Just before afternoon, in Nona's palace bedroom…

With a soft groan, Nona opens her amber eyes. Dazed, she stares at her bed's canopy for a few seconds. She then decides to sit up, and looks around.

「Eh?… How did I get here?…」

She asks herself, realizing that she's back in her room and in her bed, and until just a moment ago was also under her blanket.

「Nhhh…」

Nona groans again, covering her face from the light pouring in through the window with her palm.

「I feel sick…」

《…I was going to see Straf… And then I don't remember anything. Did we drink again?》

She grumbles, furrowing her brows while she attempts to recall the last night, but only a blank space exists between now and her last memory.

「Ah!…」

Suddenly, her head perks up and her orange eyes snap open.

「…Job!… Job! Job!…」

Nona jumps out of her bed and rushes towards her chest of drawers.

Ssswh-thud!

「…Oh no, oh no! I'm stupid! I'm stupid!…」

She repeats in panic as she pulls one of the drawers out and takes her folded uniform shirt and jacket from within. She quickly throws them on her bed while she retrieves her hat and skirt.

「…Why would I go drinking with Straf if I knew I have work today!?」

Nona shouts, berating herself while she quickly pulls her sweater over her head. She stops, pausing just before her breasts, pulled up by the sweater, can drop freely.

She lowers her arms, slipping her head back through its collar and freeing most of her face.

「…Hehe… That's kind of exciting… Ditching work to be with Straf…」

Grinning a little, she blushes slightly beneath the collar as she looks at her work clothes on her bed.

「…Work. Work.」

Recovering her diligence, she shakes her head and begins pulling her sweater off again…

…

Around the same time, in the warehouse district…

While Stripe and the rest of the consumer goods factory idle around outside, a horse-drawn cart full of crates rolls up to them. Its driver jumps out and approaches Stripe.

「Good mornin' ma'am… Are you the manager here?」

Holding a sheet of paper in his hands, the man asks.

「Uhh… I suppose so? I manage this place?… Why?」

A little hesitant, Stripe nods as she replies. The man nods back and hands her the sheet he was holding.

「Sign this please. Certification of delivery.」

He says as he pulls a corked ink pot and a quill from a satchel at his hip.

Crrkk-crrkkk… Pop.

The man quickly tugs the cork out of the glass pot and holds the quill out for Stripe.

「…Delivery of what?」

She asks as she takes the quill, dips it in the ink, and signs at a line at the corner of the document.

「Who knows? Beats me… But I had to go all the way to Tollenheim in Telas Kingdom to pick it up, and the cargo sounds glassy…」

Flapflapflap…

He takes the signed certification, gives it a few quick flaps to dry the ink faster and rolls it up into a tube. He packs everything back into his satchel, and moves to the back of his cart.

Clink!…

「…See? Not hard to guess what it might be. I'm a professional, so I don't pry, though.」

The merchant unloads the crate to the ground right next to the warehouse.

「Hey! Help him unload the cart! Bring the crates in!」

Seeing the slow pace at which the man is unloading the dozens and dozens of crates, Stripe raises her arms and waves them in a circle towards the cart, shouting instructions…

…

A few hours later, far in the east…

A man in red lamellar armor is walking through a partially razed village, surrounded by rice paddies. It appears the buildings were attacked at random, with some of the thatch-roofed homes almost entirely turned to charcoal, and some of the richer estates similarly collapsed into smoking embers, with shattered ceramic tiles being the only sign of their relative wealth. As Falcon assesses the damage, his hand remains on his curving sword's hilt. Though a lot of homes are gone, most of the village remains unharmed. Two men with boar spears resting on their shoulders approach the armored man.

「Master Falcon… Thank you again for today.」

One of them says as both deferentially nod their straw hat-covered heads.

「Thank her Divine Embodiment… I'm just acting out her will.」

The swordsman nonchalantly replies in a calm tone, though still gripping onto his sheathed sword.

「That may be so, but…」

The second spearman nods in reply, then turns his eyes to the slaughter that occurred nearby. After a moment, all three turn their attention to it.

「…If not for you passing by, there's no chance we would have fought them off. They'd butcher us all.」

The man continues, shrugging his shoulders while looking at the mangled and dismembered corpses of true fiends piled up by a roadside, along with their limbs. Some of them are missing their horns, and some bodies are missing their heads. A few have grievous stabbing wounds, but all are horribly injured in a way that would kill a regular man at least five times over. Together, their elongated limbs are all tangled up like a ball of wool, and their inhumanly pale skin is stained with dried dark red.

「How are the others?」

Falcon asks as his eyes return to the spear peasants.

「Ah…」

The first peasant's face grows sullen at the question.

「…Already three didn't make it. Then there's at least twenty more that might not make it through today. Roughly double that will live, but they're crippled for life…」

He replies while looking over his shoulder deeper into the village.

「…Then there's eighty or so lightly injured. Mostly burns and light slashes, so they should be fine.」

「And your village population is?…」

Falcon raises his brow while glancing between the two.

「…That's about half our village, Master Falcon… All of the men, really. We're the only two uninjured, and that's thanks to you.」

The spearman replies with a sigh, and shrugs again.

「Shit!…」

His fellow peasant curses out in dismay while clenching his teeth. The two look at him.

「…Shit! Why did it have to happen to us!? We didn't do anything to anyone! I don't think we exist on a map! My house burned down! All my childhood friends might die! One already did!…」

He shouts in anger, holding back tears while furiously clutching onto his spear.

「…The fact you've done no wrong to anybody is what attracts fiends. You are good people with clean hands, and that's likely why you've been targeted…」

「Huh?」

Confused, the peasant's teary eyes look up at Falcon's serious, emotionless face from beneath his straw hat.

「…Demons love nothing more than bringing pain and despair to the good. Abhorrent, merciless creatures. Likewise, they deserve no mercy.」

The swordsman calmly explains, and his eyes briefly dart between the two again.

「…Huh? Are you saying all of this?… All of it because we are innocent!?」

「That is exactly what I am saying, yes.」

Falcon nods in reply towards the dismayed peasant. The other spearman appears to be somewhat discomforted by the exchange.

「Don't fuck with me! Why do we have to feed the kingdom while fending for ourselves!? If we keep the food to ourselves, the lord will come to kill us, but he has no forces to defend us!?」

Still teary-eyed, the angry peasant shouts at Falcon.

「This is something you have to take up to your own lord. I cannot do it for you.」

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He calmly replies with a light shake of his head.

「Hey, calm down… I'm angry too…」

Slap!

The calmer peasant reaches his hand out towards the furious one standing beside him, but he slaps it away.

「Fuck off! Your house is fine! Your friends are fine!… Her Divine Embodiment is fine too!…」「Hey, don't!…」

The angry peasant briefly turns his screams towards the second one before returning his attention back to Falcon.

「…Why didn't she warn us, huh!? Why didn't she send some of her people!? Why didn't she inform our lord that this will happen!? You killed some, what about the ones that ran away!?」

The man points his hand at a palace on a distant mountain as he screams at Falcon, who listens calmly and quietly.

「…That I do not know. Her Divine Embodiment's will is something we can only follow, not predict or understand. I assure you, the remaining fiends will be slain.」

「You don't know much of anything, do you!? Maybe even her Divine Embodiment doesn't know!?」

Thunk-thunk…

The peasant reaches for Falcon's armor to grab onto it, dropping his spear onto the ground.

Falcon's eyes track the rapid movement with ease, but he remains still and allows it, not moving even his hand off his sword's hilt.

「Hey! That's enough! What are you doing!? You can't say that!」

Wide-eyed, the other peasant grabs onto his rags, trying to free Falcon from the man's grab.

「…Now that you've saved the village, you'll just go back to the palace and pat yourself on the back, huh!? Peasants saved, job well done!…」

Holding his armor's edge in a death grip, the man screams on the verge of tears at Falcon.

「…Then tonight they're going to come back and finish the job! Except this time it will be just two guys guarding the village!」

The peasant adds, clenching his teeth in dismay.

The swordsman remains silent and emotionless the whole time, and the two men stop wrestling each other for a moment as Falcon takes a large, calm breath.

「No, I will remain here tonight, and I've already sent for additional help. The fiends will be eradicated. I assure you.」

The armored swordsman replies with a calm confidence and a gaze so serious, that it completely halts the serf's shouting impetus.

Blinking in surprise at the weight of the swordsman's proclamation, the spearman's hands limply slip off his armor's edge.

He lets out another dismayed huff of frustration, picks his spear up off the ground, then storms off towards the village while wiping his eyes with his forearm, leaving the two behind.

「…Uh. I am terribly sorry for him! Please forgive him!」

The calmer peasant bows low to the ground, well below Falcon's waist as he apologizes. His straw hat drops at his feet.

「I don't mind, but he should watch his tongue. Less levelheaded servants could have him lose his head.」

The swordsman sighs, and takes a few steps towards the demon corpse pile.

「Yes, certainly! My apologies, Master Falcon! Once again, thank you!…」

The serf shouts out with his head still lowered as he picks his straw hat back up. He quickly straightens out, places it back on top of his head, then runs after the furious man.

After briefly watching the man run off, Falcon turns his attention forward again. He walks past the pile, calmly watching his last night's bloody handiwork…

…

Around the same time, in a forest by Redwing Kingdom's capital…

Greaves, Will, Lian, and Alicia are navigating through the woods, heads swiveling left and right in search of danger.

「…Greaves, we're lost… Again.」

Will sighs as he adjusts his glasses.

「No we're not! The task is to verify if there's goblins in the forest!… Where are we, Will!?」

Greaves angrily stomps ahead of Will and the rest of the party, then turns around and spreads his hands, asking a rhetorical question with the backdrop of a golden forest behind him.

「Greaves, wandering around blindly is dangerous. Even if there are goblins here, we should be methodical about this.」

Will explains as the party stops. Greaves clicks his tongue.

「Tsk… There you go with your dangerous again… Adventuring is a life of danger, Will! Stop being a wimp! I even tried meet you partway and went for an easy-like task!」

Greaves exclaims with his fists on his hips and his mouth aslant in frustration. Alicia sighs as her shoulders slump, and she turns her eyes beneath her furrowed brows to Lian.

「There's a reason why most adventurers don't live to their 30s, Greaves… It's because they set out to do stuff like you do! Stop being a dumbass, dumbass!」

Will adjusts his glasses, then shouts back at Greaves. The two get into a prolonged argument about who is the true dumbass of the party. Alicia sighs again.

「Never gets old, huh?」

Lian asks Alicia with a smug smirk while the two shout at each other in the background.

「I wish there was a way to convince Greaves to give up on being an adventurer…」

Alicia hugs her silver wand close to her chest while watching the argument unfold.

「Men don't like that kind of thing, you know? They first have to win before they settle down.」

「Win?…」

「Uh-huh. There's a lot of differences between my people and yours, but it seems to be an universal thing. They'd loathe to settle down and no longer stick their neck out before they win.」

Lian nods with a grin on her face, leaning onto her spear while watching Will and Greaves shout into each other's faces.

「But how does a man win?」

Alicia asks, tilting her head.

「Hmmmmm… Good question…」

Lian hums, glancing up at the tree canopies missing a bulk of their leaves.

「…Because I'm the brain, but you won't listen to me!…」

「…Because your brain is scared of everything!…」

The shouting continues while Lian thinks.

「…I suppose it depends on the man? There's no one way to win, but they need to be satisfied and feel like they've reached a satisfying conclusion in a chapter of their life…」

Lian replies, still thinking heavily.

「…Ah! I suppose you could think of it as a book. It has to end on something that most people would be able to call an ending… At least to the chapter.」

She concludes, smiling at Alicia as she shrugs.

「There's a lot of books where the protagonist dies though…」

Alicia remarks, furrowing her brows as her gaze drops down to the leaves at their feet.

「Well, that's true…」

Lian shrugs again with a tilt of her head. After a few more seconds of the constant shouting, the ground lightly rumbles.

「…And you!- Huh? Did you feel that?」

Will stops shouting, then adjusts his glasses and looks down at his feet.

「…Yeah. Felt like the ground is shaking. Alicia, Lian, did you feel that too?」

Greaves asks, but Lian is already holding her spear in two hands at full alert, startling Alicia a little.

「What's wrong, Lian?…」

Alicia asks, then swivels her head around. The forest is empty as far as she can see.

「…There is something.」

She replies with a serious face while her eyes dart around.

「Something?…」

Rrrrrumbbbble…

Just as Alicia asks, the rumbling becomes audible. The leaves on the forest floor dance up and down.

「Will…」

「Yeah.」

Greaves draws his sword and returns closer to the rest. Will nods back and draws his own, clutching onto his wooden staff in his other hand tighter.

RRRRRRRUMBLE!…

The rumbling gets worse. The shaking becomes so intense that it's difficult to stay upright. The ground appears to erupt in front of the party, alarming them despite the considerable distance. As it continues to erupt, shooting chunks of dirt and leaves upward, loudly uprooting and toppling trees, Will adjusts his glasses while staring at the event wide-eyed.

「Uh oh…」

He utters out, taking a step back.

「What is that? Some sort of a dirt geyser? Mud hot spring?…」

Greaves asks, furrowing his brows at the dirt eruption.

「No. We gotta get out of here, Greaves!…」

Will clutches onto Greaves's shoulder, backpedaling and trying to pull him back with him, but Greaves refuses to budge.

「What? But why?-」

With his brows furrowed further, he glances briefly at Will before returning his eyes back to the dirt geyser.

「Wha-!?」

His jaw drops when he realizes that the dirt geyser is not an eruption of any kind, but a living being crawling out from beneath the ground.

「What is that!?」

Greaves shouts, pointing at the emerging creature.

「Living mountain! Don't even try to fight it, stupid! We gotta report this!…」

Will shouts back with panic on his face, clutching onto Greaves's arm…