Beneath a thick altar crest, a metal box sat heavy and still.
Priests in gray robes stood around it in quiet formation.
“The seal is still holding. However··· a minute reaction has been detected.”
The priest at the front bowed his head as he reported.
“What kind of reaction?”
The priest closed his eyes and spoke low, as if recalling the lingering aftertaste of mana.
“I can’t be certain, but··· it is presumed to be a reaction caused by demonic mana.
A very faint vibration spread along the seal.”
As his words ended, the room’s atmosphere wavered for a moment.
A few priests nodded, their eyes glinting sharply.
“Demonic mana··· so our long-held wish is finally being granted.”
“We’ve waited a long time for this day. At last, the time is approaching.”
A high priest with a white beard stroked it as he murmured, almost in awe.
But what filled his voice wasn’t reverence. It was anticipation.
His fingertips traced the altar as he whispered.
From the back, another priest spoke carefully.
“But··· three years ago, there were symptoms like this as well.
Back then, it ended as a false image. This could be the same.”
In an instant, the high priest’s eyes snapped toward him, sharp as a blade.
The others looked away and shut their mouths.
“It’s different from then. The quality of the mana is different now.
Priest Seren’s resonance also matched, and it aligns with what’s written in the records.”
Still, another priest spoke with caution.
“It’s too early to conclude. And the source of the mana has not been identified.”
At that, everyone’s gaze gathered on the box.
In the still air, the high priest spoke again.
“According to Priest Seren, that mana came from one of the two children···
one human, and the other a half-elf.”
A smile brushed his lips.
“It’s obviously not the half-elf.
It’s far more likely the human is a demon hiding in human form.”
His eyes weren’t turned toward any god.
This wasn’t faith. It was an old, lingering desire.
And the spark of that desire was noticed by someone.
◇
That same night, elsewhere.
Ivela slipped out of the lodging in silence and crossed the corridor without a sound.
Her movement didn’t belong to an ordinary adventurer.
When she lifted the inside of her coat slightly, a worn sheet of paper and a small black object shaped like a coffin came into view.
She took them out without hesitation.
At the end of an alley, before a dead wall, Ivela tapped the air lightly with a finger. Tap, tap.
That simple gesture was a signal.
A moment later, a small black owl with a gray feather ornament cut through the darkness.
Without even a whisper of wings, it landed in front of her.
Without speaking, she opened the coffin’s lid and slid the paper inside.
Only a single line was written on it.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
『Suspicious movement detected at Bobre Temple』
The owl moved as if giving a short nod, then launched back into the night sky.
Ivela stood there for a long while.
‘···They’ll notice on their side soon enough.
But how long until they move···’
A dagger still sat in her hand.
Not because she intended to fight, but because she was ready to respond at any moment.
And her eyes were piercing something within the dark.
The night passed like that.
Someone slept, and someone stayed awake.
But everyone was waiting for something.
◇
And the next morning.
The three stood before the guild branch doors.
Early sunlight lit the sign, and when they opened the door, a familiar chime bell rang.
Behind the counter, a young receptionist with neatly tied green hair looked up.
She greeted them with a bright smile.
“You’re here! Today··· it’s a C-rank mission.”
“C-rank?”
Aira took the paper with startled eyes.
“The last one was E-rank···”
The receptionist winked and laughed playfully.
“The goblin subjugation you handled recently got recognized.
And the formal extermination report was written really well, too.
- ··I don’t need to say who wrote it tells you, right?”
At that, Ivela’s gaze slid away.
She looked indifferently at the mission board on the wall.
Rynel skimmed the paper and murmured.
“A missing child case···? This isn’t just an errand this time.”
The receptionist nodded.
“Right. It’s a bit of an ambiguous job, but one of the villagers begged for it.
Most residents think he’s mentally unstable, but··· he wouldn’t stop insisting···”
Her voice dropped slightly.
“···Actually, there were rumors something like this happened before.
A few years ago··· they say several children suddenly vanished in that village···”
She shut her mouth.
As if she didn’t want to say any more.
Aira narrowed her eyes.
“Do you remember when that was?”
The receptionist hesitated, then forced a smile and shook her head.
“No, it was just··· talk going around. Nothing exact.”
In that moment, Ivela’s gaze lingered briefly on the receptionist’s fingertips.
They were trembling.
A short silence.
Rynel and Aira exchanged a look.
Then Aira’s expression hardened slightly.
“···I’ve got a bad feeling. Not just ‘weird’··· it feels like something,
something bad happened.”
At her words, Ivela’s eyes narrowed a fraction.
Rynel also quietly set his face and folded the paper again.
“Let’s go check.”
Rynel said it short.
“Please take care of this mission too~”
The receptionist waved cheerfully, like she was tossing away an annoying chore.
It looked like a calm start as always··· but this time, it felt like something would be different.
◇
A day where only the sound of wagon wheels tickled the ears.
Just past noon.
The three arrived at the edge of the village.
The sunlight was warm, the wind soft.
But there were no children, no adults, not even shadows along the roadside.
It was unnervingly quiet.
That quietness rang louder in the ears.
“Isn’t this strange?”
Rynel spoke low.
“At this time of day, in a village this size, you should be hearing kids.”
Aira scanned the area and nodded.
Her expression slowly tightened.
“There’s no presence at all··· it feels like something is being hidden.”
Following the address the client had left, the three reached an old house on the village outskirts.
The door opened soon after.
A middle-aged woman with a haggard face appeared.
Her eyes were hollowed deep, and her thin hand trembled on the doorknob.
“···Are you adventurers?”
She steadied her breath with effort.
“Thank you··· for coming.”
Before her words even fully landed, all three of them felt something was wrong.
“My daughter··· she’s gone.
Suddenly, without a sound.”
The words were simple, but her eyes were full of confusion and despair.
“She definitely existed. We lived together, I cooked for her, we laughed together···
but lately, everyone says—
‘There was never any such child.’”
Her gaze drifted blankly through the air.
“Her laugh··· it was so bright.
Every morning, she’d sit by the window and eat an apple.
No··· was it a persimmon? No, she didn’t really eat persimmons···”
Her voice blurred.
Her fingertips began to shake.
“Her age was··· nine··· right. Or was it ten···?”
Her words unraveled, her eyes wavering.
She repeated the same motions as if scraping through her memory.
She didn’t look confident in what she was saying.
Seeing that, Aira’s eyes hardened.
This wasn’t simple “grief.”
It was a crack in memory.
“May we investigate inside for a moment?”
Ivela spoke quietly.
The moment she stepped forward, the woman nodded without hesitation.
“Yes··· come in. Her room is this way.”
Inside, it was too quiet.
So quiet it felt like something was being hidden on purpose.
Aira pointed under the bed.
“There, that white cloth. Don’t you feel something?”
Rynel carefully lifted it.
A sharp tingle of mana spread through his fingertips.
“It’s certain. This is··· something that’s been exposed to some kind of being’s mana.”
He folded the cloth carefully and approached the woman.
“This white cloth··· what was it used for?
Was it something your child had?”
The woman stared at the cloth for a moment, then said low.
“That is··· a cloth my daughter used to wrap a doll she said she got from a friend a while back.
She used it a lot as the doll’s blanket, but···”
Hearing that, Ivela nodded quietly.
“According to the request, children disappeared from three households total, including this one.
Each family clearly remembers living with the child, and the disappearance timing doesn’t match from house to house.”
She continued, eyes on the wall.
“But the villagers don’t even remember those children existed.
As if they were never there in the first place. They brush it off like a joke and don’t take it seriously.”
A brief silence passed.
“···We really do need to check the other houses too.”
Aira spoke low, her gaze firm.
After tidying up in silence, the three moved toward the next destination.
West outskirts of the village, atop a low hill.
An old house stood there as if it had been waiting for them.
A worn roof and a quiet garden.
There was definitely a human presence, but the place was strangely still.
The door was closed, but the presence inside was clear.
Ivela knocked softly.
A moment later, the door opened with a creak.
A man with messy hair and a thick, untrimmed beard appeared through the gap.
Lonely eyes, dried lips, and a drained, unfocused stare.
His gaze paused on the three for a moment.
“We’re here to investigate a disappearance case.”
Rynel spoke calmly.
The man nodded without a word and opened the door.
“Come in···”
The inside of the house was neat, yet somehow cold.
The wallpaper and flooring were warm-toned, but there was no warmth in the air.
Aira slowly turned her eyes, murmuring.
“Something’s wrong. The presence is too shallow.
Someone lives here, but it doesn’t feel like a person lives here at all···”
The man sat on an old sofa and blankly clasped his hands.
“That child··· will be fine. Somewhere out there··· still···”
His eyes groped through empty air, then he turned his head at Ivela’s question.
“By ‘that child’··· do you mean your child?”
“···Yes. My son··· no, was it my daughter···”
His voice blurred at once.
His eyes shook, and his fingers began to tremble.
“It’s strange··· I can’t remember the name.
It was the name I always used···.”
He pressed a hand to his forehead and lowered his head.
“I know I used to remember the birthday too··· did they like chocolate cake··· or was it strawberry···”
His words fell apart.
He repeated himself as if questioning his own memory.
“Every night, I left a doll by the bed··· right?
Was that this house? Or another house···?”
Rynel rose.
He lifted his hand, sensed the flow in the air, and walked toward the wall.
“It’s a picture of the family together.
But··· it’s strange.”
He pointed at a framed photo.
In it, the family was smiling.
But between them, the place where someone should have been was perfectly empty.
No brushstrokes, no erased smudge.
As if it had never been drawn in the first place.
Aira flipped through a sketchbook on a small desk, then stopped.
Between the drawn figures of the family on the worn paper, an emptiness stood out.
“This one too··· same thing.
There’s space, but there’s no person.
Like the memory itself was completely covered···”
Ivela spoke quietly.
“This isn’t something someone deliberately erased.
The existence itself··· was made as if it never existed from the start.”
Her voice was calm, but inside it sat a heavy, cold certainty.
Aira silently reached to turn the last page of the sketchbook, then stopped.
On one corner of the paper, faint scribbled writing caught her eye.
‘We need to go, right now···’