Bloody was walking through a corridor leading to the secret conference room with his niece, Leisha, Lancelot, and Mac, who came as envoys from the Crow Tribe.

  "Uncle, why is it so winding and complicated here?” She complained even saying that it was humid and smelled of mold.

  Bloody gave a light smile. "When inviting anyone other than the originally designated people to the secret meeting room, it was decided that we would only use this closed path."

  The secret passageway that they were walking on was so dilapidated that it was closed and the work to dig a new passageway was in full swing.

  “Do you have any questions before we arrive?”


  “I do! Bloody-nim!” Lancelot’s hand shot up.

  "Without the nim. Yes, Lancelot."

  "How much progress has been made in finding Den?”


  After giving permission to ask questions as if he were a teacher, Bloody turned his head away when Lancelot queried.

  “——”


  "Yes? What did you say?"

  With his eyes wide open and head tilted, Lancelot’s gaze fell on Bloody. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes were not.

  Bloody walked one step faster and avoided his gaze. "Sor-sorry. We couldn’t find him.”


  "Yes? What did you say?"

  At the same tone and expression as just before, Bloody quickly clung to Leisha and whispered, "I think his personality has changed."

  The Lancelot he had seen after arriving at the capital was definitely a naïve and shy boy. But suddenly, his voice had changed as if he had done a complete turn and became a little scary.

  Leisha whispered back with a forced smile, "He becomes like that when it comes to Den, but it’s okay when you get used to it."

  "Is that so?" Accepting it with a slightly quivering voice, Bloody changed the conversation. "But there are people who can help us at the place where we are going. So yeah, you can just tell Arcanta!"

  Bloody handed the baton over to poor Arcanta, who was already busy because of the collapse of the Red Magic Tower.

  But Mac smiled mischievously at the sight. "Ay, Bloody-nim. You shouldn’t give your work to someone else.”


  Bloody shot Mac a look, telling him to be quiet but the guy didn’t stop his playful smile.

  "Don’t you agree, Lancelot?" Mac put his arm around Lancelot’s shoulder and asked into his ear.

  Lancelot nodded. "Yes, I agree. What should I report to the Village Head?" His lips were smiling, but his eyes were absolutely not.

  "Come on, wait! Hold off on telling hyung-nim!" Bloody waved his hands in a hurry and at the same time, he hid behind Leisha’s back.

  Bloody, who was trying to figure out how to deal with the current interrogation, looked at Mac. "Yes! I’ll tell you why Mac grew such a strange beard and has a strange way of speaking!"

  "Hold…… hold on! Why are you dumping this on me!" Mac was so surprised that he even forgot to use his unique speech.

  "You started it first."

  "Bloody-nim! No, Sahyung! How can you do this when we are disciples under the same master?!"[1]

  The desperate Mac even brought up and complained about their old relationship. Both had followed under Elder Weger of the Crow Tribe. So Bloody had always told Mac to call him sahyung when he was back in the hometown. However, Mac had always politely called him Bloody-nim.

  "Shut up! How long has it been since I left from under Weger ahjussi!"[2]

  "It’s my fault! Sahyung!"

  Bloody smiled triumphantly at the sight of Mac who seemed ready to kneel down.

  Leisha was struck by Bloody’s words. “So why is Mac oppa like that?”


  “That’s——”


  "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

  As Bloody tried to answer, Mac shouted strongly. Then suddenly, the place above the secret passageway wall opened, and a person popped out of it.

  "Just how long are you going to keep making a racket?”


  It was Arcanta with dark circles under his eyes. Everyone became silent at his appearance.

  "Oh, are you here to pick me up?"

  When Bloody greeted him gladly, Arcanta nodded with a tired face.

  "Yes."

  "You look tired?"

  Arcanta roughly scratched his head. "Ah, someone knocked down the Red Magic Tower last night. We don’t know who, why, and for what purpose they destroyed it. So I got up at day break to order an investigation, get a damage report, and create a plan to rebuild the magic tower."

  "I saw it in the morning too, but that huge building was really broken down." Bloody stuck out his tongue.

  Arcanta rubbed his face from the fatigue. "Hahm~, but we can take solace in the fact that there were luckily no injuries or deaths. Just this once, I’ll have to thank the guy named Lupin.”


  According to the testimony of the magicians and guards who were still researching in the magic tower, they said a person wearing a half-white mask came and rescued them from the falling magic tower.

  Taking the lead as he yawned, Arcanta opened the door to the secret conference room.

  "Come on in. I apologize for having called the envoys from the Crow Tribe so secretly. But I thought that if I had met you in the imperial palace following official procedures, it would have been a nuisance for you. Thus, I called you here.”


  Lancelot bowed as the representative and replied, "The emperor is immeasurable. Your Majesty, We are humbled that you thought of us-"

  "No, no. This isn’t such a formal place, so you don’t have to observe court etiquette." The emperor cut off Lancelot and looked at him curiously.

  "So there is a person in the Crow Tribe who knows court etiquette."

  When Arcanta gave Bloody a side glance, the latter clasped his fingers behind his head and pretended to be oblivious.

  After everyone gathered in the secret conference room and introduced themselves, they all sat at their own seats and began the meeting.

  "For the special guests, during this meeting, we will discuss the escapee, Small Chief Denburg Blade of the Crow Tribe."

  With Arcanta words, a discussion on capturing Denburg began. Everyone spoke their minds, but there were no actual practical plans offered.

  Mac, the only one to keep mum during the discussion, asked, "But whose portrait is that?”


  The portrait that Mac pointed to was the result of Bloody hiring an artist to sketch Denburg.

  "What do you mean who, of course, is that not the Denburg you are looking for?"

  At the crown prince’s reply, Leisha and Lancelot looked confused while Mac burst into laughter.

  "Puhahahaha! You are saying that that’s the youngest master? It’s my first time seeing a portrait that looks so dissimilar.”


  Leisha elbowed Mac and hinted at him. The people who were gathered here were all powerful. She was worried that the vice-captain’s lack of etiquette would appear disrespectful at a time like this.

  But no one pointed out Mac’s behavior. On the contrary, everyone looked at Bloody with embarrassment.

  "See? I told you! It doesn’t resemble him at all!"

  They looked at him with a look of injustice. At that time, Arcanta took out and showed the portrait that Bloody himself had painted, just in case.

  "Yep, it’s Den."

  "Yes, it’s Den."

  "It is the youngest master.”


  Arcanta tore at his head at the sight of the Crows saying, "It’s Denburg" from looking at a portrait that could have been better drawn by a child.

  It was the moment that proved that Bloody was indeed the Crow Tribe’s best artist-

  o-

  Malecia entered a mansion situated deep in the mountain with a large marble lifted over his shoulders. He inserted the marble deeply in front of the simple burial mound in the courtyard of the mansion.

  The only things in the burial mound were a magic wand and an old battle-scarred armor that his friend wore in the past when they used to go into battle together as youths.

  When they were young, his friend was so lousy at magic that if he didn’t wear armor, one would have wondered if he could have survived a day in the battlefield. He was that much of a weakling.

  "Such an idiot." Briefly recalling the days of their youth, Malecia murmured dejectedly. He opened the cheap wine that his friend had liked and poured it in front of the burial mound. "What’s so important about the truth? It’s natural for a person to die of old age."

  After pouring about half of the wine bottle on the burial mound, Malecia drained the remaining in one go. Perhaps he felt it even more with his aging body.

  The mighty mana of a magician doesn’t deteriorate, but a warrior’s strong body would rust easily.

  "Keuu, I don’t even know why he loved something so much that doesn’t even taste like alcohol."

  Malecia roughly brushed the red-flowing wine around his mouth with his sleeve and pulled out his sword. He focused his mana on the tip of the sword to create sword aura and etched letters on the marble-

  January 1562 A.D ~ December 1625 A.D. Smith Adam Farhan.

  Pursuit of the endless truths.

  The words were so elegantly engraved that no one would have believed that it was roughly dug out with a sword. The wind blew away the marble dust from the tombstone.

  Malecia looked back in surprise at the sudden gust of wind.

  Aries, donning a black mask, slowly walked out of the mansion from behind Malecia.

  The mansion belonged to Aries, but it was located within the empire, so he never thought Aries would come all the way here.

  The fact that the Aries, who usually never left his base located outside of the empire, came all the way here meant that he had teleported.

  "Salute! Welcome."

  When Malecia quickly sheathed his sword, knelt and prostrated, Aries raised a hand and gestured to say that it was not necessary.

  Malecia quickly stood up and bowed his head in shame. "I am sorry. Without permission—"

  "No." Aries cut off Malecia and spoke. "It’s fine. Is this Smith’s grave?" he said in a dry tone.

  Malecia nervously replied, "Yes, it is."

  Aries was usually not interested in anything but magic, so he tried to explain just enough to pass by. However, the other somehow arrived just when the tomb was built. Malecia was worried that he might go on a rampage.

  But Aries’s behavior was the exact opposite of Malecia’s worry. He took out a bottle of liquor, small enough to fit into the palm of his hand from the pockets of his robes, and opened the lid.

  The bottle opened with a ‘pong!’ and a profound aroma spread out.

  Malecia had a hunch that it was not ordinary liquor. He swallowed the saliva in his mouth and quietly watched the other.

  Aries freely poured the liquor over the burial mound.

  "Ah!"

  The heavy drinker, Malecia lamented the fact that a liquor that was certainly world class, was being poured out. At the same time, he couldn’t understand why the other would come all the way out here and pour alcohol.

  "The experiment failed. It seems Smith is gone too.

  Malecia’s lamenting mouth suddenly closed at Aries’s words.

  "Is that so?"

  Malecia was thinking about how to face his friend who succeeded in the experiment, but realized it was unnecessary.

  Why was his heart in so much pain when there was no need to worry? The death of a friend was something that was familiar. Was it because it had been too long since a friend died?

  Aries turned around and headed back inside the mansion.

  "Don’t die.”


  Entering the mansion, Aries closed the door without looking back.

  After gazing at the door of the mansion for a long time, Malecia answered with a hoarse voice.

  "Yes."

  Tears poured out endlessly from his eyes like rain.

  The sky was definitely clear. It must be a sun shower.

  1. Sahyung is a korean word that refers to the first disciple of the same master. Mac and Bloody have the same master but Bloody was the first disciple.

  2. Ahjussi is title that korean people use to refer to a middle aged man.