No evidence was found in the narrow cave. All that could be seen was the thick white smoke filling the place, and the burning black ash.
It was very frustrating.
Siegfried and the Guard Knights finished searching the perimeter of the cave and even the lake to the east, but there was no result.
Of course, the word “no result” was just from Presipe’s point of view.
As for the Knights of the Guard, the matter was different.
Siegfried's tense face finally relaxed, and the atmosphere of the knights was much improved compared to yesterday.
As for Precipe, she was the only one who seemed to lose focus.
After they had returned safely to the barracks, Siegfried said with a sigh of relief:
“We don’t know what caused the fire, but if we talk only about the results, nothing bad happened.”
“As the Duke said, it seems that the possibility of monsters being forced into chaos is much less now. Most importantly, nothing abnormal happened in the Cave of Silence.”
“Do you mean the Devil King?”
"Yes."
Siegfried smiled and shook his head in agreement.
“Actually, I doubted his existence. There are legendary stories about him, but no one has seen the Devil King with his own eyes in at least a thousand years.”
“….”
“Honestly, I feel a little like I've been scammed. All along, people have been afraid of a being that doesn't exist. Anyway, this is very good news.”
The Forbidden Forest to the west of Atloya.
The Devil King had been residing within its depths for a very long time.
But as Siegfried said, it was just a legend passed down, and no one had seen the king's existence with his own eyes in a thousand years.
And it was only the monsters that wreaked havoc non-stop.
“These are not the words of a knight leader. The church continues to talk about the ‘brave who received the will of God’ and silenced the Devil King.”
Fenrik laughed sarcastically, and Siegfried replied with a shy smile:
“I think the Demon King they were thinking of was not what we imagined. He was just a very powerful monster.”
If this were not the case, we would not have failed to find any evidence.
Siegfried smiled and said:
“No, that's impossible.”
As Siegfried spoke alone, Presippi clenched her fist tightly.
Yes, if this were a fantasy world with no set rules that resembled reality, then Siegfried's guess might be correct.
But here, inside a game with a specific world and characters that exist — or rather, existed...
“If the Devil King didn’t really exist, all those hints wouldn’t have been put out like this.”
The church statue that the window tried to explain, Vanessa's will, Precipe's blood that suddenly appeared in secret mode — what do all these things mean, then?
Moreover…
[It seems as if you have been observing the Devil King closely.]
[Yes, I watched him. Close up.]
‘Vidar…’
Does he know anything more? Where is he now? What happened to him? Did he die like the other monsters due to the fire?
Kevin said as he noticed the car coming from afar:
“Duke, the carriage has arrived.”
Fenric looked at Kevin and said:
“Are you going?”
“I said it clearly earlier. I will leave as soon as the investigation is completed.”
"Good."
After the investigation was over, there was no reason to keep Fenrick any longer. He also completed Dietrich's order to check his relationship with the monsters perfectly.
“….”
Siegfried's gaze, which had been directed at Fenrik, suddenly turned to Presibe.
[I'm so sorry, Knight Commander.]
Then Siegfried's mind flashed through the image of Prisse stomping on the rock with all her might and then apologizing.
[I was trying to help, but I felt so afraid and confused that my body froze...]
Although the sudden fire caused him to lose consciousness for a while, there were strange things that would not have escaped his mind if he had contemplated.
It wasn't just that she knew his hand, but coming to this place itself was unusual, as was her being the only one who had not been attacked by monsters, and having access to the pulse of monsters without any hesitation or fear.
There was only one possibility:
'Monster Pulse...?'
Siegfried, who had fought many battles with monsters, would not have been ignorant of such information, but was it plausible?
Siegfried looked at Presibe with eyes full of suspicion.
And at that moment,
[...precipie.]
He heard her voice, a voice he didn't remember saying, as if it was distant and silent.
[You are still very beautiful today. Did the mythical goddess look like you?…]
“Commander of the Knights...”
[Is it because of your beauty, Presibe, that men keep looking at you and following you?]
“Knight Commander!”
Fenric's voice, sharp as a thunderbolt, woke Siegfried, who took a deep breath and returned to reality.
What is this sound?
What was that?
“If we're going to waste time here, wouldn't we better go back to arranging the forces?”
“My lord the duke.”
“Half of the Guard Knights are dead, and seeing you handle it so calmly is truly astonishing.”
Have you heard hallucinations of fatigue? Siegfried's face looked a little embarrassed as he averted his gaze.
Meanwhile, the carriage arrived in front of Fenric and Presipe.
Fenrik slowly reached out and carefully seated Presibe in the carriage, then turned his sharp gaze to Siegfried.
Then Siegfried added in a late voice:
“As my lord Duke said, I will stay here for a few days to keep an eye on things. The forest has been burned to the ground, but the monsters that survived may attack the villages, so we need to form a force and keep the knights here for a while.”
But Fenric didn't even respond with a short word, his face was cold as if he didn't care about what was happening here.
“Anyway… see you back in the capital. I hope you come back safe.”
He didn't want to look at Siegfried's face any longer.
All he could think of was to quickly get away from here, and get into the carriage to check on Presippi, who seemed even more tired than before entering the forest.
Benrick gripped the horse's reins tightly.
But before he started leading the horse, he saw thick dust rising in the distance.
'Palace soldiers?'
From the clothes, they were definitely palace soldiers.
But why now? Was there an order to take Presibe with them? Fenric's eyebrows quirked slightly in surprise.
“What's wrong?”
Fenric wasn't the only one who realized things were going strange. Prisibe, who sat helplessly in the carriage, Siegfried and Kevin felt the same way.
But what the soldier who quickly descended, panting, said was completely unexpected:
“Commander of the Knights… Sir Duke Fenric.”
The soldier's face was tired and pale, and after he had regained his breath, he said:
“Monsters attacked the palace.”
'What?' 'What is this strange talk?'
Preseppe had a strange expression on her face as she listened to the news.
“They attacked the palace?! What nonsense!”
Siegfried asked anxiously:
“Were they all birds?”
“Yes, most of them were flying monsters. We don’t know why, but dozens of them attacked at the same time.”
“What about His Majesty? Is he safe?”
“Fortunately, His Majesty is fine. Although there were a number of deaths, some of the Guard Knights and soldiers were able to repel the attack and drive away the monsters.”
“Our forces here suffered great damage...”
Siegfried said, stuttering a little.
“Therefore His Majesty issued an order to return immediately. Not only to gather troops...”
“Then why then?”
A look of astonishment appeared on Siegfried's face, and Fenrik listened intently, with great seriousness.
“The Great Magician.”
"Yes, correct."
The soldier said with a pale face:
“The Grand Sorcerer Ivan has fled.”