Ludger didn’t know who the girl was.

But he understood what she was.

‘Not a living person—she’s the spirit of someone who died.’

Rimle had said that the souls of those who perished here remained trapped forever.

If that were true, then this child was the lingering remnant of someone who had died in this place.

Yet despite the number of people who must have died in the Kasarr Basin, she was the only one who had taken on such a vivid human form.

No, she wasn’t the only one.

According to Arfa’s observations, there were other spirits in the forest as well.

Even so, the girl before him was undeniably a rare case.

And for such a ghost to appear before him now—it meant she wanted something.

Ludger slowly approached the girl.

She didn’t flee or hide this time, as if she recognized him.

But she didn’t allow him to get too close either.

Ludger stopped at a slight distance.

“Who are you looking for?”

He remembered the first time he’d met her.

She’d said she was searching for someone.

And that might very well be the key to understanding everything that was happening now.

“A friend.”

“A friend?”

“I’m looking for my friend.”

“What’s your friend’s name?”

The girl stared at Ludger with wide, transparent eyes.

“Lesley.”

“...Lesley?”

Lesley of the First Order.

Why was that name surfacing here?

Ludger didn’t believe it was a coincidence.

Did that mean the girl had some kind of connection to Lesley?

Just as Ludger was about to ask—

The girl’s form vanished like a mirage.

Moments later, someone spotted him and approached.

“Ludger Cherish. So this is where you were.”

“Sempas.”

“The meeting’s over? What’s the situation?”

“In thirty minutes, they’re assembling a team to go beyond the barrier.”

Ludger briefly explained what the enemy was trying to do with the leylines.

Since Sempas had experienced the incident at the mansion, he understood immediately without the need for extra explanation.

“I see. So it’s come to this. They’re no small-time opponents. This won’t be an easy fight.”

“No, it won’t. That’s probably why Duke Heibach sent you to me.”

“...When did you figure it out?”

Sempas gave Ludger a look, as if asking how he knew.

“When did you realize?”

“I didn’t suspect much when you first picked a fight with me. But afterward, when you silently followed me through the mansion without question—even after seeing what I could do—that made me wonder.”

“Because your skill was real.”

“Even so, you didn’t seem the least bit curious that someone posing as a mere instructor was capable of that level of ability.”

“Seorn’s instructors aren’t just ‘mere instructors.’”

“That may be, but it’s strange that you’re the only one who thinks that way.”

“...”

“Knowing the Duke, he probably thought it was too risky to leave me alone. So he sent you in as insurance—just in case. And this situation is far from normal.”

Sempas lowered his head slightly, an expression of mild guilt on his face.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to tip my hand.”

“I figured. You had to be careful. I assume Duke Heibach told you not to let me find out.”

“He said it might put you in an awkward position, maybe even offend you. So he told me to be as cautious as possible. Though in the end, I was found out anyway. You’re not mad?”

“Not particularly. I don’t plan to get emotional in a situation like this. If I were the Duke, I’d have done the same. Still, I didn’t expect you to be connected to House Kadatushan.”

“They helped me out a long time ago.”

“I see.”

Ludger responded, but couldn’t help finding the situation slightly amusing.

Not a single person who had gone to the mansion with him had approached out of simple curiosity.

Or... perhaps one had?

Loina Pavlini had acted purely out of goodwill—she was the only one.

“So, you came looking for me. That must mean you’ve learned something?”

“...Can you read minds?”

“What are you talking about? You’ve probably been gathering intel since you got here, haven’t you?”

Just as Ludger pointed out, Sempas had been meeting with various magicians in the outpost, focused on gathering information.

“It must be pretty significant, if you came all this way just to tell me.”

“It’s Rimle... His actions were suspicious. If he’d been preparing this for a long time, I figured there had to be clues. So I went around asking the mages who attended past Mystic Night gatherings what he was like back then.”

“Did they talk?”

“A little frown was all it took to get them spilling.”

“...Sometimes having a bad reputation is useful. So, what did you learn?”

“First, Rimle lost his daughter here. Her name was Isabella. She was part of the Truth School and was considered a rising star among young female magicians at the time.”

“Isabella...”

She had gone missing in the Basin.

Swept up in a mana storm—she was, for all intents and purposes, dead.

“But there was something not widely known.”

“What is it?”

“She was engaged to someone. And they studied magic together.”

“...What’s his name?”

“Lesley.”

At Sempas’s reply, Ludger wasn’t surprised.

So Rimle and Lesley had indeed been two separate individuals.

“A commoner without a family name. Isabella’s fiancé. Currently missing.”

“Missing, but still alive.”

“He likely partnered with Rimle for this entire affair. The motive? Revenge against the world.”

Of course, revenge wasn’t the only factor.

From what Rimle had said, their plan also involved freeing Isabella’s soul trapped in this place.

“Did you dig up anything else about who Lesley is?”

“Only that he used to belong to the Truth School. Beyond that, no records. Seems he didn’t leave much of an impression even at the time.”

“Could you ask other Truth School mages—never mind. They didn’t make it out of the mansion.”

“In other words, we can’t learn anything more about him for now.”

“From what I gathered, Lesley wasn’t exactly a standout among young Truth School mages.”

“They had young mages?”

“They’re all old men now, sure. But back then, some new blood had joined. Isabella was the most accomplished of the lot, and there were a few other promising students too.”

Sempas said this while pulling out a sketch.

“Where’d you get this?”

“There’s a ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) memorial stone set up in one corner of the outpost. A temporary grave to honor the dead. I took it from there.”

“...You took something from the belongings of the dead?”

“This isn’t the time to worry about that.”

Though reluctant, Ludger accepted the explanation and looked over the drawing.

It was a group portrait of several people.

At the center was Tortey, looking noticeably younger.

Around him stood the core members of the Truth School.

Flanking them were the younger newcomers.

Ludger’s eyes moved to the right side of the picture.

One particularly striking woman stood out.

A radiant blonde with a bob haircut.

“This must be Isabella.”

“Yeah.”

“Then the man standing next to her... is that Lesley?”

Ludger murmured, gazing at the gentle-faced man beside Isabella.

The two of them stood closely together in the portrait, as if to subtly suggest the special bond they shared.

Lesley had a gentle, rustic face.

He looked like a naive country boy who had just arrived in the city.

He didn’t match the image of the First Order Lesley at all.

The man Ludger had seen at the Order Synod had been a cold and imposing middle-aged figure.

‘Time can do that to a person, I suppose.’

After all, even this portrait had clearly been painted long ago.

Rimle was also depicted, but he wasn’t standing with Tortey—he was near his daughter, Isabella.

Ludger stared at Rimle for a while, until his eyes landed on another figure, and they lit up.

A hard expression and firmly closed mouth.

A young man with a demeanor like a soldier.

“Velkat Benmark, huh.”

Ludger immediately recognized the man in the painting.

He was one of the names Arfa had listed among mages to keep an eye on.

Despite his formidable skills, he had ended up killed at the mansion.

“So he was from the Truth School too.”

That explained why he had been killed during the mansion incident.

Rimle had never planned to let any Truth School mages live.

“Derrick Olson? He was from the Truth School too?”

Ludger spotted another familiar face in the portrait and asked.

“Ah. Yeah, he was. Didn’t stay for very long, though.”

“So the Truth School turned out quite a few talents, huh.”

“They had a reputation for a reason, at least back then. But that was a long time ago. These days it’s nothing but a tea party for aging ghosts.”

“Hmph.”

Derrick Olson had also been one of the people who went to the mansion.

If he was from the Truth School, he should’ve been on Rimle’s revenge list.

And yet, he survived.

Was it just luck? Or was there another reason?

“Anyway, we’re heading out soon, aren’t we?”

“Yeah. Not much time left now.”

“How are the teams organized?”

“There’ll be three teams moving out. They’re grouping people based on familiarity.”

Sempas nodded.

“Old Mage Tower, New Mage Tower, and the School Alliance, then.”

“Those three will form the core, and freelance mages will be assigned to join them. So I’ll probably end up in one of those groups.”

“If we’re splitting up, then we won’t be going together.”

“Most likely, you and I will be attached to the Old and New Tower factions, respectively. Since Loina’s with the Alliance, we don’t have much choice.”

“We’ll each have to do our best from where we are.”

Sempas said he’d look around to see if there was anything else to uncover and then left.

Once he was gone, Ludger tried to look for the girl again.

But she was already gone.

‘Left, huh...’

He didn’t think she would show up again just by waiting around, so Ludger headed for the central plaza.

He needed to inform Loina and Arfa about the situation.

‘A girl’s spirit looking for Lesley...’

In the portrait, Isabella had been a radiant woman with bright blonde hair.

The girl’s hair had been the same color.

Blonde was hardly a rare hair color—but Ludger didn’t chalk it up to coincidence.

‘A dead woman’s soul searching for her fiancé... and the man trying to set her free.’

It was a tragic romance, no doubt.

But if the ending involved mass slaughter, it had to be stopped.

* * *

The magicians had been divided into three teams.

Now that the expedition was about to begin, no one was foolish enough to complain or ask why this was happening.

Everyone fully understood the gravity of the situation and what was expected of them.

Their faces were marked by extreme tension.

Especially those who would remain at the outpost—some of them looked on the verge of panic.

“How did it come to this...”

“We just came here for sightseeing...”

Despite being called “Mystic Night,” not all attendees were magicians.

Naturally, wealthy tycoons and a few nobles would visit the Kasarr Basin for one of the rare experiences available only a few times per year.

For those people, attending this year’s event had been truly unlucky.

The only reason they weren’t all in a frenzy was thanks to Queen Yekaterina.

As the highest-ranking person present, her calmness helped keep everyone else under control.

She considered that a relief, though part of her also felt regret.

‘I wanted to fight alongside the magicians heading beyond the barrier...’

But she knew neither magic nor combat.

Forcing herself into something she wasn’t suited for—that was something she might have done when she was younger and more reckless.

Now, all she could do was trust the others and let them handle it.

“Still, I can’t just send them off like this. You two—please help them.”

Yekaterina turned to her two lieutenants, the twin siblings Bataly and Valentina, and asked them to support the magicians.

Both of them were excellent knights.

They had distinguished themselves in the civil war and had plenty of real combat experience.

While not quite at the level of master knights, they were top-class in skill.

Their respective squads were also composed of elite warriors.

Together, they would be a great asset.

“Your Majesty.”

“We’ll carry out your orders.”

Bataly and Valentina usually prioritized guarding the queen, but they understood that stubbornness had no place in a situation like this.

If the magicians failed and the leyline burst, everyone here would die anyway.

So to protect the queen, they had to assist the magicians and stop the Black Dawn from destroying the leylines.

“You’ll both do well.”

Yekaterina smiled gently, and the twin knights and their troops all knelt in solemn acknowledgment.

There was no formal departure ceremony for this mission.

It would’ve been meaningless under the current circumstances.

The magicians, grouped by team, began heading beyond the barrier.

Those left behind at the outpost watched them go with desperate, silent prayers for their success.

‘Wonderful.’

Ludger was assigned to the Old Mage Tower team.

If it had been the New Tower, maybe it would’ve been fine—but since relations were already bad between him and the Old Tower, he naturally stood out like a sore thumb.

Still, there were quite a few independent magicians with them, so at least he wasn’t entirely alone.

“Let’s do well.”

Ludger nodded at Derrick Olson, who had approached and greeted him.

Derrick, essentially the leader of the freelancers, was also part of this team.

Ludger looked at him squarely and replied,

“Yes. I’m in your care.”