Rowen was keeping watch on the Greenwood knights from afar, following Astra's orders.
What are they discussing with those grave expressions?
The village chief and the knight order's vice-captain were holding a serious conversation inside the chief's house.
Though he was holding back for Astra's sake, Rowen was suppressing an overwhelming urge to slaughter every last one of those knights right then and there.
By rank alone, he—as an official knight of the Lord's Castle—outclassed all of Greenwood's knights combined.
Yet these lower-ranked knights had dared to ignore Haven's captain, whom Rowen served with utmost devotion.
Even if Astra was concealing his identity, this was a crime unforgivable by death alone.
And even with his power hidden, the sheer dignity radiating from Astra at a glance was undeniable.
Hmph... To my eyes, you're not even C-grade—you'd struggle with D-grade.
To spout such nonsense...
Rowen clenched his fists tight.
If Astra had ordered execution instead of surveillance... I'd have torn that blasphemous mouth apart right now.
How long had he been watching? Finally, their conversation ended, and the vice-captain rose from his seat.
Yes, get moving. The sooner I learn what you're up to, the sooner I can kill you all.
The chief bowed respectfully to see off the vice-captain, who maintained his arrogant demeanor unchanged.
Emerging from the chief's house, the vice-captain approached the knights gathered at the entrance, issued a brief command, and soon the group headed toward the western forest.
That's definitely the direction where Astra handled those goblins...
According to the chief, the Greenwood knights had come to deal with monsters the village couldn't handle.
But Rowen had confirmed no monsters remained in the western forest, and Hanji would have surely informed the chief of that fact.
Worried Astra might have to handle more annoyances later, Rowen had double-checked on the way back.
Yet seeing the knights head west anyway confirmed they were off to pursue the true purpose Astra suspected. Rowen swiftly trailed after them.
Hiding in the shadows of trees, Rowen moved with utmost caution, keeping a safe distance from the knights to avoid detection.
But contrary to his expectations, the knights simply wandered the forest for a while, scanning their surroundings without any notable action.
What on earth are they planning...?
Then, the knights' behavior shifted.
The vice-captain halted the group and pulled something from his pocket.
It was a pitch-black stone.
That's... no ordinary rock.
It looked like a simple stone at a glance, but his instincts kept blaring danger signals.
The vice-captain ordered the knights to dig a hole, then carefully placed the black stone in the pit like part of a ritual, covering it with soil.
And that wasn't the end.
They repeated the process at regular intervals as they walked, burying a tenth stone before finally turning back toward the village.
Rowen waited behind a tree until the knights had completely vanished from sight.
Time to move.
Leaving his spot cautiously, Rowen headed to one of the burial sites.
Finding the freshly disturbed soil was easy.
After scanning the surroundings once more, he dug quickly, unearthing the black stone in short order.
"What could this be to make my instincts scream like this...?"
Rowen gingerly picked up the stone.
Even up close, it appeared utterly ordinary. But the moment it touched his palm, an inexplicable chill seeped through him.
I need to report this to Astra first. This is no trivial matter.
He realized his initial assumption—that it was just some petty scheme by clueless fools—had been wrong.
Rowen wrapped the black stone in cloth, pocketed it, and mentally mapped the locations of the remaining nine.
Then he hurried back toward the village.
Astra will surely know what this stone is.
From everything he'd observed, Astra seemed omniscient, piercing through the world's truths with unmatched insight.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇"So the knights buried these in the ground?"
I closely examined the black stone Rowen had brought.
"Yes. Including this one, they buried a total of ten stones in the western forest."
I stared intently at the stone in my hand, deep in thought.
If there was one thing I could boast about from a lifetime playing Eore, it was my ability to gauge an item's basic info and purpose at a glance.
It came from handling countless items.
Even I, however, had never seen a black stone like this.
But to call it ordinary...
I can sense Leina's supernatural ability aura.
Leina, wielder of Life Drain, which absorbed life force to bolster her own power. The energy from this stone was unmistakably hers.
Yet doubts lingered.
Nothing in Leina's known ability effects allowed her to create black stones like this.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡Life Drain
Rank:Purple
• Absorb life force from touched targets and convert it to your own power.
• Manipulate memories of targets from whom a sufficient amount of life force has been absorbed.
• Cannot absorb life force from stronger beings.
• When using the ability, can only absorb enough life force to avoid killing the target.
This was probably her current ability effect.
If Leina's ability evolved, the final restriction would vanish, changing to "When using the ability, can absorb the target's life force and talents."
But that still didn't explain creating this bizarre black stone in my hand.
Does Leina have another accomplice? Or the lord's ability?
"Rowen, you remember all the burial spots, right?"
"Yes, precisely."
Doubts piled upon doubts.
If the lord or someone could imbue stones with supernatural abilities, why use ones infused with Life Drain here...?
Absorbing the forest's life force?
But that was far too risky a gamble.
Destroying a whole village was one thing, but tampering with a forest under the Lord's direct oversight was a far graver sin. And this path was Haven's sole route to the Lord's Castle.
The lord wouldn't dare something so reckless here.
Am I off track?
Stones that absorb life force... What could they be for...?
Lost in thought, a sudden realization hit me, and I held my breath.
Wait... no way...
I recalled a conversation with a friend while grinding Leina in the game.
"Hey, if you use that Leina ability right, couldn't you summon demons?"
Back then, I'd just laughed it off as idle advice.
But reconsidering now, it seemed entirely plausible.
What if you use an object infused with absorbed life force to form a summoning circle?
Demon summoning traditionally required vast sacrifices.
The standard method trapped hundreds of humans in a circle and offered their life force at once—but if you could offer equivalent life force...
"It'd work... even for demon summoning."
Rowen's expression shifted subtly at my words.
"Demons, sir?"
This continent's three superpowers each had distinct traits.
The Lunaria Empire revered human blood purity and superiority, viewing other races as barbaric and shunning contact—a closed-off nation.
Haven decided everything by strength alone; origin and race meant nothing—power was truth.
And finally, Darkteria.
Commonly called the demon realm, it was actually a collective of humans studying dark mana and ancient black magic.
Unlike fantasy demons elsewhere, they were just dubbed "demons" for wielding shadow powers.
Naturally, both Lunaria and Darkteria strictly banned anything demon-related.
Even preparing a summoning could warrant extreme punishment—let alone using demonic power.
Darkteria, handling dark mana, knew demonic dangers better than anyone.
Haven was different.
In this strength-worshipping nation, even a demon could rise high if powerful enough and not hostile to Lord Balderic.
The Yin Yue Regiment's captain was a demon, after all.
The lord and Leina were using life-force-infused magic stones to draw a summoning circle around the village and call a demon.
That's why they kept the villagers alive—their life force keeps replenishing. Forming a circle with stones around the village would demand immense life force.
To the lord, the villagers were mere auxiliary batteries for life force—nothing more, nothing less. Dealing with monsters was probably just to avoid wasting that precious resource.
And even with life-drained stones, offering living humans would be far more effective for demon summoning.
They planned to summon a demon using the entire village's people and the infused stones in the circle.
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