"Cut the nonsense."
Rat Immortal interrupted the black-robed wizard. "Watch carefully. Don't let anything unclean slip into your laboratory."
As it spoke, the long, slender tail behind it suddenly shot out from the wooden carriage and curled around a Green Vest mouse from the swarm. The mouse flailed its paws in terror, its face wearing an almost human expression.
"Spare me!" It only had time to cry out those two words.
"Sorry, private business. No outside visitors," Rat Immortal told the mouse expressionlessly, tightening its tail at the same time.
With a crack.
The Green Vest mouse's neck twisted to one side.
The tail loosened, and with a thud, the mouse fell onto the soft earth in the woods. In the blink of an eye, it sank into the soil and vanished, like a wave disappearing into the sea. The other vest-wearing mice seemed oblivious, still filing in neat, orderly ranks toward the small gate.
The black-robed wizard let out a deep sigh.
"Why bother?" he muttered, his gaze traveling from the small gate to the riverbank. His voice was hoarse and weary. "...How many mice are left? My eyes are starting to ache from watching."
"If they ache, wash them," Rat Immortal replied coldly, its gaze never leaving its mouse swarm. "You wouldn't want real 'rats' to mix in with these children and sneak into your worksite, would you?"
The hooded wizard said nothing. Instead, he readily took the advice, pulling a wide-mouthed bottle barely an inch tall from his pocket and removing its cork stopper.
A pale yellow mist immediately rose from the bottle's mouth.
Then he slipped his fingers beneath his hood. After a soft rustling, he dropped the eyeballs he had removed into the bottle. The black-and-white eyes, veined with blood, bobbed in the translucent eyewash