Arc 4 Chapter 15 : Cornfield

[Alesio POV]

After securing whatever food supplies could still be salvaged, Adrien ordered the Reconnaissance Unit accompanying him to immediately search for the remaining villagers who had fled Alto Village.

He believed they could not have gotten far.

I agreed with him.

That was why he asked me to lead one of the Reconnaissance Units, escorted by twenty Knights in case we encountered an enemy Reconnaissance Unit along the way.

During my years as a Scouter in the Intelligence Unit, I had been trained to track people by carefully observing the environment around me.

For example, I was currently examining the disturbed earth beneath my feet.

It looked as though a large group of people had recently passed through this area.

Their footprints had clearly been erased in an attempt to prevent anyone from following them. However, the work had been done in a hurry.

The traces had not been completely concealed.

I could still read them.

"Lord Alesio, have you determined which direction they went?" one of the Draconian Knights asked.

"Judging from what I've observed, they're approximately four to five kilometers west of us."

I pointed toward the direction of the tracks.

"We need to catch up with them quickly. Those villagers are most likely being escorted by an enemy Reconnaissance Unit."

"One of us should return and report this information to Lord Adrien while the rest of us continue pursuing them."

"Very well. We'll do as you say, Lord Alesio."

One member of the Reconnaissance Unit we were escorting immediately returned to Alto Village to report our discovery.

The rest of us continued searching for the fleeing villagers.

After several more minutes of following their trail, I suddenly noticed a fresh set of horse tracks in the dirt.

They were heading in the opposite direction from the villagers' trail.

I immediately raised my hand.

Everyone stopped.

"A problem, Lord Alesio? Why have we stopped?"

"There is a fresh trail."

I crouched down and examined the ground.

"One person rode a horse west."

Judging by how fresh the tracks were, the rider had passed through here no more than five minutes ago.

Why had they allowed a single person to separate from the others and head in another direction?

Was this a trap?

Was he trying to deliver some kind of message to another group of their soldiers?

Or...

After considering several possibilities, I approached the Captain commanding the Reconnaissance Unit.

"Captain, I'll take twenty Knights and follow this other trail."

I pointed toward the horse tracks.

"You and your unit continue following the trail of the villagers from Alto Village."

"I'll rejoin you within ten minutes."

The Captain nodded at my instructions.

I then took ten Knights and followed the suspicious rider's trail.

My suspicion was that he intended to report to another Reconnaissance Unit somewhere nearby and request assistance after discovering our presence.

The sun was beginning to sink toward the horizon.

Night would arrive soon, and the world would grow darker by the minute.

We needed to catch that man before the sunlight disappeared completely.

Otherwise, searching for him would become much more difficult.

Not long after following the horse tracks, we arrived at a vast cornfield.

Unlike the surrounding grasslands, this field had not been burned at all.

It remained completely intact.

A horse stood abandoned near the edge of the field.

My heart began beating faster.

There was no doubt about it.

The man we had been following had entered this cornfield.

"What should we do now, Lord Alesio?"

One of the Knights looked toward me.

There were two possibilities.

The first was that the man had come here to burn the cornfield so our army would have no food resources left in the area, just as the villagers of Alto had done.

The second possibility...

This was a trap.

The enemy could be waiting inside the field, preparing to ambush us the moment we entered.

However, the second possibility seemed unlikely.

That man would not have had enough time to reach another patrol and request assistance.

If he had, we would have encountered those soldiers before arriving here.

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"We'll enter the cornfield and search for the rider."

I looked toward the towering rows of corn.

"He most likely came here to burn the field so our army would eventually starve after exhausting the remaining food resources in the region."

After receiving my order, the ten Knights accompanying me entered the cornfield.

We spread out, maintaining a distance of roughly twenty to thirty meters between each other so we could search the area more quickly.

The corn plants were tall enough to severely limit our visibility.

Krookk! Krookk! Krookk!

The cawing of a crow echoed through the area as it flew overhead.

For some reason, I had a strange feeling that we should not be here.

The sky was growing darker.

Only a faint trace of sunlight remained, making it increasingly difficult to see through the dense crops.

"Arrrgh—!"

Suddenly, a muffled scream came from somewhere to my left.

My entire body tensed.

"What happened!?"

I immediately rushed toward the source of the scream.

When I arrived, four Knights were gathered around the body of one of their comrades.

He was lying motionless on the ground, his body covered in blood.

It seemed he had been the one who screamed.

But something had killed him before he could make another sound.

"What happened?"

I questioned the four Knights.

One of them crouched beside the corpse and examined the wound.

"A slash across the neck..."

He swallowed.

"Most likely a surprise attack from the front."

Not long afterward, five more Knights arrived, their expressions filled with curiosity.

But the moment they saw the bloodied corpse of their fallen comrade, their expressions changed.

"Lord Alesio..."

One of the Knights spoke grimly.

"I don't think that man came here to burn the field or call for reinforcements."

He looked around the darkening cornfield.

"I think he came here to hunt us down one by one."

Badum!

My heart pounded harder.

Him?

He was hunting these Knights...

Alone?

Wasn't he merely a member of a Reconnaissance Unit?

There was no way one man could defeat all these highly trained Knights!

"We need to kill him here."

The Knight's voice became firm.

"Split into ten teams of two."

All the Knights reorganized themselves into pairs.

They began sweeping through the field again, each pair watching the other's back.

I remained in the very center with one Knight beside me.

Yet despite searching the field for some time, we still hadn't seen even the slightest sign of that man.

Where was he hiding?

I was currently searching for the mysterious man alongside one of the Knights.

We watched opposite directions, covering each other's blind spots so the enemy could not attack us without warning.

Then—

My eyes suddenly caught a shadow.

Something moved rapidly between the towering corn stalks.

It moved without making a sound.

Was that him?

Was the person near us the one who had killed that Knight?

I sharpened my focus and heightened every one of my senses, desperately trying to detect his presence.

Krook! Krook! Krook!

The cawing of a crow echoed once again.

For some reason, the sound sent a chill down my spine.

I turned around.

A man stood between the rows of corn.

He was dressed entirely in black.

His hair was black as well.

And in his hand...

He held a sword.

"Enemy sighted—"

Before I could warn the Knight beside me, the man suddenly burst forward.

He shot past my body with terrifying speed.

I spun around.

The man had already driven his blade into the Knight's neck.

His other hand covered the victim's mouth, preventing him from screaming.

I immediately drew my sword and moved to attack.

But as the man turned around and released the Knight's body, allowing it to collapse to the ground—

My movement stopped.

Our eyes met.

His black eyes...

They were like a darkness that threatened to swallow me whole if I moved even a single muscle.

Sweat began pouring down my body.

My heart pounded violently.

Even my hands had begun to tremble.

Is this what it feels like to stand before death?

I blinked.

And the man disappeared.

He was gone.

I looked around frantically, but I could no longer sense his presence anywhere nearby.

Where did he go?

I slowly began walking, keeping every ounce of my focus fixed on my surroundings.

Swooshh...

A sound reached my ears.

It sounded as though someone was running around the area where I stood.

But my eyes couldn't find him.

The tall corn completely obstructed my vision.

I turned around and slowly backed away, stepping on several stalks as I moved.

"..."

My back touched something.

I panicked.

I spun around and raised the sword in my right hand, ready to slash.

But the object touching my back was nothing more than a scarecrow standing among the crops.

A scarecrow meant to keep birds away from the field.

Damn it!

That creepy thing nearly stopped my heart!

I took several deep breaths, trying to calm myself and stabilize my breathing.

"Aarrrghhh!"

"He's—he's here! Help meee!"

Two more screams echoed through the cornfield.

So far...

It seemed he had already taken down five Knights.

"Hey! We need to regroup!"

Another voice rang through the field.

"That man is stronger than we thought!"

He was right.

We needed to regroup.

Two people were not enough to prevent this man from hunting us down one by one!

I pushed my legs as hard as I could and rushed toward the source of the scream.

At this point, I no longer cared if the man suddenly appeared directly in front of me.

The only thing I could think about was reaching the others as quickly as possible.

"Huff... Huff... Huff..."

My breathing grew heavier.

The mental pressure this man was exerting on me was becoming unbearable.

The Knight had been right.

We weren't the ones hunting him.

We were the ones being hunted.

I never should have decided to follow him into this place.

Tang! Tang! Tang!

The sound of clashing swords came from somewhere ahead.

He must be fighting one of the surviving Knights.

I was almost there.

After running for several more moments, I finally reached a relatively open area.

But there was no one fighting here.

Nothing.

Except for six Knights lying motionless on the blood-soaked ground.

All of them had been killed.

He did this...

He had slaughtered every one of them.

"Who... who is this man?"

My voice came out as a whisper.

There was no way someone from a Reconnaissance Unit could defeat Knights who had been extensively trained in magic and martial arts!

BOOM!

Suddenly, an explosion erupted somewhere nearby.

A cloud of smoke rose into the sky.

Then flames began spreading through the cornfield.

"Did those Knights use fire magic against him!?"

I didn't know.

I didn't care.

I had to get out of here.

I started running again.

The heat intensified as the flames spread rapidly through the dry crops.

Then I heard footsteps to my left.

I turned my head.

Four more Knights were running alongside me, desperately trying to escape the burning field.

"Lord Alesio!"

One of them shouted.

"Where did everyone else go!?"

They were all that remained.

Of the twenty Knights I had brought here, only these four were still alive.

The man's objective had been to force us to fight separately so we could never make use of our numerical advantage.

"I don't know!"

I shouted back.

"But we need to get out of here unless we want to be burned alive!"

We were almost out.

I could see our horses approximately three hundred meters ahead.

Just a little farther...

But then—

The hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end.

The same feeling.

The feeling I had experienced whenever that man was near me.

I looked behind us.

I could sense something chasing us.

"What's wrong, Lord Alesio? Why do you keep looking beh—"

Before the Knight could finish his sentence—

Slash!

His head was severed from his body.

His corpse collapsed onto the ground.

"W-Who are you!?"

"Attack him!"

The remaining three Knights turned around and attempted to engage him.

But I didn't stop.

I kept running.

I abandoned them.

I had to escape.

"Arrrghhh! My hand! My hand is gone!"

"Damn it! He can use Asphalt!"

A scream came from behind me.

It seemed he had already taken down another one of them.

One hundred meters.

Only one hundred meters remained.

My breathing had become ragged.

My chest burned from running without stopping.

I was almost out of the field.

But just as I was about to reach the edge—

My foot caught on a large stone buried in the ground.

"Ughhh!"

I fell hard.

"The darkness is making it difficult to see..."

I pushed myself up.

And then I saw him.

The black-haired man stood near the three corpses of the Knights he had just fought.

His left hand was holding the head of one of the Knights he had killed moments ago.

His eyes were sharp.

Cold.

Like those of a cold-blooded killer.

A shiver ran through my entire body.

For the first time in my life...

I felt genuine horror from another human being.

I scrambled out of the burning cornfield.

I immediately mounted my horse and rode away from that place as fast as I could.

I had to report what had happened to Lord Adrien.

"This world..."

My body still trembled whenever I remembered those eyes.

"...is full of terrifying people like him."

Even after reaching Gela Village, where the main army of the Kingdom of Draconia was stationed, I still couldn't sleep.

Every time I closed my eyes, I remembered what had happened in that cornfield.