Before Dawn……
Okam Empire Imperial Capital—Monsell, beside a wooded area off the Abbeyo Main Road side street.
The thunder of hooves echoed, shadows flitted about, and the alternating glow of illumination magic and torches dispersed most of the darkness before dawn.
“Have you found him yet?”
“No!”
“Keep searching! That guy is hiding somewhere nearby! Don’t leave a single corner unchecked!”
“Yes, sir!”
Mixed within the City Defense Army were members of the Church of Judicature, all scouring the area relentlessly.
What they didn’t realize was that a man was trembling as he hid inside a small hole in the ground.
A moss-covered stone blocked the entrance, with a narrow gap covered by grass and leaves left open for air.
The man curled up inside, covering his mouth and nose, too afraid to breathe deeply.
In just a few minutes, over a dozen people passed beside that stone; one grew impatient and kicked at it, stomping on the grass around it.
The fear of being discovered sent every fiber of his body into a frenzy of trembling, and each narrow escape caused cold sweat to pour down him like a rising tide.
“Damn it, that bastard sure knows how to run… If only we’d gotten the message earlier, maybe we could’ve blocked him before he fled the Western City Gate.”
A soldier from the City Defense Army grumbled, while a member of the Church of Judicature standing nearby frowned deeply.
“Save your breath and stop complaining. What good would that do, brother?”
The Church man said.
“You guys in the City Defense Army are just assisting, but we in the Church of Judicature have the higher-ups and even His Majesty the Emperor watching us.”
“If we don’t catch the criminal or find any leads, when the higher-ups start pointing fingers, it’s us low-level lackeys who’ll take the blame… so stop whining here.”
Hearing this, the soldier sighed, then gestured for the Church man to sit down.
Their large backs pressed against the mossy stone above, the flickering light from torches and illumination magic filtering through the grass gaps like chains shackling the devil beneath.
The man trembling inside the hole held himself still, not daring to make any noise.
He forced himself to control his body and prayed silently for them to leave soon.
“I heard you’re here to catch the thief who attacked Her Highness the Second Princess?”
“Yeah, otherwise why all the fuss?”
“But the Second Princess has a bad reputation, right? Is she really worth all this effort?”
“Bad reputation? Well, not really. The Second Princess usually has no conflicts with our Church of Judicature people… though that’s just hearsay.”
“Even if she’s a she-devil, she is still an Imperial Princess. Being attacked means the culprit and anyone involved must be severely punished.”
“That’s true… Damn it, half an hour ago I saw him riding a horse this way, how did he vanish just like that?”
“Don’t worry, he can’t run far. According to our investigation, he’s just a thief skilled in disguise—no mage or swordsman skills. He won’t get far…”
The two whispered back and forth, each second a torment of life and death for the man hiding in the hole.
Fortunately, they soon got up and left to continue their search elsewhere.
As dawn’s light crept over the horizon, the hundred or so searchers had found nothing and retreated in frustration.
“I almost tore up this entire patch of land, how the hell did that bastard disappear?”
Cursing, the lead commander took his men and gradually disappeared into the distance.
Squatting in the hole, his legs numb, the man still dared not move rashly.
Only when a shaft of dawn light broke through the skyline and the City Defense Army did not return did he dare to push the stone above with effort and crawl out.
“I’m… saved…”
Taking several deep breaths, he knew it was still not safe here and hurriedly fled into the nearby woods.
The forest bore the scars of the City Defense Army and Church of Judicature’s rampage.
Many weeds and thickets had been burned, and some tall trees that could provide cover were cut down—checked to see if anything was clinging to their crowns.
Anywhere he passed, not even mosquitoes could escape.
Luckily, the hole he had prepared was right beside the side street, very conspicuous but blending in with the surrounding stones and grass, not hidden in the woods.
Precisely because it was so visible by the roadside, no one thought he would be hiding beneath it.
In fact, he had guessed right—despite several passes, no one had found him.
“I have to get out of Monsell quickly!”
Originally, after impersonating a Meikle Family messenger and delivering that fake letter, he should have left immediately.
But he was confident no one would suspect a small-time common thief like him.
Mostly because he was so inconspicuous—just one among the countless people in Monsell, not even on the Church of Judicature’s Imperial Record of Crimes.
Hardly anyone knew of his identity as a thief.
That was only one reason.
Two others were that the Glorious Restoration Church had just been established and was still in its infancy.
The organization was desperate for talent and urgently needed him to stay in Monsell to gather information and act as a liaison.
Most importantly, he had a father in his forties to care for.
But now…
“Damn it, damn it, damn it!”
At the thought, overwhelming sorrow surged in Bakel’s heart.
He feared that by now, his father had already been captured by the Church of Judicature.
What had gone wrong?
For a moment, Bakel was at a loss.
If he hadn’t been in the nearby merchant street yesterday gathering news and happened to see an undercover Church of Judicature member rushing over with a group, Bakel might also have been caught by now.
He fled.
Abandoning home and everything, he ran.
There was no time to return home and take care of his father—he had escaped in a panic.
He had heard of the Principal Justice and had seen him from afar before.
As an ordinary thief, he wouldn’t need to know the Empire’s bigwigs and officials.
But as a new member of the Glorious Restoration Church, he had to understand the Empire’s influential figures and those who might provide vital information.
The Principal Justice named Normankev was precisely the person Bakel had recently scoped out from afar.
As a Church member, he not only needed to hide in the Empire’s shadows but would also often have to “deal with” the Church of Judicature, so he must know his enemies well.
Unexpectedly, that knowledge saved his life.
“Forgive me, Father!”
Bakel knelt toward his home’s direction, tears streaming down as he kowtowed several times, then without looking back, dashed into another part of the woods.
Monsell was surely dangerous now; he could not return.
His only choice was to head for a secret Glorious Restoration Church base on the outskirts of Monsell, to seek help…
Or to plan his next move.
What he did not notice was a figure quietly following him from behind.