There were two principles that must be strictly followed in this ‘Commander Rescue Operation.’
First.
Never let your identity be discovered.
Second.
No matter what happens, adhere to the first principle.
One might ask if this practically meant there was only one principle.
But stating principles like this was how they got their flair.
Usually, all those people who claimed to spout famous quotes did the exact same thing.
“Hmm.”
Of course, it was true that he mustn't let his identity be discovered, but he wasn't as worried about it as one might think.
‘At least for now, no one knows that the Commander is here.’
He had only come here because the old man Emperor had told him; people didn't usually start searching from such a remote place.
The old man Emperor had also said that the search parties would expand their search radius starting from the major cities.
In other words, it meant it would be quite a while before the search party came to the Shadow Forest.
‘At most, I'll probably just run into a few mercenaries who are good at sniffing out money.’
To boast a little shyly, he was no longer at the stage where he needed to tremble in fear over a few mercenaries.
He was confident that no matter who he ran into, he could subdue them, shove the Commander into his subspace, and leisurely disappear.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
“Hmm. It fits perfectly in my hand.”
Oscar lightly swung the spear he was holding.
For the record, he had no intention of using magic at all today.
‘Anyway, to properly hide my identity, it's hard to use spatial magic or wind magic.’
Since there was no strict need to be a mage in that case, he had simply prepared a suitable spear.
Since he knew how to handle most weapons, this would be the cleanest way to disguise himself.
‘Let's see.......’
Oscar slowly looked around.
It had only been about five minutes since he entered the forest.
At some point, a snow-white fog had begun to blanket the entire forest, obstructing his vision.
‘As expected of the Shadow Forest.’
It was the perfect place to get lost.
Moreover, the flow of mana itself was unstable here, making it impossible to use mana as a guidepost.
But to try and grasp the surrounding terrain.......
“It sure is difficult.”
The dried and twisted trees all literally looked the same, making it not easy to tell them apart.
Oscar took out a compass from his inner pocket.
Whirl! Whirl whirl!
The needle couldn't seem to get its bearings at all and just spun relentlessly.
‘I can't use conventional methods.’
He himself only knew that the Commander was here.
It wasn't like he had come in after setting a specific appointment time or place.
That meant he had to wander around the entire forest to find him from now on.
‘Shall I get moving for now?’
Even as he moved, Oscar carefully examined the trees.
Because in a forest, people usually carved marks on the trees that only they could recognize.
Furthermore, Oscar had seen the mark of the Violet Brigade that Oran and Kaya used when they were crossing the Red Mountain Range.
‘But he wouldn't have used that exactly as it is.’
According to what Oran Quill said, the Violet Brigade was currently divided in their opinions even internally.
If he mistakenly carved the brigade's mark, it would only serve to reveal his location to those aiming for the bounty.
The Commander wouldn't be that stupid, so there was a high chance he used some other method.
‘Wait.’
Oscar, who was lost in various thoughts, abruptly stopped walking.
If finding the other party was difficult, wouldn't it be faster to make the other party come to him?
‘......Should I just act crazy and cut down all the surrounding trees with mana?’
It was after seriously contemplating this and reaching the conclusion that it could draw unnecessary attention.
Crunch, crunch.
‘Footsteps. Four of them.’
The sound of four people stepping on the snow could be heard.
The intervals weren't particularly regular.
Oscar relaxed the tension in his body and let his spear hang loosely.
A moment later, four armed men revealed themselves from beyond the fog.
Seeing him standing there blankly, they put on startled expressions.
He had heard their footsteps in advance, but they probably hadn't heard his.
Oscar quickly scanned them.
‘They all have different armor and weapons. Unless they are intentionally targeting me, they must be mercenaries.’
They too stopped walking, looked him up and down, and then whispered among themselves.
A short while later, a short-haired man who looked like the leader stepped forward and asked.
“Are you alone?”
Oscar lowered his voice a little more than usual and replied.
“As you can see.”
“It's a bit of a dangerous forest to be wandering around alone... The monsters are quite fierce, too.”
Having nothing in particular to say, he just nodded his head once.
“......Right. Well, everyone has their own circumstances, after all.”
Surprisingly, the man obediently stepped aside without asking any further questions.
When he gestured, his companions stepped back to both sides without a word of complaint, making a path.
“Pass through. It gets dangerous when the night deepens, so I recommend leaving the forest before then.”
“I'll keep that in mind.”
Oscar walked past the mercenaries.
If possible, there was no need to see blood.
Step, step.
Oscar, who was quietly passing between them, suddenly clicked his tongue.
“Tsk.”
Swish!
At the same time, the men surrounding him drew their weapons.
“Kill him!”
Reassuring their prey and making them walk right into their encirclement on their own, only to kill them with a surprise attack.
What incredibly bad taste.
‘Furthermore, there's no hesitation in their movements.’
If it was an ordinary person's first time doing this, their eyes would inevitably waver or their fingertips would tremble.
However, all that was contained in their eyes was a sticky murderous intent.
In other words, a situation like this was not a first for them.
‘They are guys who have hunted humans before.’
Oscar, whose eyes had turned freezing cold, thrust the shaft of his spear backward without even turning his head.
Swish!
The spear shaft that swept across the snow-covered ground in an instant struck one of the men's Achilles tendons.
“Keugh!”
The moment the man's knee buckled from that dizzying pain,
Oscar pivoted his body using his waist as an axis, and his foot kicked the man in the face.
“Keheok!”
Oscar dug into the space of the man who was falling backward spurting a nosebleed, breaking out of the encirclement.
“W-Wait.......”
Crack!
Then, he stepped on and broke the neck of the fallen man who was reaching out his palm toward him, assessing the battle situation.
‘Three enemies remaining.’
To the left was the short-haired leader.
He was holding a sword.
To the right was a diminutive man holding two hand axes.
And behind them, he saw a man who was already aiming the barrel of a gun at him.
“Getos! You son of a bitch!”
The man in the back, his eyes bloodshot, pulled the trigger.
Bang!
He could see the fired bullet spinning as it flew toward him.
‘It's not an enchanted gun.’
The bullet was slow enough to be clearly visible even to his mana-enhanced eyes.
Reaching a quick conclusion, Oscar slashed his spear horizontally.
Clang! The spear struck the side of the bullet, deflecting it to one side of the forest.
At that, the moment the eyes of the man holding the gun slowly widened.
“Hup!”
The spear that Oscar threw after quickly getting into a stance flew and pierced through his chest.
“Keok, keugh!”
The body of the man, who was looking down at his chest with an expression of disbelief, slowly collapsed.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
“Bayron!”
“Don't lose your cool! He's a strong one! Attack at the same time!”
The two men, enraged by their comrade's death, charged at the same time.
‘But...... they're clumsy.’
They weren't proper professionals.
They were rushing in claiming to attack simultaneously, but their speeds were off by about a half-beat.
‘And if you give a half-beat to someone like me.’
It was more than enough time to dispose of two mercenaries of this caliber.
First of all, a single axe came flying.
Whoosh!
A delayed time attack where he threw one axe in advance, and while the opponent dodged it, he would chop them down with the axe he was still holding.
However, Oscar did not dodge the axe.
Snatch!
After accurately snatching the handle of the spinning, flying axe.
He returned it to the diminutive man whose eyes were bugging out.
Thud!
With the axe lodged in his forehead, he slid across the snow-covered ground at the exact speed he had been running.
In the meantime,
The sword swung with all of the leader's might rushed in, aiming for his neck.
“Actually.”
Claaang!
Index and middle finger.
The two fingers Oscar put forward pinched the flying sword.
He looked at the trembling sword and muttered.
“I knew it would turn out like this from the very beginning.”
“K-Keuheuk!”
The leader gripped the sword with both hands and poured out all his strength.
However, the sword caught between his fingers did not budge an inch.
“Because your intentions were glaringly obvious from the way you guys looked at me.”
Ping!
As he lightly flicked his fingers, the sword blade snapped right off.
The leader stared blankly at the sword that was left with only a hilt for a moment.
He threw it away and ran away without looking back.
“Even so, the reason I deliberately played along pretending not to know, is...”
Oscar slowly bent down and pulled out the hand axe embedded in the corpse's forehead.
Then he threw it cleanly toward the man who was running away showing his back.
“I was giving you a chance.”
A chance to not suffer any pain.
A chance to be remembered as a stranger who had given him advice out of genuine concern.
They were the ones who had kicked that chance away.
Thump!
From far away, he saw the leader collapse.
Oscar swept a glance over the men who had lost their lives along with their chance, and then left the spot.
After the battle, Oscar did not immediately leave the area.
Instead, he killed his presence and roamed in a wide circle around the battle site.
The reason was simple.
‘Because a gunshot rang out.’
In a forest as silent as this, a gunshot of that level would spread over a very wide area.
And whether one liked it or not, it was bound to draw attention.
‘If the Commander is nearby, he definitely would have heard it.’
If someone was in a position of being chased, they would have to run in the opposite direction as soon as they heard the gunshot.
However, if they were a fugitive with someone they needed to meet, there was a high chance they would come to check the situation.
‘Since the Commander also knows that someone is coming.’
Since the old man Emperor had said he told him in their last communication that he would send someone.
And a little while later.
‘They're on my tail.’
A presence trailing behind him appeared.
No footsteps could be heard.
That meant the opponent was quite used to erasing their presence.
Oscar, who had stopped walking for a moment, immediately ran off in one direction.
At that, the figure tailing behind him also began to follow, matching his speed.
After running for a solid 20 minutes, Oscar entered a clearing where the trees were sparse.
A place without any suitable spot to run away or hide oneself.
Oscar slowly turned his body around after entering the area.
The pursuer who had chased closely after him kept a vigilant watch on the surroundings, then slowly approached.
The exact same dark brown coat he had seen last time fluttered in the cold wind.
Oscar asked in a very sullen voice.
“Seeing the clothes you're wearing, you're the Commander of the Violet Brigade, right?”
“......Did the Emperor send you?”
At the voice full of vigilance, Oscar shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, it's true we aren't close enough to recognize who it is just by hearing the voice once. We aren't.”
As he slightly pulled back the hood he was wearing, his mask-covered face was revealed.
Confirming the shape of his eyes, the other person muttered.
“......Oscar? The person he said he'd send was you?”
“Yeah. It's been a while.”
Oscar pulled his hood back up and spoke.
“I came to rescue you.”
“Seeing that you came, I think I know where I'll be hiding as well.”
“It might be a little stuffy, but it will be a safer place than anywhere else on the continent.”
“......Right. I suppose so.”
The Commander nodded his head and approached him.
“Are there any points I should be careful about?”
“Nope. As for what we do from now on, let's talk about it after we get out of here first.”
“Understood.”
Ending the brief greetings, Oscar opened his subspace.
“Go in. I'm just saying this just in case, but don't just touch things everywhere because it's fascinating.”
“......I am not a child.”
Replying curtly, the Commander entered the subspace.
Before closing the subspace, Oscar looked inside and said.
“Getting out of the forest will take two hours at most. Just stay put until then.”
“No problem.”
Perhaps he was a little exhausted, as he flopped down on the empty floor of the subspace and muttered.
“Then I will...... take a rest for a bit.”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]

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