At that day where Christa and Titania talked to an armored soldier inside the forest, where they find out that the one who ordered the wood cutters to cut down trees in the land near Eisvel Village and the Forest of No Return was the King of Kruule and the now current King of Reilaea, Castile Cruelle...
...As the girl and the giant snake went on their way as well as the black plated armored man, alone as he walk away from the forest, suddenly he was stopped from his tracks as he saw a person standing in front of him.
The person appeared to be a girl with slender yet small body build, she has a height of 1.52 meters, she definitely looks like a bit smaller and younger than Christa, and she appears to be wearing a black thigh high socks with a silver lining around its cuffs, together with a pair of black low heel loafer shoes, and her upper body is covered with a torn off black robe.
A fair white skin, a tiny body, and a pair of silver white eyes that would match beautifully with her silver hair tied in a braided ponytail. One would say she is a beautiful young girl, if not for the scar on her left cheek that looked like it got sliced by something sharp, and her eyes that are staring daggers at the man who were left frozen in one place because of her frightening presence.
"Hey, hey... what happened to you? Where's your unit? You look like you see something so terrifying with that look in your eyes?"
The little lady slowly takes a step one by one with her right hand playing with a dagger around her fingers.
"Well, actually I'm on the verge of bursting out laughing thinking that the one who will kill me is a kid." The man grits his teeth with a smile.
"Oh... So you really are quite talkative just like what your friends said in the cerberus pit, huh?"
"You don't say?"
The man holds his long sword as it starts brimming with light, indicating that he was charging up his magic to attack.
"Sorry, but I'm not dying without taking one of that damn princess' henchmen!"
The man charges without fear despite feeling the same chilling feeling he felt until now, a true brave charge. However...
"Oh, you don't say?"
As he just got between the line, the little girl suddenly appeared behind his back, and blood started spraying out of his neck as he got slit through by the girl's dagger. Though it was not clear when she did that.
"You're brave, I'll give you that. But..."
The man slowly goes down on the ground as he loses his life from the unseen strike of the girl's dagger.
"...You're not brave enough to face the Princess and the King."
After she spoke, the girl walks away as if nothing happened, leaving behind the corpse of the black armored soldier out in the middle of nowhere. The others who lost control over themselves also lost their lives by the same hands of the girl who killed their unit commander as their bodies lies and scattered across the area. After that, the day ended in silence for the forest and the village.
Meanwhile, back in the Adventurers' Guild, a meeting is being held between Sieghart, his party, and the other adventurers who are inside the guild along with the Guild Master.
The Guild Master slams his palm onto the map board, a map board where a huge mass of land is named Alteria, the continent where the five known kingdoms lives together, Cartha, Meleia, Loisiln, Kruule and Reilaea. The map that the Adventurers' eyes are gazing with a rather serious and nervous look on their faces.
The Guild Master speaks as he raise his voice, high enough for everyone even in the back to hear.
"That traveling prophet came from the Ruler's Conference and gave another premonition. And it seems like it's not far from becoming a reality. All five kingdoms involved in this plan has dispatched each of their own group of scouts throughout the land of Alteria, these scouts are tasked to find and observe any suspicious movements of monsters that they will find and then they'll immediately report it to everyone. Lucky for us, Reilaea's scouts were the ones who have found a huge gathering of monsters heading to Tarasque Mountain..."
The Guild Master spoke as his finger points at theĀ marked Tarasque Mountain in the map. Tarasque Mountain is a sleeping volcano made out of spiky black rocky surface that reaches about 2463 meters tall on its mouth, it's surrounding is a vast land of charcoal black nothingness, it was because of the very first eruption that occured from a long time ago, killing all the living creatures and destroying everything in its surroundings. Tarasque Mountain is said that it was once a home of a mystical dragon-like creature called Tarasque until the eruption occurred that killed the said creature. Thus it is given the name Tarasque Mountain.
Meanwhile, the Guild Master continues to speak.
"...If this is all accurate to what the prophet said, this means that those monsters that are spotted going to Tarasque Mountain with such oddly huge numbers is starting to make a move to possibly summon a demon, or much worse, a demon god."
Demon is a known word to everyone, sometimes they take form of a humanoid, sometimes like a beast. But even if they possess different forms, demons always gave humans the same feeling, "Fear," and "Terror." Demons are a powerful creatures or perhaps a race, they are so powerful that it would take four or five high ranked adventurers to defeat a single one.
But now that they heard the news based on a premonition of a prophet, a prophet that can accurately see the events of the future, the words "Demon God" rang into everyone's ears. Just hearing it makes the lower rank Adventurers quiver. If it takes a five high ranked adventurers to defeat a single demon, then how can they fight a Demon God? Just imagining what would happen if the premonition really comes scares them. However, there seems to be a number of individuals that is used to this sort of tension rising inside them, staying calm and not looking a little bit unfazed.
"Until the scouts send another word and confirmed the situation, there should be nothing to worry about. However, I want everyone to be ready at any time once I gave you all the call. We've already tasted the strength of a demon and the destruction they bring to us 15 years ago."
The Guild Master looks at Sieghart after he spoke, that which he and his party noticed.
"We can't let another one of them take a step in this world. Thank you, now you may all go back to your missions."
The crowd of Adventurers went back on their things as the Guild Master dismissed the discussion. But as he watch the Adventurers going out and inside the Adventurers' Guild, Sieghart and his group stayed from where they're all standing, as if they are waiting for the Guild Master's word, in which he did gave them.
"Then, how's it all going? Have you seen anything suspicious yet onto the Emerald Rank lady?" Asked, the Guild Master, referring to Christa, the Emerald Rank Adventurer.
"There's surprisingly nothing, for the past month, I've been watching from afar, but all she does is to go to that small neighborhood outside the Kingdom where her party lives, training together with that young swordsman and the light spell caster, and she doesn't take missions quite often unlike the others."
David responded, giving his intel from all the days he watched the Crimson Eye, Christa going into the neighborhood outside the Kingdom to train with her party members, Itsuo and Selene and those times where she takes a rather easy quests just to gain money.
"There's nothing really much happening that I got bored from looking after her."
As he spat out the words out of his mind, the staff wielder, Eileen began staring daggers at him.
"You shouldn't have let your eyes off her, you failed as a self-proclaimed expert spy, David."
David gave a down expression as a response to Eileen. It was then Sieghart cuts in to save david from the sorceress.
"Now, now, this should be not a problem anymore, right? I mean if she really has some evil intent, she would have done it by now instead of going to that neighborhood and spend her days training her party members, right?"
The other two, Lira and Jinrah nodded in agreement to Sieghart's statement, if Christa really has some evil intention to anyone or to a country, spending her days doing some small quests and sometimes spending time together with her party members shouldn't be what she's focusing.
"Sieghart's right, maybe you're just overthinking about it, Eileen."
"That's right, I'm pretty sure that young lady is not evil, I can feel it. So you don't have to worry about it, Eileen."
However, despite what Lira and Jinrah said, Eileen still believes that she's dangerous.
"Stop claiming things when you're just basing it on what you feel. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but one day, I'm sure that Christa will bring chaos, not just to Reilaea, but to the whole land of Alteria."
Everyone did not give a reply but they show her a look filled with concern, as though they are starting to get worried about Eileen and what she believes.
"Christa?..."
Suddenly, a young female voice spoke coming from the quest board, looking at the direction of the said quest board, a young man and a girl is standing while holding a quest paper that which they took for their next work. The girl that spoke is Selene and the other is the swordsman, Itsuo.
Selene continued, asking Eileen what happened to Christa after what she heard.
"Chaos... What happened, did something happened to Christa?"
"You're..."
"Christa's party..."
.
.
.
A brand new day starts, and the sun, the ball of light shines ever so brightly to Eisvel Village, giving the villagers another day's worth of liveliness as they all work together to clean all the leftovers of the celebration that lasted over midnight. From bringing back the tables to the houses they all came from, to cleaning the dishes used during their vampire boar meat feast.
Meanwhile as they were all busy with their work, and the kids who are joyously playing around like usual, Aina and Mitou accompanied Christa up to the same entrance where Christa came in.
"So this is goodbye now, huh?"
"Yes, it is." Tears started running down from Aina's eyes as she replied to Christa. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you, Christa?"
"Like I said, It'd be better if you stay here, especially now where things might start getting complicated."
"Complicated...?" Aina replied in confusion. After that, Christa finished her farewell words with Aina and went to Mitou.
"I had a talk with Titania and she agreed to guard this whole village and the riches surrounding you. That should help keeping the wood cutters away if they ever try to come back."
"I see. What a great friend, that giant snake is, although we aren't accustomed with her around yet. But I'm sure that one day everyone will get used to a giant snake guardian protecting us."
Carrying her wooden sword on her back, Christa bids farewell to Mitou and Aina.
"Then, I'm going, Aina, Mayor Mitou."
Christa began walking, as she go further and further away from the two and the village.
Aina shouts from afar.
"Christa! Don't forget to come and visit sometimes! I'll be waiting for you!"
Christa waves her hand from while she continues to go further, until she disappeared from their sight.
Christa continued walking as she is heading straight to the Forest of No Return, as she remembers that Titania will give her a ride towards the Capital. But suddenly, in the middle of the rocky road, she stopped from moving. And as suddenly as she stopped, she said:
"I've been waiting since last night, but you kept yourself concealed in the dark while watching everyone asleep."
The wind started blowing gently like a quiet whisper onto the tall grass and the tree leaves, continuing her words.
"Are you gonna stay hidden like that person who kept following me in the shadows back then? Or are you going to reveal yourself?" Christa refers to David, the one who is following her until a while ago.
"Oh... You've got some keen senses, don't you? I didn't think anyone would be able to tell that I'm stalking them."
The person hiding replied as she walks out of the tall grasses, it was the same young girl that killed the armored man who talked with Christa from yesterday.