Nick returned to his assigned post like always, and he started the bonfire and prepared to camp. Since he needed to spend several days outside, it was necessary for him to prepare thoroughly. As the sun set and it turned dark, only the bonfire’s light lit up the surroundings. He stuck the prepared meat onto the skewers and placed them next to the bonfire.
As the meat cooked, a delicious aroma spread across the area. Just yesterday, Nick hadn’t been able to eat well while thinking about his kidnapped daughter. He had only been forcefully stuffing food into his mouth, worried that he wouldn’t have enough energy when the opportunity to save his daughter arose. However, today was different. Although he forcefully shoveled food into his throat like usual, he chewed until he completely broke the food down. He looked like a person filling his stomach before an important event.
Thud! Then, somebody sat in the seat in front of him. Not even looking up to see the intruder, Nick continued eating his meal with his eyes glued to the ground. The person in front of him stretched out his hand for the meat skewer.
Slap! Nick responded to this gesture by slapping the person’s hand and growling, “There’s nothing for you.”
The man sitting in front of him, Til, said, “Don’t be like that. What are the perks of having a friend?”
“A friend? What kind of friend kidnaps their friend’s daughter!” Although Nick had tried to kidnap Til’s son, Walter, not that long ago, the irony of the situation didn’t strike his mind in the slightest now.
“Well, I get it.” Perhaps, Til had some conscience even in a situation like this or maybe he wasn’t too attached to the food in the first place, but he obediently drew back his outstretched hand.
“Just tell me what you need to say and leave!” Nick said while throwing a bare skewer into the fire. Seeing how aggressively he threw the item, it seemed like what Nick wanted to throw into the fire wasn’t the skewer but Til’s face.
“It’s not anything important. I just want to check if you are properly managing this territory.”
“So, you did your checking. Don’t make me lose my appetite and fuck off already!”
“Alrighty then.” Til got up. Then, Nick focused his eyes on the bonfire again and bit into another skewer. This was no atmosphere for greetings to be exchanged and the two didn’t even expect such things to take place. However, Til still had some things to say.
“Ellie is doing well,” Til said.
Nick stopped midway while roughly biting off a piece of meat. Yet, Til didn’t say more and hid his body beyond the area where the bonfire’s light reached and sliped into the darkness.
“…That bastard!”
Punch! After Til completely disappeared, Nick slammed his skewer down to the ground. Nick breathed heavily for a while, unable to quell his anger. Soon, he collected his breath and told himself, “Calm down. There is no better opportunity than now.’
Although Til always headed to the Denest Mountain Range during the day, for some reason, he moved in the night. Trailing someone was easier during the night than during the day. Of course, there weren’t only positives as the darkness also obstructed the tailer’s eyes and increased the difficulty of trailing. Yet, Nick had a secret weapon. The artifact that Zich gave him began to point in one direction. The direction the artifact pointed toward wasn’t Til in the darkness, but Nick himself.
‘As expected.’ It couldn’t be helped. Nick took out a Pyramid of Vengeful Souls from his magic box. Nick looked down with mixed feelings at the object which scattered evil energy and clenched his eyes shut. Then, he began digging. Since he used mana, he quickly dug a hole to fit half a person, placed the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls inside it, and covered it up with dirt.
‘Good!’ The hiding spot wasn’t obvious and no one would come here anyways. Nick turned his back away from a trickling sense of worry and began to run toward where Til had disappeared. His artifact pointed toward the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls for a while, but after some point, the tip of the One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations’ horn twirled and pointed forward.
‘Caught him!’ Nick almost burst out into a cheer, but he quickly covered his mouth. Only the sound of wind rushing past grass or tiny insects could be heard now, and if he yelled loudly, Til could find his position.
With joy filling his heart, he thought, ‘Even if it’s that guy, I can catch up to him across this distance!’ If he added some tailing methods he learned over people’s shoulders, he would be able to trick Til. Nick used the artifact he was holding as his compass and trod forward. In case Til might notice him, he avoided approaching too close. He maintained a distance where if he stopped walking for a bit, the One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations would lose its direction and spin.
Nick felt even more overjoyed as Til headed to a thick forest in the mountain range. If it was a forest with a lot of coverage, it would be even easier for him to sneak inside. Like that, Nick’s trailing continued. Then, although Til continued to move bit by bit, he stopped.
‘I think he stopped.’ Nick took one step back and the One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations lost its direction and spun. Then, when he took a step forward, the object pointed toward the front, and when he took a step back again, the object lost its direction again. This could only mean that Til had stopped moving. Nick carefully approached Til.
‘He’s there.’
In a forest where all trees greedily stretched their branches towards the sky to gain sunlight, there was a small area where the starlight shone for some reason. Til stood there. Nick lowered his stance—he had approached quite close to Til thanks to the artifact, the darkness, and the thick forest, but there was a limit to how close he could get.
‘If I move any closer from here, he will notice me.’
Although there was still some space between them, it was at a distance where Til could sense him. As someone who had known Til for a long time, Nick knew Til would notice him if he made any special movements.
‘What is he doing?’ Nick then wondered.
All Til did was stand quietly inside the forest. He was acting completely different from Nick’s prediction that Til would use the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls to control the monsters. However, Nick waited patiently. After some time later he heard a rustle from inside the forest. Nick’s heart dropped when he thought that he might have made the noise, but thankfully it wasn’t from him.
Step! Step! A figure walked out of the dark forest with a robe that covered their entire body. They looked extremely suspicious as if they wanted to conceal their identity with the clothes they wore. However, Nick was familiar with their appearance.
‘Robed figure?’ Nick’s collaborator who gave him the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls wore the same clothes as the figure in front of him.
Til spoke first. “You’re late.”
Nick focused on their conversation. Even though he was far away from them to not get caught, if he fused mana into his ears, he could hear their conversation. Moreover, it also helped that their surroundings were extremely quiet.
‘Now that I think about it, the sounds of the grass bugs have disappeared.’ Nick gulped as he realized a fact he had overlooked because of his anxiety. ‘It’s after that robed guy appeared.’ The grass bugs were probably frightened by the chilly aura he gave off. ‘He might be more of a dangerous guy than I thought.’ Nick’s nervousness increased even higher.
The robed figure replied, “You’re the one who came too early.” His voice was artificially rough and deep to hide his real voice. Then, a short silence followed; they glared at each other as if they were gauging each other.
The robed figure was the one to break the silence. “Is the plan going well?”
“Of course.”
After hearing the word plan Nick focused his hearing even more intently. If he found out what the plan was, he might be able to find Ellie. However, unfortunately for Nick, they didn’t talk about the plan in detail.
“Is that so? That’s good.” The robed figure merely made a brief reply.
‘What the heck, that’s it?’ Normally, there were multiple parts in a plan. When someone checked a plan, even if they didn’t carefully address every detail, they usually at least made sure of the most important parts. However, the two of them seemed to have no intentions of further discussing their plan. Shockingly, the robed figure seemed satisfied by Til’s answer.
“If everything is going well, then there’s nothing more to say.” The robed figure turned his body as if he was about to leave.
‘What should I do?’ If the meeting ended like this and Til returned, the only thing Nick would gain from this incident was just information that Til was meeting an unknown person and planning something. Considering that he took a dangerous risk and tailed after Til, it was a pathetic result. Should he remain here and spy on Til for a bit longer? Or should he follow the new mysterious figure? While Nick was pondering—
“Wait!” Til stopped the robed figure.
Nick was relieved, and then his heart filled with expectations. Til might reveal helpful information.
“What is it?”
“Do you know Nick?”
Nick’s expression stiffened when his name was mentioned. He wondered what Til was going to talk about.
“Yeah, I know. He’s your comrade.”
“Then, do you also know that I’m holding his daughter as a hostage?”
The robed figure stifled his laughter. Nick had to struggle to stop himself from grinding his teeth.
The robed figure replied, “Of course. I also know that you’re trying to use the hostage to control him as you please.”
“If you know about that, it’ll be easier for me to talk to you. When I met him last time, he said something strange.”
“What are you talking about?” The robed figure turned his body to face Til again; he seemed extremely interested in Til’s words.
“He asked me if I was the collaborator.”
“Aren’t you obviously his collaborator? You guys are comrades. Ah, but right now, is he just a traitor whom you’re threatening with a hostage?” There was mockery in the robed figure’s voice, but Til didn’t get flustered.
“I have no intentions to play word games with you. When you guys approached me, you introduced yourselves as collaborators. Yet, that same word came out of Nick’s mouth. Of course, he could just be referencing someone who was really collaborating with him in some type of work, but I thought I needed to make sure. Do you know why?”
The robed figure’s low laughter rang in the air again. This reaction was enough for Til to know that the robed figure knew something he didn’t.
“Of course, I know. It’s so easy to read that idiot.”
Idiot. Nick’s face stiffened at the robed figure’s insult.
“Then, are you guys the collaborators that he was talking about?”
“Yeah, that’s probably the case. But he’s really foolish. I can’t believe he mistook you as one of us. No, in his perspective, I guess it’s understandable that he could think you were one of us.”
“Instead of murmuring to yourself, why don’t you explain?”
“Didn’t I already tell you? Before we tried to recruit you, there was another guy we were trying to persuade to join us.”
“Are you talking about that guy who sent a letter to me saying that they kidnapped my son?” Deep anger seeped into Til’s voice.
“Yep, I’m talking about him.”
“And that person is Nick?”
“Yeah.” The robed figure nodded. “Just like how you’re using him, he tried to also use you in the same way by kidnapping your child.”
“…But my son is with me right now.”
“Yeah, that’s the problem.” The robed figure clicked his tongue. Then, he spoke as if he was extremely disgusted by Nick. “That guy failed to complete such a simple mission. Is there any reason why we should keep him?”
“So you got rid of him?”
“Is that even surprising? Trash needs to be thrown away. If we hold onto such trash, it’ll just stink.”
“Judging by how he sent the letter to me, it seemed as if he was successful in capturing my son as hostage. How was he able to do this?”
“It’s because I spread false information.” Unlike the stifled laughter he had been making so far, the robed figure loudly laughed this time. His laughter rang throughout the forest.
“What’s the reason?”
“For fun.” His voice was full of mirth. “It’s enjoyable to watch someone who thinks they’re the mastermind and above other people get played so hard.”
The veins around Nick’s eyes bulged.