[Rescue Mission: For every Lakota Village villager rescued and protected until the lackeys of the evil Archduke Garibaldi invading the village are eliminated, gain 100 Survival Points.]
[Mission Completed.]
[Mission Reward: 2200 Survival Points.]
The mission was complete, which meant the enemies in Lakota Village…
Cyan received the mission completion notification and realized that the enemies in the village had already been wiped out. That also meant there were multiple survivors present in the village.
Currently, Cyan had two choices in front of her.
The first was to stay here and wait for the knights who would come to rescue Lakota Village. She still didn't know whether it would be Arthur, Lancelot, or Percival.
The second was to gather information about the evil Archduke Garibaldi from the villagers, head to his location as quickly as possible to complete Survival Mission One and obtain the Golden Grail, then wait for the other survivors to come to her. At that point, the blue-clothed ninja who had attacked her earlier would have no choice but to appear.
However, considering the evil Archduke Garibaldi's army, infiltrating his territory would be quite difficult and carried significant risk.
After a brief moment of thought, Cyan made her decision. The cold, distant aura around her shifted. She looked at the villagers with a gentle smile on her face. Combined with her Charm stat of 15, that single smile was like an angel descending, instantly capturing the hearts of everyone present — men, women, old, and young alike.
"Don't worry. You're safe now."
"My lord… you… are you alright?"
The freckled girl blushed as she looked at Cyan with a shy expression.
"These small wounds are nothing. Compared to everything this village has suffered, the pain I feel is not even one-thousandth… no, one ten-thousandth of the suffering the evil Archduke Garibaldi's lackeys have brought upon this place."
Her gentle words, laced with a trace of heartache, soothed the villagers' unhealable wounds.
"My lord, you've already done more than enough…"
The girl looked at the person in front of her — someone who appeared even younger than herself. That youthful, slightly immature face possessed a beauty that wouldn't lose to any woman, yet it didn't give off any effeminate impression.
"That's right! You've already done more than enough. If you hadn't arrived in time, we would have all been killed by that bastard Garibaldi's lackeys!" The villagers clenched their fists as they spoke, their eyes filled with hatred toward the evil Archduke Garibaldi and the pain of their destroyed village. The firelight illuminated their tear-streaked faces.
Not long after, Nishi arrived leading another group of villagers. When she saw the friendly, angelic smile on Cyan's face, her eyes widened. She had the sudden urge to slap herself to check if she was dreaming.
Am I dreaming? Why is Master smiling like that?
No, wait… Master!
You've never smiled at me like that before!
"Nishi, you're back~"
Nishi was still feeling resentful when Cyan noticed her and the villagers arriving. She smiled at her — though the smile looked somewhat stiff. In order to win the villagers' favor, this was a necessary act.
She had simply smiled too much, and her facial nerves weren't used to this sudden high-intensity labor.
"Ah…"
Nishi stared at Cyan in a daze. Her heart felt like it had been struck by Cupid's arrow and was beating rapidly. Inside her mind, she was screaming wildly.
Master smiled at me! Oh my god! Master actually smiled at me!
That smile is so beautiful…
No, wait. This isn't right!
Master is usually expressionless, isn't she?
Nishi shook her head and looked at Cyan with a suspicious gaze.
"It's an act."
Cyan walked over to Nishi and whispered.
The black widow spider suddenly moved at high speed, threw off the handkerchief covering her, and jumped onto Cyan's collar before skillfully burrowing into the fluffy part of it. The movement looked like something she had done countless times before.
I see…
Nishi finally understood. She reached out and caught the falling handkerchief while watching Cyan force herself to smile at the villagers. As she admired that beautiful smile, she couldn't help but feel tired for her in her heart.
Master, you've worked hard…
Just imagining how exhausting it must be for someone who wasn't used to smiling to force themselves to do so…
…
"Charge! Kill every last one of those bastards who invaded Lakota Village——!!!"
The belatedly arriving knights and soldiers roared in fury when they saw the burning village. Leading this army was none other than Lancelot!
With flowing golden hair and a handsome appearance, Lancelot wore light armor with golden patterns on his blue clothing. Chainmail could be seen peeking out from beneath his clothes. He had expected a fierce battle upon reaching Lakota Village, but what awaited him instead were the corpses of the enemies.
"Search for survivors!"
Lancelot issued orders to the knights and soldiers.
"Yes!"
The knights and soldiers spread out to search for survivors in the village. Soon, they encountered Orlov leading villagers to find others, as well as another group of villagers led by a girl with sunset-orange hair (Asuka Langley). During their wide-area search, they also found a timid black-haired, black-eyed girl.
This person was none other than Asama Ai, who had following Cyan in the Samurai Shodown Zero world during the previous round.
Asama Ai held an old notebook whose cover looked stained with blood. Whenever someone passed by her, they would feel a chill run down their spine as a cold, eerie wind penetrated their armor and raised the hairs on their bodies.
"Lord Orlov, Lady Langley, thank you for rescuing Lakota Village."
Lancelot gave both of them a knight's salute, thanking them for saving the village. This was originally supposed to be his duty, but he had arrived too late.
If he had come earlier, the village wouldn't have ended up like this. Lancelot looked at the smoke-filled, burning Lakota Village, and his resolve to eliminate the evil Archduke Garibaldi and liberate the people he oppressed grew even stronger.
"There's no need to thank us, Lord Lancelot. Everyone knows what the evil Archduke Garibaldi has done. We're willing to contribute to the effort of defeating him."
Orlov wasn't going to miss any opportunity to raise his favorability with story characters. Despite his muscular appearance, there were no muscles in his brain.
Asuka, who was being represented by Orlov, glanced at him. With Lancelot present, she couldn't openly scold the shameless behavior of this muscular man beside her.
Under Lancelot's lead, the knights, soldiers, and villagers marched in force toward the eastern side of the village. There, they saw the corpse of Skorn, the War Knight under the evil Archduke Garibaldi, as well as Cyan and Nishi, who had killed the War Knight and rescued the villagers he had captured.
Cyan?!
Asama Ai, who was mixed in among the villagers, felt a surge of joy when she saw Cyan. Remembering what had happened in the previous survival game, she stopped in her tracks, hesitating to approach.
She was afraid. Afraid that Cyan would betray her like the other survivors might.
The villagers gathered together. Those who knew each other embraced and shed tears of excitement.
Lancelot looked at the beautiful and handsome "young man" in front of him, shocked by her youth and by the fact that she had been able to kill the War Knight Skorn. However, he didn't have much time to chat with her.
After thanking Cyan and Nishi for helping the villagers, Lancelot led the army and villagers to help put out the fires. They remained busy until late into the night before the flames were finally extinguished.
Knock knock knock!
A knocking sound rang out. Lancelot opened the door and saw the "young man" standing outside.
"What do you need?"
"Royu's letter." Cyan dropped the false smile from her face and handed Royu's letter to Lancelot.
"How do you have Royu's letter?" Lancelot took the letter, confirmed that the handwriting belonged to Royu, and looked at Cyan with suspicion and wariness.
"He entrusted it to me before he died."
Cyan stared at Lancelot with a blank expression, her tone flat, as if she were simply stating a fact.
"Royu… Who killed him?" Lancelot frowned and asked another question.
"A traitor. There's a traitor among you."
"Who is the traitor? Did Royu tell you?"
Lancelot looked at Cyan with doubt, even suspecting that the expressionless, ice-cold "young man" in front of him might have been the one who killed Royu.
"He didn't have time to say. His final request was for me to deliver this letter to those resisting the evil Archduke Garibaldi. After I left, the person who killed him returned to where Royu's body was, hid it inside a wardrobe, and used this bottle of perfume to mask the smell of decay so the corpse wouldn't be discovered too early."
As Cyan spoke, she took out the cheap bottle of perfume and handed it to Lancelot.
"Then where is Royu's body now?"
Lancelot accepted the cheap perfume and examined it carefully. His expression changed slightly as he developed a suspect in his mind.
However, in his eyes, the "young man" in front of him was also suspicious.
"It was burned."
Cyan pointed toward the smoking ruins of a house in the distance.
"..."
Lancelot looked in the direction Cyan was pointing. The house had been reduced to nothing. After the fire was put out, no one had bothered with it.
"I could have delivered the letter to you earlier, but I had no way of contacting you. I could only eliminate the enemies after they invaded."
"Thank you very much for your help."
Lancelot took a deep breath. He now believed Cyan's words to some extent. The rest would have to be verified by himself.
If there really was a traitor among the knights, then that meant all of their future movements were under Garibaldi's control!
With that thought, Lancelot lost all desire to sleep. He spoke to a knight he trusted and told him not to spread word of his departure, then mounted his warhorse and left Lakota Village to find Arthur and Percival.
This matter was of great importance. He had to handle it with extreme caution. The slightest mistake could lead them into an abyss from which there would be no return.