-3 days later-

“General, we’ve been through the entire town, and there is no sign of a single person!” A young man of 20 years said with frustration. “What are you hoping to find?”

“A survivor, man! Or at least a clue! There’s no way over 3 thousand people can just disappear like that overnight without some sort of evidence!”

The older man growled with a gruff brevity. His physical stature was that of a bison, with large, emphasized upper muscles. Simply looking at him, one would guess that he was in his late thirties or early forties.

“Besides, don’t you think that, in order to finish the job, they’ll have to return to the scene of the crime in a week’s time? If we can catch them, then the kingdom can finally relax, knowing it’s safe once more.”

“Haaah. I suppose so.” The younger man sighed, scratching his mud-brown hair. “But it doesn’t make this town feel any less creepy. It’s as if it’s got eyes watching you, even when there’s no one there. To be honest, it’s giving me goosebumps.”

“Nonsense! You’re just being paranoid.” The general huffed. “If there’s no one here, then no one can watch you. And we’ve already confirmed all the houses were empty, so what have you got to be scared about?”

“Oh, I don’t know…how about a mysterious magical murderer?” the younger man replied, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“What makes you say that?” The general asked, training his eyes upon the young man.

“Say what?”

“That the murderer uses magic?”

The young man scratched his head. “The death counts is too high in too short a time for anything but magic, unless we’re dealing with an unidentified black class, God forbid.”

“Hmm…Well, we won’t know unless we find evidence, so keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious.” He ordered.

“Yes sir!....Um, sir?”

“What is it?”

“Reporting something that looks suspicious.” The man said, pointing to a small, cloaked figure, wandering throughout the town.

“Good job. Now go catch them.”

“What? Me? Catch them?! What if they’re the suspect, sir?”

“Then scream bloody murder, and I’ll avenge your death.” He replied with a straight face.

“That’s hardly encouraging to a man, General…” He replied, sarcastically.

“Men don’t need encouragement. They’re made of the stuff.” The General said off-handedly. “And if you don’t go after them now, you’ll lose the only clue we have, so GO!” He clapped the younger man on the back, which propelled him out of the doorway and halfway down the street.

He picked his head up and spit out a mouthful of dirt.

“Why me?” He asked, standing up. But, despite his grumblings, he hurried down the side street after the cloaked figure, which he caught sight of again, close to the martial hall. His expression hardened for a brief moment, before he reverted back to his previous expression.

The figure paused, then turned this way and that as if confused. He took the opportunity to sneak up on the figure. Unexpectedly, the figure then promptly turned around and bumped into him, and fell down.

“Ouch!” The hood fell back, revealing the face of a girl, around 11 or 12 years old.

“I’m sorry, are you all right?” He asked, rather awkwardly. After all, it was impossible for a little girl to be the cause of this mess. Thinking of how he was frightened of her earlier made him feel rather embarrassed

Thera looked up at the armed soldier. It was time. She put on her best performance.

“No, I’m not all right. I come home after five years to find no one home at all! So I thought, ‘Maybe there’s some sort of festival. I like festivals! Let’s go to the festiva-I mean, to find where everyone went’. And now I’m here, but there’s no blooming festival at all! Er-I mean I can’t find anybody! Where do you suppose they all went?” Thera asked, her frustration evidently rising.

The young man grinned. “Well, we’re trying to find the exact same thing out. Would you like to help us? If you don’t mind, we can go see the General-he’s the man in charge of finding out where all the people went. But, mind: he may want to ask you a few questions.” The man smiled pleasantly.

Thera's eyebrow twitched. Blast. It was the king's men. She didn't really want to get involved with them, but she couldn't let her disguise fall now, or else she'd never get to the bottom of anything. Thinking about whether to go or not go, her stomach growled loudly at that moment.

“Will there be food?” She asked. “I’m awful hungry.”

“Most certainly.” He replied. “It’ll be night soon anyways, and you wouldn’t want to meet a monster out there on your way home would you?”

“No, I suppose not…okay then. Take me to your leader.” She said, frowning. Otherwise, she would have broken out into a wildly mischievous grin at her earthly reference. She sighed. References from a past life were not as fun when there was no one to share it with…an impossible wish.

Hmmm? Or was it really impossible? After all, if Thera could end up here, then what prevent others from doing the same?...Whatever was the case, it was better to focus upon the task at hand.

When they reached the building where the General was, Thera immediately noticed that he wasn’t inside, but hidden in a blind spot between buildings. Still, she acted as if she didn’t notice, and waited while the man went inside.

A shadow fell upon her figure. “Hmm?” The general stopped his swing just in time, noticing that the person he was attacking was just a child. “Little girl, who are you? Where are your parents?” He asked.

Thera turned around, and squealed as if surprised, but quickly ‘recovered’. “It’s rude to ask for someone’s name without introducing yourself!” She huffed, trying to cover up her former ‘fright’. He grinned. “My apologies. You may call me General. And you?” He held out his hand for a handshake.

She took it. “Thera of Rose Manor. I just returned from a very long five years learning magic at my mom’s sister’s school. Not that she owns the school, mind you. It’s just a tradition that one of the family goes there to learn magic if he or she has a good enough aptitude. As for my parents…”

Her face fell and she began to look a bit teary eyed. “I-I’m not sure I really know. When I arrived home everyone was gone. I couldn’t find a single person aside from this nice man who I met just a while ago” She wiped the tears away before they could fall, and then exclaimed. “Oh!”

“What is it?” The General asked.

“You just said you’re the General, right? If you’re called the General, then you’re the person he was bringing me to see. Although, I can’t seem to recall his name.” She said, slightly frowning in thought.

“It seems he’s not insid-oof!” The man said to Thera as he walked out of the building and bumped straight into the General.

“Wha-General! How did you?” Thera inwardly smiled at his naivety. His momentary confusion was written all over his face.

“Yo, Darwin.” The General grinned broadly. “So this is the suspicious figure that I sent you to find? What’s so suspicious about a brat who just arrived?”

Darwin gulped. “There’s N-nothing really, General, sir, aside from the fact that she’s the only villager who hasn’t been spirited away. There is a high possibility that she will be targeted by the mysterious murd-”

The general wagged a finger near Darwin’s nose, causing him to gulp down what he was about to say. “Now, that’s enough of that. There’s no use scaring a poor girl who's traveled a great distance. She must be starving, right?” He turned to Thera for confirmation.

Her stomach growled loudly just then. He laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Then he clapped Darwin on the back, lightly. “Go make something for her to eat, got it?” He said.

“Yes, sir, General, sir!” Darwin saluted before heading for the kitchen to round up some food.

The general glanced at Thera, but it seemed like she hadn’t caught on to what Darwin was about to say. He smirked. It seemed like the heavens were on his side, that day. His face was back to normal by the time Thera turned to look at him, though.

“Since nobody is here, does that mean that something dangerous is coming?” Thera asked. “You probably had everyone leave so that they wouldn’t die, right? Is it a prophesied natural disaster? Monster wave? Are we secretly at war with another country? What is it?” She asked, eyes lighting up with ideas.

The General raised his hand. “At the moment, I am unable to tell you. King’s orders, you know.”

“Whoah! Even the king is involved?! I must have stumbled upon something big!”

Thera thumped her chest. “If you ever need help, don’t hesitate to ask for it! I know everything from water balls to fire balls. Just don’t ask me about earth spikes.” She made a sour face. “I’m not too good with those.”

The General chuckled. A kid Thera’s age wouldn’t know anything useful in a real battle, but he played along, his face the picture of sincerity. “Sure! If I ever need your help, I won’t hesitate to ask for it.”

When Darwin came back with food, the General left to make preparations for that night.

------

That night, even the moon was dark. Everything was blacker than pitch beyond the small globes of light caused by the gleaming torches.

Thera lay in a bed in an empty house which had been taken over as a base of operations, her breathing light and even in sleep. the General was guarding outside, patrolling at the front.

A dark figure smirked as it stared at the house. The lights only helped to pinpoint which house the visitors were in, not that it needed any help.

It could have found them even without the lights.

But there was no need to alert that soft-hearted fool. It sent out a cry in a pitch too high for human ears to detect.

A mist slowly rose, advancing towards the house. When it arrived, the General shivered. So quickly, everything became so much colder that he could see his breath in front of his face.

Behind the dark figure, an army of dark figures appeared. It raised an arm, and dropped it in the direction of the house. The dark figures advanced upon the rear of the building slowly, making not a sound.

Thera opened her eyes and grinned knowingly. The intruders were finally making a move.