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The sun vanished beyond the horizon, and in its place, the moon rose, barely illuminating the surroundings. For an elf with night-vision, the dense thicket posed no hindrance on the path.

“Those damned bastards. Is it really acceptable to just turn back when told? At the very least, they should stay until the end to report the results.”

Before heading to the shack, Lindy asked one of the subordinates she had assigned to Elysia about the situation. However, the response was dismal.

“The Hero said to take everyone back, including the guards… It was too forceful, and we had no choice.”

Sensing urgency in Lindy’s voice, the subordinate quickly spoke the truth. There was no reason to hide it anyway.

Of course, Lindy already knew this. How could a lowly employee disobey a command that wasn’t even an official order from Elysia? Even though Elysia was an outsider, she was under the protection of Lindy, the head of the organization. Everyone in the organization was aware that it was established to support the Hero, Elysia.

Yet, no matter how much she understood, it was unavoidable that she felt anger, so in her impatience, she vented her frustration on the subordinate.

“Just over that hill, you’ll see the shack.”

“It does feel like it’s just beyond the hill… Everyone, get ready.”

It would be a relief if nothing were to happen, but they still didn’t know what had occurred with Elysia. It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious, so everyone began to grip their weapons and stay alert.

Unfortunately, with a hill in between, even Lindy’s sharp elven eyes couldn’t see well. One might ask if using spirits to understand the situation would help, but the only spirit Lindy could summon was a low-level one that merely provided slight assistance while shooting arrows.

Of course, it wasn’t that Lindy’s spirit perception was low. It was a ridiculous joke to say that an elf, a species famous for its intimacy with spirits, had low spirit sensitivity. In fact, Lindy had once been a powerful Spirit Mage capable of commanding even the highest-level spirits.

However, the reason Lindy couldn’t receive help from the spirits now was,

‘…It’s been 30 years; I thought I’d be forgiven by now.’

Due to her past mistakes.

Her previous wrongdoings had been so grievous that they were deemed shameless by the Spirit King, resulting in an unusual punishment of allowing only low-level spirits, marking her as the first elf to face such a punishment.

It wasn’t a grave sin like breaking a pact with spirits or destroying their bodily forms. If that had been the case, instead of receiving the ambiguous punishment of only being allowed low-level spirits, Lindy would have been the target of all spirits for tracking.

So what was the mistake Lindy made?

It was none other than sexual harassment, a charge so embarrassing that even the Spirit King and the elf elders deemed it a shame too great to announce publicly.

Originally, spirits have no physical forms. They exist solely in the Spirit Realm and require no special feeding, making physical form effectively meaningless. However, when actually encountering spirits, most can take on various appearances.

This is solely based on the image held by the one who made a contract with the spirit. Depending on the contractor’s imagination, a spirit might appear as a lizard for one person or a wolf for another.

However, the spirits Lindy had contracted with all took the form of beautiful girls. Of course, that in itself wasn’t a crime. Many spirits had beautiful appearances. But Lindy took it a step further and crossed the line.

She would casually caress the arms of the wind spirit while claiming to teach how to shoot arrows and would hug the water spirit under the pretense of asking for healing. Initially, the pure spirits acted without any suspicion, but as victims began to increase, Lindy’s actions could no longer escape the notice of the Spirit King.

Of course, there were humans in history who had feelings for spirits. In fact, one of the Spirit Kings had promised to marry the contractor with whom he had made a pact and would live together for eternity, and that contractor had indeed passed away and moved to the Spirit Realm to be with the Spirit King.

While sexual harassment is undoubtedly a serious crime for humans, it’s a bit ambiguous to label it as such pertaining to spirits. It must be punished, but Lindy was also a friend of the spirits as an elf, so the Spirit King couldn’t simply cast her aside.

Therefore, after that day, Lindy could only contract with the lowest-grade spirits, unable to master the forces of nature or form her own shape.

Having an exceptional archery skill, Lindy had never felt much inconvenience until now, but in situations like this, she couldn’t help but feel regret.

Never had she looked back at her past self with such disdain and resentment.

But what good was regret? It was already done.

With no choice, she relied solely on her eyes and senses to stay vigilant, taking one step at a time toward the top of the hill. The moment she reached the summit.

Flash!

A bright white light enveloped the group.

“Ahhh!”

While those ahead were only startled and showed no reaction, it was Lilith, walking at the back, who screamed and stumbled backward.

Although she often demonstrated a carefree attitude toward Lilith, Frecia, who had a favorable view of her, immediately checked on Lilith.

Fortunately, the wing had only brushed against her, and there was no significant injury.

However, they couldn’t afford to feel at ease. The recent attack was a declaration of war. The enemy had already noticed them and regarded them as foes.

Though there were no particular signals, actions were swift.

First, Gomtaengi and Tokki jumped out. Then Luna concealed herself in the darkness, while Lindy nocked an arrow to her bowstring.

Looking ahead, a military force was charging toward Frecia’s group from an unknown origin. They appeared formidable, yet Frecia calmly began chanting her spells.

Boom!

The timing was perfect: it was the night when Frecia grew stronger. With a simple gesture and a bit of murmuring, a meteor erupted in the midst of the ghostly army.

With that single spell, half of the ghosts lost their tangible forms. While the ghostly army faltered, Lindy’s arrows pierced through them once again.

With each time Lindy drew back her bowstring, three arrows flew simultaneously, each piercing through three ghosts. Only two individuals managed to hold back the ghostly army. Of course, they were supported by Yuli’s magic, but the army had already lost its breakthrough potential, diminishing the advantage of their group.

Crash!

Breaking through the ghostly army, now strength clashed against strength.

Anne, of small stature, collided with Gomtaengi, who was of a similar size.

However, the force of their clash was anything but small. The shockwave spread out with enough force to flatten the surrounding grass. Despite being a doll, each punch from Gomtaengi had the power to shatter rocks with ease.

Anne’s great strength was also no joke, but that was all.

The power of House Klain that reacts only to the demonic race could hardly manifest against Gomtaengi. Though Anne’s power was stronger than Gomtaengi’s, it wasn’t enough to create a considerable gap, resulting in both of them merely entangling each other’s feet.

“Eek!”

Meanwhile, Lilith shook her wings and tried to rejoin the battle, but before she could wield her whip, she was merely fleeing from Mariel, who was chasing her wielding a mace wrapped in holy power, squealing in panic.

And Selian.

Tokki tried to block her, but there was an overwhelming difference in force that made it impossible to stop Selian alone. Even if anyone from Frecia’s group stood in her way, they wouldn’t be able to hold her back.

She wasn’t specialized in group battles like Yuli, nor was she unskilled in swordsmanship like Anne. No matter how much Tokki had been enhanced by Frecia, he wasn’t capable of receiving blows from a Sword Master. Despite dodging Selian’s swift strikes with agility, there was no guarantee he could keep it up indefinitely.

However, it was Luna’s job to fill in that gap. Even though Selian could detect Elysia’s stealth, Luna’s own stealth techniques had improved enough by mimicking Elysia’s skills that she wouldn’t be so easily disregarded by Selian amidst the chaos. She unwittingly divided Selian’s attention, forcing her to raise her sword to block Luna’s dagger from time to time.

Moreover, as Yuli’s ghostly army lost their forms and then regained them, Lindy had been able to keep Selian in check with arrows, rendering any counterattack against Luna futile. It was practically a 1v3 situation.

On one side, a large-scale battle was taking place, on another, a clash of strength, elsewhere, a pursuit, and yet, on another front, a tightrope act was unfolding.

There was certainly familiarity between Selian’s group and Frecia’s. However, due to the three-year gap, the suddenly erupting battle, and the limited visibility under the moonlight, the chances of recognizing each other were low.

Regardless of which side might lose, the moment one of them went down, the battlefield would tilt heavily in favor of the opposing side instantly. And the damage wouldn’t just end with slight injuries to laugh off.

When just a little more time had passed, bringing the situation to a point of no return,

“Stop, everyone! We’re on the same side! We’re on the same side!”

Elysia, nearly knocking down the hut with her headbutt, finally emerged and shouted with desperation.

However, how loud could a single female voice be against the roar of battle? Naturally, her voice would drown in the noise. Normally, that would be the case, but,

Dramatic silence.

As if it had been orchestrated, everyone stopped in their tracks.

Selian, Yuli, Anne, Mariel, Linne, and the ghostly army.

Frecia, Luna, Lindy, Lilith, Gomtaengi, and Tokki.

It seemed as if the skirmish they had engaged in moments ago was nothing but a lie as everyone’s gazes turned toward Elysia, who was not the enemy.