This trip had drawn some unsavory things his way again.
But the lives of Honmyo Yutaro and his family mattered more. He could not let anything happen to them. If it did, wouldn't it be his fault for dragging them into this?
He carried the Sunflare Hammer to the front door and tried to push it open, but it would not budge.
It was locked from the outside.
He frowned, sensing something was wrong, and jumped out through a window. Sure enough, the door was locked from the outside.
If a demon had abducted them, why would it lock the front door?
Wouldn't that be pointless?
Puzzled, he noticed that the house next door was locked too.
One could be a coincidence, but two? What about three or four?
Tetsu no Sosuke immediately checked the houses one by one. Every door was locked from the outside, as though the occupants had come out on their own, walked away, shut their doors, and locked them...
"If they went out on their own and nothing seemed wrong, I might not have noticed while I was asleep."
That answered one question, but Tetsu no Sosuke was more baffled than ever.
Why had they gone out?
And it seemed everyone in the Village had gone out.
Every house had a padlock on its door. Had they all gone to some gathering in the middle of the night?
He leaped onto a rooftop and looked around. Starlight bathed the entire Village, peaceful and serene.
Yet the whole Village stood empty, as if no one had ever lived there.
Even after countless battles to the death, Tetsu no Sosuke felt a chill at the eerie sight.
As he searched the surroundings, he spotted a faint firelight deep among the trees at the edge of the Village.