The ruins of the Windmill Mill were still blazing fiercely. The towering flames cast a red glow across the surrounding wheat fields. The air was thick with the pungent smell of burnt wood and heavy smoke.
In a relatively intact patch of wheat field a few dozen meters from the ruins, the mage in tattered black robes sat cross-legged on a rock, his face pale and livid.
His right hand channeled a faint healing magic, trying to suppress the internal organ trauma from the explosion. Each breath was accompanied by a dull ache.
Not far in front of him, Graves lay sprawled on the muddy ground in a starfish position, still gripping the scorching magic gun tightly, gasping for breath like a dehydrated dead fish.
That all-out magic crystal heavy cannon shot had nearly drained all the magic power and stamina from his body.
As for the bound female night owl informant, she had been knocked flying by the blast wave and was now covered in dust, but she was still tightly bound with thick ropes, wriggling on the ground like a caterpillar.
The black robe mage’s cold gaze swept back and forth between the two, his voice dripping with gnashing hatred.
“Do you have anything to say now, Graves?”
“You don’t even care about the organization’s ten years of nurturing, and you even want to take out all of us old comrades? Your heart is truly vicious.”
“I didn’t betray the organization! I… I have my damn reasons!”
Graves lay on the ground, defending himself tearfully.
“I’m completely spent, I can’t even move a finger.”
“Yegui, think about it! A dignified Third-tier Shadow Gunner of the Night Owls, with willpower harder than steel, would be forcibly controlled to unleash his strongest killing move?! I couldn’t control my body or magic power at all just now!”
“Even if you’re making up an excuse, at least use your brain!”
The black robe mage laughed out of extreme anger.
“Do you take me for a three-year-old? Control you?!”
“I’m telling the truth! Ask that bitch if you don’t believe me!”
Graves pointed at the bound woman on the ground.
“She saw it too—when I fired, I had no intention of killing you!”
“Oh my, Senior Graves, you really are a great actor.”
The bound woman’s eyes shifted, and she immediately seized the opportunity to kick him while he was down, stirring the pot wildly.
A cold sneer appeared on her dust-covered face, full of schadenfreude.
“Third Master, don’t believe his lies! He was bought off long ago. He deliberately brought me away from the mill just now, and then under the pretext of shooting, he wanted to kill us all together.”
“He’s a despicable man who forgets loyalty for profit! Not only did he betray the organization, he also sold my information to the holy see!”
“He dragged me out just now to signal the woman hiding in the woods, so he could wipe you all out!”
“Bullshit! You filthy-mouthed bitch!”
Graves cursed furiously. If he had any strength left, he would have smashed her mouth with the butt of his gun.
“If it weren’t for you, would I be in this mess?!”
“Oh dear, I told you I’m a law-abiding, concerned citizen. The church knights found you on their own. What does that have to do with me?”
Not only did the woman not admit it, she even shot Graves a very provocative wink.
“I’ll kill you!”
“Come on, come on. You can’t even stand up now, can you?”
“ALL OF YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!!!”
The black robe mage’s head was buzzing from the two arguing, and the pain in his internal organs intensified.
He swung his wand violently, and a faint but highly warning ice cone smashed into the muddy ground between the two with a crack.
“If you keep arguing, I’ll tear your tongues out right now!”
The black robe mage glared at them fiercely.
“My ears are getting calluses! Whether it’s betrayal or being controlled, when Big Boss returns, he’ll have ways to make you spill the truth!”
“Now, all of you stay quiet! Once Big Boss deals with that rat in the woods, you’ll soon know the price of betraying the Night Owls!”
Frightened by the ice cone, the two finally quieted down.
In the wheat field, only the crackling of the burning mill remained.
The black robe mage sat back down on the rock. While regulating his breathing, he turned to look at the distant, dark, and silent small woods.
“Big Boss and Second Boss have been in there for so long, why isn’t there any movement?”
The black robe mage frowned slightly, a trace of unease rising in his heart.
But soon, that unease was suppressed by his blind confidence in Big Boss.
“Even if that rat in the woods has some skill, there’s no way she can be a match for Big Boss and Second Boss working together.”
The black robe mage speculated to himself.
“Probably the woman is good-looking, and Big Boss’s perverted killing fetish is acting up again. He’s slowly torturing her in the woods. What a waste of time…”
Even as the black robe mage started thinking about how to torture Graves on the ground later—
Suddenly, a command surged into Graves’s mind.
[Graves, immediately close in and attack, use the stone gargoyle to distract the black robe mage.]
‘Holy shit! Again?!’
Graves, lying on the ground pretending to be dead, didn’t even have time to finish cursing inwardly before the power of the contract instantly took over his exhausted body.
Whoosh!
Graves sprang up from the muddy ground.
His eyes were bloodshot. Dragging his lead-heavy body, he charged madly straight at the black robe mage over a dozen meters away, a desperate charge!
“Huh?!”
The black robe mage was greatly shocked.
He never expected that this weakling who had clearly overdrawn his magic power and couldn’t even stand steadily could still burst out with such speed!
“An ungrateful traitor still wants to resist?!”
The black robe mage roared, raising his wand to end the traitor’s life once and for all.
However, just as he raised his wand—
“Roar—!!!”
From the shadow beneath Graves’s feet, a deafening roar suddenly erupted!
A stone gargoyle burst out from the shadow and slammed directly into the black robe mage, who hadn’t had time to chant his spell!
“Stone gargoyle?!”
The black robe mage, still in shock, had his spell interrupted and could only roll clumsily to the side, dodging the stone gargoyle’s frontal charge.
The black robe mage had just stood up from the mud and was about to curse and gather magic power for a counterattack.
Suddenly.
From the shadow of the waist-high wheat stalks beside him, which had been completely normal, a jet-black slender figure emerged without any warning.
Like a drop of ink falling into clear water, it was extremely natural, without causing even a ripple of magic power.
The black robe mage’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.
He didn’t even have time to turn his head to see the newcomer’s face.
Swish!
A deadly cold light, shining a deep blue, traced an extremely graceful yet bone-chilling arc through the night.
The dagger, coated with high-intensity magic power, slid smoothly across the black robe mage’s fragile throat like cutting through soft butter.
Spurt!
Blood sprayed out like a fountain, splattering onto the withered wheat stalks, emitting a sickeningly sweet, coppery smell.
The black robe mage’s eyes, filled with terror and disbelief, stared fixedly ahead.
He desperately clutched his spurting neck with both hands, making a gurgling sound in his throat, then collapsed weakly onto his knees in the mud. After a few convulsions, he became completely still.
A clean kill without any hesitation.
Thud.
On the other side, Graves, who had forcibly overdrawn his potential to summon the stone gargoyle, finally exhausted his last ounce of strength and fell heavily onto the ground like a pile of mud, unable to move even a finger.
The dust settled.
Under the glow of the fire, Ailiya stood quietly beside the black robe mage’s corpse.
The dagger in her hand was not stained with a drop of blood, still gleaming with a cold blue light.
With a calm expression, she sheathed the dagger at her waist. She looked down at her cloak, which was stained with a little mud, and frowned slightly.
Then, she extended her white-gloved hand and casually brushed the dust off her hem and the lower edge of her cloak, her movements as elegant as if she were tidying up in an Estate living room.
Having done that, Ailiya pulled together a bundle of dry straw from the wheat field and spread it on a relatively clean patch of ground.
She lightly lifted her cloak and sat down naturally.
Her slender legs crossed with extreme elegance, her posture calm and unhurried.
Ailiya’s ice-blue eyes, through the shadow of her hood, quietly observed Graves, who was lying limp on the ground, and the night owl informant, who was already terrified out of her wits.
“Well then…”
Ailiya’s voice was exceptionally cold in the night breeze, carrying a bone-chilling calm.
“Next, let me think carefully… about how to deal with you.”