A heavy feeling in his body and the inability to channel his mana—it wasn’t common for Roel to receive such a vivid premonition of danger. Thinking back, the last time he experienced that was when the Collector had invaded his Inner Sanctum to stifle his flame of life.

  Artasia’s warning helped him to connect the dots, and he rushed out of his tent right away.

  “Juliana, there are enemies in the vicinity!”


  “Enemies?”


  Juliana was sitting on a vertically-placed log and sipping on a cup of tea when Roel suddenly made a proclamation of danger. She was taken aback, but she still took his words seriously due to the authority he had built up over the past month.

  She quickly rose to her feet and magically drew a sword out of her skirt. Her irises turned red, and she began carefully scanning their surroundings.

  “Where? My barrier didn’t catch anything at all. What did you notice?” asked Juliana.

  The commotion also caught Selina and Stuart’s attention, and they quickly rushed out of their tents too. All three of them turned their attention to Roel while the latter quickly analyzed the situation.

  The Witch Queen had personally confirmed that a Fallen was in the vicinity, which was why Roel exclaimed that there were enemies right away. Yet, Juliana, whose senses were the sharpest in the night, didn’t notice anything at all. If so, there was only one remaining possibility.

  “Quick, contact the main team! They must be the ones who have come under attack!”


  “Understood!”


  Stuart had no idea what the basis behind Roel’s claim was, but he could tell that the latter wasn’t joking around. He quickly worked with Selina to activate the communication magic tool.

  Meanwhile, Roel continued analyzing the situation.

  The Fallen must have started moving since I have received a danger premonition. That feeling of heaviness in the body and halted blood flow is similar to when the Collector interfered with my Ascart Bloodline… That should be a sign as well, just that the recipient of it isn’t me but Lilian this time around.

  The confirmation that the Fallens were indeed going after Lilian enraged Roel, and it further deepened his suspicion that the Braytown incident was a ploy concocted by the Fallens to capture an awakener of the Ascart Bloodline.

  They were using Shrouding Fog as bait to lure them in, knowing that Shrouding Fog was not just a menace but also an opportunity for awakeners of the Ascart Bloodline to claim a new Crown’s Stone.

  The abilities of the Crown’s Stones had always been Roel’s trump card whenever he was faced with transcendents much more powerful than he was. It was most definitely worth taking a risk to obtain a new Crown’s Stone. That probably led the depraved Fallens into thinking that the awakeners of the Ascarts would make a move against Shrouding Fog.

  The knowledge that Lilian was in danger made Roel anxious, but his mind was clearer than ever in this crucial moment. Seeing how Stuart and Selina were unable to contact the main team via the communication magic tool, Roel quickly opened up a map to check the location of their last communication earlier in the evening.

  “The main team was close to the abandoned Marlin Town earlier this evening, so it should be safe to assume that they spent their night there. Stuart, check the situation there!”


  Under Roel’s command, Stuart took off his blindfold and revealed his eyes of everchanging colors once more. He looked in the direction pointed out by Roel, and a frown soon formed on his forehead.

  “A fog! The fog is very thick over there! It doesn’t look alive, so I don’t think that it’s Shrouding Fog. Wait a moment… There’s a strong mana pulsation. It’s not a natural occurrence!”


  Stuart alternated among his various eyes to make different observations of the situation of the abandoned Marlin Town. Meanwhile, Stuart and Selina finally received a response after countless tries.

  “Roel, it’s connected!”


  “You got through? What did they say?”


  Roel quickly rushed over to the communication magic tool upon hearing Selina’s delighted exclamation, but the projection only showed a thick fog and a weird sound reminiscent of two stones grinding against each other. The projection lasted for roughly ten seconds before being abruptly cut off.

  “…”


  Roel and the others fell silent.

  By this point, even the optimistic Selina had to acknowledge that something had happened to the main team, and it was most likely an attack from an unknown party.

  In accordance with the academy’s protocols, Roel and the others first crushed a magic tool to send an emergency call for help to Saint Freya Academy, followed by setting off numerous help flares. Then, they gathered all of their necessities and buried their daily logs in a secure location before making their way toward Marlin Town.

  Based on Roel’s premonition, it shouldn’t have been long since the main team came under attack. As long as they made haste, they should be able to join the battle at the crucial moment. As they quickly marched ahead, the fog around them began to thicken. The surrounding mana pulsation also gradually grew stronger.

  None of them spoke a word along the way, so the only thing that could be heard in this mostly silent night was the chilling night gale.

  As they approached Marlin Town, Stuart suddenly let out an exclamation.

  “That is!”


  “What is it, Stuart?” asked Roel.

  “Someone is collapsed by the roadside just ahead of us!”


  “A person?”


  Roel and the others quickly rushed ahead to take a look. A person had indeed collapsed under the tree, but surprisingly, it wasn’t a member of the main team. His hair was snowy-white and his face was against the ground, but his shabby clothes made it unlikely that he was one of Brolne’s scholars. Even so, Roel and the others didn’t leave him to the lurch.

  “Is he one of the residents who chose to remain here even after it got abandoned?”


  “Looks like it. How surprising it is that someone as old as him actually managed to make it out alive…”


  “Leader, are we taking him with us?”


  Selina and the others seemed to feel sympathetic for the old man and wanted to help him.

  That put Roel in a dilemma. Their current goal was to save the main team, and their destination was likely to be fraught with danger. It didn’t seem right of them to bring the old man together with them back to the heart of the battlefield.

  Furthermore, while Roel did believe that every life was precious, he couldn’t let a stranger drag down Selina and the others. If anything were to happen to them while they were trying to protect the old man…


  With the repercussions in mind, Roel eventually came to a decision.

  “We’ll treat him, set up a barrier, and leave him with some resources. We’ll only be putting him in danger if we drag him with us.”


  Selina and the others nodded understandingly upon hearing Roel’s command. Just as Juliana was about to treat the old man, the latter suddenly opened his eyes and began to struggle vehemently.

  “Ah! Y-you all!”


  “Calm down! We’re here to save you. Can you tell us what happened?”


  Seeing how distraught the old man was, Roel stepped forward and spoke with a calming voice. He was hoping to gather some intelligence while diverting the old man’s attention away from the traumatic experience that he had just been through.

  Unexpectedly, the old man suddenly quietened down. He stared at Roel unmovingly, and slowly, light returned to his eyes.

  Did he regain his sanity?

  Roel was relieved to see that. He raised his hand to gesture for Juliana to hold on for a moment so that he could ask about the situation in Marlin Town, but strikingly familiar words suddenly echoed in his ears.

  “Big brother… Roel.”


  “Ah?”


  Roel’s body stiffened up upon hearing the old man’s address of him.