### 56 The Next War
In the room, Leon set the camera down on the table and sat next to Roswiser.
“So, one less lookout at the Eastern border’s 27 dark sentries, right?” Leon asked.
Roswiser nodded, staying silent and quietly waiting for Leon to continue.
“And there were no sounds of fighting at the time, meaning this lookout was taken out without a peep!”
Leon went on, “Usually, only the most elite assassins from the Moon Fee group could achieve such a feat.”
“But even the best can’t just sneak past all the patrols along your border undetected,” he continued. “Whether they decided to stay low-key or bolt after their success, they would definitely leave some traces behind!”
“Yet the situation at the scene was precisely that—the lookout seemingly ‘vanished into thin air,’ with absolutely no clue to follow.”
As he spoke, Leon activated the preview magic projection of the camera.
Roswiser took the camera, which had photos Leon snapped in the mountain woods at the Eastern border, including the original position of the mysteriously vanished lookout.
It was a thicket where the lookout had camouflaged themselves half-buried, using the bushes for cover.
However, now, while the thicket looked perfectly normal on the outside, the lookout had bizarrely disappeared from within.
“Now, let’s move on,” Leon said.
Roswiser flipped through the camera and landed on the next picture.
It showed the scene after the camouflage was pulled back—there was a deep pit where the lookout was hiding.
“The infiltrator made the lookout disappear without disturbing the bushes and without any fighting or commotion.”
Leon stated slowly, “Sounds a bit fishy, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, a little…,” Roswiser replied uncertainly.
“And this lookout point isn’t even right on the edge of the forest—it’s a bit farther in. So that means the infiltrator dodged at least eight to ten dark sentries’ watchful eyes to take out this lookout in the thicket.”
Leon declared, “Such outstanding hiding skills are hard, even for the ‘master of disguise’ Dragon Race. Or should I say… basically impossible!”
Roswiser, who had encountered surprise attacks on sentries before, was no stranger to this situation.
Most attacks took place at the borders where it was easy to provoke the enemy or lure them away—there was always a clear objective.
And the methods used in past attacks weren’t half as weird as this one.
In comparison, this attacker felt like a… ghost.
Roswiser stared at the preview projection of the camera, biting her lip unconsciously. “Any other clues?”
“Of course,” Leon replied. “Remember when we were at the border a few days ago, and I asked you to send more troops?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“The reason I had you do that is because I noticed a very, very neat and obvious line at the border of your territory.”
“A line?”
“Yep.”
Leon flicked through the camera, turned it back a few pages, and handed it to Roswiser, “Here, look at this.”
Roswiser cast her eyes upon it.
Indeed, in the preview projection, there was a line as neatly cut as a chef’s kn*fe.
Though not long, it did feel oddly out of place compared to the jagged surroundings.
“Of course, with a world this vast, who knows what can happen? Such a line could possibly form naturally. So, to determine if this is just a coincidence, I revisited several spots on the back mountains these days.”
Leon scrolled through the projection, “And as you might expect, I found similar traces at every location vulnerable to attacks. It’s safe to conclude that this precise line wasn’t a happy accident.”
“But how does this clue connect to the missing lookout?” Roswiser asked.
“It does,” Leon said, flipping the preview back to the thicket lookout and zooming in on one of the bush’s edges.
“Look, even though there’s no fighting trace, one corner of this bush appears to have been neatly chopped off—so smooth it doesn’t look like it’s just fallen or decayed.”
“Also, in the pit beneath the bush, there are similarly clean cut marks.”
Leon put down the camera and looked at Roswiser.
“As I said, even the best disguisers from the Dragon Race couldn’t pull off something like this. It’s firmly beyond the usual assassin’s skill level. Rather than a straightforward assassination, I’d say it’s downright spooky.”
That phrase had a cheerful lilt to it, causing a hint of helpless laughter to cross Roswiser’s otherwise serious face. She turned to Leon.
“So what you’re saying is that the infiltrator didn’t use our conventional methods of assassination, but instead employed techniques we’ve never even dreamed of?”
Joking aside, Roswiser could pick up on the serious message behind Leon’s jest.
Leon nodded. “In addition to investigating these traces, I’ve also been digging through materials in the library. Your book, ‘A Brief History of the Dragon Race,’ really helped me out!”
Roswiser raised an eyebrow, intrigued, “Oh? How so?”
“All the descriptions of the Dragon Race in there are overwhelmingly positive. The author clearly didn’t want to offend any Dragon King.”
Leon continued, “And in one section, I came across this description:
‘Star Wanderer Dragon King Rave has impressive achievements in spatial magic. Space seems to him not just a concept, but an art.’
“As Rave honed his skills in spatial magic, he began attempting to incorporate it into daily life, such as… construction.
“Buildings from the Star Dragon Race are flawless and precise; it’s said they never use any cutting, polishing, or blasting tools, since Rave’s spatial magic can slice away any unnecessary parts to perfection.”
“After seeing this bit about Rave, I dug deeper into the so-called spatial magic and found it’s not just about building houses; it can do a lot more.”
“Silent attacks leaving no traces, neat cutting marks, those are things spatial magic can accomplish.”
“So, let’s make a bold assumption: it was Rave or another adept in spatial magic who attacked your lookout.”
“It was also this person who created those neat division lines along your border.”
Leon concluded, “Roswiser, the one who attacked the lookout isn’t a ghost or some supernatural being; it’s definitely a technique we’ve never encountered before: spatial magic.”
Roswiser followed along with Leon’s logic. “Indeed, if we consider the attributes of spatial magic in this incident, everything adds up.”
After a pause, Roswiser asked, “But one thing still puzzles me. If this infiltrator is so skilled at using spatial magic for assassination, why did they only take out one of my lookouts and draw a few neat lines?”
Leon helped her analyze further.
“I see two possibilities for their actions.”
“The first possibility is that this spatial magic has significant limitations and a specific range; within a safe distance, the best they could manage was to dispose of your lookout in the middle of the woods.”
“The second possibility is that this is a declaration of war.”
“…A declaration of war?”
“Yeah.”
Leon’s expression turned serious. “The enemy is signaling to us that the next attack, far greater than the Battle of Constantine, is about to come.”
