A day had passed since the village was attacked, and the imperial knights burned it down together with the people they had killed when they were attacking it earlier. Only smoke and ashes were left. And the imperial knights were gone by then.
The people at the training ground were still there, waiting for Reiko to tell them what to do next. Her barrier was still up and keeping the commotion outside it a secret. But fear had clouded some of them completely, so that they were just sitting down and observing the pits of hell.
"My husband... he still hasn't returned from the village."
Reiko observed closely and did not know what to do next. Everyone's fate was in her hands. Her eyes looked dead, and her left hand flinched due to the heat of the momentum.
"Why is Papa not with us?"
A child so young, about the age of six, asked.
Everyone stayed quiet and just glanced at Reiko. Welt was busy just running around Rica, who sat on a rock due to boredom. The site of the people in fear didn't bother her.
"... I," Reiko uttered.
Everyone's attention was drawn towards her. The whole grounds stayed quiet in expectation of some words of wisdom from her.
"I..."
The barrier around them started to fall apart. It was like it was dissolving and blending with the sky. Rica looked up at it. But everyone's eyes were still on Reiko.
"I don't know what to say to you right now..."
Suddenly, Rica stood up with a shocked look on her face. Some of the people turned to see what the commotion was about, but the moment they turned, they saw a torn of smoke coming from the location of the village.
Their once beautiful village was covered in dark ashes and fallen buildings.
And with that, many of them fell to their knees, shocked at the sight they were seeing.
"... The village."
"... What happened?"
None of them knew. And none of them came to question why they were being kept on the grounds. Because they thought they were just being kept there to keep them away from the attackers who had attacked the village earlier... Not the second attack, but the first.
Reiko looked down, her hair covering her face, as tears started to stream down her face.
Meanwhile, the two friends who took Hajime captive. Where on their way to Velithra, a country located to the south of Melcelut.
All they had to do was pass by its borders to get to the other side, but the road was full of carriages from merchants going to Velithra. This made them slow down because there was no going back to take another route because their six was blocked with other coming carriages.
The one who wore the armor earlier had taken it off and left it inside the carriage, together with Hajime. He had changed into clothes that looked like a merchant's, to prevent suspicion from the other merchants.
Meanwhile, his friend was still wearing the same clothes as he had before. And he was still in front of the carriage, as his friend had gone in front of them to clear the way. While this was happening, Hajime, inside the carriage, started to regain consciousness.
His leg was chained, and his long hair was cut short. His left hand flinched, followed by his right leg. He slowly opened his eyes, but their color had changed to a burned yellow in both of them. Then, after, both his irises shifted, looking to his sides without moving his head.
The carriage had an awful smell lingering inside it. But it was stacked with baggage and other materials that merchants would sell.
In front of him, there was the armor that one of the people who captured him wore... A dagger was sitting beside the armor, together with the bows and arrows from earlier. They forgot to place them away properly.
Hajime stared at the dagger with his burned yellow eyes. He looked like he was plotting something to do with the dagger in front of him. His face had become serious, like someone who has endured pain from torture for years.
"What's taking so long?" Someone outside the carriage complained. They sounded like one of the people who took him captive, and he sounded like they were approaching the rear of the carriage.
Hajime turned, looking at the rear entry of the carriage, when he saw that the person approaching the carriage was trying to enter it, but the moment he stepped on the door of the carriage and opened the carriage cover, he found Hajime sleeping, and in the same position as he was before.
"Hmmm...?"
He noticed that something was off... But couldn't figure out what exactly. He looked at the armor on the table and reached for it like he was trying to grab one of the arrows sitting next to it.
"Got it...!" He said out loud, holding a silver bar.
Hajime slowly short opened one eye, looking at the man for a moment, and closed it quickly as the man turned to get out of the carriage. Hajime had hidden one of his hands behind, and in his hand, he was holding the same dagger that was sitting with the armor earlier.
The man left the carriage and headed in front of meeting with a man with no hair on top of his head.
"Here it is."
"Okay then, you may pass." The man with no hair said.
"Thank you." The man said his footsteps were heading towards the back of the carriage again.
A moment later, as the carriage started to move, the man was sitting in front of Hajime without noticing that his dagger was gone. Hajime opened his eyes, looking at the man with a serious face. The man looked back at him and tried to terrify him, but Hajime kept his composure and still continued looking at him.
Moments later, Hajime kept on looking at the man with his serious look, when suddenly the other man, who was driving the carriage, said in front. "We're almost there," his tone filled with excitement.
"Oh, yeah...?" The other replied.
"Yeah!"
Hajime shifted his hand a bit while still looking at the man, and the man turned, looking at him, but before he knew it, Hajime sprang from where he was sitting with a chain tied to his leg and a dagger in his right hand, stabbing the man in the neck, and then after twisted he started to twist the dagger while still on the neck.
The man, straggling in pain, grabbed Hajime and threw him against the walls of the carriage. But Hajime got up and jumped on top of the man, grabbed the dagger in his neck, and started to repeatedly stab him until he fell and stopped moving.
Blood spilled all over the floor of the carriage, and some of it started to leak out between the spaces of the carriage floor.
"What's going on back there?!"
The horse in front of the carriage stopped moving, and the man who was driving it turned, looking through the window that was behind him. But the moment he was able to peek up in the carriage, he found his friend down, and Hajime holding a bloody dagger while covered in blood and standing still, looking at the man's body.
"What did you do?!"
Hajime turned, looking at the other man, his eyes still with a burned yellow color. His face was also covered with blood, but it didn't seem to bother him. The man, in rage, punched the carriage and broke its front. The ropes tied to the horses snapped, and the horses, frightened by the sound, ran away in the opposite direction from the carriage.
The force of the punch carried Hajime away from where he was standing and made him fall next to the back exit of the carriage.
"You..." The man uttered, approaching Hajime while drawing out his sword from its sheath.
Hajime didn't waste any time; he stood up as quickly as possible and head-on attacked the man, but the man saw his every move and kicked him out of the carriage and Hajime hit his back on some trees, but the man jumped out of the carriage and kicked him again without giving him a chance to attack back.
As Hajime was being beaten to the ground, his eyes turned back to their crimson color.
"How?" The man said, looking down on him as if he were trash.
Hajime could not find the chance to fight back; he was powerless against this foe in every way imaginable. And he had no recollection of what the man was talking about.
He forgot everything that had happened the moment his eyes reverted to their original color.
His eyes were filled with confusion and pain. He didn't have a clue why the man was on top of him in the first place.
The man grabbed Hajime's head and continued, "How in the hell did someone like you kill him?"
He smashed Hajime's head into the ground with a grin on his face. He looked up, clearing his mind as the grin grew. He couldn't just control himself. He squeezed Hajime's head and smashed it to the ground again.
He turned, looking at the carriage, but from a distance in front of the carriage, he could see the town where he and his friend were going to make some money off Hajime. The town was just two kilometers away from where they were, and it was surrounded by a big wall covering its every angle.
He stood up, thinking of the distance he had to walk just to get to the town without a horse. And looking at the baggage he had with him, the distance would not be a walk in the park. And his ticket to getting into the town was lying down dead, killed by a kid who had never killed a bug in his entire life.
No matter. He needed a plan to get in without being suspected by the guards at the entrance of the town.
He glanced left and right while biting his thumb as he started moving back and forth to maybe try to figure out something, when suddenly, as he was moving, he kicked a chain that was attached to Hajime's leg.
Hajime was still on the ground and unable to move. His hair and clothes were covered with blood. Upon seeing this, the man had an idea that would get him into the town without even being suspected.