CHAPTER 461: CHAPTER 461 - NIGHT RAID

- Back to the artificial dimensions.

The wind was cold here, sharp enough to bite through breath and bone.

Askara, Anggana, and Anindha stood facing Kiara and Litani. For a moment, none of them spoke. Only the soft crackle of the nearby campfire and the distant hum of mana beasts filled the silence.

Their gazes locked, a thousand unspoken things hanging between them.

Kiara’s eyes flicked from Askara to the small group behind him, the camp had grown larger since he last left.

"Aska-"

"Don’t ask," Askara said flatly.

Kiara blinked, frowned slightly, then tried again. Her gaze shifted past him. "Those are... elves. And two humans-"

"Don’t ask," Askara repeated, his tone edged with exhaustion.

"Didn’t you just say-"

"I said don’t ask, Kiara," he snapped, rubbing a hand over his face. "Just... Just accept it. It’s not like I wanted this, alright? These two idiots-" He jerked a thumb toward Anggana and Anindha, who both looked far too pleased with themselves. "... this is their fault. Don’t ask me, I don’t want to know, and I definitely don’t want to explain. So let’s just... move on, okay?"

Kiara stared at him for a long second, then sighed. "Fine"

She turned slightly. "Erick"

He was there before the word had even finished leaving her lips, silent, composed, like he’d always been standing in her shadow.

"Yes, My Queen. You called?"

"Mm. We’ve got new additions," she said, tilting her chin toward the group behind Askara. "Take them to the empty tents"

"As you command, My Queen"

Erick straightened, his sharp eyes sweeping over the newcomers, the elves, and the two humans, with quiet scrutiny. His tone, when he spoke again, was calm but carried weight.

"...Follow me"

The newcomers hesitated for a heartbeat, then moved after him, their steps crunching against frost and ash.

Askara exhaled, dragging a hand through his hair. "...What did you do to that fellow?" he asked, noticing how different Erick’s demeanor was compared to before.

Kiara didn’t even blink. "I did something, yes," she admitted calmly. "But it’s not your concern"

Her gaze then shifted past him, landing on the two people still standing awkwardly behind Askara and Anggana. Her tone sharpened slightly. "You two. Why are you still here? Go follow Erick"

"This-" Mukhlis began, but Askara cut in before he could finish.

"They’re with me," Askara said simply, brushing past Kiara. "They’re fine"

Mukhlis and Ayana exchanged a brief glance, then hurried after him without a word.

"Huh?" Kiara frowned, watching her brother’s retreating back. Then her eyes turned to Anindha, silently demanding an explanation.

Anindha only shrugged and shook her head.

Kiara’s gaze shifted next to Anggana. "...Well?"

Anggana blinked, looking caught between amusement and fatigue. "...What?"

"Who are those two?" Kiara pressed.

"...Someone from the Dai-Yak Tribe," Anggana answered after a pause. "They’re... special. Especially the girl"

Then, without elaborating, he followed after Askara as well.

Kiara stood there for a long second, lips parted, words caught somewhere between suspicion and disbelief.

Anindha passed her with an exasperated sigh. "Come on, Kiara. It’s freezing. Why’d you build a camp out of ice anyway?"

"..."

"Kiara!" Askara’s voice echoed from inside the camp, sharp and impatient. "Why are you still standing there? I know you’re immune to the cold, but we’re not. Come in already, we’ve got a lot to discuss!"

Kiara sighed softly, her breath misting in the chill. "...What the," she muttered under her breath, finally following them into the glow of the ice-lit camp after Litani patted her shoulder.

---

- Inside Kiara’s Castle.

Seven people sat around a round table, having finished a simple dinner. The remains of the meal still steamed faintly, and the scent of herbs lingered in the cold air.

No one spoke for a while, only the soft clink of porcelain cups broke the silence as they drank warm tea to chase the chill from their bones.

Two of them, however, Mukhlis and Ayana, looked uneasy, glancing between the siblings like outsiders in someone else’s world.

"...This Trial," Askara began at last, his tone steady but edged with frustration. "I’m sure there’s an error somewhere. The first day isn’t even over, and I can already tell many candidates have lost their lives"

"Do you think this error has something to do with the cult Sis Alice mentioned before?" Anindha asked, folding her arms thoughtfully.

"Well~ that’s how it always goes, right?" Litani said with a shrug, twirling her spoon. "It’s never simple"

"So what should we do next?" Kiara leaned back, her icy blue eyes glinting under the pale light. "Sis Alice asked us to look for anything strange, but with beasts roaming around like that, I doubt we’ll have a moment’s peace"

"Haaa~ I just want this to be over already," Anggana muttered, resting his cheek against the table, only to flinch as the ice bit into his skin. He sat up straight again with a quiet groan.

"...Then we do what we always do," Askara said. "We make a new plan"

"Easy to say," Kiara replied flatly. "We don’t even know what we’re facing, how many of them there are, what they want, or what caused this ’error’ in the first place. How are we supposed to plan around that?"

"Well~ the plan is that ’there is no plan,’ my dear sister," Anggana said lazily, waving a hand. "That’s how we usually handle things anyway"

"Ahaha~ as expected of my brother," Askara said with a dry laugh.

Kiara sighed, rubbing her temple. "...Boys"

A small, hesitant voice suddenly broke through the room’s quiet tension.

"Umm..."

All five D’Archy siblings turned at once.

Mukhlis swallowed hard but forced himself to speak. "...I’m sorry, but... Cult? Plan? What exactly are we talking about here?"

Ayana said nothing, but her hands tightened slightly on her teacup, knuckles pale against the porcelain.

"Ohh~" Askara blinked, finally realizing that there were ’outsiders’ sitting among them.

"Aska, don’t tell me you just forgot about the people you brought in," Kiara said, raising a brow.

"How so?" Askara replied, trying to sound casual, but the bead of sweat sliding down his cheek betrayed him. "I just, you know... Well, I’m sorry"

"Unbelievable," Kiara muttered, shaking her head before turning toward Mukhlis and Ayana. "I’m sorry for my brother. He can be a little... forgetful sometimes"

"No, it’s okay, Princess," Mukhlis said quickly, forcing a polite smile. "If it’s something secret, you don’t have to tell us anything"

"Well, it is a secret," Kiara admitted, her tone softening. "But since this matter involves everyone here, all the candidates in this Trial, and because Aska seems to trust you two, there’s no harm in letting you know"

She leaned back slightly, her fingers tracing idle patterns along the rim of her cup. The glow of ice-light flickered across her face as she began to speak.

"...Actually, there’s something more happening here besides the Trial," Kiara said quietly. "We learned about it from our eldest sister... and she asked us to investigate"

And with that, Kiara told them everything they needed to know, about the strange interference, the cult, and the growing danger behind the Trial.

When she finished, silence settled over the room.

"...That’s... that sounds dangerous," Mukhlis said at last, his voice low but sincere. "I never thought this simple trial could turn into someth-"

He froze mid-sentence.

Beside him, Ayana’s hand suddenly clutched his. Her fingers trembled, her eyes wide and unfocused.

"B-Brother..." she whispered.

"Ayana...?" Mukhlis turned toward her, his tone shifting from confusion to concern. He had seen this look before, too many times to mistake it for anything else. "Ayana, what did you see?"

Ayana didn’t answer. Her gaze drifted toward the grand doors of Kiara’s castle, though it was clear she wasn’t really looking at them. Her eyes seemed to pierce beyond the walls, beyond the snow-covered camp itself.

The others fell silent. Even Kiara, Anindha, and Litani, who didn’t know about Ayana’s ability, stopped moving. All eyes were fixed on her, waiting, listening.

"D-Dangerous..." she stammered, her voice breaking. "They... they’re approaching. Many of them. They’re coming here. We-we need to-"

"Ayana," Askara said softly, his calm voice cutting through her panic.

Her head turned toward him, eyes trembling.

"Breathe," he said. "Calm yourself first... and tell us what you saw. Who are they?"

"...Prince..." Ayana breathed out, taking a long, shaky inhale to steady herself. She closed her eyes briefly, grounding herself, then looked back at Askara.

"I see a horde of beasts," she said. "Many of them... moving fast, straight toward us"

"Oh~ night raid?" Litani said casually, as if Ayana’s warning were about a mild inconvenience. "I guess that’s how cults usually operate"

"I don’t want to move," Anggana muttered, sinking deeper into his chair.

"So the beasts’ abnormal behavior is the cult’s doing," Anindha mused, her eyes narrowing with thought. "That’s... interesting"

"...Aska?" Kiara asked, glancing at her brother, her tone half-question, half-command.

Askara exhaled through his nose and pushed back his chair, the legs scraping faintly against the icy floor. A faint grin tugged at his lips.

"Well," he said, rolling his shoulders. "Shall we go do some warm-up?"

The air in the room shifted instantly.

Litani’s grin widened. Kiara rose more gracefully, frost gathering at her fingertips. Anindha sighed, standing and fastening the clasps of her coat.

Anggana groaned. "...I hate warm-ups"

"You’ll hate dying more," Kiara replied dryly.

Mukhlis and Ayana watched as the D’Archy siblings began moving with quiet coordination, not a word of strategy exchanged, yet every motion synchronized as if they’d done this a thousand times before.

While on the outside, the faint tremor of distant roars echoed through the frozen wind.

....

...

..

.