"Hurry up and lock the door, Mr. Arezu!" Lynn shouted in panic, staring at the rampaging locals as they tried to force their way inside while Arezu pushed the door closed.
"What do you think I'm doing, Lynn?!"
Arezu shoved the door shut with all his strength, then collapsed against it, leaning his back on the door while glaring at Lynn—silently asking why she hadn't helped him.
"I was cheering you on, though."
Although Lynn and Arezu had managed to escape and lock themselves inside a building, the locals were still trying to break in, bashing the door and walls so hard that the entire structure shook.
It was only a matter of time before the door collapsed, Lynn and Arezu thought.
Their situation hadn't changed. Just like Lynn's divine blessing barrier earlier, the building they were hiding in could only protect them for a short amount of time.
They were still surrounded on all sides, trapped inside what they thought would be a shelter against the rampaging locals.
"Let's go upstairs, Lynn," Arezu said, running ahead before the door collapsed.
But before they could reach the staircase leading to the second floor—
"Mr. Arezu!" Lynn shouted, trying to warn him. But her warning came too late, as a person suddenly appeared beside them, tackling Arezu and forcing him down, straddling him on the floor.
Even Arezu couldn't react fast enough to dodge the attacker, who had appeared out of nowhere.
At first, Arezu thought the man strangling him was one of the locals lying in wait to ambush them inside the building. But upon a second look, he recognized him as one of the adventurers from the Annual Caravan—captured earlier by the locals, dragged into the mirror wall, and vanished.
"What the heck is wrong with you?" Arezu grumbled, grabbing at the hands choking his neck and slowly pushing them away.
Though he managed to free himself from being strangled, the adventurer remained straddling him.
Not until Lynn kicked him in the face, knocking him off Arezu.
"How dare you pin down Mr. Arezu when he's supposed to be the one on top!"
"Oi… That was uncalled for!"
Setting aside any further complaints, Arezu hurriedly stood, taking his stance to fight the adventurer. However, before the man could get back on his feet—
Lynn activated her combat skill, shooting an arrow that pierced the adventurer's right leg and nailed it to the floor, preventing him from standing.
"Now, Mr. Arezu! Get on top of him and pin him down," Lynn said as she fired a second arrow, this one piercing the adventurer's right arm as he tried to pull the arrow out of his leg.
"You mean capture him, right?" Arezu muttered, trying to restrain his annoyance at Lynn's audacity.
"That's what I said, though."
"That's definitely not what you said—or what you meant!"
The front door was still on the brink of collapse. And even though they had captured the adventurer who attacked them—tied up with a rope Arezu found inside the building—the mystery of why he was rampaging, why he attacked them, or how he got inside remained unanswered.
At least, until that moment.
As Lynn and Arezu looked around, wondering how the adventurer had gotten in, their eyes locked onto the large mirror fixed to the wall beside the staircase to the second floor.
It wasn't the ornate frame that caught their attention, nor the fact that their reflections were missing. What stunned and terrified them was what replaced their reflections:
The images of the captured adventurers who had been dragged into the mirrors and vanished—all glaring at them with hatred and envy.
What shocked Lynn and Arezu even more was when those reflections suddenly ran toward them, as if ready to leap out of the mirror.
Although Lynn froze, struggling to comprehend what was happening before her eyes, Arezu reacted quickly. He grabbed a wooden stud lying on the floor in each hand and hurled one at the mirror, aiming to shatter it before the reflected adventurers could emerge.
A loud explosion of glass echoed through the building as the mirror shattered across the floor.
However, before it broke completely, three reflected adventurers managed to escape through it.
Arezu brandished the remaining wooden stud, taking his stance to intercept the incoming attackers. Though outnumbered, he was fortunate they carried no weapons.
He swung the wooden stud at the first adventurer, knocking him down. Then he kicked the second, sending him stumbling back into the broken mirror, before smashing the wooden stud against the third—shattering it in the process.
Arezu had intended to knock them out, refusing to cut them down with his halberd-axe. Yet even after striking them with all his strength, the three adventurers endured his attacks and remained conscious.
Regardless, killing them was out of the question. Or so he thought.
Lynn cast her mystic spell, conjuring multiple crystal-clear ice lances mid-air before launching them at the three adventurers.
The ice lances impaled them through the floor, killing them instantly.
Arezu wanted to question Lynn for killing them, but no words left his lips when he saw the corpses shatter into hundreds of mirrored shards.
"You have an explanation for this, right, Lynn?" Arezu asked, expecting her—as always—to have an answer.
But when he turned to look at her, what he saw terrified him more than the mirror's reflection of the captured adventurers.
Lynn was trying to suppress her murderous aura, but the look of hatred and animosity still lingered in her expression.
Yet despite her rage—or his fear—Arezu noticed her trembling hands. He realized then that her hatred wasn't directed at the adventurers. She felt guilty for killing them, even though they might not have been human anymore.
"It wasn't your fault," Arezu said, patting her head to ease her rage and guilt.
The loud crash from the front door snapped their attention back to their dire situation.
"We need to go, Lynn," Arezu said, grabbing her hand to lead her to safety.
"Mhm…" Though still dazed after calming from her rage, Lynn held his hand and followed him toward the second floor.
Right then, the front door collapsed, and the rampaging locals swarmed into the building.