Unexpected Figure

"Hm?"

Just as Shien was inexplicably feeling sentimental, he suddenly sensed a slight disturbance.

"What was that...?"

Shien raised a brow, then vanished from where he stood without hesitation.

He did not go far, merely slipping into a shadowed corner nearby and watching the waterfall.

The next second, Shien saw it.

"Buzz!"

Amid a low hum, the waterfall's roaring torrent suddenly began to split down the middle.

The stone wall behind the waterfall rose up, as though pushing the waterfall apart and diverting the flow.

Behind the rising stone wall, a rather spacious passage appeared.

"As expected."

Shien sighed again at the unsurprising sight.

But what appeared next caught Shien off guard.

Inside the passage, a group of people emerged.

They were knights clad in armor, iron swords at their waists, expressionless faces, fierce eyes, and an air of murderous solemnity around them.

The armor they wore was not the heavy armor commonly seen in the Empire, but full-body armor in the Kingdom's style.

That was right.

It was Kingdom armor.

These knights were not Imperial knights, but Kingdom knights.

At the head of the Kingdom knights stood someone Shien knew very well.

He was handsome, with golden hair and blue eyes. The armor he wore was not standard knight armor either, but an exquisitely crafted guard knight's suit.

He was a guard knight.

A guard knight Shien had dealt with many times, yet could hardly be said to have a good relationship with.

"Limjo..."

Shien could not help muttering the man's name.

That guard knight was none other than the Streim Family's eldest young master, the guard knight who had vanished alongside the First Knights of Duke Streim's Territory during the battle of Kosmos—Limjo Streim.

Now, this eldest young master, who had coveted Roxie and constantly wanted to steal