It wasn't a matter of his alertness being too low—that was impossible.
He had personally watched the magical beast crawl into his sleeve earlier.
Illiya turned to Darius, silently asking with his gaze: "Did you sense anything?"
Darius understood the unspoken question instantly.
A delayed sense of dread crept over him as he realized the true problem.
If he hadn't happened to glance down just now and see the little beast that had stolen his lunch, he wouldn't have even noticed its existence.
Thinking back, he realized that throughout their journey, the creature's presence had been nearly undetectable.
Its aura was so faint it was practically nonexistent, to the point that it had naturally slipped from their awareness.
As a seasoned swordsman who had experienced countless dangers, there was no way he would normally fail to guard his own lunch.
It simply shouldn't have been possible.
And yet, here in the relatively safe forest near the town, sothing like this had happened.
So the real question was—where had this mysterious little magical beast co from?
An elf, a human swordsman, and a magical beast stared at each other, and the air instantly fell silent.
This is completely absurd.
That was the shared thought of everyone present.
At that mont, the magical beast's instincts kicked in, finally realizing that its situation had beco dangerous.
Its fiery red fur bristled like an offended porcupine.
It completely ignored the food rich in magic power still in its mouth, tensed up its entire body, and focused solely on escaping imdiately.
Unfortunately, its luck wasn't as good as last ti, when it had managed to flee from pursuit.
Now, it could only fall into the hands of others, left at their rcy.
Illiya reacted swiftly, forming a hand seal.
The green vines appeared out of thin air, intertwining and weaving together in the blink of an eye to form a spherical cage, trapping the spirit beast that was still biting his bracelet.
"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!!!"
The magical beast let out a furious cry as it realized it couldn't break through the vines holding it captive.
It couldn't even shift back to its normal form, as if soone had forcibly locked its size.
Darius reached out and caught the falling vine cage, coldly smirking as he weighed it in his hand.
Now was the perfect ti to settle old grudges and grievances.
Since the elf before him had already stated that he wouldn't interfere, Darius had nothing to hold him back.
"Look at you, so pitiful and lost, even starving to the point of 'borrowing' food from passing travelers. You must be a poor little magical beast cub separated from your parents. As a kind and caring swordsman, I have no choice but to take you to the Treasure Pavilion to identify your species so we can help you reunite with your kind as soon as possible."
His words clearly carried the underlying aning of, 'I'm going to sell you off.'
"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!!!"
The spirit beast reacted even more violently—it had obviously understood his words.
Darius, however, acted as if he had gone blind, completely ignoring the spirit beast's frantic struggles inside the vine cage.
"Oh, what a coincidence, I never got a certification in Beast Language, so I can't understand a word you're saying. What an unfortunate turn of events."
Even if the God of Sword himself were standing right in front of him today, Darius would still claim he couldn't understand.
Illiya discreetly averted his gaze, looking left and right—anywhere but in the direction of the magical beast.
As a race close to nature, how could an elf possibly not understand the cries of a magical beast?
But right now, he simply didn't want to understand.
Noticing the pitiful look the magical beast was now giving him, Illiya quietly took a step back, his face showing the perfect amount of confusion.
"What were you two just saying? The wind just carried a ssage to , and I got distracted. I didn't quite catch that—could you repeat it?"
At the sa ti, Illiya looked toward both the beast and the swordsman, his light golden eyes filled with sincerity and apology.
The naturally upturned corners of his lips, which always made him appear to be smiling, were deliberately pressed down, giving him an air of innocent sympathy.
This particular expression had been officially certified by his teacher as the best way to lower people's guard and make it impossible for them to scold him.
Back when he was still in the Elven Forest, he had been one of the top students in his class.
Even the dumbest of magical beasts could now see that the elf had sided with the human.
Where was that whole "elves are the best friends of spirit beasts" nonsense?! Who said that? That person had totally scamd it!
Darius secretly turned his back and gave the elf a big thumbs-up in admiration.
The swordsman's face still carried that terrifying smile, and his words remained just as frightening to the poor magical beast.
"As a swordsman who has lived in this kingdom for a long ti, I've had quite a few dealings with the Treasure Pavilion. If you ask , they are the kindest organization out there, especially patient with unknown magical beasts like you. I'm sure they'll help you find your ho."
Right now, the magical beast regretted not training harder.
If it could talk, it would be cursing this human who only knew how to threaten beasts.
Just because it was small didn't an it didn't know what the Treasure Pavilion was.
Taking it there to find its mother?
More like planning to auction it off directly.
This beasts can see through your lies.
Don't even think about deceiving this beast.
If it had known earlier, it wouldn't have been greedy for that magic infused bracelet.
The elf and human present had no way of knowing the magical beast's regret.
Illiya took the vine ball from Darius, flipped his wrist, and stored it back into his bracelet.
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