The way in which Camila came back to her senses was so unusual, it served as the greatest reminder of what happened and the wake-up call.

Her thoughts were sluggish, her breath labored.

‘My body is all heavy…’

Even without moving, Camila could feel the brunt of her body… well, not moving for quite some time. As if she just fell face-first to the ground and slept for some unreasonable amount of time.

Struggling to collect her thoughts, Camila took a shallow breath before slowly trying to force her eyes open. This feat came at a cost of the great majority of all the strength the duchess would muster.

‘That certainly wasn’t a good sleep, even for how long it feels like it was,’ Camila thought grimly.

But as she opened her eyes… she was soon faced with a reality even more shocking than the events she participated in so far. For not even the dastardly power-play of her bastard brother could measure to what transpired without even breaking the silence of the night.

A pack of Edgehounds appeared at the edge of the clearing, conveniently right within Camila’s vision. And in the very same instant, the duchess regretted opening her eyes in the first place.

‘So that’s how it ends.’

Camila lazily closed her eyes down.

For how fearsome the hunters of the forest’s edge were, the efficiency of their predatory instincts at least allowed a quick, relatively painless death to those who were unlucky enough to encounter them.

They were the reason why all the kingdoms and empires around burned their treasury on the altar of burning down the forests to open up more lands for people to settle.

Camila’s duchy was no different, actively throwing nearly half of their annual tax revenue into the deforestation project. To a degree, it was this very project of using fires to create more arable land that allowed the duchy to grow as rich and powerful as it is today.

When a small noble tried to burn off the forest off their land, they could only spare to do so on a small scale, limiting the benefits they could create with just their personal power.

On the other hand, the late Duke Robert, following the path of his grandfather, focused the efforts of the entire dukedom on pushing against the trees as quickly and efficiently as possible. And because the ducal line could commit much greater resources and manpower to the project, the returns grew accordingly.

This focus led to the changes in the traditional noble law codification, allowing the dukes to maintain a sort of market for land plots, allowing the small nobles to invest in plots currently deep within the forest for cheap, in hopes that once the project continues for a few years more, they would receive an extremely valuable plot of rich, arable land!

With those and all the other changes in place, the duchy grew at a pace incomparable to any of its neighbors.

It was hardly any surprise her bastard of a brother received so much help from the outside the very moment he announced he would kill the entire project.

At the very core, though, beyond the layer of money, this great project started by Camila’s great-grandfather only had one goal. To push against the random and nearly unstoppable threat of the Edgehounds.

Or, as commoners called them, the guardians of the old world.

‘Maybe that anomaly could do something about…’

Already accepting her fate in the face of the impending doom, a single ray of hope flashed in Camila’s soul.

This anomaly dealt with an entire unit of wannabe knights and was ready to slaughter her and two of her elites. And while her friends certainly didn’t compare to the late duke’s shadow order… No man alive would dare to call them weak either!

But the silent death from the claws of the predators only few in the world could resist or retaliate against… didn’t come no matter how long Camila wished for this tense waiting game to end.

After a few more moments, Camila realized that there was something seriously wrong and forcibly opened up just one of her eyes, just a tiny little bit to see what was going on, as if not to startle the Edgehounds nearby…

Yet, the very moment Camila saw the scene nearby, she forced both of her eyes open.

Her body instinctively wanted to jump up and escape before whatever managed to silently slay all of the beasts the corpses of which littered the forest’s edge.

‘Edgehounds, lieutenant maulers, even a damn hippocritical,’ Camila nearly jumped up for the second time when she looked at the massive, curvy body of a legendary-grade hippo known to turn all of its attack into critical strikes.

Just this single monster alone was a menace that rarely left the forest’s depths and required an entire unit of high-rank warriors to be dealt with.

And there it was, resting on the ground with only a small pool of blood near its massive, blob-like head indicating any sort of wounds.

The critical hippo’s head, which consisted of extremely boundy flab of fat and a precious skull bone that smiths usually used as the centerpiece of a plate suit that even Camila’s own house would be happy to turn into their heirloom.

Upon stretching her eyes a bit, Camila managed to see a small, perfectly round hole at the front of the hippo’s head. But by stretching her eyes, Camila saw the unthinkable.

A pack of three gray Edgehounds crept upon the forest.

Master predators could utilize shadows to move undetected, sneaking up on their opponent only to deal with it with a single, devastating strike.

An apex beast that nestled itself as near the top of the forest’s food chain as humans ever discovered. And it was all because of the one trait that made humans the apex predators within their own, deforested niche.

They were viciously intelligent!

Even after noticing the small pack carefully approaching the clearing’s edge from within the forest, the duchess struggled to keep her eyes locked in on them, all the more for the very same reason why she was too overcome with fear to jump in surprise before.

It was because there was only one unknown factor that could produce such unbelievable results. An anomaly of this world. An anomaly… that Camila couldn’t notice anywhere around.

‘Wait, but if it’s not here,’ the young woman thought, only for her eyes to finally find the mysterious being from beyond.

It sat in a small, cozy hole, constructed in part by nature and in part by clever use of random items sticking around. From within its hiding spot, the anomaly calmly observed the forest in a state of perfect focus.

The Gray Edgehounds crept closer, their steps slowing down as they noticed the bloody cemetery right beyond the line of the trees. Their eyes flashed with a glint of emotion, only to die down when all three of them lowered themselves over the ground, growing even harder for Camila to keep track of them.

Yet, as she glanced back, just for a moment, towards the anomaly…

(I can see you are awake, so you can stop pretending not to be.)

The anomaly spoke as if caring not for the approaching of danger that no king or emperor of the continent had any practical solution to. And even without looking, Camila instantly knew.

Despite the distance, the Gray Edgehounds noticed the anomaly too.

‘What is it trying to say?!’

Panicked out of her mind, Camila rose up and glanced around, only to find the two lifeless figures lying pretty much where they were when the cloud of that white smoke reached them.

“I’m sorry,” Camila uttered as softly as she could. ‘Starting off with an apology, what a great diplomat you are, heck!’

A moment later, a realization struck the girl back.

‘If I can’t understand it, then… maybe it does not understand me either?’

Gritting her teeth, Camila showed her consideration by waiting for the anomaly to have a moment of deep thought before she spoke again.

“But I don’t understand what you said.”

Keeping her voice as soft and as submissive as she could, Camila tried to make the best out of the situation.

Just interacting with an anomaly was a great danger. Any attempt at understanding it meant breaking one of the greatest taboos and serving the demon her brain, body, and soul on a silver platter.

But…

The anomaly’s face… twitched when it heard the duchess response.

And then, Camila finally realized it.

‘Isn’t it just… a young man?’

Recalling the one instant when she gazed deep into the anomaly’s eyes, Camila gulped down her saliva.

Only to then tense up when she caught, with just the corner of her eyes, the Gray Edgehounds now approaching through the openness of the plain.

The anomaly appeared to be more affected by her voice than the presence of the absolute apex predators that ruled the edge between the old and the new.

‘Wait, maybe it didn’t notice the hounds?!’

But just as this terrifying thought came to Camila’s mind…

(Stay still.)

Camila couldn’t understand the words. But the tone, the intonation, the sharpness… All of the attributes of the anomaly speaking out in those two short notes somehow made it clear what it desires.

And with a thrill moving up her spine, Camila watched as the anomaly… no, the strange young man from only heavens knows where, stood up… and left its nest only to calmly move right towards the approaching Gray Edgehounds!

Then, in what could only be an arrogant show of defiance, he plummeted down to the ground, turning to rest his back against a small stone… leaving all three of the creeping hunters directly in its blind zone.

The anomaly…

‘No, it’s not an unspeakable unknown!’ Camila suddenly protested in her mind as she continued to stare right at the young man and all of its tiny, peculiar quirks. ‘It’s just a young man! More powerful than anything I know or heard of… But if it wasn’t him, then who else could’ve killed all of those beasts?!’

Yet, right as Camila finally overcame her phase of being frozen by the shock, the young man quickly proved to be a true anomaly.

With a small smile lingering on what Camila finally recognized as unhealthily thin lips, that devious anomaly lazily pointed back over the stone, right to where the three Gray Edgehounds were starting to bare their teeth in preparation to jump the unknown threat.

And with yet another flash of intelligence blinking out in these monsters eyes, the anomaly spoke yet again.

(Those monsters,) the anomaly shook its hand as if to bring Camila’s attention to what it was pointing at. And it pointed either right at the three Gray Edgehounds… or the field littered with monster corpses several tens of paces further away.

And then, the anomaly added,

(“Harvest them”)