A sharp, metallic hum cut through the night as a silver coin spun in the air. It reflected the moonlight several times before landing in the palms of Tucker’s leather gloves. He stared at the coin, watching the surface glisten on one side while the other remained dull.

  His eyes drifted to the trade caravans approaching the city in the darkness. Armed guards were patrolling the very route they were overlooking. Their torches burned and flickered along the winding road that led to the kingdom. In their hands were halberds with blue banners fluttering at the ends.

  From afar, Tucker could see two white swords crossing each other within a golden wreath, while the wagons were pure white with gold accents on the exterior.

  To the side, Alex’s pale fingers wrapped around his sword’s handle. In one precise motion, he brought his cloak to the blade, dragging it against the fabric. The fresh blood dripping from the weapon’s edge vanished, leaving a clean surface that shone beneath the moonlight.

  It was an act of mercy to finish off the bandits.

  Alex’s black eyes lingered on the bandit’s corpse with a hint of worry. The pristine armor and well-maintained weapons left a sense of unease in his mind. Something about these bandits felt wrong, yet he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

  The old man was a veteran, a seasoned agent within their Order who had dedicated decades of service to the Everheart Kingdom. One who was near the end of his service after countless years of missions on his belt. Realistically, he should have retired years ago, but found the life of a civilian far too plain for his tastes.

  Now, in his twilight years, he reluctantly accepted one final task: mentoring a rookie from the latest batch of recruits. The so-called ‘bad batch’—the finest group of misfits the Order ever had the pleasure of training.

  They were an interesting bunch, ones that didn’t fit with their previous generation of agents. But as a new dawn approaches, it was only right to accept them with open arms and raise them to the current standards. Or at least that was the plan.

  Alex glanced over at Tucker and sighed while focusing on the bodies of the bandits. The rookie was green, far too green for his liking. He was inexperienced, na?ve, and, worst of all, a handful. But Alex knew that the other mentors didn’t have the patience to deal with such a free-spirited kid. So the responsibility had fallen to him, whether he liked it or not.

  Tucker pulled the green hood over his brown hair. He stepped onto the fallen tree trunk and struck a heroic pose. “And so, here we are once more. Protecting our kingdom from the clutches of evil.”

  “Would it kill you to take this seriously?” Alex asked.

  Tucker rolled the coin between his fingers with a smile. “I am. This is part of the process.”

  “The only process I see here is you acting like a fool.”

  “Am I a cool fool?” Tucker asked, pocketing the coin.

  “You’re about to be downgraded to an idiot if you keep this up,” Alex replied with an unamused look in his eyes.

  “They’re just bandits,” Tucker pointed out.

  He dismissively waved his hand to the side. His hazel-colored eyes drifted from one body to another. With one hand, he grabbed onto the cuff of his sleeved and unrolled it to cover his white skin.

  “If anything, we shouldn’t be surprised,” Tucker said. “It’s not like it’s uncommon for them to die in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Still, for this many of them to be killed without us knowing?” Alex scoffed before brushing the dirt off his pants. “That’s some bullshit if you ask me.”

  He gave Tucker a hard stare. “We’re watchmen. It’s our job to find the cause of any threats and eliminate them. You shouldn’t brush something aside just because you think they’re worth less than shit.”

  Tucker rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “We’re the Everheart Kingdom’s finest heroes and all that. You don’t have to lecture me all the time about it.”

  Alex’s hands twitched at the word hero. A bitterness filled his heart, gnawing at his consciousness. Yet all he could do was push it down and shake his head. “I wouldn’t have to lecture you all the time if you got it through your thick skull.”

  The old man scoffed before quietly mumbling. “Besides, there’s nothing heroic about what we do.”

  The rookie raised a brow at what his mentor had said. There were faint traces of disgust in the old man’s voice. One that was barely noticeable, but before Tucker could respond, Alex turned away while brushing his gray hair to the side and adjusting his leather hat.

  The broad brim crafted from demonic hide cast a veil that hid his face from any onlookers. Even though Tucker couldn’t see his expression, he could tell from how Alex carried himself that he didn’t like the word hero one bit.

  Sensing the tense atmosphere, Tucker looked over his shoulder at the corpses behind them. “How many more of these bastards do you think there are? It shouldn’t be that many with this much dead.”

  “There could be a hundred of them for all we know.”

  ”Great… just great,” Tucker muttered, following behind Alex with his arms behind his head. “I’ll be honest. I’m sick of these missions. When will we get something that’ll actually test our skills?”

  “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re a secret organization.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ve done a pretty lousy job of staying a secret. Everyone knows about us these days.”

  Alex rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger, unable to refute the snarky greenhorn. “Just be grateful that we only have to deal with low-threat missions. Especially since you haven’t formed a proper bond with your spirit companion.”

  “This again?” Tucker scoffed and shook his head. “I told you I don’t need my spirit companion. I’m fine on my own.”

  “No one’s fine on their own,” Alex shot back. “That’s why the Order has us moving in pairs or three-man teams.”

  Tucker frowned, trying to make sense of Alex’s words. They were currently investigating a series of disappearances along the southern border. However, the past few days were anything but eventful. There was nothing but an eerie silence in the dense forest they patrolled.

  Just the same old routine of scouting and tracking while protecting the caravans moving between the Avalon Empire and the Everheart Kingdom. They were watchmen, a force to be reckoned with. Yet, no matter how much Tucker protested to his senior that this task was a waste of time.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Alex remained adamant about discovering something.

  If this continued for any longer, he would categorize it as one of Alex’s unhealthy obsessions, but after so long there wasn’t a point in arguing. All Tucker could do was trudge along, and soon, his gaze fell upon a nearby ruined village.

  A landmark from the war between their home and the Empire. Even though decades had passed since the peace treaty, the scars of the conflict still live on to this day. Just like the other landmarks along the southern border that refused to fade.

  With a weary sigh, Tucker stretched his arms. Soon, they would have to reposition and scout the next trade route from another position. Continuing on with this boring task. He rubbed his eyes as Alex’s spirit companion woke up from its slumber and poked its head out of his pocket.

  It was a small lizard with scales resembling embers. The creature softly yawned before climbing onto Alex’s shoulder. Its smooth scales radiated a gentle warmth while emitting a faint light. One that was only visible to those who had an affinity with spirits.

  Sally stared at Alex with bright azure eyes and softly growled before turning to Tucker and hissing in anger. Its frill expanded outward, revealing a bright combination of crimson hues that shook back and forth as it bared its fangs.

  Seeing this, Tucker looked down at the lizard and smirked. Spirits were beings that didn’t belong on their plane but could freely appear through the contract with their partner. It was the source of their strength, and typically, having a higher-ranked spirit meant that the contractor was overall stronger.

  It was the same with forming aura stars with aura in a person’s soul and creating more mana circles within one’s mind. But seeing Sally, Tucker could roughly gauge that it was a low-ranked one due to the amount of essence it held.

  “Could you not pick a fight with my spirit companion?” Alex asked.

  “Fight? It’s beneath a future Nightfall Ranger like myself to fight with a reptile. If I’m gonna be the best of the best.” Tucker placed his hand on his chest. “I would battle against monsters or some sort of beast.”

  “And what about knights?”

  “Okay, one step at a time,” Tucker replied. “Our kingdom hasn’t fought against the Empire’s knights in years, so I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that. Right?”

  Alex gave him a long, deadpan stare before shaking his head and turning away. “Oh, you poor bastard…”

  It was the first time he had ever encountered someone like Tucker, and he felt it certainly wouldn’t be the last. From what he heard, the entire new generation was a handful and possibly one of the worst yet best batch of recruits they had ever found. At least, that was what the instructors said. But so far, he didn’t see it.

  As they walked through the forest, Tucker stayed close to Alex and checked their surroundings. They were on a supposed stealth mission. Even though he may or may not have caused a ruckus earlier. It just supported his argument that there was nothing in this blasted foliage since, if there were, they would’ve gotten ambushed.

  The rookie released a tired sigh. He just couldn’t understand why the old man was so intent on flipping every stone on this side of the forest. It was like he was deliberately searching for something to go wrong along the borders.

  He wanted to know why. Why was the veteran so torn about the past?

  Yet as he was lost in his thoughts, Tucker stopped dead in his tracks as if something had hit him. The air was thick with a scent like wet iron, a scent that clung to the back of his throat. It was something he had read in books, but experiencing it in person caused him to gag.

  After walking for several minutes and crossing through a series of thick foliage, a trail of blood caught their eyes—dead bodies exceeding the previous amount laid before them. Their skin pale from the cold.

  He held his hand over his mouth and nose. “What the hell happened here?”

  “I don’t know, but we’ll find out soon enough.” Alex kneeled beside a corpse and examined the wound. His gaze hardened as he rubbed the slick blood between his fingers. “Something’s off. These wounds… they’re too clean.”

  The old man signaled for Tucker to come towards the body with a grim expression. “Slide your hand through this wound and tell me if you feel anything… different.”

  The rookie followed the veteran’s instructions and soon narrowed his brows. There was another wound hidden within the long gash on the bandit’s chest. It was without a doubt a puncture wound that went several centimeters deeper than the cut above it. He locked eyes with Alex, who quickly scanned the area.

  “Check the other corpses and see if it’s the same,” Alex ordered.

  Both of them began examining the wounds on the bandits’ bodies. After checking several bodies and confirming the striking similarities between each corpse, they looked at each other with troubled expressions.

  “Who…” Tucker’s voice trembled. “…who could have done this?”

  “I don’t know, but they wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of hiding these wounds unless they were up to no good.” Alex stood up and wiped the blood off his black gloves on the leaves of a nearby bush. “We’ll head further into the forest and see if we can track them.”

  “I’m with you on that.”

  Tucker agreed with the sentiment as a sense of unease lingered in the back of his mind. The wind had stilled, and even the usual hum of night insects had faded into silence. There was something unsettling about the scene before them—the hidden wounds, the carefully placed bodies. It was as if someone, or something, was watching, waiting.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but the words never came.

  Suddenly, an eerie calmness descended around them, broken only by the faint flutter of wings in the distance. Tucker felt a shiver crawl up his spine. He instinctively moved closer to Alex, his hand hovering near his dagger. Seeing this, Alex mirrored the movement, their backs now pressed together as they scanned the tree line.

  “Something’s not right,” Tucker whispered, his eyes darting between the shadows of the oak trees.

  The presence grew nearer—less than ten meters away now, and still closing in. Every muscle in their bodies tensed, ready to strike. Then, through the dense foliage, a small shape burst through—a bird not much larger than Tucker’s fist emerged. Its body dancing in the wind as the mist fluttered like a flame from a candle.

  The tension broke as the tiny creature spread its wings and gracefully slowed its approach, landing on Alex’s outstretched arm.

  Tucker didn’t know whether to let out a sigh of relief or shake his head. He lowered his hand upon seeing the Order’s messenger. “Do they always have to appear like this? I swear it just gives me a mini heart attack every time this happens.”

  “Well, it’s better we stay on our toes than to die a fool’s death. In the past, the Empire used to rig their carriers as one of ours,” Alex said, removing the parchment wrapped around the mist hawk’s foot and releasing it. “And because of that, we lost a few good watchmen. So if you ask me, it’s better to be cautious than to die because of a false sense of security.”

  Tucker watched as Alex released the mist hawk into the air, flapping its shadowlike wings without leaving a trace. He paused for a moment before turning to the veteran. “I don’t get it. Was the five-year war really that bad?”

  “It was.”

  “But we won the war. We repelled the invaders.”

  “But at what cost?” Alex asked while reading the letter.

  For a second, a trace of sadness flickered in his eyes. It was subtle, but just enough for Tucker to catch.

  “I lost many friends during that war,” Alex said. “Even though we won, it was a hard-fought victory that required sacrifice.”

  He clenched the corners of the page and ripped it into tiny pieces. It was always like this. Whenever something suspicious appeared, the Administrators would order for them to return. That was the one thing that always bothered him.

  Alex held the pieces of the letter close to Sally’s mouth. Watching the salamander spew out a tiny flame onto the parchment, setting it ablaze.

  Tucker stood to the side and waited as the ashes drifted with the wind. It was rare for the old man to get sentimental. He thought about what he had learned at the academy, but couldn’t find the right words to say. Even if he tried to comfort him, he knew the old man wasn’t the type to want to hear it.

  The rookie gazed at the fleeting embers, feeling a sense of sadness in his heart. “So… what was in the letter?”

  Alex glanced at Tucker before staring off into the distance. After a few minutes, he let out a deep exhale while shaking his head.

  “It’s a mass recall order from the Administrators,” he said. “We’re to return to the Keep when the opportunity arises, but to be frank, it doesn’t sit well with me to leave like this.”

  “Then what’s your call?”

  Alex curiously raised a brow. “I thought you didn’t want to stay here any longer?”

  “Who knows? Maybe I felt bad and had a change of heart.” Tucker shrugged his shoulders before smiling. “Besides, we’ve spent weeks out here, and now that something interesting happens, we’re told to return? I’ve never been a man of faith, but I know when God’s fucking with me.”

  Alex smirked beneath the half-mask that covered his mouth and nose. Whether Tucker was doing it out of pity didn’t matter. As long as they were on the same page, then they could continue with their little adventure.

  “Then it looks like we have a long night ahead of us,” Alex said. “Let’s get to the bottom of this.”