Pursuit

With that, Eros leaped into the shadows and vanished, leaving the four staring at one another.

He wasn't going to kill them?

Not only was he sparing them, he had even given them a way to contact him and said he would help them recover that Sealed Artifact?

They were bewildered and confused. Weren't the Night Remnants vicious descendants of the Evil God?

They had all prepared themselves to die. They had only revealed that matter to cause trouble for the Church.

Why was he so different from the Night Remnants in the rumors? And what did the neighbor's wife giving birth have to do with him?

He had to hurry back too? Could it be...?

At that thought, the two men wore peculiar expressions, while the mother and daughter silently spat in disdain.

Natalia picked up the leaf that had bounced off her breasts and fallen to the ground, looking doubtful. This thing could contact someone?

She had seen with her own eyes that the mysterious man had simply plucked it from a tree. It was clearly an ordinary leaf. Was he lying?

Meanwhile, Eros asked Barbara within his mind:

"Do you have any way to locate that member of our clan?"

No sooner had he spoken than Barbara caught sight of the little Book of the Night out of the corner of her eye. It transformed into a streak of light and was about to rush out of Eros's mind.

Barbara's expression remained unchanged. She merely raised her small, pale, slender hand, then grabbed the little Book of the Night and pulled it back.

Then she vanished entirely. A moment later, a petite, slender figure appeared beside Eros. It was Barbara, holding the little Book of the Night.

Eros was startled by Barbara's sudden appearance beside him, but excitement and delight quickly followed:

"You're finally willing to come out!"

Barbara glanced at the little Book of the Night in her hand, which seemed to be buzzing in protest at being ignored. Her delicate lips curved slightly, and she gave a soft huff.

Rather than answer Eros, she extended her small, fair hand and offered him the little Book of the Night, her voice clear and crisp:

"Everyone in the clan has written their true name in the Book of the Night, and this stupid book has placed a soul imprint on every one of them. If you want to know where someone is, just ask it."

Eros immediately turned his gaze toward the little Book of the Night in Barbara's hand.

The little Book of the Night trembled faintly, slipped free of Barbara's hand, and floated before Eros. Then its pages began flipping with a rustle, though there was no wind.

At the same time, tiny points of light appeared in Eros's mind.

Most were quite far away. Only one was a short distance behind him. That was probably Wendy, his brat of a little sister.

A small cluster of lights gathered ahead and to his left. That should be Estelle and the others at the Duke's Mansion in the Imperial Capital.

Apart from those, another point was relatively close, only some fifty to a hundred kilometers ahead. That should be the clan member being hunted.

As his attention settled on that point, a name suddenly emerged from it-Irina Renka Night.

Eros froze for a moment. His fifth sister?

Indeed, she was the daughter of Lady Flolica, whose handwriting was so big-no, whose book was so white.

His heart tightened. No longer sparing the spirit within him, he raced toward that point of light at a frantic pace.

Meanwhile, some fifty kilometers outside the Imperial Capital, a tall, graceful figure kept darting through the forest.

Through the haze that obscured her features, one could glimpse a face that bore some resemblance to Lady Flolica's.

But now that lovely face was utterly bloodless and deathly pale.

Irina bit her red lip, twisting slightly to evade a spell flying at her from behind. She pushed off a tree trunk with the tip of her foot, changed course, and continued racing in a direction where there were no pursuers.

She kept driving the spirit within her. She had to be faster, faster still. Only then could she shake off the Church's pack of hyenas behind her. She had to get that information back to her clan.

She had found a fragment of the ancestor's divine kingdom. She had to send word back of its location.

For tens of thousands of years, they had firmly believed that as long as they gathered the fragments of the ancestor's Shattered Divine Kingdom and restored it, their ancestor could return from the river of time.

Then their clan's fate would change. They would no longer need to spend every day hiding and fleeing, living in the world's shadows.

They would no longer have to endure the precarious existence they had led for tens of thousands of years. They could freely and comfortably choose the lives they wanted.

Toward that end, generation after generation had devoted their efforts. Now that she had finally found another fragment of the divine kingdom, how could she let herself die so easily?

Faster, faster still! As long as she escaped into the Imperial Capital, she could get the message back.

"Night Remnant, stop struggling. You can't escape."

A voice came from behind her. Irina ignored it, merely ducking slightly to evade an incoming spell before continuing her headlong flight.

Seeing this, the black-clad man pursuing Irina sneered and asked the subordinate beside him:

"How are the people up ahead doing with their preparations?"

The subordinate also wore a smile. "Don't worry, captain. She won't get away. There are far more than ten squads closing in now. Tonight, this Night Remnant couldn't escape even if she had wings."

But the black-clad man frowned at that. "That many? Then our squad needs to pick up the pace. We can't let another squad snatch this big catch."

At those words, several subordinates looked troubled.

"But captain, you ordered us to try to capture her alive. That's why we haven't been using very powerful spells. They can barely slow that Night Remnant down!"

Hearing this, the black-clad man sank into thought. The credit for capturing a Night Remnant alive far exceeded that for killing one.

After all, the Church had not successfully captured a single Night Remnant alive in the past several hundred years.

Whenever those Night Remnants realized they could no longer escape, they sacrificed everything they had to the shadows, leaving not even a corpse behind.

After considering it for a moment, the black-clad man finally said, "Capturing her alive would naturally be best. If we can't, do your best to kill her before she sacrifices herself."

Everyone acknowledged the order, and the spells they unleashed immediately grew more powerful.

Irina also noticed that the incoming spells were clearly much stronger than before. She understood then that they probably no longer intended to take her alive.

The danger she faced would only grow from here.

She dodged another spell coming from behind, but before she could catch her breath, a second was already upon her.

Irina desperately twisted her body to evade it, but the attack still struck her shoulder, flinging her through the air. She hit the ground and rolled several times.