"Did he get away...?"
Kairils frowned slightly, a flicker of uncertainty passing through his eyes.
He had to admit that chasing someone on horseback through a forest severely restricted his warhorse's speed and maneuverability.
What was more, the red-robed cultist had taken an extremely strange escape route.
He had deliberately ducked through dense bushes and over thick roots that were difficult for a warhorse to cross. Clearly, he knew this forest's terrain very well.
Although losing a low-ranking cultist scout displeased Kairils slightly, it did not particularly anger him.
What truly unsettled him was the strange feeling he could not shake.
As a battle-hardened Second-Tier Knight, he had an exceptionally sharp instinct for danger and anything out of the ordinary.
The way that cultist acted while fleeing... it was too strange.
Kairils thought to himself:
The moment I spotted that cultist, he seemed panicked.
But while he was fleeing, he deliberately revealed his position several times, almost as though he was afraid I would lose him...
That abnormal behavior stirred a faint sense of wariness in Kairils.
Just as he pondered this-
Clop, clop, clop...
A burst of hurried hoofbeats came from the woods behind him, pulling him out of his thoughts.
Knight Viel finally caught up, breathless, with the remaining knights and Ma Lou's group of four riding the spare warhorses.
"Captain!"
Knight Viel reined in his horse, glanced at their empty surroundings, and approached with a puzzled question. "Where's that cultist?"
Kairils put his thoughts aside, his tone as calm and cold as ever.
"I lost him."
"He probably knows this forest well. He might have ducked into a bush and run off in another direction."
Hearing this, Knight Viel cast a wary glance at the twisted trunks around them, unease rising within him as well.
"Captain, the