Beyond the hunting ground.
By a hidden inlet downstream of the Silent River that encircled the hunting ground.
A thin male wizard standing on the shore suddenly turned around. His hollow gaze fixed on the direction of the hunting ground, his expression slightly grave. He wore a black robe, his features delicate, with much gray-white hair mixed into the dark brown strands beneath his hood, making him look like a prematurely aged youth.
His companions immediately noticed the wizard's movement.
"Amber, did you find something?" a short, burly wizard asked in a low voice. He extended a hand from his wide sleeve, spreading his five fingers, each of which was covered in colorful rings.
At that moment, the gems on those rings were giving off a faint, cold glow.
"Over there." Amber, the Ouroboros Hunting Team's diviner, vaguely pointed toward the hunting ground. "There are very conspicuous threads of causality tangled together... A very intense magical disturbance just erupted."
"Why didn't I feel it?" The small-framed roaming hunter Omega leaped onto a large rock nearby, his face full of suspicion as he widened his eyes toward the depths of the Silent River, as though that would let him see the threads of causality the diviner had mentioned.
"Because divination isn't your specialty." Julian, black-haired and narrow-eyed, answered mildly. "Besides, in the direction Amber indicated, there's a half-abandoned hunting ground... There may be a hunting team preparing for next month's competition. There's no need to be too nervous."
"How can I not be nervous?" Omega muttered, instinctively shrinking his neck. "If the school finds out about this, we'll definitely be punished... My old man will break my legs."
At those words, an unsettling silence immediately fell over the water's edge.
The hunters of the Ouroboros Hunting Team exchanged looks. At last,