For the next day, their trip went by without a hitch. No one was following them, at least as far as they could see, and they also weren’t ambushed by any ghouls. By all means, it seemed like their initial plan worked as intended, but Red didn’t drop his guard.

After yesterday’s revelation, the youth just didn’t feel safe around Domeron. All evidence pointed towards the swordsman not being a traitor, but how could Red feel completely at ease until he could confirm it with Hector? The atmosphere around the two changed, and he didn’t feel compelled to engage in chit-chat any longer.

Domeron, on the other hand, seemed unbothered by this. He spoke to Red when needed, with no reservation, and he didn’t care about giving his back to the youth on multiple occasions, where he could have been struck fatally. Either he trusted Red or he felt confident in his own strength.

‘Maybe both.’

In some ways, this reminded him of his time travelling with Reinhart in the inheritance realm. The man back then also didn’t seem worried about Red striking him in the back, having confidence and trust in the youth where he shouldn’t have had.

Red found it ironic. It seemed like this wasn’t the only similarity between the two men.

Night rolled around again, and this time, the two of them decided to make camp. The faster they did their task, the better, but charging head first into this kind of dangerous investigation was reckless, so it was better that all of them were at full strength.

This included Red, who was starting to feel the effects of the Lunar Gaze.

‘It hasn’t increased in strength.’

Red thought that after he opened his “special acupoint”, the creature on the Moon would show some kind of violent reaction. That didn’t happen.

In fact, the pressure on his mind was lessened compared to the prior month, which left him confused. His special Moonstone acupoints weren’t meant to lessen the pressure of the Lunar Gaze, but rather to help him resist its absorption on the day of a New Moon.

Red mostly needed to deal with the pressure by himself and his growing mental fortitude for the rest of the month. Now, however, with his last acupoint opened, this pressure seemed to lessen by itself.

‘Then again, I don’t suppose this is an acupoint at all.’

Unfortunately, Aurelia wasn’t any closer to figuring out the purpose of this strange organ. This, on top of the fact she outright refused to speak about matter related to the “Moon Being”, left Red to figure out the details of these peculiarities by himself for now.

Red looked up towards the waning Moon.

‘I wonder if…’

The youth trailed off as something caught his eyes in the night sky. A green, glowing flash of light, disappearing just as quickly as it appeared in his gaze. Red frowned, doubting his eyes.

He looked around for it again, but the phenomenon didn’t repeat itself. Still, he didn’t give up and kept looking at the endless star-lit sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of that again.

Sure enough, almost a minute later, he saw it again. The same green flash, disappearing in an instant into the firmament. For a long while, Red was left in a trance as he looked at the spot where this light disappeared.

Domeron spoke up, snapping the youth out of his daze. “Did you see something up there?”

Red looked back at the man and saw he was also staring at the night sky. They were both sat on the ground, their backs against two trees on opposite sides of each other, tending to their belongings and eating their rations. There was no bonfire lit to avoid drawing attention, so both of them sat in the darkness, which didn’t bother Red in the least.

The youth hesitated for a moment. “… Did you not see it?”

“All I see is the night sky, the Moon, and the stars.” Domeron said. “Did you spot a shooting star?”

Red nodded after some thought. “Maybe.”

Domeron smiled with a nonchalant behavior. “It’s a good omen. Maybe this trip won’t be as bad as we first thought.”

Red didn’t respond and continued to look at the sky.

He, of course, knew that what he had spotted wasn’t a shooting star. He saw a few of those in his years on the surface, and although they traveled through the sky at incredible speeds, they didn’t appear and disappear in the blink of an eye.

Whatever he saw, Red was sure it wasn’t a shooting star.

“What did you see, Red?” Aurelia’s curious voice reached his ears.

The youth couldn’t respond to her here, so instead, he just continued to examine the night sky. Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, Red saw around ten more of these green flashes in the sky, all appearing and disappearing in a flash. Aurelia continued to pester him the whole time, eager to learn what caught his interest.

‘So she can’t see it.’

Red assumed Domeron was the same, since he caught the swordsman looking at the night sky a few times with him and showing no reaction to the flashing lights.

These green phenomena happened far too quickly for Red to discern its characteristics too well, but he noted a few things. For one, this light seemed to form a straight line in the split second it was there, not unlike a shooting star as Red knew them, but multiple times faster. Then there was also the direction of the lines.

From their speed and the youth’s perspective, it was hard to make out too much, but he was certain that all of these flashing lights seemed to be pointed either to or away from the Moon. Red couldn’t tell which, but it at least indicated this was something related to the Moon and very likely to him and his curse.

This continued for another hour, but Red decided to look away once he failed to spot anything new.

‘Did this only start happening today, or was I not paying attention before?’

Red made a point of not looking at the Moon too often, so it was possible this was already happening for a while. The flashes were so sudden and quick that if the youth wasn’t looking for them, he would have certainly missed it with just a passing glance, so this was still a possibility.

‘I guess I will need to wait until the next night for confirmation.’

Right as Red looked away from the night sky, he saw Domeron staring at him.

“Are you done admiring the night sky?” the man asked.

Red frowned. “Were you watching me this whole time?”

Domeron shrugged. “I was waiting for you to be done so we can discuss important matters.”

“What matters?” Red asked.

“I have been giving it some thought, and I think it’s best we investigate one of these villages before going after the knife again.”

The youth frowned. “Why?”

“Because it is reckless to do a search like this. We need more information on what we are dealing with.”

“Rimold already investigated these villages.”

“Yes, but we both know he might have been under a strange influence. It could have made him deliberately miss details that could have helped in identifying what was happening.” Domeron said. “Not to mention, he didn’t have you around. Who knows what you and your strange powers can pick up that he might have missed?”

Red had to admit that what Domeron said made sense, but he still was reluctant to accept the idea.

The swordsman smiled. “Are you afraid I’m trying to lead you into an ambush? What exactly is the need for that when we already had a set destination before?”

“I suppose it wouldn’t make sense.” Red nodded.

‘Not to mention that ambushes really don’t seem like something Domeron would do.’

“Then it’s settled.” Domeron seemed satisfied. “There’s a village on our way to the dead forest, so it shouldn’t be a problem to make a small detour there.”

“The imperials might have spies there.” Red said.

Domeron nodded. “It’s something we need to take a risk with, though. After all, how likely do you think Rimold is the only one that picked up on these rumours?”

The youth frowned. “It does seem rather unlikely for him to be the only one that noticed this abnormality.”

“Indeed. Rimold has the knowledge about the dagger, though, so he knows what might be behind these events.” the man said. “Still, if I was an imperial, I would probably try to look into any kind of abnormality in this region and see if they are connected to this inheritance I’m after. It’s very likely they also have scouts in the dead forest, too.”

Red sighed. He thought about asking how the imperials had so many men in the region, but he already knew the answer. It wasn’t that the imperial had dozens of agents acting in town and in the forest, but rather that they only had a handful, and these few paid for mercenaries to do their dirty work for them.

Those who fought and killed for coin generally didn’t care where this coin came from, and the Empire happened to be one of the richest factions in the world when it came to secular currency like gold coins. This was a common problem that countries like this one needed to face - having to defend from the Empire’s invasion from outside and from within, led sometimes by the efforts of their own countrymen.

“We will do as you say, but if we notice anything strange, I’m not going in.” Red said.

“That much is obvious.” Domeron nodded. “Well then, I’ll be going to sleep. I’m sure you don’t mind taking first watch, do y-”

A sharp hiss suddenly echoed through the forest, cutting Domeron’s words short. Both the man and Red didn’t hesitate to go for their weapons, though Domeron didn’t unsheathe his sword just yet.

The duo looked in the direction where they heard the hiss come from with weary expressions. They were certain that the sound wasn’t farther than some twenty meters away, yet neither of them was able to detect any creature approaching their location.

Not even Red, with his crimson sense, sensed the presence of any monsters nearby.

“From the sound it made, I think it’s safe to assume it’s a snake.” Domeron said in a whispering voice.

Red had a sudden realization, and his expression changed.

Domeron, who didn’t notice this, continued. “Monsters like this can be almost impossible to detect, but there’s a trick I learned that-”

“There’s no need.” Red cut him off.

“Huh?” The swordsman seemed confused. “What do you mean?”

Red didn’t respond and sheathed his sword. Then, he took a few steps ahead towards the area where he heard the noise. He still couldn’t see anything with his dark vision or sense any fluctuations with his crimson sense.

Still, the youth crouched down and extended his hand ever so slightly towards the thick folliage.

“Come.” This was all Red said.

He didn’t know if this would work, but sure enough, a few seconds later, the bushes began to rustle. Something seemed to slither out of the plant cover, the air shimmering to reveal itself to both Red’s eyes and senses.

It was the six-eyed snake, still with a cloth tied around its mouth. It approached Red without hesitation before slithering up his arm and around his shoulders. Then, it laid still and camouflaged itself around his dark clothes as if it had never left these in the first place.

Red got up again and saw Domeron staring at him with a shocked expression.

“What the hell was that?!” the man asked.

“A snake.” Red shrugged.

A loyal snake too, by the looks of it.