"Now that I am fine, we should leave just like you said," Remond said to Karo in a calm voice, trying to get to know Karo a bit better.
"No, you can stay. Stay until you are healed. There was a snowstorm yesterday, so you shouldn't venture out of town in this weather." Karo said in a worried way.
"So, just stay in this room while you heal; don't go out," Karo added.
After saying that, Karo left the room in a hurry.
'What's out of the room? Is there some sort of beast that eats people? Why is Karo so adamant about us leaving the room?' Remond thought for some time while patting his Sofie's head on his lap.
...
Later in the evening, Remond heard another scream; this time it was a male voice.
'Was that a common thing in the mountains, or should I leave the room? No, I would be putting Sofie in danger by doing so. I will ask Karo about it.' Remond is shaking his head.
Remond stayed up until sunrise listening to other things that happened in the town.
...
The next morning, Karo walked in with bowls of soup for the siblings. Sofie was still sleeping.
Remond is trying to wake up. Sofie extended his hand towards her. Suddenly, Karo spoke: "Let her sleep; she was worried sick of you. She looked so intensely when I was near you the whole time. She is a fighter, alright, even though she is weak as well."
Remond pulled his hand and looked at Karo for a moment, and asked, "What are all the screams I heard at night?"
Karo was surprised to hear that from Remond.
"Did you really hear the scream?" Karo asked with hopeful eyes.
"Yes, I also heard a scream of a woman on the night that I collapsed."
Karo grabbed Remond's hand and asked, "Do you also have powers?"
'What? How did he know? What did he mean by "also"? Remond thought for just a second and spoke his mind.
"What do you mean by also are there people with power?" Remond asked with a confused face.
"Yes, there is, and his name is Louis; he controls this town," Karo explained.
The town's name was Conada; it was controlled by a metahuman named Louis. He was originally a normal human who got into the town with the hopes of mining gold, but was forced into labor by the big companies that came after the gold.
On an uneventful day, a typical day of any miner, Louis suddenly awoke the powers to make illusions. The body of Louis also started to change. Before, he looked like a man in his 30s, with pale skin from getting no sunlight and a body beaten to the core by booze and cigarettes, but after awakening his power, he was transformed into a whole different person. His skin was glowing, and his body was full of muscles and had gotten a lot stronger.
With his newfound power, he manipulated the mines to make it look like they had depleted over the course of five years, slowly building an illusion in the minds of all the people in the town, hiding the gold he found as well as building his wealth.
The big companies left the mines, seeing no profits from the mines. While the iron was hot, he hired goons from the piles of gold he had hidden and took control of the town and the mines.
Louis made the townsmen work by manipulating their reality with his illusions, but he had a limit to his power, as he had to be within a radius of 1 kilometer for the illusion to work, so he had to stay at the mines for a prolonged period of time for safe mining and no retaliation.
That is the reason why the group of men Karo was with was not affected by the illusion.
Karo was the mayor of the town, even before they discovered the gold, and was well respected. Karo was actually the third-generation mayor of the town that his grandfather had built, but was not consumed by power like Louis is now.
He was a gentle person by nature and was kind to everyone in the town, and was well-loved by the townsmen.
After the gold was discovered and a mining company took over the town, he was not able to do anything to stop the company from destroying their peaceful town, and he had deep regret in his heart.
So, when he learned that gold was depleted, he was relieved that now the companies were still trying to find more gold, but Karo and the original townsmen protested and blocked any extra bombing of the mountain, which was the main factor that the companies left and didn't further investigate for more gold.
But it was all a ploy by Louis, who made those deceptions to drive the companies out, and Karo had helped him unknowingly and made the situation even worse. Most workers were from other places, so they went to their homes, but some left late, and some had no place else to go; those were the people Louis had been exploiting for the past 2 years.
Louis then threatened, killed, and raped women as he pleased; he not only used the town for his financial gain, but he also used them as if they were toys.
The reason that Karo was hostile toward the sibling was that he didn't want them to get roped into this mess of a town. Louis was a ruthless man who didn't even spare kids.
The screams Remond heard were of the people Louis killed, just outside the mines, for "entertainment."
...
After Remond heard those things, he was enraged. He thought of helping the townsmen see, but was concerned that his sister might get hurt, which he couldn't see.
"Remond, "I beg you, help the people of the town," Karo begged Remond.
The hopeful eyes of Karo and all the things he had done were enough to convince Remond to help them.
"Okay, I will help you on the condition that you have to keep Sofie safe from that devil," Remond said in a rigid tone.