Three hours had passed since the capital walls faded from the horizon.
Despite being called the "King's Road," the path looked more like a neglected potato field. With every jolt of the carriage, Hope clenched his teeth. It was the first time he had ridden in a carriage since the day he arrived in the kingdom, and the long journey was making his stomach churn. Even so, despite the nausea, he couldn't stop analyzing the carriage's construction.
"The rear left axle has about twelve minutes left," Hope said, staring at the ceiling. "If we hit the next pothole, the axle will snap and the center of mass will shift toward Lypin's side."
From the driver's seat, Deniz shouted back, "Don't jinx it, Architect! This carriage came straight from the Royal stables. It's top quality."
In the back seat, Yaat, trembling inside his black robe, suddenly opened his eyes. His pupils vanished, leaving only white.
"A pit," he whispered. "Three seconds."
Exactly three seconds later.THUD.
The carriage plunged into a deep hole. The wooden frame groaned but did not break.
"See?" Deniz said proudly. "Sturdy."
"Not broken yet," Hope corrected. "The microfractures just merged. Next impact, the wheel flies off."
Lypin sat beside Hope, her face pale. The farther they moved from the city, the more unstable the Starfallen energy inside her felt. Still, she smiled.
"At least we're outside, Hope. Look at the trees. They're much greener than dungeon moss."
Hope glanced out the window at the dense forest. "Yeah. They're beautiful. But looking outside makes my stomach worse."
Then his gaze shifted to Yaat. The man was drenched in sweat. This wasn't motion sickness. He had seen something. Or felt it.
"Yaat?" Hope asked. "What do you see?"
Yaat dug his nails into his palm.
"The birds," he said, his voice shaking. "The birds went silent."
Hope listened.
He was right.
The forest was loud with wind, insects, rustling leaves… but there were no bird calls. The forest's alarm system had gone quiet. That meant predators were near.
"Deniz!" Hope shouted. "STOP!"
Too late.
One of the horses up front collapsed with a shrill whinny, as if an invisible scythe had swept through its legs.
The carriage lurched violently. The rear axle Hope had given twelve minutes didn't survive the sudden stop.
CRACK.
The wheel snapped off. The carriage tilted and began to skid.
The world flipped. Wood splintered through the air. Lypin screamed.
Even in the chaos, Hope's mind stayed calm. Time slowed.
[Architect's Sight: Active]Rollover angle: 45 degrees.Speed: 30 km/h.Impact point: Right front panel.
Hope grabbed Lypin by the waist. "Fetal position!" he shouted, shielding her with his body and bracing them against the strongest part of the carriage, where the metal frame was.
BOOM!
The carriage slammed into a tree and stopped. Dust, dirt, and splinters exploded into the air.
Silence.
Only the spinning wheel and the dying horse's ragged breathing remained.
"Is everyone okay?" Deniz shouted from the front of the wreckage, sword drawn, scanning the area.
Hope checked Lypin. She was shaken but uninjured. Yaat, meanwhile, was stuck upside down against the carriage roof, muttering, "We're going to die… there'll be a lake of blood any second now."
"Out," Hope said. "Now."
They climbed out of the wreckage. The forest was silent.
Too silent.
Deniz walked over to the horses. His face drained of color.
Their legs weren't broken.
They were cut.
Cleanly. Surgically. One precise strike, smooth enough to slice through bone.
"This wasn't an accident," Deniz said, taking a defensive stance with his back to the carriage. "Someone's here."
"Well done, Sherlock," a mocking voice said.
It came from above.
Hope looked up.
A man crouched on a tree branch, balanced there as if gravity didn't apply to him.
Red hair fluttered in the wind. Half his face was hidden behind a black tactical mask, revealing only narrowed, golden eyes. His outfit was unlike anything they'd seen before: straps, pockets, matte-black armor plates.
Two sharp ears twitched atop his head.
A fox.
And on the ground, barely three meters from Deniz, a woman leaned casually against a tree.
No one had seen her arrive.
She had long, silvery hair and two tall rabbit ears. But there was nothing innocent about her. Her black, skin-tight bodysuit left her muscular, powerful legs fully exposed.
A strange, lifeless smile rested on her face. No hatred. No anger. Just a cold emptiness.
"So this is the Architect?" the fox-man said, tossing a black metal dagger into the air and catching it. "Looks more like a lost construction apprentice. Hahaha. You get it, right?"
"Target confirmed," the woman said coldly. "The male one. The white-haired boy."
Deniz roared. "Who the hell are you?! Attacking a royal carriage is punishable by death!"
The fox-man leapt down from the branch. His landing was so light the leaves didn't even crunch.
"Royal?" He laughed, his voice muffled beneath the mask. "Let's just say the one paying us was more generous than the King. Baron Vexor sends his regards."
"Vexor…" Hope murmured. "The poisoned one. So he's still alive."
Hope studied the pair with interest. "By the way, who are you? You look fascinating." His eyes sparkled with curiosity. "You're human, but you've got claws and ears."
The fox-man smirked condescendingly. "Hah! Normally assassins don't give names, but you're about to die, so who cares." He pointed at himself. "I'm Kai. And this lovely lady is my girlfriend, Bianca!"
Bianca stepped forward, that eerie smile still frozen on her face. She carried no weapon. But her stance… her weight rested on her toes, leg muscles coiled like springs.
"I don't like talking," Bianca said.
Then she attacked.
Not like a rabbit.
Like a cannonball.
She launched forward so fast she left a dust trail behind her. Her target wasn't Deniz.
It was Hope.
"Hope, fall back!" Deniz shouted, trying to intercept.
Kai appeared in front of him like a shadow.
"I'm your dance partner, Tank," Kai said as his twin daggers clashed with Deniz's sword. Sparks lit up the forest.
Hope was alone.
Bianca spun through the air, swinging her right leg down like an axe toward Hope's neck.
Hope summoned his scythe and blocked with the shaft.
BAM!
The impact drove his feet into the soil. This wasn't a simple kick. This woman was nothing like the fighters from the arena.
Hope slid back but stayed standing.
Bianca landed and instantly leapt again, pushing off a tree trunk and aiming a horizontal kick at Hope's ribs.
Hope ducked. The kick missed him and shattered the thick oak behind him.
The massive tree split in half like a toothpick.
"Impressive," Hope said, raising his scythe defensively as [Architect's Sight] traced Bianca's body. "Muscle fiber density: eight times normal. Leg tendons function like a catapult. Energy conversion efficiency: 98 percent."
Bianca stopped. Her empty smile didn't change. She wasn't even breathing.
"What are you talking about?" she said. "Fight instead of talking."
She attacked again. This time it wasn't a single strike, but a storm of kicks. Each blow cracked the air. Every block numbed Hope's arms.
She wasn't a fighter.
She was a living weapon.
Elsewhere, Deniz was struggling.
Kai danced around Deniz's massive sword. No matter how hard Deniz struck, Kai was always a centimeter out of reach.
"You're too slow, big guy," Kai taunted. "And too loud. The smell of your sweat… disgusting."
Kai suddenly slipped behind Deniz, dagger aiming for a joint in his armor.
"Blood would flow nicely from here," he said.
"NO!" Lypin screamed. She had climbed out of the wreckage and was about to throw a stone at Kai.
Kai hesitated and turned his masked face toward her.
"Oh… Starfallen," he said. "We weren't paid to kill you. But if you interfere…" He reached for the strange, wrapped sword on his back. "I'll charge extra."
That distraction was enough.
Bianca cornered Hope.
His back reached a cliff's edge. Bianca jumped for a final, finishing blow. This time she didn't use her leg.
A hidden blade snapped out from her heel.
She descended, gravity aiding her, aiming straight for Hope's skull.
No room to dodge.
The scythe was too slow to block.
Mathematically, survival probability: 0.1 percent.
Beside the wrecked carriage, Yaat clutched his head. His eyes turned completely white.
"IT'S FALLING!" Yaat screamed. "IT'S FALLING FROM THE SKY!"
Bianca was midair. Milliseconds from impact.
Kai had neutralized Deniz and watched with delight.
And then…
A sound echoed from deep within the forest.
Not wind.
Not thunder.
The sound of something enormous and rotten breaking apart.
A centuries-old red alder tore free from its roots at the exact moment of Yaat's scream. Maybe termites. Maybe wind. Maybe just "bad luck."
The massive tree fell between Bianca and Hope like a god's hammer from the sky.
KRRRAAAASH!
The ground shook.
Bianca twisted her body at an impossible angle midair to avoid the falling tree and was thrown back.
The trunk slammed down inches from Hope's face, forming a natural wall between Bianca and Kai and Hope's group.
As the dust settled, Hope stared at the fallen tree.
This wasn't luck.
This was a statistical anomaly.
From the other side, Kai's furious voice rang out."Damn it! Who handles tree maintenance in this forest?!"
Bianca perched atop the trunk. For the first time, her empty smile cracked, replaced by surprise.
She looked at Hope.
Then at Yaat, trembling behind the carriage.
"You're lucky, Architect," Bianca said, her voice emotionless once more.
Kai jumped beside her. "Not luck, Bibi. That robed guy… he smells strange. Like death."
Kai adjusted his mask and called out to Hope.
"This round's yours, Builder. But Baron Vexor is impatient. And we never leave our prey unfinished."
He pulled a smoke bomb from his pocket and threw it down.
Purple smoke swallowed the forest.
When it cleared, they were gone, vanished like the birds in the trees.
Silence returned.
Deniz planted his sword into the ground, breathing heavily.
Lypin ran to Hope. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Hope touched the massive tree trunk in front of him. Then he turned to Yaat, still shaking.
"I'm fine," Hope said.
He walked over and offered Yaat his hand.
"In engineering," Hope said as he pulled him up, "this is called a Safety Factor. But I think you call it a 'curse.'"
Yaat looked at him, tears in his eyes.
"I almost killed you all…"
"No," Hope said, glancing at the tree. "You saved us. It was just… a bit loud."
Hope looked at the broken carriage, the dead horses, then at the long road ahead.
"Looks like we'll be walking," he said.
"There's something wrong," Deniz said, scanning the forest. "The dead horse and the one next to it… they're gone. Someone else is watching us. Not just Kai and Bianca."