[Alesio PoV]
After securing the food supplies that could still be saved, Adrien ordered the Reconnaissance Unit he brought to immediately search for the other residents who had fled Alto Village. He believed that those who escaped could not have gone far from here.
I agreed.
For that reason, he asked me to lead one of the Reconnaissance Units, escorted by 20 Knights in case we encountered an enemy Reconnaissance Unit.
During my time as a Scouter in the Intelligence unit, I was trained to track someone by observing the surroundings. For example, right now, I was examining the formation of the earth, which looked as though many people had recently passed over it.
Although it appeared their footprints had been erased in an attempt to avoid being followed, it was clear this was done in a hurry; the cover-up was imperfect, and I could still read the signs.
"Mr. Alesio, have you found the direction they went?" asked one of the Knights from the Draconia Kingdom.
"Based on my observations, they are about four to five kilometers to our west," I answered him. "We must hurry and catch them; those citizens are surely being escorted by an enemy Reconnaissance Unit. One of us must return and deliver this information to Mr. Adrien while we pursue them."
"Very well, we will do as you say, Mr. Alesio."
One person from the Reconnaissance unit we were escorting then returned to Alto Village to report our findings. The rest resumed the search for the fleeing villagers.
After moving for several minutes to continue the search, suddenly a horse's hoofprint was seen on the ground, heading in the opposite direction of the villagers' tracks.
I halted all the troops here and stopped for a moment.
"What is it, Mr. Alesio? Why are we stopping?" asked one of the Knights I led.
"There is a fresh track of a single horse rider heading west," I answered him.
Judging by the freshness of the tracks on the ground, he had moved no more than five minutes ago. Why did they allow one person to split off in a different direction?
Was it a trap? Was he trying to send a specific message to their other forces, or...
After thinking of several possibilities, I approached the Captain leading the Reconnaissance unit.
"Captain, I and 20 Knights will follow the other hoofprints," I said to him. "You and the unit you lead follow the tracks of the group of Alto Village residents who fled. I will rejoin you within ten minutes."
Hearing my direction, he nodded.
I then took ten Knights to follow this suspicious lone rider. My gut feeling was that he intended to report to another Reconnaissance Unit nearby to ask for help because he had spotted us earlier.
The sun began to sink toward the horizon; night would arrive soon, and the day was growing darker. We had to quickly catch that person before the sunlight vanished if we didn't want our search to become even more difficult.
Not long after we followed the hoofprints we found, we arrived at a large cornfield that had not been burned at all and was still intact. A horse was also seen abandoned in front of the cornfield.
My heart beat faster; it was certain that the person we were following had entered this cornfield.
"What do we do next, Mr. Alesio?" asked one of the Knights following me.
There were two possibilities for why that man went into this cornfield.
First, he intended to burn it so our army could not consume the resources around this region, just as they did in Alto Village.
Second, it was a trap where the enemy would ambush us upon entering the cornfield.
However, the second possibility was slightly improbable because that person would not have had time to meet other patrol forces; if he had, we surely would have seen those forces before reaching this place.
"We will enter this cornfield to search for that rider," I answered the Knight who asked earlier. "Most likely, he came here to burn this field so our army starves because there are no food sources left in this region."
After hearing my command, the twenty Knights I brought began to enter the cornfield to search for the rider. We spread out with a distance of twenty to thirty meters so we could comb this area quickly.
The height of these corn plants limited our vision.
— Krook! Krook! Krook!
The sound of a crow flying over the area was heard.
For some reason, I had a premonition that we shouldn't be in a place like this right now. The sky grew darker, and only a little sunlight remained, making it harder for me to inspect the place.
"Arrrghh—"
Suddenly, a muffled scream was heard from the left, causing me to increase my alertness.
"What happened!?" I shouted and rushed toward the sound of the scream.
Upon arriving there, four knights were gathering not far from the body of their comrade lying on the ground, covered in blood. It seemed he was the one who screamed earlier, but something had killed him first.
"What happened?" I asked the four knights.
One of them knelt down and checked the state of their dead comrade's corpse.
"A slash to the neck..." the knight muttered. "Likely a surprise attack from the front."
Before long, five other knights arrived with curious faces. However, their expressions changed when they saw the lifeless body of their comrade soaked in blood.
"Mr. Alesio, I don't think this man came here to burn this field or to call for help," the Knight said. "Instead, he came here to hunt us down one by one."
— Badum!
My heart throbbed faster upon hearing those words.
Him? All alone, hunting these knights? Wasn't he just a member of a Reconnaissance Unit? It was impossible for him to defeat all the trained knights present here!
"We must kill him here; divide into ten teams of two people each," the Knight said.
All the Knights then resumed the sweep, with each team consisting of two people so they could watch over each other.
I was accompanied by one Knight, positioned in the very center. However, even though we had been searching for that person in this cornfield for a while, his face had not appeared at all.
Where exactly was he hiding?
Currently, I was searching for the mysterious person hiding in this field along with one knight. We kept an eye on opposite areas, guarding each other's blind spots so as not to be attacked suddenly by the enemy.
However, after a few moments, my vision suddenly caught a shadow moving quickly without making any sound at all among the tall corn plants around us.
Was the one near us now the person who killed the Knight earlier?
I increased my focus and all the senses I possessed so that I could detect his presence more clearly.
— Krook! Krook! Krook!
The sound of the crow was heard again, and for some reason, my hair suddenly stood on end. Turning my body, I saw a figure of a man dressed all in black with black hair standing among the corn plants while holding a sword.
"Enemy sigh—"
When I was about to warn the knight near me, suddenly the figure of the man dashed quickly past my body.
Turning my body quickly, I saw the man had successfully stabbed the neck of the knight walking with me and covered his mouth so the victim wouldn't scream and make a loud noise.
I immediately drew my sword and moved to attack him. However, as the man turned and released the knight's body to fall to the ground, my movements suddenly stopped.
We stared at each other.
His black gaze was like a darkness about to swallow me if I moved any of my limbs.
Sweat began to pour, my heart beat faster, and even my hands began to tremble.
Is this what it feels like to face death?
However, while I was blinking, the man suddenly vanished from my sight. Looking around, I did not feel his presence at all in the vicinity.
Where did he go?
I walked slowly while still strengthening my focus on the surroundings.
— Swooshh...
A sound like someone running around the area where I was could be heard. But my eyes could not find the figure of the man in this area full of tall corn plants.
Turning around, I retreated slowly, stepping on several plants in the field.
"..."
My back touched something; I turned in a panic and prepared to slash the sword I held in my right hand.
However, the thing that touched my back just now was only a straw scarecrow used to ward off birds in this area.
Damn it! This creepy doll almost made my heart stop!
I tried to calm myself down to stabilize my irregular breathing caused by this tension.
"Aarrrghhh!"
"H-he's here! Helppp!"
Two more screams were heard.
So far, it seemed he had taken down five knights.
"Hey! We must gather! It seems this man is quite tough!"
I heard another shout.
Correct, we must gather. Just two people wouldn't be enough to prevent this man from hunting us all!
Moving my legs as fast as I could, I rushed toward where the screams were heard. I didn't even care if that figure suddenly appeared in front of me.
All I was thinking about now was gathering with the others as quickly as possible.
"Hufftt... Hufftt... Hufftt..."
My breath began to grow heavy again because of the mental pressure applied by that man. What the previous knight said was true: we were not the ones hunting him, but we were the ones being hunted by him.
I shouldn't have decided to follow him here.
— Tang! Tang! Tang!
The sound of clashing swords was heard from ahead. It seemed that man was fighting one of the surviving knights.
I will arrive shortly.
After running for a few moments, I finally reached a fairly open place. However, there was no one fighting here. There were only the corpses of six knights lying in pools of blood on the ground.
They were all finished by him...
"Who exactly is this person...?" I muttered.
It was impossible for a Reconnaissance Unit member to defeat highly trained knights with their magic and martial arts techniques!
— Bomb!
Suddenly, I heard an explosion from another direction.
A puff of smoke then appeared, and fire began to burn this cornfield.
"Are those knights using fire magic to fight him!?"
I didn't know; what was certain was that I had to get out of this place immediately.
Resuming my run, my body began to feel the heat from the growing fire burning this cornfield. A sound of footsteps was heard to my left.
I turned my head; four other knights were also seen running to quickly exit this place.
"Mr. Alesio! Where did everyone go!?" asked one of those knights.
It seemed they were the only ones left of the twenty knights I brought here. It seemed that man's goal in fighting in this place was so that we couldn't utilize the numerical advantage we possessed.
"I don't know! But we must get out of this place if we don't want to be roasted alive!" I shouted to him.
Soon we would be out of this place; I could see our horses about three hundred meters far ahead. However, just as I thought that, my hair suddenly stood on end, just as it did when that figure was near me.
Looking back, I could feel something chasing us.
"What is it, Mr. Alesio? Why do you keep looking ba—"
Before he could finish his words, the head of the knight beside me was severed, causing his body to slump to the ground.
"Wh-who are you!?"
"Quick, attack him!"
The remaining three knights tried to attack him, but I did not stop my pace and continued running to escape from him.
"Arrrghhh! My hand! My hand is severed!"
"Damn! He can use Asphalt magic!"
Someone's scream was heard from behind; it seemed he had managed to take down one of them.
Only a hundred meters left...
My breath was very heavy and my chest felt painful from running non-stop in this place.
When I was about to exit this place, suddenly my foot tripped over a large stone on the ground, causing me to slump to the earth.
"Ughhh... Because the day is getting darker, my vision is becoming limited."
When I was about to get back up, I saw the figure of that black-haired man standing near the three corpses of the knights he had previously fought. His left hand held a head from one of the knights he had just finished.
His sharp gaze, like that of a cold-blooded killer, made me shiver with fear.
This was the first time I had felt such horror from a human being.
Exiting the burning cornfield, I rushed to ride a horse to leave this place and report what just happened to Mr. Adrien.
"This world is full of terrifying people like him..."
My body was still shivering remembering the gaze he gave me earlier. Even when I arrived at Gela Village, where the Draconia Kingdom forces were, I still couldn't sleep because of remembering what happened in that cornfield.