Count Steven Brill had been pacing inside his manor for a long while, his brow tightly furrowed and his face dark.
He had waited an entire week, yet the seven men he had sent out had neither returned nor sent back the slightest word.
This strange silence filled him with an ominous premonition.
"Go find out what happened." He stopped walking and fixed a sharp gaze on the elderly butler beside him, giving the order in a low voice.
"Yes, my lord." The butler bowed, then arranged for attendants to secretly investigate the seven knights' territories.
Yet for several days in a row, the news they brought back remained blank.
Worse still, whenever they tried to approach those villages, they encountered patrols of unidentified Flame Swordsmen, and their movements were strictly restricted.
"They... seem to have vanished into thin air." At last, the butler reported with a guilty expression, speaking carefully. "We found no useful clues."
"Ridiculous!" Count Brill slammed his palm heavily onto the table. The wineglass shook, spilling red wine across the surface. "Seven men, along with their attendants, cannot simply evaporate into thin air! No one on this land can do that, unless..."
He did not continue, but a trace of unease had already seeped into his voice.
Meanwhile, Ang had quietly arranged everything at the outpost.
He ordered the kobolds to excavate a spacious underground chamber behind the outpost, with its entrance concealed within a secret passage beneath the infirmary.
Once the underground chamber had been reinforced, Ang personally laid down multiple Sealing Magic arrays. Every array combined Holy Light Magic with the Spatial Interference Array, automatically disrupting any mental detection or Teleportation Magic.
The seven men and their attendants were transferred there.
The moment they awoke, they began shouting and accusing him in fury.
"My