but firmly gripped her shoulders to prevent her from approaching the sink again.

Her pale, slender finger pointed at the black, alien hole.

“The sink. It has an appetite. No, it’s filled with appetite. Why… I don’t know how I can know this, but I can feel it. I can hear it screaming that it wants to eat right now.”

Felix looked anxiously back and forth between Eustar and Laila.

“Lady Kristrad, I’m starting to get creeped out…”

Eustar interrupted him.

“Laila, what do you mean? Are you saying you can feel the sink’s desires?”

“Yes. You said it yourself, didn’t you? That ‘it’ is alive. That it has desires.”

Eustar, who had been staring at her, nodded.

“Of course I did. It’s true. But being able to read the sink’s desires is impossible. The living, humans, can be affected by the sink but cannot empathize with it. Even I only know that the sink has some ‘desire,’ but I don’t know exactly what kind of desire it is. So how can you, Laila…”

“I don’t know either. When I got close, I could feel it. If I touch it, I think I might be able to understand more accurately, but…”

Laila trailed off, shrugging her shoulders as she looked at the now serious Eustar.

“See? You’re already making that face.”

“What are you saying? Absolutely not…”

Just then, a low static noise was heard. It was coming from Felix’s communication ring.

“Chief, this is Tiltil. We have captured that magical beast alive. We have requested communication with Chief Olga of the Habaschka branch, and we are currently waiting for connection.”

Felix looked at Eustar and Laila.

“That’s what they say.”

Eustar, letting out a short sigh, nodded.

“Let’s head back for now. Laila, we’ll continue this conversation when we get to the branch.”

Laila replied,

“No, we can’t.”

Felix, who was about to activate his runner, looked at her with a puzzled expression. Eustar was equally surprised.

“What do you mean we can’t? Why not? We’ve already inputted the coordinates of the sink. Now that we’ve captured the magical beast, for the time being…”

“No. That magical beast is not important. I’m not sure how to explain this, but… The magical beast we need to catch, the first magical beast created under the influence of this sink, is separate. That’s why we must catch that magical beast.”

Laila paused for a moment, swallowing dry saliva. The dazed, absent-minded expression she had just moments ago was now replaced with alertness. It seemed she had broken free from the sink’s influence.

Suddenly, a sharp pain was felt somewhere in her head. Groaning and rubbing her forehead, Laila continued,

“To the north, it’s in the north. Not far from where the captured magical beast is… And it keeps wanting to eat. It wants to digest immediately. But it can’t.”

Felix urgently caught onto Laila’s words.

“Lady Kristrad, what are you saying? I don’t understand at all. Are you saying that there’s another magical beast besides the one we’ve just caught? What do you mean by digest?”

Laila, frowning, looked back and forth between the two men.

“I’m talking about the child it has eaten.”