Moreover, Minos wasn’t the only one who found himself in trouble. A second after Edgar left the mansion with Ios, the soil found its way to his mouth and nose before he could even realize what was happening.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you to hold your breath. Sorry.”

However, Ios didn’t really sound sorry and was more like laughing.

‘You didn’t forget. You didn’t tell me on purpose.’

Edgar could only barely manage to let that go. Right now, finding Rubica was more important than his high pride.

He tried to not swallow any soil, but he couldn’t hold his breath forever. The soil filled his mouth and almost blocked his neck, but he finally left the underground just before he fainted.

He spat out the soil in his mouth and breathed heavily. That had been a horrible experience he didn’t want to go through ever again.

“Haha, sorry that I happen to be a land dragon.”

When Edgar got rid of the dirt in his mouth, he could smell fresh air and corn.

“Where are we?”

“Well, I don’t know. Minos, where are we?”

Ios had gone after Rubica’s scent without much thinking. As usual, he demanded an answer to the goblin whom he carried around as a substitute for his own brain that refused to work, but only silence returned.

“Oh, right. I forgot.”

Ios disappeared into the ground again before Edgar could stop him. He could just shake his head.

Judging from his appearance and what he said, he had to be Ios the golden dragon. He was known for being violent and greedy, and Edgar added one more adjective to it.

‘Stupid.’

It seemed like there was no need to invent Stella just to hunt that dragon. Ios was so stupid and what Edgar already had was going to be enough.

He had great powers, like moving at a great distance in seconds through the ground, but he was helplessly stupid.

They were supposed to move quietly to find Rubica and her kidnapers, but Ios had made a big mess by coming from the ground and talking out loud.

Edgar decided it would be a hundred times better to do this alone than to work with that idiot. Plus, there was no guarantee Rubica would be fine until Ios came back. So, Edgar didn’t wait for him and looked around.

‘It’s… a cornfield.’

When his eyes familiarized themselves with the darkness, he started to see his surroundings clearly. The scenery wasn’t familiar to him, but he never forgot anything, so he quickly noticed which part of the Claymore dukedom he was in.

Sadly, he was in the opposite direction from the land of the Moreaus. It was impossible for the trackers to come to where he was in the night no matter how fast they moved.

Accepting Ios’s offer without thinking twice had been the right choice.

‘There is a cliff over there. To leave my domain without being seen, they would choose to go over that mountain. It’s perfect since there are many places to hide.’

Edgar carefully looked around and headed to the mountain. He had memorized every map about his domain, but maps and the real land were quite different. He kept looking around, but there was no trace of Rubica or Stephen.

‘Has he brought me to the right direction? What if they’re not around here?’

But then, he heard the sound of hooves. He quickly hid between the corns. He had been right: two horses arrived and stopped right under the mountain.

Edgar could see two men wearing long hoods and a human sized sack. There had to be someone in it, and his heart let him know who that person was.

‘Rubica.’

The feeling of something missing disappeared, but even a worse pain came to grasp his heart.

The sack didn’t move at all, which worried Edgar. He wished he could run out there right now and save her.

However, he knew better than anyone that he couldn’t move recklessly against Stephen. He was a well-trained knight.

“We must go over this mountain.”

“Okay, then…”

The two men talked while opening the sack, and Edgar was relieved to see Rubica wasn’t dead.

However, that was the only good news. Her hands and feet had been bound so tightly and there was a sack on her head, so she couldn’t see.

She flinched when Stephen touched her, so she probably couldn’t listen either. Thinking she was suffering for that all because of himself made Edgar’s heart ache.

“We should untie her legs to climb this mountain.”

“But what if she runs away?”

“Don’t worry, this mountain is steep. She won’t be able to get far.”

Then, they undid the rope around Rubica’s feet. Edgar carefully went closer while they were on it, but then Stephen looked up.

“Someone’s here. I heard some footsteps.”

Edgar had carefully walked on some land that was wet to not make any sound, but Stephen’s ears were just too keen. Edgar held his breath and stopped on the spot.

“Yes, I heard them too.”

The man who answered had the same voice as Stephen. Soon, he put down his hood to reveal his face that was exactly the same as Stephen’s. The only difference was his clothes. They were in a style that could be found on people who lived in the northeast land of the continent.

‘He must have been going into my office pretending to be Stephen whenever I was gone.’

This wasn’t just about Claymore. Stephen used to be the king’s royal guard. Edgar wondered what kind of confidential information they had, and it gave him a headache.

“I think it’s over there.”

Stephen’s twin pointed at exactly where Edgar was hiding. He silently cursed and slowly put a hand in his pocket.

‘No, Rubica might get hurt if I use this.’

His gun was way more powerful than ordinary guns, but it wasn’t meant to precisely hit the target.

He wondered what to do, but Stephen kept getting nearer and nearer. In the end, he gave up on using the gun and put a hand on one of the bombs in his pocket.

‘I would rather hurt myself than to hurt her.’

He calculated the distance and the angle to figure out how to save Rubica. The possibility of his plan working wasn’t that high, but he just couldn’t hurt Rubica.

He made up his mind when Stephen was less than ten steps away.

“Pwah!”

But then, Minos jumped out near where Edgar had just come out. He was now in his goblin form, but his eyes and mouth hadn’t changed, so Edgar had no trouble recognizing him.

“Why can’t you hold your breath even though you’re a goblin? That man did much better.”

“That’s because he’s…”

Minos almost said what Edgar was, but he quickly closed his mouth. In the meantime, Stephen was surprised by the two suspicious creatures’ appearance and quickly hid in the cornfield. So did his twin who was with Rubica.

‘Shit, he’s right here.’

Stephen was less than three steps away from Edgar. Thankfully, he was paying his full attention to Ios and Minos and didn’t notice Edgar. He wished Ios would keep distracting Stephen for some time.

“Oh, but where is he anyway?”

But of course, there was no way the dragon would grant his wish. Ios started to look around, looking for Edgar who couldn’t even blink lest Stephen would see him.

“Oh, and here are the horses I saw earlier in the garden!”

Ios even babbled loudly. He couldn’t have been more careless, and Minos plucked his own hair because of that.

It was dark and hard to see, but Edgar could clearly see the goblin’s face color changing.

“But where are they?”

“Can’t you be a little quiet?”

“How am I supposed to find them quietly?”

Stephen silently took out his bow and drew it in the darkness. The two mysterious beings had come out of nowhere, so he decided it would be better to get rid of the threats quickly and leave.

He aimed at Ios’s head and fired. He was a great archer. But sadly, his arrow couldn’t pierce the target.

“What’s this?”

He snatched the arrow in the air with one hand.

“It’s an arrow.”

“Who dares to mess up with me? Is it him?”

Minos rolled an eye. There were two horses, but no sign of anyone or a fight. The duke had probably hidden, and the kidnappers who were hiding in the cornfield must have been surprised by Ios. That was the most probable scenario.

‘I shouldn’t speak the duke’s name.’

“I guess he has no reason to attack you.”

“Then, is it the nymph? But this arrow’s too weak for that.”

Ios snapped the arrow, using only two fingers. Of course, Stephen was shocked to see that.

While he was focusing on Ios, Edgar started to move towards Rubica slowly.

“Yes, and she wouldn’t just attack you so suddenly. She gave you her roses without asking for anything in return, remember?”

“But she does have a strange hobby.”

Minos wanted to say Ios’s obsession with plants was equally strange, if not more, but he managed not to.

“Oh, that’s… it must be her henchmen. They don’t know who you are, so they want to kill you for disturbing their hobby time.”

“What?”

The explanation made no sense, but Ios bought it so easily. He was enraged at being attacked by some humans and immediately stretched out a hand toward the direction of the arrow.