"Explain everything to us, you bastard!"
Humarc's voice exploded as he burst in, slamming the door open.
The sky had darkened into night, and the situation had grown calmer. Outside, everyone exhausted from the day-long fighting could no longer move—most could only lie on thin mats hastily set up.
Just moments earlier, on his way to the village chief's temporary residence at the evacuation site, Kuon had seen a dozen to several dozen injured people receiving minimal treatment. The village had only a handful of people capable of carrying out basic medical procedures, while the more experienced ones came almost entirely from the assigned Adepts, whether from Kuon's team or Humarc's.
But everyone who had just finished fighting was nowhere near a good condition themselves, making it nearly impossible for them to help treat the injured.
The metallic smell of blood was overpowering, and the grim sight made it hard for Kuon to ignore them as he walked behind Humarc, who was holding back his emotions on the way.
"Kuon… should we stop him?"
Kuon shook his head at Felix's question.
He looked back toward Humarc, who was now being held back with great difficulty by the village chief's guards. But Humarc's large build had given him a clear advantage from the start—even after having just gone through a long, grueling fight.
Humarc easily threw off all the guards onto the floor and kept walking toward the village chief, who looked terrified.
"Explain everything to us, you bastard! Something like this wasn't in your reports at all!"
His emotions came out in harsh, crude words aimed at the village chief. But Kuon could understand it well enough.
Not only had Humarc exhausted himself fighting relentlessly against the endless stream of monsters and the aggressive Black Tide, but one of his team members—a Magician named Milia—had also gotten trapped in the Black Tide and ended up infected with Apocrypt.
Right now, she was under close care from her other team members. But that care could only address her physical wounds, while no one could do anything about the Apocrypt already infecting her.
Kuon's own team wasn't in much better shape. Kanon had completely drained her abundant Aether reserves, and her eyes had also suffered such severe strain that she could barely open them at all. Vierra was currently tending to her, but Vierra herself was equally exhausted from moving and casting her magic nonstop.
Felix was relatively safer given his position as a sniper. Though he had ultimately ended up in close combat too, his body was still in better shape than Vierra's. Much the same applied to Kuon. Thanks to a body reinforced to resist fatigue and adapt quickly, he had experienced almost no physical exhaustion at all. But the same couldn't be said for his head, however—continuous use of [Accel] had left it pounding with pain now, a pain that had also spread into the muscles of his body as they strained to keep up with the movements his mind envisioned.
"I think that's enough, Humarc."
The pain in his head kept him from sitting through any more of this hard conversation, so he finally stepped forward and stopped Humarc, who was about to land a hard punch on the village chief's face.
"Why are you stopping me, Kuon? You know yourself it's because of this bastard that we couldn't handle the situation properly."
Kuon raised his hand as a signal for Humarc to be quiet, and Humarc reluctantly complied. He clicked his tongue once while glancing at the village chief, then stepped back and let Kuon take over.
Kuon adjusted his monocle briefly, then pressed a finger to his temple to dull the pain in his head for a moment—giving himself the chance to speak clearly.
"I'm certain you already understand the situation well, but let me make this clear to you: the hardship we all went through today is your fault, for failing to be transparent in sharing information—not just with us, but with the UAA. Because of that, casualties have already fallen even before we've finished our first week."
Kuon furrowed his brow at the village chief, who could only avert his eyes with an anxious expression. "This is genuinely unfortunate, because we can't afford to lose any more personnel. If the situation doesn't change starting tomorrow, we'll have no choice but to simply try to endure. Setting myself aside, the people striving to protect you and your village won't be able to keep fighting if they see no hope in this situation."
There had been no fatalities on the Adept side yet, but several of the village's guard knights had already been declared dead after their bodies were found among the monster corpses.
"Given how severe today already was, I doubt tomorrow will be any better. If this keeps up, even the Adepts sent here won't be enough to handle a fight of that scale again. And I'm sure you know exactly what would happen if the line of Adepts and guards collapses before the knight order arrives in two weeks."
Kuon had no issue with a prolonged fight. But if the intensity stayed as extreme as it had been today, he couldn't even guarantee what would happen going forward.
In the earlier fight, Kuon, having drained all his energy from [Accel], had started moving on near-random impulse. He couldn't recall exactly when he had stopped thinking, but from that point on his body had kept fighting on its own—relying entirely on raw physical strength and instinct alone.
'This is difficult, since I'm still not quite used to the intensity of power this body grants me.'
Kuon closed his eyes without realizing it and let out a heavy breath. Then his gaze returned to the village chief, still trembling in place.
"Black Tide activity grew more aggressive today, and its intensity exceeded even what we and the UAA had predicted. Right now, it may have calmed down and stopped spreading, but we can't guarantee the same for tomorrow or tomorrow after. That's why, without losing my respect for you, I need you to give us more detailed information about the situation."
Kuon's suspicion fell entirely on the village chief. Judging by credibility alone, it was unlikely that either the knight order or the UAA would have deliberately withheld information. Either there was a mole sabotaging the knight order, or the source of the information itself was inaccurate. In this case, Kuon's suspicion leaned toward the latter.
Kuon tried to steady himself, masking his frustration and facing the situation with a clear head. But even that was difficult, since his mind hadn't fully recovered yet.
"I'm giving you a chance: tell us everything, clearly. The situation you caused has already claimed the lives of people trying to protect your village, and left permanent injuries among us Adepts as well. Unfortunately for you, I still have my morals and my humanity, so I won't abandon those who have genuinely become victims in this village. But the same won't hold true for those I deem 'trash'."
At that moment, every word Kuon spoke came out with a voice and atmosphere growing more chilling by degrees. Until finally, the gaze from his blue eyes no longer carried the usual calm, but instead took on a bloodthirsty edge that made everyone uneasy.
'Are his eyes… turning red?'
Felix, watching from a safe distance, found himself swallowing as he felt the oppressive intensity radiating from Kuon. But his attention was quickly drawn to Kuon's eyes—once blue, now a deep red resembling blood.
'Is that normal?'
After thinking it over briefly, Felix decided to set it aside for now. He shook his head and moved to help Kuon push the situation forward.
He raised his crossbow, bolt loaded and aimed squarely at the village chief.
There was no resolving this through discussion anymore. Even Felix understood that the only way out of this situation was through pressure and a bit of intimidation. Of course, Felix wasn't cruel enough to actually pull the trigger on someone not yet proven guilty. But at least this was enough to add weight to the threat.
The remaining guards immediately raised their swords and shields the moment Felix lifted his crossbow. But the village chief, now pushed beyond his limit, frantically waved his hands at Kuon.
"P-please stop! Spare me, I'll tell you everything! I'll really tell you everything!"
Kuon's eyes returned to normal, and Felix lowered his crossbow. The guards, who had braced themselves to fight however reluctantly, did the same.
***
"It happened… about a week before I asked the city of Narc't to send aid."
A cloaked figure had appeared, concealing not only their identity but their entire form beneath a gray cloak. There was no way to tell who they were when even their body shape was completely hidden. Though their age and race were impossible to determine, the distorted voice sounded faintly like that of a woman.
At the time, the village chief, asleep in the middle of the night, woke to find the figure standing right in front of his open window.
The cloak covering their body, along with several large needles hovering around them, were wreathed in blue flame. The sight alone was enough to set off the village chief's survival instincts, sending him scrambling out of bed to flee. But just as he tried to, one of the blue-burning needles shot toward him and embedded itself squarely in the door right in front of him.
Faced with destructive power massive enough to kill him instantly, the village chief had no choice but to stay frozen in place. He didn't even dare raise his voice to call the patrolling guards.
The appearance was brief—they had only come to 'ask' the village chief to stay silent.
"Stay silent. If you tell anyone about this…."
With a pause at the end of her sentence, the woman threw another blue-flame-wreathed needle toward the village chief. But the needle never reached him, stopping dead in the air right after he shut his eyes in panic.
"I-I swear, that's what happened."
As the village chief began recounting the incident from his side, Kuon's eyes narrowed sharply.
'Does he think I'm an idiot?'
None of it made sense if that was really how it happened. For a moment, Kuon genuinely wanted to punch the man's face, but he decided to hold back and asked instead, "So, what did you do?"
The village chief pondered for a moment, then answered. "I… wanted to keep the woman a secret at first. But… the Black Tide around the village kept growing more active, so I started getting worried. I-if I didn't report it, the village would be destroyed the moment the guards were overrun."
Realizing this, the village chief had decided to do something reckless: defy the woman's warning and report the situation to the city. But just to be safe, he hadn't reported the full situation, only a rough outline, and had even understated the details about the Black Tide's intensity, which should have been his top priority.
If he only reported the rough outline—as long as he said nothing about the woman's existence—everything would be fine. That was what he had hoped. But the result of that decision was today's incident.
"I-I really don't know anything! If anything, I'm the victim here! T-that's right! If that woman hadn't appeared, things would surely be different right now—"
His words trailed off unfinished as Kuon promptly landed a light kick to his face. The act was so sudden that everyone present questioned what he was doing. But Felix, still level-headed and having sensed the same wrongness Kuon had, moved and raised his crossbow once more.
"Lower your weapon, Felix. We'll let it go for now."
After glancing at Felix, Kuon turned his gaze back to the village chief. "Honestly, that wasn't a bad story, but I still can't bring myself to trust you. So you need to make a decision: either leave the situation as it is—letting everyone wear down and lose ground little by little—or commit to your decision as a leader of this place and take the risk of requesting reinforcements."
"B-but that—!"
A flurry of scenarios immediately played out in his head. But one thing was certain: if he called for reinforcements, there was a strong chance the woman would come back to 'deal with him'.
"You think you have another option? The number of people who can still fight has already dropped, and it'll keep dropping as time goes on. We'll manage to hold out somehow for now, but it won't be long before the defense collapses entirely."
Seeing the village chief still gripped by fear and hesitation, Kuon found himself forced to reveal the last card he had been holding. "In exchange… until this mission is over, we'll guarantee extra protection for you. But we still have to protect everyone else too, so I'll be upfront about this—our protection still carries a chance of failure. Well? Isn't that still better than having no guard at all?"
At this point, that was the village chief's only option. So no matter how he resisted, Kuon had no intention of changing his offer—because he knew the village chief would inevitably accept.
"… A-alright, I understand. I'll send the request for reinforcements first thing tomorrow morning."
"Good. Thank you for your cooperation."
***
"My apologies for making that decision on my own. You and your team can step back if you'd like—I'll handle the matter of guarding the village chief."
The moment they stepped out of the village chief's house, Kuon spoke to Humarc, who had clearly cooled his head by then. At the apology, Humarc shook his head. "No, it's fine. Honestly, that was the most sensible decision we could have made. I'll join in guarding too, but I'll ask my team first whether they want in or not."
Kuon nodded, then turned his gaze to Felix, who still looked deep in thought. "What about you, Felix? What's on your mind?"
Hearing his name, Felix immediately lifted his face with a confused expression, then quickly caught up to what Kuon meant and answered. "Eh… I don't mind, and Vierra shouldn't have a problem with it either. It's just… Kuon, was the village chief lying?"
Kuon raised an eyebrow briefly, caught off guard by Felix's question. He gave a faint smile, seeing this younger figure carry eyes full of questions—the very same eyes belonging to a figure in his memory, one he had long since forgotten without realizing it.
"The signs were clear enough, so you must have noticed it too. I can't guarantee it, but I'm fairly certain there's still a lie that man is hiding. For one… why would the woman in his story bother coming just to issue a threat? It would have been far easier for her to simply kill him and hide the body from everyone. That way, she could carry out whatever plan she has in mind without complications. Unfortunately, we don't know the facts on the ground—what actually happened that night, so we can't say anything for certain."
Felix nodded as he took in Kuon's explanation, but then another question crossed his mind. "But… why would he bother lying and hiding the truth from us in the first place?"
At that question, a dark smile crossed Kuon's face as he answered. "Isn't it obvious? He's doing it to hide an even bigger problem or scandal."
Even after taking pressure from every direction, the man had still insisted on keeping his secret hidden. If Kuon hadn't been so skilled at controlling his emotional fluctuations, he would have already smashed that face hard in long ago.
The only reason Kuon had decided to let him live for now was that he needed further information about what had actually happened. Even if the man refused to talk, the truth would eventually surface on its own.
But what bound him so tightly to this matter was the existence of the woman herself. There were far too many unanswered questions surrounding her, and because of that, Kuon couldn't afford to let his guard down. The village chief was the only link to finding that woman, so Kuon had no choice but to keep him alive.
'Besides, that goes against my principles anyway.'
Kuon let out a tired sigh as his eyes turned toward the tents hastily set up at the evacuation site. Among them, several stood lined up along the village's border area. That was where the guards and Adepts rested.
From one of the tents, Kuon saw Vierra emerge, her face showing severe exhaustion.
Their eyes met briefly, and Vierra let out a sigh and gestured for them to come closer.
"… I'll see you again later, Humarc."
Humarc nodded. "Alright, I'll go back and check on my friends then."