"Excuse me for a bit"
She said as left the group to check on Rica. Her mood seemed to have come down a bit compared to earlier and just kept on looking at those who kept leaving her barrier to go to the village, but even so, she didn't see the first group leave but just sense it, and since Hajime was with it, she didn't notice him leave with them.
The group she was with watched her as she approached Rica who didn't notice her approaching. Rica looked like she was bored since the baby dragon was asleep, her expression was vacant- not sad, not tired, just... gone.
"Hey Rica!" Reiko called out.
Rica turned to face her while her bored expression changed. She was expecting that maybe Reiko had come to play with her, not knowing that Reiko had just come to ask about Hajime's where abouts.
"Where's Hajime?" Reiko asked her tone frustrated.
Rica was disappointed that her brows furrowed, and she placed her lips into a thin line. What she thought that her sister had come to do was all now, but an illusion formed by her mind. But she didn't let herself show that she was disappointed with her sister, but it was too late since her sister had already known that she was disappointed with her ever since she asked about Hajime.
"He's gone to drink some water, but it's been a while since he left." Rica said as she slowly looked away from her sister as she was talking.
"Drink water?" Confused Reiko asked.
There was no water body on the training grounds and the only place close to a water body was the woods which had a small river, but it was impossible to go there since the woods were closed off to the barrier and even if it wasn't closed off. It was still dangerous for anyone to go in it because it contained dangerous animals and creatures of the night.
"Is something wrong?" Rica asked with a confused look on her face.
"Where did he say he was going to drink the water?"
Reiko asked as her brows tilted up a little bit as she grabbed Rica by the shoulders.
Rica surprised and terrified of what was going on with her sister she replied without thinking about.
"I, I saw him heading to the village!" She replied, her voice shaking.
Some people who were close to them including the people who were talking to Reiko earlier stared at them as Reiko kept hold of her sisters' shoulders.
"What's going on over there?" Some of the people started asking each other because they had no idea with what was happening between the sisters.
"The village?" Reiko uttered as she lets go of Rica's shoulders and faced to the location where the village was located. Everyone looked at her as some of them started to back away from her like she was some sort of monster dressed as Reiko.
Without saying anything Reiko took of leaving the people and her sister behind to go after Hajime, but Rica stood up and started following her leaving the baby dragon alone sleeping while surrounded by strangers. The people just watched as the two kicked the dust.
Meanwhile in the village, some people were being captured while some who tried fleeing away or tried to fight back were being shot down while some of them were being tortured to death by magic used by the imperial knights.
"They keep coming head on." one of the knights said with a smile on his face while shooting down some of the people who were in his range of fire.
"Yeah, it's like they don't even know what's happening." Another knight who was close to the knight who kept on shooting the people in his range said as he just watched as his friend take down the villagers.
These knights didn't know that from a distance in they were being watched themselves by Rose and the others, who now was pissed off with what the two were doing to the villagers who looked strong enough to be taken captive and sent or sold to the capital of their kingdom.
"What are those goons think they're doing." Mathew said with a disgusted look on his face.
A second later he added while keeping watch on them.
"Take them down."
He had seen enough of them already, and as his duty to observe the operation, he couldn't stand watching people like them live to see another day. Rose's point of view of Mathew. And with that, without second thoughts, the two knights were incinerated into ashes together with everything that was around them. Of course, this was Rose's doing, she had a gun that was different from the others, and she was the only capable enough to use it.
The gun needed more Mana in order to be used, and everyone who attempted to use it ended up dead, out of commission or left without mana which resulted in their immediate death, cause everything in this world runed on mana as their life force, and without it, it would be the end for them.
Earlier, or a moment ago when Rose was taking down the two knights, her gun fire produced a huge explosion which was loud enough to take some villager's attention that they started running around the village unsure on where they should go. Some of them tried going back to the barrier, but none of them could see it even though the barrier was still there.
The knight or imperial soldier from earlier was still there and still hiding in the shadows of the night while still observing the people coming from the training ground and the ones who were seeking to get back in the barrier. But in this knights' eyes, it was like the people were crying for the portal that they were coming through to open again so that they should go back.
From a distance near the training ground, Hajime was approaching the people who were heading to the training ground as they panicked. He was confused with what was going on with the villagers, he squinted as if he was trying to understand what was going on from the distance.
As he was closely approaching them, he saw something that looked people sleeping on the middle of the load but for some reason they looked like they weren't breathing, but even so, he still approached them.
The knight that was hiding in the shadows saw him approaching even closer. H was confused at first that he thought he was seeing ghost's when he saw that it was just Hajime still alive and kicking, but the man still kept himself in the shadows to see what will happen if Hajime saw the bodies.
Meanwhile, Hajime kept on moving but the moment he saw the bodies he jumped in fear of what he saw. The bodies lying on the load where the people he had left the barrier with earlier and they were all dead, but for some reason he didn't recognize some of them because they were not together.
These people were those people who looked like they were adventures, and there were just four of them with the woman missing from the corpses.
Hajime fell down, and in that instant, he started he felt like he was about to vomit because the site.
He forced himself up, and tried to get away from them, but he fell again as he was starting to move. But this couldn't stop him from standing up again and start moving away from the corpses. But in doing so, instead of running to the direction he was heading earlier, he turned going inside the village were some people who were captured by the imperial nights where.
Some of the villagers who were captured recognized him as he a was approaching, but they decided to stay quiet and whisper to each other.
"Isn't that Nanako's son." A man tied to chain said while looking at Hajime who was swiftly approaching them.
"Yeah, I think so." Another one said while tied to the same chain as the other man.
Hajime stopped to take a breather without noticing the villager's taken captive in front of him. Without any warning Rose appeared behind him and touched him on the shoulder, but before Hajime could react, he fell down on his knees and fell asleep.
Rose smiled while looking at Hajime and before Hajime could completely fall down, she grabbed him on the chest dropping her gun.
Meanwhile, Reiko and Rica stopped for a bit inside the barrier at the training ground and trying to figure out how she would get outside her own barrier without the barrier falling apart or being visible to the people outside it.
It was like she was cornered in her own barrier that she was getting anxious of just standing around. She could hear the sound of the villagers out the barrier trying to get back in, but she didn't care about them, the only thing that was in her mind was to get Hajime that she didn't even notice her own sister watching her.
"Hey, is everything alright!"
A man said from a distance as Reiko and Rica turned to face him.