The ancient ruins of the Stargazer Tower lay silent under moonlight. Wind threaded the branches, stirring the forest into a low, murmuring hush. Then—without warning—the stillness split under a string of urgent, brutal knocks.

  The heavy wooden door jolted with each blow, answering in a dull boom that rolled into the trees. Outside, two roughly dressed men traded turns at the pounding, faces drawn tight, sweat darkening their clothes.

  “Pardon us—!” the older of the two shouted as he knocked, his voice strained with barely contained panic and despair. “Is this the residence of the wizard? We are hunters from Graypine Village! We come with an urgent commission, and beg you to intervene!”

  The knocking went on for a while longer. There was still no answer from within the tower.

  “No one’s answering… Is the wizard—” the younger man faltered, his voice heavy with disappointment. His right hand clenched instinctively around the strap of his satchel slung across his chest—inside lay what seemed to be the sum of their remaining hope.

  Behind the door they could not see, the darkness had already opened its eyes. One human, one beast, had arrived without a sound.

  Chelorra stood with her hair loose, a shamshir resting at her hip—longer and more deeply curved than the common scimitar. Her crimson eyes glinted with alert caution in the dark. She did not move to open the door at once. Instead, she slowed her breathing to a near whisper, listening to the sounds beyond the threshold, weighing the strangers’ true intent.

  Gru had reached the ground floor even earlier. Before the strangers ever raised a hand to knock, it had already sensed them. The two-headed hound crouched within the shadows, its thick paw pads muffling every step. Its back arched, all four claws dug firmly into the floor, while two pairs of yellow eyes burned in the darkness like twin banks of cold fire—the focused stillness that came just before the hunt.

  Outside the door, the older man finally let his hand fall. Disappointment clung to his face, mixed with a stubborn trace of unwillingness.

  “Could it be… the chief was wrong?” he said. “The wizard’s not here?”

  Before the words had fully faded, a small shutter set into the door slid open without a sound.

  Both men looked up sharply.

  From within the darkness, a pair of blood-red eyes fixed on them—cold and watchful, like a venomous serpent hidden in the shadows, heavy with warning. The two hunters drew in a sharp breath at the same time, their bodies stiffening for a heartbeat.

  “You there,” Chelorra said. Her voice was cool, carrying a faint echo through the empty porch. “What business brings you here at this hour?”

  The older man swallowed down his unease and stepped forward, forcing his voice to stay steady.

  “I… I’m Karu Evan,” he said. “This is my brother, Bain.” He nodded toward the other man. “We’ve come from Graypine Village. We need the wizard to clear out a Magibeast.”

  He hesitated, then asked, “Are you… the wizard?”

  Chelorra did not answer at once.

  Her gaze swept over them like a cold blade: faces worn with fatigue yet held up by sheer stubbornness; a hunting bow, scuffed and weathered, slung across one man’s back; short knives at their belts; linen shirts torn by branches beneath old leather jerkins; and boots thick with mud—plainly two travelers who had been on the road for a long while.

  “I am not the wizard,” she said at last. “I am his Warden. You may come inside.”

  The shutter slid shut. A soft click followed as the bolt was drawn back, and the heavy wooden door swung open at last.

  Moonlight spilled into the porch. Karu and Bain finally saw her face—young, strikingly beautiful, yet marked by something unsettling that made it hard to meet her gaze: long, pale hair and eyes the color of fresh blood.

  They exchanged a glance, then hesitated before taking cautious steps inside the tower. As they were still stealing uneasy looks at the woman before them, four yellow eyes slowly kindled in the darkness beyond the door. Gru stood at the foot of the stairs, its twin heads tilted slightly to one side. A low rumble rolled from its throat—not loud, yet enough to set the skin crawling.

  Almost by instinct, the two hunters took a step back.

  “Th—!” Karu barely forced out a single sound before his footing gave way. He and his brother slipped together, crashing into the cold, wet mud outside the door. Filthy water splashed across their clothes and faces, but they paid it no mind—both of them stared fixedly at the beast within, while sweat broke out across their backs in an instant.

  Chelorra stepped to Gru’s side and laid a hand against its warm back. She kept her voice low. “Gru. Don’t frighten the guests. Back.”

  Both heads let out an unhappy, rumbling huff. Even so, the hound turned away at last, retreating almost without a sound into the darkness of the stairwell.

  Chelorra withdrew her hand and looked back to the two men outside, her tone even and unraised. “So long as you bear no ill intent, he will not attack.”

  Karu and Bain dragged themselves up from the ground, gasping for breath, the terror still plain on their faces.

  Just then, a blur of black sprang onto Chelorra’s shoulder from nowhere, letting out a string of thin, crackling laughter. “Heh heh… visitors in the middle of the night,” it giggled. “How strange.”

  The sudden sound of speech nearly made Bain stumble again.

  Chelorra turned her head slightly and cast a sideways glance at the small, black-furred monkey perched on her shoulder. “Shadowling,” she said calmly, “it seems we’ll have to wake your lord.”

  “Let me go! Let me go!” Shadowling chirped, his tail lashing with excitement. In the next heartbeat he was gone—darting past the two visitors, scrambling up the outer wall of the tower. Like a scrap of living shadow, he clung to the stone blocks as he climbed, then vanished beside a small high window.

  Only then did Chelorra turn back and step aside, clearing the way for the two men. “Come in,” she said. “I’ll fix you something warm to drink.”

  Karu and Bain exchanged a glance. One of them wiped the cold sweat from his brow before they managed, in hoarse voices. “…Th-thank you.”

  They followed Chelorra up the spiral staircase to the third floor of the Stargazer Tower—the wizard’s study.

  Firelight flickered in the hearth. Chelorra leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, silent and watchful. Gru lay curled on a thick cushion beside the fireplace, dozing; only the occasional twitch of an ear betrayed that he was not truly asleep.

  Karu and Bain sat in the two chairs opposite the desk. Two cups of steaming tea rested before them, yet neither man touched his drink. Instead, they stole cautious glances around the room.

  The study was not large, but it was packed to the brim. Massive bookcases stretched all the way to the ceiling, crammed with volumes of every size and age. A blackened potion cauldron squatted in one corner. The desk itself was buried beneath stacked books, sheets of parchment, quills, ink bottles, and several crystals whose names they did not know.

  On the cabinet behind the desk stood rows of glass bottles filled with potions of many hues and bundles of herbs difficult to identify. In a few larger jars, the organs of unknown creatures floated in preserving fluid, giving off a faint, cold gleam.

  The room was quiet, broken only by the soft crackle of the fire. Time dragged on in the silence, the air growing so still it felt hard to breathe.

  Then, from the stairwell, a languid voice drifted down—like someone hauled out of sleep against his will, already complaining at the world. “Showing up in the middle of the night—are you serious?”

  Karu and Bain snapped their heads around.

  A handsome young man was descending the stairs. He wore a finely made brown-green silk robe, loose and informal, lending him an air of lazy ease. Thick black hair, slightly wavy, fell to his shoulders in mild disarray, and a pair of pale green eyes stood out sharply in the firelight.

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  At his side floated two magical lamps, glowing with a gentle light. They kept close to him as he walked, lighting the way ahead. The small black-furred monkey clung to his shoulder with practiced ease, its tail swaying back and forth.

  The young man rubbed at his neck as he looked from Karu to Bain, his tone as even and casual as an offhand remark. “…The fee will have to double.”

  With that, he turned toward the desk and let out a long yawn. “Chelorra, could you brew me a cup of tea? Thank you.”

  He dropped into the chair opposite the two men, sinking deep into it.

  Chelorra let out a soft sigh. Carrying a freshly brewed cup of black tea, she walked over and handed it to the dark-haired man.

  “Thank you,” he said, taking the cup and sipping at it with unhurried composure.

  Chelorra watched him, a trace of weary reproach in her voice. “You make an entrance like that, and you’ll scare off every client you have, Mobius.”

  Mobius was just about to retort when the two visitors hurriedly rose to their feet. Karu spoke first, cutting off the exchange before it could turn into any stranger.

  “Master Wizard—my name is Karu Evan, and this is my brother, Bain Evan. We are hunters from Graypine Village. We have an urgent commission and wish to hire you to clear out a Magibeast!”

  Karu spoke quickly, as if afraid that even a moment’s delay would make it too late.

  Mobius raised a hand, motioning for them to sit. “Please,” he said. “Sit down, and speak at your ease.”

  Karu sank back into his chair and drew a deep breath, as if finally letting out the fear that had been crushing his chest for seven long days.

  “Seven days ago, our village was attacked by a Magibeast. We gathered what militia we could and set traps—snare jaws, pitfall holes, spiked stakes… none of it worked. Each time we barely managed to drive it off, and every time it came back.”

  “That damned thing has thrown the whole village into misery. Women and children won’t even step outside. When the men go to the fields, they have to move in groups, weapons in hand—like we’re marching to war every day. Now almost every day…” His hand tightened without him noticing. “Someone’s badly hurt. Sometimes… someone dies.”

  “Our village is too remote, and there are too few of us. When trouble came before, we handled it ourselves—wolf packs, bandits, the small monsters in the woods. Those never scared us. But this time…” He clenched his back teeth. “This time, we’re truly powerless.”

  “Matus, the village chief, sent my brother and me to cut through the forest and come to the ruins of Stargazer Tower to find you.” He looked straight at Mobius. “We want to hire you—to kill that Magibeast.”

  Mobius let his fingertips trace the rim of his teacup, one brow lifting slightly. “If matters are truly so dire,” he asked, “why did you not seek aid from your lord?”

  Karu gave a bitter smile. “The Graypine lies too far from our lord’s castle. The journey alone would take ten days round trip. And if the lord then had to muster soldiers…By the time they arrived, we… we likely wouldn’t last that long.”

  “By custom,” Mobius said, setting the cup down, his tone level and precise, “the commission of purging Magibeasts is submitted by the lord of the land to the Wizards’ Guild. A formal contract is signed, and the guild assigns a suitable wizard, ensuring the work is carried out as agreed. You have bypassed the guild and come to me directly—”

  He lifted his gaze to the two brothers. “If a dispute arises, the Wizards’ Guild will not protect you, nor will it hold me to account. Are you certain you wish to proceed?”

  Karu clenched his teeth. “Yes, Master Wizard. We… we truly have no time left.”

  Bain hurriedly added, his words tumbling out, “We didn’t dare rest for a moment along the way—two full days and nights without stopping, just to reach this place. Please, sir. Help us.”

  Mobius fell silent for a moment before speaking again. “Then describe the Magibeast’s appearance in detail.”

  The wizard’s careful questioning finally let Karu draw a steadier breath.

  He searched his memory, trying to be as clear as he could. “That thing… it’s big. Arms way too long, and it runs fast—real fast. Covered all over in purple fur. And…” He hesitated. “Its face looks a bit like a man’s. Like it’s crying.”

  Mobius rose to his feet. With a slight curl of his fingers toward the bookcase, he murmured a short spell under his breath. The air stirred as if brushed by an unseen wind, and a heavy book slid free from a high shelf, borne smoothly into his waiting hand.

  He opened the thick volume—Tome of Magibeasts: The Southern Volume—and spread it across the desk. Turning to a page, he angled it toward the two brothers.

  “Is it this?”

  The illustration on the page was simple, but the key features were unmistakable: purple fur, long arms, a short tail, stubby legs, four ears, and a human-like face twisted into a look of perpetual grief. Beneath the image was a single name:

  Grimface Ape.

  Karu and Bain hurried to their feet and leaned in close to the book, brows knit as they studied the illustration.

  Karu nodded first. “That’s it.”

  Bain added, as if recalling a detail that still made his skin crawl, “Four ears… yeah. And that face. That crying face.”

  Mobius kept his eyes on the page. A flicker of doubt passed through his gaze, but he did not voice it. Instead, he continued calmly, “After it entered the village, did it feed on anything? People, or livestock?”

  Karu hesitated. He frowned, clearly searching his memory. “No, sir. It hurt people, but it didn’t eat anyone. And it didn’t take our cattle or sheep.”

  Mobius’s fingertip traced a short line of text on the page—highly retaliatory.

  He looked up. “Did you trespass into its territory? Or have any clashes with it out in the wild?”

  Karu and Bain could not read, and the words on the page meant nothing to them—but they understood the wizard’s question.

  “No,” Bain answered at once, shaking his head.

  Karu added, “We grew up in these forests. Our old man is a hunter too—he taught us from childhood how to read the tracks and scent of beasts and Magibeasts. But we’ve never seen that thing before. We don’t even know which way its den lies.”

  Mobius settled back into his chair, propping his temple with his right hand, his gaze resting on the open page. He did not speak at once. Instead, he lifted his teacup and took a quiet sip.

  Judging by its appearance, it could only be one thing—the Grimface Ape.

  The Tome of Magibeasts: The Southern Volume records it clearly: low intelligence, behavior governed by instinct, no capacity for complex reasoning.

  And yet—

  The Magibeast did not feed on livestock. Nor did it consume human prey.

  Which meant its attacks on the village were not driven by hunger.

  The villagers had stated plainly that they had not clashed with it in the wild, ruling out retaliatory behavior.

  Had its habitat been invaded or destroyed?

  Unlikely.

  As far as he knew, Graypine Village lay in a remote region, sparsely populated, surrounded by dense fir forests. The expansion of human activity encroaching upon a Magibeast’s territory could reasonably be dismissed.

  There had been no war in this land for many years. No armies had passed through to ravage the forests and disrupt local habitats.

  Then—

  Why had it entered a human village again and again?

  Why did it target people specifically, yet never attempt to feed?

  And—

  The Grimface Ape’s natural range lay in the warm southern regions, not here, in the southwestern reaches of the Black Tulip Kingdom.

  So why had it migrated to this place at all?

  The wizard’s silence only made Bain more anxious. His hands rubbed together without him noticing. What do we do now? Does the wizard mean to refuse? But we have no time left…

  At last, he clenched his teeth and made up his mind. He thrust a hand into his satchel and called out loudly.

  “Master Wizard!”

  He pulled out an old cloth pouch, its fabric worn and tinged a dull gray-green, and held it out with both hands.

  “This is everything we could scrape together! You’re the only wizard we could find. We… we’re willing to pay the full amount up front! Please—set out at once!”

  The pouch was opened and spread upon the table. Inside lay just over twenty old silver coins. Many were chipped and worn by time; on some, even the queen’s profile stamped into the metal had been rubbed nearly smooth.

  Mobius pinched one of the coins between his fingers and lifted it to eye level. After a brief look, he spoke evenly, “Even if I travel through the night, it would still take close to a full day. For so little silver, that hardly seems worth the trouble.”

  Shadowling hopped onto the table, mimicking Mobius as he grabbed a coin of his own. With a grin, he chimed in, “Lord Mobius doesn’t care for small change~”

  Bain and Karu exchanged a glance, disappointment plain in their eyes. The price of hiring a wizard had always been steep. Their usual patrons were royalty, nobles, or wealthy merchants—meager pay from common folk was rarely enough to move a wizard’s hand.

  Chelorra, who had been standing at Mobius’s side the entire time, spoke at last, her tone light and even. “Didn’t you mention you still have an outstanding bill?”

  Mobius froze mid-motion. His expression stiffened for a heartbeat, his eyes flicking away. “Uh… Chelorra…”

  She paid no heed to his embarrassment and went on calmly. “That pouch of silver will be enough to settle it.”

  “Chelorra,” Mobius tried to rally a last defense, “Graypine Village is a long way off. And they’re asking me to leave at once—at this hour of the night…”

  “If you could refrain from making so many trips to the town for supplies,” Chelorra cut in smoothly. She tilted her head slightly, a faint smile on her lips as she looked at him. “The forest is rich in resources. I’m sure we can manage just fine on our own, don’t you think?”

  Mobius turned his gaze aside, the awkwardness written across his face.

  Beside them, Shadowling stared up at him with wide, amber eyes and let out a small, gleeful snicker. “Heehee.”

  Mobius had always enjoyed the finer things in life—and loathed inconvenience. His ill-timed devotion to “quality of living” had a habit of draining his purse faster than it should, and by rights, this cheap commission might help ease his current financial strain.

  Still, riding through the night to hunt a Magibeast, only to earn a little over twenty silver coins, was plainly a poor bargain in his eyes.

  Worse yet, the Grimface Ape was worthless from head to toe. Its hide was coarse and unfit for clothing; its bones were hard but brittle, useless for crafting tools or gear. The pay was meager, the creature yielded not a scrap of valuable material, and the job offered only a single advantage—no tax owed to the Wizards’ Guild.

  After a brief silence, Mobius let out a helpless sigh. He ran a hand through his hair, straightened, and lifted his gaze to the two flustered hunters. A smile touched his lips—half-hearted, yet still polite—as he said quietly.

  “All right. All right. Very well, then. The job—I’ll take it.”

  Bain and Karu stared at each other in disbelief. The weight that had been pressing on their chests seemed to be shoved aside at once, and joy nearly spilled from their eyes. In that moment, the exhaustion of two days and two nights on the way felt somehow lighter.

  The Grimface Ape’s migration—and its strange behavior—did stir a flicker of professional curiosity in Mobius.

  But more importantly, another matter surfaced in his mind, one far harder to ignore—aside from that renovation bill, he also owed Chelorra two months of wages.

  She had never mentioned it, and seemed not to care… yet he himself could not pretend it was nothing.

  Mobius: Behind the Twilight.

  Schedule: I will be updating one chapter a week (every Friday). Quality is my priority.

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  - Janus Twelve