The town Otrais was known for its unique geography. Although the village was surrounded by the lush green forest, the place itself was actually a complete desert. It was a desert known for several characteristics: the golden sand in the daylight, the silver sand in the moonlight, the unbearable heat, and the list went on. While it wasn't a popular vacation spot, the town flourished when it came to their trades. Several merchants would stop by to sell and trade collectibles and other valuable goods. Moreover, the town was known for its secret underground black market. Authorities had tried to investigate on the "mythical" black market, but those who tried to go against the secret system seemed to face undesirable consequences. 

Upon arriving at Otrais in the middle of the night, Jieun and Jungkook were able to catch up with the rest as soon as they arrived at the inn. Junki landed them behind a large building in secret. He transformed back into a human and was about to her out of the alley until she stopped him.

"Go ahead and look after Hannah and Seungho," she ordered. "Seeing how she hasn't returned to me, it seems like Seungho is up to something."

"But what if something happens to you while I'm with the other creatures?" Junki asked.

Jieun snorted. "Junki, you're looking down on me. If you are really worried, then report to me in the morning."

Junki nodded, then transformed into his animal form to take off. Once he was gone, Jieun led Jungkook out of the dark alley and made their way out into the light, meeting up with the other Mythos Hunters.

Kihyun, who just got off the carriage, raised an eyebrow. "You got here fast. I was sure that you would take a lot longer, especially since you were going to walk back."

"Oh, we hitched a ride from a traveler. He knew a short cut," Jieun lied, chuckling. "Did you just arrive?"

The others came out of the carriage, looking distressed and haggard. Kihyun glanced at the students before looking back at Jieun.

"We were told to go to various other locations when we asked for the inn's location," Kihyun explained. "I scouted the area myself for a bit and guided the rest to the inn." Kihyun pursed his lips. "The locals here are…unfriendly."

"Unfriendly? Maybe they didn't know the location of the inn," Jieun suggested.

"No, I mean—"

At that moment, a cold egg cracked against Jieun's head. Everyone looked at her in complete shock as she stood relatively still. The cold gooey yolk slid down from the tips of her hair, dripping on the ground. She slowly raised her hand and looked at an old couple who were standing in front of the inn. The grandfather was holding his wife's basket full of eggs while the woman held two eggs in her shaky hands.

"How dare you show up here!" the grandmother croaked. "After all this village has been through… How dare you show up here?"

Jungkook looked at Jieun. Do they know her personally? How do they know about Ji—

Another egg cracked against Jieun's uniform. She coldly gazed down at her ruined outfit, then looked back at the couple intently. They both shuddered in fear, but stood their grounds. The woman grabbed a few more eggs. She threw it at Kihyun, who caught it in his hands with ease. Then, he crushed the eggs in his hands before giving the two a death glare. They paled.

Kihyun took a step, but Jieun grabbed onto his hand. It took the students a few seconds to realize that she was holding him back from grabbing his knife to kill the couple. Rather than yelling back at the couple, Jieun gave them a friendly smile and a respectful bow.

"I apologize for disturbing you at this hour," Jieun said. "We are from the Academy—"

"Of course we know that!" the grandfather hollered. "We want you out! We will not offer any of our rooms to you!"

"The Academy paid you in advance to house us," Kihyun said sharply.

The grandmother went into the inn, then came out with two bags full of money. She tossed it in front of them and spat on the bags.

"Take it! We didn't want it anyway!" she exclaimed.

"Leave this village at once!" the grandfather shouted. 

They threw a few more eggs. All the students avoided getting hit by the eggs, but Jieun allowed them to strike her. When they realized that she was the only one who wouldn't move, they directed all their eggs to her. By the time they got through the entire basket, Jieun was coated with yolk and egg whites. Satisfied, they returned back into their inn, resuming business as usual.

"Guess we're sleeping outside," Jieun said.

"Hold on," Kihyun said. He glared at her. "Why didn't you let me kill them?"

"Why would I let you kill those couples? They did nothing."

"Nothing? They have slandered and dishonored the Academy's name!" Kihyun cried out.

"Well, this explains a lot as to why they sent you and me to this town," Jieun said, wiping herself from the yolk. "It seems like Otrais is an anti-Academy village."

"Anti-Academy?" Jungkook repeated. "Why would they oppose us? We are protecting them!"

Jieun snorted. "I don't know how much the Academy has told you this, but not too long ago, the Academy sent their students to raid various villages. Regardless of the village's condition, if there was a rumored Mythos in the village, then the Academy would invade without telling people about the reason why they had to attack the village. Not a lot of people know about the Mythos. Think about it: if everyone in the world knew that something powerful as a Mythos existed, do you think they would just sit around and ignore such an existence? Of course not. If everyone knew about it, they would all be fighting for it. If people do know about the Mythos, they most likely just know it as a valuable jewelry and will wrap it around something. As long as the Mythos is not touching human skin, it will not react."

"So it'll be hard for us to talk to the locals and find information about it verbally, right?" Seokmin said.

"Exactly." Jieun sighed. "Like I was saying, now it makes sense as to why Jaejoong sent the two of us here. This village must have been raided before or have heard about the terrors of our raid. P.O would've been careless and would've caused unnecessary explosion all around the village and Kyungsoo might've been offended about the village's anti-Academy status and would've used force to get information. So in the end, Jaejoong sent us two because Kihyun has the stealth to collect information in the shadows while I can act friendly with the locals."

Kihyun glanced at her. "You think you're friendly?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You think I'm not?"

"I think he sent you here for a different reason."

"Like what?"

"Perhaps you've been here before or you know something about the Mythos that we don't know. Besides, you are the one who found and brought us two Mythos to the Academy. You must have had something to your advantage that allowed you to obtain those Mythos." 

Jieun kept her smile, but her students knew that she was acting extra cautious around the other Instructor.

He's sharp, she thought to herself. Like I thought, I need to be extra careful with him.

"Can I safely assume from your silence that I am correct?" Kihyun inquired.

"About what?"

"About being here before…or about you having something that makes it easy to capture the Mythos?"

Jieun snorted. "Easy? You think it's easy to capture the Mythos? Have you not heard of my condition whenever I returned? I'm always stuck at the hospital."

"Yes, that's highly suspicious as well," Kihyun said. "Why is it that you are the one who's always severely injured? Your students come injured, but they aren't as severely wounded as you."

"T-That's because Jieun always splits us off! She's just unlucky, that's all!" Seokmin exclaimed, trying to help hide the truth from Kihyun. He looked around. "You know what? We should really rest. It's dark. We can probably camp out in the forest for the night and then return to the village in the day."

"Yes, let's do as Seokmin said," Jieun said. She stared at Kihyun without blinking. "You talk a lot, Kihyun. You should try talking more."

"Is the reason why you're severely injured because you have a dangerous fighting method against the Mythos?" Kihyun continued, completely ignoring Seokmin's suggestion and Jieun's remark. "Or is it because you actually care for your students and don't want to see them hurt?"

Jieun's body twitched for a second. Kihyun immediately noticed, but he didn't change his facial expression. Jieun's smile faded and she almost glared at him before breaking into a sarcastic smirk.

"Yeah, I was right about you when we had that Instructors-only fight," she said. "You're too scary."

Kihyun stared down at her. "If I was scary, I would think that you would feel intimidated and would answer my questions."

"Look, I've given you temporary custody of my students for this mission. You can do whatever you want with them, so if you think that they're my weakness, then you're wrong," Jieun said. "I have your students to take care of right now, so if you don't mind, I want to head over to the forest, make a small campsite and then rest for the night." She crossed her arms. "As for your questions, I don't think I need to answer them. They're unnecessary to the mission…unless you have a special mission?"

Kihyun narrowed his eyes. He kept silent for a few minutes, then nodded his head as if he understood that he should remain silent. Jieun turned around and snapped her fingers, signaling everyone to follow her into the forest.

"Dude," Byungchan whispered to Jungkook, "your Instructor is amazing. I have never heard Instructor Kihyun say more than one word, but what happened just now? I'm still amazed that he can talk! No, let me correct myself—I'm amazed that Instructor Jieun got him to talk."

Jungkook didn't reply. Instead, a small smirk slipped out as he continued to walk in the night, glad that the darkness was covering his smile so that no one would point out how goofy he looked.

* * *

Not too far from Otrais, a group of hooded figures were entering a cave well-covered by the trees and large brushes. As they entered the cave, the short female led them down into the cavern before blowing out the single candle. A line started to glow green on the walls of the cave, leading the group into the depths of the cave in complete darkness.

After walking for another half an hour, they arrived in front of a door. The girl in the front gave a secret knock on the door before the door automatically swung open. As they all ushered inside, the girl started to light the candle in the room. As soon as the fire started to brighten, the sound of metals clanking echoed.

The candles that hung on the walls of the room lit the chamber dimly. Despite the low light, the group could see a few men leaning next to the wall, their hands and feet shackled. They looked exhausted and hungry, but when the short girl removed her hood, their eyes widened in fear.

One man holding a spear got up and respectfully bowed at the girl as he held out a clipboard with his other hand. "Taeyeon, it's good to see you again. Here's the report."

Taeyeon observed the notes on her clipboard, then looked up to count the men who were shackled in a line. She nodded, then handed her clipboard to one of the workers.

"That's all of them," she said. "Good job."

She tossed the worker a gold coin and walked over to her group, most of them removing their hoods and resting on a box of crates. The four were sitting down on boxes of crates, waiting for Taeyeon's return.

"So, should we test her powers on them?" Taeyeon asked. "We're going to kill them anyways."

Leo looked up, revealing his face with a dimly lit candle. "I don't think so. She's still quite shaken up."

Jangjun gave Sujeong a tight hug, but she only stared down at the ground as if it was an endless hole. She had her hands covering her ears and remained in daze. Taeyeon let out a small sigh.

"Maybe she wasn't the best choice," Taeyeon said. "Maybe we should have given it to Jangjun."

"I'll take it now," Jangjun said.

"No. The Mythos of the Sleef is sensitive. If we keep tossing it around, it's going to backfire. If the Sleef is attached to someone, it will work in their favor. We just have to wait for Sujeong to get used to it," Leo explained.

"It's weird how the Sleef kept telling her that we should go to Otrais," Suzy said. "I mean, there's a rumor going around that Otrais is hiding the Mythos of the Luos. Maybe the Sleef is attracted to the Luos?"

"The Mythos doesn't work like that. Yes, they are attracted each other, but only when they are a couple of inches apart," Leo told them. "The only Mythos that would know about the other's location is the Mythos of the Corolla, but that's only if the Mythos or the Keepers touch anything that has plant life."

"Then why are we going to Otrais?" Jangjun asked him.

"I'm hoping that there may be something there that can help Sujeong control the Sleef better," Leo said. "Maybe you're attracted to something there and you can use that feeling to get used to the Sleef's power."

"Well, I don't like coming to Otrais," Suzy said, crossing her legs. "Right, Leo?"

Leo ignored her. "…I'm going to see if there's anything I can do to help around here."

After he walked away from them, Jangjun asked Suzy, "What's up with him?"

"Probably doesn't have any good memories about being in Otrais, either," Suzy said, shrugging her shoulders. "We were here a couple of years ago to scout the area because there was a rumor that a Mythos was lurking around in the trading area. Leo ran off somewhere, but when he came back, he started to act…different."

"Did something happen?"

"He wouldn't say," Suzy said, shrugging her shoulders. "He just looked really scared. You know, he used to be really sweet before we went to Otrais. It's like something happened there that made him change…" Her voice faded and she looked at Sujeong. "Sujeong, are you feeling okay?"

Sujeong finally looked up, but she didn't say a word. Then, she turned her head towards the direction of the town. Red hearts started to palpitate in her eyes.

The thumps are getting louder, she thought to herself. While her face didn't show it, excitement started to grow in her heart as she could feel her heartbeat whisper one name: Seokmin, Seokmin, Seokmin, Seokmin…

* * *

Seungho sent an arrow flying towards a man who was running away. The arrow pierced the man's back, causing him to hitch his breath and fall to the ground. Then, he walked over to two other men who were in shackles. They cowered at his appearance until he shot his arrow at the shackles, breaking the metal. 

"You are safe now," Seungho announced.

Rather than thanking him, the two men screamed and ran away, leaving Seungho alone with three other dead bodies. Seungho only watched the men fade away in the distant before staring down at the dead bodies again.

He heard a snort from the tree above. He glanced up and saw Hannah casually resting on the branch above him. She checked her nails with disinterest and swung her feet in the air.

"I do not know why you freed those men," Hannah said. "They have not shown an ounce of gratitude."

"That does not matter," Seungho said with a stern tone. "Those men were being kidnapped and were going to be killed. It is my responsibility to save anyone who is kidnapped and to pass judgement on those who commit evil deeds."

Hannah snorted again. "I am shocked to hear these words of justice and righteousness when you have an arrow pointing at my Kreo Creator's heart. Tell me, did you do that other Keepers of the Kreo or is mine the first one?"

"I have not been summoned ever since I killed my Kreo Creator," Seungho revealed. "A lot has changed, but there is still evil lurking in this world." He glanced at her. "I have three men here. You are a creature who feasts on their hearts and livers, are you not?"

"Please, I have standards. I do not eat people who have been dead for a while," Hannah said.

"What a filthy beast."

Hannah's eyes glowed icy blue. "You know what? I have not eaten the hearts and livers of a Kreo Creature. I wonder how that would taste?"

Seungho's eyes burned orange. "I do not think that I have ever passed judgement on a Kreo Creature as well. Would you like to be the first to be judged?"

Hannah growled and revealed her claws while Seungho drew his arrow. As both were ready to attack, a blurry object jumped in between them. A harsh gust of wind came from the sky and the two knew exactly who had interrupted their fight.

"Hannah, your orders were to keep an eye on Seungho, not to kill him," Junki warned her.

Hannah glowered at him. "I wasn't going to actually kill him. I was just going to teach him a little lesson."

"Same. I do not kill unless they are guilty," Seungho said, lowering his weapon.

"So why are you here?" she inquired.

"I have been given the task to watch over the both of you," Junki said. He looked at the three dead bodies with arrows pierced through their heart. "Seungho, did you do this?"

"I did, but I only gave them a proper judgement." Seungho started walking away.

"Wait." Junki glanced down at the bodies again. "Are you going to just leave all these bodies here?"

"What else would I do with it? I don't eat human organs like her," Seungho said, gesturing his chin towards Hannah.

Hannah glared. "I want to kill him so badly."

"It's best if you clean up this area. We should bury the bodies. Someone might notice and there might be a commotion," Junki said.

"I think it's a fitting punishment. Those men do not deserve to be buried." Seungho stared at Junki. "Are you afraid that we will be caught?"

Junki's eyes hardened. "While we do have special abilities unlike normal humans, that does not mean that we are invincible. We all have our weakness. Surely you are aware of your own weakness, yes?"

Seungho remained still. "You are a wise and humble creature. I wonder who your Kreo Creator was. I imagine that they must have been just as thoughtful as you."

Junki's face darkened. "I wouldn't know. I didn't get to properly know my Kreo Creator."

"Junki was abandoned by his Kreo Creator," Hannah said, snickering like a fox.

"Abandoned? That's quite rare. Almost unheard of, actually," Seungho remarked.

"I would appreciate it if you did not question me any further of my past," Junki said, closing his eyes. "Let us just bury the body and be on our way."

"I will not bury those bodies. Those bodies belong to people who deserve to die without a burial." Then, Seungho turned around and began to walk away.

Junki sighed, then looked over at Hannah. Hannah scrunched her nose.

"No, I will not eat the hearts and livers from them. I only eat fresh kills," Hannah snapped. She jumped down from the tree and transformed into a nine-tailed fox, quietly following Seungho.

Junki glanced once more at the bodies, then transformed into a horse to follow them in the air, leaving the bodies out in the open to rot.

* * *

When Jungkook woke up in the morning, he noticed that both the Instructors were missing from the campsite. He searched around nearby, but didn't see any clues as to where they had went. He was about to wake up the others until he noticed that Byungchan was awake and meditating behind a tree. He slowly walked over to him, wondering if he should interrupt his meditation or if he should leave him alone.

A few minutes later, Byungchan finally opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder. He seemed surprised to see Jungkook next to him.

"I thought you would be sleeping a bit more," Byungchan remarked.

"I woke up earlier than I planned to wake up," Jungkook admitted. "You meditate?"

He smiled. "Yeah. It helps clear my mind."

"I didn't see you much of a meditator."

"I wasn't, but Jieun told me to give it a try when I ended up waking up in the morning. She said that it would help clear my mind and make me focus more."

"You woke up with Jieun woke up?"

"Yeah. I barely noticed. By the time I got up, Kihyun was gone and Jieun was already awake. We talked for a bit and she told me that she was going to go find Kihyun. It's been a while, but I'm not worried that they won't be back," Byungchan said.

"Did you only talk about meditating or was there anything else you talked about?"

"Well, we just talked about doing a bit of training with her later in the day," Byungchan said, looking up. "I don't think there was anything else she shared with us." He snapped his fingers. "Oh, but she did mention that out of everyone, you would probably wake up first. I guess you guys are all pretty close to your Instructor, right?"

Jungkook wasn't sure how to respond to his comment. He only kept quiet and waited for Byungchan to say anything else. When Byungchan realized that Jungkook had nothing to add to the conversation, he decided to change the topic.

"Well, is there anything I should know about Instructor Jieun? She's going to be our temporary Instructor, so I'd like to know what I should watch out for and stuff," Byungchan said.

"What do you mean by that?" Jungkook asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Like with Instructor Kihyun, he tends to push us away and goes solo a lot. We've been on so many missions together, but it doesn't seem like he even cares to mentor us. I'm interested to see how he's going to end up using you guys. You guys are definitely more skilled than us so he'll probably take advantage of that, but I can't exactly tell you how he'll use you because he never really used us on our missions," Byungchan explained. "Whenever we arrived at our location, Kihyun would be gone and we would just…hang out." 

"You guys didn't even try to do the mission on your own?" Jungkook crossed his arms. "Instructor Jieun also tends to disappear, but the three of us would at least go around town to collect information."

"Yeah, but Instructor Kihyun is strong. He can handle anything by himself. Instructor Jieun is…kind of weak, isn't she?"

Jungkook's eyebrow twitched. "What makes you think that she's weak?"

"She didn't even try to fight Instructor Kihyun at the Evaluations. Maybe she's lazy? She seemed like she was doing well, but then she gave up. It must mean that she knew that she was weaker than Instructor Kihyun, right?"

Anger boiled in Jungkook's blood. Jieun? Weak? Didn't this guy know that she just chose to not fight with Kihyun? He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He wasn't sure why he wasn't able to talk back, but he felt even more frustrated for not being about to find the right words to defend Jieun.

Byungchan watched Jungkook carefully, then pursed his lips. "You know what? I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"It looks like I said something wrong. I'm sorry if I made you feel upset. I didn't mean to. I just thought that you didn't like Jieun that much."

"Why?" he asked again.

Byungchan seemed surprised. "Well, the entire Academy is under the impressed that you and Yuna don't like Jieun. Since the very beginning, it seemed like you two didn't like having her as your Instructor. Why do you think there are rumors of Jieun and Seokmin going around? It's because he spends so much time with her and even visits her whenever she's hospitalized while you two don't seem to care at all."

Jungkook kept quiet again. It was true that he didn't like Jieun at first because of his mission, but recently…Well, he wasn't sure if he could say that he liked her at all, but it did feel like he was more tolerant of her existence.

Byungchan tilted his head. "Maybe you're more fond of her than we all thought you were?"

"That's not it—"

"…nd I say that we shouldn't look into those bodies because there's nothing unusual about finding people dead in this area."

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard Jieun's voice not too far from them. They both got up on their feet and started to follow the direction of he sound.

"You heard the villagers gossip. They said that there were shackles that were broken from a mere arrow. Tell me, have you ever seen the same arrow shatter metal and pierce through a human's body? With an arrow that can break metal, it should have broken the person's bones, but it didn't. It just shot through like a normal arrow."

Kihyun's voice could be heard in the conversation. Jungkook and Byungchan stopped behind a tree to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Jieun let out a frustrated sigh. "Gossip is gossip. We don't know if that's true at all."

"We both checked the location."

"They cleared the scene before we could even see anything."

"I found this piece of metal from the shackle," Kihyun said. He raised a little chunk of black metal in his fingers. "I think they're speaking the truth. I think there might be a Mythos nearby."

"And what Mythos do you possibly think we're encountering?" she asked, crossing the arm.

"I'm thinking we're dealing with the Mythos of the Kreo," he said calmly.

Jungkook felt his heart skip a beat. He knew that Instructor Kihyun had a sharp mind, but he didn't expect him to identify the Mythos correctly.

"That's absurd," Jieun argued. "We came here under the report that there is the Mythos of the Luos lurking in the village."

"What if the report mistaken the Luos for the Kreo?"

"If that's true, then the Academy sure did a clumsy job of confirming the truth," Jieun retorted.

"Or perhaps the report really did mean the Luos, but the Kreo showed up somewhere recently?" Kihyun murmured.

"You're crazy."

Kihyun glanced at her. "Do you know something that I don't?"

There was a minute of silence. Jungkook held his breath and continued to listen with his heart pounding against his chest. Did Jieun get caught? Was Kihyun going to fight her and take the Mythos of the Kreo? Was this the end of his private mission?

"Yes," Jieun said. Jungkook's heart rate accelerated. "I do know something that you don't know." She pointed at the trees were the two boys were hiding. "Byungchan, Jungkook. Come out from your little hiding place."

The two boys jolted before they slowly appeared from their hiding spot. Kihyun frowned.

"I already knew they were hiding there," Kihyun said. "I'm asking if you know something that I don't—"

"What do you boys want?" Jieun asked, interrupting Kihyun.

Jungkook kept silent. Byungchan glanced at him, waiting for the top student to explain on his behalf. When he realized that Jungkook wasn't going to open his mouth, Byungchan gave both Instructors a sheepish smile.

"We both got up early and went to see where you two were," Byungchan said. "It seems like you two were in a middle of an important conversation, so we tried to hide."

Kihyun glared at him. "Hide? You call that hiding? Jungkook hid well, but I could see your hair sticking out from the tree."

Byungchan's smile faltered a bit. "I apologize—"

"Don't be sorry," Jieun interrupted him. "You don't have to apologize to Kihyun. He's not your Instructor right now." She looked at Byungchan. "I am."

Kihyun stared at her. "You're going to waste your breath defending a student like him?"

"He has potential."

"He has the lowest rank."

"Byungchan doesn't like to fight. That doesn't mean that he can't fight," Jieun said. "Everyone has their own unique skills that has to be utilized differently. I gave him some meditation exercise so that he can clear his mind."

"Meditation? You should be sparring with him, not meditating," Kihyun retorted.

"Why? Byungchan is already strong."

"Strong? Are you blind?"

"He's smart, too," Jieun continued. She walked over to him and smiled. "He knows when he has to fight and when he doesn't have to fight. That's not something that everyone can do, especially from those who came out of the Academy. For most of us, if there's an opportunity to fight, we take it."

Byungchan turned a little red from all the compliments. He wasn't used to hearing an Instructor praising him. Jungkook gave him a small glare, but he continued to remain silent.

"…I know you're hiding something, Jieun. I don't know what you're hiding, but I'll figure that out soon," Kihyun said.

"That sounds like a threat."

Kihyun didn't say anything. He turned away and walked back to where the rest of the students were sleeping. Jieun let out a deep sigh and shook her head. Then, she looked back at Byungchan.

"Your Instructor is nuts," she said, swirling her index finger against her head.

Byungchan only smiled. "You two seem to get along well. I haven't heard him talk this much until now."

"What are you talking about? They don't get along at all," Jungkook said a bit too loudly. Annoyed, he headed back to the base, leaving a confused Jieun and an amused Byungchan.