The duchy's caravan advanced along the old road.
Between the trees, the wind carried a strange scent… something new.
They had begun their return to the duchy several days earlier, but the atmosphere among soldiers and adventurers was no longer what it had been at the start of the journey out.
A full month in Carter County had changed everything.
Mixed patrols.Shared night watches.Improvised battles against monsters that appeared almost daily.
The duchy's soldiers had learned to trust the adventurers' instincts—to sense danger before it struck.
And the adventurers had learned to admire the discipline, tight formations, and overwhelming destructive power of the Douglas units.
Now they marched together.
No longer as separate groups…
—but as a single mechanism.
That day, at the edge of a forest twisted by excessive mana, a scout arrived at full speed.
"My lord," he panted, "on the right flank… too many monsters. They're gathering."
Lusian narrowed his eyes. He could feel it.
The tremors beneath the earth.The tension in the air.
Albert muttered, "Could be a herd."
But Lirianne, who had spent weeks cooperating with the duchy's scouts, shook her head without hesitation.
"It's a spiral hunt," she said, her tone precise and assured."They're driving their prey toward a focal point… and that point is us."
No soldier argued.
Everyone knew that when it came to monsters, adventurers had the final word.
Lusian asked, "What do you suggest?"
Lirianne drew a steady breath. She no longer feared speaking; she had earned that right.
"A mixed unit. Fast adventurers, lightly equipped scouts. If we take down the Alpha, the spiral collapses. If we fail… they'll charge all at once."
The duchy's captain—who a month ago might have objected—simply nodded.
"That makes sense. They know these tactics."
A faint smile touched Lusian's lips.
"Then, Lirianne Velmont. You will lead the unit."
The adventurer bowed formally, though she was no longer nervous as she had been at their first meeting.
"At your service, my lord."
Thirty fighters departed.
Fifteen soldiers—lightly equipped, recently trained in forest incursions.
Fifteen adventurers—including the five women of Blue Current.
To anyone who had seen them a month earlier, it would have seemed impossible.
But now…
The soldiers advanced in silence, covering angles, securing lines.
The adventurers moved like shadows, reading tracks, measuring distances, regulating their mana expenditure.
It was a fully functional mixed unit.
Then they heard it.
A long, wet roar—heavy with hatred.
The Alpha.
A mutated stag, enormous, with sharpened bone antlers and muscles coiled beneath blackened skin. Its hollow eyes emitted an unnatural glow.
Lirianne raised her hand.
"Mixed delta formation!Adventurers to the flanks, scouts in cover!Sever the joints—not the torso!"
The soldiers obeyed with their usual precision.
But now they followed an adventurer's command without question.
Kaela leapt from a branch, her blue mana blade deflecting the charge.
The duchy's scouts cut off the creature's escape route in fluid coordination.
Two styles.Two worlds.One unit.
The Alpha wheeled around, furious, charging again—
—and Lusian hurled a spear of pure light that pierced clean through its neck.
The monster fell.
Silence returned to the forest.
Then came the shouts.
Not of fear.
Of triumph.
Adventurers bumping fists with soldiers.Soldiers congratulating the women of Blue Current.Tired laughter.Shaking breaths.
Lirianne approached Lusian, wiping sweat from her brow.
"Nice shot, my lord."
"Excellent tracking," he replied calmly.
They both walked back toward the rest of the group.
Neither of them dwelled on what had just happened.
It was simply what worked.