Janus.

Chapter 3: Guardian Demon

After 10 more hours of driving, Hyda stopped driving and took a break out beside the dirt road with Squeedo, Dave was still asleep in the car. "So? How'd you save that village?" She asked Him.

"Well, it was quite easy for someone of my caliber." Squeedo said with a smug face ,"After I left the place you two were captured, I realized my visuals were hacked and rushed outside. The people in the Hospital lobby didn't have any eyes, they looked hopeless. When I talked to them they kept repeating the same words. They kept saying 'I'm not worthy of my eyes' over and over. I went out to investigate, but there was no need. Everyone wore sunglasses, and peoples' eyes were randomly checked. If they had eyes, they were removed on the spot and then they were dragged away. Since I was built as a peacekeeper A.I, I took some initiatives to stop this. After all, I had nothing else to do while you two were asleep. It started with me compiling multiples speeches stored in my memory together into one mp3 file with my fabricated voice, and ended with a freedom movement against some kind of 'rectangle god'. I've no clue what that is. At the end of it all, the village found out about your true identity and also managed to overthrow the local governor. Then I became their temporary ruler and learnt about how your defiance from said 'rectangle god' gave them hope. I still don't have any idea what this 'rectangle god' is." Squeedo said ,"Oh yeah and the governor was crazy and was also behind the blinding of the people, and he was also against this rectangle god character. Nobody seems to like him."

"Just how long were we asleep?" Hyda asked, looking flustered.

"Don't get mad, but I didn't try to wake you up after my first attempt." He said.

"Which was?" She asked.

"A month ago." The grin on the rat's face was quite unpleasant, you could see exactly why rats can't smile. And exactly why he didn't have the mechanism to laugh.

"heh." The soulless glare was back.

"Do you have any idea what is going to happen to those villagers?" She asked, her anger seeming to have subsided.

"W-what?" Squeedo asked. He was too scared to ask her if her terrifying glare was scary on purpose.

"There's only one political power that opposes 'rectangle god', as they call him. Without them, that village is as good as gone." She said ,"The problem is, they're not very...keen on morality. And I'm not even sure if they'll help us, or that they even exist, all I have is a feeling that they do."

"Why can't we relocate the people living there?" Squeedo asked.

"We're three people. For an AI you're quite dumb, y'know?" She answered.

"So, can we gain the trust of those people?" He asked.

"Depends, how does Dave feel about eating meat?" She answered with another question.

Meanwhile, the mages had just left Nosfluengard. They left a message by letter to Nostonia that the village was engaged in heresy. "I wonder what'll happen to those people." Asked Lisa, she was sitting in the back seat with a transfusion canon. It was a white hollow cylinder with engraving of archaic latin on it, and there were wires protruding from the back of it which join together to form what seemed like an injection needle. "They'll be executed, just like any other heretic." The Numen said. "Cheer up, Numy! I'm sure that our god is not capable of cruel things like that!" Lisa said energetically, without any doubts. She wasn't that shy anymore after a month had passed. "Don't call me that." Numy's eye holes were glowing red. "Numy's right, they will be killed." Jeff said. Numy grumbled.

"But why? They just need a bit of re-education." Lisa asked.

"Don't question his will." Jeff gave such a vague answer on purpose, he knew that rectangle god was probably listening.