“......What are you talking about?”

Alon frowned and asked again, as if he genuinely couldn’t understand what he’d just heard. The former Observer spoke once more.

[Exactly what it sounds like. But do you happen to know about the elves’ curse?]

“I do.”

The elves’ curse.

A curse cast on the elves by the mage who sided with the black ones—“the Closed-Eyed One.” Because of it, the elves’ lifespan had been reduced to a quarter.

When Alon explained that curse—

[It’s the same. Just like the elves’ lifespan was reduced by the curse of the Closed-Eyed One, mages also suffered a curse—no, “curse” isn’t enough. What would be a better word—]

The former Observer hesitated, thinking.

[Right. This is the proper way to put it. “Erasure.”]

She said it out loud.

“......Erasure?”

[Yes. The black ones, including the Closed-Eyed One, “erased” mages. So they could no longer exist in this world—they wiped away not only their traces, but even the very concept they had carved into the world.]

“......Why?”

[Didn’t you know about the elves’ curse?]

“What does that have to do with this?”

For a moment, the former Observer made a face like she couldn’t understand his question. Then she let out a quiet, “Ah,” and opened her mouth again.

[So you know the elves’ curse, but you don’t know the reason the elves were cursed in the first place.]

“Can you tell me the reason?”

[It’s so simple it barely even qualifies as a reason. Because they were a threat to Sin. That’s all.]

“A threat......?”

[Yes.]

The Observer nodded once or twice and continued.

[Mages were a threat to Sin. Every last one of them lost their lives, but even so, Sin still failed to achieve its goal. That’s why the Closed-Eyed One erased the mages from this world.]

So that the existence known as “mages” could not stop Sin.

So that everything would flow according to the natural order.

As the former Observer murmured quietly, Alon asked his next question.

“Then the elves, too—”

[The same. Their long lifespans could have produced an existence capable of stopping Sin, so the curse was cast. So they could never break absolute inevitability.]

Alon fell silent for a moment.

He couldn’t understand it at all.

“......Why, though.”

[Which part do you mean?]

“Why would that ‘Closed-Eyed One’ go that far just to destroy the world?”

There were plenty of other things Alon didn’t understand, too.

Why, even after creating Sin, that existence treated him favorably.

And the very idea of “magic” being something the Closed-Eyed One had “erased” from the world made no sense to him.

But more than anything, this was ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the biggest question.

Why did they create Sin, and why were they trying to destroy the world?

That was why he asked.

And the former Observer just stared at him.

Without a word. Calmly.

“......?”

In that moment, Alon arrived at a strange realization.

‘She isn’t looking at me.’

At first, Alon had thought she was staring straight at him.

But she wasn’t.

‘Then where—’

Alon looked into her eyes.

As he suspected, her gaze was slightly off.

Then—

[May I ask you something?]

She suddenly asked him a question.

“Go ahead.”

[You... how much do you know?]

“......How much?”

[Yes. Literally—how much do you know about this world? It’s fine if it’s long. Tell me everything you know.]

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Alon looked bewildered, but he slowly began to explain.

“Everything I know ends there.”

When he finished, the former Observer wore the same calm expression as she thought about something, and then—

[I know what you’re curious about, but I can’t tell you.]

That was the conclusion she reached.

“......Why?”

[Because your eyes and ears won’t be able to perceive the truth.]

Right after Alon and Radan left the place where the Observer was—

Alon stared blankly up at the sun hanging high overhead.

“Brother?”

“...What is it?”

“No, it’s just... you’ve been spaced out ever since we came out of that cave.”

“......Have I?”

Only then did Alon snap back to his senses, but almost immediately, he fell back into thought.

‘What does that mean?’

‘Your eyes and ears are being screened off from the truth. So no matter who you ask, you’ll never reach it.’

Remembering the conversation he’d had with the former Observer, Alon thought—

‘Someone is covering my eyes and ears...’

The former Observer hadn’t explained who that “someone” was.

No—strictly speaking, it was more like she couldn’t.

In any case, even if he knew that fact, it didn’t throw Alon into confusion. It only gave him another question.

There were two reasons.

Even if someone really was covering his eyes and ears, Alon’s goal didn’t change.

In the end, what he had to do was stop Sin.

That goal hadn’t changed at all.

And the other reason was her final words.

‘Gather the items and meet that existence. If it’s that existence, it will be able to remove the hand that’s covering you.’

She definitely said that.

That if he gathered the items and met that existence, the hand hiding the truth could be removed.

Which meant what Alon needed to do right now also hadn’t changed.

Of course, he was curious what intent someone had in covering his eyes and ears, but he decided to hold that back, too.

‘If I gather the items, I’ll find out everything.’

After sorting out his thoughts for a while, Alon looked at Radan.

Radan also had the face of someone lost in thought.

“Something on your mind?”

“Ah.”

Radan snapped back late and let out a small sound, but—

“Um—no. It’s not that big of a deal.”

He scratched his head with an awkward smile.

Alon nodded as if he understood, and that was that.

“Then let’s head back.”

Putting off the next time, they left the eastern coast and returned to Radan’s ship.

“So... that was true?”

“I’m telling you it’s true. Why are you so bad at believing people?”

After hearing endless bragging from Karam—who’d joined Marquis Palatio’s forces as a soldier—Beran had spent more than a month buried in the labyrinth making money. When he finally came out and met his buddy Cop, he was completely stunned.

“So the rumor was real?”

“Yeah. That’s why everything’s going crazy right now.”

The reason was the rumor Cop delivered.

“So that bastard Karam wasn’t lying?”

“Yeah. They’re saying if you actually carry out justice, bring proof, and then train inside that territory, you can use Kalannon’s power.”

Of course, the source of the rumor had been the two of them—

But the story had already mutated and warped beyond control.

“...Hoh.”

Without realizing it, Beran smiled and stood up immediately.

“Where are you going?”

“Where am I going? I’ve gotta go do one too.”

“Huh? Wait—”

Before Cop could even finish talking, Beran slipped outside, wearing a deep grin as he started sprinting toward the mercenary guild.

The reason was simple: to pick up a request to deal with bandits.

‘Honestly, if I’m being real, I kinda just want to put a team together and beat the shit out of some bandits—’

From what Beran knew, bandits had gotten so plentiful lately that you could run into them practically anywhere, meaning you could deal with them even without a request.

But he was going to take a request anyway for the pay and the location.

If he was going to catch them, why not get paid, and why waste time combing through forests when you could just get the bandits’ location?

‘Me too... Kalannon’s power—!’

Full of hope, Beran burst into the mercenary guild—

“?”

—and then made a dumbfounded expression after checking the request board.

It was so long it looked like ten grown men would have to line up to match it, and it stretched so far you couldn’t even see the end.

The height was no joke either—Beran had to raise his hand high just to barely reach.

......And the most important part was—

‘There’s... none?’

The bandit extermination requests that had been packed wall-to-wall just a month ago weren’t there.

Not a single one.

Not one.

After scanning the large board again, Beran asked the receptionist sitting beside it.

“...Uh, ma’am?”

“What—Beran?”

The receptionist greeted him with a slightly exhausted face.

“No, I mean... why is this so clean? Did you take everything down to clean or something?”

“What are you talking about, cleaning? Have you ever seen us do anything like cleaning?”

“Well—no, but... it’s just so empty.”

“Huh? Wait, you seriously don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Marquis Palatio.”

“...Don’t tell me it’s about getting into his territory?”

“Yeah. Because of that, there aren’t any bandit requests right now.”

“...Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

The receptionist nodded, then went, “Ah,” and pointed with a finger.

“Ah, look, someone’s coming to put up a request. Looks like a bandit extermination request?”

“!”

Beran turned his head—and sure enough, another employee was posting a fresh bandit extermination request on the board.

Beran broke into a radiant smile and started moving that way, but—

The moment the request hit the board—

Bam—!!!

“It’s m-mine!”

A dwarf came flying out of nowhere and snatched the request.

But only for a moment.

“Gk—!”

“It’s mine!”

A human kicked the dwarf in the jaw and ripped the request away.

“Get lost! Get lost!”

A wolf beastman lunged out the same way, reaching for the paper—

“What the hell!?”

“A request popped!?”

“Fuck, move!!!!”

In an instant, mercenaries flooded into the guild, tangling together, and the whole place turned into chaos.

“Haa—”

“...What the hell is this?”

Beran stood there blankly next to the receptionist, who sighed like she was sick of it, and only then did he start noticing scenes he hadn’t even registered until now.

“Please—please take me with you!”

“Hah—? You think someone like you has the right to handle ‘bandits’??”

A-grade mercenaries bowing their heads over a bandit extermination request that even B-rank could handle—

And—

“Hey. I got insane intel this time.”

“Don’t tell me... the bandits who were hiding?”

“Yeah. That’s it.”

“Where—where are they?”

“Near the border.”

“No way... that’s huge......”

“It’s only a month from here!? Let’s go—right now, right now—!”

A party that used to avoid bandit requests even if it took just two or three hours—now acting like kids, thrilled to chase something a month away, and that might already have been cleared out—

And on top of that—

“Hey, hey—me too, good intel!”

“What is it?” 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“I found bandits!”

“Really!?”

“More like... I found a village that might become bandits—!”

“You psycho, that’s just a slash-and-burn settler village!! We’re supposed to carry out justice—do you want to get fried by God’s lightning!?”

Scenes so dizzying just to watch left Beran completely stunned.

“Hey! Bandits spotted in the northern woods!”

Right then, a loud voice came from outside—

“Uh—shit! Move!! I gotta go!”

“Me too! Me toooo—!”

“Let me—let me handle it!”

“MOVE OOOOOUT OF THE WAAAAAY!!!!”

Over a rumor they didn’t even know was true or not—

The mercenaries stopped fighting and bolted out all at once.

A guild that was packed a moment ago turned empty in an instant.

Standing right in the middle of it, Beran thought—

‘W-what is this......’

At how completely the mood in Lartania had changed in just a month—

“...This is scary.”

He felt a bizarre kind of fear.