The Phantom Intruder

The intelligence network of the Elowen Kingdom was not to be underestimated.

Within mere days, they tracked down Bill's store and confiscated the mithril coins—without offering a single bit of compensation. After all, the money used to buy the magical items had been stolen, and the victim of the heist was none other than the kingdom itself.

However, soon after, the kingdom backtracked and compensated the store. As the son of the renowned Golden Mage, William the Bright, the silver mage store owner managed to persuade the authorities to compensate his shop for its losses. A Silver Mage was not someone to be slighted—their value far exceeded a mere hundred million silver. Maintaining a good relationship with a powerful mage family was far more important than a few confiscated coins.

Other merchants, however, weren't as fortunate. Within a week, every single shop where Edric had spent mithril coins was forced to return the money. Most of them never managed to reclaim their losses—only a few, like Bill's, had the backing of influential figures strong enough to negotiate compensation.

Most of the high-level establishments selling knight and magic-related goods in the city lacked the protection of Golden Knights or Silver Mages. There was a reason for this.

The Elowen Kingdom deliberately kept its Golden Knights and silver mages from becoming too powerful. It strictly prohibited them and their families from owning major businesses while in government service. And since every single Golden Knight and silver mage was in the kingdom's service, none of them—or their families—could control any critical industries. Even stores that dealt in Golden-rank equipment were, at most, owned by Silver-ranked knights.

At first glance, one might assume that working for the government under such restrictions would be unappealing. After all, a Golden Knight in the kingdom's employ could neither participate in private enterprise nor allow their families to engage in many economic activities.

Yet, despite these harsh limitations, there was not a single Golden Knight outside the government's service.

Why?

Because the benefits of serving the kingdom far outweighed anything the private sector could offer.

The Elowen Kingdom was highly centralized, ruling over the vast and densely populated Silverflower Island directly from Elowen City. A Golden Knight in the kingdom's service could easily obtain ministerial authority, granting them the power to appoint their relatives to high-ranking positions—mayors, governors, and senior officials.

The salaries for such government roles were generous, and when combined with the influence they wielded and the bribes that inevitably came with power, the wealth and prestige far exceeded anything a private business could provide.

And so, in Elowen, power did not lie in gold or business. It lay within the grasp of the kingdom itself.

The Elowen Kingdom was rotten to its core. If not for the stabilizing presence of two powerful Legendary Knights at its helm, it might have crumbled under the weight of its own corruption long ago.

In truth, there was only one part of the kingdom that remained untouched by greed and favoritism—the military, along with the knight and mage academies. In these places, only talent and hard work mattered. There was no room for favoritism, bribery, or influence.

The reason for this was simple: the king himself oversaw them personally. And with the king watching, no one dared to act in a way that might incur his wrath.

...

Once the investigation was complete, and every witness had been interviewed, the authorities managed to piece together a rough account of what had happened.

A man with red hair and striking green pupils had walked into multiple stores, purchasing nearly every magic-related item available. He paid in mithril coins and left without a word. He asked no unnecessary questions, showed no interest in weapons—only magic items. Nothing more, nothing less.

His last known sighting in Elowen City was two days ago. After that, he vanished.

The kingdom mobilized its Silver Knights, scouring every corner of the city and beyond, but they found nothing. It was as if he had disappeared into thin air.

Of course, this was not surprising.

For someone capable of infiltrating the royal treasury—protected by multiple layers of golden-rank formations—evading Silver and even Golden Knights should have been trivial.

Days passed with no progress. Frustrated by the lack of leads, the two Legendary Knights of Elowen Kingdom personally joined the hunt.

Based on the evidence gathered so far, there were only two possible explanations:

The perpetrator was either a Legendary Knight himself or possessed a Legendary-tier artifact.

A mere Golden Knight, no matter how skilled, could never bypass the defensive formations of the kingdom undetected.

On Silverflower Island, only four Legendary Knights existed—two from Elowen, one from the Silver Kingdom, and one from the Bloodstone Kingdom. The delicate balance of power was maintained solely because of the implicit alliance between the Silver and Bloodstone Kingdoms.

No hidden Legendary Knight existed. That left only three possibilities:

The first—some Golden Knight had recently broken through to the Legendary rank. But this was nearly impossible.

Achieving Legendary rank required more than just talent. It took centuries of training, vast resources, and rigorous discipline. Only those born with Mythic-tier talent had a realistic shot at reaching such heights. Even then, their progress would be closely monitored—there was no way someone could ascend to Legendary in secret.

The other possibility was the birth of an Ultra-rank talent. Unlike Mythic-tier individuals, an Ultra Knight could reach Legendary rank far more easily, even without endless resources or training.

But the chances of an Ultra-rank talent being born on this island were so astronomically low that the mere thought of it was almost laughable.

The third possibility was far more likely—a Legendary Knight from a neighboring island or even the Flicker Empire had arrived.

Silverflower Island was not protected by any Legendary-rank defensive formation, meaning it was entirely possible for an outsider to slip in unnoticed.

All three kingdoms conducted their own investigations, and each arrived at the same chilling conclusion:

There was a high probability that a Legendary Knight from beyond the island had infiltrated their lands.

In other words, they were being invaded.

Upon reaching this realization, the three kingdoms put aside their internal conflicts. Rivalries and grudges meant nothing in the face of a foreign enemy. If an unknown force had infiltrated the island, they had to stand united.

Within a week, they assembled a powerful task force composed of Golden Mages and Legendary Knights from all three kingdoms. Their intelligence networks, once divided by politics and self-interest, were unified under a single purpose—to track down the intruder.

Every possible resource was mobilized. The intelligence divisions of the three kingdoms, noble families, criminal syndicates, and even private businesses were all pulled into the search. Yet, despite their combined efforts, they found… nothing.

The perpetrator's defining features—red hair and green pupils—were common among the nobility of the Bloodstone Kingdom. However, many individuals across Elowen and the Silver Kingdom shared the same traits, making it impossible to narrow down the suspect's origin.

During their search, an old case resurfaced—one that sent ripples of unease through the higher-ups.

A boy from the now-destroyed Windwalker family had once lived in Windwalker City. He had a strikingly similar appearance and was said to possess legendary talent. But that boy had been killed months ago—slain by a mysterious Golden Knight.

That incident now took on a new significance.

Suddenly, the appearance of the unknown Golden Knight who had appeared in the Bloodstone Kingdom was taken far more seriously. At the time, Bloodstone's leaders had assumed he was an agent of the Elowen Kingdom, with a slim chance of being an outsider.

But now, after confirming with both Elowen and Silver Kingdoms, they realized the unsettling truth—

That Golden Knight was most likely not from Silverflower Island at all.

An unknown force was moving in the shadows, and no one knew its true purpose.

With this realization, the three kingdoms understood a grim truth—this foreign infiltration had likely been happening for far longer than they had initially thought. The Legendary Knight who had appeared might not have been the first.

Defending the entire island against foreign invaders was nearly impossible. Creating a silver-grade defensive and detection formation around the island was an option, but against a Legendary Knight, a silver formation was as good as thin air. Even a golden-grade formation would likely fail to detect an intruder of that level.

The most effective method would be to layer multiple golden-grade detection formations, barely making it possible to track Legendary-ranked individuals. However, such a feat was absurdly expensive—constructing even a single detection formation to cover the whole island would require a staggering amount of golden-grade magic materials, enough to bankrupt them all.

With large-scale formations out of the question due to the overwhelming cost, the three kingdoms found themselves at an impasse.

A Legendary Knight could easily alter their appearance, making the distribution of wanted posters useless. Traditional defenses were ineffective.

If they could not defend, then they had only one option—attack.

Their attention turned to the map. The closest landmass was Greenmoon Island, a neighboring territory that had recently descended into chaos.

Greenmoon had once been home to three kingdoms, but recently, one of them had collapsed. Its Legendary Knight had disappeared without a trace, and with their strongest protector gone, the kingdom crumbled. The remaining two kingdoms, believing the missing knight to be dead, had launched a brutal war to seize as much land as possible from the fallen nation.

A theory began to take shape—

What if the missing Legendary Knight had not perished but had instead left?

What if he was the same Legendary intruder who had infiltrated Silverflower Island and looted the central banks?

Of course, there was no concrete proof—just speculation born from desperation. The sudden appearance of a powerful enemy out of nowhere needed an explanation, and this was the best they had.

Even without evidence, the higher-ups of the three kingdoms took the theory seriously. They dispatched several Golden Knights as envoys to Greenmoon Island, tasked with uncovering the truth behind the missing Legendary Knight.