The night had not yet fully fallen when Livia quietly returned to the castle. As she pushed open the small door leading to the hidden passageway, Emma was already waiting inside.
She held a pistol in her hand, her brows furrowed with a calm yet unmistakable concern. "You've really decided?"
Livia glanced at her and nodded. "We leave tonight."
"You know what that means, Livia," Emma said anxiously. "I can accept going in with you, and I've accepted your constant risks before. But this time… I have a bad feeling. Maybe you really shouldn't go yourself."
"Precisely because it's Eryx's territory, I can't entrust our fate to anyone else." Livia's voice was steady, her gaze as unyielding as steel. "If there's betrayal—or the slightest mistake—we won't get a second chance."
Emma bit her lip hard. A flicker of conflict passed through her eyes. But she knew: once Livia made up her mind, she was immovable as a mountain.
They said no more. Moments later, the two had changed into plain, coarse cloaks. Their hair was pinned up and hidden beneath grey hoods, their movements sharp and efficient. Livia even removed the metal necklace from around her neck and stowed it away. In that instant, the noble lady had transformed completely into a hunter on the battlefield.
Before moonlight could claim the sky, they slipped past the castle's main entrance, climbing up the rear mountain path. The trail was rugged, tangled with vines, loose stones crunching faintly underfoot. But the two moved with perfect coordination, silent as shadows threading through the night.
At the mountain's summit, wind howled past them, billowing their cloaks. Livia raised her binoculars and once again scanned the outskirts of the castle. Just as Emma had said—Eryx's forces were clearly thinner. The patrol routes were more predictable, as if deliberately leaving certain gaps exposed.
She murmured, "Looks like Elias was right."
Emma replied softly, "But it's because it looks so reasonable… that I'm more worried."
When their surveillance was done, the two began descending the far side of the mountain, slipping past terrain that shielded them from view. They followed a carefully mapped route, avoiding the castle's perimeter defenses. Livia moved with calculated caution, attentive to the wind, to flickering lights in the distance. Emma kept close behind, vigilant and sharp—two blades drawn from the same sheath.
They passed near Eryx's forces multiple times, always keeping just outside the boundaries, observing patrol rhythms and gaps in the defenses.
After one such pass, Emma whispered, "We've confirmed what we needed. The bait's real. There's no need to go further tonight."
Livia gently rested a hand on her shoulder, but her eyes gleamed with something deeper—conviction.
"No. We can't stop now."
"Why not?"
"You saw it yourself," Livia said softly, her voice calm but firm. "The outer forces are indeed reduced. We've verified it from multiple sources. It checks out. But our purpose tonight wasn't just to test the waters."
She paused, then pointed through the dark forest, to the distant horizon. "I'm headed to a cave beneath the solitary mountain on the edge of Eryx's territory. Some of the documents hinted that it could be one of the places the Holy Grail was hidden. It's desolate, forgotten—and we're well-disguised. No one will expect us to go there. It won't be dangerous."
Her tone was cool, almost detached. "This is a chance we can't afford to wait on."
Emma stared at her for a long moment but said nothing more.
"…Alright. I'll walk this road with you."
Together, they moved again, vanishing into the folds of night.
Unbeknownst to them, just behind the ridge where they had hidden minutes earlier, a figure slowly emerged from behind an old locust tree.
A man dressed in black stood in the shifting shadows, the edge of his lips curling into a faint, cold smile. He tilted his head back, closed his eyes—as if tasting something in the air.
He watched the pair disappear into the darkness, as though he had long expected them to take this path.
Then he murmured softly,
"The fish has taken the bait."