“You lose.” Dallion kicked the chief’s sword out of his hand. Instantly the weapon vanished from the floor and reappeared on the attack skill-wall.

This could hardly be called a fair fight—Dallion had resorted to many things to gain the upper hand, but finally it had paid off. The terror of Dherma village, the person who had sealed the awakened skills of his mother, the tyrant that had echoed every person in the village had finally lost. At this point, even a sharp kick was enough to reduce his health to zero. If anything, it was a wonder that the old man hadn’t lost his abilities altogether.

One more hit and all the limiting echoes would be gone.

“No!” Aspion raised a shivering hand in front of his face. “Don’t do it! You don’t understand!”

“I’m sure I don’t.” Tyrants were just like bullies—the moment they lost, they started coming up with excuses to defend themselves.

“It’s not what you think! I just wanted to protect you all. This was the only way!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dallion aimed at the chief’s torso. A hit anywhere would do the trick. “I’m sure that the echoes were for their protection as well?”

“That was the only way to make sure that no one had anything to do with the cities. You’ve never been there, you have no idea how dangerous those places are!” The chief moved up slightly, only to get reminded by the dartbow that Dallion wasn’t inclined to listen. “Just because you’ve defeated me doesn’t mean you’re a match for the awakened in the cities! Your grandfather was like you. He thought that being gifted gave him an advantage. Instead, it made him a target.”

Grandpa? That gave Dallion some pause. Thanks to his perception, he could tell that the village chief wasn’t lying. Was it worth hearing him out, though? The goal of the entire exercise was from the old man to keep his awakened power.

Aspion Luor has admitted defeat.

Do you accept his surrender?

Apparently, people could surrender as well as long as they were in their own awakened rooms. Dallion considered learning how to do so as well at some point. It seemed like a useful ability to have.

“What happened to my grandfather?” Dallion asked. There was no way he would accept a surrender without getting some answers. This way he could be certain that the chief would keep his promise, and depending on what he said, Dallion was free to refuse.

“Dreams, arrogance, and aspiration, that’s what happened,” Aspion said bitterly. “When he awakened, it was considered the greatest day in the village. He had tried so many times before that, all of them unsuccessful. His parents had all but given up, but the idiot was stubborn. No one believed he could make it, then when all of a sudden it happened, he said that he had been offered three skills.”

That sounded about right. Dallion remembered his grandfather telling him he had three skills to choose from. The elder also implied that he had gotten to learn them as well.

“Attack, Guard, and Forging,” the chief continued. “I was so envious at the time. Not only had he beaten me by one, but he had acquired forging skills, while I only had acrobatics. It was the difference between day and night. No wonder everyone flocked to him.”

“That’s why you hated him?” Dallion interrupted. He had seen too many animes to know where this was going. “You despised the fact that the village chief preferred him to you, so you—”

“Of course, the chief preferred him! The chief was his father!”

Dallion blinked. That was unexpected. Trying to think back to his earliest memories of this world, he couldn’t recall that being mentioned. As far as everyone was concerned, the Luor family had been in control of the village for generations. Although… if both Aspion and Dallion’s grandfather had been in their teens when the change happened, no one of the younger generation would know. As for the people who had been alive at the time, the echoes had probably made sure that they forgot the truth of things.

“And I didn’t betray him. I was his friend.” A note of sadness crept in. “The fact that both of us had become awakened only made us closer. And that is when he shared his dream.” The chief paused for a while, then moved a bit, sitting comfortably on the floor. “The awakening had made the village too small for him. In a matter of weeks, the things that had seemed fun before tired him. We’d spend the days improving what we could throughout the village. We even made a competition of it. When that became old, we snuck out in the old temple to level up in the awakening shrine.”

Dallion’s throat went dry. So far, the story sounded somewhat familiar. He and Gloria had pretty much done the same. She had been the one reluctant to leave the village, while Dallion had kept inquiring about the cities. If circumstances had been different—if Dallion hadn’t been in the chief’s crosshairs, and the limiting echoes didn’t exist—he could have even convinced her to join him on the outside.

“His father forbade it, but that didn’t stop Kraisten. I used my awakening skills to break into the mansion and find a way out without anyone noticing. Then, one day he asked the question: what do you think the cities are like?”

Scary. That would have been exactly what Dallion would have done if he were in his grandfather’s place.

“And what did you say?”

“What could I say?” The chief let out a dry laugh. “I knew nothing about the cities. All I knew was that I’d work in the village for the rest of my life. However, I wasn’t the only one who was there when he asked. My sister was as well.”

Dallion’s pulse hastened. Now he definitely knew where this was going…