Lotte had a request to Yona. He may or might not have used her feelings to his advantage, but who knows? Right now, he had no time to be considerate enough.
The countdown was ticking and by sunrise it will soon be finished.
He still had no idea what kind of bad things could happen when it reaches an end but leaving the village is most likely the right choice.
As someone who's part of the chief's machination, the chief and villagers must have some trust on her. Furthermore, he was sure that Rugner wouldn't do anything to her. Despite being just around the corner in the square earlier, he didn't make any effort to stop him from taking Yona.
It's either he didn't have the means to, or that he wasn't worried about me harming Yona. But Lotte was more inclined to believe that he let them leave on purpose. After all, …
Where would he go? He didn't even know how to leave, all he could do was go for guerrilla tactics against the villagers until he was tired and exhausted enough to be caught. There're also those puppet soldiers that Rugner controls.
He didn't know what those puppets are capable of yet but, if they were made from past villagers by the so called 'Overseer' in the chiefs' tales, then there could be as many as half of the village's population.
"I need you to do something for me." Lotte said "Can you lead everyone past the chiefs house?"
In this village, there were two possible exits he discovered so far.
The first was the forest path Byrne and Saul simply vanished into, yet quite some distance to the chiefs house. The second was the one his mother had allegedly used according to his father. And also the place Yona's father had used back then, where they found a guardian golem.
Each exit had different rule.
The cavern route allowed someone bound by the book to leave, such as Yona's father but was unable to come back. As for the other place, it let people not recorded in the book slip away entirely almost like they were erased. Like they were being ejected, assuming that the chief had something to do with it.
What unsettled Lotte was that every outsider, Byrne, Saul and even his mother seemed to emerge from different places. Why? What determined where someone arrived?
Especially regarding Saul's case. Those people who died and the monsters… It's like they just spawned into somewhere around this land, luckily they're far from the village. Else, some people could've been bitten by those crawlers.
Now, he wants to lead away the villagers in a place they've never been into. To show the cavern that lies beyond the chiefs house. They have always regarded the chiefs abode as some sort of protection against outsiders and considered the path beyond taboo.
Last time, that cavern led to a trap transporting them to a dungeon. Well what if a bunch of villagers go there and the trap gets activated? They're going to be frightened at the things they haven't seen in that dungeon…
'I wonder what they're going to think?'
It's too much to expect defiance, but the militia will definitely be asking questions towards the chief. He wasn't worried that the villagers will be stuck there, since a dungeon and transporting circle like that should be connected, the exit points at only one place.
Which is the village chiefs house.
"I can… But I've never been there." She hesitated. He could tell the grip of years of superstition, the weight of every warning she'd ever heard about the path leading to the outside.
"O-okay. What should I do?" Yet she didn't refuse.
'Good Yona. After all this, I'll make sure to treat her better.' Lotte looked at her with a soft smile.
"Alright, here's what you need to do…"
***
Footsteps trampling over dried leaves and branches can be heard all around. Wisps of flame that danced around was the only source of light in this dark forest where the villagers didn't usually venture to, especially at this time.
Instead of concluding the celebration, a kid known for being a troublesome one with an outrageous idea in his head too made a ruckus. It was all because he ran away from the ritual the chief prepared. A ritual to mark their names in the history of the village starting from this day.
It was still dark in the forest as sunrise had yet to come. But eventually the sky will brighten. By then, no matter what that kid Lotte does, he will eventually be caught.
Breto gritted his teeth recalling that guy.
He was always an attention seeker and a bastard.
Proclaiming that he wants to leave the village, and not listening even after the elders told him not to think about taboos like that. Hanging out with the infamous old man in the outskirts and 'training', clinging to the chief to study but then betraying his trust…
Even after all that, he even brought another kid who's an outsider to the village!
And most of all, that guy… to that guy Yona is! …
Breto took a breath to calm himself down. Holding the spear in his hand, he promised to give that red haired bastard a good stab to teach him a lesson. It was also to return all the grievances he suffered back when they were younger, when he was toyed with a stick by that guy and embarrassed him in front of Yona.
Now that he disrupted the celebration and abducted Yona, he will finally get what he deserves as punishment. And now it made sense why he was acting so peculiarly since the chief declared that he had gone mad.
Slowly their group advanced towards where the old man lived. The chief said that he had banished that man out of the village, but they still carefully took their steps. Just like a hunt.
But it was the first time that the militia was mobilized to restrain a person. Usually, it would be wild boars or rampaging animals that didn't do much harm. This may be the first time that human blood is shed in this land. After all the village was always peaceful and rarely had anyone to resort in committing crimes or even thought of it.
"Halt! Somethings coming!" One of the older militiamen raised his hand and commanded. They tightened their encirclement to ensure that not one spot would let anyone through.
"Hm?" Breto strained his gaze as a familiar shadow of a figure came into view. It was Yona.
"Yona!" He rushed towards breaking their formation before he even thought about it.
"Wait kid! Damn it!" The man who seemed to be commanding them called out, but it fell on deaf ears.
"Are you alright? Did he do anything to you?" Breto looked at any sign of Yona being hurt. But apart from the slightly shuffled clothes and disheveled hair, she still looked beautiful in that red dress of hers.
He stood beside her in that celebration dreaming of that moment to confess to her. Especially so when he saw her red dress. There was only one thing it meant, and that is she was planned to be betrothed right at the last moment. Maybe with Lotte out of the way he could finally be where her gaze points at.
"*Huff* I'm alright. He didn't do anything…" Yona said before catching her breath. She had to hurry and leave before the encirclement on the manor tightened even more, so that Lotte could have more leeway in breaking out of their formation.
He didn't believe her one bit. That the bastard Lotte would just leave her alone, because that's how it's always been. He always saw them together one way or another, and it was obviously because she was forced against her will. All this time he could only grit his teeth because Lotte was stronger than him. But it's different now. He had a whole group coming for him.
Looking at her, Breto who had been thinking of all the bad things that could happen to her at the back of his mind, snapped. Messy clothes, sweaty, and catching for breath… It all points out to the one thing he dreaded of.
"N-no! Yona, what did he do to you? Tell me?" He dropped both his torch and spear to hold her hand with fury burning in eyes.
"I-I told you he didn't do anything. Also, who are you?" But to Yona, his actions were nothing but mere nuisance. She sharply took her hand away from his grip and passed by him.
That broke the last straw of sanity in Breto's mind.
"You're fine Yona. Where's Lotte?" Past him, the leader of the militiamen faced her along with others and asked for Lotte's whereabouts. He was tasked with taking Lotte and Yona even by force if they didn't comply.
"He went beyond that place. The chief's house…"
"Tsk. In the end he still went there." The leader said before beckoning for Yona to follow, "The chief has ordered for Lotte's capture because he has gone mad, we don't know if he'll come back again and harm any of us, so return to village first."
"… Alright." A few men left with Yona to escort her back to the village, and she went along without much resistance.
As Breto heard that, he jolted awake and turned back to Yona who was already far from his reach. His expression gradually distorted as anger and indignation deep within him stirred his heart.
"T-That guy! Lotte must've done something to her!" He shouted amidst the dark forest gaining the looks of his other comrades and their leader. Although they were all men supposed to protect the village, due to lack of experience there was no disciplinary measures everyone had to abide by. Since this situation was a first, it was bound to happen.
That they followed orders and didn't cause any injustice and harm was enough to keep them as militiamen.
"We need to find him right away! That bastard dares to…" His words trailed off as the torch on the ground lost its last wisp of flame, leaving him in the dark.
The leader although wizened by age but grew old in the peaceful nameless village without much action tried to calm him down, "What are you been babbling about? We need to take her to safety first. Capturing the criminal comes later."
"No! I'm going to find him! I'm gonna find him and tear his- "
But the scream was cut short as 'something' had latched on his head and covered it. The sound of his voice became muffled and fleshly like it was underwater. His hands flailed around and seemed to grab at his head.
"W-what! Whats going on!?" The leader flinched and drew his sword, thinking that Breto was going to rampage. But it was a strange sight.
Bretos head.
He couldn't see it.
It was like a haze above his shoulders, a haze that blended well with the darkness making him seem like a headless ghost.
The others, perhaps due to fear, drew their blade seeing the bizarre sight before them.
Gradually blood spurted out from his neck as his body trembled and fell forward. From where his head had used to be now merely a passageway waiting to make a pool of blood in the ground.
"W-Were under attack! Gather everyone!"
He threw the torch he had been carrying towards where Breto had fallen and proceeded to light another.
Luckily for them, the light provided by the torch revealed just whats responsible for the bloodied mess in front of them.
But in hindsight, it would've been better to not know the despair they'll be facing.
A single shadow over the dead body of Breto with eyes gleaming in green stared at them. Like jewels, its gaze was indifferent and seemed devoid of any thoughts.
"S-shit." The leader spat in a trembling voice," Send two of our fastest to the village and never turn back. Tell everyone that monsters are attacking!" Perhaps, due to the gravity of the situation, his desire to fulfill his duty as one of the village's protectors all these years burned even more.
He had sparred with fellow militiamen and stopped a few scuffles. He even hunted occasionally trained his sword. It made him think of the kid that they were hunting. Lotte who trained more than others to the point of absurdity and eventually left them all in the dust.
"Is he already dead?"
He had never fought with monsters. They were only folktales used when scaring kids who don't sleep early. It was said in the tales passed down by the elders that monsters in the outside were prominent and that there wasn't a day of peace. But now these monsters come to this village.
With him at the front, and his few and terrified men at the back, he steeled himself that he won't be able to go back from this.
Further back, Yona turned as multiple screams were faintly heard.
She could see two people running towards them.
"Run! To the village!"
"M-monsters! Hieek!"
"What?" Yona had never seen monsters before, but if that is true, then Lotte who was left there was in danger.
Even so, she ran.
She trusted that Lotte, would somehow survive even against monsters.
***
The old floorboards creaked under Lotte's careful steps as he entered the dim, heavy air of the chief's house. Shadows stretched like fingers across the wooden walls. The silence was almost unnerving.
Since its goodbye after I leave this village, I'm going to thoroughly overturn the house of the chief and find any clues. If theres still no clues, all I can do is to subdue the chief before he can use magic.
That means, I'll have to be quite lethal in order to do that. Which, against the chief, I'm confident to do so.
An arm. A leg, or an eye. Anything at all will be part of my target as long as I don't kill him.
Well there was another plan I told Yona but… I don't have much hope.
Right now he was headed to the chiefs house. Whatever he finds there, be it the chief or even if theres nothing, he will proceed.
It's just that, if the chief is there, subduing him would take priority first, and overturning his house second should he die in the process.
Seven years ago, he was just an office worker reading a novel… Now he is a fully trained child blessed with physical capabilities by the grace of her mothers side.
And he is now plotting to subdue someone through force and shedding blood. There can be no hesitation since he felt what death was like in Byrne's training a few times. He was confident that he could pull it off.
That same murderous aura he felt from the chief, and Byrne.
Eventually, the chiefs house came into view.
It was silent like no one was there.
Or at least it seemed that way.
Lotte walked with careful and light steps as he approached the door.
He opened it and went inside, closing the door behind him.
His eyes scanned the room and then they landed on a familiar figure reclining lazily on a cushioned chair, puffing calmly on a curved pipe. The smoke curled around him like mist, as if the man was at peace in the eye of a storm.
"So, you're not only a smart ass kid, a brute, a playboy, but also a thief?" Rugner's voice broke the silence with a wry smile, his golden eye gleaming as he exhaled a ribbon of smoke.
There was no surprise in his tone, as if he had been waiting for Lotte to come. Lotte silently took steps towards the merchant.
It didn't seem like he was there to cause trouble. Like always the merchant seemed lofty and indifferent as he looked at anyone apart from Yona and her mother.
"I thought I'd find the chief. But it seemed another thief broke in already." Lotte smirked as he took as seat facing Rugner. His eyes wandered briefly in one corner of the room.
He kept his steps light as he crossed the room and took a seat across from Rugner, who didn't flinch or shift. Instead, the merchant's eyes followed him with indifference. Lotte's gaze flicked briefly to the side of the room, there, sleeping quietly, were his sisters. They looked unharmed. That was one worry lifted, at least for now.
'Yona must be panicking by now…'
His plan skipped a few steps, but the only thing he needs to do now is subdue Rugner instead. However he chose not to.
The other plan he told Yona to do, was to convince him to leave this place, together with her mother and Lotte included. He told a kid to fool her foster father and mother for his sake. Then at the opportune moment, use brute force to leave with his sisters instead, betraying their trust.
Somehow all the solution he could think of is using brute force…
But well, he didn't exactly have time and smarts to formulate elaborate plans. Those kind of schemes required information and investigation beforehand. Something he couldn't do much when he was training most of the time.
But now he is facing Rugner. Why is that?
"A thief huh?"
Rugner took a huff in his pipe, "All the things in this land belong to me. All of it was offered to me." He stared at Lotte with cold and condescending golden eyes.
"That is, if I am the overseer Lotte." He smirked before landing his gaze on Lotte hand that was already gripping a sword, "Still, I am partly an overseer too."
Rugner leaned forward and laced his fingers under his chin.
"Shall we have a negotiation?"
Lotte tensed upon hearing those words that he much preferred, "What do you want?"
"… The same thing as you." He said.
"The same?"
"Yes. I want to leave this village." Rugner relaxed his gait, seemingly pleased.
"But… Aren't you free to come and go as you please?" Lotte asked, wondering where he took his wares from, "You have guards, goods and even those carriages."
Rugner shook his head, "No, Lotte. I've never actually left."
Lotte's brows furrowed. What the chief told him turned out to be true. He was also surprised at how easily Rugner admitted it. But then where did all those things from their trade come from?
"All those wares I have, the supplies… They were left behind. By the original Overseer." Rugner laughed as he told him a peculiar truth, "Heck, even the fruits were from the lab."
Lotte sat still, the weight of the words slowly seeping in.
"And I," Rugner added and tapped his chest with a gloved finger, "am merely his avatar. Made into his liking, but wasn't complete enough."
"You're… an avatar?"
"Like him, but not him. Not anymore," Rugner said, his voice calm, but with an undertone of bitterness.
"The chief might've told you tales about the Overseer, right?"As if he just remembered, he turned to Lotte and asked.
Lotte nodded slowly, recalling the chief's outburst when he was imprisoned. He watched and help on the sides as sacrifices for the sake of experiments were made. That the whole village was given to him as an offering.
"I am part the overseer, but mostly myself. I have a faint memory you see… That he was in a hurry when he made me."
"So he didn't give me enough modifications to truly resemble him and carry out his orders. Heck, even his orders were just faint whispers to my mind now." He took a huff before continuing.
"Maybe that's why, the chief guy was wondering why I seemed so human compared to the previous avatars or overseer."
"Where are those other avatars you spoke of?"
"They're dead. Empty husks of a body. Somewhere around where I live, there's a bunch lying around."
"They seemed to exist only for… twelve years at best? In that regard I'm quite lucky. Since I wasn't completely turned I could probably live much longer."
Lotte stared at him with his mouth agape, he shook his head and decided to think about those information for later. "Alright. But what's this negotiation you want to have with me? Why should I? I could just take my sisters then leave."
"Who are you fooling? You don't know how to leave, and the chief madman of yours would probably keep it to the grave rather than giving you the means to leave."
Lotte thought so too, the chief might just do that in his madness. Perhaps this interaction with Rugner is finally the event that will eventually lead him outside?
"Then what do you propose? Are you going to use the soldiers to oppose the chief? Just saying but, I'm not a fan of harming the innocents."
Rugner stared at him in silence who seemed to be in thought.
"So, if they were evil, would you kill every single one of them?"
"… What do you want me to do?" Lotte avoided answering that question. He might encounter a bunch like that in the future, but now he isn't desensitized to killing.
"Hehe forget it. Anyways here's what we will do."
"Your siblings are safe with me. But you have to help me leave. Along with Yona and Mathilda."
Lotte thought he was the only one, but Rugner with his freedom intact based on his stories wanted to leave to.
"But how are we going to do that? You must know… why you can't leave this village and why no one cant leave that village." Lotte slammed a book in the table. Inside he had looked through it. There were names he found unfamiliar at the front pages. But as it went on, he found familiar names. Names of the deceased and living.
If they were deceased, then the name would be pitch black. If they were alive the hue would be light green. And among those, he didn't find Rugner's name and his name. There were three other names that were half erased and emitted green light. He assumed that it was his sisters.
After all they were the only people who had a mixed blood from his mother. It must've tampered to the books ability to record people.
"Ah that. Yes. The chief always carried that and even refused to give it back, but its useless to me. Destroying that wont undo the binds in the bloodlines of anyone here. It can bind you though, I'd be careful not to put a blood in there if I were you."
Hearing that explanation, Lotte just stared at him. He expected the book to have some binding function and there was one name that he found that was rather strange. A name that was pitch black yet also had a light green hue.
"… Rohan?"
"… Whose name are you calling now?" With a deadpan stare Rugner just looked at him as if finding his act vain.
"No, nothing." But Lotte was more than sure. This name… was the name of Yona's father who disappeared. For the same wish to leave and find a better place to live in. To see more of the world and bring his family together.
In a cruel coincidence, Rugner was now trying to achieve the same thing as that man. But why is he both marked as dead and alive? He looked at Rugner and observed him carefully. There wasn't a hint of reaction from him.
"Anyways, all you really need to do is give me drops of blood and distract the chief for some time."
"What? My blood again?" What's up with the magic in this world always needing blood?
"I might not be complete, but I have part knowledge from the greatest alchemist to ever walk on this world. I'm gonna make amulets out of it that we can wear and use to pass through the portal."
Ignoring the self praising part of his sentence Lotte looked at him with wide eyes, "You can do that? Can't you make one for everyone else?"
"… No. Actually, I premade three because it takes long. I just need the blood of an outsider. Taking it form the old man seems impossible, and from your friend kid… Still the old man would probably behead me." Rugner remembered Byrne staring at him fiercely when he brought his puppet shoulders. It was like being on the verge of falling down a pit.
"So that leaves you. Today was the perfect day to execute it all since the 'barrier' is weakening too."
"The barrier? So its a barrier that prevents us from leaving?"
"To be exact. It is a barrier and only through a portal can you leave. But an outsider would just naturally phase through and be ejected. There's more knowledge but what I know isn't complete. Only enough to let us leave."
"Does my sisters need amulets too?"
"… You're taking them with you?"
"Is there something wrong with that? I can't just let them leave, knowing half of my mothers blood is running in their veins." His father asked it as a favor, and with how things are in the village, he was going to take them away even if it meant using force.
"Hah, you are a greedy man. That blood in them is enough to fool the barrier so theres no need."
"Then, is that all you need?"
"Yes."
"How can I trust you?"
Rugner tilted his head, as if wondering why Lotte has doubts, "Haven't I always delivered what you wanted no matter what, Lotte?"
At that Lotte widened his eyes and couldn't help but chuckle. He's right. All his whims and collection came from Rugner. Speaking of their transactional relationship and using it for their trust… Well, its not half bad.
"Alright. You always did get my me my junk." The tension lightened slightly. But neither of them lowered their guard. Lotte didn't know what else he could be planning, but since their goals align he could only play along and get swept away in whatever consequence next.
Maybe this too, was set in stone to happen. The novel will soon be set in motion, and he will step into the fray, outside of this village to get involved with the characters he is yet to meet. He couldn't help but feel slight excitement.
"So," Lotte said, finally drawing a blade from his waist and holding his palm over it. "You better make this count."
The blade smoothly slit into his hand, and blood pooled in his palm. It was a very light wound, yet it bled enough.
Rugner smiled. "Now we can begin."