A brief lightning strike.
Esther understood exactly what the five enemy mages were up to, what their intentions were—she understood everything.
This was because she herself was a wanderer, indulging in the world of magic. Above all, the enemy group consisted of mages who were all lower-ranked than her.
"Illusion magic and mental magic."
It was a combination of two.
Even though she didn't know the exact names of the spells, she understood their operational mechanism.
It was the magic of "The Dream of the Abyss."
It conjured an atmosphere of comfort as an illusion, followed by a gift of tranquility.
The concept was clever.
It was hard to drive someone insane, but offering tranquility to those already under mental pressure was incredibly easy.
They were probably longing for peace and comfort, as that's what mental spells were generally meant to provide.
The more someone wanted and yearned for something, the easier it was to accept.
Breaking the spell was simpler. All she had to do was scatter the magic. But Esther chose not to do that.
She decided to let the ones who were sleeping stay asleep.
She had no intention of revealing that she could transform into a human.
Of course, it wasn't like she wanted to kill anyone just to silence them.
"I'm still human, so nothing changes."
She was a devotee of the magic world.
She had resolved to walk a different path from ordinary humans.
Therefore, even if others discovered that a leopard was actually a human, they would still end up in Enkrid's embrace. She wouldn't stop that from happening.
"It's funny that I'm worried about this at a time like this."
There was no reason to give up the power that blurred the curse.
She couldn't help but worry about the women flocking around him.
Ordinary humans tend to feel jealousy and envy, so if women appeared around him, he might feel distant from her.
In that case, she would have to force her way into his embrace.
The right move was to block it before it happened.
"If it doesn't work, I'll subdue them by force."
She even considered knocking out Enkrid and taking his place.
Various thoughts flashed through Esther's mind in an instant, and she rationalized everything.
In the end, she concluded that it didn't matter who knew.
Her blue, deep eyes, similar to a leopard's but distinct, turned toward the voice's owner.
"I thought I'd be your gorgeous savior."
Rem, with a sly grin, appeared. He was a handsome man with grey hair, not tall, but an influential figure whose abilities couldn't be ignored.
"Oh?"
Esther responded casually.
At the same time, she quickly figured out why the opponent had resisted the spell.
"He's learned the mystic arts."
It wasn't magic, but a different discipline.
She didn't feel the need to act like she knew about it.
She wasn't the only one awake.
"Looks like some fun brothers came here to play."
Audin, a humanoid monster with a physique that rivaled even the bear, was awake. He had pale yellow eyes, and his appearance was also outstanding.
Looking at his balanced body, she thought that if she had a golem like him, it would be quite useful.
"I didn't even have time to bring out the bonehead."
The flash golem she had gotten from the previous Enkrid was still resting inside her world. Of course, it was still a work in progress, so it wasn't ready to be used yet.
Either way, she roughly understood why Audin was awake.
"Divine power."
It was a reluctant power, something that came from the gods.
Later, Jaxen and Ragna also woke up, seemingly unaffected by the previous fainting.
"I'll go back to sleep."
Ragna seemed to have awakened a bit of his willpower.
Jaxen? He was a mystery. It felt like he had surpassed his limits, having trained to the extreme.
As they all briefly woke up…
"Hmm."
Enkrid moaned in his sleep.
"You sleep well."
"How dull. It must be the lack of training."
"There's no need to disturb someone who's sleeping. It's better to fight well when you're awake."
"Heh, looks like our Company Commander brother is tired. It's because his physical strength hasn't fully manifested yet."
Starting with Rem, then Jaxen, Ragna, and Audin, all of them made comments as they looked at the sleeping Company Commander.
Amid this, Rem added a comment while looking at the sleeping beast-woman.
"If we leave her like this, it'll be a nuisance."
But how could she sleep like this in such a situation?
Even though Beastfolk are naturally resistant to magic?
It was, in fact, inevitable.
Dunbakel had a very low sense of self-esteem, and the spells of comfort and peace were like a fatal weakness to her.
Of course, Rem wasn't concerned about that.
He just thought that something had to be done about it.
Esther didn't intend to show off her magic, but neither did she have any intention of leaving the corpse behind.
She waved her hand in the air.
Using an invisible force, a basic telekinetic spell commonly employed by mages, she rolled five corpses toward the entrance of the tent.
"The perception disruption spell will break soon."
Then, she addressed the others.
While Rem said something in response, the remaining three didn't even seem to register her presence.
Did they notice in advance?
That might be part of it.
"I'm going to sleep."
After all, there were types like Ragna. Whether she turned into a human, a leopard, or a fur-covered giant, people like him wouldn't care.
How odd.
Esther felt genuinely strange.
She had expected at least some surprise—even if not outright shock—at seeing her.
Or perhaps she secretly hoped for it.
These people were all bound together within the same circle, with the black-haired man at its center, who, even in such a situation, was sound asleep.
When the time limit expired, Esther transformed back into a leopard and nestled into Enkrid's embrace. The black robe covering her dissipated like smoke, disappearing as if absorbed into the ground.
It was only after she had resumed her leopard form and the perception disruption spell had vanished.
"What is this?"
Vengeance, perhaps part of a patrol unit, entered the tent and exclaimed in surprise.
The stench of blood and the sight of corpses rendered him speechless.
"Well, since you're here, help clean this up, will you?"
A commander who loses a battle might be forgiven, but one who fails at vigilance cannot.
Vengeance couldn't fathom how these people had infiltrated the area.
He had no way of knowing that mages had been involved.
"Oh? Uh, okay."
He simply assumed assassins had targeted them.
Yet, upon inspecting the dead, they didn't seem particularly well-trained.
It was simply a bewildering night.
Reporting this would likely infuriate Battalion Commander Marcus, but not reporting it wasn't an option either.
So, Vengeance delivered the message through the captain's guard during the night.
And the next morning, when Marcus woke up:
"Leave it. Any assassin who comes here will just fall into the antlion's pit."
He dismissed it nonchalantly.
In truth, Marcus had intentionally placed Enkrid's unit on the perimeter.
He suspected Martai's forces might send assassins in a last-ditch effort.
At the same time, he thought it was a futile endeavor.
"We even captured that half-blood elf assassin before."
That assassin had been fairly renowned, hadn't he?
Marcus was meticulous about gathering intelligence, believing such details led to victory on the battlefield.
"Let them send more. Some people only learn by burning their hands on the hot pan."
Marcus chuckled. Though he didn't know a mage had been involved, he now harbored an inexplicable, absolute trust.
He believed Enkrid would survive and overcome any challenge.
Yet, he had another thought.
"A knight, huh."
That dream Enkrid had mentioned.
Back then, Marcus had dismissed it as fanciful nonsense. But now, it seemed entirely plausible.
If so, what was Marcus's role?
If Enkrid became a knight—joined the knighthood—
"Under Cyprus?"
It didn't seem to fit the picture.
Who knows? It was a matter for the future, and they'd figure it out when the time came. Until then, Marcus would do what he needed to do.
After all, he might not even live to see Enkrid become a knight.
He was on the brink of stepping into something equally dangerous.
"So, everyone better take care of their own necks."
Marcus was doing the same.
Pitch-black darkness, a canvas painted in shadows. No starlight or moonlight, no light of any kind.
Just the rippling river, the boat, and the ferryman sitting atop it.
The only change from before:
"I can see eyes now."
Enkrid noticed something resembling an eye on part of the ferryman's face. Just one side.
If asked whether it resembled a human eye, he would likely answer he didn't know.
All he knew was that, upon seeing it, he recognized it as an eye.
It was a dream.
The ferryman gazed intently at him, and through that gaze, Enkrid felt the presence of the eye.
To sense such an intense stare, eyes had to exist.
"You're truly a strange one," the ferryman remarked.
Enkrid found it as if his lips had been sewn shut with thread. He struggled to open his mouth.
So he mustered his strength, forcing his lips apart, as if tearing through the imagined stitches.
"So, when does the wall show up again?"
He asked abruptly.
The wall is a curse, meant to cause suffering to humans, to push them into a corner and torment them.
That is the curse, the wall.
The ferryman knew this all too well. But the opponent before him actually asked for a wall.
What a madman.
The ferryman muttered this to himself, and then spoke to Enkrid with his eyes.
"You're insane."
With that familiar title, Enkrid opened his eyes. The dream blurred. The river, the ferryman, and the pitch-black darkness—all of it disappeared.
Grumble...
As soon as his eyes opened, warmth was felt in his arms. It was Esther.
As soon as he opened his eyes, the leopard also opened its eyes. Somehow, it seemed that its eyes had become even more human than yesterday.
"Did you sleep well?"
He greeted and got up, starting the morning training. Just because the enemy city was surrounded, there was no reason to rest the training.
"Did you sleep well?"
Rarely, Rem asked about his own sleep.
He had laid down, fallen asleep, and woke up properly. That meant he had slept well.
Dreams were irrelevant. Even if it was a nightmare, he would simply shake it off when he woke up.
"Is there any reason I wouldn't sleep well?"
"...You're surprisingly irritating."
What was he talking about now?
"Your sensory training is lacking."
This was also a rare occurrence. Jaxen, who had been grumbling since morning, and Audin, who was more enthusiastic than usual, were both giving their comments.
***
"One more! You can do it! Brother!"
Had he forgotten that this was a battlefield? Did Audin want to overstrain him like this?
It was a repetition of sitting while carrying a large stone on his back and then standing up.
His thigh muscles felt like they were about to tear, but as Audin said, he could do it.
"Did you feel anything last night?"
Rem came closer and asked again.
"It was a good night."
It wasn't too hot or too cold, so it was a good night's sleep.
When he woke up, there was a slight smell of blood in the barracks, but he thought it was just the traces of the battlefield.
Enkrid heard about the assassin after lunch.
It was thanks to Vengeance that he got the news.
"You mean I didn't wake up?"
"He was a mage, a mage."
It was only then that Rem started talking and teased Enkrid for not waking up even when the assassin came, wondering what was wrong with his nerve endings. Enkrid couldn't help but feel uneasy about it.
"Why didn't I wake up?"
A spell? Some kind of sleep-inducing scent?
Then what about his own team? Why had they woken up?
There was something lacking in him. Something that was different from the others.
He already knew what it was.
"Will."
What people called willpower.
He wasn't in a hurry, but he still wanted it. He knew what he had to do to get it.
Every day, he practiced with a sword.
Training and hardening his body in the middle of the battlefield. No one frowned at this.
Knowing your shortcomings meant you wanted to improve.
The enthusiasm and passion flared up once again. A heat that pounded his heart surged inside Enkrid.
"When do we fight?"
It was this heat that caused him to suddenly ask the fairy company commander who had come.
"We'll advance this afternoon."
"Will we use ladders? What about the gate?"
"Just deliver the message like that. Will you be leading the charge?"
Enkrid nodded.
Inside Martai, he wasn't sure what Olf was doing, but now that they were in this position, why not go with a strategy of breaking down the gate?
Contrary to his expectations, the battle was rather dull.
"Raise your shields!"
Enkrid, Rem, Audin, and the others raised their shields and moved forward.
They were large square shields. They were hastily made, but enough to block a few arrows.
Then, they advanced.
The battle was dull for one reason.
Thud, thud, thud... Grumble...
As they approached, with the sound of a pulley turning, the gate opened.
The arrows shot from the watchtowers and the walls lost their meaning as they stayed close to the gate and the walls.
By staying close to the walls, they were out of the range of the arrows.
"Why is it open?"
Rem muttered. Enkrid was also puzzled. The troops on both sides of the gate had split.
The first company commander, who had followed them, spoke to Enkrid.
"It's the brigade commander's magic."
It really did seem like magic.
Enkrid could roughly guess the reason.
"He planted a seed."
It wasn't just any seed, but one powerful enough to open the gate.
The skill was impressive.
No, it didn't stop there.
As Enkrid entered through the gate, he had a brief realization.
He had learned from both his allies' swords and the enemies' swords, but there was something he also learned from Marcus' strategy. A short but electrifying realization struck him.