"Chief, he's not here!"
"Shit. How did we miss that?"
"We're still not sure it was him."
"Then who else? He ran off right after we checked his house. Didn't even bother cleaning up."
Seven barbarian warriors stood in the village where Caelen had worked as a farmer.
But the chief was only speaking to one of them—the unlucky one who had drawn the short straw two days ago and been sent to watch Caelen's house.
After seeing nothing happening since there was a Concealment Field around the house, he had slept instead of doing his job.
Now, he was the one who had to go inside and check the house. See if anything was off.
The day before, they'd searched every home and left the village behind. Their real task wasn't here since Idel wasn't found here.
Not long after, they picked up a trail and followed it, only to find Idel's body.
It seemed like he had died because of blood loss. His leg had been torn off.
The chief didn't care. They hadn't been sent to rescue Idel. Their job was to find what he stole. And his research.
But... There was nothing on him.
They knew that a magus' dimensional storage released its contents upon the owner's death. Sure enough, potions, notes, and some tools were scattered all around.
However, none of it matched the research. And nothing looked like what he stole.
Did he drop it somewhere before he died? The chief had considered that, but it didn't make sense.
Barbarians didn't use spells, but they had their own methods of tracking and sensing things.
They would've found something. But they hadn't.
Which left only one possibility.
Idel had help. Someone from the village.
They'd returned immediately. While most of them rechecked every home, the one who had failed to watch Caelen properly was told to search his place.
It was empty.
"You're sure nothing happened that night?" the chief asked.
"Chief, I was up all night watching the place. He just went to bed without even training."
A lie, of course. He couldn't admit he'd slept through it. The punishment would be brutal.
Still, it didn't matter, he thought. They'd catch a weak kid like Caelen easily enough.
The chief sighed. "Let's go see Chief Illgorn. He seemed close to the boy."
---
"Isn't this dangerous? Please slow down!"
"No way. Stop fussing. Aren't you a barbarian?"
"You already saw that I'm not!"
Caelen and Favia were speeding through the forest on her hoverbike.
It was Caelen's first time on something this fast.
He'd ridden in carriages before—mostly thanks to his family—but this was nothing like a carriage. The hoverbike didn't bounce or creak. It surged forward with a strange, silent force. He kept feeling like he was going to fall off, but somehow, he never did.
And the speed. Even in a forest, it was faster than anything he'd ever experienced. A carriage couldn't get through terrain like this unless there was a road.
He remembered something Idel had once said about magus technology. He hadn't understood it at the time. Now, he was starting to.
Still, it was embarrassing. He was sitting behind Favia, arms wrapped around her waist.
And since she wasn't even that tall—maybe 168 centimeters—it was awkward just trying to hold on properly, let alone the embarrassing side of hugging a girl from behind.
They rode like that for two hours without stopping.
Then Caelen saw it. The ocean.
They crested a cliff, and water stretched out past the horizon.
Of course, he knew what an ocean was. He had even gone to swim with his parents when he was a kid.
But not after the age of ten. That was when training had started.
And after fifteen… well, he hadn't done much of anything.
However, what he saw before the age of ten was nothing compared to this view.
This wasn't a beach. There was no gentle shore to wade into. Just a sheer drop.
A hundred meters down, maybe more. If anyone wanted to swim here, they'd have to jump from the cliff to reach the water.
And to get out, they would need to climb the cliff back up.
Nobody would do that.
And from up here, he could see how endless it really was. Water stretching in every direction, meeting the sky far beyond where his eyes could follow.
As far as barbarians were taught, there were only three continents in the world. Outside of those, there was… nothing.
So all that water? It might actually go on forever.
He was still staring, still caught up in the vastness of it all, when he failed to realize something.
The beautiful view was getting closer and bigger.
No, they were heading straight toward the cliff.
Straight toward the ocean.
Wait.
The cliff. The water. The hundred-meter drop.
Falling.
Huh?
"Hold on tight!" Favia shouted.
And then the hoverbike launched itself off the edge.