The next morning, the sun had barely cleared the rooftops of Fondval when the residents began gathering once again on the announcement square.
The night had been short for everyone. After Stigma's attack, no one had really managed to sleep properly. Some had spent part of the night checking on their houses, others talking with loved ones trying to make sense of what had actually happened. Many had also discovered the damage caused by the boulder explosions, thankfully limited to the outskirts of the village.
Emrys had already been there for several minutes when he saw the first residents arrive.
He sat on an old wooden crate placed near the chief's house, his mask still on his face, but unlike usual he wasn't wearing his armor, just a black shirt and pants pulled from Unlimited Blade Works. He'd spent a good part of the night thinking about what he was going to propose to them, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized it would be difficult to convince them, especially since he was already under suspicion.
After what had just happened, it would honestly be downright absurd not to be.
Joran was one of the first to arrive. He walked up to Emrys and stopped in front of him.
"So, you've finished thinking over your idea?"
"Yes."
The answer came immediately.
Joran studied the mask for a few seconds before glancing around.
"And what is this idea?" Joran asked.
"You'll find out at the same time as everyone else," Emrys answered.
"Since I'll find out either way, what's the point of hiding it from me now?" Joran shot back, puzzled by Emrys's decision to keep things from him.
Emrys sighed.
"It's more complicated than you think."
Joran stayed silent, then slowly nodded before walking off to join the other residents.
A few minutes later, the square was full again.
This time, the atmosphere was different from the day before. The fear was still there, but the anger had faded. The residents had had an entire night to think over what Emrys had told them, and many of them still didn't know what to make of it.
Emrys got up from his crate.
The murmur of the crowd gradually died down as the residents noticed him move.
"Morning."
A few people answered timidly, while others simply stayed silent.
Emrys looked over the crowd for a few seconds before speaking.
"Like I said yesterday, given what happened, I don't think it's reasonable to stay here waiting to see if someone else shows up."
A man raised his hand.
"So what do we do, then?"
"I want to take you somewhere else."
A murmur immediately swept through the square.
"And where's that?"
"I can't tell you right now."
Silence fell almost instantly.
A man frowned.
"You can't tell us?"
"No."
"And you still want us to follow you?"
"Yes."
A few residents started talking among themselves.
Emrys let them for a few seconds before continuing.
"I know my request is hard to accept. You don't know me, and now I'm asking you to leave with me without even telling you where we're going. I completely understand your suspicion."
"Then why won't you tell us?" a woman asked.
"Because the fewer people who know where it is, the better."
"That's exactly what someone trying to lure us into a trap would say," a man called out from the back of the crowd.
Several people nodded, and Emrys wasn't offended by it. In fact, he had to admit that, to some extent, it was true.
"Yes. I understand."
"You understand?"
"Yes."
He set his hand on his mask and slowly pulled it off.
The change was immediate; several people's eyes went wide at the sudden gesture. Plenty of rumors circulated about Faker, and one of the few things every single one of them agreed on was that he never let anyone see his face.
An almost total silence settled over the square.
Emrys let the mask drop into his hand before looking out at the residents.
"My name is…" Emrys started, before being abruptly cut off by Bern.
"EMRYS?"
The old man stepped forward a few paces, jaw dropped, stunned.
"Is that really you?"
Emrys gave him a small smile.
"Morning, Mr. Bern."
The blacksmith stood frozen.
A few residents turned toward him.
"You know him?"
Bern didn't answer right away. He just kept staring at Emrys with an incredulous expression.
"He's a genius with the forge, he's been working with me for the past few days."
Joran, for his part, took the revelation far more calmly.
"I knew I'd heard that voice somewhere before. So it was him."
"So it's really him?"
"The Faker?"
"But he was at Bern's forge..."
"I've seen him around several times!"
"Wait, he's really the one who beat Stigma yesterday? He looks so young."
Emrys raised a hand to calm them down.
"I'll be turning 18 this year."
The murmur immediately picked back up.
Emrys waited a few seconds before speaking again.
"I'm not asking you to trust me because I'm Faker, or because I took out Stigma's people, but because I want to protect this village too."
Bern stepped forward.
"Did you know they were coming?"
"No. But I had some suspicions."
"So how'd you manage to stop them?"
"I sensed them coming."
Bern frowned.
"That might sound crazy, but that's fairly basic stuff for fighters. Sensing an opponent's magic is a pretty basic skill."
He doesn't need to know that's not actually how I detected them.
"And can you protect us again if they come back?"
Emrys hesitated slightly.
"I can't promise you no one will ever be able to reach you. I can only tell you I'll do everything in my power to protect you."
A man crossed his arms.
"And if we refuse to follow you?"
"Then I'll respect your decision."
That answer caught several people off guard.
"You'll just leave us here?"
"No, I'll do my best to lead you to another village or town, but I can tell you that in three years, I haven't found a single village as peaceful and untouched by the war as this one. Of course, you can also choose not to follow me and do as you please, I won't force you."
Emrys set his mask down on his crate, feeling the discomfort of holding it the whole time.
"But if you stay here, you should know one thing. Stigma may now be aware the demon exists. Even if no other soldiers show up right away, someone might eventually come to investigate. And this time, I might not be here."
The crowd went quiet.
"I don't want to scare you. I'm just giving you the facts."
A woman looked at her husband.
"We can't stay here… but we don't even know where he wants to take us."
"That's what bothers me."
The discussions slowly picked back up.
Emrys watched them without intervening.
He knew they needed time.
Joran then stepped up to him and said.
"You should maybe tell them what you're planning to do out there."
Emrys shook his head.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because if they refuse, I'd rather they refuse knowing only what I'm asking of them. I don't want to give them information they might regret hearing."
Joran looked at him for a few seconds.
"You've really thought this all through."
"I had all night."
Joran gave a small smile.
Then a voice rose from the crowd.
"And what guarantees you won't just abandon us once we've left?"
Emrys looked at the man who had spoken.
"The place I'm taking you to is a little unusual. You don't have to worry about me abandoning you along the way."
The answer caught the residents off guard again.
The man stayed silent.
A little girl then tugged on her mother's sleeve.
"Mama..."
The woman leaned down toward her.
"What is it?"
"Are we gonna have to leave?"
The mother looked at her child before raising her eyes back to Emrys.
Around her, several residents had started talking about what they'd have to leave behind. Some were already thinking about their crops, others about their food stores or the tools they'd built up over the years. But the main worry concerned the livestock.
"And our animals?" a man finally asked. "We can't just leave them behind."
"And our fields?"
"My crops are almost ready."
"I've got all my equipment in my barn."
The questions began piling up, though the crowd never regained the agitation of the day before. Emrys quickly understood that it wasn't really the departure itself that worried them, but everything they stood to lose by leaving Fondval.
He simply raised a hand to get their attention.
"Don't worry about that."
Several residents turned toward him.
"What do you mean, don't worry?"
Emrys glanced briefly at the houses surrounding the square.
"I told you I'd take you somewhere Stigma can't reach you. I never said you'd have to abandon everything you own."
Silence settled in.
"So what are you planning to do with our things?" Lira asked.
"They'll come with you."
The villagers looked somewhat skeptical at that answer.
"How?"
"You'll understand what I mean when it's time to leave."
A few residents exchanged puzzled looks.
Emrys knew exactly what they were thinking. After all, even though the task wasn't impossible, the difficulty and the time it would take, whether to gather or transport the crops, the livestock, and everything else, would be absurd.
"Actually, you won't even need to touch anything. You can leave everything exactly as it is. You just need to tell me whether you accept or not."
At those words, the residents began talking more calmly among themselves. Some still seemed to hesitate, but the worry that had been holding them back from deciding had eased.
Emrys looked out over the square again.
He could tell plenty of residents still weren't fully convinced, but they'd stopped looking for a reason to refuse. They simply needed to know they wouldn't be losing their entire lives by leaving Fondval.
Once that worry was gone, the decision became much simpler.
Joran eventually stepped forward.
"So it's decided, then."
He looked at the residents around him.
"We're leaving."
This time, no one protested.
Emrys nodded.
"Good choice."
"And when do we leave?" someone asked.
"Tomorrow morning."
The residents began to disperse to prepare their houses. Some headed straight for the stables, others for their barns or fields. The square slowly emptied as everyone began organizing their departure.
Rou, for his part, lingered near Emrys a moment longer.
"Are you really gonna manage to take everything?"
Emrys looked at the boy.
"You'll see tomorrow."
Rou seemed like he wanted to press further, but he ended up smiling.
"Okay."
He went to join his friends.
Emrys waited until the last of the residents had left the square before looking out over Fondval one last time.
Tomorrow, they wouldn't just be leaving their houses.
They would be leaving the entire village.
And once they finally understood what Emrys really meant by "take you with me," he was certain no one would see the answer coming.
Because he had never planned on transporting only the residents.
It was all of Fondval that was about to leave with them.