"Don't panic yet. We still can't say for sure that the worst has happened. Let's go ask around nearby first!"
Seeing the way Adrian looked, I couldn't help but grow anxious too. I hurried forward, hugged him, and softly tried to comfort him.
To be fair, ever since we entered the village and walked through it, we hadn't seen a single person—nor had we found any bodies. That suggested things might not be as bad as they seemed. It was entirely possible the villagers had simply moved somewhere else all of a sudden for some reason.
"Feliciana's probably right!" Cyrae nodded and immediately joined in to persuade him. "On the way here, we saw there was a town nearby. With the two so close together, whatever happened in this village should be something we can find out over there!"
"Yeah… I remember a lot of people from our village had relatives who chose to settle in Boyak Town," Adrian said. "Let's go there and get to the bottom of this!"
In the end, Adrian had only lost his composure for a moment because he was too worried. After we talked him down, he gradually calmed himself. Without stopping to rest, he flew with us toward the town to the east.
Boyak Town was one of the few small towns in the border region between the Kingdom of Astralrealm and the Ilandra Dominion. Yet when we reached the skies above it, we found the entire town under heavy guard, as if it had only just been through a battle. Sentries and patrols were everywhere, and even volunteer militias formed by the townsfolk were mixed in among them. It looked like they were facing some kind of ongoing threat.
But a town's defenses were no obstacle to two angels like Cyrae and me. Holding Adrian in my arms, I flew straight over the layers of fortifications and quickly descended beside a pool in the middle of town.
It was already close to midnight. There were no pedestrians at all along the streets of Boyak Town. I folded my wings and was about to walk up to any random house to knock and ask what had happened, but Adrian suddenly stopped me.
"The situation in town seems… sensitive right now. Since we're outsiders, it's safer not to make any rash moves and risk a misunderstanding," he said. "I do know a place we can go—maybe it'll help us pick up some leads."
With that, he took the lead down a side path, guiding us through a few turns. After several minutes, he finally stopped in front of a narrow alley.
There were four homes in this alley. Adrian walked up to a detached house on the right, its window still glowing with lamplight. He pointed at the door and explained to us over his shoulder, "This is Brennan's family home. I know his family. Asking them should save us a lot of unnecessary trouble."
So the redhead lives in a place like this, huh? Thinking back to that guy who ran off with Vivianne's teammate, Yolanda, I couldn't help making a face of sudden realization.
"Adrian? You're finally back!" the person inside exclaimed as soon as Adrian knocked. "Where have you been all this time? I even contacted the sages in the Sages' Alliance by magical communication to ask about you, and they replied that you'd left Crescent City ages ago!"
When the door cracked open, a head appeared in the gap—and it turned out to be none other than Brennan himself, the very redhead we'd just been talking about.
If I counted it up, it had been months since we'd last parted ways in Parristol. In that time, we'd gone deep into the Empire's southern territories and had even returned to Earth once. Our connection with the Kingdom of Astralrealm had effectively gone completely silent. No wonder Brennan was so shocked to see us here.
"Forget all that for now," Adrian cut in. "I went back home and found the entire village empty. What happened?"
Adrian clearly had no mood to explain our past adventures. Since the redhead was right here, it was even better—he went straight to the question that mattered.
"You already went back?" Brennan froze for a moment, then nodded. He let us inside and told us to sit down so we could talk properly.
In Brennan's not-so-spacious house, we met his parents—and even Yolanda, his girlfriend. It turned out that months ago Brennan had brought her back specifically to talk about marriage arrangements. But the good times didn't last; a series of unexpected incidents had suddenly struck this town without warning.
"Actually… I saw your mother just a few days ago…" Brennan began. Once everyone had settled into their seats, his expression turned grim. "Recently, the border region between the Kingdom and the Empire has been attacked by dragonkind. For safety and to coordinate defense, the people of Dasan Village and residents from nearby villages were all moved into town as refugees. They were temporarily housed in several warehouses north of town."
"Dragons?" The moment I heard that, I was reminded of Miriam—the one we'd encountered atop the Chromos Tower in Lantine Oasis. She'd been a dragon too, and frighteningly powerful. But that wasn't the point right now, so I didn't dwell on it. I immediately turned to Adrian, overjoyed.
"That's great! Your mother must have come with them too. If we go to the warehouses in the north, we should be able to find her!"
"Wait. It's not that simple." Seeing us about to move, Brennan quickly raised a hand to stop us and hurried to explain further. "If you'd come back one day earlier, you probably would've made it in time. But just yesterday, this place was attacked by a bandit gang led by a dragon. The protective barrier and all the defensive measures we'd set up in advance were broken through. A lot of townspeople—and villagers sheltering in the northern warehouses—were taken away as hostages. And they left a message: we have one week to hand over Adrian, the King of Parristol, or they'll kill everyone."
"What? Their target is me?" Adrian blurted out, stunned. "But why would they come all the way to this place?"
According to Brennan, Adrian's mother was among the abducted. Adrian's face changed instantly. Parristol had long since ceased to exist, and the secret that he carried Parristol royal blood had been known to only a handful of people across the entire Kingdom of Astralrealm—let alone the location of Dasan Village, his childhood home.
Yet this dragon, who had come out of nowhere, had gone straight to Adrian's old home and called for him by name. That meant the enemy already knew Adrian's background inside and out. In theory, the only people who could have held that information were insiders within the Parristol resistance.
"Could it be that Miriam didn't actually die… and now she finally has a chance to come back for revenge?"
Come to think of it, the "Parristol Liberation Front" founded by Adrian's father should have been wiped out long ago. My mind immediately jumped to the monster faction as well—another side that should have known Adrian's identity.
"That's not possible," Adrian said, shaking his head. "The remaining power of 'Heaven's Punishment' at Lantine Oasis was enough to blow any living creature to pieces. I confirmed it from the surveillance footage back then. And even if it were my father, there's no way he'd reveal somewhere as important as Dasan Village to anyone—including his own people. And it's even less possible that I would. There's no reason they should know this place."
He denied my guess, but he still couldn't make sense of all the links in the chain. Just then, Cyrae—who'd been quietly listening—couldn't help speaking up.
"As far as I know, there aren't many dragons on this continent, but they do keep in contact within their kind. I've heard you killed one at the very beginning, and the news spread widely, didn't it? In that case, it wouldn't be strange if other dragons came to help take revenge. If so, the dragon that attacked Boyak Town is probably some relative of that… Miriam, was it…?"
"Heard?" Brennan turned and stared at her with a strange look. "Weren't you there on the scene too? Why do you sound like you're an outsider? Was it not the same one? I remember you're a Holy Angel of the True Church—am I wrong?"
"A Holy Angel of the True Church? What the heck is that…" Cyrae blinked, clearly hearing the title for the first time. Then she coughed and waved it off. "No, you're not wrong. That's me."
The main issue was that her behavior and mannerisms were indeed quite different from Cyra's, and there was no way to explain the whole story in a few words. Seeing the awkwardness, she forced a laugh and hurriedly changed the subject. "Anyway, that 'holy angel' stuff has nothing to do with me. What's with those bandits who're following the dragon?"
As for the answer, it inevitably traced back to the battle of Parristol.
Back then, the Kingdom's army, the Church's forces, and the Empire's army fought a brutal, do-or-die war along the border, ending with the complete collapse of Lantine Oasis. In the middle of it all, there were plenty of deserters and soldiers from every nation who survived the wrecks of downed craft. After the battle, those human soldiers were generally stronger than ordinary people—but each had their own circumstances. Some were stranded in foreign lands and couldn't return home at all; others didn't dare to go back. Naturally, they gathered together, merged and expanded over time, and eventually formed a looting group that roamed the border region.
Normally, once the Kingdom's army stabilized things, they should have launched a purge and wiped out those roaming brigands in one sweep. But instead, a dragon suddenly appeared out of nowhere, began stirring up trouble along the border, and—one step ahead of everyone else—subjugated them. Then it led the group deep into the Kingdom's territory, finally reaching the area near Boyak Town.