Late at night, under the incomplete moon hanging in the sky and casting its cold silver glow over Root Village, a black-robed Divine Priest of the Omniscient Sect stood silently beside a crude stone altar. Blue flames danced at his fingertips as he lit the white candles arranged across the altar one by one.
In the firelight, he appeared to be a middle-aged man in his forties, pale-skinned, with deep-set eyes. A faint anger and anxiety lingered in his blue gaze.
Four nights ago, Holko and the other two had vanished in Adlock after receiving more Gift power, never to return. The matter was like a thorn lodged in his heart. He refused to believe those three useless fools had betrayed them. The only explanation was that something had gone wrong during their mission, and the source of that trouble was almost certainly the two mysterious girls who had ruined their plans.
If that were all, he would probably have felt nothing but anger. However, the investigation that followed left him somewhat shocked.
Those two girls had later checked into Adlock's famous Old Oak Inn!
That was Silverwind Merchant Guild property. Only those with a recommendation were qualified to stay there. Just who were those two girls, to be able to stay at the Old Oak Inn?
If they had such powerful backgrounds, wouldn't that pose a threat to Root Village?
This fact made the black-robed Divine Priest increasingly restless. His original plan had been to conduct a large-scale sacrifice to the gods on the night of the full moon. The fixed interval was also because he feared frequent sacrifices would disturb the gods' slumber, so he always saved them up and carried them out together on the full moon.
But now, they had lost too much Gift power, and