Marquis Filboid momentarily felt as though he couldn’t breathe, overwhelmed by the chilling aura emanating from the beastman before him.  

But only for a moment.  

He quickly reached into his cloak, pulled out an artifact, and turned his body.  

However…  

“I…”  

Thud!  

In the next instant, Marquis Filboid realized his body had collapsed, and he wore a bewildered expression.  

As soon as he sensed the strange feeling coming from below, he lowered his gaze.  

Marquis Filboid could see it clearly.  

His legs were grotesquely twisted.  

“Aaaargh!!!”  

As soon as he confirmed the sight, an excruciating pain struck him, and he screamed in agony.  

“!?”  

“What’s going on here!”  

The mercenaries who had been outside the gambling hall rushed in as the door swung open.  

Zap!  

As the beastman released a surge of electricity and disappeared in an instant,  

“Ah, ahh~”  

The mercenaries, who had been charging into the gambling hall just moments ago, had already been reduced to mere lumps of flesh.  

And then…  

“Ah~ This is so annoying—I was trying to handle this quietly, but it’s become such a hassle.”  

The beastman, who had slaughtered all the nearby mercenaries in an instant, wiped the red blood splattered on her golden hair with a disgruntled expression as she looked at Marquis Filboid.  

Even though dozens of lives had been snuffed out in the blink of an eye, the beastman, as if it were a daily occurrence, wore an innocent expression.  

Marquis Filboid felt an instinctual fear rising within him and began to beg, his voice trembling.  

“P-please, spare me.”  

The beastman, who had been silently watching him, let out a hum and spoke.  

“Do you want to live?”  

Seeing a glimmer of hope, Marquis Filboid desperately clung to that lifeline.  

“P-please… I am a Marquis of the Kingdom of Asteria! If you spare me here, I promise you a substantial reward…!”  

A desperate struggle for survival.  

However, the beastman simply squatted in front of him with a curious expression and stared at his face before asking,  

“Then, why did you say that?”  

“W-what?”  

“If you wanted to live, why did you say that?”  

“. . . . . . ?”  

Marquis Filboid, his face full of confusion, couldn’t understand at all.  

“Why did you tell me to kill my Master…̱?”  

“…Ah.”  

At those words, he realized it.  

Who this golden-eyed beastman’s “Master” was.  

“Could it be… Count Palatio…!”  

“Yeah, Master—no, actually, my husband? We’re about to get married soon.”  

The beastman nodded with a smile, leaving Marquis Filboid dumbfounded.  

From his perspective, none of this made sense.  

That a beastman who had just brutally killed an agent stronger than a Master Knight was standing before him.  

That this beastman had a connection to Count Palatio.  

He couldn’t comprehend the depth of Count Palatio’s abyss.  

He could only deduce one thing from hearing about the relationship between the beastman and Count Palatio.  

“…Babayaga?”  

The beastman standing before him was none other than one of Colony’s Babayaga, the Golden Lightning.  

“Oh, how did you guess?”  

At the beastman’s reaction, Marquis Filboid’s mouth dropped open.  

Why was a Babayaga, who was supposed to be in Colony, here?

It was incomprehensible to him.  

However, without a care, the beastman casually said,  “What do you mean, why? It’s only natural.”  

She answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.  

“I couldn’t just let those who try to harm my Master go unpunished, could I?”  

The beastman’s golden eyes were shining brilliantly.  

But they were filled with a deep, intense murderous intent like never before, and he could sense what was coming next.  

Thud!  

After the sound of something bursting, there were no further thoughts from the Marquis.  

And then.  

“This will never do. No, it won’t.”  

The beastman, who had blown off the Marquis’s head, wore an eerily cold expression and said,  

“No one, absolutely no one, can touch my Master.”  

With that, the beastman disappeared.  

***

The royal ball, which had been ongoing for a week, had come to an end.  

Crytenia Siyan had not shown herself after the third day, and Count Palatio had yet to receive the formal ceremony of succession from the Queen but was now being called the Marquis of Palatio in all but name.  

‘What could Siyan’s true intentions be?’  

For about a week, Alon had managed to endure the bombardment of ‘What’s next?’ from Count Zenonia and Duke Altia, buying himself time.  

He had tried to think about the reason behind her granting him a title, but he still couldn’t grasp her intentions.  

In truth, he would have liked to ask her directly, but that wasn’t possible from the beginning.  

So, even though he was pleased to have been elevated to the rank of Marquis, there was still a nagging sense of unease.  

Regardless, he had to leave the capital and start reviewing his upcoming plans.  

‘There’s quite a lot to do… First, I need to visit the ruins again to meet “that,” and I also have to go to Raxas to activate the ring… I’ve already drafted the strategy, so I’ll need to lay the groundwork for the agents, too. Oh, maybe I should visit the Colosseum while I’m at Colony.’  

He recalled that achieving a certain number of victories in the Colosseum event in Colony would grant him an audience with the Queen and the chance to acquire one of the relics stored in the royal treasure.  

With this thought in mind, Alon began to calmly organize his thoughts.  

A moment later, he set his priorities.  

‘Let’s start by laying the groundwork for the agents.’  

Although it was slightly more urgent to meet “that” at the forgotten ruins, it so happened that the place where he would spread the groundwork was on the way to Colony, so he decided on the order.  

A few days passed, and he soon reached the small territory of Atla, situated on the border between the plains and the desert, moving eastward.  

And then.  

“Count, or rather, should I call you Marquis now?”  

“That’s the tenth time you’ve said that. Call me whatever you prefer.”  

“Then I’ll stick with Count for now. But, Count, are we in the right place?”  

In response to Evan’s question, Alon glanced around.  

The surrounding landscape was quite curious.  

On one side, there was a forest, but on the other side was a desert that stretched endlessly into the horizon.  

As he quietly observed the contrasting scenery, Alon stood up.  

“Yes.”  

“Are we going to a labyrinth like the one we visited last time?”  

As he got out of the carriage, Alon replied to Evan’s question.  

“No. There’s somewhere I need to visit briefly. Wait here.”  

“Shouldn’t I come with you?”  

“No.”  

He then began to walk into the forest.  

How far had he walked?  

“There it is.”  

The entrance to a cave hidden by vines appeared within the forest.  

It seemed like a natural cave untouched by human hands.  

However, Alon knew that the cave before him was no mere natural formation, so he felt a little tense.  

And rightly so, because inside this cave lay the leader of the agents, whom he needed to deal with.  

The one infamous in early Psychedelia for being known as the “Spine Cutter,” a boss so notorious that it made players curse even after playing for some time—Al-Kamae.  

Moreover, according to the lore, he was strong enough to face off against at least five agents at the level of Master Knights.  

Given his strength, comparable to bosses encountered midway through the game, Alon let out a small sigh and then…  

He resolved himself.  

‘Let’s just stick to the plan.’  

With that thought in mind, he cleared his throat and spoke up,  

“By the first covenant, fulfill one promise.”  

A moment later.  

“?”  

“…?”  

Nothing happened.  

‘What’s going on…?’  

With a bewildered expression, Alon spoke once more to summon the leader of the agents hiding inside the cave.  

“By the first covenant, fulfill one promise.”  

But there was still no response.  

‘That’s strange…’  

After several attempts, Alon, confused by the absence of the expected response, finally began to walk toward the inside of the cave.  

As he ventured deeper into the dark cave,  

Before long, a massive mansion, built inside the cave, appeared in view.  

The mansion was enormous, comparable even to the Count Palatio estate where Alon resided.  

It was both stately and large enough to fill the vast cavern, a testament to the dignity of the agent leader who resided there.  

Although Alon had visited several times to kill the leader and steal his relics, seeing it in person, as opposed to through the game’s illustrations, was a completely different experience.  

That feeling didn’t last long.  

Soon, he noticed something odd.  

‘It’s all destroyed?’  

At first, it wasn’t obvious from a distance, but the closer he got, the more he realized that the mansion, which should have been intact, was completely wrecked.  

When he finally entered the mansion,  

“…?”  

Alon stood bewildered as he looked at the half-destroyed mansion of Al-Kamae, the leader of the agents.  

***

Al-Kamae had lived for 300 years, and during that time, he had killed countless people.  

He had beheaded more than twelve Swordmasters.  

He had exterminated an entire kingdom, including its king and royal family.  

He had also killed the Purple Tower Master, the owner of the Mage Tower.  

In addition to that, he had single-handedly massacred thousands of knights.  

150 years ago, he waged a one-man war against a territory and erased it from the annals of history.  

His strength was undeniable, recognized by all.  

He was so powerful that every agent with skills surpassing Master Knights feared and revered him.  

That’s why he felt annoyed.  

He didn’t know by what means, but a presumptuous girl had come to kill him.  

Annoyed by the appearance of this bothersome gnat, he, who had been hiding for the greater cause, thought to toy with her briefly before killing her.  

Surely, surely that was how it would be.  

It should have been that way—  

Cough!  

Al-Kamae coughed and spat blood, staring at the being before him with trembling eyes.  

Standing in front of him was a young girl.  

Clad in a black ceremonial robe embroidered with red, she held in one hand a staff that emitted a chillingly eerie red glow.  

At first, her appearance posed no threat.  

But even so, Al-Kamae was filled with unmistakable fear as he gazed at her.  

It wasn’t just fear.  

It was terror, despair, and futility.  

All these emotions swirled together and ensnared him.  

Because of her.  

Because of her.  

Because of her.  

Because of the thing behind her.  

‘What is that—’  

—due to the dozens of tendrils emerging from the black space behind her—  

He realized that his perception was caught in an endless loop.  

Even though he became aware of it, his thoughts couldn’t process.  

The same thoughts kept spinning in his mind.  

Terror.  

Despair.  

Futility.  

Fear.  

The horrifying mixture of emotions constantly drove Al-Kamae into a pit of hellish agony.  

And then.  

“Why… why is this happening to me?!”  

Amidst this terrible fear, Al-Kamae, his eyes bloodshot, barely managed to utter those words.  

The girl who had been staring at him, no, Yutia, spoke.  

“Because you tried to harm him.”  

With chilling red eyes, she pronounced his sentence to the man who had coughed up blood countless times.  

At that moment,  

‘……’ 

The black tendrils seized Al-Kamae and began dragging him into the black rift.  

It all happened in an instant.  

Desperately, Al-Kamae tried to resist, forcing himself to stand and swing his sword.  

But even the sword that had killed Swordmasters was utterly powerless in front of the young girl.  

“N-noooo~!!”  

Crunch!  

And with a horrifying sound, he disappeared without leaving even a corpse behind.  

One week.  

That was the time it took for the organization known as “Agents,” which had operated in the shadows for 50 years, to completely vanish.  

And then.  

“Normally, I would have made you suffer more before killing you, but I have things to do right now, so I couldn’t help it.”  

Yutia muttered as she looked toward the spot where Al-Kamae had disappeared.  

“Thank Seolrang for that.”  

She gazed beyond the forest toward the desert, specifically at the location of the desert city, Colony.  

“I’m in a hurry, so I had to kill you quickly.”  

She turned away.  

In her hand was a letter sent by Alon.  

A letter that mentioned he would likely be visiting the desert city once again.  

“At last…”  

A small smile crept onto her lips. 

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep