As the smoke clears, the villages stand around, putting out the fires across the village. Miller arrives first, seeing the Elder directing the villagers. The Elder turns to Miller and directs him towards a burning building before Miller shoots ahead.

The others arrive, finding the Elder as the last fires go out and he turns to face the group.

“You’re rather late.” He says jokingly.

Glyn catches his breath. “We were dealing with the monster mess outside the village.”

Tisha shakes her head. “What happened?”

“There was an explosion that randomly went off in the middle of the village. A few buildings caught fire, but the damage is easy to repair.” He says.

Glyn looks around. “I’m guessing that the bomb was nothing more than a flare trap, am I right?”

“You may be correct. It was a bright flash and small flames, but it didn’t seem like it caused too much damage.”

Sam looks around. “How can you be sure?”

“Easy. Since this place is built from mostly wood, it’d be easy to burn the whole thing down with the right accelerant. Considering only the buildings around the blast area were burnt, it seems they used no accelerant in the explosion.” Glyn explains.

Tan nods along. “So why? Was it an accident?”

“More like a message.” Glyn sighs. “Elder, I have to talk with you. I need to prepare something for the village’s defenses.”

The Elder nods. “You sound worried.”

“Considering who we’re fighting and what he’s already shown, he’s willing to do. I have every right to be worried.”

Glyn and the Elder move into his home as everyone stands around outside. The Elder sits in his chair as Glyn sits in an opposite chair and pulls out his book. He opens it showing a page to the Elder who nods along reading the passages.

“This plan will put a dent in your fighting force.”

“I know that. But he’ll be using his pieces and some extra forces. I can’t afford to skimp out on defending this place.”

“Why go so far for us?”

“Because technically I’m supposed to be in charge here. But really, it’d put an unpleasant taste in my mouth if you guys got hurt because of this shitty war.”

“They’ll likely call an emergency session for the council tonight. I’ll bring your plan up with them, but they’ll oppose and bring up the idea of exiling them.”

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Glyn smirks. “Remind them of our deal and how I’m the only one who can manage the dungeon in its present state.”

“You were prepared for this outcome.”

“Yeah. But I didn’t expect the asshole to pull such a move before the war officially starts. Makes me want to kick his teeth in.”

“Glyn…..”

“Elder!” Miller yells out, entering the room.

“What is it?”

“We’ve caught a suspicious outsider hiding outside of the village. He has burns, and he’s likely the one who set off the bomb.”

Glyn stands. “Where is he?”

“The guards have him outside the village. They're trying to heal his burns.”

“Good, we need that guy alive!”

Glyn rushes outside of the village, where the guards surround a burned man in black. He struggles to breathe as he looks up at Glyn. As he catches Glyn’s sight, he laughs and coughs.

“Stop doing that. You need to conserve your energy.” The healer says.

“It’s already too late. The Lordling is here to execute me.” The man says as he coughs. “Man. I should’ve stayed with the primary force. We never should’ve come to this island.”

“You shouldn’t have. But you can make it easy on yourself. I know you have a connection to Fenwick. Explain and we can put an end to this.”

“The boss won’t allow that, you know.” He tries to laugh but coughs, collapsing and falling onto his back. “He’s terrified. I guess he’s worried about you. You keep him up at night.”

“Come on, talk to me.”

“I wish I could.” The man falls back as the healers shake their heads.

Glyn stands as Miller walks up to him.

“What happened?”

“A poison.” One healer says.

“But how?”

“It’s common for assassins connected to people in top positions to have devices or cosmetics to inject poison into them in any situation.” Glyn lowers his head, biting his nails. “Damn it. Damn it.”

“Glyn, are you okay?”

“Fine. I’m just worried.”

“Why?”

“He said ‘we’ should have never come to this island. Meaning there’s at least one more person on this island he was working with.” Glyn shakes his head. “This is a mess.”

“At least we have proof now.”

“No. All we have is a corpse. We need a living witness or else we can’t get taken seriously. This is not going well.”

“What’s the plan, then?”

“We need to keep an eye out for anything strange. Until the war begins, we can’t strike at Fenwick yet. I…..”

“Glyn!” Miller yells out.

Glyn takes a breath. “Okay, I can’t get stressed out just yet. Miller, I’m leaving you in charge of operations for now. I’m going to focus on coming up with a counterstrategy. We need to be ready for another swarm of monsters or anything else.”

“Glyn, don’t take everything on yourself. We need to work together on this.”

Glyn nods. “We are. I’m going to work on a way to keep the village safe, but we also need to prepare for going to Albert Island.”

He pauses for a moment. “And I think I might have a way for us to draw out our remaining saboteurs.”

“We’ll be ready,” Miller says.

Glyn walks forward with his head lowered. “Fenwick might try to put me in a vice. But I’m going to show him. I’m going to beat him at his own game. I’m going to win this contest no matter what!”

Tisha walks up to Miller, shaking her head. “To think we had such a simple morning.”

“Tisha. What do you think?”

“I think he’s going to drive himself insane at this rate. He’s far too stressed out. I have to say this Fenwick guy is good at being annoying.”

Miller nods. “Right. It looks like we have to do more than just watch out for spies.”

“I know you hate the idea, but Mila will be stressed out if he’s stressed out,” Tisha says.

Glyn sighs. “Fine. Do whatever you want, but if it goes too far and Mila gets hurt, I won’t forgive any of you.”

“I doubt we’d be getting that far. But we have to force him to open up about what’s bothering him. So don’t get mad at us tomorrow morning, okay?”

Miller shakes his head. “Will you just shut up about this morning? I think we all want to forget that.”

“Whatever you say.”