Glenn maintained watch through a tranquil and beautiful night. No unusual incidents disturbed the peace, and it wasn't until seven in the morning—when the young wizards began stirring—that Glenn gently awakened Hermione. Together, they descended from their arboreal perch and returned to the campsite.
After swift ablutions and preparing a simple pot of porridge for breakfast, everyone hastily consumed the meal to fuel their empty stomachs before the expedition resumed its journey toward the secret realm's heart.
March, halt, rest, resume—the following seven days dissolved into this monotonous rhythm of movement. Though they witnessed forest vistas rarely glimpsed in ordinary life and breathed air of crystalline purity unknown in Britain, even such natural splendor eventually succumbed to aesthetic fatigue through endless repetition.
Hermione had gradually transformed from her initial anticipation and excitement into serene acceptance. No longer captivated by the surrounding landscapes, she devoted the journey to relentless practice of magic and spellcraft, seeking productive occupation for her restless mind.
Along their route, they occasionally encountered diminutive magical creatures that wandered into their procession, or observed them from nearby vantage points with openly curious gazes. Recognizing these as generally human-friendly beings, the group would pause briefly to coax the small creatures closer with offered treats, simultaneously satisfying their desire to interact with magical fauna—adding welcome charm to an otherwise tedious march.
Precisely because of these encounters, however, one glaring anomaly demanded acknowledgment.
"The magical creature population is disturbingly sparse," Hermione declared, snapping shut her reference tome with decisive finality. "Within such an expansive forest ecosystem, across seven full days of travel, we've encountered merely a dozen individuals total. Something is profoundly wrong here."
The volume in question—The Complete Compendium of Dragon Kingdom Magical Creatures—contained detailed documentation of normal population densities various magical species should maintain within suitable habitats of specified dimensions. When Hermione sensed irregularities in their encounter frequency, she'd begun calculating expected creature populations throughout the entire secret realm versus probable encounter rates along their route. The theoretical numbers vastly exceeded their actual observations.
Given current circumstances, only one explanation seemed plausible.
"Those dark wizards..."
The thought sent fresh anxiety coursing through Hermione's consciousness. The creature population was demonstrably abnormal, yet they'd discovered no additional suspicious traces throughout their journey.
Beyond nature's inherent sounds, the forest maintained an unnervingly oppressive silence.
Hermione would have preferred direct assault from those dark wizards to this torturous, fruitless searching. The uncertainty was becoming unbearable.
Honestly, she felt her patience approaching its absolute limits. Ignorance would have been tolerable, but knowing those innocent magical creatures faced persecution while their expedition remained ineffectual left Hermione's heart in constant anguish.
Simply put, Hermione desperately wanted to obliterate those bastards entirely.
"..."
Glenn maintained his silence. His environmental observations consistently exceeded Hermione's thoroughness in scope and detail. In truth, they hadn't discovered nothing—throughout this journey, Glenn's enhanced senses had detected no fewer than seven distinct human-generated traces within the surrounding territories.
However, he'd deliberately withheld this information from his companions. Glenn's accumulated experience suggested these traces—which appeared deliberately erased yet incompletely concealed—seemed excessively calculated under his enhanced perception.
These markings differed fundamentally from their initial discoveries. Rather than representing dark wizards' genuine attempts at concealment, they resembled intentional "bait" designed to manipulate discoverers toward predetermined conclusions.
Too contrived—both the original trace creation and the subsequent incomplete erasure efforts.
This realization heightened Glenn's vigilance considerably.
He'd foregone normal sleep for seven consecutive nights. Even when his concerned companions forcibly relieved him from guard duties and deposited him within his tent, Glenn maintained active sensory enhancement, achieving rest through meditation while never ceasing his environmental monitoring.
Yet these efforts yielded nothing substantial. Each subsequent day revealed one or two additional "erased traces" along their route.
Their unknown observer clearly possessed specific objectives and had successfully identified Glenn's group as targets, yet demonstrated no overt hostility toward them.
Friend or foe remained frustratingly unclear.
Glenn initially theorized this might be their expedition's supervising instructor—never formally introduced—perhaps maintaining covert protection while strategically placing misleading markers to confuse potentially dangerous observers.
He'd even discreetly questioned Lin Yu regarding this possibility, though the response contradicted his hypothesis entirely.
"Hah—our supervising teacher? He's already integrated with our group. Why do you ask?"
Receiving Lin Yu's exhausted reply, Glenn chose not to burden his cousin with unnecessary concerns regarding his discoveries. He deflected the inquiry diplomatically and resumed his contemplative silence.
So then—who was this shadowy figure operating beyond their perception?
Currently, no concrete evidence existed regarding this individual's identity, nor could their ultimate objectives be determined with certainty.
Most significantly, after detecting this phenomenon, Glenn had deployed his alchemical construct for covert reconnaissance—positioning it one kilometer behind their formation for surveillance purposes. The effort proved fruitless. He'd subsequently redirected the construct forward for advance scouting, discovering no human presence whatsoever—only occasional magical creatures wandering through the woodland, nothing more.
Yet when their expedition reached locations previously surveyed by the construct, those originally barren areas mysteriously manifested the characteristic suspicious traces.
As though this unknown individual possessed complete intelligence regarding Glenn's group movements while simultaneously detecting someone within their ranks was actively hunting them—concealing themselves expertly, constantly evading detection, yet consistently managing to establish their desired arrangements before the expedition's arrival.
Beyond this pattern, however, the mysterious figure undertook no additional actions.
Genuinely perplexing.
"What exactly are you attempting to accomplish?"
Glenn murmured under his breath. Unnoticed by his companions, his lips curved upward involuntarily—resembling a child who'd discovered a fascinating new toy.
This marked his first encounter in this lifetime with someone possessing such exceptional wariness and concealment capabilities. Such talents were extraordinarily rare within this magic-saturated world.
Before Glenn could pursue the subtle threads of evidence further through logical analysis, however, dramatic change had already begun manifesting in silence.
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