Year 2, Fall, Third Month, Fourth Week.

“Tell the Council… To start moving…”

This was all Karl manage to speak before his conscience slipped away.

Anya asked Wein to carry their Master to the wooden bench before dashing out of the Alchemy pavilion. She only had to give a few steps outside to find a bunch of expectant elders. They had nothing else to do besides waiting for Karl, so they took turns walking outside of the pavilion. She took a few seconds to catch her breath before pouring a lot of information on them, from which they only understood the critical point, they could finally leave.

Soon, 34 elders were bickering amongst themselves to see who would get inside the carts first, just like children. Marlen gave a long sigh before saying:

“You don’t need to fight, there’s space for everyone and you won’t get out of here sooner than others, everyone is leaving together…”

Since yesterday, after they finished moving all of the non-essential villagers to the camp, the Council decided to leave the five carts available to move the rest at any time. Four carts would be enough to trans transport all of them, but they still kept five in case of an emergency. While the rest of the villagers working in the Kingdom’s fields would need to walk to the camp.

The elders being crumpled inside the three carts looked at Karl’s cart enviously before staring resentfully at Omero. Why couldn’t they use the fifth cart or use Karl’s cart? Omero just ignored the stares, he wouldn’t lose time explaining again that the workers might need the fifth cart and Karl would need to move faster to activate the barrier as soon as possible.

Only one cart was enhanced with the Lightness Rune because the others were delivered only a few days ago by Lana. Their initial thought was to use it to transport Karl and the barrier’s components, but Omero asked to leave it behind in case the last villagers need it. In the end, by traveling alone with his disciples, Karl’s cart would already be lighter and faster, so nobody looked more into it.

While the elders boarded the carts, Omero, Bill and Marlen gave the last instructions to Sania, who would stay with her team to wait for the workers to return. Marlen looked uncertainly at Omero.

“Omero, are you sure about it?”

“I’m… We already talked about this, this is a unique opportunity to deal some damage to Kingdom, we couldn’t risk drawing their attention to the village before, but now…”

“But, what if they aren’t ready? We don’t know how many Guards are guarding the fields…”

“Isn’t that why we asked him to stay? He could probably take down four Guards by himself…”

Surprisingly, even though Sania would be one of the hunters taking risks in the mission, Bill decided to side with Omero.

“He’s right, we should take this chance to get a taste of beating them, it could take a while before another opportunity appeared. Also, we agreed the Sania would be in charge of the operation, so it’s up to her to decide if they should proceed after seeing the field’s security. I trust my granddaughter to make a smart decision… Also, we only have to gain from it, the extra food is welcomed and it would delay the Kingdom’s responses to our sudden disappearance.”

After instructing Sania, the elders returned to their hastily escape. At this time, Karl’s disciples had finished loading the cart and departed. The elders looked at the leaving cart, already disappearing at the horizon and continued to board their carts disorganizedly, they never felt a bigger rush in their lives. Despite the problems, everyone boarded the cart after a few minutes and finally departed.

Some looked towards the quiet and empty village, feeling somewhat sad to leave their home behind. But most look forward, towards the Forest, eager to live a new life.

***

The bumps along the way woke Karl, he sat on the moving cart and looked around for answers. His sight met the fleeing landmarks before spotting his disciples discussing something. An instant of desperation invade him until he saw the stone plates with parts of his drawn Array, of course, they wouldn’t leave it behind!

“Master! You finally woke up, we just left the camp and should be entering the forest anytime now…”

Karl struggled to stand up in the slowly moving cart. He straightened himself before looking towards the upcoming Forest, the pressure from the increased magic energy could already be felt. He made a silent prayer to the Origin, the magic barrier would have to work or they would be doomed. He went over the theory in his mind one more time, ignoring the dozens of questions coming from his disciples. Everything added up, theoretically. He tested the tool’s parts separadelly but didn’t had time to put it together or check its effects.

Karl was sure the tool would create a barrier, but wheter it would block the beasts and the high-density energy was still uncertain. Fortunately, it didn’t have to be perfect instantly, as long as it had some basic functions from the go, he would have time to improve its performance later. Karl could no longer ignore his disciples.

“Master!”

“What?”

“Pheww… We thought Master was suffering from mental damage…”

Karl stared at Anya, openly showing his discontentment.

“Please Master, don’t look at me like that… I was kidding… Ahem... We were discussing what projects Master would start next. Wein betted on lighting tools and Oliver on preserving tools, but I bet Master will look into forging next…”

“I hope you guys didn’t bet anything… You lost from the beginning, Anya had inside information. She knew that Arnold, the blacksmith, could be leaving after winter, so I would need to give him some incentive to stay…”

Both boys shot daggers at Anya, her plot was revealed! She smilled bitterly, already imagining they would refuse to recognize her victory. Karl found the whole situation a little childish, maybe he should find older disciples. Anyway, he had to give some credit to the girl while teaching the boys to be a little more thoughtful.

“However, you need to think harder about our needs… Neither of your ideas reflected urgent needs, we have fire for lighting and we hardly need to preserve things in winter…”

After discussing a few more urgent ideas, he asked them what happened while he was asleep. Anya didn’t need to be told twice and started narrating everything with rich details.

“Strange… I remembered the Council agreed to use both stationed teams to move us to the camp, and come back for the villagers working in the Kingdom’s fields in the morning, maybe something happened… Was Sania in the team that stayed?”

“Yeah… Why?”

Anya couldn’t understand why her Master was so concerned about this particular detail.

“Oh, no… I hope it’s nothing, but… They wouldn’t… Not without the Council’s agreement…”

Karl looked back towards the village direction.

“What have you done…”