Chương 146: Some Answers Were Better Found Alone

Almost one hour passed before Sieghart noticed movement above the northern hills, a dark silhouette crossing the paling sky while the first traces of dawn slowly spread behind it nearby. Ronan noticed seconds later and reached for a knife before recognizing the familiar figure descending toward the abandoned village with someone much smaller secured carefully across her back that morning.

Mira slowed during the final meters and landed beside the repaired stable, scattering dust around her boots while keeping one arm firmly hooked beneath the unconscious passenger's legs that morning. The instant her feet touched ground, Mira looked from Ronan toward Sieghart and narrowed her eyes slightly, sensing the uncomfortable silence still hanging between both travelers after their argument earlier.

"What is it?" Ronan glanced toward Sieghart briefly, shook his head, and decided their uncomfortable discussion about corrupted cores could wait until everyone was safely farther away from Chimerian territory again anyway completely.

"Nothing important. Is the boy all right?" Sieghart finally examined the person Mira carried properly and realized the rescued descendant was barely more than a toddler, certainly younger than five and frighteningly light against her shoulders there. The child had dark hair plastered against a pale forehead, closed eyes, loose limbs, and cheeks so drained of color that Sieghart immediately understood why Mira remained worried that morning.

Several dark marks circled both wrists, surrounded by repeated punctures and bruising that suggested the Chimerians had collected blood from him multiple times during his captivity inside enemy territory there. Mira lowered the child onto folded blankets Ronan prepared, keeping one hand behind his head while checking breathing, pulse, temperature, and several other signs with practiced precision before relaxing slightly.

"Thanks to you two, he's safe." Her voice sounded quieter than usual, lacking the tired irritation Sieghart normally associated with paperwork, guild problems, Ronan, and nearly everything involving him personally inside Lunar Arc these days lately.

"He'll need treatment for a while. I stabilized him, but my healing magic can't make his body replace blood faster than it naturally can." Sieghart crouched nearby without touching the unconscious child, noticing how Mira kept checking his pulse despite obviously knowing his condition well enough to recognize every immediate danger before her already.

Whatever the Chimerians had done, they apparently wanted Seraphina's descendant alive, because Sieghart saw no fresh surgical wounds beyond the repeated punctures around both of his wrists for now either.

"Thank you." Mira looked directly between Ronan and Sieghart after thanking them, and neither found enough humor in the exhausted child's condition to answer with their usual sarcasm this time around either.

"If I tried doing everything alone, they probably would have killed him the moment they realized where I was." The admission clarified why Mira had accepted using them as bait, because a direct assault might have convinced the Chimerians that killing their hostage was safer than losing him alive. Sieghart looked at the punctures again and wondered what the Chimerians planned to accomplish with stolen blood from someone whose inherited ability could stabilize conflicting magical energies inside bodies naturally.

Would they drink it during rituals, inject it into volunteers, mix it through alchemical compounds, or coat transplanted organs with blood before forcing them into another body somehow afterward deliberately? Every possibility sounded increasingly revolting, and Sieghart stopped imagining details once his stomach tightened enough to remind him that neither rescue missions nor disgust counted as proper breakfast that morning.

"This world keeps getting weirder." Ronan noticed his expression but wisely avoided asking what Sieghart imagined, perhaps recognizing that discussing Chimerian medical practices before eating would accomplish nothing except ruining everyone's appetite completely that morning.

"You're only noticing now?" Mira lifted the child again and secured his small body across her back using one of Ronan's straps, checking every knot before allowing his head to rest safely against her.

"I'm going ahead. You two shouldn't stay here long." She explained that remaining together would make pursuit easier, especially once the settlement understood their prisoner was gone and nearby clans began receiving requests for reinforcements and revenge immediately afterward. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"They'll gather the nearby clans quickly once they realize what happened. If they want revenge, this entire region will become much more dangerous." Mira looked toward Ronan, and the agent returned the stare silently, exchanging enough understanding through experience that Sieghart suspected entire instructions had passed without either speaking another word aloud there.

Sieghart remained beside the horses and appreciated Mira's distraction, because careful attention might reveal the faint corrupted presence hidden beneath folded cloth inside his bag against his side right now. She had already suspected him after the northern siege, and explaining why another corrupted core followed him home would probably end with Mira confiscating the sample before any investigation began.

For once, Mira cared far more about keeping one exhausted child breathing than investigating Sieghart, whose questionable decisions could apparently survive until everyone returned somewhere safer afterward without trouble anyway. The relief visible beneath Mira's exhaustion changed her entire appearance, making her seem less like Lunar Arc's perpetually overworked guild master and more like an ordinary worried relative for once.

Sieghart found that expression strangely reassuring, because it proved Mira's relentless responsibility toward Seraphina's descendants was not merely political duty, historical obligation, or protection of valuable bloodlines alone after all. She had crossed hostile territory personally because someone innocent needed her, and whatever strategic consequences followed had clearly mattered less than bringing that child home alive again safely that morning.

That understanding briefly reminded Sieghart of his grandparents, but he pushed the memories aside before grief could wander toward Zombification and make another forbidden possibility feel emotionally reasonable again immediately.

"We'll leave after the area in the morning."

"Don't wait too long." Mira gathered Telekinetic force beneath herself and rose carefully with the child secured against her back, promising only that she would travel ahead while they followed separately afterward southward later. Within moments, both figures crossed beyond the abandoned rooftops and climbed into the brightening sky, eventually becoming small silhouettes before distant clouds swallowed them from Sieghart's sight completely afterward again.

Sieghart watched until Mira vanished and realized she had looked genuinely relieved, an expression no completed paperwork, profitable mission, or political victory had ever produced inside Lunar Arc before today. Saving someone mattered differently when failure created a permanent absence, and Sieghart understood that distinction far better than he wanted Ronan, Mira, or anyone else recognizing about him personally yet.

Ronan began preparing the horses while Sieghart cleaned their equipment, removing blood, mud, and obvious signs that multiple travelers had recently occupied the repaired stable throughout the dangerous night before. Neither mentioned the core immediately, but Sieghart suspected Ronan expected his warning to remain sufficient while Sieghart deliberately avoided making any promise he already intended to break later anyway himself.

That uncomfortable truth bothered Sieghart because hiding the experiment from someone concerned about him made the decision resemble temptation more strongly than neutral research, regardless of his logical explanations afterward. Still, Sieghart refused to accept that danger automatically justified ignorance, especially when corrupted enemies continued developing powers that ordinary magical education barely acknowledged, much less understood properly at all anyway.

He wanted enough knowledge to recognize patterns, identify mental contamination early, and understand whether his System purified corrupted principles or merely translated them into forms he could use himself safely. That question had become increasingly important because every absorbed core suggested intent behind the System, as though someone expected Sieghart to encounter forbidden powers repeatedly throughout his second life eventually.

Perhaps studying them was exactly what the System wanted, which made Sieghart even more determined to decide his own limits instead of obediently following whatever hidden design existed behind it. By sunrise, Ronan finished preparing the carriage and announced they would wait another hour before taking a southern route designed to avoid patrols moving toward the abandoned village nearby again.

Sieghart helped load supplies, then waited until Ronan became occupied repairing one damaged harness and inspecting fresh tracks around the northern road for approaching enemies or scouts nearby carefully outside. The moment Ronan disappeared behind the stable, Sieghart quietly collected his bag and slipped between abandoned houses without announcing that his promised caution had already acquired an important exception today.

He crossed a shallow stream, moved through thick trees, and continued until the village disappeared behind him and even Ronan's familiar scent became faint beneath damp morning air outside entirely. Sieghart knew sneaking away made the experiment look worse, but Ronan would interfere, confiscate the sample, or insist they wait until Mira could examine everything herself before proceeding further anyway.

Those were reasonable reactions, which made avoiding them morally uncomfortable, yet Sieghart still wanted an answer untouched by someone else's caution, fear, authority, or interpretation of the result afterward personally. A narrow ravine eventually provided stone walls, running water, thick vegetation, and enough isolation that any sudden magical reaction would remain hidden from Ronan and passing Chimerian scouts nearby completely.

Sieghart sat beside the stream and opened his bag, revealing the dark red core beneath bloodstained cloth while green veins continued pulsing slowly inside the translucent crystal before him steadily. The object felt wrong even before contact, carrying a mixture of biological vitality, corrupted mana, and something adaptive that seemed to shift whenever Sieghart concentrated upon its structure carefully nearby.

He remembered Ronan's warning, Mira's suspicions, Zombification, Fury, and every moment curiosity had already convinced him that one more dangerous experiment would finally provide enough answers for him eventually alone. Then Sieghart placed the core between both hands as sunlight reached the ravine, illuminating the crystal brightly enough that the warning colors inside became impossible to ignore any longer now.

"Let's find out what you were made to become."