The woman seemed to regain her composure as she met the man’s serious gaze. Yet his sudden commanding tone stirred a chilling defiance in her.
“Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?”
At her sharp reaction, the man sighed softly.
“...If you won’t listen, then get buried by Filione Delberg or whatever.”
The grand master flinched slightly. This man knew about Filione Delberg.
Hearing that name, her mind felt like it was unraveling—the possibilities she had only imagined now becoming real.
If this mission failed, she could truly die. The executives had been her watchdogs and also the middlemen linking her and the members, so their absence was more damaging than she expected.
Not only would controlling the members become much harder, but if the executives reported everything to the chief grand master, this job would be a total failure.
And the culprit stood right before her eyes. She wanted to tear him apart, but to survive now, she had to find a way to live, not act on impulse.
Silent and stunned by the mention of Filione Delberg, she remained speechless. The man spoke in a low voice.
“Since you insist on staying, I have to take responsibility and keep you alive.”
His words stunned her into a glare as she shouted,
“Keep me alive? Then you shouldn’t have sent the executives away in the first place!”
His sigh came with a calm reply,
“If you’d finished the deal and returned with the executives... do you think you’d be alive?”
For a moment, her harsh breathing ceased.
She couldn’t answer his implied question.
He seemed to say that even success would have meant death. Instead of voicing the uneasy thought, she looked at him, silently asking what he meant.
Seeing her partly understand, he closed and reopened his eyes, fully facing her as he said,
“Follow me.”
With that, he led the way without hesitation.
Though she had to cling to any hope, the thought of this unknown man promising to save her made her feel sick.
Still, in this territory, he seemed to know her situation best, and she sensed he wouldn’t let her die. That alone made her hesitate briefly before following him.
Once she trailed behind, Tergio swiftly moved to show her a hiding place for when the Council arrived. It was an underground storage—remote, secluded, sparsely trafficked—the very place he had brought Flynn before.
As he brushed aside leaves and lifted the board door, a hole appeared, cool air leaking out.
She eyed the entrance and him suspiciously. The brown-haired man pulled an artifact from his pocket, expanded it to about the size of an arm, slipped his arm inside, and rummaged around.
At this, the grand master’s voice betrayed sudden understanding.
“You’re a mage?”
He only glanced at her without reply. Moments later, he pulled something out and tossed it to her.
She barely caught it—an oxygen mask and a thermal cloak. These weren’t common market items, and she hesitated, holding the strange objects.
Finding nothing else, the man shrank the artifact, pocketed it, and began removing his top layer with slight irritation.
Startled by this odd behavior, she tensed, staring at him strangely. Soon, he took off a thin inner layer beneath his thick clothes and handed it to her.
“Take this.”
Warily, she reached out and accepted the garment. At that moment, she vaguely understood.
This texture, the warmth trapped inside... it’s a top-tier military cold-weather suit. Even among merchant group supplies, it’s rare—how does he have this?
He shivered slightly as if cold, took another thick layer from the artifact, put it on over his clothes, zipped and buttoned it, then said,
“Wear this and hide inside until I say come out.”
“You want me to freeze to death?”
“That’s why I gave you those. Endure it somehow. Don’t come out until I say so. If anyone enters, hide behind the boxes. Got it?”
He cut off any argument and urged her for an answer—time was short. Though doubtful, she nodded reluctantly. He pushed her into the pit, telling her to hide quickly, then closed the board.
The sound of leaves falling covered the entrance again. Confused, she stared blankly at the tightly sealed board.
Soon, the cold air wrapped around her. She donned the cold-weather suit, wrapped the thermal cloak, and tightened it around herself. After putting on the oxygen mask, she slowly descended into the dark storage, clutching one of two lamps «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» hanging at the sides.
Hiding behind a pile of boxes as instructed, she soon heard two men descending when the door above opened. One was the brown-haired man who had brought her here.
She held her breath, tensing at the thought that he might have brought an outsider. When the men came right before her hiding spot, fear gripped her—the man might have deceived her for some other purpose.
They began stacking boxes, and when one man tried to go behind the pile, the one who brought her naturally stopped him.
“Better to stack these boxes in front since they’ll be moved later.”
“I see.”
Frozen behind the boxes, she covered her mouth, unable to move. Thankfully, they only moved the boxes and left. Still, anxiety made her tremble, fearing others might come again.
Time passed, and she heard a voice amplifier from afar, announcing an investigation into illegally distributed monsters in this territory, asking for cooperation. She couldn’t grasp how everything had been exposed so quickly.
Clearly, the Council came only because of an arson in the neighboring town, but her mind was in chaos, unable to find the link.
Her suspicion grew that it was the man who had brought news of the outsiders and, after the executives left, hid her here deliberately.
She became convinced he’d isolated her and called the Council on purpose.
And so, it had come to this.
****
When the sealed board was torn off, fresh air flooded in.
She had entered here at morning, but now it was nearly midnight, the large moon hanging high.
The storage’s oxygen was thin, and as she neared her limit, the torn entrance door flying off brought relief rather than fear.
“Come out quickly.”
Before her stood that unbelievable man, hand extended.
Silent in confusion, the grand master bit her lip and asked,
“...Did you call the Council?”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
Tergio held out his hand again, but she glared fiercely. Perhaps his quick admission made her voice rise.
“Ha, then why hide me? To bring me to the Council now?”
“If I wanted that, why would I hide you here and give you an oxygen mask?”
“Then why the hell—!”
The grand master’s scream was filled with disgust. Seeing this, Teo laughed hollowly and said,
“You were used.”
