‘Oh? What’s that over there…?’

While being lugged around on Deni’s shoulder, Reivan was observing his surroundings when he caught sight of something interesting.

There was a group of people in what seemed like an organized retreat, heading deeper into the forest with haste. At the very back of this group, serving as the rear guard, were three Custodian Guards wearing armor identical to Deni’s. They drew enemy fire with their imposing presence, protecting themselves with a bubble of magic power around them.

Every living being their maces got remotely close with was turned into an unrecognizable mess of blood and flesh.

Accompanying them were a few Clouds, who were frantically protecting a line of retreating riflemen from being overwhelmed by hornless black rabbits — who, even after losing their greatest weapon, were all still very eager to rip any humans they saw to shreds with a sharp pair of front teeth. After creating some distance, the gunmen turned right around and shot another volley, ending the lives of a few monsters.

Of course, the smog reduced their accuracy tremendously, but there were so many monsters that it was harder to miss.

The battle wasn’t so one-sided though, as countless human bodies strewn across the ground and the constant ring of gunfire filled the air, masking the brutal screams of terror from men and women alike. With every dead rabbit, it seemed as if three more rose to replace its place. To anyone watching from the sidelines, it was obvious the warriors would be overwhelmed in a melee if nothing changed.

‘That sure doesn’t look fun. But I think they made a good move. Staying in train cars when there are loads of enemies with ranged weapons that can pierce through is a bad idea.'

It was like hiding behind a cardboard box when someone with a machine gun was trying to kill you.

Additionally, they couldn’t gang up on anything in such a narrow space. Though they did slightly expose themselves by getting out of the train cars, they also obtained a wider field of view…

‘Oh, wait… the smokescreen kinda invalidates that advantage, doesn’t it? And with this many monsters, I would be more worried about being ganged up on rather than being unable to gang up on anything…’

In the end, it seemed like a plan that was both bad and good. Staying inside the train carriage and trying to defend what was left of its cargo was a worse decision though, so perhaps their current course of action was simply the least idiotic plan available.

“Almost there… I think.” Deni rumbled, and Reivan’s ears barely picked up the words through the guttural symphony of blood and battle. Apparently, Deni couldn’t quite see the fighting below but could tell where they were and where the meet-up spot was.

The noise of combat and dying people probably helped too.

Deni sent a kick to the side, deflecting a particularly powerful rabbit’s charge. “Once I set you two down, kindly provide aid by casting some defensive wards to protect the path of retreat.”

“W-We don’t know any strong ones though!” Maya replied in a panic.

“Anything and everything would help at this point. Our goal is to buy enough time for help to arrive.” Deni solemnly said as he jumped off the roof, adeptly landing on the ground without straining his passengers.

Not stopping for a moment, he actually started picking up speed, going even faster than a runaway carriage. He bolted in the approximate direction of where the majority of combat was taking place — all while being pursued by an endless sea of red-eyed rabbits.

When Reivan and his human steed got close enough, the other Custodian Guards seemed to notice Deni coming. Two of them moved forward to stop the wave of monsters chasing after them.

Deni didn’t stop to look or thank his comrades, passing through between their armored bodies and heading deeper into the forest.

Finally, after a few moments, Reivan could see something through the trees that let him grasp the plan immediately.

“Here we are. Please do what you can before going down.”

Reivan and Maya found their bums violently acquainted with the rocky ground as Deni dropped them. Without saying another word, the armored man ran back the way they came with two maces, one in each hand — probably intending to bolster the rear guard.

“Ow…” Maya groaned as she stumbled into an upright position, her head warily swiveling from here to there.

“Wards, Maya.” Reivan reminded her, preparing to cast some himself. His eyes flitted toward the cliff behind them, and the rope tied to a tree with the other end leading somewhere downward. Perhaps because they had reached a very open area, the dark mist had stopped being much of a factor, allowing anyone to see just how deep the chasm below was.

‘So this was the plan all along — we were never meant to stand and fight. Not that we could’ve, with that many monsters…’

It was also mildly surprising that people from the Star of Fortune would so easily abandon their cargo to the wolves — or in this case, to the bunnies — but Reivan supposed that money could always be earned, while almost everybody only had a single life.

The Star of Fortune's employees must have also understood such a simple fact.

Reivan’s wand flashed with the light of sorcery as he weaved spells with a practiced hand. Over the course of three minutes, layers upon layers of defensive shields enveloped the area near the rope. Once he had cast everything he was supposed to know how to cast, he strode right up to the edge of the cliff and marveled at how deep it went.

‘There’s a river down there… I could probably— Oh, wait. Scratch that. Forgot that I’m Clover right now. Clover would die from a fall this high up, even with water as a cushion. And I don’t know how deep the river is, so… Yeah. To the scrap heap that idea goes.’

Squinting, Reivan sighted down the rope — which, according to [Supreme Insight], was an artifact that could elongate to hundreds of times its original length — to see that there were actually still some people climbing downward. From the looks of things, there seemed to be some kind of cave or something drilled into the cliff face below.

The cave should have been recently made with the help of a Custodian Guard. Or perhaps an item of some kind.

‘Now that I think about it, with three back in the rearguard plus Deni, that accounts for four out of five Custodian Guards. The last one must be down there, expanding a cave that's probably not meant for everyone here to seek refuge in...’

Reivan looked back to see lines upon lines of mercenary gunmen trying their best to hit something through the dark smokescreen, all while using trees and each other as cover for the occasional rabbit horn that made it through the Custodian Guards’ shields. As his eyes scanned the battlefield, a few mercenaries died every few seconds — their lifeless bodies, still warm, fell to the grass like autumn leaves, never to rise again.

‘Can't really help them out with my mana pool this depleted...’

Even if he undid his transformation now, he would simply become a Reivan who had his mana pool depleted. It hardly mattered in the long run, of course, since he wasn't in any real danger no matter how empty his tank was. If push came to shove, he would just let the giant snake under his clothes loose.

He would only resort to such idiocy when he stopped caring about his Tower Infiltration plan, of course.

'Eh... Well, fine. Maybe I'll help a little...'

Reivan sighed as he walked over to a nearby mercenary’s corpse, taking the dead man’s rifle — which appeared to be the bolt-action type he recognized from watching an anime set in the WW1 era — and the ammunition tucked away in a belt pouch. There seemed to be a revolver-type pistol too, so he took its holster and strapped it to his belt.

“Clover…? Aren’t we supposed to climb down the rope now that we've cast the wards?” Maya seemed to have regained some manner of calm as she remained safe behind layers of wards. She peeked over to what he was doing, but still warily eyed the impenetrable darkness for any signs of attacks. “What’re you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?”

“...Looting a corpse for everything it's worth?”

Reivan scratched his head since that was exactly what it looked like he was doing, but it sounded too negative when she put it that way. “I’m out of magic power so being a sorcerer is worthless now. That’s why I want some other way to help out.”

“Oh.”

“You should take one too.”

“But I don’t know how to use a gun…”

“You think I’ve used one? Rather, you think I'd waste my money on one...?” Reivan shook his head, exasperated as he aimed his rifle through the darkness only he and the monsters could see through. “See this hole? Just point it at something and press the trigger. It’s at least better than using your hands to fight those things off.”

To demonstrate, Reivan pressed the trigger of his looted firearm. A loud bang echoed within the chamber of his own skull, but his shot had connected with a horned rabbit that seemed to have been aiming its horn at a nearby mercenary.

The bullet penetrated the creature’s stomach, forcefully sending it flying. It did try to get up, but its lethal injuries made it collapse a few seconds later.

‘Fuck. I was aiming for the head…’

Reivan didn’t have a marksman-like combat style, but all knights — and of course, him too — were generally trained to be slightly above decent at just about every weapon. With his skills, hitting the small bunny mid-flight should have been a lot easier than, say, trying to hit Helen during their spars.

But he wasn’t used to using a normal gun.

It would take some practice but for now, he could at least provide some support for the brave men who were fighting for their lives. Knight training taught him that courage was to be admired, and though he felt no emotional attachment to these people, he felt that they were worthy of some respect.

Enough respect for him to help them out with his very limited capabilities.

‘Clover has never even held a gun... But although the excuse is a bit flimsy, I can just say that I’m talented at it. Nobody can refute talent since it can’t be measured.’

Reivan lifted his rifle’s bolt handle, pulled it back to eject the spent cartridge, and pushed it forward and down again to chamber a new round before firing off another shot. He repeatedly worked the bolt as he emptied his magazine, throwing it away and taking out a new one. Every time he pressed the trigger, another rabbit died — sometimes, he would even take out two or three with one shot.

But since there were hundreds of thousands of these monsters, even Reivan wasn’t sure just how much he was helping.

 

---

 

Many many dead rabbits later, Reivan had gotten used to the rifle and even acquired a sense of satisfaction every time he heard the crisp click that was produced when he chambered a new round.

Still, he would have much preferred something with a greater rate of fire.

Like a machine gun. Or something automated at least, such as an assault rifle.

Actually, he would have much rather picked up a rock and started hitting things with it using his real strength, but he obviously couldn't do that.

'It never ends...'

No matter how accurate his shots were, that could not be said about the other mercenaries, who were pretty much fighting in the dark.

The mercenaries did relatively well when the rabbits just bunched up together and made it easy for the men to kill one. But that wasn't the case, as the monsters gradually dispersed or had their numbers significantly reduced by the men's efforts. They could only fire their weapons in volleys, hoping that by blanketing a certain direction with gunfire, enemy casualties would follow as a result.

But that wasn't the case.

The rabbits were not only nimble, but also small — meaning a human had to angle their shot perfectly on the ground to hit it. And that was when the rabbit stayed stationary. Monsters actually held a desire to survive and had some manner of intelligence, so obviously, they would be inclined to dodge whatever direction the men’s guns were pointed at, especially since there was much more room to move around in after hordes of their comrades were slaughtered.

And when the rabbits got close enough to any riflemen, it was pretty much game over for the human. Their screams would be the last thing that their comrades would hear of them in the smog-filled forest of death.

'I think I've done enough here. Time to climb down the rope too.'

Reivan let go of his spent rifle and walked back toward the cliff with his looted revolver out.

It was just in time too, since he'd run out of rifle bullets and corpses to loot nearby. Now, nobody could say that he didn't at least try to help out. He had well and truly gone above and beyond what he would do for a bunch of strangers.

In the end, though, his life and his schemes were his greatest priorities.

Now that the situation had deteriorated to such a state — it was starting to look like the rabbits would start banging against the defensive wards he and Maya set up — it was time to leave the stage.

‘Good luck, everyone. My heart goes out to you.’

After sending his thoughts and prayers to the people who would be left to fend for themselves while waiting for reinforcements, Reivan looked down the cliff and reconfirmed that a normal person would undoubtedly perish if they fell down.

Luckily, even if he didn’t have a body that would survive the impact, he was, outwardly, a sorcerer. And one of the spells that sorcerers learned was a nifty little spell called the Whisperfall Spell — and fortunately, Clover knew this spell too. That meant Reivan could use it without arousing suspicion from his watchers or any scryers who arrive in this area later on.

Unfortunately, the spell had a very tiny cast range, so sorcerers could only use it on themselves or anyone in their immediate vicinity. Also, the spell lasted for just a few seconds and only affected one person per cast.

This meant he couldn’t save a whole lot of people if a bunch of them fell off the cliff.

He’d probably have enough to cast the spell hundreds of times if he mixed his magic power and qi, but “Clover” wasn’t supposed to have qi. So really, although it was a bit merciless, he would have to leave all these people to their deaths in exchange for his plan’s smooth sailing.

‘I should have regenerated enough mana to cast it once just in case I… Hm? Wait a minute, it would actually be faster to just freefall and use the spell right before I reach the cave entrance’s height instead of climbing down, huh?’

A normal person would have just climbed down the rope and kept the spell at the back of their mind in case their grip failed them. But Reivan had a lot of experience with heights and wasn’t afraid of doing a bit of skydiving.

The time he would save by going that route was very tempting.

“Clover, are we really going down this rope…?” Maya asked from beside him, anxiety staining her voice.

While he was shooting up a storm, Maya hadn’t really done much except stare anxiously at the forest shrouded in smoke and death. She stood behind the defensive wards they cast and seemed to wait for Clover to descend with her.

‘I’m surprised she’s still here…’

Reivan shrugged, wondering why she didn’t just leave without him. He rolled his eyes as he pointed at where the fighting was. “We will have to go down the rope if we wanna survive.”

“But I don’t really think I can do it… Just look at it, that rope’s so long.”

“Well, that’s your problem, isn’t it? Just use your head.”

“Clover…” Maya bit her lip and grabbed his sleeve. She seemed about ready to start sobbing any second now.

Seeing her, Reivan shook his head and sighed. “What are you being so nervous about? Just cast a Whisperfall spell if you fall.”

“...Oh, you’re right. Why didn't I think of that?” Maya giggled sheepishly, but the wrinkles on her forehead weren’t gone. “But casting a spell while falling down this height… I don’t think I can do that either.”

‘Again, that’s your problem.’

Reivan internally shook his head at how little situational adaptability Maya had. And she was supposed to become a battlemage too. It wasn’t as if she was completely helpless either, she already had the tool she needed to get out of the crisis she was in — she just didn’t realize she had it until he pointed it out. And now that she was aware she had it, she still felt troubled.

‘She’s nineteen years old… At that age, most of Aizen’s squires still wouldn’t be knighted. But they sure as hell would have a better time in this situation just by keeping a cool head.’

He really had to thank the countless hours of mental training he was forced to do in between martial arts lessons and improving his supernatural techniques. It was boring and repetitive, but now he could see the difference between someone who went through it and someone who lived an ordinary life before embarking on a more militaristic one.

‘Still… I should help her out here.’

Even though her favor for him wasn’t high, Reivan wouldn’t abandon the good foundation for an ally that he managed to stumble upon. Especially since it didn’t require much effort on his part. Actually, there was a much easier and safer way to descend, but revealing it wouldn't be as effective in endearing her to him.

'Wow, that sounds so... manipulative.'

That was exactly what he was doing though. Really, a spy needed all the allies they could get when they were behind enemy lines. And Valter had told him repeatedly that he couldn't be picky with his methods.

'I feel like I'm the bad guy of my own story...''

“How’s about this...” Reivan gestured to the yawning chasm below. “You wait until I reach the cave. I don’t have much mana, so maybe wait for a dozen minutes or so before starting to climb down. And if you fall, I’ll cast Whisperfall on you.”

Maya’s eyebrows shot up as she looked at him, beaming. “Are you sure?”

“Yep. Leave it to me. I've got you covered."

“Thanks Clover… You’re really nice despite being a massive grouch most of the time. You must secretly like me a lot, huh?”

“Whatever. Stop joking around and just make sure to somehow stay close to the rope or else you’ll be out of range… but if you get hit by rocks near the cliff wall, then I don’t know anymore. Well, just make sure not to fall, I guess.”

“Suddenly, I’m losing confidence in the plan…”

“Suck it up. We wouldn’t have to do this if you could cast the spell on yourself.” Reivan shrugged at her and then funneled a small portion of his magic power into the rope, causing the miles-long rope to shrink to just over ten meters long.

The people below had already finished getting into the cave, so he could do with it as he pleased.

“What’re you going to do with that?” Maya asked from the side, a loaded pistol in hand as she prepared to shoot at anything that came at her.

“I’m going to eat it. What do you think?” He asked sarcastically as he once again infused some mana into the rope, willing it to the correct length to suit his needs.

“Goodness,” Maya grumbled. “You're right back into acting like an assho—I mean, a grumpy old man. I was just asking.”

Reivan didn’t bother replying, just tying the other end of the rope around his chest in an X pattern, making a makeshift harness. The spell likely wouldn’t fail him since he had enough confidence in himself not to fumble it, but being extra careful wouldn’t hurt.

“Oh, that’s smart…” Maya muttered to herself, watching him do his work.

“I’m just using my head.” Reivan shrugged, not particularly impressed with himself. A smarter person wouldn’t have gotten into this situation in the first place. Yet here he was, stuck in a situation he wanted no part of. “Well anyway, take care of yourself up here. And remember, wait about a dozen minutes or I still won’t have the mana to help you in case you fall.”

With that final warning over, Reivan took a few deliberate steps back, giving himself a good running start.

“...Huh? What? Clover? Are you going to—”

Not waiting for her to finish her sentence, Reivan sprinted forward. Even though he wasn’t afraid, a sense of urgency gripped him and he could feel his heart furiously pump adrenaline into his veins. Maybe there was something biologically installed in every intelligent living being — something that told them jumping off a cliff was a very bad idea.

The ground beneath him vanished in an instant and he spread his arms wide while keeping his legs together. It was a perfect leap of faith — like those assassins did in a certain game franchise. There was a cry of panic from Maya, but Reivan couldn’t be bothered to listen as a rush of wind engulfed him.

It whipped against his body with relentless force, drowning out all other sounds. Reivan squinted and clenched his teeth shut to avoid hurting his eyes or biting his tongue. The sense of weightlessness wasn’t new to him, but perhaps because he was wearing someone else’s skin, a feeling of fear mixed with the sense of freedom he usually felt when he was freed of earthly restraints.

That only lasted for a short few moments though, as the familiarity eventually stepped in, bringing calm to his rapidly-beating heart. As the river below loomed larger with each passing second, the world around him blurred. Despite the situation though, he was filled with exhilaration.

But not enough exhilaration to forget what he was supposed to do.

Just as he saw a cave dug into the cliff face, Reivan released the spell he’d been preparing along the way. His wand lit up with what little mana he had recovered, and suddenly, most of the momentum built up from half a minute of freefalling vanished.

‘I'm pretty sure I just broke a few laws of physics. I just don't know which ones.’

Reivan didn’t just stop in mid-air, of course. Rather, he just started falling at a snail’s pace all of a sudden. He knew that he only had a few good seconds before the spell lost its effect, so he grabbed hold of the rope and got as close to the cliff face as possible.

Once the spell’s power wore off, gravity tried to pull Reivan toward the river, but he firmly gripped the thick and strong cord and placed both his feet against the cliff face to steady himself. Once he found good footing, he started rappelling down as the rope slowly grew longer.

A few moments later, Reivan eventually stepped foot into the makeshift cave.

“There we go…” Reivan grunted as he worked to untie the rope knotted across his entire body. He could have cut it off, but the rope was an artifact that didn’t belong to him. Naturally, he wouldn’t do something as stupid as mutilating it when he had so little funds to pay for damages.

“You’re… Mr. Salwyn, correct?”

“Yes, I am.” Reivan looked up at the source of the voice to find a few men and women wearing coats with the Star of Fortune’s sigil embroidered on the right arm.

The last Custodian Guard was also in the cave just as he suspected, slumped near a wall with his helmet beside him on the floor. Every breath was released as a gasp as his chest rose and fell and beads of cold sweat decorated every visible surface of his skin.

‘Obvious signs of magic power exhaustion. Probably exhausted his stamina reserves by using his qi a lot too.’

Making a cave like this would have been no trouble at all to a proficient elementalist who had the earth attribute — like Gwendolyn or the knight known as Bob who did stuff for his father in secret sometimes — but obviously, doing it with brute force would be a difficult endeavor for any mortal.

And besides, only Aizen had such proficient techniques in manipulating the elements, born from thousands of years of the most excellent knights passing down their knowledge and expertise, just so the next generation could polish them up even more.

The Star of Fortune was certainly not a force to be underestimated, but even their most elite forces didn’t have the foundation that Aizen offered to its knights.

‘Hm? What's up with those crates…?’

Off to the side, there were a few wooden crates that looked like they could fit a small dog inside. Reivan eyed them curiously, but his line of sight was quickly blocked by a very anxious employee.

An employee Reivan recognized as the man who had invited him and Maya to come with them.

“Ah, you’re…” Reivan intentionally trailed off. “Mr. Valand.”

“Yes, I’m happy you still remember me. And please, call me Thomund.”

Reivan shook his head with a chuckle. “I would not dare to call a Custodian with such familiarity.”

Thomund raised a brow. “What gave it away?”

“Nothing. I was just taking a shot in the dark and you just confirmed it.” Reivan smirked and reached forward to shake the man’s hand. “You said you were a nobody as we were boarding the train though. That somewhat struck me as untrue, so I've held a hunch the entire time.”

The man smiled sheepishly and took his hand with a firm grip. “In front of someone who is soon to become a respected battlemage, a Custodian from a mercantile company is a nobody.”

‘Ah, this one has a glib tongue too.’

Custodians were the equivalent of team leaders or maybe department managers in a company — except in this case, the company was an intercontinental conglomerate that could affect which nation ruled Sentorale.

They were usually not related to the Star’s chairman in any way — people who rose to power instead of inheriting it.

And it seemed Thomund Valand was the type to flatter his surroundings and lower himself while constantly looking for a way to rise. Countless people probably fell for his act and were tripped up, and now, those people were nobodies with nothing of significance to their names.

Reivan ignored the praise and jerked his chin in the direction of the crates. “Can I ask what's in those crates, Mr. Valand?”

“It’s a company secret, Mr. Salwyn. I'm sure a smart man, like yourself, would understand.” Thomund answered immediately. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious. Surely, you have spatial rings, no? You could just put them inside instead of leaving them out like this. They don't look too big either.”

Thomund hummed an agreeable tune before countering. “Well, my team wasn’t given many spatial rings, so we are forced to do this.”

 

 

Reivan smirked. “I see. So someone as important as a Star of Fortune’s Custodian also suffers from lacking supply sometimes?”

“Yes. It’s not strange, mind you. These things happen from time to time.”

“Then that must mean these crates in particular are very important, seeing as the train and all its cargo were abandoned decisively but you all took the trouble to bring these here.”

“Oh, believe me, Mr. Salwyn. There were more back on the train. We simply took with us what we could carry, of course. If we could have, we would’ve brought everything with us while fleeing. It's a great shame. Truly.”

“That makes sense.”

“Why, that’s because it’s the truth.”

Thomund looked at him with a kind gaze but Reivan could feel the intent behind the man’s eyes: Stop asking questions.

Not wanting an escalated confrontation, Reivan shrugged and looked toward the mouth of the cave. “Sorry for being nosy. I was just wondering if those crates had something to do with why so many monsters attacked us.”

There was a short moment of stifling silence throughout the cave before Thomund chuckled and answered. “Of course not, Mr. Salwyn. I don’t know where you got that idea, but our cargo and the unfortunate event that has befallen us today are two completely separate issues.”

 

 

“Then it’s as I thought,” Reivan said, turning back to show off a smile as if he believed them completely.

‘Well, now I don’t have to feel too bad about not resolving this issue.’

Whatever was in those crates, the monsters wanted it — in fact, they probably wanted it back.

They wanted it all back.

‘The thing about spatial storage artifacts was bogus. If it could be contained in an artifact, then the Star would have sent as many as needed to ensure profit could be obtained as cleanly as possible. I mean, a Custodian was literally sent here to oversee it personally, so it won't be a small matter.’

The bigger the organization, the more it hated uncertain factors in its plans. Even if it was slightly more costly or troublesome, they would take any chance to ensure that things were guaranteed to go smoothly.

The fact that those crates weren’t inside an artifact despite how important they apparently were, meant they couldn’t be stored inside one, not because there was a lack of artifacts.

As the de facto head of a criminal enterprise, he had some idea about what was in those crates.

‘Probably monster babies or something. I highly doubt it's plants of some kind.’

Seeing as the monsters didn't even resort to cannibalism despite the lack of prey in their original habitat, it was obvious that they valued their kin tremendously.

'Their aversion to cannibalism is enough proof.'

Their outward appearance as bunnies may give uninformed people the impression that the monsters were herbivores. But all monsters were carnivorous.

Every last one of them — without exception.

'I'm slowly starting to get the gist of things...'

The more he thought about it, the more things clicked into place in Reivan's head.

Valter had said that the Ascendant monster was nearby, observing him.

But Valter was wrong — the monster wasn’t observing the guardian knight who was the biggest threat in the area, but rather, the captured monster babies in the Star of Fortune’s possession who were also in the same city. If Valter wasn’t so focused on nearby Ascendants, perhaps he would have noticed the monster babies too. Or maybe the Star employed some unknown means to hide the creatures from an Ascendant's perception — which would then explain why the Ascendant monster hadn't made a move before Reivan and Valter arrived in the area.

This also meant that Valter wasn’t the monster’s goal at all, and likely wouldn’t follow Valter to where the knight wanted to shepherd it. The only way the monster could be led away was to threaten it by getting close and pushing it in the optimal direction.

Seeing as its goal was to get back what the Star stole from it, it would obviously resist.

And Valter wouldn’t know the true circumstances, so he wouldn't back down, forcing the Ascendant rabbit away with violence just to follow Reivan's orders.

‘This attack by the rest of its kin was probably made in response to the big one being forced away…’

As for the Ascendant that the Star of Fortune should have sent, that person was likely saving their strength and waiting for the strongest bunny to appear, not knowing that it was currently occupied by Valter. They likely wouldn’t help the mortals who were troubled over here.

Especially since the “cargo” wasn’t perishable. They could just be recaptured after the strongest of the rabbits was dealt with.

In fact, the entire species could be recaptured by a single Ascendant from the Star of Fortune at that point.

‘Son of a bitch… Everything's a mess!'

His and Valter's actions were serving to complicate things, but at the same time, it wasn't as if they expected to be caught in such a mess too, so he couldn't really blame his current situation on his and Valter's intervention. They simply had their own plans and made moves to push toward it, unaware that the threads of fate were steadily becoming more entangled.

'Damn, I thought I was on some kind of lucky streak lately, but then I go ahead and get caught up in this clown fiesta…’

He didn’t know the exact reason why the rabbits were being poached — it could be to sell them as pets or the babies might be used for breeding purposes — but this entire issue was of no relevance to Reivan or his plans.

Yet here he was, knee-deep in someone else’s shit.

'I wanna go home...'

Not even a month into the mission and Reivan missed his peaceful life already.