"..."
"..."
Two days later, when Lyon, commander of the Imperium of Man's Azure Dragon Knights, and his deputy, Lyat, led more than a thousand soldiers of the Azure Dragon Knights past the village, the first thing they saw was a handful of villagers hanging by their bound hands from a large tree at the entrance.
There were no visible injuries on them, yet for some reason they kept groaning in pain. They had clearly suffered quite a bit.
"Tsk!"
"Lyat, tell me..."
"What's going on here?"
After watching for a while from horseback, Lyon ignored the desperate pleas of the people hanging from the tree. Instead, he turned to his deputy with an intrigued look and asked.
"I don't know..."
"But the battle mages in our regiment say they found traces of monsters near the graveyard. Could monsters have done this?"
"But monsters usually don't leave survivors..."
Lyat began wildly speculating. He was just as baffled as anyone.
"Hm?"
"Look!"
"Balt and the others are back. We'll know soon enough."
Just then, Lyon looked up and saw an officer hurrying out of the village with a group of soldiers.
"Reporting!"
"Commander Lyon!"
"We've finished investigating. This is what happened..."
Captain Balt, who had hurried out of the village with several soldiers, didn't waste time. He went straight to the story: a few days earlier, a half-demon named Sonya had led a group in an attack on the village, only to be defeated by a powerful little mage. For some reason, though, the mage had let Sonya retaliate against the villagers. She had hung them from the tree and said she wouldn't let them down until they'd gone hungry for three full days.
"Hm?"
"A little mage?"
For some reason, Lyon suddenly thought of a familiar figure. He didn't dwell