A shadowy figure sat meditating atop a tree, still and silent as if he were part of it. An owl nded and perched on his shoulder, mistaking him for a branch. When he opened his eyes, it fshed with a faint glimmer in the dark; he had sensed his target approaching.

  ‘It's time.’

  Then his eyes turned to the wild bird on his shoulder, the owl startled, and flew off as the figure rose, shedding the stillness of his meditation.

  He was an assassin, sent to take the life of the Princess of Elford. He needed no details—just the target, and half of the bounty already paid.

  The hired killer never trusted the leader of the band of thieves to whom he leaked the information. He didn’t care about the situation earlier too, rather, because of the commotion, he had predicted that the princess would still try to investigate the event in the forest, and that was all he needed.

  And by the reports of his summoned shadow scouts were far better than he expected, the princess checked the forest with only four attendants. The fact that she didn’t bring the Shiraiko servant increased his chance of successfully assassinating the princess without him needing to bet his life.

  He free-fell back into the forest as his mission had begun.

  Princess Party.

  A five-woman party was moving through the Creek Forest, their mission was to investigate the forest. Two were shield and sword users, and one was a healer. Diana, the Princess, was an all-rounder, and Kiara was their scout.

  “Princess! I’m moving forward!” Kiara informed the princess as she jumped into the trees and moved to scout ahead. It was how they usually worked, even in dungeons.

  Weaving through the forest came naturally to Kiara. The branch was steady beneath her boots, the canopy above whispering like an old friend. Here, she was quiet, quick, and completely at home.

  But then—a stench.Sharp, metallic, and wrong. It snagged her attention like a thorn.

  She halted mid-step, nose twitching as the wind shifted. Whatever it was, it didn’t belong here. Her senses, honed from years of tracking prey and avoiding predators, told her one thing.

  ‘The stink of unwashed men, thieves ahead. We need to be careful.’

  Without another word, she turned and moved swiftly through the tree branches, retracing her path to rejoin the others.

  “Princess! Slow down! We got some thieves!” Kiara spoke with instance before she nded beside the princess to join her stride again.

  Diana nodded, and the party slowed their pace, moving cautiously. ‘The thing I hate the most,’ the princess thought, a slight furrow in her brow showing her irritation. Though they were thieves, they were still her own people—and she hated fighting against them.

  “Let’s kill the torches,” Diana said, opting for stealth.

  They crept forward, ready for anything. Soon, they saw a lot of thieves tied to the trees, and on the ground, as the party began scanning their surroundings, they found some hanging on the branches as well. It seemed that whoever did this left torches so that they could be easily seen.

  Assured it was safe to proceed, Kiara, who was leading them, approached the first thief closest to them. She shook the thief’s shoulders. ‘He is alive but knocked out.’

  Following her was Diana. “What’s happening?” the princess asked. It was a weird situation. She approached Kiara, who was checking out another bundle of thieves.

  “Princess! Don’t move!” And like a sixth sense, Kiara immediately felt a chill on the back of her neck; the hunter knew someone was watching them.

  Kiara turned and saw the source of the presence—

  A red-eyed shadow emerged from the darkness, slowly revealed by the flickering light of the torch about a 100 meters from the party. The party of five tensed up and automatically prepared for battle. The other two took a step forward, blocking the princess’s body with their own.

  “Nobody is allowed to die!” It was the princess’s command. The party understood well what the princess meant; she could carry those words too, she was that strong.

  ‘Here comes trouble.’ The princess contempted a never-ending list of possibilities. Her family possessed a special secret coveted by nobles from both the central and surrounding areas. There was also the possibility that someone desired the artifact.

  ‘I have some gold in me… maybe we could just settle this peacefully.’ Going into another fight was the st thing on her mind.

  Noticing the princess’s reaction, the red-eyed shadow said, “The question is... can you survive the night?” It was a man all cd in bck, and his red eyes fshed. He made strange signs with his hands, and magic flowed from his shadow, and new shadows sprouted in his image (Kage-bunshin!!). The 5 shadows were clearly nonhuman. They began moving to attack.

  “Incoming!” Diana screamed as she and her comrades formed a line. 3 of them, with Diana in the middle, were the vanguard while Kiara and their healer stood behind them.

  The shadows attacked using cws. Diana and her retainer in the right parried 3, pushing them away while Kiara and the other vanguard coordinated melee and range attacks.

  “Is everyone okay?” Diana asked after the first wave of attacks.

  “Yes!” the rest of the team answered.

  By that trade, Diana immediately gauged the summoned shadows’ strength. ‘Around a rank B adventurer,’ she thought. ‘But if it were that simple, there wouldn’t be a problem, right?’ She focused, knowing the battle would never be so straightforward—especially against a human.

  “A shadow element… troublesome,” Kiara muttered as she took out a bottle. She popped it open and poured its contents into the small pouch at the base of her quiver. ‘I need to nd a clean hit on those shadows but they move too fast.’ She then drew the next arrow and as soon as the arrow was on the bow, the tip burned bright.

  “I will try to stall and you nd the fming arrow okay?” Diana spoke out the pn.

  A soft scrape cut through the air.

  “Oh... so it’s true... at least he was honest.” It was another voice, this time it sounded young. A sword fell to strike the shadow from behind.

  The red-eyed shadow was instantly cut with a sword from a boy’s hands—the bde taken from one of the thieves. The ground was painted red, but there was no corpse to be found.

  The other shadows poised to attack the princess’s party halted and swiftly changed targets. “Kill the boy first,” commanded a voice from another direction; the bck-cd man had survived the boy’s surprise attack.

  In a rush, the shadows closed in on the boy. The dark human-shaped figures unched forceful strikes, their blows echoing through the forest.

  “Let’s help the boy!” the princess shouted, but-

  “NO!!! Their cws are poisoned!!!” the boy warned them with a roar. The five-man party of the princess was unable to move.