"Woah… she did all of this?"
"Yeah. I saw her carve out a cave once, but I didn't think she was stronger than that."
After the third phase, it was time for the less ridiculous ones to act. Namely, calling out and gathering the villagers and refugees to the mansion fell on him, Snow, and the lord's men.
Everything was going smoothly. With the rust incinerated out of the streets, they could go out safely, at least for the most part. Everybody still needed to wear facial protection at all times, as there was a chance that the acrid smoke and the burnt pieces of wood scattered sporadically across the streets still contained rust. There was also the looming threat of the remaining corroded just outside the walls, which would likely not last long at that time when they're unmanned.
"Why didn't you tell me?!"
"Would you have believed me?"
"... No, guess not. I would have thought you were insane."
That was what he thought when he first saw Hornet carving a brand new cavern into the cave. In hindsight, it might have been stupid for him to believe that what she displayed that day was the full extent of her abilities when she did that in a chamber that could have collapsed at any time.
They saw somebody beckon to them from afar, asking for help, so they paused their conversation and ran up to the scene. There, they saw two young boys trying to convince their father to leave with them under orders from the lord's personal knight.
"No! This is our home! It's where my wife died! I'm not going to abandon it!" the man screamed desperately, which attracted the attention of the people marching toward the manor. Some of them looked on in pity, while some had empathetic expressions on their faces.
"It's as you can see. I've been trying to persuade him for a long time. The lord ordered me not to leave anybody behind, which is quite troublesome."
"Have you tried knocking him out?"
"... I'd like to exhaust all my options before resorting to that, if possible."
"How did he know? I mean, what would happen?"
"My liege ordered me to tell the people honestly if they asked."
The knight sighed and shrugged, exhaustion plain on his face.
Blinking in surprise, Rain turned his head to look around. There were only a couple or so knights and a handful of soldiers in that area where they were, but none were yelling at the people like they were below them. One was even carrying a dirty old refugee on his back, which stained his knight's armor cape.
"Leave this to me," Snow suddenly declared confidently. She stepped into the house and sat on the floor next to the man before pulling a bag from her pack.
"This is from the lord. There are fifty gold rons in this bag. If you leave, you can have it. Deal?"
Rain's jaw dropped. How did she get that? Did she steal it from the lord's vault? Panicked, he looked to the knight and–
"Ah. I should've tried that."
Instead of outrage, the knight looked on with enlightened admiration.
The father stared at Snow with incredulous eyes. After all, fifty gold rons was a boatload of money. Judging by the quality of their house, it wouldn't even take them twenty gold rons to replace it with an equal or better one.
"Is that true?" the man asked, not to Snow, but to the knight, likely because he was the only one there who looked like he was connected with the village ruler.
In response, the knight nodded and said, "It's true. Take it. But, keep it a secret. I trust you know the consequences otherwise."
Snow unceremoniously dropped the pouch onto the man's lap with a satisfying clicking noise. The man cautiously lifted it, dangling it between his fingers as if weighing it. Then, he opened the pouch. When he saw its contents, his eyes widened in shock and excitement. Unfortunately for Rain, he never saw the bag's contents with his own eyes, but the sound was definitely familiar to currency.
Immediately after verifying its contents, the man jumped and took his sons with him to join the procession, but not before thanking the group with a sincere expression.
After seeing the man disappear in the crowd, the knight faced them and expressed gratitude, saying, "My thanks. If I were alone, I would have dragged him into the manor myself."
Rain rubbed his neck. For some reason, he felt the knight shouldn't thank them for any reason.
"You… don't mind us giving away your liege's money?"
To that question, the knight laughed.
"Of course I do… but it was necessary this time. I'm sure the lord wouldn't mind, either."
Both Rain and Snow shot him a questioning stare. Faced with their gazes, the knight showed them an understanding expression and said, "The lord here used to be a baron with little on his lands. Everybody was poor, but they… we all did our best to survive. It was only a few years earlier that things had become better. So, for him, losing a mere fifty gold shouldn't be that big of an issue."
"You don't say…."
Rain recalled the two pieces of paper he had chanced upon during his time there before the crisis had started. It briefly told of the state of the village before being ruled over by Rex with her "tyrannical ways." From it, one could catch a small glimpse of the residents' life before that time. And judging by the minute details, the village must have been impoverished. There must have been a time when the houses there were still made of old, decaying wood, judging from the amount of lumber they managed to get a hold of in that emergency to create their ramparts. It was a miracle that there hadn't been a single rustfall that fell right on that region until that time, even if it was a relatively uncommon occurrence. But then, things improved. The houses around them were relatively new and made of reliable stone instead of rotten lumber.
So, what changed? Rain could only recall one thing that happened several years ago–when the entire country had been annexed by Rex.
"Anyway, I have to go. There are still homes to check before we run out of time. Once again, thank you."
Like the man from before, the knight ran out and disappeared, leaving Rain and Snow alone in the half-burnt house.
"Well, that was a waste of time," Rain couldn't stop himself from saying.
"What do you mean?"
"That guy was all too happy leaving his "precious" house for money. This place isn't too important for him after all."
"Is that what you think? I think it's great that that guy was greedy."
Rain narrowed his eyes. Was he complimenting that man? Or did she simply see no fault in the kind of greed that was similar to hers?
When Snow noticed his baffled look, she chuckled lightly and patted his shoulder before saying, "Look, man. What if his sentiment was stronger than his want for money? We would have left a man here, possibly even his two sons, to die. Compared to that, fifty gold coins seems like a cheap fee. That knight seems to agree with me on that."
"... Then… why did you give up on the stone?"
His question came out of nowhere. The words simply came to his lips and escaped without his permission. Upon realizing what he said, Rain quickly covered his mouth as if that could take the memory back. But that obviously didn't work. Snow's face fell upon hearing it.
"It's different. I doubt I could get a good night's sleep knowing that people died because I wanted to save myself, you know?"
That was the same reason that forced them to choose back then. Their circumstances hadn't changed at all. And though it wasn't too late to change their minds, they had already consumed several of those tokens that allowed the heroes to use their abilities to create an opening and evacuate the villagers.
"A hero's purpose is 'ta turn the impossible into somethin' barely within reach. We find hope where there's none."
"We would fight tooth an' nail to th'last man if 'ya did, just 'ta make yer wish come true. We wouldn't let anythin' down, not you, an' not these humans. We'll save everythin'. Because that's a hero's job."
Rain recalled Hornet's words. The three were heroes with impossibly powerful abilities. At first, they intimidated him, as they were people who could single-handedly defeat a few dozen monsters that humans would have a deadly struggle against. However, upon learning that they needed to consume those tokens, he couldn't help but admit that it confused him enough that he was suddenly unable to make a proper decision without being pushed from behind. All the what-ifs clouded his judgment. But then Hornet faced him briefly about it after he made a choice. She asked if he believed in them.
He realized at that point that he didn't. At least, not enough to look up to them as miracle workers. And that disgusted her.
Could they really have done what she claimed? She didn't even have a plan at that time, right?
"What's wrong? Why are you spacing out?"
The warm feeling of somebody's hand on his snapped him out of his thoughts. Snow looked up at him, full of concern. Seeing her face calmed him down somewhat, but he relapsed quickly upon remembering it.
With a bit of hesitation, he decided to tell Snow about it.
"She said that? Hmm… That seems out of character."
Sure enough, both of them thought she was just a drunkard who cared for nothing but where she could get a good snack with her booze. After all, until then, she had never lifted a finger to help them besides that one point when Stain, her partner, ordered her to clear the underground cave. In fact, if it wasn't due to Stain's plan that almost wholly relied on Hornet's firepower, they wondered if they could have gotten the latter to help.
But perhaps that was an unfair assumption. After all, Hornet shared her booze with him the previous night when he was troubled and even cooked a meal for him earlier that day when he had a hangover, seemingly without being forced to.
"Maybe she has a point," Snow laughingly said with a bit of apprehension in her eyes. "But I don't think we have the luxury of betting on chances. Not now, when there's too much on the line."
Then, they heard the loud, raucous noise of a bell. It was coming from the manor and served as the signal for the start of the next phase. It also meant that the hundreds of corroded outside were nearing the gates. Everybody must get back as soon as they can.
The soldiers started to yell at everybody to pick up their pace. Some even started to carry the people's luggage on their backs and pick up the elderly; anything they could do to empty the streets faster. Several guards rode on horses, shouting for anybody who might still be in their houses to go to the manor as ordered, as it was their last chance to survive.
Admirably, the lord's soldiers still managed to keep a semblance of orderliness to all the urgency. As the stream of would-be refugees thinned, Rain and Snow followed the final group of soldiers back to the manor.
The next phase was going to begin. Again, it was Hornet's primary responsibility. How would she defeat that massive horde right outside the walls when they're spread so far? Well, why else would they have to evacuate everyone inside the village? Nobody knew exactly how, but everybody had a faint idea.