"Let's come back tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?"

"We can't just sit around doing nothing until the auction, can we?"

The words that flowed from Kishiar's mouth were in perfect accord with what Yuder had been thinking. Knowing well that Kishiar had no ability to read minds, Yuder hesitated momentarily. Kishiar noticed this hesitation and sent a knowing smile.

"It seems my assistant might be feeling more regret than I am."

"...I'm sorry."

"What is there to be sorry about? I actually brought you here, hoping for that kind of reaction."

You brought me here hoping for that? Yuder looked up, surprised by these unexpected words. A soft question reached his ears, as if to confirm that he hadn't misheard.

"Why do you think I brought an assistant who hasn't fully recovered to such a place?"

"That's because..."

Yuder, who had not specifically questioned that fact, trailed off.

"I assumed you brought me because I'm your assistant."

"That's not entirely wrong," Kishiar said, laughing quietly.

"There are two reasons. Based on the information obtained by Prince Pruelle, I judged that there wouldn't be much danger this time. That's the first reason. And the second reason is that I wanted to help you gain experience in this area."

"..."

"Both Nathan and the Knights of Peletta have done this sort of thing quite often, but it's a first for the Cavalry. I have no doubt in the competence of my assistant, but you lack this kind of experience, so I thought it would be good to bring you along."

Yuder hadn't realized that Kishiar had brought him for such a reason.

...No wonder Nathan was unusually reticent during the entire journey.

It seemed he had guessed from the start that Yuder had been brought along for that purpose.

Kishiar in his previous life had decided on Yuder as the next Commander and taught him many things, but it had always been a one-sided education, not a flexible experience like this. Though Yuder no longer needed such instruction, the feeling was strangely fresh and unusual.

Kishiar, noticing Yuder's strange expression, narrowed his eyes and spoke, "Don't worry. Since we've come this far, we won't just leave."

The moment Yuder heard that gentle yet cold voice, the unpleasant flame of emotion that had been burning inside him silently extinguished. It was a surprisingly firm response.

If Kishiar had said so, there was no need to worry anymore. More than anything, it was evidence that a solid trust existed within Yuder.

"Now, let's find the exit."

They dispersed for a moment to find the ascending exit. Navigating through the darkness of the vast, cluttered warehouse was a difficult task, but the three people there could handle it with ease.

Yuder walked along the endless rows of shelves, heading towards the area where the magic stones were kept. Everywhere he looked, palm-sized, brilliantly colored top-grade magic stones lay scattered like ordinary pebbles. A scene that would have made the eyes of not only mages but also ordinary people flip with greed, yet Yuder's gaze was colder than those who had carelessly collected and stored the magic stones there.

Large magic stones of that size were primarily processed for decorative purposes rather than for use in magic. Being as beautiful as jewels and possessing a mysterious power known as magic, they were the perfect collection items for the wealthy. Yuder could not understand those who became enthusiastic about collecting magic stones, nor those who attributed meaning to them, but there was one exception. It was the red magic stone staff bestowed upon him by the Emperor of Katchian after successfully completing his 'first secret mission.'

In fact, the item was of no use to an Awakener. Unlike mages, the Awakeners did not utilize magic power. Though it might have some use if already processed into a magic tool, in its pure magic stone form, it was merely a useless ornament. The black thornwood that held it was also not the commonly used white birch or the noble applewood favored by the Founding Emperor, but rather a wood that was prone to decay and weakness, and thus not often used in fine craftsmanship.

Emperor Katchian must have known that the magic stone staff would not be of much use to Yuder. But if the Emperor had bestowed it as a symbol of the Commander of the Cavalry, such a point could not be dwelt upon.

White Commander's uniform, and a black thornwood staff embedded with a red magic stone.

These soon became the famous symbols people thought of when they heard the name Yudrain Aile.

Being the Commander of the Cavalry was neither joyful nor happy, but Yuder never intended to voluntarily let go of those items, at least until death. Though the position was forced upon him by Kishiar, and Emperor Katchian had deliberately offered useless ornaments, once they became his responsibility, he naturally considered them his duty. Like the Cavalry he thought he should carry and lead, the staff was also a pride that Yuder, who never coveted other things, stubbornly maintained.

'Now that I think about it, it was more like an obsession than pride.'

He never regretted the moments he spent sensing the anomalies of the world and trying to solve them. But he had never felt such intense anger and emptiness as when he found out that the things he had protected were taken away by someone else.

But now even such emotions had disappeared. After dying and coming back, what Yuder had shed was not merely the position of Commander, but perhaps also the weight of the white uniform and the staff that he may not have realized he was bearing.

They say that no matter how excellent a person is, they can't see the back of their own head. Perhaps this saying was meant for such cases.

While walking with these thoughts, Yuder suddenly stopped and fixed his gaze on a shelf. He thought he saw a bothersome red glow beneath the faint light of a small flame.

"..."

He thought it was an illusion and increased the size of the flame, but it wasn't. Among the magic stones here, an unusually large red stone radiated brilliant light. There was no way he would not recognize an object he had been familiar with for so long. It was the very magic stone that had been embedded in the staff Yudrain Aile had possessed.

'... Just because I thought of the staff, I didn't expect to run into it here.'

He was startled, but then again, what did it matter if he saw it again? That thing was now just an ordinary magic stone, having nothing to do with Yuder.

'But that aside, its presence here... Does it mean that someone offered Emperor Katchian a magic stone that had been illegally traded in my previous life?'

It was probably someone on the side of a foreign operation, with a high likelihood. Although he had suspected that Emperor Katchian might not be entirely unrelated to the secret trade of the foreign operation, seeing the evidence blatantly exposed in front of him felt somewhat sordid.

"What are you looking at so intently?"

At that moment, a voice suddenly rang out from behind. Startled, Yuder turned his head to find Kishiar, who was looking at the magic stone that Yuder himself had been observing, and quietly exhaled.

"...When did you arrive? At least give me some warning."

"I came, making sure to make noise with my footsteps, but you didn't notice at all."

Yuder, having nothing to say to that, quickly changed the subject.

"Have you found the exit?"

"Nathan found it. He said he'd go take a look first, so I came back to fetch the assistant in the meantime."

Kishiar, in responding, skillfully turned the topic back to the magic stone.

"But why were you staring at that magic stone so intently? Was there something odd about it?"

"No, it's just..."

Yuder turned his gaze back to the stone and then closed his mouth. He couldn't say that he was looking at the reward he had received after killing Kishiar La Orr.

"I was simply looking at it for a moment, thinking that it might have something different about it because it's larger than other magic stones."

"It certainly is big."

Kishiar, accepting the explanation, picked it up without hesitation.

"While the latent magic within it is more than other magic stones, there's nothing else special about it. Do you like it?"

"No."

Without a second thought, Yuder shook his head.

"I don't like it at all. I have no intention of ever holding a magic stone that looks like that."

Kishiar's playful expression was withdrawn, perhaps sensing that the response was too earnest. Yuder turned away from Kishiar's gaze. He didn't want to look at those red eyes, so similar to the magic stone's, side by side.

"Are you here?"

Returning to where they had been initially, Nathan Zuckerman approached with a calm face.

"The exit is over there. I went halfway up and felt human presence from the upper floor, so I came back down for now."

The stairs that Nathan Zuckerman had discovered were hidden behind a shelf full of rolled-up papers. Opening the door and following it upwards, they began to faintly hear human activity and voices from afar, growing more distinct as they ascended.

'...What's taking so long to get a beer! I told you to get it from the third barrel, how many times...'

'Are the new dishes ready yet?...'

From the snippets of sound, they were able to deduce what was behind the door.

"...It seems to be a tavern."

"It appears so."

The voices behind the door grew more distant and then disappeared. After the silence had lingered for a short while, Kishiar lightly knocked on the door. A solid, heavy sound resonated.

"It seems to be a door disguised as a wall... Made so it can't be easily opened from the inside. Let's try pushing it."

"I'll do it."

Yuder volunteered, but Kishiar shook his head.

"Arm strength alone won't do it. Fortunately, the power I possess is suitable for such tasks."

At that moment, Yuder recalled the Awakener power that Kishiar possessed: the ability to push and pull things.

As he remembered this, the door began to rotate heavily without Kishiar even lifting a finger. It didn't take long for a gap wide enough for a person to slip through to appear.

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