The shadow of war was drawing closer and closer.
Once City Hall officially issued its wartime notice, all civilians received formal word that the enemy they would be facing this time was the Green Dragon Army, led by the Green Dragon Queen.
Even though many people had already guessed ahead of time that something major was happening, the moment the news was confirmed, it still caused a wave of unrest.
Fortunately, both City Hall and the Adventurers' Guild had prepared for that long in advance, and any discordant voices were suppressed with swift efficiency.
Inside taverns and restaurants, bards were once again telling that old, worn-out story from more than a hundred years ago—how the Hero slew the Demon King, and how the human armies drove the demonic hordes back beyond the southern frontier.
"Are we going to win?"
"Relax. I heard the Adventurers' Guild higher-ups have been tracking the monster army's every move for ages. The big shots already have a response prepared."
"And besides, it's only the Green Dragon Queen starting this war, not the Demon King. No matter how strong she is, she can't possibly compare to the full might of Carlos."
Some civilians in the taverns were full of worry, anxious about how the situation might develop. Others were far more optimistic. If the sky fell, the taller people would be the ones holding it up. Surely it wouldn't come down to ordinary civilians like them to worry about the enemy.
Still, that could not really be called ostrich mentality. Even if they wanted to do something for the Forest Capital, there was not much they actually could do. If so, then instead of trembling in fear, they might as well just live their lives as best they could.
Strictly speaking, there was still some time left before the war formally broke out. Right now, both sides were still in the mobilization phase.
A large-scale war was not something either the humans or the monster army could finish preparing for in just a day or two.
That very morning, Gauss had already returned from Adventurers' Guild Headquarters and met with Guild Master Matthias Monroe once more.
This time, though, it was different.
He had received word from the Guild Master that he could set out now.
Gauss could not wait until the war actually began before moving. By then, it would be too late.
There was still a fair distance from Barry to the Jade Forest, and once inside the forest, movement would require even greater caution. All of that took time.
He needed to head south in advance and wait for the right moment.
"Silent Cage."
He touched the silver ring wrapped around his right middle finger like a winding branch.
This was the item Guild Master Monroe had said the Adventurers' Guild would lend him.
It looked small and unremarkable, but it was actually a type of artifact Gauss had never encountered before—a gold-grade one, no less.
Its effect was to create a large invisible barrier, sealing off the area and cutting off all forms of information transmission.
According to Monroe, it would last for about ten minutes.
Anything that happened inside the barrier would be extremely difficult for the outside world to detect, and any living thing trapped within it would also have a hard time escaping during that time. Unless someone could break through it with force beyond the barrier's tolerance, they would be trapped inside the zone just like the artifact's owner.
This kind of artifact was considered a standardized type, just one made to exceptionally high specifications and extremely difficult to create.
After being used once, it had to be returned to a terminal for recharging.
The Adventurers' Guild often used items from this series in covert operations, because they drastically reduced the chance of information leakage.
Now, that artifact had been temporarily lent to Gauss.
As for why they had not lent him some artifact with a different use, one reason was that gold-grade items were not exactly cabbages, even for a city-level Adventurers' Guild. The other was to minimize the risk of exposure. The defining trait of the Silent series was secrecy—masterworks crafted by the Empire's alchemists.
Before he officially set out, Monroe had already gone over many precautions with him.
For example, the closer he got to the Jade Forest, the more low-profile he had to be. He needed to avoid doing anything that might expose him.
When traveling, it was best to ride an ordinary mount or simply go on foot. Teleportation magic, though convenient, was far too conspicuous. It was only suitable for repositioning after concealment had already failed.
Monroe had also given him a scout's handbook.
It summarized many lessons learned from Adventurers' Guild scouts over the years. The guild had never once stopped scouting the Jade Forest; otherwise, they never would have picked up on the Green Dragon Army's movements the moment they began.
On the way back, Gauss had already read through the handbook from beginning to end, relying on his perfect memory.
There really was a great deal of highly useful information in it.
For example, it listed the locations of medium and large monster tribes within the Jade Forest. Of course, now that the Green Dragon Army had already begun marching, the old intelligence could not be applied wholesale—but the locations of their original settlements still allowed him to roughly infer likely marching routes.
Beyond that, the handbook also recorded the positions of safehouses and similar resources.
As scouts who operated deep in enemy territory, their frontal combat ability—and even their class levels—were not necessarily high. But their survival skills, stealth, reconnaissance methods, disguise techniques, and contingency planning far surpassed those of most adventurers.
After all, if they made a mistake, they would not get a second chance to fix it.
After finishing the manual, Gauss felt that his understanding of the Jade Forest had grown deeper.
Still, no matter how much intelligence he had, once he officially entered the forest, he would still need to adapt to the situation as it developed.
When he returned to the residence, Alia and the others were already waiting for him.
"When are you leaving?"
"Probably this afternoon."
Gauss had no intention of delaying.
His luggage and supplies had long since been prepared. His spells were as practiced as they were going to get. In a sense, he had already been waiting for Monroe's signal all this time.
And truthfully, Gauss himself wanted to leave sooner rather than later.
The sooner he left, the more preparation time he had—and the sooner he could come back.
Even if this attempt to assassinate those young dragons failed, a full-scale war with the Green Dragon Army would still be waiting for him once he returned.
"After I leave, Alia and Luna will jointly handle the Red Dragon Company's affairs. Alia, you'll command the Gauss squad and Torga's squad. The rest will be under Luna's command. Ivan will oversee logistics."
Alia and Luna exchanged a glance, then both nodded.
The others did not object either.
Alia was closer to the members of Gauss's own squad and the dwarf squad, while Luna, as the former Deputy Captain of the Fang of the Gray Wolf and a Level 9 warlock, had enough standing to direct the other ordinary members of the company.
"Just focus on your own roles. If everything goes smoothly, I should be back within ten days."
Gauss deliberately left that estimate a little loose and did not make it sound too absolute.
There were too many possible variables on the road ahead. Even he had to proceed with caution.
"All right. Gauss, be careful."
"Your safety comes first."
"Don't worry."
Gauss nodded.
If things became impossible, then preserving his own life would be his top priority.
Time passed quickly, and before he knew it, it was time to leave.
Very few people knew Gauss was about to depart. These past few days, he had rarely shown himself in front of the company members, and there was even less chance he would expose his movements right before leaving.
So the only ones seeing him off were the core members once again.
"That's enough. You should head back."
"Things are already chaotic enough right now. If the others can't find you, they'll start overthinking it."
Gauss stopped them from following any farther.
He was carrying almost no luggage at all. His dried rations and other tools were tucked away in a small storage bag.
Even his clothes were deliberately plain: a somewhat dirty set of linen clothes.
Once he left the city through the hidden gate, he would use Disguise to completely alter his appearance, turning himself into the image of a completely ordinary middle-aged hunter.
Without looking back, Gauss waved a hand behind him, then pulled open the hidden gate. Under the bows of the covert guards stationed there, he passed through the dark tunnel and left the Forest Capital behind.
Once outside the Forest Capital, even the air seemed to turn colder.
Massive banks of dark clouds churned overhead.
Gauss's body rapidly shifted. In the blink of an eye, his tall frame shrank down to a little over five feet tall.
His appearance became that of a middle-aged hunter with rough skin and hair just starting to turn gray. Over his linen clothes now hung a patched-up leather jerkin.
The effect of a Level 5 Disguise spell was that powerful.
Its magic did not merely alter appearance and body shape. Even something as intangible as one's aura was completely overturned. On top of that, it carried a subtle mental suggestion effect—anyone who looked at him would instinctively fill in the blanks and accept him as exactly what he appeared to be.
Even if there were small flaws in his appearance or behavior, the observer's mind would smooth them over automatically.
So at this point, even if his old teammates stood right in front of him, they would never recognize him.
"Time to move."
Gauss lifted his eyes toward the deep green line on the horizon, then calmly set off.
The wagon wheels rattled over the dirt road in a dull, steady rhythm.
A silent middle-aged hunter sat on a flatbed cart beside several laborers.
Everyone looked grave, and none of them seemed interested in talking.
But where the others could not see, the hunter's eyes were constantly taking in the road and everything around the caravan from the corner of his vision.
That hunter was, of course, Gauss under Disguise. He had run into a kind steward on the road, one willing to give him—a hunter supposedly heading south to fetch his family back in his home village—a ride.
As for why these wagons themselves were heading south now, they were on their way to pick people up.
Long before word of war began to circulate inside Barry itself, the villages and scattered settlements around the city had already started evacuating.
Gauss looked out at the fields on both sides of the road. The summer wheat was lush and green, rolling like waves in the wind.
In any normal year, such vigorous growth would have been the most heartening sight imaginable to a farmer.
But now, not a single worker could be seen in the fields.
Only crows sat on the edges of the furrows before suddenly flapping away in alarm.
They rounded another bend.
The village ahead came into view.
At first there were just scattered individuals on the road, then larger groups in clusters.
Some pushed wheelbarrows piled high with bedding, pots, bowls, sacks of grain. Children sat on top while men and women bent forward, straining to pull. Others walked barefoot with baskets on their backs. Better-off families had donkeys or ox carts hauling their belongings.
Most of their faces were filled with confusion.
For villagers who had lived in these places for generations, scratching out a living from the earth, leaving home behind was something they were deeply unwilling to do.
But no matter how unwilling they were, when death loomed near, they had no choice.
A small number chose to stay in their homes, or to carry supplies into the woods and hide there instead.
As for those people, the officials sent out by City Hall did not try to force them to stop. You could not save people who were determined to die. Their duty was only to deliver the warning to these wilderness villagers. What they chose afterward was their own affair.
Once war actually broke out, this wide plain would become the main battlefield where humans and monsters slaughtered each other. When that happened, hiding in dense forest or a cellar would still not be enough to survive.
Still, most people chose to evacuate obediently.
Unlike city civilians, villagers from the wilds understood firsthand how dangerous monsters were. Some of their young men had even fought them before and paid for it in blood.
If the beast-like monsters scattered through the wilds were already that dangerous, then what would it mean when monsters came as an army?
And even after making the "right choice," the giant machine of war had already left deep ruts across the lives of ordinary people before it had even begun to move in full.
How many belongings could they carry? Their wheat stood on the verge of harvest, their homes had sheltered multiple generations, their furniture and tools had all been left behind. Like ants whose nest had been overturned, they flowed onward in confusion, heading toward a place they did not even know was truly safe.
You could say that whatever fragile future these villagers once had had already been strangled in advance by this war.
Some would die of exhaustion on the road. Others might finally reach some unfamiliar settlement only to become refugees, crushed under the weight of housing, food, work, and survival, long before the shadow of war above them was even accounted for.
Gauss let out a sigh, his feelings complicated, and in that moment understood even more deeply just how terrifying this war really was.
In truth, everyone was tied to the same fate.
In a war between factions like this, everyone bore pressure in different ways. Some were about to lose what they already had, while far more people were having their future extinguished before it even arrived.
Gauss pulled his gaze away from the refugees.
He had something more important to do.
After reaching the village, he thanked the kind steward, then continued south alone with a cloth bundle over his shoulder.
The farther south he went, the more refugees he saw on the road.
But Gauss remained only an observer, silently watching it all.
Once he passed a certain point, the villages and settlements in the wilderness suddenly vanished.
In the distance, a dark green forest came into view.
It was a forest that had once been familiar to him, but now it radiated a strange and alien pressure, as if some terrifying beast hung over it in the sky, writhing beneath the storm clouds.
Gauss did not linger on the sight.
Before entering the forest, he had already used Disguise again, transforming himself into a goblin with a rag wrapped around his waist.
He was so familiar with goblins that the new form was completely flawless.
Using the reflection in a puddle, Gauss looked at the ugly, brutish face staring back at him, then bared his teeth in a grin.
Not far away, several dark green goblins carrying wooden spears stepped out from behind the trees. Seeing Gauss all alone, the leader hissed a few sharp, ugly sounds in his direction.
Thanks to Comprehend Languages, Gauss understood what it meant.
The goblin was trying to recruit him.
Even after shrinking himself into goblin form, Gauss still looked sturdier and stronger than most of the goblins at the bottom of the hierarchy.
He withdrew his gaze, ignored the few wild goblins entirely, stepped over the puddle, and strode deeper into the forest.
Only after he had gone far enough away did the goblins dare bark a few angry noises at his back, as though venting their frustration at being ignored.
What they instinctively failed to notice was this:
despite having an overwhelming advantage in numbers, they—creatures who normally delighted in bullying the weak—had not felt even the slightest urge to make a move against him.
~~~
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