Under the moonlight, Lintis strolled through the forest that lay between Isol City and the farm.
Her steps were light, her pure white figure in priestess robes flickering in and out of sight. With every brief disappearance, she would reappear 100 meters away in the next instant. In no time at all, she had crossed the forest and appeared not far from the gates of Isol City.
This method of travel was not the Holy Arts she usually employed, but rather Star-Moon Magic.
Star-Moon Magic was a branch of the magic system similar to Shadow Magic, though it differed from the secretive, lethal, and practical nature of its counterpart. Star-Moon Magic was all about being flashy. After all, wouldn’t it be fun to have a bunch of dazzling little stars swirling around you during a fight?
That was exactly why Lintis had learned this type of magic. The spell she had just used was the Star-Moon Magic known as **[Moonshadow Flicker]**. Its essence was similar to the Shadow Magic technique of merging into shadows, but it added light manipulation for extra deceptiveness.
Returning to the present, Lintis silently judged the gate guards as she watched them dozing off.
‘The official forces of this city are far too weak. It’s a miracle they’ve survived this long without being overrun by monsters.’
However, this was exactly why she had run over in the middle of the night.
The information she had gathered during the day made her realize there were deep-seated issues in Isol City. These problems had already seriously affected the health of the residents and the reputation of the Church, and she simply could not sit by and do nothing.
Feeling the envelope in her pocket, Lintis flickered once more, bypassing the city gates to enter the city.
Unlike the bustling city during the day, Isol City was silent now. No pedestrians were seen on the streets. Only a few taverns remained open, emitting a faint glow, while inside, a few adventurers lay sprawled across tables, fast asleep.
These were not Lintis’s target. In the blink of an eye, she had reached the interior of the Church. The nuns and clergy guarding the entrances were not skilled enough to detect her.
Following the path in her memory, Lintis stood before a closed door. She clenched her small fists to cheer herself on and took several deep breaths.
Then, she carefully merged into the shadows and moved to the other side of the door. Instead of stepping out of the shadows immediately as she usually did, she remained hidden.
She was being this cautious because the room she had infiltrated belonged to the Holy Knight, Ifreya.
At that moment, Ifreya was lying in bed, fast asleep. Her hands were folded over her stomach, looking almost too orderly.
Whenever she saw this, Lintis felt somewhat speechless. Ifreya was the Holy Knight who had mentored her since childhood, and her every word and action perfectly matched everyone’s ideal of a knight. But because of that, Ifreya was far too serious. Even Lintis found it difficult to find any fun in her.
Of course, that wasn’t important right now. What mattered was that given her own magical proficiency, it was hard to say she wouldn’t be noticed by Ifreya.
Yet this was something she had to do. With no other choice, she had to be cautious, cautious, and even more cautious. She didn’t want to be caught and dragged back to work.
After waiting for an unknown amount of time, Lintis’s patience finally wore thin. She emboldened herself and stepped out of the shadows inch by inch. She was less than 3 meters away from Ifreya, and her heart was pounding incessantly.
Suppressing her nervousness, Lintis took out the envelope and placed it on the desk. The envelope contained her hypotheses regarding the problems in Isol City; it was unsigned and incomplete.
However, she didn’t believe her former mentor, Ifreya, could spend 2 days in Isol City without a single seed of doubt planted in her mind. All she could do was provide a direction and leave the rest to Ifreya.
Seeing her mission accomplished, Lintis breathed a sigh of relief and allowed herself to relax. ‘This should be enough to keep the name of the Saintess from being disgraced, right?’
‘Hmm? Why does it feel so cold?’
Lintis looked toward the source of the feeling and immediately ran into a “wall.” Ifreya had woken up at some point. Her tall frame completely blocked the moonlight from the window, casting a shadow that enveloped Lintis entirely.
“Who goes there?”
A cool, crisp, and familiar voice rang out. Without any hesitation, Lintis turned and bolted. She pushed her magic to its limit, and like a fish diving into water, she vanished into the corner of the wall with a *thud*.
Ifreya, now fully awake, felt a bit surprised as she looked at the intruder who had been within her grasp but had dissolved into an illusion while their true body escaped into the shadows.
‘A Mystic Mage? How rare… But why would they break into a knight’s room?’ Ifreya was puzzled, but her eyes quickly fell upon the envelope on the desk.
After a moment of hesitation, she channeled her Holy Arts to form a simple protective barrier and opened the envelope. No traps were triggered, and she soon saw the contents inside.
Her brow furrowed slightly. She crossed her arms, resting one hand on her chin in deep thought.
‘If this is the case, it would explain the abnormalities in this city. But is the problem with the local Church, the remaining local nobles—or are the two sides cooperating?’
Based on the letter’s contents, Ifreya quickly considered several possibilities. To be honest, she hadn’t placed much importance on this mission initially, viewing it as nothing more than a “trip” to pad the Saintess’s resume.
Because of that, she hadn’t taken over the Church’s operations or focused on investigating anything. She had only asked a few questions about why Isol City had lost contact and then ordered a subjugation mission for those large monsters.
She hadn’t even cared much about the subjugation itself. If those monsters were truly formidable, they wouldn’t have failed to attack her and the Saintess on their way to the city.
Her plan had been to let Isol City organize its own forces to hunt the monsters while she and her accompanying knights acted as a safety net, allowing the constantly stressed junior knights to get some rest in the process.
But now it seemed that the loss of contact with the Church headquarters had caused the city’s lord and the local Church to develop many inappropriate ideas…
As for whether the letter was real or fake?
That wasn’t crucial. Someone with those kinds of skills had no reason to lie about such things, as the truth could be discovered with a simple investigation.
Moreover… she suspected that the Mystic Mage just now was actually the Saintess. Even if the figure had looked more like a man, their Saintess had many tricks up her sleeve; transformation and disguise were not difficult for her.
After thinking for a moment, Ifreya closed her eyes, and her consciousness entered a pitch-black space containing seven stars.
Six of the stars represented her and the other five knights, while the last one, which flickered between dark and bright, belonged to the Saintess.
This was a new development from the collaboration between the Church and the Mage Tower, known as the **[Magic Network]**.
Its purpose was to transmit information with extreme efficiency, but it required a medium for conduction, meaning it could only be used in cities where a Mana Nexus had been established. Furthermore, because a Mana Nexus was highly susceptible to filth, they had only been set up in a handful of cities deemed safe.
Isol City certainly didn’t qualify. It was located in an extremely remote area, cut off by vast forests and rivers, which hindered the transportation of materials.
However, that didn’t mean it was completely unusable. Carrying a small medium allowed for real-time communication within a certain range, and that was exactly what Ifreya intended to do.
“Knight Emmett, sorry to bother you, but please come over. I have something I need you to do.”
After about 10 seconds, the voice of a young man echoed in Ifreya’s mind.
“Lady Ifreya, I’ll be there immediately. Please wait a moment.”
A short while later, there was a knock on Ifreya’s door. After being granted permission, the fully armed Emmett walked in.
“Lady Ifreya, what are your orders?”
Ifreya handed the envelope to Emmett. While he examined it, she spoke.
“I need you to investigate the information in that letter. If it proves to be true, I expect we’re going to be quite busy.”
Emmett’s expression soured after reading the letter. He nodded.
“Understood. I’ll go investigate immediately.”
As he spoke, Emmett turned to head out.
“Wait, there’s no rush. Go when the sun comes up. You should get some more rest. The suspects are all sleeping right now, so you won’t find much useful information anyway.”
Emmett’s lip twitched at her words.
“… Lady Ifreya, then why didn’t you just call for me in the morning?”
“… My apologies.”
—
On the other side, having escaped with her life, Lintis didn’t dare stop for a second. She used **[Moonshadow Flicker]** repeatedly, moving even faster than she had on the way there.
By the time she returned to her room, a thin layer of sweat had formed on her forehead. her cheeks were flushed, and her breathing was a bit ragged, but she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She didn’t believe Ifreya could have followed her all this way.
However, the sticky feeling of sweat all over her body made her quite uncomfortable. It would be too gross to go to bed like this. Fortunately, she grabbed her pajamas and headed downstairs, intending to take another shower.
But just as she reached the bottom, she bumped right into Shilo, who was for some reason cleaning a dog bowl in the middle of the night.
Lintis froze, unable to understand why he was up so late. Had she woken him up?
As for Shilo, he looked the Saintess up and down. Seeing her flushed cheeks and ragged breathing, he hesitated for a moment before slowly speaking.
“… Saintess, as a member of the clergy, shouldn’t you exercise a bit of moderation?”
Lintis blanked, not understanding what he meant at first. But very quickly, her head, which was filled with knowledge from countless films, put the pieces together.
Her eyes slowly widened, and her face turned bright red.
“SHILO! MR.! SHILO!”
the girl’s shamed and indignant voice echoed through the long night.