Chapter 10.
It had been three days since I was on the run. It was a bright morning; the sun had yet to fully rise and the sky only just started to turn blue.
I began to move after warming up.
Despite the dense thicket surrounding me, I could still peek at the huge hawks soaring in the sky; occasionally, glimpsing three meters long deer and five meters long cats. (At this point, it was better to call them saber-toothed tigers and behemoths).
Currently, I was scurrying to find a safe and peaceful life.
Last night, after agonizing over how to avoid freezing without leaving any traces, I decided to dig a pit and light a campfire.
Lighting a campfire was a stupid move that would leave a clear trail for the pursuit squad as well as attract nearby demons, but I had been left with little choice.
After leaving the campfire on for three hours, I put the gravel I had placed in the fire into my leather bag before proceeding to move.
I spent the night a distance away from the location where the campfire was lit, using the heat from the gravel to warm myself up. I fed the campfire extra firewood before leaving just to lead the pursuit squad astray in figuring out the exact time of my departure.
I opened the map and double-checked my position. The outskirts of the forest were now overwhelmingly closer to me than the village. If I were reading the map correctly, the seventh campsite, which was the campsite closest to my location, was around 100km away. If I were to keep away from the route drawn on the map to avoid potential encounters with the pursuit squad, I still had to cover roughly 200kms to get out of the forest.
Flying over the rift had substantially shortened the distance. With this much distance remaining, it was possible to escape the pursuers and leave the forest by the end of the day. And once I was out of the forest, no matter how much the pursuit squad tried to trap me, I was confident that I could escape.
Not just running away, I would also have time to play around with them as well. Of course, the only condition was that I had sufficient magic power remaining.
My current reservoir of magic power was around 56%. I would have been able to completely recover in the village, but due to the constant rampaging of magic power inside the forest, my recovery was being delayed.
-o-
Except for a handful of vanguards, virtually everyone was gathered at the seventh campsite. The warrior group led by Gawain, Gallahad and his guards, and even most of the leading squads that had been sent along the routes on the map, had all assembled here at Hestia’s behest.
Although the warrior group led by Gawain had only been able to sleep for four to five hours due to losing Denburg at the rift, it was nothing new to them. They could go two nights straight without sleep when hunting in the forest.
But it was undeniable that they were far from the optimal condition. The same went for Gallahad, who was in front of Gawain.
"Hey, will we be able to catch Denburg?" Gallahad’s voice lacked conviction.
Gallahad had been unable to even get a glimpse of Denburg’s face during the entire pursuit. He was likely thinking he would not be able to contribute to the chase. However, it was difficult for him to distinguish himself in the position he had been assigned to. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done about it.
The forest was the home territory of the warriors, and it was inevitable that the movements of the guards would be restricted here. In addition, the encirclement led by Gallahad was an integral part of the plan that couldn’t be left out.
Instead of comforting his brother, Gawain shook his head. "I don’t know either. This pursuit has already turned into a game between Denburg and Hestia. It’s not like you and I are very smart."
"That’s true. Leisha, what do you think?" Gallahad turned to Leisha, she had been brought along to advise them on Denburg’s magic.
Initially, Gawain had been doubtful of what Denburg or Leisha could do in a forest where magic power was rampant. However, watching his younger brother fly across the rift had changed his mind and now he was glad his sister was around to advise him.
"I’m curious as well. Advice from a magician like Denburg would be very helpful for the pursuit."
Leisha was a magician and smart, so there was some expectation that she would be able to read Hestia and Denburg’s minds.
However, she shook her head in all seriousness. "I don’t know. Frankly speaking, I couldn’t believe it when I heard that Denburg flew over the rift."
"It’s definitely impressive, but you’re also a magician like him,” Gawain said.
Leisha shook her head again, visibly tired. "No, we’re not in the same class at all. Denburg is a grand magician that I can never catch up to. Gawain, you must know as well since you have learned magic before.”
"No, my knowledge is just limited to lighting wood on fire or creating water, so I don’t really understand your reaction. But I fully understand how impressive Denburg—"
Leisha interrupted Gawain and stated, “No, Brother doesn’t understand. What Denburg did at the rift isn’t just something that can be described as amazing. With that kind of ability, if Denburg cast magic with everything at his disposal outside the forest, a catastrophe only described in the myths would ensue.”
Leisha’s eyes were filled with awe, akin to those from Gallahad and Gawain when they were looking at Doomstone, or perhaps even more.
If Denburg were here, he would think this was an excessive reaction from just flying around in the sky.
Suddenly, a person from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rushed over with a letter in hand.
"Generals, a message from the commander has arrived."
Gallahad took the letter and read it out aloud.
As of this moment, the 300 warriors will be evenly divided into three groups.
Warrior Group 1 will continue chasing Denburg’s trail. Don’t get too close when he is discovered.
Warrior Group 2 will head to the location marked in blue on the map by 9 a.m. and wait.
Warrior Group 3 should reach the location marked in red by 10 a.m.
The guards are to be evenly distributed into two groups. The first group of guards will form an encirclement beginning from the starting point of Warrior Group 1 to the destination of Warrior Group 3 by noon. They will hold that position unless directed otherwise.
The second group of guards will follow Warrior Group 2 and form an encirclement. The distance between the two groups should be at least 1km.
The layout Hestia had drawn on the map looked like a triangle with the rift and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ route serving as its side. Although it was a bit too round to be a perfect triangle.
"Hey, do you know why we’re moving like this?"
When Gallahad whispered into Gawain’s ear, the latter shook his head.
"If I knew, I would be in the village right now."
-o-
10:03 a.m.
In the aftermath of my reckless flight across the rift, the pursuit squad had been presented with a new challenge yesterday. I reckoned I should start making new plans to adjust to their new challenge.
I examined the map and tried to predict Hestia’s modus operandi from here on out. If I were her, I would try to reexamine my position.
Before I crossed the rift, the rift would have served as a barrier and made it easy to surround me. Now, other than the direction of the rift, the three remaining sides were open space and it would require too much manpower to completely surround me. Therefore, she needed to pinpoint my location to form an efficient encirclement after which, she would try to drain my strength as much as possible.
I was an irregular who managed to fly over a 10km wide rift while being unable to utilize my full strength. In other words, I would be able to fly over the encirclement as long as my magic power lasted. Therefore, Hestia would need to drain my magic power as much as possible.
Although I still had more magic power left than I had expected, recklessly spending magic power in an environment where the recovery rate was less than one-hundredth the speed of consumption would only result in my capture.
There was one advantage for me if Hestia decided to plan to drain my magic power. In that, she would have to form the encirclement as large as possible.
If I were to explain, let’s answer the question ‘what is a good environment to use magic?’
Although there were many factors to the answer, if we were to ignore the difficulty of casting magic, the foremost factor would be a tranquil environment. For example, if I had people chasing after me, it would be hard for me to properly use magic lest it hurt the pursuers. But if the pursuers were at a distance, I could easily cast magic to delay them without intentionally causing an accident. If they were to simply keep pursuing me, I could run away like before; but if their goal was to drain my magic power, it was better to keep poking me.
And I would have no choice but to respond to their actions.
The first idea that popped up in my mind was that they may try to shoot arrows at me, but I wondered if they would actually shoot at a family member.
In any case, the conclusion I arrived at was that if they were to enlarge the encirclement, the encirclement would correspondingly thin out as a result.
But I wondered ... They wouldn’t actually shoot arrows at me, would they?
-o-
Gawain led the first group of warriors and arrived at the place where the guards had last faced Denburg. Thankfully, he could descend down the rift and was able to arrive there quickly without passing through the forest.
Denburg’s traces were easy to find in this location. This was due to the fact that after exhausting his magic power and constantly facing new battles, he had moved on without erasing any of his tracks. Unlike during their beginning of the pursuit, the pursuit group was able to quickly move by following traces of Denburg located all around the area.
"Campfire?" One of the leading warriors remarked.
Gawain smiled upon seeing the remains of the campfire. This showed that Denburg had failed to withstand the cold and succumbed to the forest. It seemed that the reason the tracks had been so clear before was that Denburg had already known that they would find the campfire here, so hiding his previous tracks was meaningless.
The campfire mark was proof that Gawain and his warriors were on the right track. This was the reason why campfires were forbidden when one was being pursued. After all, they served as milestones.
Even a seasoned hunter wouldn’t be able to completely erase the evidence of a used campfire. It may be covered with soil, but the change in the color of the soil would be obvious.
To be completely honest, Denburg’s tracks so far had been so well disguised that sometimes the tracks would head in two opposite directions or would suddenly disappear. At times, it was unclear whether the tracks were from Denburg or an animal, monster, or demon.
"That’s strange."
There was something strange going on. There were no signs of an attempt to cover up this campfire.
"Where is Denburg’s trail heading to?"
"Well... I can’t find any."
"What? Did he hide his tracks here? Or did he fly?"
Flying in this forest had been a ridiculous assumption until yesterday, but now, that fact had to be taken into account.
Gawain’s head started to hurt as he considered the rising possibilities.
"General, there’s not even a trace of Young Master sleeping here."
Gawain was addled at Mac’s words.
Was this a trap?
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