At the back gate of the village, Rin silently kept watch, ready to stop anyone who tried to escape.
There, she often heard cries and wails echoing from within. But when those sounds finally faded away, Rin understood that her Master had already dealt with all the remaining villagers.
From above, a puppet 'Feathers' swooped down and perched on Rin's shoulder.
From the puppet, Tris's voice rang out:
"Main work is done. Now comes the part of gathering spoils. Search the dead near you, collect anything of value. Then go through each house to see if they've hidden anything worth taking."
Rin: "Yes, Master."
Tris: "Also, leave the fourth house on your left for last."
Rin: "Why is that, Master?"
Tris: "The villagers left us a little nuisance there."
Rin: "A nuisance? Even Master can't deal with it?"
Tris: "You'll understand once you enter that house."
Rin: "??"
Though she didn't know what the problem was, since Master had spoken, Rin asked no further and began gathering the spoils.
. . .
Elsewhere in the village, Tris was busy with the grim task of collecting corpses.
He found this work even more exhausting and time‑consuming than the main job earlier.
Tris did not truly expect to find anything of great value on the villagers' bodies. Yet, because of his frugal and cautious nature, he could not help but spend extra time to carefully search through them.
What made the task even more tiring was that Tris also had to gather all the corpses into one place for easier disposal later. After all, leaving them scattered could risk disease or other unpleasant consequences.
Sighing in boredom, Tris focused on directing several stone statues to handle the troublesome manual labor.
The puppets he had used earlier were already recalled, replaced by clones made of earth and stone. He felt this was better, avoiding the risk of his puppets getting dirty. Unlike the puppets, the statues were disposable. If they got stained, Tris would not have to waste effort cleaning them afterward.
A wise person always knows how to reduce unnecessary work, a lesson Tris had learned long ago in his dreams, and one he continued to apply every day.
Seated on a wooden chair, he watched the pile of corpses grow higher, thanks to the statues' ceaseless toil.
From time to time, the statues brought him pouches of gold or trinkets of some value. As expected, the finds were meager, but better than nothing.
Tris also tried using Space magic through the puppet 'Feathers', still perched on Rin's shoulder, to search the houses for hidden treasures.
Unfortunately, all he discovered so far were small amounts of money and jewelry.
'Haiz… no real valuables, but the debt they left us still needs to be dealt with.'
He cast a slightly annoyed glance toward the house he had mentioned to Rin earlier. Another corpse was tossed onto the pile before him, its head tilted toward where Tris sat.
With sharp eyes, he could clearly see the face, one frozen in despair, its eyes still etched with fear.
'His name was Lary, wasn't it?'
Tris vaguely recalled the name once mentioned, and the smiling faces that had greeted him before.
"One should never be deceived by appearances alone."
And so, lost in thought, Tris continued his work steadily, never pausing in the grim routine.
. . .
Not long after, the corpse‑collecting was finally completed. All the villagers had been searched and gathered into one place.
Rising from the wooden chair, Tris was about to finish the last part of the task when he suddenly sensed an unusual movement outside the village through a 'Feathers' perched high above.
His brows furrowed slightly, then relaxed, as though he had thought of something positive.
Next, Tris pulled out a black cloak with a hood and draped it over himself. He also took out a mask to cover his face completely.
While doing so, he did not forget to use magic to send a message to Rin, instructing her to disguise herself in the same way.
. . .
* * * * * * * * * *
???: "Wake up, quickly. Neo, Cheryl."
Hearing the urgent call from their companion, the two immediately woke and grabbed the weapons they had kept by their sides while sleeping.
"What's going on, Kelsey? Magical Beasts attacking?"
The one asking was Neo. With blond hair and blue eyes, he was a young man with a bright, handsome appearance.
The caller was Kelsey, a girl with long red hair tied in a ponytail and a sharp‑featured face. At the moment, she wore light, flexible armor and held a long spear firmly in her hands, ready for battle.
Upon hearing Neo's question, she explained:
"It seems cries are coming from not far away. And there are flames too."
"Flames? Are there other adventurers camping nearby?"
The last to speak was Cheryl, a girl with pale blue hair. Her beautiful face now showed a trace of tension.
That was understandable. After all, the three of them were camping in the wilderness, where countless dangers lurked. And since their watch guard had reported hearing cries, it meant some unknown threat was already close.
Kelsey: "Over there."
Following her gesture, Neo and Cheryl indeed saw faint flickers of light in the distance, just as she had said.
Fortunately, their campsite was on high ground, making it easy to observe the surroundings. Otherwise, such faint light would have been impossible to notice.
Kelsey: "Not sure if they're adventurers or not. What do you think? Should we go check it out?"
Neo: "Let's go. If someone really needs help, we can't just ignore it."
His voice carried firm determination.
Cheryl: "If anything happens, I can help with healing magic."
Kelsey: "Mm. I already guessed you two would say that. Let's go."
After that, the three quickly packed up their belongings, donned their full gear, and set off together toward the distant flames.