“Mrs. Greenwood, I’m off for the patrol around the woods. You must have heard the ruckus right during the night. Well, the hunters have reported the traces of skirmishes of martial artists nearby, and Seth just confirmed for me that his sect did not receive any information about other sects training in the area.”

At the break of dawn, Zoemi showed up at Chris’s house’s doorstep and passed on to the boy’s mother in a hushed voice so that the child would not wake up and notice him.

“Martial artists intruding on the grounds protected by another sect’s territory without permission… but… Only dark sects do that…!”

The half-asleep woman who was making sure to show a lot of skin in order to seduce the younger man straightened her back and let out an exasperated gasp.

“So it seems.”𝒪𝒱𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

That made Zoemi frown with a bitter expression.

The concept of sects and dark sects wasn’t exactly hard to grasp but it still bothered the black-haired man.

Apparently, the dark sects practiced the same laws as the normal sects but used human sacrifice to gain more energy, making the speed of their members’ training exponentially faster than those of lawful sects.

The premise reminded Zoemi of Ghosts of Bellcephora and that connection certainly wasn’t giving him a sense of security.

He was going to leave the small lumberjack village anyway, but he definitely wasn’t going to let any of the villagers who showed him kindness to end up as power boosters for a bunch of bloodthirsty martial artists, blinded by their hunger for power.

“You can’t go alone! Either I or mister Seth can use the law of Pisces and contact someone from the Raging Bull sect – the threat of the dark sects isn’t a small one, they are sure to send a force to investigate and deal with the threat…!”

The worried woman fixed her clothes and declared, looking around nervously as if a dark sect member could jump at them from around the corner at any given moment.

“He already did so, first thing after making sure that no other lawful had members sent on expeditions around this parts.”

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and looked over his shoulder where the grim-looking martial arts teacher was checking out his uniform before clearly intending to go for a patrol too.

“Then…”

“There are not enough high-level law or Capricorn users to make it in time here. The help would be here at most in a week. If we don’t act now, the risk of you villagers getting hurt skyrockets.”

The woman spoke up in a worried voice but the black-haired man shook his head and cut her off in a decisive voice.

“We already talked with the village’s administrator – morning practice and the daily duties are canceled out for today. Chris will surely be disappointed because he is making amazing progress recently, but make sure to keep him indoors. You are the administrator’s right hand, if the village will be attacked they will go for the administrator first, and then for you, so stay home too. No walking around trying to ask others whether they are fine. Okay? Not until Seth or I am back.”

The black-haired man put his arm at the doorframe above the woman’s head and asked in an urgent voice, making full use of his good looks to prevent Mary’s dutiful nature take precedence over her own safety.

“O-okay…”

The young mother looked up at the devilishly handsome black-haired man and blushed bashfully, backing off into the house.

“If someone from the village will start acting weird and trying to lure you out of the village, do not follow them. Apparently, the law of Gemini users from the dark sects can influence others to follow their will as if they were hexing them.”

Zoemi added cautiously, raising his index finger before turning his back towards the woman who generously provided him the roof over his head.

“Hexing them, what is that?”

“Magic. Don’t worry about it, that has nothing to do with this situation.”

Chris’s mother, Mary, stopped in her track of retreat and asked, peeking out from behind her house’s door, but the black-haired boy merely waved his hand dismissively and smiled apologetically before leaving.

—-

“Are you prepared o face dark sect’s martial artists, wanderer? It’s nothing like hunting down some monsters, and from what I’ve seen, your fighting style is rather… crude.”

Zoemi joined with Seth and the marital artist raised his brow and asked, sneaking in a snarky comment.

“That’s because as a knight I was taught the basic unarmed fighting style in case I lose my primary weapon. It doesn’t have the pretty flow of your martial arts but its point is to keep me alive and do the opposite to my opponent. It doesn’t have to look pretty or have a fancy name.”

Zoemi responded with a dismissive shrug as they left the village and rushed towards the closest spot where the lumberjacks spotted the traces of unknown marital artists.

Broken trees and ground caved in many places caused by the fight between unknown parties were scarily close to the village, far too close for comfort.

“Tsk… look at this damage… the law of Taurus on at least fourth star level… and… not good. We got a law of Sagittarius in the mix too.”

Seth clicked his tongue, examining the recent battlefield and pointing at the way the massive trees were split apart and the holes in both the wood and ground.

“Then we got a long-range star power user in the mix, huh… weren’t those a big deal?”

Zoemi stood on the outskirts of the area, listening in to the sound of the forest, before turning his head towards Seth and asking to make sure.

“Although not as complex as either law of Pisces or the law of Gemini, the law of Sagittarius certainly requires a lot of control and practice to master. As you realized yourself, this isn’t a grunt’s work…”

The martial artist assigned to the lumberjack’s village tilted his head from side to side as he glanced in the direction they came from.

“Seth, tell me. If your sect would want to hunt down the guardian monster of this area, they would have told you about it, would they not?”

“Huh? And where that question even came from…?”

The black-haired man asked, causing the martial artist to furrow his brows and asked in a tense voice.

“This. The color is quite distinctive. Someone is hunting our local furball down…”

Zoemi responded, picking off a tuft of brown fur with amazing golden luster and waving it for Seth to have a good look.

“I swear on my teacher and my teacher’s teacher that the Raging Bull sect did not have a hand in that. Think about it, wanderer. Upon death, the deceased guardian monster’s body will release a pheromone that would lure the other beasts towards it. As they get closer and closer they will get mad and frenzy before they start fighting amongst each other until the new guardian would be rampaging its way to victory. That alone is dangerous, but the new guardian would then walk around their new territory marking it as their own and subduing all the remaining beasts to its will. As you can imagine, humans are not keen on living under a monster’s rule, so the new guardian usually kills them, if it is powerful enough. With that in mind, killing a guardian in an underdeveloped area such as this would be equal to leaving all villages in it to get massacred.”

The martial artist gulped down his saliva and declared with a deadly-serious look in his eyes, clenching his fists as he tried to hold back the anger.

“The only people who would benefit from it would be an enemy sect trying to take over our territory… or the dark sect trying to stay low and disguise their vile acts as monsters attack.”

Seth said, staring at the golden-brown tuft of fur in Zoemi’s hand.

“I will contact my sect and make them send someone immediately and warn the other villages. For now, let’s return to the village. As much as I would like to chase after the bastards and stop them preemptively, leaving a barely-guarded village behind is pure idiocy.”

The martial artist breathed out but did not relax his fists as he began to walk away.

*rumble*

“…!”

“…”

As he did, the faraway sound of the continued skirmish resounded vaguely from the exact opposite way – exactly from the direction Zoemi was facing in silence as Seth talked.

“Wanderer… don’t…”

The martial artist breathed out, raising his hand and reaching it towards the black-haired man as if he was a dangerous beat that needed to be calmed down.

“You are on second star level in the law of Capricorn, right, Seth? Go back now. I am on a sixth star level. I will see what I can do, and if ** hits the fan, I will be able to make it back before you. Law of Capricorn”

“Wh-what level?!”

*WHOOOSH*

Zoemi declared, with a deadly-serious expression, and launched himself forward as he channeled the spiritual energy into star power, leaving the shocked martial artist in the dust.

He honestly could lie about his star level, but saw no merit in doing so.

Seth wasn’t exactly a friend, but definitely showed himself as an ally of the village, and it was enough for Zoemi.

The black-haired man didn’t see a reason to hide it, to begin with – if anything, spreading the information about himself could aid him in returning to the Bellcephora Kingdom, or at least announce his presence in the area to any ally or friend attempting to explore the manaless world.