Volume 6, Chapter 61 – The Moonless Night

A silent street.

After nightfall, the snow began to fall harder. It had now reached the point where one could hear the rustling sound of snowflakes landing on the rooftops. People living in the southern countries might think that heavy snow is silent, but anyone who has been to the north, such as the Pescia Territory, would know that snowflakes also make a faint crackling sound when they land. If it happens to be a quiet night, it becomes a light, beautiful scene that one can appreciate just by listening.

But this beauty was only for those sitting at home. For Evelyn, who was now guarding the rooftops, the heavy snow only made her nerves tense.

Thick clouds covered the moon, the only source of light. A darkness that seemed to be trying to drag people in swept over from the surrounding alleys. A chill that pierced through the bone marrow dyed the skin with a coldness—no one dared to make a sound, even their breathing was inaudibly low.

A dark and windy, moonless night.

Now was the time for hunting.

The hunters had already laid their bait, waiting for the prey to step into the trap on its own accord.

“Mmm…”

Letting out a puff of white mist, Evelyn, who was lying prone on the roof, once again cast her gaze towards the small house not far below, which was filled with magic scrolls. There were no flames, nor was there the crunching sound of a creature walking on the snow. Although the heavy snow was not conducive to her and the paladins’ ambush, it could tell them whether the monsters were approaching. While feeling regret, she also felt a sense of relief.

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“Are you nervous?”

“Shh.” Yisi’s question made Evelyn’s just-relaxed heart tighten again. She quickly made a shushing gesture to Yisi. “Keep your voice down.”

“…I, for one, don’t think the monsters have such good hearing. We’re at least thirty meters away from the nearest bait.”

As she spoke, Yisi gestured the distance. The plan Evelyn had specified was very simple; the only difficulty was in setting up the site.

Laying bait wasn’t just about throwing down something the prey liked and being done with it. When facing a cunning predator, the hunter needed to disguise the bait. If the predator discovered any human traces, not only would it not take the bait, but it might even discover the hunter’s tracks and turn back to bite the hunter.

Therefore, the layout and location of the site were very important.

This was not a difficult task for Evelyn. She ordered the paladins to find a suitable location that was both suitable for their ambush and easy for the monsters to find. And based on the pattern of the monsters’ appearance—the monsters used the sewers as their base and attacked the buildings on the surface along the sewers—Evelyn finally set up a trap in this place where the underground pipe network was dense and the ground was full of tall buildings.

Among these tall building complexes, there were many small and dilapidated houses. Evelyn and the others only needed to stuff the scrolls handed over by the merchants into these small houses in batches, and they could ambush from the roofs of the surrounding tall buildings, monitoring the ground from a place that was difficult for ordinary people to notice. Thanks to this, all the surrounding residents had either been evacuated or had their doors and windows tightly shut, creating a scene of an impending battle.

As for how to know whether the monsters had stepped into the trap, Evelyn used an old-fashioned method.

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The monsters could sense magic power, so they could not set up monitoring magic circles or perception magic circles around the houses. So Evelyn ordered the paladins to tie bells to fine strings and then arrange them in places in the houses that were easy to touch. Unless the monsters’ joints could bend backward, even if they discovered the fine strings, it would be impossible for them to step in without touching them at all.

Regarding the matter of magic power, Evelyn had also given herself and every paladin and hunter participating in the ambush a magic-suppressing ring. As long as they wore the ring, their magic power would stop being released and flowing. A warrior whose magic power was suppressed was no different from an ordinary person. The monsters would naturally be unable to sense the existence of the ambush. The only flaw of the rings was that there were too few of them. Only less than twenty people could participate in the ambush at close range. All the paladins who had not been issued a ring were waiting at a great distance from the ambush site.

Of course, even if there were many rings, Evelyn could not let everyone participate. The strength of the monsters was already extremely terrifying. To let those with insufficient ability participate would only increase the casualties and only serve to delay time. Evelyn was not the type to disregard human life.

Perhaps because she was indeed very nervous, Evelyn’s expression was serious, without a hint of a joke. Even when she spoke, her gaze did not leave the several houses that were being used as bait nearby.

“What if the monsters approach from the rooftops? We can’t use magic now. Once we’re discovered by those monsters, we won’t even have time to defend ourselves after being ambushed.”

“…That’s true. But there’s also the possibility that the monsters won’t come today. If they don’t come today, are you going to guard here all night, Evelyn?”

“Isn’t that a matter of course? I can’t miss any opportunity. At worst, I’ll just sleep during the day and act at night. Compared to me, are those companions of yours really reliable, Yisi? Not to mention Camilla, whom I’ve fought with, Mary and that little girl who looks exactly like me… no matter how you look at it, they’re no match for the monsters.”

“You tested their magic power before you came, didn’t you, Evelyn? And you acknowledged their strength and gave them magic-suppressing rings. As for the question of reliability, they might lose in a one-on-one battle with a monster, but if it’s five against one, I believe they can handle it themselves.”

Evelyn frowned.

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“Five against one? Aren’t there only three people?”

“Ah, it’s three against one. I misspoke.”

She had counted Pepe and Refina in as well, but Yisi had not told Evelyn about their existence. As a pureblood, Pepe could cover herself with blood to hide her presence. This magic could also be used on Refina, provided that Pepe had prepared enough blood in advance.

“I didn’t expect that as the next Pope, only one person would be willing to step forward to help me when I needed it most. How ironic.”

With a sarcastic tone, Evelyn snorted through her nose. Of the twenty people participating in the ambush, only three were hunters. The other hunters either did not mobilize or were arranged around the five temples by the worried and fearful cardinals.

Yisi still remembered the fearful expressions on the faces of those cardinals. When Evelyn and the Inquisition Knights brought the monster’s corpse, which had been turned into a pulp, before several cardinals and explained to them the monster’s terrifying growth potential and the strength they possessed, several old and frail cardinals immediately agreed with trembling movements to dispatch the hunters. However, they had deployed the hunters around the temples, not on the offensive as Evelyn had proposed.

The older one gets, the more one fears death. Yisi had witnessed this saying.

“Well, this is also a good thing for you, Evelyn. After you’ve dealt with these monsters, you can use the matter of the monsters in the future to choke them so that they don’t dare to refute you.”

“That’s true—wait.”

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Her relaxed expression instantly tensed up. Evelyn pricked up her ears, listening to the faint sound her ears had caught.

It wasn’t the sound of a bell or something stepping on the snow, but a very noisy sound, as if there were a fight.

Her gaze swept to the east. Evelyn stood up from the roof as if by reflex and shouted in an urgent tone.

“It’s in the east! Let’s go, quickly!”

The east was the direction where Camilla and the other five were ambushing.

“Damn it.”

Taking off her magic ring, Evelyn stepped on the edge of the roof, preparing to jump directly onto the snow below. But Yisi, who had also stood up, grabbed her in time, her blue eyes exceptionally firm.

“Wait a little longer.”

“What are we waiting for? Your companions are over there!”