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The waves surged and wet her feet, while the wind blew through her hair, scattering it in all directions.
Anya took a step forward. The soles of her feet touched the soft mud as she blankly looked back at the setting sun. The long shadow caused by the setting sun seemed darker than usual. There, at the end of the shadow that seemed to be leading to the horizon, she saw someone.
Anya fiercely dashed forward. Her feet kicked mud up into the air, and seawater splashed up everywhere as she ran. The mud soaked her, and the sharp shells hidden in the soft mud cut her feet. Anya fell and rolled around in the mud several times, bleeding from her feet, but the sea was nowhere to be seen—in front of Anya was just an infinite mass of muddy blobs.
“Master! Now you are even selling and buying children?”
She still remembered the disturbance she heard one night—his voice that she heard for the first time when she was just a little girl and had a chain restraining her. She also remembered the warmth that she felt when the white-colored incarnation of death, wrapped in darkness, entered the cage she was hiding in.
“Captain!”
Their conversation from back then echoed inside her head.
“You need to fight for His Majesty, Anya—not for me.”
“But I like you.”
Anya liked how he was perplexed at his own voice that he synthesized using magic as he whispered to her gently. She started talking exactly like he did, following his tone. No one else could tell his feelings from his voice, but Anya could—at least she believed she could. She was also the first to feel the presence of another being in his voice.
“Ras! Ras Raud!”
At that moment, Anya’s foot suddenly slipped. She stumbled and helplessly fell into the mud. Despite her efforts to try to get up again, the mud that engulfed her all the way up to her waist held her down.
Anya clawed at the mud and struggled to get out until her nails broke. However, her lower body did not budge; it was almost as if the part of her that was engulfed by the mud was gone.
Anya let out a loud cry. She didn’t know how long she had been running for, but it felt as if he was waiting for her somewhere she couldn’t reach.
***
Anya opened her eyes with a loud scream. The cloudy winter sky filled her sight.
The moment she tried to pick herself up, she realized that she didn’t have any strength in her lower body below her waist—her legs that were helplessly dropped felt like they belonged to someone completely different.
Yet she didn’t stop trying. As soon as she tried to force herself to stand up using her arm strength, an intense pain came from her waist.
“Keuk
!”
“I wouldn’t move a single inch if I were you.”
Anya turned her head toward the sudden voice.  She didn’t know since when, but a man wearing red armor was looking down at her. His figure was so huge that for a moment, she thought that she was seeing Barth Baltic. But she quickly realized that he was slightly smaller than Barth Baltic after she took a closer look at him. However, the fact that he was inhumanely big still remained unchanged. She couldn’t see his face, since he was wearing a helmet.
“Who are you?” Anya asked.
The man in red armor pointed toward a direction in silence.
Upon looking at the direction he pointed to, Anya found some loosely built tents. They were so shabby that they didn’t even have ceilings, and in the middle of them all was a flag flying wildly in the wind—a flag with the symbol of a hand holding a bloody hammer.
“The Order of Surtr?”
“Yes.”
“Did you abduct me while I was down?”
“The abduction was done by him, not me. He said that the least he could do is take you back with him, since fixing the Cainheryar we sent to Torra looks like it will be impossible now. But judging from your condition, it seems that it was something useless.”
The man had pointed toward a knight who had bandages wrapped all around his head and under his nose. At the same time, the knight’s bloodshot eyes were glaring at Anya with clear murderous intent.
“Cuare, go and sleep. Everyone was already aware that there was a chance that we might not be able to retrieve Iolin’s Cainheryar, given that our opponent was not an easy one. You’ve done good enough by catching one of the confidants of the fake emperor. His Holiness will help you make a new jaw when we return to Cabragh.”
Instead of speaking, the man called Cuare simply answered using the military sign language.
The man in red armor frowned and sighed like he was annoyed when he understood what Cuare was saying.
“Go and drink or something if you can’t sleep. I’m sure you still have a throat left even if your jaw has fallen off.”
But Cuare continued to use sign language discontentedly.
The man in red armor slowly rose from his seat. Then, he punched Cuare, who was still fiercely complaining about something using sign language, in the abdomen. The man’s punch was strong enough to throw Cuare’s body into the air, despite the heavy armor being worn by Cuare being just as bulky as his heavy armor.
Cuare’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and he immediately fainted right away. Then, the man in red armor dragged him out with a calm manner and handed him over to the guards standing outside. The guards then dragged Cuare along as if they were already used to it.
“They’re all very temperamental, so they never listen to me the first time I tell them something,” the man shrugged.
Anya had never heard of Cuare’s name before, but it was clear that he was also a knight from the Order of Surtr. She could only think of one person who was capable of acting so firm and overbearing toward the knights of the Order of Surtr.
“Dismas Dilver?”
The man in red armor looked down at Anya in silence instead of answering.
Meanwhile, she decided to stop trying to think and tried to condense her mana to use magic. But to her surprise, she couldn’t condense any mana—none at all. She couldn’t even condense as much mana as a speck of dust.
Right as she was feeling perplexed, Dismas opened his mouth.
“Were you trying to use magic? It’s going to be impossible at the moment. Your mana heart was ruined when your spine was broken. It will be hard for you to use magic like you used to even if His Holiness himself were to use his healing Grace on you. According to Cuare’s report
 that was written rather than spoken, of course, I understand that you’re quite a capable necromancer.”
Dismas stopped speaking for a moment to make the sign of a cross on his chest—he only continued to speak after that.
“That is a type of profane magic. His Majesty buried Nigrato, as well as all the necromancers deep under the desert sand—that was until my evil brother went and pulled them out of their graves.”
Anya gritted her teeth and picked up whatever she could grab at, throwing it at Dismas.
Seeing this, Dismas didn’t even bother to dodge, and the glass cup thrown by her broke against his armor.
“But now, you have lost your ability to use magic and your lower body is paralyzed. I’m a man who can show kindness to a lost soul. If you are willing to cooperate with me, I promise that you will be able to plead with His Holiness to be granted forgiveness.”
“Well, all that sounds like nonsense. Will you cut off my neck if I refuse?”
“No,” Dismas shook his head resolutely before continuing.
“Burning in flames is the only way to cleanse a sinner who refuses the chance to repent. You’ll be burned after being placed with rice straws soaked in oil. At that time, I will try my best to burn you for as long as I can; after all, the more painful it is, the more it will seem like you are reflecting on your sins. Some people say that it’s not right to repent due to the fear of pain, but I think it’s better to use any means necessary to get at even one more person to follow His Majesty and thus receive his protection. That especially applies to people like you, since you are still so young.”
Dismas continued to speak as he kindly patted Anya’s head.
“This place is quite close to the sun, so His Majesty will definitely pay attention to you. I’ll help your ashes to rise as high as possible. You won’t be able to be loyal to His Majesty while you are alive, but you will be able to serve him right by his side, since you will get to know the true meaning of who His Majesty is.”
Anya opened her eyes wide upon hearing Dismas’ words. But she soon smiled and opened her mouth to answer.
“I think so too.”
***
“The Loen Basin?” Hela asked.
“People usually consider Loen Basin to be the beginning of the Western territory,” Pavan answered.
Looking at the map while riding a horse would cause him the worst motion sickness, but he was slowly getting used to it now.
On the map was a red line that was temporarily drawn by Pavan. This line was the one that separated the capital from the western territory.
At the same time as the Order of Huginn began their search for Anya, Pavan had quickly deployed the Imperial Army. The capital’s Imperial Army had already noticed the movements in the West, since they had their eyes on Dismas.
When Juan had stormed into Torra, the Western Army had formed a frontline between the west and the Capital—a proper boundary between the Capital and the west was something that was made for the first time. While there was no armed conflict yet, this caused the awkward tension between the Capital and the west to continue.
The headquarters of the Order of Surtr, which were found around the Loen Basin, was considered to be the entrance to the west. This was also where Anya was assumed to have been abducted to.
Right now, Hela and Pavan were on their way to the Loen Basin.
“The soldiers from the search party passed by the Western Army a few times, but it is said that they neither attacked, nor threatened the search party. It seems like the soldiers feel quite awkward about raising their swords against each other, given that they had all been on the same side when facing the returned emperor up until just a few days ago. The public opinion will drop and the morale of the soldiers will start to fall if the battle starts as it is now,” Pavan said with a worried look.
“Are there any moves from the people of the Western Army to surrender?”
“I think some among the ordinary soldiers are willing to surrender, but none among the commanders are willing. They are the people that Dismas chose carefully based on their faithfulness after all.”
“Faithfulness, my ass.”
Hela snorted and threw the map against Pavan’s chest.
“It’s quite ironic, don’t you think? Pavan Peltere. Both you and I have no such thing as ‘faith’ between us.”
“But we both have our loyalty to His Majesty instead, master.”
“Come on. Don’t be like this, Pavan. I know that you’re not a man who is driven by loyalty.”
Pavan could only give a perplexed smile.
“There are various forms of loyalty. But I am not the type to betray my allies. I only follow the ruler of the empire.”
“It seems like you don’t consider enticing and taking dozens of your peers from the east to be a betrayal, huh?” Hela derided.
“East is called the land of treachery. Do you think it would have been possible for me to be successful and get ahead over there? I only grabbed the opportunity when it came by. I had no choice but to cut ties with the east in order to succeed. I’ve already said this before, but I had no intention of hurting you, master. I would have shot you first when I ambushed your army if I really wanted to do that.
“No. Your intention must have been to capture me alive and bring me to Balth Baltic. You give too many excuses, Pavan. I have not yet forgotten that you were going to destroy me along with the warriors of Arbalde using Suvole.”
“About Suvole,” Pavan sighed and muttered. “I did not send Suvole to you with such an intention, master. But I can’t think of any more excuses anyway.”
“There’s no need for you to give me any more excuses, Pavan. You have been a monster full of dirty lies and desire for power ever since you were young. You were also the best among my disciples as well. Back then, I was desperate, and thought that your characteristics would be beneficial to the east, but not anymore. I’m both glad and worried to see you become the Captain of the Order of the Capital.”
Pavan only gave a subtle smile instead of answering.
“As I said. I won’t betray you.”
“More like you don’t have a reason to betray me. You will continue to succeed as long as you stay loyal to His Majesty. Talent is talent and I acknowledge your capabilities. Come to think of it, I’m genuinely curious. How far do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Pavan shrugged. “My question is how far do I have to go to reach the end?”
“The farther you go, the longer and more terrible the fall will be. I’d love to see your end, but unfortunately, the time I’m allowed isn’t that long. Anyway, I hope you can at least become a useful monster now that you are serving His Majesty, just like me.”
When Pavan was about to nod and willingly say yes, Hela’s fist struck his fist. This caused Pavan, someone who was beaten with steel gloves when he wasn’t even wearing a helmet to protect him, to almost fall off his horse.
Pavan glared at Hela as he stifled a nosebleed.
“I hope this resolved the old grudge between you and I, master.”
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“You piss me off even more because you didn’t dodge that one on purpose.”
The soldiers hastily approached them upon seeing the sudden scuffle between the commanders, but Pavan simply signaled to let them know that they did not need to intervene. The soldiers quickly stepped back.
“You didn’t hesitate to punish me even when I was young, master. Have you ever thought it might be your fault that I went down the wrong path?”
“Nope,” Hela scoffed and laughed at Pavan. “I would have thrown you out of the wall of Beldeve into the sea a long time ago if I hadn’t been so desperate to keep the east safe. Many of my disciples betrayed me, but you’re the only one that I despise. We’ll never make up for the rest of our lives. There simply isn’t a reason for us to.”
“How ridiculous of you to assault your colleague at a time when something so important is about to happen. Is it okay for a commander to do such a thing based on your personal feelings?”
“Of course not,” Hela chuckled and strode forward as she left Pavan behind. “But His Majesty instructed you to take responsibility for my safety. So you’ll have no choice but to carry out your mission despite your personal feelings.”
Half a day later, Hela and Pavan ran into the Order of Surtr.