The people woke up early in the morning as usual, but with a sad twist today, as the same tragic incident repeated itself once again.
The village square was already filled with villagers who wore their usual solemn expressions, while the families of the deceased gathered in the middle of the square to weep over their lost loved ones.
The other villagers talked loudly among themselves, their discussions mostly focused on how they would survive with Rowan absent. Some even voiced their fears that Rowan might already be dead.
Fortunately, Riela was there to dispel any doubts about her beloved. She assured them that Rowan was very much alive and would soon return.
She also tried her best to calm the grieving family of the deceased.
While she tried to be strong, she always wished deep down that Rowan would abort his hunting trip with the soldiers and come back home.
"Three people died again!"
Dragun yelled in a loud tone as he received the news.
He was currently in his room, mixing ingredients to prepare mana-recovering potions when Vishirk arrived to deliver the sad news.
"Yes, senior," Vishirk nodded, his expression solemn.
Dragun let go of what he was doing and turned to face Vishirk.
"I was out strolling around the village until about five hours past midnight before returning home to start working on the potion. The bastard did not even dare attack while I was on patrol, and waited until I decided to rest—what a bloody coward!"
Dragun cursed, and from the dark expression on his face and the seriousness in his tone, one could tell that he was truly furious.
"The people have already gathered at the village square. Since Lord Rowan is not around, you are the only one who can console them, senior," Vishirk said.
Dragun nodded gravely and muttered solemnly, "That is true, but what am I going to say to them? I am sure they are already cursing me right now. Will they even listen?"
He felt ashamed of himself at this moment because Rowan had entrusted him with watching over the people, and he had already failed. Nevertheless, he would still have to give a speech. He cleared his worktable and rushed to the village square.
"Lord Rowan has been able to keep us calm despite the chaos. I don't know what he adds to his words every time, but they can always keep me collected, no matter how chaotic the situation is. Without him around, I am not sure I'll remain calm after all this."
"Lord Rowan has the best speeches. We need him!"
"If Lord Rowan doesn't speak to us and assure us, I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight."
These were the first words Dragun heard as he arrived.
'I already knew this would happen,' he sighed in disappointment.
He stood still and shut his eyes for about ten seconds before heaving a loud sigh, then proceeded toward the crowd, walking through them slowly until he reached the front.
While filtering through, he heard their discussions, their worries, and their fears. Some even believed that none of these deaths would have occurred if Rowan were alive. Although Dragun knew that was impossible, he understood how the people felt around Rowan—he, too, had experienced that comforting presence.
He arrived in the center of the crowd.
The villagers, whose attention had been fixed on the corpses, turned their gaze immediately to Dragun. After Rowan, Dragun was the only semblance of a ruler they had, so they naturally looked up to him, even though their faith in Rowan was stronger.
Dragun stood there for a few seconds, observing the three corpses. They were all around twenty years old, and all were female.
"My daughter, please come back to Mommy!"
"Big sister, wake up and play with me!"
"Big sister, why are you lying on the ground like that? You'll get dirty. Dirty girls are not good people."
Dragun watched these heartbreaking reactions in silence before moving closer to try and console them.
He tried to calm them with words, but they retorted at once.
"Why should I calm down?! Why?! My daughter is gone, and I will never see her again!" one of the mothers shouted, shoving his hand away.
"This is all your fault! If only you were as serious as Lord Rowan, none of this would have happened!"
"If you weren't around, Lord Rowan would have stayed with us, and none of this would happen!"
The other mothers turned their grief and hidden aggression on Dragun.
Dragun took in their words with an unfazed expression, as he had already expected such a reaction. In fact, he considered himself lucky that the rest of the villagers were not joining in at the moment. This only proved that the people had accepted him more than they had when he first returned. Back then, they would have stoned him out of the village square the moment he stepped in.
He could only sigh after taking in all the harsh words from the women before climbing onto the raised platform.
He used a voice-amplifying spell to ensure his voice spread clearly across the village square.
He began by once again consoling the mothers for their loss. They continued to retort, but Dragun remained unbothered and continued his speech.
"As you all already know, our village is being attacked by an unknown dark creature with evil and malicious intentions towards us. This dark creature is hard to find and even harder to capture."
"Currently, we do not have enough equipment to capture this being, but rest assured, Rowan and I are working on something, and soon we will begin an active counterattack against this bastard to ensure we avenge the death of our beloved."
Dragun continued right after consoling the women, his loud voice filtering through the crowd.
"Will the plan take care of the dark creature and keep it away forever?" one elderly man at the front echoed his question.
"Our plan is to capture and slay this evil creature. So, keeping it away forever is certain," Dragun answered.
The elderly man who asked the question nodded with a relieved expression.
Others in the crowd kept asking their questions, and Dragun tried his best to answer them.
Meanwhile, at the back, Vishirk watched everything with a dark grin on his face.
"As if you're going to succeed," he muttered with a scowl filled with hatred.
But then the calm voice of Riela came from beside him, causing him to immediately adopt a calm expression and wash the ugly look off his face.
"What are you talking about?!" she asked.
Vishirk quickly turned to her with a smile and replied, "Nothing, Lady Riela, I was just reciting some potion ingredients."
Riela hummed and nodded before turning her back and walking away from the village square, heading to the tailor's house nearby.
Vishirk heaved a sigh of relief, thankful she did not hear him.
'I really need to stop bringing out my true emotions, just like Alister advised!' he thought.
Meanwhile, Dragun's question-and-answer session with the people ended after another two hours passed.
The people left the village square, still worried.