Shadowless Night

With that sharp sound marking the start of the fight, the Illavenian delegation split into two. The knights who had drawn their swords started running away on horseback towards a colorfully decorated white carriage on the left side and a beige-colored carriage on the right side. The raiders were stunned for a moment.

Janan barely managed to suppress his instinctively energetic body, which was caused by seeing a third carriage left behind in the empty field. The escorts who remained, unable to escape, soon came to their senses and moved to protect the carriage. Their number only totaled around ten.

Janan then realized. These people are discarded pieces. To preserve his own life, the 2nd Prince even threw away his subordinates. His heartlessness and cowardice could be vividly seen.

The commander of the Knights of White Night skillfully parried a sword attack. A regular person would have broken either their sword or their arm. The commander backed away immediately after he collided with Tyreng. He seemed to be wary of Tyreng's strangely strong power. The Knight Commander rode his horse out of the empty field straight away.

Tyreng and Janan watched the Knight Commander. It was widely known that Ricardis' carriage was white, but there was no certainty that he was in it. The prince wouldn't sit quietly in his carriage unless he's an idiot, so he must have swapped his carriage with someone else’s. The 2nd Prince's limb and the strongest sword in the White Night: Starz Falhas. If not him, who else will protect Ricardis? Wherever he goes, the 2nd Prince Ricardis must be there.

However, as if defying their speculation, the Knight Commander followed the white carriage running to the left. It was a situation that betrayed Janan's expectations to the point of disappointment— this implied that some other idiots with simple thoughts must have been correct.

“Team 1 and 2 will chase after the white carriage. Team 3 will chase after the other one! Team 4, deal with the rest here!”

[Note: To better set the scene, there’s a white carriage + escort, a beige carriage + escort, and another stationary carriage + ‘escorts who were left behind.' This is how the Illavenian delegation split up.]

At Tyreng's voice, the raiders dispersed. Janan, the leader of the 2nd team, had to follow the white carriage immediately at the command of his captain. However, he just stopped and looked around. A strange, unfamiliar sensation gripped his ankles.

[E/N: Gripped his ankles = stopped him in his tracks. The feeling has him frozen, so he can’t move.]

‘Something… Something is strange.’

A knight with a somewhat different atmosphere stood out. The knight was wearing a cloak so he couldn't see their face well, but they made eye contact with him once. The knight had green eyes that would glow blueish if the sun reflected on them, like the calm waters of a lake. They were eyes that did not feel any fear or despair about this situation.

The knight seemed to have noticed Janan's gaze and flipped back the cloak covering their head. Their black hair, tied up high, was exposed, and it began to get wet in the rain. It was a woman. There is no way they would entrust a female knight with an important person in the delegation. Janan concluded that there was nothing to gain from the third carriage left in this empty field.

He thought his anxiety was an unnecessary compulsion as there were other things left that had to be sorted out quickly.

“Group 4, clean up the site and cover Group 1 and 2.”

"Yes, sir.”

"Yes, sir.”

The team members slightly bent their bodies and soon stood. The escort knights around the carriage showed signs of nervousness.

"Kill them all.”

At Janan's words, more than 20 people moved at once. Swooosh. The faint sound of wind struck the knights of Illavenia. Even without Fragment, getting rid of this number of people shouldn’t pose a problem. Janan jumped onto the roof of the carriage. Thud. And the carriage shook loudly.

Chaeng.

Even under the rain…

Gwang!

…the swords of both sides collided, and sparks arose. It was a sound so strong that it was hard to believe it was produced by thin metal. Janan turned his gaze to the sound. The woman, whom he had made eye contact with earlier, had extremely quick movements. If only she wasn’t a weak woman by birth, she would have been an even better knight…

She was fighting fiercely with a Black Moon raider whose body was artificially enhanced beyond human limitations. It was amazing.

Her fighting style seemed accustomed to improvisation with actions like pushing the enemy by the shoulder and kicking them to widen the distance. The other male knights around her looked slower in comparison! The moment her kick hit, a team member flew and crashed into the carriage where Janan stood. He barely managed to recover his swaying body. Janan corrected his evaluation for this female knight. She was already an exceptional knight.

She flew around. Not only did she attack the enemy before her, but she also continued to butt into other knights’ battles, as if saying, ‘My hands are playing without me knowing.’

Janan inserted his sword into the back of the knight who was fighting near the carriage and pulled it out. The knight vomited blood and slumped down. The extraordinary skills shown here were interesting, but he was not in a situation where he could afford to take it easy as he had to pursue the 2nd Prince quickly.

Janan put his hand on the carriage’s doorknob to finish his work. ‘Time to get acquainted with the noble Illavenian delegation, who held their heads high in Balta.’

Craagk. The carriage's door was ripped open.

But inside…

“The carriage is empty!”

As if responding to Janan's bewildering cry, the voices of the other team members spread everywhere, “The carriage is empty! Inside is empty! No one is here!” 

Janan shook his head. ‘Where did they go? Did they leave it empty in the first place? Why?’ He could see his other team members were confused but continued the battle. An uneasy atmosphere that could not be formed just by the knowledge carriage was empty surrounded the crew. Janan looked around the wide-open field where the battle was taking place.

The knights of Illavenia, who had been crawling on the floor with injuries before, were flying around. It was strange. Even the knight who had a sword in his back got up and started fighting again.

No matter how tough they were, they were human. In front of the might of the great Crean Tidanion, there is no way for mere humans to be their opponents. Something was odd. ‘Clearly, there is something strange about this situation!’ Maybe it was because of the strange anxiety that gripped his ankles that he felt earlier. ‘What is it? What did I miss?’ Janan quickly rifled through his memory.

For a moment, the female knight’s eyes were as blue as a tender leaf. Those eyes quickly passed through Janan's mind once again. He looked for the dark-haired knight like a madman. He could see her in the distance. Clang! Clang! The harsh sound of metal clashing resounded. Janan then realized. The battle of the knights gathered around her was shaped like a shield. Rather than rushing to get rid of their enemies, they looked preoccupied with protecting something. Janan stared past them.

Behind the annoying female knight, a tall male knight fighting with a sword reached out to his injured comrade.

“!”

A faint light spread through the gray forest. It was the light of life that stopped bleeds and healed wounds. And there was no way Janan didn't know what that meant.

‘This is crazy! Why is the prince still here?’ Janan roared. He had to let the others know that the 2nd Prince is here.

"The-!"

‘The 2nd Prince is here!’ However, he did not complete his sentence. The woman, who was looking this way with shining eyes, swiveled her foot out wide. Her dark hair circled like a hurricane following her wild movements. She rushed in with the sound of the wind. The sword in her hand was nowhere to be seen. 

Cough. Janan coughed up blood. A sword had precisely lodged under his neck. The woman flew away before even checking whether he’d live or die. One couldn’t even measure her speed.

‘T- This is bullshit… N- No, it’s…’ Janan’s body collapsed and fell to the ground. His flowing blood mixed with the puddles of rain.

***

The white carriage running along the bumpy road constantly rattled. Although its speed was significantly slower than that of his horse, Tyreng was still only chasing the back of the carriage. ‘This time… This time we will catch it!’ The raiders vigorously kicked the horse's side to gain speed. 

It was then…

“Uwaaaaahk!”

“Aaaakh!”

Something descended from the sky at high speed, barreling past Balta's raiders. It reminded them of a gangster pounding people on the shoulder in a crowded market as they passed through. Of course, it was several times more painful and threatening than that.

There was a gigantic eagle the size of two or three humans that could effortlessly devour them. For a moment, Tyreng thought that a demonic beast had appeared, but he immediately realized that this hypothesis was wrong. It acted unlike regular demonic beasts, which did not know how to identify their enemy and just destroyed everything in their way.

Seeing it only attacked the raiders, it's clear the eagle had been tamed by someone. As the team members were ambushed, some fell off their horse, making the following team members trip and fall one after the other to the ground. 

By the time they almost recovered their original position and pursued again, the white carriage was still far away. The situation kept repeating.

  "God damn it!"

Tyreng groaned and spit out a swear word. Even when he threw a dagger as the eagle descended, it mysteriously avoided it as if it knew his tricks. And when their eyes met, the eagle even shook its head as if teasing him! One could not explain this situation of being played with by a single bird with any other words but shameful. Tyreng’s face turned red.

The Holy Empire Illavenia. Their god Idelavhim is said to have borrowed the form of an eagle when he appeared in the human world. Eagles were famous for being intelligent species, but it shouldn’t be at the level of this flying beast floating over his head. This one seemed like something great and out of reach draped itself in the skin of an eagle. ‘Could it be that this is the true messenger of Idelavhim?’