The clearing remained quiet for a while after the beastman fell. Smoke from the camp drifted lazily upward, mixing the smell of burnt wood with sweat, steel, and the faint metallic scent of blood. Null stood quietly for a moment before lowering his twin swords.
"Alright," he exhaled slowly.
Behind him, Ronan's group finally unfroze. Derrik let out a long breath. "That was insane."
Mira whistled softly. "Remind me never to cross him."
Tobin simply stared at Null as if he had just witnessed a legend descend from the heavens. Lyra, meanwhile, remained completely still.
Within a few minutes, the team had tied up the unconscious bandits using ropes from the camp supplies, dragging them into a single pile. Only then did the novices finally allow themselves to relax.
Ronan wiped the sweat from his brow. "Good work, everyone."
Null stretched his shoulders, glancing at the bound criminals. "So, now that we've captured them, how exactly do we hand them over to the Justice Regulators? Don't tell me we have to manually drag them all the way to some station."
Ronan blinked. "Station?" He scratched his head. "I don't know what that is. But don't worry, we don't need to drag them anywhere." He pulled a polished slab of enchanted crystal framed in bronze from his pouch, tapping its surface to bring it to life. "We just use this."
Null leaned closer. "An arcane communication device?"
"Yeah, we just log the mission completion details into the JR App," Ronan shrugged. "The Justice Regulators' official system. It maps our coordinates and logs the captives. A unit will deploy to take custody, and the mission is officially wrapped. We just guard them until they get here."
He stepped a short distance away to begin inputting the data into the glowing interface.
Null watched for a moment before chuckling quietly. "I see. I guess this magical fantasy world is more systematic than I gave it credit for."
Lyra tilted her head. "Magical fantasy?"
Null immediately coughed. "Please don't mind me."
Magical fantasy world or not… this was his reality now. And he had no choice but to go with the flow.
Because for him, whether it was this fantasy world or his previous life on a highly advanced, sci-fi version of Earth—things weren't that different. Honestly, regardless of the setting, existence had always felt somewhat colourless to him.
Null sighed quietly, turning his attention to the young elf beside him. "By the way, Lyra."
She looked up. "Yes?"
Null smiled mischievously, tilting his head. "I kept my promise. No fatal wounds. Don't you think I did well?"
Lyra froze, her long elven ears twitching sharply. "W-Well..." she stammered, her voice trembling as her ears turned a bright, unmistakable crimson. "I... I don't know what to say, Null-san."
Null's grin widened. "Hehe. As I thought. Elven ears are very fun to tease."
Lyra's face exploded into a deep tomato red. "W-WHAT?!"
Barely fourteen and completely inexperienced, her brain practically short-circuited.
Mira burst out laughing while Derrik and Tobin snorted in amusement.
Null offered a reassuring pat to her head. "Now, now, Lyra. Calm down. No need to get so flustered. I'll stop teasing you, okay?"
Unfortunately, the gentle touch, combined with his absurdly beautiful face so close to hers—only made it worse.
Lyra's eyes began to spin. "I... I... I..."
Null froze, his hand still resting on her hair. Uh oh. Now even he didn't know what to do.
Just as he was about to pull his hand back, a harsh, mocking laugh echoed through the clearing.
"Ah, what a heartwarming bonding moment. Watching such touching friendship... makes me want to ruin it even more."
The party froze instantly. Ronan spun around, his hand flying to his sword hilt. "WHO'S THERE?!"
Null let out a quiet internal sigh. Right on schedule.
Two figures wrapped in heavy black cloaks and hoods blinked into existence, stepping straight out of the shadows. The moment they materialized, the shorter of the two blurred forward. He dashed straight toward the tied-up bandits. Before anyone could react, his dagger flashed in a vicious arc.
SHLIK.
Blood sprayed across the dirt. The first bandit's throat opened instantly.
"USELESS!"
SHLIK. The second bandit died. "PATHETIC!"
SHLIK. The third. "TRASH!"
SHLIK. The fourth. "UTTERLY WORTHLESS!"
Within seconds, all six bandits were dead.
The novice team stood paralyzed, Everything had happened too fast.
The killer stood atop the fresh corpses, laughing wildly as he licked a dark streak of blood from his blade.
"Ahh... fresh," he whispered, a few strands of violet hair slipping from his hood to reveal a young face distorted by insanity.
Behind him, the second hooded figure remained completely still. When he spoke, his voice was flat and entirely devoid of emotion. "Glo. Are you done with your psychotic actions? We have a task to complete."
The violet-haired killer clicked his tongue, jumping down from the bodies. "Tch. Yeah, yeah, you don't have to tell me. And stop ordering me around, Nubrus. I know what to do."
The second man turned his head slightly, his hood shifting to reveal pale skin, silver hair, and cold, calculating eyes. "I am not ordering you. I am drilling reality into you."
Glo rolled his eyes. "Tch. Cold-faced bastard." He stretched lazily, pointing his bloody dagger at the party. "Do we even have anything to worry about? The target is a weakling. Master must be underestimating us, giving us such an easy mission."
Nubrus's gaze shifted toward Null. "The target might be a weakling, but the difficulty of this assignment does not lie in the act of execution. It lies in the fact that we are striking someone under that personage's protection, within her territory. She is one of the {Nine Luminary Paragons} of Humanity. Do you understand the gravity of this?"
Glo shrugged carelessly, a mad gleam in his eyes. "So what? When I reach my full potential, I'll butcher those so-called heroes."
Nubrus snorted. "Keep your daydreams to yourself. Master warned us to be extremely careful. This is a trial. We will complete it without mistakes."
Glo groaned. "Tch. You're frustrating." He licked his lips, turning back toward the novices. "Good thing I have prey to vent my frustration on—"
He paused, blinking in confusion. "Huh?"
The prey was gone.
While the two assassins had been monologuing, Null had quietly caught Ronan's eye, gesturing toward the treeline.
Retreat.
Ronan, caught the signal instantly, despite the terror freezing his limbs from the grotesque turn of events—he nodded. The team moved.
Ronan. Derrik. Tobin. Mira. All of them silently pulled back.
Only Lyra remained rooted, petrified by the grotesque slaughter.
Null let out a quiet sigh. "Of course," he muttered, grabbing her wrist firmly. "Come on."
it had been anyone else, Lyra might have instinctively resisted. But maybe—because it was Null. Her first crush. She let him pull her along.
Behind them, Glo raised his bloody dagger, a wide, predatory grin stretching across his face.
"You lot are quite clever for upstarts, I'll give you that. But there's no escaping my clutches."