The hunt lasted longer than Knox expected.
At first, he thought the cloaked man would lead him directly to whatever destination had prompted such a hasty departure from the tavern. Instead, the man spent the next hour wandering through the Neutral Zone like a paranoid tourist with an exceptional fear of being followed.
He made his way through one of the Neutral Zone's larger settlements, passing makeshift stalls run by smugglers, black market traders, and wandering merchants before slipping into a series of narrow alleys.
Along the way, he entered one tavern only to leave through a different exit, then paused at a shabby roadside stall to inspect a collection of rusty daggers that looked one bad swing away from becoming scrap metal.
To most people, the behavior would've appeared completely normal.
To Knox, it practically screamed suspicious.
"Seriously..."
"At this point, you're either hiding something or you're competing for the title of Most Paranoid Man in the Neutral Zone."
The cloaked man never looked hurried. If anything, he seemed patient. Careful. Several times, he casually glanced toward reflective windows or polished metal surfaces that allowed him to observe people behind him without turning around.
A professional.
Or at least someone experienced enough to survive in a place like the Neutral Zone.
Knox simply adapted.
Whenever the man slowed down, he slowed down.
And whenever the man checked his surroundings, Knox had already disappeared from wherever he was expected to be.
By the time the city finally began to thin out behind them, Knox was more convinced than ever that following the man had been the right decision.
A faint smile appeared beneath his mask.
You know...
This feels strangely familiar.
The thought surfaced unexpectedly as he watched the cloaked figure travel across the barren landscape beyond the city limits.
The sight brought back memories from a much earlier time.
Back when he had first arrived in this world.
Back when he knew absolutely nothing.
No shadow army.
No legendary summons.
No ridiculous collection of skills.
Just Knox and a rapidly growing list of things trying to kill him.
Looking back, those first few days were honestly a blur.
Come to think of it...
Didn't I do the exact same thing back then?
A chuckle almost escaped him.
Among the countless questionable decisions he'd made after reincarnating, one particular memory stood out.
Rather than killing every enemy he encountered, Knox had deliberately allowed a survivor to escape. The terrified man had run exactly where Knox hoped he would, leading him straight back to his companions without ever realizing he was being followed.
The plan had worked beautifully.
It was also the moment Knox learned a valuable lesson.
If you wanted to find a nest, chasing the rat was often more effective than killing it.
"Heh. Some lessons never get old~"
His gaze shifted back to the cloaked man ahead.
Different target. Different enemy. Same principle.
As though fate had decided to recycle old material.
Eventually, the landscape began to change.
Scattered rocks gave way to larger stone formations. Crumbling walls emerged between the terrain. Broken pillars jutted from the earth like the remains of some forgotten civilization, their surfaces worn smooth by centuries of wind and sand.
The moment the ancient ruins came into view, the cloaked man's pace noticeably quickened.
Noticing the subtle change, Knox immediately lowered his profile.
Interesting.
The man no longer wandered aimlessly. He moved with purpose now, following a route that suggested familiarity rather than exploration.
A few minutes later, the answer revealed itself.
Two figures stood near the entrance.
Guards.
The cloaked man approached them without hesitation.
A brief exchange followed. Knox couldn't hear the words from this distance, but the reaction was enough. The guards stepped aside almost immediately, allowing the man to pass.
Then he disappeared inside.
Knox remained where he was. Hidden atop a rocky outcrop overlooking the ruins.
The playful expression from earlier gradually faded as his attention shifted toward the structure below.
The ruins were far larger than they had initially appeared. Collapsed towers, partially buried walls, and countless entry points created more than enough blind spots to hide an entire army.
Judging by the number of mana signatures ahead, that comparison was beginning to feel less like a metaphor and more like reality.
Knox slowly closed his eyes, allowing his mana to spread outward in complete silence. It drifted carefully through the darkness like invisible threads, sweeping across every corner of the ruins.
One signature.
Two.
Five.
Ten.
His mental map of the ruins expanded with each new presence it discovered.
Several individuals occupied the outer sections of the structure. Others were gathered deeper inside. A few moved between corridors, while several more remained completely stationary, likely assigned to guard duty.
Knox counted once more before repeating the process a third time, just to make sure.
Twenty-four.
Including the two guards outside.
"Not exactly subtle, are they?"
The numbers alone would've been enough to raise suspicion.
The location only made things worse. Nobody stationed this many people in forgotten ruins unless they were protecting something...
Or someone.
Just then, voices drifted up from below.
The two guards at the entrance had apparently decided that standing watch was significantly less interesting than complaining.
"...I'm telling you, if they extend our shift again, I'm leaving."
"Yeah? And do what?"
"Literally anything else."
The second guard snorted.
"Good luck explaining that to the boss."
The first man visibly shuddered.
"...Actually, never mind."
"Thought so."
A brief silence followed.
Then the second guard sighed.
"Still don't understand why security's gotten this tight lately."
"Orders are orders."
"Yeah, but for what?"
"No idea."
The first guard glanced toward the ruins behind him.
"Whatever's happening in there, it's obviously above our pay grade."
Knox's eyes narrowed slightly.
His left hand drifted toward the dagger hidden beneath his cloak. Instead of holding it normally, he flipped the weapon into a reverse grip, allowing the blade to rest along the underside of his forearm.
At the same time, nearly invisible threads slipped from the fingers of his right hand. Thin, silent, and deadly, they quietly stretched into the darkness.
Knox rose from his position as a faint breeze swept through the ruins.
The guards continued their conversation, completely unaware that a predator had already entered the hunting grounds.
Well then.
Let's see what everyone's trying so hard to hide~
Knox disappeared from his position the moment the wind shifted.
The two guards never even realized someone had entered the ruins.
One moment, they were still complaining about their assignment.
The next, a nearly invisible thread slipped through the darkness.
A sharp tug followed.
One guard suddenly vanished behind a nearby wall.
His companion froze.
"...Huh?"
The confusion lasted barely a second.
By the time he turned around, a hand was already covering his mouth.
A dagger rested lightly against his neck.
"Shhh."
The guard's eyes widened in shock before rolling back into his head. His body went limp almost instantly, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut.
Knox lowered him onto the ground before dragging both unconscious men behind a collapsed section of wall. There was no reason to kill them. At least not yet. From what he had seen so far, they were little more than hired muscle.
The real problem was deeper inside.
With the entrance secured, Knox quietly slipped into the ruins.
The interior was far larger than expected. Ancient corridors stretched beneath the structure like a labyrinth, illuminated by scattered magical lamps that had likely been installed long after the ruins were discovered. The place clearly wasn't some temporary hideout. People had been operating here for quite some time.
Voices occasionally echoed through the halls.
Footsteps appeared and disappeared.
Several times, Knox watched small patrols pass by only a few meters away.
None of them noticed him.
Some guards simply collapsed after feeling a slight sting around their necks. Others never even realized a thread had wrapped itself around their ankles until they were pulled into the darkness.
The deeper Knox ventured into the ruins, the more convinced he became that this location was connected to something far larger than a simple smuggling operation.
Eventually, he reached an area that was noticeably different from the rest of the complex.
The corridors became cleaner.
The guards became stronger.
And more importantly, conversations became far more interesting.
Knox remained hidden atop a stone beam while two men stood below discussing something in hushed voices.
"...The Federation has already started moving."
"That quickly?"
"Apparently."
The second man cursed.
"Then what about Gideon?"
"Still here. But not for long."
Knox's eyes narrowed slightly.
Found him.
The conversation continued for several more minutes before the pair eventually departed, leaving the corridor empty once again.
Knox waited, silently counting to ten before dropping to the floor.
A few turns later, he found what appeared to be a series of offices. Some seemed to belong to administrators, while others were filled with records, documents, letters, and reports.
Exactly the kind of things Knox had been hoping to find.
A faint smile appeared beneath his mask.
Jackpot~
The next half hour passed surprisingly peacefully.
While the ruins remained busy preparing for whatever operation was underway, Knox quietly helped himself to their information.
Letters, reports, movement schedules, supply records... every document he could get his hands on. Along the way, he pieced together names, locations, and connections that gradually revealed a far bigger picture.
The deeper he dug, the more concerning his findings became.
This wasn't merely a local operation.
It extended far beyond the Neutral Zone.
At one point, Knox even discovered several reports detailing Dark Alliance activities across multiple regions. That discovery alone would've been enough to justify the entire trip.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, things only became more interesting from there.
Among the pile of documents, a particular photograph caught his attention.
Knox paused.
Then looked at it again.
His eyes narrowed.
"...Hm?"
The photograph showed Gideon.
Or at least, it certainly looked that way.
The resemblance was nearly perfect. The same face, the same hair, the same build... yet every accompanying document identified him as someone else entirely.
Without wasting another second, Knox began searching through the surrounding files. One report led to another, then another photograph, followed by yet another.
The deeper he looked, the stranger it became.
The pieces gradually began falling into place.
A moment later, Knox slowly lowered the documents.
You've got to be kidding me.
Gideon has a twin brother!
For several seconds, he simply stared at the files scattered across the desk, quietly piecing everything together.
The revelation itself wasn't the strangest part. What bothered him far more was everything surrounding it.
The Dark Alliance's intelligence network had somehow failed to mention the existence of Gideon's twin.
No.
That wasn't right.
An intelligence network as extensive as the Dark Alliance's didn't simply overlook details this important. If Gideon's twin was missing from every report, someone had deliberately made sure those records stayed hidden.
The smile beneath Knox's mask gradually disappeared as his fingers began tapping lightly against the desk.
Wait a minute.
He looked through the documents once more, cross-checking the photographs against every report that mentioned Gideon.
Then one inconsistency caught his attention.
Information about Gideon wasn't hidden.
If anything...
It had been left in plain sight.
Almost as though someone wanted people to find it.
No wonder...
Knox leaned back against the chair, his expression gradually turning more serious. The more he thought about it, the less he liked the implications.
Suppose the Holy Federation already knew the Dark Alliance was searching for Gideon. Suppose they deliberately allowed information about Gideon to leak, perhaps even exaggerating his importance.
Then everything would fall into place.
Everyone's attention would naturally converge on Gideon. The Dark Alliance, mercenaries, informants, spies... every interested party would end up chasing the exact same target.
Meanwhile, nobody would spare a second glance at the person standing beside him.
Or rather...
The person standing behind him.
A twin brother whose very existence had somehow been buried beneath layers of carefully crafted misinformation.
Knox let out a low whistle.
"Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao, huh?"
Or perhaps the opposite.
Either way, the principle remained the same.
Redirect attention. Protect what actually mattered.
The thought lingered in Knox's mind for several moments before another realization quietly surfaced.
If the twin brother truly possessed information more valuable than Gideon, there was no way the Holy Federation would've left him unattended.
No.
Someone had to be aiming for him.
Which also meant...
Even now, someone was probably moving to secure him.
The grin slowly returned beneath Knox's mask.
"Well now. That changes things."
Then—
BOOOOM!!
The entire room shook violently.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Several documents slid off nearby shelves.
Knox immediately looked toward the entrance.
"...Hm?"
A second explosion followed, then a third.
The ruins instantly descended into chaos. Shouts echoed from every direction as alarm bells began ringing nonstop.
For a brief moment, Knox simply blinked.
"...That wasn't me."
Is this an attack?
The question had barely formed when a familiar sound drifted through the corridors.
"Papparabam~♪"
Silence.
Knox's mouth twitched.
A few seconds later, another voice echoed from somewhere deeper inside the ruins.
"Will you stop doing that?!"
"Papparabam~♪"
"I said stop doing that!"
"It boosts morale!"
"It does not boost morale!"
A third voice sighed.
"...Enough."
Knox slowly covered his face.
They're actually here.
Why are they actually here?!
Somewhere beyond the corridors, another explosion echoed.
The assault had officially begun.