Following his meeting with Victoria the huntress, Kai went around the small village which barely consisted of a few dozen houses, and located all the entry and exit points.
The village was in a peaceful clearing in the forest, with the clearing extending for a bit further from the small wooden walls erected by the villagers. These walls were tall enough o prevent humans from jumping over them, leaving the only entrances being the large opening in the fence at the front; from where Kai had initially entered, and the narrow opening at the back.
Of course, these openings were apparently closed using wooden walls which would be raised into place from below. After hearing about this, Kai went to take a closer look and realised that at the large and small entrances, the dirt path stopped, replaced by a few inches of wood, before restarting on the other side. At the ends, there were also metal hooks, to which the villagers would attach robed and lift the gates up, before tying them into place.
Surprisingly, this was done almost entirely by the current Village chief alone when the village was being founded.
'It seems not only is he the village chief, but also a decent builder and carpenter.' Kai mused as he turned away from the entrance and went to observe the village. He did not intend on asking around each and every house, going around revealing his identity, since there was no other way for the villagers to take him; a child of around the age of 10, seriously.
Instead, he took out some of the rations he had prepared and ate it, before settling down near the gate of the village. His robe already had a thin layer of wax on it to protect him from the rain, so the drizzling did not affect him too much.
He had nothing much to do, so he asked the system to alert him is anyone entered or left the village from the large gate he was at as he hid himself behind one of the pillars supporting the wall. At least, anyone coming in from the outside would not see him before he saw them.
Crouching down to not only reduce his visibility but also make it easier to remain in the same position for longer, Kai closed his eyes and began to enter into the same meditative state as before, to slowly and naturally accumulate more Spiritual Energy.
Soon, night arrived, and the rain had already stopped. Kai was alerted by the system that someone was leaving, and he immediately opened his eyes to observe but did not make a move.
A few seconds later, he noticed a hooded figure hiding in the shadows of the moon created by the houses, and making its way to the exit of the village, despite the gate being raised fully. Frowning at the odd behaviour of the hooded figure, Kai did not immediately jump out to apprehend who he only assumed was the so-called 'Blood Devil'.
Instead, Kai waited until the hooded figure was really close to the gate, but as soon as he caught sight of the figure, his jaw nearly dropped.
'Was it truly fate?' Kai cursed, as this was the only person in the village against whom Kai would most likely fail to win in a battle to the death. Not because he would not be able to overpower her with the Five Elephant Palm technique, but because she knew this forest better than him. Plus, based on the bow and arrows on her, she would kill him from a distance before he could get close to her.
Yes, this hooded figure was indeed Victoria, and Kai was a little taken aback.
If it was indeed her, why would she not have killed him the moment he introduced himself, and instead waited until now? If she had killed him back then, and escaped immediately, she might have actually been successful in fleeing to another Duchy. Or not? Kai did not know how far the next Duchy truly was from his current location, but it was still a few days' journey away at the least.
He did not receive much time one such tangential thoughts as Victoria finally made her move. She pulled out a rock tied to a rope and threw it across, and over the gate, which was about 3/4th the height of the rest of the wooden wall.
However, this rock that she just casually threw over a few meters into the air, was an enormous rock, approximately weighing double his weight.
Due to the water pooling on the other side, instead of hearing a deep and resounding thud which would have been heard by the entire village, only a crisp splash was heard. But something like this was definitely not enough to wake the others up from their slumber.
Victoria turned back and ran away, before soon returning with an equally large stone, and tying it to the end of the rope, thus creating a path over the gate using simple ropes and two enormous stones.
Kai watched in slight admiration as she used nothing but her arms to lift herself off the ground and over the gate.
Another softer splash was heard on the other side before Kai could hear even softer but repetitive splashes in the distance.
Immediately, Kai used the same rope to climb up. Only, he did it extremely clumsily and had to use his entire body as well as the wooden gate itself to scale the gate, and finally make it across.
Thankfully, it was not currently raining, thus leaving rather crisp and untouched footprints on the muddy ground, which Kai naturally followed, still unclear as to why she had not already killed him if Victoria the huntress was truly the Blood Devil.
Why was he kept alive all this time? Why go through all this effort to misguide him, only to reveal your secret on the very same day?
Fortunately, Kai soon received his answers.