Night had fallen, and the bright moon had just passed overhead.
In the forest beside the estate, two black figures moved silently through the darkness.
They were cloaked in black robes, their faces hidden beneath their hoods.
“Rustle rustle.”
Suddenly, a faint rustling came from the bushes ahead of them.
Both of them froze mid-step and exchanged a glance.
The taller one’s hand immediately reached for her waist…
“Swish…”
Another rustling sound echoed as a slender figure stepped out from the bushes.
Her face was also concealed beneath a tattered hood, but through the tear, one could faintly see her unsettling eyes—eyes that looked as if belonging to someone on the verge of death, calm yet suffused with a chilling stillness.
In her hand, she held a round, bulky object wrapped in old cloth, from which fresh blood dripped continuously…
Under their black robes, the eyes of the two figures involuntarily locked onto that eerie gaze, their hairs standing on end.
Their footsteps did not falter, continuing as if nothing was amiss.
But when the two robed figures had walked a short distance past her, all three of them stopped simultaneously…
“Humans—”
A faint, mosquito-like voice whispered in their ears, accompanied by the sharp sound of a blade slicing through the air.
The shorter robed figure turned around, only to see a gleaming silver dagger flashing right before her eyes.
So fast…
She swiftly twisted her body aside, and the dagger merely grazed past her eye.
The hood she wore was cut open completely.
An aged face was revealed.
She was an elderly woman, her wrinkled face betraying an age of about seventy.
Yet despite her years, her movements remained unusually swift.
She quickly took a step back, but the ghostlike figure before her was relentless, twisting the dagger and lunging at her again.
“Watch out!”
A silver sword suddenly slid free from its sheath, flashing brightly in the night.
With a clanging sound, the dagger was knocked aside and sent flying into the air.
“Tsk.”
Seeing the woman disarmed, the robed figure holding the silver sword attempted to seize the opportunity to subdue her.
But before the silver sword could strike again, the attacker leapt like a phantom into the air, snatching the dagger mid-flight.
“Damn it… Get behind me!”
He yanked the hindered woman back just as his youthful face fully came into view.
Under his black robe was a suit of steel armor embossed with the image of a sword and horse.
The figure in the air, having caught the dagger, landed atop a tall tree.
She looked down on the two beneath her against the moonlight.
A breeze swept through, and her hood slipped off…
Revealing a face stained with blood.
Her skin was pale as moonlight, dark circles under her eyes making her look as if she were terminally ill.
Yet the murderous aura in her eyes lent a strange vitality to her life.
“So that’s it… so it was you.”
She raised the dagger before her chest, her cat ears atop her head pricking up in alert.
“A cat-demon. No wonder she’s so fast.”
The elderly woman suddenly realized.
But the knight spoke warily: “I’ve never seen a cat-demon move this fast. We should be careful.”
He stepped forward, positioning himself protectively in front of the old woman.
His silver sword began to glow with a white light.
“Humans, you’ve slaughtered my clan, turning our ears and tails into merchandise and medicine. Today—I’ll make you pay some of that price!”
Her words barely faded before a flash of red glimmered in her eyes.
In the next instant, she vanished from sight.
Silence enveloped the area again, broken only by the chirping of insects and the rustling of leaves in the breeze…
A cold gleam suddenly appeared in the distance.
The man’s senses sharpened, and he quickly raised his longsword.
The gleam advanced swiftly; the silver dagger collided with the silver sword and was deflected, but the cat-demon was gone without a trace.
“Here.”
Her voice came from above.
The man’s heart sank.
He raised his sword, but it was too late.
With a whoosh through the air, several sharp scratches appeared bloodily across his face.
“Ugh!”
He screamed in pain, covering his face with one hand while gripping the longsword with the other as he scanned his surroundings.
The cat-demon only took a slight leap backward before melting again into the night.
“Damn it!”
He cursed and raised his lantern to illuminate the area, but in the next moment, a flash of steel struck the lantern, shattering it to pieces.
Human eyes cannot pierce the darkness as cat-demons can; in the forest at night, it was pitch black.
Now deprived of their lantern, the two were blind, forced to rely on their ears to sense their surroundings.
Before they could hear anything else, pain suddenly seared his face again, appearing as if from nowhere, impossibly fast.
“‘Daylight Beacon.’”
The woman’s chant came from behind, and the surroundings suddenly lit up brilliantly.
The cat-demon’s form perched on the tree became visible in the glow.
“Magic, huh…”
“Got you, damn beast!”
The man lunged forward, swinging his sword.
The blade cleaved the tree beneath the cat-demon’s feet, causing her to fall.
The dagger was hidden behind her back.
As she closed in on him, she suddenly stabbed toward his face.
But she had severely underestimated this knight.
He blocked the dagger swiftly with his longsword.
When the dagger struck the blade, she couldn’t hold back the force, and with a loud snap, the dagger broke into two.
He would not miss this perfect opportunity.
The silver sword slashed across the cat-demon’s clothing, aiming for her head.
She twisted her body and kicked his chest hard, forcing his blade to change course.
“Swish.”
A pale, slender hand shot into the air, tracing a graceful arc of blood.
The cat-demon leapt into the air, caught the hand, and retreated quickly.
Once the man regained his footing, he saw her reappear atop the tall tree again.
She calmly gazed at her arm, blood streaming continuously from the break.
She seemed utterly numb to the pain.
“Humans, one day you will pay for what you’ve done.”
With that, she grabbed the bloodied bundle wrapped in tattered cloth and bounded deeper into the forest…
Silence fell once more, and the murderous aura gradually dissipated.
“Finally, it’s safe…”
The man sheathed his longsword and looked at the elderly woman beside him.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, just some scratches.”
“That cat-demon must have been sent by the Demon King. Looks like our bribe to gather intel has been uncovered. I suppose that bundle is the head of that noble.”
The old woman chuckled.
“Hah, if that’s the case, there’s no need for us to go there anymore. And we don’t have to meet that annoying stupid pig.”
Seeing her temper, the man chuckled softly, then looked at the black robe pierced by a dagger behind the old woman, surprised.
“I didn’t expect you, despite your age, to be so agile, and even capable of magic.”
“Hmph, I was the Head Maid of the castle back in my youth. Without these skills, how could I have held that position?”
She spoke, then her gaze suddenly dropped to something on the ground.
“This is…”
She stepped forward to take a closer look and saw a red hair tie lying quietly on the ground.
“This hair tie… looks so familiar.”
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