Vol 3. Chapter 10: Interlude: The Unerring Arrow
It was pure chance that they noticed it at all.
That day had {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} been perfectly clear—nary a cloud in the sky—and the sunlight piercing through the forest canopy was particularly intense. She remembered it well.
The day’s work—territory patrol—was the same routine as always, carried out with the usual team. Their mission was to watch for stray monsters slipping through, abnormal tracks, or irregularities in the vegetation.
If a monster was found, they were required to eliminate it. But the patrol zone was flanked on both sides by other patrols, with a city to the rear and the wilderness connecting to the United Kingdom of Aphracea up ahead. The odds of a stray monster wandering in were practically nil.
Still, protocol demanded vigilance. The sector was considered so relaxed that within the guard division, it was treated almost like a vacation post.
And perhaps because of that laid-back assignment—
She happened to look up, casually, through the gaps in the trees, at the sky far above.
There, something glittered.
Just for a moment, it caught a glint of the sun—slightly tilted from its usual axis.
It was in that instant that she realized... something was flying up there.
“It's flying absurdly high. Not even the northern mountain wyverns fly that far up.”
That was the conclusion of their squad’s best spotter.