In a remote street in Fengyue City.
The setting sun casts long shadows from the buildings along the road.
A tall man enveloped in a black robe walks at a leisurely pace.
He carries a long object on his back, wrapped in layers of ragged, coarse burlap.
Although the full shape is obscured, a cold metallic glint occasionally peeks through the edges of the fabric as he moves.
The man’s shadow appears somewhat distorted as it stretches under the setting sun.
He walks quite carelessly, but as he passes a corner tavern, the end of the long weapon on his back accidentally clips a strong man stumbling out from inside.
Clatter.
The ale bottle in the strong man’s hand falls to the ground, shattering into pieces, and the drink splashes everywhere.
“Are you blind?! You dare to bump into me!”
Fueled by alcohol, the strong man swings his fist at the black-robed man, intending to teach this careless fellow a lesson.
The black-robed man does not even stop walking, let alone turn around.
He simply lifts his leg in an extremely casual manner and delivers a nonchalant side kick.
Bang!
A muffled thud sounds out.
The burly strong man flies like a broken sack, soaring 25 feet away before slamming heavily into a pile of discarded wooden boxes at the corner of the street.
Wood chips fly, stirring up a cloud of dust, and the man stops moving instantly without even having time to let out a scream.
By the time the other pedestrians and merchants on the street, who had been stunned into silence, regain their senses, the dust has settled and the black-robed man with the long parcel has vanished without a trace, as if he had never appeared on this street at all.
***
The scene shifts.
In a small, windowless secret chamber.
The air here is extremely stifling, reeking of dampness and the pungent odor of certain spell-casting materials.
Heavy, opaque black curtains hang on the surrounding walls, tightly sealing off all light and sound from the outside.
In the center of the room, there is only a rough wooden table holding a fist-sized magic crystal, which emits a dim, gloomy light.
Before the table, a cloaked woman stares intently at the image.
The reflection in the magic crystal shows a guest room within the Kastian manor.
The dying captain of the guard, Garick, lies on the bed, while a silver-haired maid stands with her back to the view, wringing a towel in a basin.
Just then, the silver-haired maid in the image pauses slightly, as if she has sensed something.
The cloaked woman is startled and quickly reaches out to swipe her hand over the top of the magic crystal.
The image vanishes instantly, and the room falls into darkness.
“Are you saying…you want me to be careful of a demi-human maid?”
A deep, hoarse male voice suddenly comes from behind, filled with undisguised contempt, as if he hadn’t heard clearly or thought he had heard an enormous joke.
The visitor is none other than the black-robed man who had just vanished from the street.
He is already standing in the shadows of the secret chamber.
That shadow writhes like boiling pitch, and a gray-black stone gargoyle the size of a palm crawls directly out of it.
It flaps its hard wings and lands skillfully on the man’s shoulder.
The cloaked woman turns around; not angered by his mockery, she speaks with great gravity: “Yes, this person is definitely not simple. My long-distance detection just now was nearly discovered by her.”
“Psh……” The black-robed man sneers dismissively, treating her words as nothing more than a joke. “I think you’ve been taking on too many mess-up jobs lately and have become paranoid.”
“This is advice from a colleague.” The cloaked woman’s voice turns cold. “Whether you listen or not is up to you.”
She pauses, her tone carrying a hint of warning and a desire to distance herself: “I have done what I needed to do; I have already locked onto the target’s location and the defenses within the estate for you.”
“There is no need to trouble me afterward; this is your own mission.”
“The fact that I was willing to risk exposure to help you today is already repaying the greatest debt I owe you.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t trouble you.” The black-robed man shrugs indifferently.
He reaches out and pats the long parcel on his back; the metal components and magic crystal inside emit a faint, heart-wrenching resonance.
“I know what to do.”
Watching his arrogant display, the cloaked woman frowns even deeper: “You are going to act now? The mistress of the Kastian estate happens to be out consulting with the holy see; there is not much time.”
The corners of the black-robed man’s mouth curl up beneath his hood as he glances at a sliver of faint light filtering in from under the door gap: “The sky outside is getting dark; it is time to create some panic.”
As soon as he finishes speaking, the shadow under the black-robed man’s feet expands rapidly, swallowing him and the stone gargoyle whole like the gaping maw of an abyss.
In the blink of an eye, he escapes into the boundless darkness, leaving no trace behind.
Looking at the empty corner, the cloaked woman finally exhales a long, relieved breath.
She collapses into her chair, looking at the dimmed magic crystal with a complex expression.
The cloaked woman mutters to herself, her tone filled with deep apprehension, “It seems the power behind his current patron is truly immeasurable.”