Sennsou Wa Heiwa Sekai no Mannakade Vol.1

CHAPTER 3: TREACHERY

That midnight, outside Stonefort village wall. There was a group of bandit that looked like was setting something on the wall. Since it was just a village, the villager who was on guard duty wasn't able to do the job like knights. They only patrol near the entrance, so the bandit could take advantage of that and approach the wall which was far from the entrance. After setting the device, it immediately dug inside with no sound. This was the first part of their plan. The group left the scene after setting different devices on the other part of the wall.

Morning came, Kuro woke up earlier than usual, it looked like there was a huge commotion outside. It was loud enough to wake him up. He took his sword, put up his arm guard, opened the door and went outside. Outside, villagers were quite horrified at the looks outside. The wall which was built to help them defend against monsters had a huge crack in just 1 night without no one noticing. Moreover, this case was the first time it happened since it was first built 20 years ago. Kuro noticed the abnormality and went closer to investigate.

While he was making his way to the wall, he saw a board full of criminals that Helios empire knights were chasing. They all runaways who had done a grave crime that could be sentenced to death. While looking at the board, he saw someone which felt peculiar to him. He couldn't remember where did he meet that guy. Since he couldn't figure it out, he cast aside that feeling and rushed toward the cracked wall.

When he arrived, he saw the General and his lieutenant. They and their subordinates were investigating the abnormality. Kuro politely asked him if there was something he could help. The General was happy that he was on time as he needed another person to help. He asked Charlotte to give him the summary of the investigation so far. Kuro was listening to what she has been telling him. But upon the mention of a strange device was found inside the wall which already broke down, Kuro's expression changed.

"I thought so too" General Baron agreed as if he knew what Kuro wanted to say.

"Lieutenant, show him the device we found in the wall" he gave an order and in that instant Charlotte saluted and went away to retrieve the object.

Blackfeather told Kuro that he had a bad feeling that it was the work of some high ranking criminal. The general actually come as Helios requested for assistance to arrest the said criminal. And he was interested in Kuro so Kuro and his group was sent to Helios also. Blackfeather had the picture of the wanted man, it was the same as what Kuro saw at the board before, but he couldn't remember where he saw that person. As they talked to each other, Charlotte came with the said device that was found broken inside the wall. Kuro immediately noticed something was weird. He felt that he saw that before. The machine had a mechanism to dig into the wall and made a crack in the wall from the inside. It was done without producing any sound, that was why no one noticed until it had finished the job. It was also made to break itself once the duty is finished so that it was hard to replicate the product. Blackfeather and Charlotte knew this because they got a sample from Helios' government. They talked about 5 more minutes before General Blackfeather said that he had to go to the lake alone, since the other 2 would be with charlotte. He also said that he still had something to do so he sent Kuro alone.

The lake was near Deathmist forest walked toward the lake which wasn't very far from the village. Although it wasn't as dangerous as the forest, some monsters from inside the forest sometimes went out to the lake for a drink. He still needed to be careful around the lake. While he was walking, he tried to remember those 2 peculiar things. The criminal's face and the strange machine that was found inside the wall. He racked his memory but somewhat as if there was a magic that interfered with his brain, he couldn't remember where and when he saw those 2. He was sure he saw it somewhere in Helios but all he could remember was that it happened at night. He gave up after trying as hard as he could as it would hurt his head instead.