The Path of Ruin-Chapter 104: The Person in the Robe

Kael silently followed the mysterious figure for about another minute, unnoticed. Then, the figure entered the narrow space between two three-story buildings.

With that, he couldn't help but frown slightly.

Had he been spotted?

All his focus and senses sharpened as he approached the space between the buildings. He hid his body and took a quick peek.

The figure was not in his line of sight. The space between the buildings was longer than he had thought.

It didn't look that way from the outside, but the narrow alleys were intertwined like a small part of a maze due to the dense structure of the buildings. This place was more complex than he had imagined.

'How great...'

In the area where the palace servants lived, in the dead of night, a mysterious figure, especially moving stealthily, was entering the labyrinthine space between the buildings?

'No matter how I look at it, it looks like someone is secretly meeting someone... or luring me into a trap?'

Normally, Kael would find himself in a dilemma.

Should he take the risk and continue following, or decide the risk was too high, turn back, and report the situation? Both options weighed equally in his mind.

However, in the situation he was in now, he made his decision very quickly, almost without thinking.

If he didn't continue, he would lose the figure completely. Besides that, he trusted his abilities. He was sure he could at least escape as long as there was no Seeker in front of him. So, he moved forward with quiet but quick steps. He continued his pursuit, focusing all his attention and senses on his surroundings.

He carefully passed the bend he saw, then came to a fork in the road. There were three paths he could take, but without thinking, he took the left one. He could see the fresh footprints leading there, faint though they were.

And with those footprints, he realized something.

The figure he was following was either a kid or a woman. The size of the footprints he saw was small compared to those of an adult male.

The path ahead made a sharp turn to the right, and he would carefully pass this point as well, checking beforehand.

But the moment he bent down slightly to check, he paused, his eyes narrowing slightly.

His target... was waiting about five meters ahead of him, with his back turned, looking around as if searching for something in this empty street.

'The distance between us isn't that great.'

If the figure had continued walking, there would have been about twenty meters between them. So, this unknown person had stopped advancing at this point. In short, this was the target location.

Kael carefully examined the area first. He couldn't see anything about the path ahead or the stones and dust on the ground. They were in a completely empty alley. If something was hidden here, he would expect it to be under the ground.

And sure enough, the person in the robe soon fixed their gaze on a specific spot on the ground. They approached it, knelt down with Kael on their left, and began digging at that spot with their hands as best they could.

The first thing that caught his attention was their hands.

They looked quite... delicate and thin.

'A... girl?'

If he had to guess, she was a girl one or two years younger than himself.

Another thing that caught his attention was a few strands of hair spilling out from under the hood after she knelt and leaned over.

'Gray? No, white?'

He couldn't tell for sure because of the small amount of hair and the darkness, but he was sure it was a very light shade at least.

He couldn't see anything else that might reveal her identity. So, he turned his eyes away from her and back to the spot she was digging.

She was digging that spot quite desperately, almost frantically. She didn't seem to care about the dirt and stones getting under her fingernails. Nor did she seem to care much about the skin rubbing raw from the friction.

In this manner, she struggled for about three minutes, but then paused and looked at her trembling hands first, then at the spot she had dug. Despite her hands being in this state, she had made very little progress. The soil must have been quite hard.

Still, she didn't stop; she continued.

After a short while, the skin on her fingertips and palms began to peel, staining the soil with tiny, faint traces of blood. She would occasionally stop and wipe her face with the sleeve of her robe. It must have hurt terribly, but she didn't stop. As if her whole life depended on it, she dug, dug...

And dug.

"..."

At some point, Kael began to feel sorry for the girl he was watching. What could be so important in the place she was digging?

He was now certain that he was not noticed and that this girl was not here to meet someone. Moreover, the fact that she looked so pitiful while simply trying to dig a hole also indicated that she couldn't use eon.

The danger here wasn't her, but rather Kael himself, who had been following and watching her for the last ten minutes.

Revealing himself and asking the girl who she was and what her purpose was seemed like the most logical option based on what he had confirmed so far.

However... he didn't.

He continued to watch.

He would reveal himself if she tried to leave or attempt to escape, but he was curious to see how far she would go and what she would do with whatever she dug up.

So, when he noticed the girl suddenly pause, all his attention was focused on her.

The girl had stopped digging. Her hand, covered in wounds and bruises, was shaking like crazy, and all she did was stare, frozen, at the spot she had dug to the point where Kael couldn't see the bottom from where he was standing.

However, this didn't last long. She started digging again, this time faster and more determined. She continued for about five minutes. Then, instead of digging, she put her hands into the hole she had dug, straining as if trying to pull something out. When she couldn't, she dug a little more and tried again. Then it happened once more.

Finally, she pulled so hard that whatever was in the hole suddenly came free. Her own strength caused her to fall backward onto her back, but she quickly recovered and looked at the hole. She put her hands back inside and pulled out a closed box.

It was long and narrow, about the length of Kael's forearm, yet no wider than an apple.

Though, the important thing was that she had finally succeeded.

She looked at the box as if it were a treasure, examining it, not caring that the blood on her trembling hands stained it. But then, she paused abruptly. He suddenly turned to her right.

'Ah, she's checking her surroundings.'

Kael quickly retreated before the girl could turn to her left. He counted silently until ten seconds had passed, then looked back at the alley.

Convinced that she was not being watched or followed, the girl had turned back around. She had placed the box on the ground and was about to open it. Kael had timed it perfectly.

And so, the box was opened.

This time, the girl pulled out a cloth and a water-filled flask from inside her robe and cleaned the blood and dirt from her hands as best she could. Although the box itself wasn't particularly important, she seemed to value its contents.

Finally, she pulled something out of it.

The first thing to emerge was a rolled-up piece of paper, about the size of a page in an average book Kael had seen. The girl carefully unrolled the paper and checked its contents. However, Kael couldn't see the contents from where he was standing. Therefore, all he could do was watch as the girl stared at the paper as if frozen.

Seconds passed one after another. The girl was so focused that she stared at the piece of paper for almost a minute without doing anything. But then she rolled it up again, put it back in the box, and took out other things.

One of them was a necklace that resembled a medallion and looked like pure gold. When the girl fiddled with the necklace a little, the top of it suddenly opened, revealing something hidden inside.

The girl stared at what the necklace concealed for almost half a minute. Then, she examined what Kael considered the most valuable ring he had ever seen, and finally pulled out a small note and read it.

Despite the robe she wore, the trembling of her body was visible as she did all this. Kael even saw a couple of tears fall from her hidden face. Whatever these were, they were important enough to send her into an emotional shock.

However, there was nothing else besides these four objects.

That was all.

Because after reading the note for almost three minutes, she put everything back in the box and threw the box inside her robe. Then, she smoothed out the spot she had dug as best she could. The hole she dug was so wide and deep that it took her quite a while to do it.

Still, even after minutes, she wasn't very successful. It was quite obvious that someone had dug there, and if you looked closely, you could see traces of blood mixed with the soil. But since there was nothing left inside, it didn't matter that much.

And so, the girl stood up for the first time in a long while. She turned her eyes to the sky. It was still dark, the stars exceptionally bright. It was either an hour or so until sunrise.

Right now, there was probably a faint grayish hue beginning to be faintly visible on the eastern horizon. Of course, this couldn't be seen because of the palace walls.

It was time for the girl in the robe to leave. So, she turned around, ready to walk away, not in the direction she had come from, but in the other way.

But after taking her first step...

"Stop right there."

She froze where she stood.

"Slowly turn around and raise your hands. I have no intention of harming you, but I won't hesitate to use force if necessary."

Kael's voice echoed between the buildings, authoritative and cold.

The girl slowly raised her hands, which still bore easily visible wounds and bruises despite her cleaning them, and stood as if obediently turning around, when suddenly...

She tried to run.

She thought turning the corner would be enough, as it wasn't very far away, unlike the voice she heard, which seemed to come from quite a distance.

But what she didn't expect was to feel her arm being grabbed the moment she took her first step.

"I said stop."

She tried to pull away, but when Kael yanked her back, she froze once more. The hood covering her face slipped, then fell away completely.

The first thing Kael saw was… white.

"?"

Pure white.

He had seen many elderly people whose hair had turned completely white, Marshal Sirwill was among them, but this was different.

Much brighter.

Even in the darkness of the night, it stood out clearly.

"Ha?"

The sound escaped him before he could stop it. And then, slowly, the girl turned her face toward him.

Just as he had thought, the girl looked about his age, probably around a year younger, her features soft and delicate. Yet everything else about her defied his expectations.

Her pale skin was so faint it made her look almost sickly. She had such deep red eyes that they resembled the color of hot and fresh blood.

Besides her face, she looked quite thin even for a girl.

And… she was unnaturally beautiful.

Not the kind of beauty born from health or vitality, but something fragile, almost artificial, as if she had been carefully preserved since birth.

So Kael simply stood there, frozen.