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Chapter 318

The time when Leon left with the leader of the Watchers to hunt the Hydra.

Meryl stared at the large glass bottle before her in the guestroom where he had stayed.

The transparent liquid sloshing inside looked like plain water, but in truth, it was the only means of salvation for countless people of this territory.

That was why it had to be guarded carefully, so that no problem would arise.

Worry about the two who had gone to fight the Hydra?

Honestly, she wasn’t all that worried.

The leader of the Watchers, Isna Mielephon, possessed overwhelming strength even among the Watchers.

Age was meaningless to her.

Her very existence was a mass of karmic burden.

The Closed World.

The last one to survive there.

The one who held the most memories and the greatest power.

And Leon—didn’t he already melt the Hydra’s mature body with poison?

So there shouldn’t be any problem.

Knock, knock, knock.

At that moment, knocking came from outside the guestroom door.

With Leon away, the room was technically vacant.

Meryl activated an artifact to conceal her presence, then crawled under the bed to hide.

Click.

The door opened, and someone entered.

Who is it?

Holding her breath, Meryl fixed her eyes on the intruder.

The maids of this mansion never barged into guest rooms like this.

Then was it the mistress of the house, Lillia Berner?

No—the legs and feet she saw belonged to a man.

Unaware of Meryl’s presence, the intruder soon moved somewhere.

Straight to the table where the glass bottle sat.

“So this is the antidote.”

The moment she saw it, Meryl moved on instinct.

Bang!!

But in her haste, she hit her head on the bed frame.

“Argh!”

“……”

In the silent room, her face flushed red with embarrassment as she quickly crawled out.

A blunder like this—despite being a trained infiltrator.

“You are…”

“What do you intend to do with that?”

At last, she recognized the intruder.

The Marquis of Veolas’s bodyguard.

The Empire’s Sword Master, Kashiv.

Expressionless, he looked down at her, hand slowly moving toward the sword at his waist.

A Sword Master.

Someone she could never hope to deal with.

Clearly, he wasn’t here with good intentions.

She quickly guessed his purpose.

“You crazy bastards. You’re trying to steal the credit in this mess?”

“No. More accurately, we’re just turning what happened in this Berner territory into nothing.”

The antidote would be distributed.

But the Hydra’s existence, the powerful poison, the fact that the entire domain nearly perished—those would all be buried.

“And what do you gain from that?”

“Count Berner charged with deception—for requesting imperial emergency aid over nothing.”

“You think that even matters?”

“Perhaps not much. But to politicians, it will matter.”

In this way, Count Berner would lose trust.

“Where’s the harm? Did we massacre the people of this land? The results don’t change. Only the actors.”

“It’s not your achievement! You were the ones downplaying this!”

Meryl instantly drew her sword.

Slash!!!

But Kashiv was a Sword Master.

A true one.

To manifest aura was not what made a Sword Master—it was reaching the state of Sword Mastery that enabled aura itself.

Such a being was untouchable for her.

Proof, before she could even react, her arm was gashed deeply.

“……”

“Don’t resist.”

A simple contest of strength was futile.

But she hadn’t meant to fight him to the death anyway.

“Well, shouting will do you no good. Did you think I wouldn’t prepare for that?”

He held up an expensive artifact—one that blocked sound transmission.

So no one would hear her cries.

Sweating, Meryl gripped her sword tighter with her uninjured hand.

“If you do this, you don’t know what might happen.”

“That’s not for you to decide. Don’t resist.”

“And if I don’t resist—do you mean to let me live?”

He wouldn’t leave a witness.

“I’ll make it painless.”

“This is Count Berner’s land. Cause trouble, and do you think others won’t notice?”

“Apologies. But this will be blamed on a Moon Watcher raid. The Marquis himself will be said to have barely survived by luck.”

And as if by coincidence, he would still have managed to create medicine to treat the people.

That was how they meant to frame it.

“Filthy humans.”

Meryl’s mind raced.

She couldn’t escape with the bottle; he wouldn’t allow it.

She couldn’t abandon it either.

Only threats remained.

“When Lord Leon returns, neither you nor Marquis Veolas will be safe.”

“That boy? You think he has that kind of power?”

“You don’t know who he is?”

“Why should I?”

Indeed—Leon’s fame wasn’t yet widespread.

“That explains this nonsense. You people have no idea how serious this is!!”

“If it were serious, people would already be dead.”

“Idiots!”

Her body moved at once.

Even against a Sword Master—

She had been tasked by Leon to protect this antidote.

Leon Cascadia.

To the Moon Watchers, the one who shut the world for the Outer God’s side.

But here, a man who never hesitated to save lives.

‘He even saved Melissa and Arsha Cascadia, who helped break him. Maybe this time too…’

Within the Watchers, opinions were split.

Some wished to use Leon Cascadia’s strength against the Outer Gods.

Others wanted to eliminate him as a danger.

Meryl leaned toward the former.

No matter what means the Watchers were preparing, Leon’s overwhelming power might still be necessary.

Clang!!

Her sharp sword strikes were blocked by Kashiv.

But that wasn’t her goal.

She attacked desperately, as though resisting, while Kashiv pressed her back with casual swings.

When he closed in, she unleashed an ability she had once learned from Leon himself—a strange kind of magic.

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It used aura, mana, whatever fuel was available.

Fwoooosh!!!

Light burst from her body, engulfing the room.

Kashiv flinched, momentarily blinded.

Meryl seized the chance, clutching the large antidote bottle and leaping out the window.

Even if she were injured, as long as the bottle survived—

Squelch!!!

But her plan collapsed with a gruesome sound.

Crash!!

Falling from the third floor, she gasped blood, unable to even scream.

“What a petty trick.”

Behind the mansion, where no one was around, Kashiv tore into her body like a mad butcher, abandoning his usual clean swordsmanship.

“Kh—! Kkhh!!”

Bloodied, she still clung desperately to the bottle in her arms.

Here, someone might hear.

“P-please… help…”

Her faint, broken plea—

Footsteps approached.

Kashiv frowned, and thrust his blade.

Stab!!!

Her body was pierced.

A flood of sensation—though not pain.

Endorphins numbed it all.

‘Ah…’

Her body chilled, the life draining.

So this was death.

In the end, she failed.

I’m sorry, Leader.

Sorry, young master.

Her consciousness sank into darkness.

“You’re finished.”

Her eyes glazed over, her body limp.

As Kashiv reached for the antidote—he froze.

It had shattered.

The liquid spilled away.

His frantic thrusts had broken the bottle.

“…Troublesome.”

Clicking his tongue, he produced a mark and left it—a sign the Moon Watchers used after assassinations.

Later, chaos erupted in Count Berner’s land.

* * *

—Hisss! Hisss!!

Like a frightened kitten cornered against a wall, the young Hydra hissed desperately, fleeing from Serqet, the spirit of poison.

Even as a juvenile, its venom was deadly—it was a Hydra, after all.

But before Serqet, it trembled.

Perhaps because the spirit was born from the very poison that had once melted its mature form.

Serqet, aware of this, toyed with it like prey.

“…Come to think of it, your poison melted a Hydra before.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you summon that spirit based on your poison?”

What’s this?

“Normally, spirits aren’t contracted that way.”

Her casual words revealed a truth unknown to others.

“You can’t summon normal spirits, can you?”

Seriously, no privacy?

Ignoring her, I focused on the Hydra.

As I approached, it bared fangs—not hostility, but fear.

Serqet hissed again.

—Hisss! Hisss!!

The Hydra recoiled in terror, rolling against the wall in a panic.

“Seems like that corruption is the cause.”

The Hydra’s sudden frenzy earlier was likely driven by that fear.

But what corruption was it?

[Requesting permission to investigate that corruption.]

‘All of a sudden?’

[It is ominous. Based on the data, it should not exist in this world.]

Not in this world?

From another dimension?

[Highly possible. But if a rift had opened, I would have sensed it.]

So—extradimensional, but undetectable?

[Exactly.]

“I can’t allow that. As long as it keeps releasing poison, it has to die.”

[If a threat can make it retract the poison, then perhaps we can study the corruption.]

The Librarian’s uncharacteristic urgency made me nod.

But how to convince the Hydra?

Just smack it?

While I hesitated, Serqet squeaked, sensing my thought.

Then it pressured the Hydra.

To my surprise, the Hydra shivered and sucked its poison back in.

“You… can actually talk to it?”

—Squeak!

Right, it’s a spirit.

It communicates by intent.

“The Hydra has withdrawn its venom. We’ll keep it alive for study.”

“…Meryl. Are you listening?”

The leader activated her communication artifact.

“Would that even work here underground?”

“It’s special. Meryl, respond.”

……

No reply.

Then—

—Ssshhk. Um… who is this?

A voice we didn’t know.

—It seems you know the owner of this device… but unfortunately, she is now…

The sound that followed silenced us both.

And then we moved without hesitation.

“Serqet, stay here. Wait for my signal—kill it if needed.”

—Squeak.

Grumbling, Serqet brightened when I gave it honey from subspace.

“Deal?”

—Squeak!

It snatched the treat, waving happily. I prepared teleportation with the leader.

We arrived at the county.

And there, in the morgue, we saw her.

The woman’s body, still warm, eyes closed in death.

“Ah, Lord Leon. This woman broke through your chamber window and fell… but may I ask who that masked one is?”

“She’s with me. Ignore her. Tell me what happened.”

“The Moon Watchers. They attacked Count Berner’s land. Do you know her?”

“…Yes.”

“My condolences. She passed only shortly ago. By the time we reached her, she was gone…”

The leader froze at the sight.

Expressionless, I approached.

In her arms lay shards of the broken antidote bottle.

I muttered coldly.

“…Which bastard did this?”

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