Chapter 4 – First Mission, First Blood
Jean's return to the open road felt heavier than before.
She rode with purpose now—not as a graduate, but as a marked piece in a deadly game of blood and thrones. The Succession War had begun. And she had two years to rise high enough to survive it.
Her first destination: Ashmoor, a small border town plagued by disappearances.
An Envoy Knight's role was not only war. It was guardianship, diplomacy, judgment. Trials of both blade and will.
Ashmoor greeted her with unease. The mayor, a middle-aged man named Herris, explained the situation: "They vanish at night. No bodies. No blood. Just silence. The people are frightened."
Jean listened calmly. Whitney remained unseen, cloaked in divine mist. They both felt it—a distortion in the air. Wrongness.
She spent the night at the edge of town, watching. Listening.
On the second night, it came.
Not wolves.
Not men.
But Wraithhounds—creatures of twisted aura, beasts of corrupted warriors fallen to madness. Their howls chilled bone. Their fangs shimmered black.
Jean's sword was out before the first landed.
Steel met shadow. Her aura flared—silver-white and sharp.
Luminous Severance.
Her blade cut one clean in half, and it dissolved into ash. But more came.
Whitney emerged from mist, larger than before—eyes glowing, fangs bared.
"Behind you!" he warned.
Jean spun, blocking just in time, and her aura exploded in a burst of divine light that blinded the pack.
She fought like lightning incarnate—graceful, precise, unrelenting. Her training from the Academy held, but it was Whitney's guidance—subtle warnings, psychic intuition—that saved her life more than once.
By dawn, the beasts were gone. Vanquished.
Ashmoor was safe again.
But the village whispered behind closed doors: The White-Haired Emissary has come. The Light walks again.
Jean paid them no heed.
Instead, she stood at the forest edge, her blade still glowing faintly, and whispered:
"One mission down. Ninety-nine more to go."
Whitney gave a soft, approving growl.
"You've drawn first blood. Now let us see how deep the world's darkness runs."
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