The border village of Amsterid. It was approaching midday, and with nary a cloud to obscure the blue sky, most of those working were preparing to take a break to down some cheap beer and celebrate. Perhaps some of the passing soldiers would even have some more powerful drink to share with the humble villagers.

I awoke at this time, to the sensation of something weighing me down. Fearing that I had been tied down, I leapt up, and promptly smashed my forehead against a hard object.

“W-What was that?!” a woman’s voice started somewhere.

It was simply a hefty woollen blanket that had startled me. A piece of thin wood fell from where I had head-butted: one of the slats supporting the bunk above me.

A girl appeared in the doorway. She looked to be about 19, so she wasn’t the one I had heard earlier.

“Heh, sorry,” I immediately apologized, holding up the broken wood. My own voice surprised me; it was more on the feminine side. I suppose I’m… feminine, I thought.

“How… nevermind that. Mum!” she called.

I had been found caught in an animal trap just beyond the skirts of the village, I was told by the hardy mother of the house. It was only a simple wire that had twisted itself around my ankle, but I seemingly had such little strength and consciousness that I was simply pawing at the ground. If the woman’s daughter had not found me the previous morning, I would likely be lodging in a fox’s stomach instead.

“I must ask,” she asked, following her explanation. “Where did you escape from? Were there… were you with anyone else?” She leaned forward with a stiff figure from her kitchen chair.

“I don’t… remember anything,” I answered.

“What about before that? Where do you live? We can help get you home.”

“I…” I began, but there was nothing I could say. The kitchen fell under shadow as a cloud passed under the sun. The world paused in a hush. The woman’s husband, who had entered and stood behind her, gazed out the window. Down the road, out of the city. He did not blink. Even the bird, that sat on the fence outside the kitchen, seemed to have turned completely still. Or was it a statue? I—

I was stunned by a sudden cold chill within my lower belly. I let out a gasp, and with it a sudden pain came to my head. The couple’s attention returned to me. The pain subsided almost immediately, and I noticed that the daughter had entered the room, and apparently having seen my change just now, hurriedly whispered something into her mother’s ear.

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“I’m sorry dear,” the mother said to me, returning to a more motherly tone. “Don’t feel the need to recall if it is too difficult.”

“We are happy to let you stay here until you fully recuperate,” the father added. “It would feel wrong to turn away someone in need of help, especially now.”

“T-Thank you,” I stammered. I managed to give the three of them a small, friendly smile. “I will go for a short walk outside, if I may…?”

The atmosphere of the village was cheery. I had no memories of villages, but the degree of cheeriness seemed to be unusual. I did not ponder it for long. My mind was already a mess of questions. However, my mind also felt refreshingly hollow. I could feel the draft blow through the large empty area, where not even light had been established. This contradictory sensation was, I’m sure, unnatural.

Despite the fact that my brain was textured with question marks, I felt no anxiety.

At every second, at every moment, the spot that my foot would next land was clear.

The first step; I would land within the darkest depths of the underground of the Imperial Capital. That is—

“Stop!”

My shin stopped a hair’s width short of an unnoticeably thin sliver of golden light that crossed my path. On closer inspection, it was a thin wire, stretched between two tree trunks. Ah—without noticing, I had wandered into a patch of woods.

The young girl from the house approached me and pointed out an arrowhead peeking out from the nearby bushes.

“This is a trap meant to kill some of the larger beasts that get too close to this part of the village. The smaller critters we hunt don’t tend to wander here, but bigger ones are less afraid.” She led me away while fluently explaining things.

“Thanks, I suppose I should be more careful here,” I said. “I’m not too used to living in this kind of place.”

“Indeed,” the girl breathed out, in a strange kind of tone.

Something that didn’t quite suit her ‘village girl’ character.

“So,” she began, “do you come from the city then? Or, from the other side?”

Sunlight glinted off of a polished knife that dangled from her belt.

“And, unlike mother, I will be taking an answer.”