Hajime staggered from the sudden impact and fell to the ground, trying to regain his balance. The rest of the villagers he had been with had reached the town square, moving cautiously, their eyes constantly flicking between the shadows and each other.
Then, one of them spotted a figure moving in the distance, a dark silhouette just beyond the reach of the dim light. Excitement and relief surged through him, prompting him to speak. He pointed eagerly and announced that there were still people left in the village.
But the others only exchanged uneasy glances. The figure ahead wasn't a fellow villager; it was clearly a knight, his posture and armor unmistakable even in the shadows. The young man's optimism was a dangerous misjudgment, and the group suddenly felt the weight of their mistake.
As for Hajime, he didn't realize the person he had collided with was a knight. The armor had felt strangely light, almost soft, when he hit it, nothing like the heavy steel he expected.
"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to bump into you," Hajime apologized as he pushed himself up and tried to look at the man properly.
The knight, however, had stiffened in surprise. For a split second, he had been certain he was being ambushed by surviving villagers.
"You're a kid?" The man blinked in surprise when he finally got a clear look at Hajime. The figure he had braced himself against wasn't an adult at all, but a child, small, shaken, and clearly out of place in the middle of an abandoned village.
His attention quickly shifted past Hajime. From farther down the street, faint voices began to rise, growing louder with each passing second. The low murmur of conversation carried through the empty roads, unmistakably human. Another group was approaching, villagers who had followed after the first wave Hajime had come with.
The realization settled in all at once. Hajime wasn't alone, and this quiet corner of the village was about to become much less empty.
The knight raised his left hand and pressed it against the side of his head, just behind his ear, while his right hand stayed firmly wrapped around his weapon. A small red light flared beneath his fingers, followed by a faint ringing.
Even as whatever spell was activated, his attention didn't drift. His gaze remained fixed on Hajime in front of him, while his awareness stretched down the darkened street ahead, where the distant chatter continued to swell. The growing voices were confirmation enough: more villagers were moving in,
Hajime forced himself to stay calm as he stared at the knight's face. He looks like one of them, he thought. I need to get out of here before he realizes I'm a villager.
What Hajime didn't know was that the knight had already figured it out and was simply buying time while waiting for backup.
"Sorry again," Hajime said, offering a polite smile as he brushed the dirt from his clothes. He took a step forward, intending to continue toward his house as if nothing were wrong.
A hand suddenly closed around his shoulder.
The knight leaned down slightly and smiled, though the expression didn't quite reach his eyes. "Hey," he said casually, "can you tell me where you're coming from?"
Hajime froze. His heart began to pound so loudly he was sure it could be heard.
Does this guy think I'm stupid? Hajime thought bitterly. Just because he's taller than me, he thinks I'll give away where Reiko and Rica are? The smile bothered him most; it was tight, forced, and unmistakably fake.
He shifted his gaze past the knight's shoulder, toward the corner where the distant chatter was growing louder. "The others?" Hajime asked, pretending curiosity as he glanced in that direction.
The knight gave a short nod without pressing further.
Hajime made his decision in an instant. No problem, I'll just sacrifice the idiots who were messing with Reiko earlier, good thing they're just around that corner. The plan felt cold, but it was fast, and it would buy him some time.
He tilted his head slightly and shifted his gaze toward the bend in the street. "Over there," he said, indicating the corner without lifting his hand. "Right behind that corner."
"Over there?" The knight repeated loosening his grip, and his hand slipped away from Hajime's shoulder as his attention shifted.
Hajime faked a polite smile and took a step back, then another. "Okay then," He said lightly. "If that's all you needed... Then see you soon, mister."
***
Meanwhile, outside the barrier on the training grounds, some of the people who had arrived after the first wave of villagers lingered with puzzled expressions. They were surprised by how quiet the village seemed. Many looked as if they were waiting for someone to emerge from the barrier, even though nothing was visible, not even the goddess's statue.
"What's going on?" one of them muttered, his eyes narrowing as he studied the barrier. Something felt off; it wasn't behaving like a normal barrier. There were no visible traces, no shimmer in the air, nothing to indicate its presence.
"Hey, look!" another called out, pointing toward the training grounds. His face held a mix of surprise and confusion, as if he couldn't quite process what he was seeing.
"Wasn't there a barrier here just a second ago?" one asked, still staring at the grounds.
"...Hah..."
"What do you mean, a second ago?" another replied, as the group's attention shifted to the grass in front of them.
"What the hell…?"
They repeated, their expressions a mix of shock and disbelief as they scanned the ground. Then, suddenly, something that looked like a small portal tore open the air in front of them.
It was the barrier opening, allowing those inside to pass through unharmed. From the perspective of the people still inside, everything appeared normal; there was no visible portal opening or closing. But to those outside, it was unmistakable.
....
"So, what should we do next?"
A voice came from the portal, followed by footsteps on the grass as several people stepped through.
The people outside just stood in a daze with their attention on the portal, while their faces looked even more confused.
From a distance, a knight stood in the shadows, silently observing everything happening with the villagers.
A second later, five more figures stepped out of the portal. One of them carried a black rose—an unusual plant that only grew in the deepest, secluded parts of the village's training grounds. Their clothes and gear suggested they were adventurers, though their posture and hesitant movements betrayed their inexperience. None of them seemed particularly strong, and their presence gave off the impression of a fledgling party,
A moment later, the portal snapped shut. The five who came out didn't say a word to each other or anyone else. They just passed by the first group, moving like they had somewhere important to be, completely focused and unreadable.
"...Was that...?" One of the people the adventurers had just passed muttered, stepping closer to the training ground. He half-hoped the portal might reopen so they could get back inside Reiko's barrier. But nothing happened
Seeing the village so calm changed their minds. The quiet, peaceful streets made them more uneasy than the chaos of the attack had, stirring a fear they hadn't felt before.
"Hmmm," they murmured, surprised by what had just happened.
They had expected the barrier to react violently, maybe even incinerate him, since the portal hadn't opened. After all, it was designed to block and destroy anything trying to enter without the caster's permission. Yet, nothing happened. The barrier didn't touch him at all; it simply allowed him to cross the threshold of the training grounds without hindrance. He wasn't truly inside the grounds, only on their edge. It was as if the barrier existed in a separate space altogether, layered over the training grounds in a way that made it impossible for anyone to enter or exit without the caster's intent.
"Why didn't the barrier zap you?" one of them asked, staring at the figure on the training ground.
"I… I don't know," came the hesitant reply.
"Is the barrier down…?" another muttered, eyes scanning the empty grounds.
"...But if it is, then why can't we see anyone else?" someone else wondered aloud, and the others turned to look at him.
The knight edged closer to the training ground, straining to catch what the group was saying. They remained oblivious to his presence, too absorbed in their own confusion over the barrier to notice anyone nearby.
Meanwhile, Hajime moved cautiously through the village, making his way toward his house. He kept a careful eye on the knights scattered around the streets, yet, oddly, none of them made any move to stop him. It was as if they were aware of him but had chosen to ignore his presence, leaving him to pass unhindered.
The knights were ignoring him because they thought he was no threat, or it could have been that none of them wanted to end a kid's life.
Hajime noticed that all of them were carrying rifles, and their armor looked a bit lighter than usual.
'Since when did they start making guns?' Hajime thought as he kept moving forward without glancing back.
Avallon had no weapons like guns until just recently, when the kingdom of Melcelut introduced them as a new kind of weapon to deal with every single kingdom that thinks would take it on.
....
Not far from where Hajime was, a woman's scream cut through the silence, drawing everyone's attention in her direction. Her voice sounded like it belonged to one of the people who looked like adventurers who had come out of the barrier earlier.
The group at the barrier heard her scream, and their attention was piqued. They stopped trying to figure out how Reiko's barrier worked and rushed to see what was happening.
The knight who had been watching them didn't follow the group. Instead, he stayed hidden, observing quietly, hoping to see if more villagers would appear.
Of course, he was simply following the orders he had received earlier, signaled through the growing light and the ringing sound when he had been speaking with Hajime.
The first question the group asked as they reached the woman who had screamed earlier was, "What's going on?!"
She looked terrified, frozen as her eyes took in the aftermath. Her four friends were all down, each riddled with bullet wounds, headshots that had ended them instantly. Blood had sprayed and pooled around their bodies, dark and sticky, seeping into the dirt.
One of the bodies was sprawled in a protective posture, its arms stretched as if shielding the girl, but the bullet had through anyway, leaving it shattered and motionless.
"Wah-what happened here?" one of the men in the group stammered, stopping dead in his tracks. His eyes widened in shock, mirroring the fear etched on the woman's face. She crouched over the lifeless bodies of her friends, her hands slick with blood that smeared over her arms and clothes. Despite the carnage, she was chanting quietly, a faint apple-green glow radiating from her palms as a healing spell flickered weakly over the corpses. The magic washed over the bodies, but it did nothing, her friends were gone.
Some of the men dropped to their knees, vomiting at the sight, while others froze in sheer terror. A few scanned the area frantically, trying to find whoever had executed the four with brutal headshots.
Suddenly, a flash of light erupted atop a distant building, and one of the men searching around collapsed instantly, never even realizing what had struck him.
From a distance, near the ruins of a destroyed building, an even taller structure, still under construction, loomed over the area, and Rose lay prone on a support beam, her sniper resting on the edge, and using her mana as ammunition.
She carefully tracked the villagers as they emerged into the open, picking them off one by one with precise, headshots.
She wasn't alone atop the unfinished structure. Beside her was the man who always seemed to be enjoying himself, along with three other knights. Together, they assisted in her specialty: long-range assassination, coordinating shots and covering angles to pick off anyone who exposed themselves.
"Can I take out the woman?" one of the knights asked, lining up his shot and focusing the trajectory of his gun on the woman sitting ahead, surrounded by the group of men, panicking.
"No. Keep her alive." The smiling man said.
His name was Mathew. He was the one leading the attack on the village, with Rose acting as his second-in-command, despite being the only woman in the group.
Mathew then added,
"Just make sure you take out all the others… They look useless, not even fit to work as slaves."
He was drinking beer he had brought with him while the others worked. But it wasn't as if he was just sitting around doing nothing. His role was to lead the knights and ensure they successfully carried out their shooting training.
Rose adjusted her sniper slightly to the left and noticed someone inside a nearby building, close to the one they were on. That person was Hajime, standing near a window and hydrating himself.
"Is that a kid?" she muttered, her voice tinged with confusion.
"Did you say something?" Mathew asked as Rose turned her gun away from Hajime.
"No… Just don't kill children if you see one. They might be useful if properly trained as imperial knights," Rose replied, her arm twitching slightly.
Mathew didn't answer, he only continued smiling. The other knights glanced at him, their expressions wary and hesitant.
On the training grounds, five more groups emerged from the barrier. Some grumbled about being bored, others complained that they needed to go home, and a few just kept whining about being hungry.
Meanwhile, inside the barrier, Reiko was speaking with the villagers, mostly women, children, and adult men. She noticed Rica sitting alone with Varl, but Hajime was nowhere to be seen.