Just after Reiko arrived at the training grounds, a few villagers cautiously approached her, their faces etched with nervousness, while others lingered at a distance, simply watching her every movement.
She noticed them as she spoke with Rica, but deliberately ignored their approach, pretending not to see them yet. Neither the approaching group nor those observing her realized that she was fully aware of their presence; they continued on, unaware that she had silently acknowledged them all.
"...Hey there!" one of them called out nervously.
Reiko pivoted and offered a small, controlled smile, trying to ease the tension.
"Can you please tell us what's going on in town?" another asked, their voice shaking, almost mirroring the anxiety etched across the group's faces.
Reiko stayed silent for a moment, her fingers twitching slightly. She felt the nervous energy herself, but forced herself to remain composed, projecting calm so the villagers would have someone to rely on. The villagers' eyes never left her, searching for any hint of certainty.
"…I don't know yet," Reiko began, her voice steady despite the unease, "but let's calm down for a moment and assess the situation as a whole—"
She didn't get to finish. Several villagers interrupted her at once.
"…What? You don't know what's going on yourself? Then why are you keeping us here?" one demanded, frustration and fear mingling in their tone.
"She can't be serious!" another muttered, disbelief cracking through their voice.
Reiko kept herself composed, meeting their eyes with a calm expression, though inside she felt the weight of their words. The group in front of her began to shout and nag, listing every complaint they could think of.
Some called her selfish and unfit to lead, claiming she was no replacement for Nanako. Others sneered that she was just a child, too inexperienced to understand what she was doing or make the right decisions.
Despite their anger and frustration, Reiko didn't flinch. She listened, her face remaining steady, even as each accusation cut into her patience.
Reiko kept her eyes on them, her smile steady, but it was nothing more than a mask. Beneath it, fury simmered. She was seething at the villagers' words, forgetting that she was just a child left with the impossible responsibility of leading them. They were ungrateful, blind to the fact that their lives had depended on her decisions, decisions that could have been their salvation.
Her body began to emit a faint cyan glow, almost visible in the dimming light. It was her mana, straining and fusing with her ana as the pressure of the moment pushed her beyond her limits. Her body fought to control the flow, to prevent it from bursting uncontrollably. If she failed, even for a moment, the barrier shielding them would collapse, exposing everyone to the enemy.
"Why are we here, anyway?!" one of the villagers shouted, fury lacing their voice.
"Would you please shut up!"
Suddenly, Reiko's erupted as a burst of wind that came out from her, almost carried everyone around her, and sent them flying in different directions.
Her eyes darkened as tears slowly began to gather in them, but they were disrupted by the glow that followed within them. The light thickened with each passing second, intensifying the force of the wind that continued to swirl around her.
Rica, still focused on Varl and Hajime, who had just regained his senses, swiveled around with the rest of the villagers and trainees, their eyes turning toward the source of the sudden, violent wind.
"What the...?" Rica murmured, clutching Varl's hand tightly as she took a cautious step back.
"What's happening over there?" a voice called out from behind a tree, hesitant and filled with nervous curiosity.
"If you want to leave, then leave. No one's keeping you here... You just sit around all day waiting for someone to tell you what to do, now you're fucking like you've got something to prove." Reiko said furiously
The villagers froze, taken by surprise, speechless for a moment. Some stared at her with terrified eyes, while others in the group dropped their heads to the ground, overwhelmed by guilt for what they had just said or implied moments before.
Then Reiko added, her voice dripping with frustration, "Go ahead, you can go into town and see for yourselves what's happening there. Fuck!"
Without waiting for a response, she turned away and strode toward Rica, Varl, and Hajime. The villagers remained silent, their eyes following her as her dark expression lingered, biting her lower lip in restrained anger. Those who had been watching from the sidelines parted reluctantly, each silently chiding themselves as Reiko walked past.
***
Meanwhile, in town, the knights continued their search for the villagers, but they still hadn't found a single one. The only traces they found were all useless; the signs showed that the villagers panicked before completely vanishing into thin air, though no magic signatures were detected, and looking to the sky, the stars were becoming more piercing as the blackness of the night continued to fall around them.
"Still nothing, Sir," a knight reported as he emerged from a building, his voice tense with frustration.
The roads were littered with bloodstains, a silent testament to the chaos that had erupted earlier, but the knights paid them no mind. Their focus remained on the buildings, scouring each room and corridor in hopes of finding any stragglers who might have hidden or fled.
***
At the main entrance of the village, Rose and the others were still waiting for villagers who they thought might be heading there when their attention snapped to a knight approaching them with a disappointed posture.
"Look there!"
Everyone readied themselves just in case they were mistaken. All they could guess was that one of the villagers might have managed to take down a knight, stripped them of their armor, and was now masquerading as one of them, desperate to survive.
'Is he one of us?' the knight next to Rose wondered as the approaching knight drew nearer.
"Correction!" The knight finally arrived, saluted, and continued. "We found nothing in the village, not even corpses from the earlier assault."
"What?" Enov exclaimed, surprise flickering across his face as he clenched his rifle tighter.
"What do you mean you found nothing?" Rose asked as the knight blinked for a second, while the knight standing next to her stroked his jaw thoughtfully.
"Hmmm?" The man muttered, still stroking his jaw. Then he suggested, "Let's all move in; that way, we can cover more ground... Oh, and before I forget, no using magic unless I give the order."
He shrugged, pivoting to face Enov and his companion from earlier.
"You two, stay here. I grant permission to use magic, but only to send important information to Rose or me." Then he signaled the other knights forward. "Don't mess around, or I'll make you regret ever becoming imperial knights."
"Roger!" Both Enov and his companion replied in unison, watching as the man followed the others with a slow, confident smile.
***
Later...
After waiting for an extended period on the training grounds, Hajime realized he was thirsty. The heat from the barrier and the tension in the air had dried out his throat, and water seemed increasingly necessary. However, the training grounds offered no visible sources of water, no rivers, streams, or wells in sight. He considered asking Rica to conjure a water spell, but quickly remembered that she wasn't proficient in water-based magic. Even if she had been, she was still learning to control her abilities and wouldn't have been able to create enough water to quench his thirst. Instead, she suggested that he ask around, hoping he might find someone carrying water, though only a few people there could perform water magic, and asking for it felt intrusive.
Reluctantly, Hajime left Rica and Varl behind and began searching among the crowd for someone who could provide water. As he walked, his attention was drawn to a group of villagers discussing leaving the training grounds. These were the same people Reiko had reprimanded earlier, their faces still clouded with unease and hesitation.
Curiosity piqued, Hajime decided to follow them. His intention wasn't to spy or judge them, but rather to make his way back home, where he could drink freely and without embarrassment. Approaching strangers for favors always made him uncomfortable, despite being familiar with most of the people around him. Fortunately, the villagers hadn't noticed him trailing behind, giving him the opportunity to follow unnoticed while keeping his true goal in mind.
One of the villagers, leaving with his group, mentioned that Reiko had said they could leave if they wished, implying that she had lifted the barrier. Yet, despite this, an uneasy feeling lingered among them; they hadn't fully realized that the protective barrier was still active, subtly shielding the village from view.
Slowly, more villagers began to follow the first group, tentatively crossing through the barrier. As they emerged on the other side, they were struck by the stillness of the village. The streets were quiet, empty of movement, and the night sky seemed unusually vivid, stars shining with a clarity that gave the scene an almost surreal quality. The contrast between the quiet village and the glittering heavens heightened the strange, tense atmosphere, leaving the villagers momentarily unsettled as they took in their surroundings.
"…S-see… there's no one here," one villager stammered, trying to reassure the others.
"…D-did the monsters already leave?" another whispered, their eyes wide with lingering fear.
They didn't realize that the village was far from empty. Shadows of knights moved silently through the streets and alleys, searching every corner for stragglers. Some lingered in darkness, watching the villagers without revealing themselves.
Hajime was among the small group of wandering villagers, but he didn't stay with them long. After a brief moment of taking in the serene, starry sky, he pivoted toward the older section of the village, heading to his childhood home.
"Did you see who that kid was?" a villager murmured to a friend as Hajime slipped away. Few had caught a clear glimpse of his face, and some guessed it might have been him, while others doubted it. Reiko's strict oversight made anyone leaving on their own seem nearly impossible.
As Hajime approached a shortcut that cut straight toward his house, he miscalculated his step and collided with one of the knights patrolling the area.