‘I’m doomed.’
Of all things, those flying sheets contained her personal research notes…
Sick with panic, Mona dashed forward.
“…!”
Yet Rihart, without batting an eye, plucked the fluttering papers from the air one after another.
Thanks to his mana core, which exerted an almost gravitational pull, the scattered pages seemed to drift straight into his waiting hands.
Mona stood dumbfounded by the sight—part magic, part sheer, effortless mastery.
“…”
Having collected every last sheet, Rihart did not hand them back. Instead, he began scanning them with cold, indifferent eyes.
No, anything but that…
Mortification painted Mona’s face.
It was bad enough that she had been clumsy enough to scatter her papers, but now her unrefined, unorganized research notes were laid bare for him to see.
They were filled with crude deductions that would have earned an immediate rejection from any academy professor, only deepening her humiliation.
Paying no heed to Mona, who hovered nearby fretting like an anxious pup, Rihart ran his eyes over the papers in his grip.
‘…Dreadful handwriting.’
The parchment was crammed to the edges with scribbled notes and complex diagrams, leaving virtually no white space.
Lines and symbols tangled together in a cipher that practically demanded deciphering.
Among them, what caught his attention was a rough sketch of the Kirki Mountains drawn in red ink, flanked by hurried margin notes.
‘Along the mountain range's direction and prevailing winds, demonic energy follows a longitudinal flow.
Curvatures in the range → Flow disruption
High likelihood of demonic energy pooling or reversing course at ridge bends → Potential anomaly zone?’
Known as a demonic realm, the Land of Chaos had been sealed off for ages, and most records concerning it had long since been lost.
The few surviving ancient maps were equally lacking in detail.
For all practical purposes, this expedition was leaping blind into unknown territory.
Yet with nothing more than the general topography of the Kirki Mountains provided by the Imperial Court, the woman before him had mapped out multi-angled projections of the demonic energy left behind by the black dragon—and in so short a time.
‘…Well, setting that aside.’
There was another detail that genuinely piqued his curiosity.
Her map contained features never provided by the imperial records.
Things like ravines and basins.
Mona simply stared at him, eyes wide.
Her embarrassment had yet to recede, and his sudden inquiry failed to register at first.
Parmin, who stood nearby, snapped at her impatiently.
Rihart repeated himself, his cadence slow and measured as though weighing each syllable.
Never on any assignment had Rihart asked the same question twice, yet here he was displaying an unusual degree of patience.
‘Ah, the basin.’
Belatedly grasping the intent behind his question, Mona clasped her trembling hands tightly and began to explain in a faltering voice.
This, too, had been a piece of wisdom passed down to Mona from her grandmother.
She had advised that when researching the ecology of monsters, one must look closely even at the metaphorical records of the past.
A flicker of faint intrigue crossed Rihart’s blue eyes.
Mona spoke slowly.
“…”
When he remained silent, Mona felt her fingers twitch with unease.
Did he… take issue with her answer?
Was he perhaps a devout adherent of the New Faith?
Flustered, Mona hurried to add to her words.
Listening to her stammer out an almost apologetic explanation, Rihart slightly narrowed his eyes.
First, she had known the layout of the Kirki Mountains before the expedition details were even disclosed, and now this…
Among this hastily assembled survey team, she seemed surprisingly capable.
The abrupt question startled Mona so badly that she nearly choked on a hiccup.
Th-there are other people right next to us, you know…
The retort rose to the tip of her tongue, but Mona was hardly daring enough to talk back to Rihart.
The moment his icy tone enunciated each syllable of her name, chills broke out across her arms.
‘Mona Bellose. You are hereby sentenced to death for the illegal possession and use of prohibited fragrances.’
The familiar scene from her recurring nightmares flashed through her mind, and in truth, she harbored far too many guilty secrets to keep her composure.
“I will remember it.”
Returning the papers to Mona with those flatly tossed parting words, he strode away.
‘No, please don't.’
Why on earth would he need to remember her name?
Mona was weeping tears of blood inside as she watched Rihart’s straight, broad back recede.
Parmin, who had suddenly been reduced to a phantom, glared at Mona with naked jealousy.
‘He actually asked for her name!’
According to the war memoirs of the Black Knights published in the papers, Rihart only ever inquired after the names of those who caught his eye on the battlefield.
Yet here was His Excellency, claiming the name of the most pathetic, obscure monster scholar in the entire survey team before anyone else’s…!
Stung with bitter resentment, Parmin could not contain his sarcasm.
Know your place, attention seeker.
That was clearly his implication, but unaccustomed as she was to high-society barbs, Mona only felt wronged.
It was rotten luck that the wind had blown directly toward Rihart in the first place.
How on earth could she have calculated that the draft would merge with the residual mana swirling within the magic circle, sweeping the sheets straight toward his hands like water down a drain…?
If she had possessed that level of precision, she would have graduated early years ago.
Mona answered with utter sincerity.
She wanted someone else to draw Rihart’s notice completely so her own name would be quietly erased from his memory.
“…!”
But Parmin, who took Mona’s words to mean ‘Mind your own business, you loser,’ stiffened, his face going rigid.
‘Is it because she studies wretched beasts? What a venomous tongue.’
…Damn her. So that’s how she wanted to play it?
‘I refuse to be outdone by the likes of her…’
Leaving behind the seething Parmin, Mona ruefully stuffed the crumpled papers back into her bag and walked out of the teleportation gate facility.
As soon as she stepped outside, an official stationed at the gate approached her.
After examining the appointment letter bearing the imperial seal, the official spoke.
Once she handed over the paperwork, the official led her to a carriage.
Truly, not a moment’s rest.
Swallowing a sigh, Mona climbed inside the carriage.
“…”
Inside the cramped carriage, there was only one other person.
Arms crossed, eyes closed in silence, it was the Black Knights’ sole female knight.
With her neatly tied black hair, black leather gloves, and a high-collared turtleneck, she projected an aura that brooked not the slightest vulnerability.
Intimidated by the frigid presence she radiated, Mona instinctively held her breath.
Just then, the female knight slowly opened her eyes.
