The first to sense that aura was Sharen, living among the common folk. She preferred the energy of the spirits she felt in the residential areas and had forsaken good lodgings to stay there. Upon suddenly feeling the chilling aura, she immediately used flight magic and flew to the castle's eastern wall where the energy was felt. The soldiers on the castle wall were startled when Sharen suddenly flew in. “Lady Sharen!” “Is something wrong?” Sharen had no time to answer them. A chilling aura was felt from the end of the horizon. She had felt this chilling aura only once before in the past. “This is definitely black magic...” Sharen tensed, recognizing the sensation she had felt when, on a commission, she had dealt with bandits who unknowingly used black magic and became evil spirits. The bandits at that time hadn't performed a proper ritual, so the evil spirit was like a weak monster that hadn't been properly summoned. However, the aura she felt now was on a different level. She could feel that it was created through a proper ritual and many sacrifices. Just as she was contemplating how to deal with a properly summoned evil spirit, a problem erupted, leaving her no time to think. [ “Kraaaaaaah!!!” ] “Th-That’s!!” “It’s a monster horde!!!” Countless monsters, frenzied by the evil spirit’s aura, began to swarm. Having no time to hesitate, Sharen deployed her magic. "Ignis Pluvia! (Rain of Fire Magic)!" As her chant unfolded, a red magic circle spread out behind her. And from there, a tremendous barrage of fireballs rained down on the monsters. While blocking the monsters, Sharen shouted to the soldiers. “Quickly, bring the others and Sir Rikain! Quickly!” “Yes!” “Understood!!” Sensing this was no ordinary situation, Sharen quickly called for Rikain and the other Knights. She had lost track of the evil spirit's aura because of the monsters, but believing it must be somewhere nearby, Sharen began to deploy magic, blocking the monsters. * While Sharen was starting to block the monsters outside, the inside of the castle also grew tumultuous. Callix, awakened by the noise, opened his bedroom door and came out. “It’s noisy outside, what’s going on?” “It’s nothing, My Lord.” “Nothing? I think I even heard an explosion?” Lana calmly spoke to Callix. Naturally, a major event was about to occur. However, causing a commotion now could endanger Callix's personal safety. Right now, Callix’s bedroom, where Sharen had even installed special protection magic, was the safest place. Just then, Azel took action. “My Lord! It is dangerous to come out now. Please stay in your bedroom!” “Wait! Azel!? Just a moment!!” Thump-! Azel forcibly shoved Callix back into the room. Watching the bedroom door close with a loud bang, Lana felt uncharacteristically flustered. 'Is it okay to shove his Lordship into the room like this?' But there was no time for that; it had arrived. “It’s coming! Lana!” Hearing Azel’s words, Lana immediately shed her maid skirt and drew the two daggers hidden on her thighs. Azel also drew her sword and took a stance. She had a premonition that conversation with the approaching enemy would be impossible. And that premonition was accurate. Swooooosh-!! It appeared through the distant window. It was like a black shadow. It had the form of a skeleton wearing a hood of black shadow, but upon closer inspection, it was like formless smoke. And from where its eyes should be, an evil red light glared at them. It was like the Grim Reaper from a fairytale of her childhood. “This is...” “Lady Azel, do you know what this is?” “I’ve seen it in a book before.” Azel recalled her memories from the Academy. In a record she had read out of curiosity about a battle against black magic, Azel had seen this before. This was one of the evil spirits that could be summoned with black magic. An evil spirit that relentlessly pursued and took lives according to the summoner's order. Its name was definitely... “ 『Shadow Reaper』. Yes, it’s definitely an evil spirit called the ‘Shadow Reaper’.” “That’s good then. So, you must know how to exorcise it.” “Well... I didn’t read that far!” “That’s unfortunate.” As the two were talking, the Shadow Reaper acted. Recognizing the two who blocked its path as enemies, the Reaper rushed at them. “It’s coming!” “Dodge it!!” The Reaper swung its hand directly at the two. Azel and Lana hurriedly dodged left and right, evading the Reaper’s attack. “Suaaaaaaa...” The flowerpot where the Reaper had attacked was cleanly sliced as if by a razor blade with a single gesture of its hand. If hit by such an attack, even knight's armor would be sliced like tofu. The Reaper looked at Lana, one of the two who had dodged its attack. It looked intently at Lana for a moment, then rushed at her like the wind and attacked. 'It's fast!' The Shadow Reaper pursued Lana swiftly, swinging its hands. Lana narrowly dodged the attacks, but even she, who had graduated at the top of her assassination class, felt it was too fast to avoid completely. Swish-! Unable to just take it, Lana threw a dagger at the Reaper's skull. The dagger accurately pierced the center of its skull. But... Scroll-[TL: 스르륵 (seureureuk) is an onomatopoeia often used to describe something passing through smoothly, like a knife through air or an object through a non-solid form.] “It passed through!?” The dagger Lana threw passed right through the center of the skull. As Lana was bewildered by the sensation, feeling as if she had pierced empty air, the Reaper's hand closed in on Lana. “Lady Lana!” To Azel, the Reaper's hand reaching for Lana, who was suspended in mid-air, seemed like a death sentence. But just as the Reaper's hand was about to touch Lana, Lana disappeared. “Kaak!?” “Huh?” The Reaper also seemed flustered as the one it intended to kill vanished in an instant. Meanwhile, Lana, who had teleported to the dagger she had thrown, took refuge beside Azel. “Lady Lana! You’re safe.” “Phew, I thought I was going to die.” Lana, having fled to Azel's side, let out a sigh of relief. The Reaper, seemingly yet to find Lana, was looking left and right, searching for her. “What should we do? That monster called a Reaper seems to be a ghost-type monster I’ve heard rumors about.” “Yes, it seems so.” Both Lana and Azel had learned about it at the Academy. There are monsters in the world like ghosts that have no physical form, and they can only be dealt with by ‘equipment blessed by the church’ or ‘holy magic.’ “With my current equipment, I have no means to damage that monster. Lady Azel, do you have any?” “............” Azel hesitated. She wondered if it was right to show here what she hadn't even told her comrades in the Golden Knights. “Lady Azel?” “......” Her hesitation was brief; Azel made up her mind. She would use it to save his Lordship, who had understood her, and the friend she had made for the first time since coming here. Surely, her father would understand too. “Lady Lana... I want to trust you and ask for one favor.” “Yes, Lady Azel, please tell me.” Azel stepped forward. The moonlight streaming through the broken window began to illuminate her. “Please keep what you see a secret.” “I will keep it a secret. I swear on the honor of the Ansus Family... no, on his Lordship’s honor.” Smiling as if satisfied by Lana's words, Azel gripped her sword. And she used her Blessing. “O moonlight that guides me, O goddess that leads me.” The world became quiet, as if the recent commotion had been unbelievable. The green moonlight shining into the castle began to draw into her sword. “Dwell within my sword, and grant me the power of purification.” As her words ended, her sword began to glow with the power of moonlight. This was Azel's Blessing, <Moonlit Sword>. This ability allowed her to create a sword blessed by the moon and display even greater power when fighting on a moonlit night. That’s why she was given the epithet ‘Knight of the Moonlight,’ and this was the extent of Azel's abilities known to the Golden Knights and the Imperial Prince. The true power of her Blessing, which Azel had hidden, was not simply becoming stronger when fighting at night. Her sword, imbued with the power of moonlight, possessed a potent power of exorcism. “Kaaaaaaa...” The Reaper finally noticed Lana and Azel. And it instinctively felt. That the emerald-like sword glowing green, imbued with moonlight, was its natural enemy. A feeling of fear began to bloom within the Shadow Reaper, where nothing should have existed. “Poor evil spirit...” Moonlight began to overflow from her sword. The Shadow Reaper, believing it had to survive for its mission, chose to flee. The Reaper fled much faster than it had rushed at Lana. “Return to where you belong!” Towards that evil spirit, Azel swung her moonlit sword. A blade of green light shot from the sword towards the Reaper. No matter how fast the Reaper was like the wind, it was now night, the time of the Moon Goddess. “Kaaaaaaak!!!!” Engulfed by the moonlight blade, the Reaper tore apart, its body disintegrating with a grotesque scream as it was purified. The castle, once the Shadow Reaper vanished, became quiet again. * After the Reaper disappeared, Azel began to panic. “Lady Lana! How should we handle this?” “Handle what?” “I want to keep my Blessing a secret!” “Indeed, that is a worry.” In this world, a Blessing's abilities were kept secret even from one's own Lord. Lana, too, had not revealed all her Blessing's abilities to the Princess. Lana, thinking Azel also wanted to hide her Blessing's abilities for personal reasons, suggested a way to Azel. “I think this will work.” Azel was flustered upon hearing Lana's idea, but decided to follow Lana's words, since it would help his Lordship's reputation. And 10 minutes later, Callix was rushing into the castle. “I won’t forgive you, monsters! How dare you injure my vassals!!” What Callix saw when he opened the door was a battered Lana and Azel. The two said they fought to protect Callix but were outnumbered, and Callix, praising their struggle, said he would go call the other Knights. Then Azel... “Just in case, please take my sword, My Lord. It will surely be of help.” Callix, who was unarmed, took her sword as Azel suggested, and went outside the castle. It was a bit strange that Azel's sword was emitting a green light, but Callix took it out without much thought, assuming it might have been treated with a luminous coating to be visible at night. As he was about to step outside, Callix met Rikain and the Knights who had come after cleaning up the situation outside. “My Lord!” “Are you unharmed!?” “Yes, I am fine. Azel and Lana are injured inside. Please see to their treatment.” “Yes! Understood.” Just as he was about to feel relieved that the situation was settled, a fragment of the Shadow Reaper reacted to the aura of the moonlit sword that had killed it. “Kaaaaaaak!!” “That’s!!!” “Protect his Lordship!!” A small fragment of the Shadow Reaper suddenly darted out from the darkness and flew straight towards Lord Callix. Startled by the sudden appearance of the creature, Callix instinctively swung the sword Azel had given him. “Aish! You startled me!” [TL]Aish is the common sfx for getting startled in Korea[/TL] Swish- “Kieeeeeek!!” The Shadow Reaper, already weakened to the point where it couldn't even kill an ant, was purified and vanished by the sword Azel had given him when Callix swung it. A brief silence fell among the Knights and the people of the territory who witnessed the scene. And then they began to shout. “Did his Lordship just slay an evil spirit!?” “His Lordship himself exorcised the wicked evil spirit!” Callix couldn't keep up with the situation as the Knights and the people suddenly cheered. “...What just happened?“ That day, another song about Crome's Silver Dragon was created. It was a song about a young Lord exorcising a wicked evil spirit.