Somewhere down the path that leads to both Reilaea Kingdom and the Carmila Town, a group of people riding the horses in which seemed to be following the lead of a man riding another horse in front of the march as they continue to push to forward - it was the second prince of the Reilaea Kingdom, Prince Edle Q. Reilaea.
Wearing the armor that is slightly a bit different from the escorts, the prince continues to march forward and was heading to the Carmila Town after one of the guards received a request for an immediate aid a few hours ago.
It seems that the prince rounded up a group of knight guards to get to the Carmila Town as the aid for the possible invasion of bandits in the said town. With their current speed, they should be able to reach Carmila Town by night. One of the knight guards who seemed to be rather close to the prince had spoken.
"I still think you shouldn't have come."
The Prince looked at him and responded.
"You're still on about it?"
It seemed like the knight guard was worried about the prince's safety. Of course, one could not help but worry about encountering invading bandits. It's the real-life, one mistake and you're one stab to death. However, the prince was confident and was determined to go to Carmila Town without any concern for his safety.
The night has come, the darkness has spread throughout the whole town of Carmila. But a lot of people were outside, spread across the town with weapons on each one of them. It was part of their preparation for the invasion of the bandits.
Time goes by, but it seemed like there was nothing happening - no suspicious person or thing was detected, no bandits in sight and no sign of any invasion at all. One of the wandering townspeople who is patrolling the streets reached the western watchtower, where two of the town's guards was dispatched. The man started conversing with them.
"Hey! How's it going out there?"
The two guards looked out in the wide, darkfield outside the walls of the town.
"We don't see anything except the complete darkness out there."
"Don't you think the rumors about the bandits invading us ain't real?"
The two guards responded and the man replied back.
"Who knows? If it's not, then that would be great. In any case, just keep on watch. We need to be careful, not just of bandits but that monster that hunts at night as well."
"Oh, I almost forgot about that monster because of those bandits. Seriously, what an unlucky town."
"You said it."
Just as their talk had ended, one of the guards dispatched in the tower looked out in the vast darkness again, only to find himself with an arrow stuck in his right eye. Blood was gushing out of his eye as his lifeless body slowly fell down on the ground.
The other guard who was just standing beside the dead man froze in shock after seeing his companion's lifeless body lying on the floor of the watchtower. It didn't take long before he meets the same fate of the other guard - another arrow was shot from the darkness and hits the guard directly to his head.
The man who was talking to them earlier witnessed the two guard's death with his own two eyes. The man also froze in shock and fear, but he mustered his courage and strength to run to the center of the town. Then, with his loud voice that could reach out almost the entire Carmila Town, he announced the coming of the invading bandits.
"Bandits! They're here! They're coming from the west! Everyone, the bandits are here!!"
His voice echoed throughout the Carmila Town, alerting everyone patrolling the streets, the old people, women, and children who were sleeping in their bed as they enjoy their slumber had also awoken. Even Christa who is currently sleeping in the inn had heard the announcement of the invasion.
"Bandits... Invading...?"
Christa still feels a bit dizzy as she woke up too early than her usual wake up time in her training days with Angelika. Because of that, she thought she was just hearing things and decided to sleep again. However...
A sound of knocking the door could be heard from Christa's door room. Then, the voice of a man that was knocking on the door spoke in a rather hastily manner. It's as if the man was trying to just wake up Christa and immediately run away.
"Hey, Miss Christa? Miss Christa!"
Christa who went back to sleep was disturbed by the call of the innkeeper. She stood up out of the bed and walked towards the door, she then opened it and talked to the man who was furiously knocking on her door.
"What's wrong? It's not even midnight but you want me to leave already?"
"I think that would be the best, but we gotta hide for now! The bandits are here!"
"Bandits?"
"Yes! They will take everything valuable, especially money, so get your things and follow us to our basement!"
'It's still not midnight, I wonder if the monster would appear early tonight?'
Christa thought to herself as she walked towards where she placed the wooden sword. She grabbed it and removed the white cloth cover.
"Mister, can you to take this and hide?"
Holding the bag that contains the extra clothes that Angelika made and the gold pouch, she proceeded to hand it to the innkeeper. The innkeeper took the bag with both his hands.
"What are you going to do?"
The Innkeeper asked as Christa raised her sword and swung it back down.
"I'm going to do a little hunting."
After learning Christa's strength by his worker who saw what Christa did earlier. The Innkeeper did not question Christa's intentions or what's going inside her head any further. He gladly accepted Christa's request to bring the bag with him in the basement.
Christa then walked towards the window and opened it. Using it as an exit, she jumped through the window and landed on the ground safely. However...
"Hey, hey hey!"
"Ah?"
A familiar voice spoke as Christa stood up from the ground she landed to - It was the drunk man who got knocked down by Christa's elbow hit.
"Oh, you're the guy from the inn yesterday, right?"
Another one of them showed up, followed by a crowd of men wearing the same attire, indicating that they are in the same group. Or to be more precise a bandit group.
"We remember what you did. You may have scared us last time, but you can't beat us all alone. It's time for you to pay back, you little brat!"
"Eh...?"
'I don't sense any monsters around. Does it really appear only at midnight? What a time consistent monster.'
Christa thought to herself as she began to look around, ignoring the crowd in front of her.
"Where is she looking at?"
"Is she mocking us?!"
The crowd seemed to be pissed at Christa.
With the weapons in their arms, they prepare to strike the lone girl standing in front of them.
"Everyone, get her! Make sure she doesn't get out of here unscathed!!"
The bandits rushed forward towards Christa.
They simply don't care if Christa was outnumbered, they just wanted to get revenge for being humiliated at the inn earlier. Of course, that's one of the natures of the bandits - villainous, barbarous, no mercy.
'I don't have time to deal with these guys. I have to find that monster, I'll end this quick.'
As the words escaped her thoughts, with a simple, yet powerful and heavy stomp on the ground, the landscape began to shake and crumble as the group of bandits lost their footing and fell together on the ground. They were buried with the debris of the ground from Christa's stomp.
"That should do it."
She began to fix her long, black hair and moved it in the back of her shoulders. After doing so, she effortlessly jumped to one of the brick houses roofs as if it was normal for a human being to do. Then, she began to wander through the whole town of Carmila.
Somewhere in the middle of the road where the Carmila Town can be seen in the naked eye, the Prince and the group of knight guards continues to march forward. The man who talked to the Prince earlier pointed the town in the horizon as the lights from the houses and the watchtower gave its location.
"Prince, that's the Carmila Town. We're almost there."
As the man pointed the Prince to the Carmila Town, a fire suddenly rose above one after the other as a few numbers of explosions occurred right in the town of Carmila.
"Wha?!"
"Explosions?!"
"Could it be...?"
the guards spoke.
"It's them... the bandits. Let's hurry, everyone!"
The Prince and the guards rushed forward with incredible haste.
Meanwhile, in the dark corners in the eastern side of Carmila Town, A terrifying growl which is pretty similar to a wolf could be heard as the thing where the scary noise originated from slowly came out of its hiding.
It was that night where everything went not according to the supposed history of this world. Or rather, it was the start of the unetched history of the so-called world they lived in.