Caspian stood up, pacing angrily into the room. “How many of those monsters are we talking about?”

“In the ruins, hundreds, but not all of them left the ruins. From what I saw, I don’t think that more than thirty monsters went into the forest after me. I can take care of them, I should be able to kill them one by one.” Edward answered, ready to take responsibility for his actions.

“Hundreds of monsters…And just two of them are enough to force an awaken to flee…” Caspian said downcast.

“Well, Marc was already injured and exhausted when he faced them, maybe it would have been different otherwise,” Edward added, while Caspian was brooding over the situation.

“No. That won’t do. If there are indeed this many monsters, a single mistake would be enough to condemn the whole village. Are you at least sure that they didn’t follow you until there?” Caspian asked worryingly.

“Absolutely certain, they lost me before they even managed to leave the ruins, and I avoided any confrontations before coming back. Although I saw some tracks crossing the forest path. I think the path is not working as it should as a deterrent to them.”

“It only keeps getting better…What you have unleashed could spell the end for all of the people living here. You think you can take care of those monsters but it’s not that simple. With so many monsters in the ruins, you could easily draw more of them in the forest and worsen the situation. At the same time, if what you say is true, that means they are not behaving like ordinary monsters, they could very well roam to this village one day and attack it. Even if we include you, there are only three awakens safeguarding this village. A group of five of those monsters could be enough to overtake us. The situation is too serious, I’m coming with you tomorrow to assess this case.” Caspian announced sternly.

“Actually, I’m not sure that’s a good idea for you to accompany me to hunt those monsters. My power is able to help me escape, but if anything goes wrong, I probably won’t be strong enough to save you.” Edward warned him.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m having my strong points too.” Caspian answered with confidence.

Edward looked at him. “Ok, if you are sure about it. One more thing, the ordinary guards weren’t able to pierce its hide, only Marc was able to wound it when he surrounded his sword with energy. I haven’t tested it yet, but I should be able to injure those monsters too.”

“You can? Have you already discovered aura manipulation? You can draw your aura on your weapons? It’s something only veterans awaken like me are supposed to achieve. Can you show me?” Caspian asked in disbelief.

Edward was surprised by those statements. He had already entered the path to control his aura when he wasn’t an awaken yet. When he became an awaken, the trickiest part was to discover that he could also use his aura on his weapon, rather than the technical difficulty of doing it. Sure, it was a bit difficult at first, but nothing that a bit of practice hadn’t managed to solve. Is it supposed to be that difficult? I guess those Damkinans books did help me a lot. If I didn’t have any technical books to introduce me to aura manipulation, I would have taken a lot more time to discover how to use it.

Edward complied with Caspian's request, drawing one of his daggers and focusing his aura on it. Those daggers are precious, but if I have to fight while Caspian is present, he will have to see them eventually. And I think I can trust him, he is an honest block, far more concerned by everyone’s safety than by greed.

Caspian watched him with rapt focus. “You weren’t lying, you are really able to do it. This is impressive, even though your aura is still lacking in strength. But this part is normal you only broke through to the awaken stage, and you did it surprisingly fast too.” Once he was satisfied with Edward’s aura display, he turned his attention to the dagger, noticing the glowing runes on the blade's surface. “Where did you find that weapon?” he asked with curiosity.

Here we go, it’s the moment of truth, it will decide if I can trust him or not. “I found it in the ruins, it saved my life in the expedition,” Edward answered truthfully.

“I see…It looks like a mighty fine weapon. You should take good care of it, it can be considered your trophy after all. At least one good thing came out of those ruins.” Caspian grumbled.

Seems, I was right. He didn’t ask me to give it to him, I can trust him. “I have more things to ask. When he was fighting, Marc was able to surround his weapon with visible energy. It can’t be only his aura, I wasn’t able to see auras back then and this energy was still visible to me.” Edward asked while he was having Caspian available to answer his questions.

“It must have been his power then. I’ve heard that energy manipulation is a popular power in Gobéliard. He must have used his internal energy on top of his aura. This is a good power but it can be quite draining.” Caspian answered to an insatiable Edward. “Okay, this is enough questions for tonight. We need a good night of rest and tomorrow we are leaving at dawn. We can’t let those monsters roam unchecked.” Caspian added closing the discussion.

Edward left the room, going to the casern in the dormitory where he previously stayed with Adrien and Bernard. This went a lot better than I expected. Sure, I got scolded for releasing the monsters, but this is understandable. I was surprised, however, that he didn’t ask for any more details about the deceased. Are you considered dead in this world if you go missing in the wilds?

As he reached the dormitory, he realized that it wasn’t empty, Bertrand was waiting for him inside, looking at him without a word. He spoke after a moment of silence.

“It’s good to see you back. At least you made it alive.”

“You…you know what happened? You were waiting for me?” Edward asked hesitantly, not knowing how to initiate the subject.

“I was of guard duty, I met Josef, he told me you were back and gave me permission to leave my post. I don’t know more than that but I do get that the expedition didn’t go as planned. Did anybody else make it out alive?” Bertrand asked a glimmer of hope in his voice.

“I’m sorry…I’m the only one that managed to escape…” Edward answered dampening Bertrand’s expectations.

He shook his head. “I don’t know what I was hoping for. We thought all of you were gone when we didn’t see you coming back after more than a week. But seeing you back among us today, I was thinking that maybe others could be fine as well…Nevermind, tell me the whole story now.”

Edward once more told how the expedition has grown into an utter disaster. He related how Adrien died fighting a lost battle again the Bloodmaws, himself managing to escape only by chance. And he told him, how he became an awaken, and how he attended to avenge Adrien.

Bertrand looked at him with a sorrowful gaze. “Adrien is gone now, nothing you can do can change it. Avenging him is good, but you have to realize you won’t be able to kill hundreds of those beasts by yourself, awaken or not. However, you are right that is your responsibility to fix this mess. What is done can’t be changed, but you have to prevent this disaster from happening again. Those ruins need to be taken care of.”

Edward stood silently, musing about what Bertrand told him. He is right, I won’t be able to kill all of those monsters. Then the next best solution is to prevent those monsters from spreading around. But how? I don’t think they have explosives to collapse the entrance, and we are not even sure that there isn’t another entrance somewhere else. I will have to talk about how to proceed with Caspian tomorrow. But sealing the ruins also means that I will lose access to the library. I didn’t have time to pick at a single of their tomes, but if they are as useful as the ones about auras techniques it could change things completely. On the other hand, not sealing the ruins, means putting the whole village at risk, and all of that by my fault. I can’t let that happen. Arg, why is life always so difficult!?

“You are right, I won’t be able to kill all of them on my own. But I don’t have the solution to this problem yet. I will go back there tomorrow with Caspian.” Edward finally answered Bertrand.

“Alright, you can sleep on the idea, maybe you‘ll find your answer tomorrow. There is no need to worry about it right now, each day has enough trouble of its own.” With those wise words, Bertrand let Edward enter the room to take a good night of sleep.

***

Edward was woken up by loud banging on the door. “When I told you we would be leaving at dawn, I wasn’t joking. Woke up already you damn sloth!” Caspian was becoming impatient, waiting in the corridor. Edward woke up groggily, taking a few moments to regain his bearings.

Where I am? What is happening? Right…, I’m back at Agripin. Damn, I feel like I have just fallen asleep. It was already nighttime when I reached the village. Caspian is really heartless, for once that I have a real bed and not some hard ruins walls, I’m not allowed to keep sleeping. The banging at the door intensified.

“I’m awake, I’m awake, no need to wake up the whole neighborhood,” Edward complained before getting ready. It was time to find a solution to the Bloodmaws flowing out of the ruins.