Tower of Greenwood.

They borrowed a sky carriage from the Tower of Jade for the prisoner escort.

Having finished the handover by signing the documents, the Tower Master of Greenwood, Kamin, urged them.

“Be careful. Keep your guard up.”

The escort sky carriage carrying Peon took off into the air.

The escort captain spoke to the members.

“Stay sharp. This isn’t just meeting bandits, it’s a demon escort.”

“Yes!”

There wasn’t much of a problem with the escort.

Pheon, who was captured, was completely sealed with a magic restraint, and his condition was barely maintained with minimal nutrition and hydration.

As long as they kept their external defenses up, they could complete the mission safely.

“Huh?”

The mages watching the surroundings noticed something bulky among the blue grasses.

What was initially small gradually grew larger.

It was flying straight toward them.

“It’s a sniper attack!”

Black arrows flew and struck the sky carriage.

The target was the power unit.

Boom!

A black explosion occurred in the air.

With a single shot, the sky carriage was accurately shot down.

The sky carriage, which had been smoothly sailing through the sky, crashed in a dangerous arc.

It fell into the forest.

As they entered, the sound of breaking trees and the carriage intertwined.

Blood flowed from where the carriage was broken.

The escorts did not survive the explosion that occurred inside.

The mages who were attacked from high in the sky had no time to react.

Someone appeared at the crash site of the sky carriage.

It was a woman wearing a black hood and mask.

She stood still and watched the fallen site.

Something squirmed among the wooden debris.

She pulled an arrow from the quiver on her shoulder and put it on the bowstring.

“Ugh……”

The one who emerged from the wreckage was a man.

The escort target, Peon, was trapped in a rectangular iron cage.

The explosion had twisted the iron bars, and the cage was broken as the sky carriage crashed.

The only thing that didn’t break was the magic-restraining device tightening his wrists.

Although his body was a mess with the carriage debris embedded in it, Peon’s regenerative abilities began to gradually recover.

The woman carefully released the drawn bowstring and approached him.

“Are you one of our comrades who were captured?”

Peon raised his head and looked at the woman.

A woman in black leather armor with red eyes.

Her bow was wrapped in bulky mana.

There was no doubt that she was the one who shot.

“That’s right.”

Peon nodded.

“Can you stand up?”

“If I recover, I can stand.”

Peon gestured to the magic-restraining device on his arms.

“Or you could just unlock this damn shackle.”

“It’s beyond my jurisdiction. Another comrade will take care of that.”

“Another comrade?”

A moment later, the broken carriage stirred again.

The magician who had been sitting in the driver’s seat stood up.

Half of his clothes had been blown away by the explosion.

“Damn, that hurts.”

“You’re overreacting.”

“Huh? You do it next time. I won’t carry you.”

The man scowled.

“Who is that guy? He seems human, but he has excellent regenerative abilities.”

“He’s not human.”

Then the man’s battered face began to distort into another shape.

Peon, who was familiar with human faces, recognized that it was not the original driver’s face.

And he saw the red eyes of the black leather armor.

“A comrade.”

He was a demon.

The man was completely different from the one just before.

Peon couldn’t hide his surprise.

Even when he was close, he hadn’t suspected that the man was a demon.

“So you’re a demon comrade. I never would have guessed.”

“Unless you’re at the executive level, there’s no need to let other comrades know about our existence.”

“Hmm. So you successfully attacked the carriage?”

Normally, a sky carriage would have a defensive spell deployed.

Any attack would be blocked at least once, allowing time to escape.

It was pierced in one shot because the enemy had already infiltrated inside.

“What happened to the original driver?”

“He’s probably somewhere in the Tower of Greenwood, becoming food for the beasts. Do you feel sorry for him?”

“No, I just wondered if you took care of it properly.”

The man asked sharply, and Peon frowned as if annoyed.

“Why would I betray our comrades like that?”

“I’ll praise you for your mental strength. But if you had gone to the Tower of Jade, you would have collapsed helplessly.”

“Let’s not argue about something that didn’t happen.”

The magic-restraining device was unlocked, and the woman reached out her hand.

“Anyway, it’s fortunate that our wandering comrade has escaped. Let’s go to our hideout. We have to report to the boss.”

Peon was about to follow the two demons when it happened.

Swoosh!

A sharp flash of light pierced the man’s body and passed through.

“Huh?”

A sharp and red outline was drawn in the path of the flash.

A moment later, his head could no longer withstand the blood pressure and slid obliquely into the sky.

Whoosh!

It was cut so cleanly that even the cross-section of the bone was clearly visible.

His head was severed, and he couldn’t regenerate, so he died on the spot.

The demon woman loaded an arrow onto her bowstring and looked around.

Finally, they saw something they had not seen or felt before.

A woman with a black cloth over her mouth.

Although she wasn’t wearing the Alte Order’s official uniform or ceremonial clothes, but leather armor, the demons knew exactly who she was.

“Th-the Saintess! How is the Saintess of Silence here…!”

Zing!

“Ugh… ah!”

Before she could finish her sentence, another flash of light pierced through her head.

Her mouth opened wide as her gaze flipped upward towards the sky.

With just a swipe through the air, her head was split in half.

In less than a minute, the heads of two demons were rolling on the ground.

The last remaining Pheon backed away.

The black hand that had been bound by the magic restraint reappeared but could not easily clench its fist.

It felt as if his body was frozen.

A chill ran through his bones.

The fear was like a sudden cold wave that froze his body.

The white eyes on the white snow looked down at Peon.

If you didn’t look closely at the round silhouette, it would seem as if her eyes were rolled back.

‘How could a girl this young have such strong hatred?’

Even fanatical knights who had been indoctrinated to be wary of demons would not be able to catch up with her.

‘Hatred. Have I ever met someone who hates this much?’

He was sure he had never experienced it.

It was pure hatred that could not be unleashed without feeling it for decades.

The Saintess of Silence, who killed the two in an instant, stepped forward.

The light reflected on the blue blade of the sword she held was dazzling.

Her sword was special.

Unlike swords that focus only on cutting, its irregular barbs tear flesh and cause pain.

They called it the Thorn of Malice.

It awakens the instinct to live.

“Wait, if you kill me, the Master of the Silence Tower won’t stand idly—.”

Peon’s words were cut off as he was thrown into the air.

As he rolled on the ground several times, he could see his body stiffening as he tried to block her with his outstretched arm.

Peon looked at her pathetically, trying to plead, but she showed no mercy.

From the beginning, she had no intention of listening to Peon’s words.

With the anomaly in her snow-white eyes, his death was inevitable.

She acted as a light to eradicate evil.

It was over.

No more life could be felt in the vicinity.

The Saint of Silence briefly took in the gruesome scene.

“……”

True to her name, she said nothing.

And as if nothing had happened, she disappeared.