Straying

Four swift strokes leave two Hunters dead, dazzling the onlookers and frightening the survivors. Emboldened by the sight, the refugees realize they can push back, and they chase the remaining enforcers off with thrown stones and furious stares. With the threat gone, Luca approaches Guts and admits she knows a woman who carries a Brand. Seizing on his first real lead to Casca, he grips Luca's shoulders and orders her to take him there. She holds back at first, studying him closely, and only when she notices a mark on his neck matching Casca's does she take his hand and lead the way. The mysterious being observes the exchange from afar.

Inside the tent, Nina, the only girl left with Casca, pleads with her to use her supposed sorcery to protect Luca and the others. Casca pays no attention, occupying herself with whatever trinkets she can reach. Dread overtakes Nina, who convinces herself that Luca has been seized and the Hunters will come for her next. Resolving to flee, she decides to bring Casca along.

Luca races back with Guts close behind as he swears to recover Casca and see her safely home. When Luca asks what Casca is to him, she answers her own question before he can speak and lets the matter drop. They reach the tent to find it deserted. Luca briefly fears a Hunter abduction, but the orderly state of the place tells her that Nina must have run off and taken Casca with her. Coughing up blood as she goes, Nina leads Casca out of the camps, only to run into the very cultists she once ran with, who have come to carry Casca off.

The group splits up to search. As Isidro roams the camp with Puck perched on his head, passing refugees keep pointing at the elf, which bewilders Puck, since crowds normally cannot see him at all. Isidro admits he shadows Guts to absorb his technique, whether by instruction or outright theft.

In the distance the pair spot Casca being led away by the heretics. Deciding that trailing the kidnappers beats losing time to fetch Guts, Isidro and Puck tail them quietly. Meanwhile Guts, Luca and the prostitutes regroup at their meeting spot, none of them having found Casca. Luca notes that Isidro has been silent for a while and suggests they wait for his return, but Guts is too on edge to sit still and sets off alone to comb the camps once more. The chapter scatters the cast across separate threads as the search fractures.