Subscriber of the Gods-Chapter 219: The One Who Leads the Moonlight

“He’s not here! We’ve searched the entire lord’s castle but there’s not even a trace!”

“We traced Lord Kai Felix’s unique aura, but he’s not within the lord’s castle.”

“…He should be well aware of the rules.”

The branch head of Ramsdale frowned deeply. No matter how he thought about it, this wasn’t a normal situation.

The notification that class was impossible due to Regia’s personal circumstances.

And Kai Felix who suddenly disappeared without a trace.

“There’s no way he would leave without saying anything.”

If something had happened, he would have said so in advance.

“There’s no way Kai Felix would break the rules and go outside without reason.”

Everyone nodded at the branch head’s words.

Even if by some chance he had left due to an urgent matter that didn’t allow time for notification, there should be some trace left.

Then where on earth is Kai Felix now?

For a moment, the worst-case scenario flashed through the branch head’s mind.

“There shouldn’t be anyone bold enough to do such a thing within Ramsdale’s territory.”

Someone invaded the lord’s castle and kidnapped Kai Felix.

There was no other way to explain this situation. But that too was impossible.

The branch head gave up trying to speculate further about this situation.

This was a matter he couldn’t resolve on his own.

Although he didn’t like proving his lack of ability, he couldn’t rule out the possibility of a bigger problem occurring if he kept dragging this out.

“I need to report to the Sword Saint. This is beyond what I can handle on my own.”

The branch head immediately set out to find the Sword Saint. The Sword Saint happened to be with Regia.

“Calm yourself, Regia.”

“Sword Saint, I don’t know if this is real or fake. But I must go.”

“Lord.”

The branch head knocked and entered at the same time.

“We’re in the middle of an urgent discussion, branch head.”

“I’m truly sorry. But it seems an even more urgent matter has arisen.”

“What? An even more urgent matter?”

“Yes.”

The branch head quickly explained the current situation.

After hearing everything, the Sword Saint frowned.

“Did you search thoroughly?”

“Yes, it seems he’s not inside the lord’s castle at least.”

That meant Kai really went outside the lord’s castle.

But it was strange.

Kai Felix had grown significantly in the Sword Saint’s class.

He had put down all the burdens he was carrying, freed himself from pressure, and was reborn into his true self.

For that Kai to suddenly give up on the training conference and go outside?

For what reason?

The Sword Saint had witnessed Kai’s growth right before his eyes.

The branch head too, watching Kai spar with Ethan, thought that by the end of the training conference, Kai Felix would break through his limits and become stronger.

There’s no way that Kai Felix would abandon the training conference and leave the lord’s castle on his own.

“I tried not to think too deeply, but within my common sense, I couldn’t think of a reason for Lord Kai Felix to leave the training conference.”

“This is strange. As you say, there’s no way he would just leave.”

The Sword Saint understood why the branch head had urgently sought him out.

And at the same time, he frowned while looking at Regia.

“Isn’t this strange?”

“It is strange. Certainly.”

Regia, who had been agitated, seemed to sense something odd and regained his composure.

“My son was bedridden for a long time. So I placed a simple magic on him. A very simple magic that would send a signal if an unexpected situation arose for my son.”

Even now that his son’s illness had fully healed, that magic was still maintained.

Regia was waiting for his son to notice the magic within him and release it himself. When that time came, he would no longer need to worry about his son.

But just before entering class, that signal suddenly rang.

He couldn’t know whether an unforeseen accident had happened to his son, or if the signal came from the process of releasing the magic.

But once the signal rang, Regia had no choice but to go to his son’s side immediately.

Because of this, all of Regia’s attention was focused on needing to go to his son as soon as possible, and the Sword Saint came to find him directly, wondering what was going on when Regia suddenly said he was leaving.

And then.

“Kai Felix has disappeared.”

In the meantime, while the attention of the two strongest people involved in this training conference was diverted, Kai Felix had disappeared.

“We’ve been had.”

The Sword Saint let out a deep sigh. And for a moment, he emitted an aura so strong that everyone present flinched.

“How dare they…!”

“Sword Saint, there’s one more thing I need to tell you.”

The branch head shared one more concerning detail from what he had been reported.

“You say Teacher Ethan immediately broke down the door and checked?”

“Yes, he seemed to know something.”

“Bring Teacher Ethan right now…”

Before he could finish speaking, familiar footsteps and aura were felt.

And not long after, Ethan appeared.

“I thought you might be looking for me.”

***

“You sensed something was off?”

“Yes.”

Ethan first explained why he had reacted so quickly. Of course, he mixed in appropriate lies about the detailed circumstances.

“That can’t be…”

“The followers of the Moon… There’s no way he could be their agent.”

As expected, members of the Ramsdale branch who were acquainted with the security chief objected to Ethan’s words.

“That’s why I stayed quiet. I had heard about the security chief from Teacher Ciron, and I’m an outsider after all.”

Ethan answered that he had remained silent because he wasn’t in a position to take immediate action just because he found something suspicious. The Sword Saint nodded at these words.

“Bring the security chief here right now.”

“Yes!”

Not long after, the security chief appeared with an aggrieved look.

“W-why are you doing this to me!”

“Tell the truth.”

“Why would I do such a thing! And even if by some chance I had done it, I would have run away immediately! This is truly unfair! How could I possibly kidnap someone like Teacher Kai Felix!”

It was a reasonable argument. There was an enormous difference in ability between the security chief and Kai Felix.

The Sword Saint examined the security chief closely. He intended to see right through him if he was hiding anything.

However, he felt nothing. He had just the level of ability one would expect from a security chief. There was no way he could subdue Kai Felix with that level of skill.

To subdue the now even stronger Kai Felix, one would need overwhelming power, literally.

Not only that, it’s not an easy task to subdue Kai Felix without leaving a single wound unless one is quite skilled.

The Sword Saint scrutinized the security chief from head to toe, keeping all possibilities open.

“Not a single wound.”

But the security chief didn’t have a single wound, so there was no way to prove Ethan’s opinion that something was off about him.

In this situation, it was rather Ethan who became suspicious.

The ability to overwhelm Kai Felix. And suddenly slicing through the door of the room where Kai Felix was staying.

At that moment, Ethan spoke up.

“This is the frightening thing about the followers of the Moon.”

Ethan approached the security chief without hesitation.

“They hide their identity for a long time, avoiding external suspicion. Only when they’re confident of success do they carry out their operation. It seems the real security chief has already left.”

“What?”

The Sword Saint looked at Ethan. Ethan placed his hand on the security chief’s temple.

Then he moved his hand roughly as if peeling off the face.

“Aaaargh-!”

“W-what are you doing!”

Surprised members of the Ramsdale branch tried to stop Ethan. But Ethan moved his foot faster.

Kuung-!

The security chief who had been in pain fell forward.

Ethan grabbed the security chief’s neck and lifted him up.

“!”

Everyone present was shocked at that moment.

“W-what is this!”

“That’s not the security chief!”

“It’s a special artifact used by the followers of the Moon.”

It was such an unusual artifact that even the Sword Saint and Regia couldn’t detect it.

‘To think they’d use a face changer that stakes one’s life force. Good loyalty? It’s probably just a second-order at best.’

Ethan immediately destroyed the artifact. This artifact called a face changer came in various types, but this was a low-grade artifact that paid the price with one’s lifespan, so it wasn’t particularly valuable.

‘It’s mainly used by those trying to show loyalty to the organization.’

Everyone present looked at Ethan with questioning eyes, wondering how he had detected it.

“As you all know, I learned a lot while working in the Inquisition.”

The follower of the Moon whose identity was exposed looked at Ethan with an expression of shock.

“H-how, how…”

It was unacceptable. This artifact had never been detected before, not even once. Yet to think it was seen through…

Ethan glared at the follower of the Moon.

At that moment, the follower of the Moon felt extreme fear.

This person knows everything. Every single detail!

“Moon Mother, please protect me. Moon Mother.”

He trembled and called out the name of the Moon Mother. He had lost his reason, gripped by fear.

With this, the identity of the kidnapper was confirmed.

“Branch head.”

“Yes.”

The branch head dragged away the follower of the Moon. He intended to extract information thoroughly before resolving this situation.

“Regia, I understand fully what you’re worried about. But now that it’s highly likely those worries are unfounded, would it be alright to ask you to finish the class?”

“I’ll check for myself, Sword Saint.”

Regia said this and followed after the branch head.

“I’m sorry about this, Teacher Ethan. To think such a situation would arise…”

The Sword Saint bowed his head. If it hadn’t been for Ethan, it would have been difficult to properly grasp the situation.

“I will never forget this favor.”

-Survival probability increases!

“Not at all. It was just what I had to do.”

“Get some rest.”

“Sword Saint, I’m sorry to say this, but now that I know about this situation, I can’t just sit still. Would it be possible for me to lend a hand in finding Teacher Kai?”

“…”

Ethan is a new teacher participating in the training conference.

It wasn’t right for the Sword Saint, as the overall person in charge of this training conference, to ask for help from a new teacher on such a grave matter.

Of course, Ethan knew this too, so he maintained the Sword Saint’s dignity by asking himself. freewёbnoνel.com

In that case, there was no reason for the Sword Saint to refuse.

“I’m truly grateful.”

“I’ll move separately. Like your special unit, Sword Saint.”

The Sword Saint’s eyes widened. Just how far was he going to be considerate?

It was excellent diplomacy, unbelievable for a new teacher.

“You’re really going to make it big. More than I imagined.”

The Sword Saint immediately wrote Ethan a permit.

It was a permit allowing free entry and exit outside the lord’s castle during this training conference.

“There are classes tomorrow too. Please act as my special unit just until tonight.”

“Yes.”

***

Ethan set out to find traces of the followers of the Moon scattered throughout the lord’s castle.

Besides the traces in the dining hall, there were traces that only the followers of the Moon would recognize here and there.

‘I need to check quickly.’

These traces disappear as time passes.

As if they were never there in the first place.

Fortunately, perhaps because it was right after the operation, many traces remained.

“It was the cook.”

Not long after, Ethan was able to find other traces besides the ones first discovered in the dining hall.

“They poisoned the food. Kai Felix collapsed. The real security chief took away the collapsed Kai Felix.”

Ethan walked around the kitchen, sniffing. Amidst the thick food smells that still remained, there was a scent of poison.

It wasn’t an ordinary poison. It was such a faint smell that someone unfamiliar with poisons wouldn’t even notice it.

But Ethan, with his vast knowledge of poisons, was able to quickly identify it.

‘They made him collapse as if he had fallen asleep.’

Ethan headed to the entrance of the lord’s castle.

“Open the door with the security chief’s authority.”

They had gone straight out of the castle. This whole process unfolded rapidly.

‘This is more tricky than I thought.’

If they had launched an outright attack, it would have been much easier to deal with. Who would have thought they’d kidnap him like this?

‘And now it’s getting dark.’

It was quite a troublesome situation.

They had calculated even the timing meticulously.

If it hadn’t been for Ethan, it wouldn’t have been easy to realize that Kai Felix had disappeared.

Even if someone had noticed, by that time it would have been completely dark.

In that case, pursuit would be virtually impossible.

Ethan looked at the sky. There wasn’t much time left now.

“I need the power to track.”

Ethan immediately entered the New World and input keywords.

There were two keywords.

[Hunting], [Tracking]

-Searching keywords.

-The algorithm recommends a god suitable for your current situation.

“What a familiar name.”

-Artemis, the hunting goddess who leads the moonlight [Difficulty: High]