The next day, at exactly 8:00 a.m.
Inside the Lighthouse's enormous lift platform, the Lighthouse's new City Lord and representative of the faith in the Shadow, Charles; Mirror South, commander-in-chief of the Command Center; the Lightkeepers Fan Lu and Fan Ti; Sean, acting commander of the Wild Hunters; and the senior officers of the City Defense Force—in short, nearly all the Lighthouse's top brass—had already been waiting for quite some time.
Even after losing his right eye and left arm, Charles looked much as he had before, elegant and debonair, now that he had been cured of the Red-Eye Syndrome and fitted with a prosthetic limb.
He still carried that reserve and arrogance peculiar to those in high positions. Today, he had even gone out of his way to wear an extravagantly luxurious outfit, the golden emblem of the Church of the Shadow shining brilliantly on his chest. He stood at the head of the welcoming party, upright and proud.
And besides those high-ranking officials, the surrounding area was naturally filled with plenty of City Defense Force soldiers, clerics from the Tribunal, Wild Hunters, and, farther away, upper-class citizens and curious Dust Folk laborers watching the scene.
In fact, to make an impression and intimidate the people of Dragonbone Village, Charles had even arranged two full rows of heavy-duty exoskeletons behind him—twelve in total. The towering, imposing killing machines, gleaming with cold metal, stood majestically along either side of the passageway behind the welcoming party.
Judging by the way they were positioned, perhaps he planned to make the Dragonbone Village representatives walk between the mechs later, giving them a taste of the Lighthouse's power?
However...
What Charles and everyone else at the head of the party couldn't understand was that the appointed time had arrived, yet there was no sign