Rain and Snow ran through the halls, past the panicking servants and guards, and arrived at the lobby, where they saw Rex, Stain, and Hornet with the village lord and his personal knight.
"Mm. Yo. Had a lil' too much to drink last night, eh?"
Hornet walked up to them with her own style of greeting. Despite the situation, she did not look alarmed at all, which was a sharp contrast to the expressions of everybody else in the area.
"Isn't that your fault?" Stain remarked as he pulled Hornet back. He then turned to the couple and briefed them on the situation.
It happened around five hours after midnight. The sky darkened abruptly, and after a while, it rained. Because it was nighttime, Hornet, the only one among them awake at that time (since she was drinking), didn't notice that the clouds were full of rust until it started to rain. But once she did, she immediately called for everybody outside, who were posted as sentries, to take cover. Fortunately, she was able to react fast enough that those who were caught in the rain suffered only minor corrosion.
They had to amputate a couple of limbs, though.
"How about those on the walls?" Rain asked. There were a dozen or so soldiers who manned the ramparts that night. Were they able to get those people to safety as well?
But to that question, Stain could only shake his head.
"We didn't have time."
"Oh…"
That was their situation. At least the rain had already stopped, so there was one silver lining. However, it was still unsafe for them to go out because it had only been a few hours since it did. It was not like the flooded plains they had passed through the day before, where most of the rust had already been absorbed by the soil after several days of calm. The rust, as it was then, would creep into their boots and quickly corrode them from their feet.
"The rain woke up the stragglers in the vicinity, too. There's almost a couple hundred of them wandering a few kilometers outside the village, and on top of that, we're not yet sure about the ones inside since everybody's locked themselves in."
"Why are there so many?"
To that question, the three heroes' eyes went toward the lord. Under the combined pressure of their gazes, the noble visibly recoiled and bowed.
Rex sighed and explained herself.
"Apparently, the rustfall a week ago wasn't limited to a few villages. It hit the entire region. Several villages were affected. And for whatever reason, something bad happened in most of them, forcing people to evacuate. That's why there are a lot of refugees. As for the ones roaming outside, those are probably the remnants of the corroded that pursued them, woken up by the rustfall last night. They haven't started running here, likely because they forgot what they were doing before becoming inactive. But we'll definitely be overrun once they notice that people live here."
After she finished, the lord raised his head and frantically defended himself to the group. Then again, it was obvious that he was only doing so because he thought they were Rex's companions. Regardless, he was shocked to see how a noble panicked to do so to a commoner like him.
"We tried sending messengers to the embassy at Lygit Town, but none returned. They were probably–"
"Killed. Mm." Hornet shrugged carelessly, not minding that she had just interrupted a noble. "Happens often. Rustfall is a pain in the ass, after all."
That was the situation they were in. Rain looked to his side and saw that the windows were covered in rust. The servants had covered the seams with a cloth to prevent any liquid or air from passing through. Every opening the manor had was shut and sealed tight, including the chimneys and vents. And aside from their group of five, everybody else was wearing some sort of protection for their faces, whether it was a cloth over their nose and mouth or using magic as a protective barrier like the lord.
For Rain's part, it was only because he ran to the lobby in such a rush that he didn't have the time to wear any protection. The vapor alone from a recent rustfall was enough to corrode someone if they breathed it in long enough. But for the other three, that shouldn't have been an issue. Yet, there they were, standing right next to the main door that led to the outside, without a single layer between their faces and the air.
He recalled how they basically dismissed being mobbed by a couple dozen corroded, a number that would strike fear into the eyes of even a seasoned soldier, as mere annoyances. The only reason why they were able to break through that encirclement was because of their abilities and judgment.
"Mm? Yer feelin' okay? Impressive."
And that gave Rain the confidence to remain calm despite the situation. They were heroes, after all.
"So, what are our options?" he asked. Even though he already knew what they were, it would be better for somebody to lay it out before everybody.
But then, Stain's neutral expression became dubious.
"What do you mean? This has nothing to do with us. We're going down to the well, remember?"
********************
"What do I… We're not going to help? But the people here…."
"That's not what we're here for, though."
Stain's answer hit him like a punch to the gut. Without hesitation or remorse, he dismissed the idea as if it was the most natural response. What was worse was that Hornet agreed. Even Rex, who had a bitter look on her face, didn't speak up, which was as good as siding with him.
"Client. We're here for your commission. Wasting resources for something like this puts that at risk."
His voice was cold. Frigid, even. Rain felt a chill shoot up his spine.
He turned to the people around them. They were running about in dire urgency, checking every nook and cranny of the manor for any leaks they might have missed. A few of them were kneeling on the floor, praying. One soldier sat on a chair, staring at his locket, with tears streaming down his face. The butlers were busy directing the chaos while the maids carried supplies.
All of them were busy in their own ways. Rain felt like even if they didn't know the specifics of the situation, they were still aware that they were in dire straits.
How could they, "heroes," simply abandon them?
Seeing his apprehension, Stain released a sigh of his own. He signaled something to Rex, to which she nodded in understanding.
"Lord. I have something to talk to you about. This way."
She led the noble and his knight away from the group, giving them a bit of privacy. After Stain was sure they were far enough out, he walked in front of Rain and pulled a pouch from his belt.
It was filled with gold coins, none familiar to Rain.
"These are called Binding Tokens. We use them to hide our abilities from… certain things," he explained. "We can't use our abilities above the ground without them. Each time we do, we need to break one of these as "payment" for it.
"There is only one person in the world who can make these things. That's Coin, the master we serve. But even she can't produce these fast enough to make a difference. As we proceed with your commission, we'll likely need to use more of these whenever we get into trouble, just like yesterday.
"Honestly, even if we don't do anything to help here, the amount of coins we have is, at best, lacking. After all, you're looking for an item that only exists in stories, so these precious tokens are our payment to retrieve it. So you see, we don't have any choice.
"Saving these people will more than likely exhaust everything we have."
That was when Rain remembered; back then, when Stain slew the corroded running for them, he had to destroy one of those tokens simultaneously. But when they were in the dungeon, Hornet could breathe fire without having to do the same.
He thought it was just a peculiarity with Stain's performance that he would destroy what was essentially money, considering that he hadn't seen Hornet do the same. But he was mistaken.
Why? What were they hiding from? How did the coins work? Those were questions that weren't meant to be asked at that time. He was simply aware that Stain wasn't lying to him.
Getting the stone was going to take a lot of work. It wouldn't be such a legendary item if it didn't. They would surely run into many situations where the tokens' properties and the heroes' strength would be necessary. That may be the biggest reason why Stain refused.
Rain turned to Snow. Like him, she looked utterly lost as well. Though they did so for different reasons, the stone was still something they had been chasing for many years. By some unfortunate series of events, their dream has led them to a point where, in trying to obtain it, they would have to sacrifice the lives of an entire village.
What should he do?