Come to think of it, the tracks Denburg had left were way more apparent than before. So much that Gawain had to consider the possibility of a trap.

“My head hurts,” Gawain murmured.

Mac clenched his hands behind his back and said, “What is the big deal? Just send the information over to the commander.”

Gawain agreed that it was a good idea, after all, wits wasn’t his area of expertise.

“Okay. Contact Hestia and comb the area.”

“Yes!”

With that, the warriors dispersed and began scouting the area.

Mac came to Gawain and asked in a small voice, “Captain. Do we really need to shoot Youngest Master?” His hands found the quiver full of arrows behind his back.

“Yes, we should since Hestia told us to do so.”

“But Youngest Master is Boss’s successor. If he gets hurt when we shoot him—”

“It should be all right. Can a guy who can fly across the rift get hurt by a mere arrow?”

-o-

A letter from Gawain arrived. It said there were signs of a campfire being set up, but there were no signs of Denburg moving or sleeping.

Could this be a trap that Denburg set up?

Hestia thought it was unlikely. Unless her youngest brother was an idiot, he would have made countermeasures after being forced to make a campfire due to the cold. Flying away using magic, or perfectly erasing traces of his movement; it was most likely one of the two. In addition, the reason there were no signs of him sleeping there was because he had not.

Denburg was currently being pursued. Although he had managed to shake off his pursuers until now, he wouldn’t light a campfire and go to sleep unless he was certain that he wasn’t being chased. If she had to hazard a guess, he lit up the campfire at nightfall, burned gravels or stones on the fire, and then moved on after they were sufficiently heated. Although this was not as comfortable as sleeping with a campfire, it was better than sleeping without any measures to keep himself warm.

As such, Hestia wrote down her reasonings, notified them not to worry about a trap, and then issued orders before sending away the messenger hawk.

The biggest problem now was not whether Denburg had set up a trap, but rather that the distance between the headquarters and the pursuit team was causing a big delay in information exchange. The messenger hawks having little opportunity to rest also played a large part in the delay. Although the forest posed a major impediment to Denburg, the relay delay was also a big hindrance from the point of view of the pursuers.

Of course, it was still nothing compared to Denburg’s obstructions.

If he could use magic freely, there would be no one other than Doomstone who could catch him.

-o-

It was past 1:30 p.m.

I was currently being fiercely chased. I think the distance between the pursuers and myself was around 1km.

How could I tell that in a dense forest with no plane of view?

Whoosh! Kang!

It was because of the occasional arrows flying towards me. I couldn’t even see a speck of human hair in this dense forest, but these crazy arrows kept flying straight at me with deadly precision. The only person who could do this kind of crazy thing was Big Brother Mac. He was part of the Master Archery Squadron known to be one of the best in our village.

Damn, I never thought they would really shoot arrows!

Whoosh! Kang!

The arrow got hit by the sword I swung and bounced off. My wrist turned a little numb from the arrow after striking it down. It looked like the distance had reduced by 50m. If the distance kept decreasing until it was less than 500m, it wouldn’t be possible to simply strike the arrow away with my sword. If I had been more focused on swordsmanship, I could cover the sword with aura and strike the arrow down. More importantly though, the person shooting the arrow had ridiculous skills.

Perhaps when the distance was less than 500m, my reaction speed would not be able to keep up with the arrow speed. Of course, I could try to cover the sword with aura to strike the arrow down, but it would be safer to use magic to form a barrier against the arrow. If it were before, unless it was a unique situation, I would have had to use the sword to resolve the problem. However, after experiencing a breakthrough in my understanding of magic several times, magic became the faster and safer alternative for me to use in the forest.

In conclusion, increasing the distance from the pursuers as much as possible was vital to conserving my magic power. If increasing the distance wasn’t possible, I had to at least maintain it.

Suddenly, I heard a terrifying sound coming from behind me.

Quaaaaa-!

SH*T!

An arrow, seemingly immersed mana, was flying straight towards me. How much mana had been poured into the arrow that it sounded like the air was being torn apart? I don’t think it would be possible to use the sword to strike it away this time.

Barrier! Barrier!

I think my father could have punched it away, but my physical abilities weren’t trained to that extent since I was a magician.

Ke?

The consumption rate wasn’t a joke as I tried to bring forth my magic power. Still, I had to create a defensive barrier if I didn’t want to die.

Barrier! Barrier!

Dizziness washed over me as I rapidly consumed magic power. I would have been fine if I had been in good condition, but I was in a terrible state of mind and body as I hadn’t been able to rest properly since this long fight began.

Barrier! Barrier! Barrier!

After creating seven layers of defensive barriers, I had to hold back from vomiting blood. I pulled out my sword, all set, in case the barriers got breached.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Kang?

The arrow broke through five of my barriers and made a crack in the sixth which barely managed to bounce it off.

Ahhhhh?!

The rebounded arrow penetrated the ground and created a tremor.

Ugh!

Despite my preparation, I was still caught up in the aftermath of the impact and fell. Due to the dizziness from the sudden use of magic power, I couldn’t get back up immediately. With trembling hands, I took out a water bottle hanging from my bag, moistened my throat, and took a deep breath. I washed the dirt in my mouth with water and looked at the place where the arrow was stuck.

The arrow had made a large pit as if it was created by a dynamite explosion rather than an arrow. This was by no means a power Brother Mac could release by himself, as aura, like magic, was an example of an art where magic power was being utilized. Though, this feat could probably be achieved in the village where magic power was stabilized

It might be possible to perform arts which didn’t require magic power to leave one’s body as once magic power left one’s body, it would inevitably be affected by the violent magic power of the forest. This was especially so for aura because it would lose as much power as magic would the further it traveled away from the body.

Still, with this level of power, it wouldn’t be strange for at least 20 people to back out from mana exhaustion after spending all their mana supply in releasing this one arrow shot. I’d also spent 50% of my remaining mana to stop that arrow. Even so, the outcome wasn’t as bad since some people would have to leave to escort the retired warriors back home.

I got up and started running away again. I made up my mind to run faster before the pursuit turned more intense. It wouldn’t take much time to leave the forest from my current location.

“It’s Youngest Master!”

“Catch him!”

Holy sh!t!

Since all my attention was on the squad at my rear, I completely forgot about the one at the front. There was not much magic power remaining but there was little choice left.

“Flight!”

I was swiftly airborne.

At the rift, I was able to conserve magic power by controlling the gravity and lift. However, that type of flight wasn’t fast and also complicated to calculate making it impossible to use in an environment where I couldn’t focus.

There was a bitter aftertaste in my mouth due to the intense usage of magic power that made me feel like vomiting blood.

“Bring him down!”

Down below, the pursuers fired arrows at me, but I evaded and flew fast. There were few master archers in the village that could take down a flying bird, so I was able to escape safely.

-o-

Hestia waited for news from the pursuers, relaxing in the head office while drinking tea. Then, she glanced at her father.

Doomstone was scrutinizing documents related to the exchange between the empire and the Republic.

To the northeast of the Olympus Forest, adjoining the Crow Tribe region was the country of Republic. It was a place that turned into a land of death due to the demon king, thereby becoming an isolated territory. Eventually, maritime trade developed. However, they were fledglings in terms of land trade, so they occasionally sought the Crow Tribe for escort.

Although it was said to be adjacent, the empire and the Republic were geographically far apart due to Olympus Forest and Demon’s Territory. Land trade between the two consisted of trade routes through the Demon’s Territory.

Though they hired the Crow Tribe that was well-acquainted with the Olympus Forest for escort, there were reasons why the trade route was inside Demon’s Territory. Carriages could not pass through the dense forest. Not to mention, Demon’s Territory was much safer than Olympus Forest.

Demon’s territory did not have beasts that were more powerful than demons, so they only had to worry about demons. The number of demons was low, perhaps due to their poison which made it hard for them to breed, but the same was not true for the beasts that consisted of very high numbers.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Commander, we have a call.”

A voice sounded from outside the head’s office.

“Come in.”

The letter from the official who opened the door said that Group 2 had intercepted Denburg. Facing them head-on, the young master tried to flee by flying. However, he had to make a sharp turn to avoid the flying arrows from the guards who were besieging him behind Group 2. Due to this, he ended up flying towards the location of Group 3 just as Hestia had intended.

Although it was unknown how much of his magic power remained, after making such a sharp turn, he had to have consumed enough magic power to make him feel very exhausted.

“It looks like it is almost time for conclusion.”

The Group 2 warriors were located about 50 kilometers from the outskirts of the forest. It took around a couple of hours for a message to arrive at the village. In other words, the event that would decide Denburg’s fate was occurring at this moment.

Now, Denburg …

How are you going to get out of this situation?

-o-

One thing I realized while flying up in the sky was the fact that I was completely surrounded. Behind me, the warrior squadron led by Gawain pursued me, while the guards led by Gallahad were forming an encirclement.

Taking in the bird’s eye view from the air, I could immediately discern Hestia’s strategy.

Group hunting!

I was exactly in this situation. The reason the pursuit squads were shooting arrows at me wasn’t just to drain my magic power. Rather, they were acting as a rudder to control my movements.

This forest was wide. It was so wide that it was almost impossible to form an encirclement in the first place. If this were before I had crossed the rift, taking the rift into account, it was possible to form an encirclement with ease. I had thought that it would be impossible to form one after I crossed the rift.

I had misjudged. I forgot that I was being chased by skilled hunters and that the skilled hunters were being moved by someone who could be considered a genius of the century.

As I moved towards the outskirts of the forest, the encircling net moved along and became thicker. This place was clearly hundreds of kilometers away from the village, so the squadrons couldn’t be in constant contact with my eldest sister. However, they were still displaying such perfect coordination.

This meant that my eldest sister had perfectly read my movements and sent advance instructions.

As I was flying, I could feel my magic power gradually falling so I decided to land. Time was not on my side when I saw the movements of the pursuers. My fate would be determined by whether I could get out of the forest as quickly as possible.

Now, this was an adventure.