The night’s chill bit deeper than Rein had anticipated. Her knees, exposed to the cold, had gone slightly stiff. Yet she couldn’t move—not with a night watchman standing right at the alley’s exit, chatting with another man. Though their words were indistinct, Rein knew the watchman would surely notice any sound in this silence. Even the slightest shift would echo loudly.

Only after the watchman finally left did Rein slip onto the narrow street. Her first glance landed on the house where an entire family had been wiped out. The front door was shut tight, but the second-floor window stood wide open. Without hesitation, Rein cast a Jump Enhancement spell and leapt straight inside. The thud of her boots hitting the floorboards sounded like a metal can crashing in the quiet room. The watchman glanced over but walked away. Rein, who had already activated her Detection Spell, let out a silent breath of relief.

Time for the real work.

She coated her hands with solidified Mental Force and descended downstairs. Her target wasn’t the corpses—but the Magic Circle. Carefully shifting debris knocked over during the chaos, Rein finally saw the circle in full.

Magic Circles were typically used for sealing, summoning, area spells, or bolstering forbidden-tier incantations above the fifth tier. One glance told Rein this was an area spell designed to erode human souls and warp minds.

But the circle was flawed. A pentagram should be drawn with near-perfect proportions. This one looked like a child’s crude scribble—calling it a Magic Circle felt like an insult.

Worse, the caster had committed a fundamental error. More star points meant greater stability but higher mana consumption. For an inherently stable area spell, a simple triangle would suffice; a four-pointed star was acceptable at worst. Was the caster some kind of perfectionist? Obsessed with arranging the five body parts separately?

This flawed design consumed massive energy yet produced weak effects—explaining why the neighbors noticed nothing unusual. Given time, though, it would still take hold.

Then came the middle layer: magical runes. Rein winced. If she were this mage’s mentor, she’d slap him senseless and throw him into the sea. Basic grammatical errors in the runes made her cringe. *How could a mage botch foundational script and still call himself one?*

The outer layer—the spell’s final output structure—was usually a circular, lace-like pattern. Tricky to draw, yes, but essential for any mage. At least this part was decently executed, which was why the circle still functioned.

Analyzing this mess alone would rule out any trained mage. But Rein needed more evidence. Then her eyes caught a patch of red liquid in the room’s corner. Moonlight glinted on it, and black vapor curled from its surface.

“This is…”

A symptom of Beastification Sickness. Blood appeared normal until exposed to cold light like moonlight, then emitted black vapor. Rein activated her Detection Spell again. The blood didn’t belong to any of the three corpses here. So the so-called murderer was likely a Beastification Sickness patient. But such patients couldn’t hide among humans—the scent of people would trigger their beastly urges. They’d lurk in the wilds. Those strange footprints suddenly made sense.

*The wilds… the granary…*

A chill of dread shot through Rein. Her Detection Spell flared—several night watchmen were passing right by the house’s front door.

She cast a Speed Enhancement spell and burst through the window. Shattering glass ripped through the night. Every watchman’s head snapped toward the sound. In the darkness, a figure darted away at unnatural speed. They instantly recalled Sophia’s warning from that morning.

“Sorceress! It’s the Sorceress! Ring the alarm bell! The rest of you, after her!”

The clanging bell shook Nord awake. Rein had achieved her goal: drawing every watchman and militiaman toward the granary.

Her enhanced speed let her outpace them easily. Yet she deliberately slowed every few blocks, letting them catch glimpses before vanishing again. Until—

A golden light pierced the darkness ahead.

“Holy Light! Do you see the enemy?!”