“What happened back then?”

“It’s an old story. At the time, I was an unofficial member of the Truth School. My name wasn’t on any lists—I just offered advice now and then as an external consultant.”

“Judging from what they were saying earlier, it sounds like you held a fairly important position.”

“I did. But that wasn’t me—it was my daughter.”

At the word daughter, Loina widened her eyes.

“You had a daughter?”

“What, you little brat?! You saying I wasn’t even capable of getting married?!”

When Rimle raised his staff threateningly, Loina quickly darted behind Arfa for cover.

Ludger watched the ridiculous scene play out.

Honestly, he’d been thinking the same thing.

He had a daughter? So the old man really did get married once, huh.

Rimle glared at Loina peeking out from behind Arfa, then slowly lowered his staff.

“...She was my only child. A promising talent of the Truth School, and more devoted than anyone when it came to exploring the arcane.”

“Exploring the arcane?”

As Ludger listened to Rimle speak, and recalled the previous conversation with the Truth School members, he started piecing things together—why Rimle had come to the Kasarr Basin.

Many puzzle pieces were still missing, but the outline of the picture was beginning to form.

“Don’t tell me... your daughter...”

Rimle nodded solemnly.

“My daughter came here to the Kasarr Basin as a member of the Truth School. But back then, people didn’t know much about the dangers or precautions required to enter this place.”

“Then she must have gotten caught up in the anomaly...”

“It was a natural disaster. Everything had gone smoothly for three days. It happened on the way back. A mana storm, caused by an extreme mana concentration. It tore through the middle of the departing caravan.”

Rimle hadn’t participated in that year’s Mystic Night.

Even now, he only spoke of what had been told to him, calmly.

“Mana storms are dangerous. Even from a distance, they make your skin sting. They aren’t called disasters for nothing.”

The mages panicked, unable to respond properly.

That was when Rimle’s daughter stepped forward.

“She said they had to work together to block the mana storm. They couldn’t drive it back or escape, but she figured they could at least buy time. Mana disasters aren’t permanent. In fact, they usually pass quickly. She believed if they just held on for a bit, it would subside.”

And she had been right.

Hundreds of mages cast spells in unison to resist the storm.

It began to subside. Just a little more time, and it might have faded completely.

But there was one thing she had overlooked—

Human selfishness.

“Some cowards, frightened by the storm, used the chaos to escape. Like cracks forming in a massive wall, others were influenced by that.”

It should be fine by now.

Just me leaving won’t change anything.

That’s what they thought as they fled.

And then—collapse.

The balance of magical power, barely holding together, crumbled due to the fleeing mages.

“One hundred fifty-two. That’s how many burned through their own mana trying to stop the storm until the very end.”

It was also the number of the dead.

No one could offer consolation to Rimle’s quiet recitation.

The subtle emptiness and bitterness buried deep in his voice wasn’t something anyone could respond to lightly.

“Then the reason you’ve come here, Master Rimle...”

“Clinging to the past. A father’s stubborn hope that maybe, just maybe, my daughter—swept up in the anomaly—might still be alive.”

As a mage, he had accepted her death. But as a father, he had not.

That’s # Nоvеlight # why Rimle kept returning to the Kasarr Basin during Mystic Night.

Because perhaps he could find a trace of her.

Every year.

For decades.

“...Then the Truth School mages here must be survivors from that day.”

“Cowardly bastards, more like.”

Rimle ground his teeth.

“They keep spouting nonsense about how important they are and how they had to survive. They were saying that crap back then too. It’s only gotten worse now that they’re older.”

He muttered to himself for a moment, then looked at Ludger and chuckled softly.

“But thanks to you, I feel a little better.”

“Because of me?”

“You forgot already? You laid into those senile fools with no hesitation. Everyone else was too scared of them, bowing and scraping—it pissed me off. Haven’t felt that satisfied in years.”

That hadn’t been his intention.

Ludger had simply been angry at the Truth School’s behavior.

Even in a situation where they needed to escape the mansion, they acted with such self-centeredness.

And then to shamelessly show up at the study and tell him to leave?

If there hadn’t been others watching—or if the situation hadn’t been so urgent—he might’ve used force.

“This conversation’s gone on long enough. Let’s stop chatting and start looking for something useful.”

With that, Rimle turned and walked away.

The others had no choice but to follow his lead.

Ludger also stepped away with Arfa, pretending to check another shelf.

“Leader.”

Once they were out of earshot, Arfa turned to Ludger.

“Why do you want to keep the hidden space a secret from the others?”

She had been visibly puzzled by that decision earlier.

“Wouldn’t it be better to tell everyone?”

“Because I don’t trust them.”

“Who don’t you trust?”

“Everyone.”

Ludger pulled a book off the shelf and flipped through the pages.

Arfa tilted her head, clearly still confused.

“Arfa. You know there was a murder here, right?”

Thud.

He closed the book.

“Yes? Of course—I saw it.”

“There were about ten murderers. But that’s not the point. What matters is that at least one of them is still here—and that they’re part of the Black Dawn Society.”

“Yes. That’s why I’ve been keeping an eye on the suspicious ones like you said.”

“Good. But none of them have tried to contact me. And I doubt they don’t know I’m here.”

Arfa looked at Ludger as he slotted the book back onto the shelf.

“But... isn’t that just because there are too many people around watching?”

“That’s possible. But they could’ve still sent me a signal. Yet no one did. Even on our way back to the study—no one tailed us.”

Ludger picked out a new book, leafing through it as he asked:

“So why do you think that is?”

“Um...”

Arfa started to say she didn’t know—but then stopped herself.

Ludger wouldn’t have asked unless he’d already given her enough clues.

He hadn’t named any specific suspect.

He’d just said he didn’t trust anyone.

Which meant there had to be another reason for his secrecy.

“...You think there’s more?”

Arfa asked quietly.

Ludger’s eyes gleamed as he looked up.

He asked, testing her:

“More what?”

“Black Dawn—the group you mentioned. You’re technically one of their officers, right? But the fact that they haven’t contacted you or sent any signals doesn’t mean they’re ignoring you... It means they don’t need to.”

“...I’m right, aren’t I?”

Meeting Arfa’s gaze, Ludger let out a dry chuckle.

“Correct.”

He slid the book back into its place on the shelf.

“They’re not avoiding contact with me because the situation makes it difficult. It’s because there’s no reason to.”

“No reason to...?”

“For example—what if there’s already someone here who can relay information about me?”

“What? But among our group...”

“Arfa. It’s good to trust people, but too much trust can be poison. In life, suspicion is necessary.”

Ludger’s firm tone made Arfa’s expression fall.

“...Still, it doesn’t feel right. Everyone seems like good people. I don’t understand. Why would someone deceive us? Do they have to?”

“Everyone has their reasons. Whether for some noble cause... or something petty and meaningless.”

“Then... what will you do now?”

“For now, I’ll wait. It’s not too late to act after we see how they move. More importantly, the priority is figuring out how to escape this mansion.”

“Did you find a clue in the inner room?”

Ludger nodded.

“I discovered the mansion’s secrets—anomalies, magical traps, and even the mechanisms that control the place.”

“So we can get out?”

“Not yet. The door’s locked by one of the devices. The problem is... we don’t know where the device is.”

“Then we need to find it and activate it. But how do we explain this to the others?”

“That’s another problem.”

The requirement that they move in groups of five was incredibly restrictive.

Wherever they went, they had to go together.

“And I’m not only suspicious of our group. Some of the Truth School mages in this study are also under suspicion.”

Ludger wouldn’t have thought much if they hadn’t shown up at the study in that exact moment.

“What do you think the Black Dawn is trying to do here?”

“I’m not completely sure, but there was something in the text inside that hidden room.”

“What was it?”

“The Kasarr Basin is a land where the earth’s massive energy veins—ley lines—gather. You could think of it like a natural dam holding back a huge volume of water. Now imagine what would happen if that dam collapsed.”

“Well... there’d be catastrophic damage, right? All that water would be released at once, flooding everything nearby...”

Arfa trailed off, eyes going wide.

“Wait—don’t tell me...”

“That’s right. They’re trying to collapse the ley lines flowing through the Kasarr Basin.”

Collapse the ley lines?

Was that even possible?

Arfa, unfamiliar with this kind of magical theory, immediately questioned its feasibility.

“It’s probably possible. I can’t deny that they’ve figured out a method.”

“How do they plan to destroy the ley lines?”

“The Kasarr Basin is formed by the convergence of five major ley lines. If you twist the flow in the middle, the forces maintaining balance will collide and clash. It’s not even that complicated.”

The shock from such a collision would trigger a massive catastrophe.

It was exactly what Lesley had hinted at—a method to wipe out all mages at once.

They hadn’t known how until now, but thanks to what Ludger read in that hidden room, he was sure of it.

“One of those critical ley lines is located right beneath this secret mansion. That’s why they infiltrated the mansion.”

“Then we need to stop them, right away.”

“Yeah. The real problem is persuading the others to act.”

He was still thinking of how to spin a convenient excuse when—

Rrrrrrmb.

The mansion began to tremble, shaking in small, rapid vibrations.

“Leader! The mansion—!”

“I know.”

Ludger led Arfa to the center of the study.

The area was already crowded with people drawn by the tremors.

Loina shouted upon spotting him.

“Mr. Ludger!”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yes, but what was that shaking—?”

“It looks like something’s about to happen.”

There was no doubt Black Dawn had made their move.

Maybe they tampered with the ley lines—or the mansion’s mechanisms. Either way, it wasn’t normal.

The tremors gradually died down.

But no one seemed relieved.

Everyone instinctively sensed it—this stillness was the eye of the storm.

The Truth School mages were already arguing among themselves.

“Shouldn’t we try to leave?!”

“It could be nothing. The study is safe—watching the situation from here might be best.”

“What if the doors are open now?”

“We’ve still got hours until midnight. There’s time.”

Tortey stepped in to settle things.

“For now, we observe. If we rush out carelessly, we might get swept up in something worse.”

Even as he spoke, Tortey glanced toward Rimle.

As if asking what he planned to do.

Rimle gave him a scathing look, then turned to Ludger.

“I’m heading out. Staying here doesn’t feel right. Unless you’re staying behind?”

“I was just thinking it’d be better to leave.”

Ludger gathered his group and exited the study.

Some Truth School mages clicked their tongues at his back, but he ignored them.

Once in the hallway, the atmosphere felt even more suffocating.

“Stay alert. We don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

Everyone nodded—but before they could speak—

“Aaaaagh!”

A scream rang out from down the hall.

Not the eerie illusions of past anomalies.

This was real—a scream from a living person.

And then—a mage came sprinting toward them, pale as a ghost.

“Help! A monster! A monster!!”

Monster? Ludger narrowed his eyes.

Why is he alone? What happened to his group?

Everyone stood frozen in confusion.

That’s when something twitched in the distant hallway darkness.

Arfa was the first to notice—and gasped.

“What is that?!”

Behind the fleeing mage, twisted creatures were giving chase.