Knox thought as he left the square and quickly ducked behind an alley.
If that’s Cherry Sinclair…….
‘What the hell is she doing?’
Of course, there was no time to think more about Cherry. Unlike Cherry, Knox had no powers, and unlike Ethan, he didn’t know how to handle a sword or a gun.
“Help……. Help me, doctor.”
Then he heard a voice calling for Knox from somewhere. Standing against the wall of the alleyway, Knox turned in the direction of the sound.
A middle-aged man lay beneath the rubble of a collapsed building.
Knox rushed over to the man.
“Are you okay…….”
After removing the debris that was crushing the man’s lower half, Knox was speechless for a moment.
Thin steel bars were embedded in the man’s lower half, and not just one or two. Apparently, he didn’t even feel the pain.
‘It’s already hopeless.’
Knox’s mind turned blank.
It can’t be saved. Again. It had been like that for two days now, ever since Brunel had messed up.
He couldn’t save anyone.
“Help me……. Help me.”
The man mumbled in a fading voice. Knox sat down in front of the man once.
The man was clearly dying. His eyes were already closing.
But Knox held onto the man’s blood-soaked hand.
“Let me help you.”
He didn’t want the man’s last memories to end with his desperate cry for help going unheeded.
“My daughter is waiting for me……. Sir, I can’t die like this, my daughter is……. Is my daughter okay…….”
“Your daughter will be fine, I assure you.”
“I feel very……. I seem to be having a very unpleasant dream, sir. How did I get here……. I’m not……. I’ve lived a hard life and…….”
“God knows you’ve lived a hard life. It’s a dream, so it’s all going to be okay.”
“Haha……. Thanks, I do……. Thank you……I…will…….”
The man’s eyes slowly closed. Knox gritted his teeth.
It was indescribably painful to watch a life fade away before my eyes.
Maybe it was the fact that he’d always said that life wasn’t fun if it always went his way, but that didn’t mean he wanted it to be this extreme.
Knox let go of the man’s hand, which had completely stopped breathing, and stood up.
A sense of helplessness washed over him at the grim reality.
Krrr.
In the midst of his despair, Knox was startled by the sound of a monster in the distance.
It was a momentary delay, but he had to get out of the way before the creature came. He couldn’t lose his life in vain like this.
Kwah-ah-!
A loud crash sounded again from the town square. It was the sound of a statue in the square collapsing.
It was obvious that Cherry Sinclair had caused the commotion with the catapult.
‘What is she doing, throwing stones? Making that much noise will only attract more monsters…….’
After a moment of thought, Knox spat out an expletive under his breath.
‘Shit. So that’s it.’
The two people in the Happy House were probably Cherry and Ethan, Knox guessed, though he couldn’t be sure. They’d stuck together the whole time they’d been in town.
‘They’re in a safe place, then.’
They must have made a lot of noise in the village to get the monsters’ attention, hoping to scare them away from the mansion. To save themselves.
‘Bastards.’
Knox gritted his teeth at Cherry and Ethan’s selfishness. They hadn’t realized that they’d given him up for dead to keep themselves alive.
There were no more survivors in town, at least not as far as he could see.
Knox hid in an alley and peered out into the street. Hiding was not his strong suit; he needed to get out of this damn town.
The clock tower came into view.
A catapulted stone hits a woman statue squarely in the head.
Kwah-ah-!
With a tremendous crash, the statue collapses.
The plan had worked perfectly. In addition, several monsters passing by were crushed. Bam!
Many, but not all, of the monsters that had surrounded Happy House began to run towards the town.
“Now we have to get Mr. Knox.”
I don’t know if I’d seen him or not, but if I knew Knox was alive and well, and there was no way I wasn’t going to save him.
“We should, but I don’t know if it’s possible to get into that monster’s lair and find Mr. Knox.”
“Sure. I’ve managed to get all the monsters to come to town…….”
There were more monsters roaming the town than ever before. The monsters that had been hanging out near the Happy House had been attracted to the noise and had all gone down to town.
Ethan clicked his tongue and ran a hand through his hair.
“Tsk. I was hoping to avoid a frontal attack. If I’d known it was going to be like this, I’d have just gone straight through this way. You do realise the difficulty of entering the village is higher now, right?”
Ethan nodded nonchalantly, completely unfazed, and stood up to leave. I turned to him and asked again.
“Why don’t we make a plan to enter the police station and a plan to rescue the doctor? Even if we go in straight on, we still need to have a plan.”
I ask because I think that’s what Ethan would have been thinking about while I was taking down the statue.
Unfazed, Ethan calmly pulled out a map of the town and unfolded it.
“Did you know there’s a clock tower on the south side of town?”
Just as he said, a little further down the road from the main square, there was a picture of a clock tower on the south side. It was close to the police station.
“Well, if I was Knox, I’d climb the clock tower first, so let’s head that way.”
“Why? He might end up as isolated as he was in the square earlier.”
“It’s his habit. When the chips are down, he’s up high, scoping out the situation and making plans.”
Ethan spoke as if he knew Knox very well.
It made sense. He and Knox had been classmates at the Royal School. Call it bad blood, but it wouldn’t be the first time they’d been together.
“We’ll save Knox from the Clock Tower, then enter the police station, make contact with the capital, and come back here.”
Ethan said, folding the map.
“What if Mr. Knox isn’t in the clock tower?”
“Then there’s no way. We can’t go rummaging through that monster’s lair looking for him.”
Ethan replied, sounding more calm than he felt.
He wasn’t wrong about anything. But I still need to save Knox…
Knox is a doctor. That means he’s just as necessary as Ethan in this doomed world.
After a moment’s consideration, I finally nodded. Of course, I would consider going to rescue him on my own if I had to.
“Okay. Before we do that, why don’t we set up a signal, something only we can recognise?”
“The monsters won’t recognise any signal anyway, will they?”
“No, not a signal to the monsters. Let’s figure out a signal between us. Are you going to yell at the monsters, like, ‘Sir Ethan, we’re in trouble here, can you come over here for a sec?”
I made a shouting motion, and Ethan sighed, grabbing my hand in frustration.
“Be still, are you going to keep drawing attention to yourself?”
“Yeah, well, monsters are sensitive to sound, you know, so at least make a simple hand gesture.”
When I insisted, Ethan narrowed his eyes and glared at me. Then he nods, indicating that I should try.
I waited and cued him up. I extended my index and middle fingers, pointed them at Ethan, and shot them upward like a gun.
“This is the attack signal.”
Then I extended my right arm wide and drew a half-circle to my left. Like waving a flag to one side.
“This is the signal to return to the mansion.”
Ethan nodded as if it wasn’t difficult.
“Simple.”
I followed up by crossing my hands in front of my chest and drawing an X, then looked at Ethan.
“This means we’re in trouble.”
Ethan mimicked my pose, then gave me a satisfied glance.
“Are you done?”
He held out his hand to me. I nodded, taking Ethan’s hand and standing up.
“Let’s go.”
Ethan and I climbed down from the roof and stood at the front door of Happy House, each carrying an empty bag. Ethan nodded at me.
“Let’s go.”
Knox thought as he left the square and quickly ducked behind an alley.
If that’s Cherry Sinclair…….
‘What the hell is she doing?’
Of course, there was no time to think more about Cherry. Unlike Cherry, Knox had no powers, and unlike Ethan, he didn’t know how to handle a sword or a gun.
“Help……. Help me, doctor.”
Then he heard a voice calling for Knox from somewhere. Standing against the wall of the alleyway, Knox turned in the direction of the sound.
A middle-aged man lay beneath the rubble of a collapsed building.
Knox rushed over to the man.
“Are you okay…….”
After removing the debris that was crushing the man’s lower half, Knox was speechless for a moment.
Thin steel bars were embedded in the man’s lower half, and not just one or two. Apparently, he didn’t even feel the pain.
‘It’s already hopeless.’
Knox’s mind turned blank.
It can’t be saved. Again. It had been like that for two days now, ever since Brunel had messed up.
He couldn’t save anyone.
“Help me……. Help me.”
The man mumbled in a fading voice. Knox sat down in front of the man once.
The man was clearly dying. His eyes were already closing.
But Knox held onto the man’s blood-soaked hand.
“Let me help you.”
He didn’t want the man’s last memories to end with his desperate cry for help going unheeded.
“My daughter is waiting for me……. Sir, I can’t die like this, my daughter is……. Is my daughter okay…….”
“Your daughter will be fine, I assure you.”
“I feel very……. I seem to be having a very unpleasant dream, sir. How did I get here……. I’m not……. I’ve lived a hard life and…….”
“God knows you’ve lived a hard life. It’s a dream, so it’s all going to be okay.”
“Haha……. Thanks, I do……. Thank you……I…will…….”
The man’s eyes slowly closed. Knox gritted his teeth.
It was indescribably painful to watch a life fade away before my eyes.
Maybe it was the fact that he’d always said that life wasn’t fun if it always went his way, but that didn’t mean he wanted it to be this extreme.
Knox let go of the man’s hand, which had completely stopped breathing, and stood up.
A sense of helplessness washed over him at the grim reality.
Krrr.
In the midst of his despair, Knox was startled by the sound of a monster in the distance.
It was a momentary delay, but he had to get out of the way before the creature came. He couldn’t lose his life in vain like this.
Kwah-ah-!
A loud crash sounded again from the town square. It was the sound of a statue in the square collapsing.
It was obvious that Cherry Sinclair had caused the commotion with the catapult.
‘What is she doing, throwing stones? Making that much noise will only attract more monsters…….’
After a moment of thought, Knox spat out an expletive under his breath.
‘Shit. So that’s it.’
The two people in the Happy House were probably Cherry and Ethan, Knox guessed, though he couldn’t be sure. They’d stuck together the whole time they’d been in town.
‘They’re in a safe place, then.’
They must have made a lot of noise in the village to get the monsters’ attention, hoping to scare them away from the mansion. To save themselves.
‘Bastards.’
Knox gritted his teeth at Cherry and Ethan’s selfishness. They hadn’t realized that they’d given him up for dead to keep themselves alive.
There were no more survivors in town, at least not as far as he could see.
Knox hid in an alley and peered out into the street. Hiding was not his strong suit; he needed to get out of this damn town.
The clock tower came into view.
A catapulted stone hits a woman statue squarely in the head.
Kwah-ah-!
With a tremendous crash, the statue collapses.
The plan had worked perfectly. In addition, several monsters passing by were crushed. Bam!
Many, but not all, of the monsters that had surrounded Happy House began to run towards the town.
“Now we have to get Mr. Knox.”
I don’t know if I’d seen him or not, but if I knew Knox was alive and well, and there was no way I wasn’t going to save him.
“We should, but I don’t know if it’s possible to get into that monster’s lair and find Mr. Knox.”
“Sure. I’ve managed to get all the monsters to come to town…….”
There were more monsters roaming the town than ever before. The monsters that had been hanging out near the Happy House had been attracted to the noise and had all gone down to town.
Ethan clicked his tongue and ran a hand through his hair.
“Tsk. I was hoping to avoid a frontal attack. If I’d known it was going to be like this, I’d have just gone straight through this way. You do realise the difficulty of entering the village is higher now, right?”
Ethan nodded nonchalantly, completely unfazed, and stood up to leave. I turned to him and asked again.
“Why don’t we make a plan to enter the police station and a plan to rescue the doctor? Even if we go in straight on, we still need to have a plan.”
I ask because I think that’s what Ethan would have been thinking about while I was taking down the statue.
Unfazed, Ethan calmly pulled out a map of the town and unfolded it.
“Did you know there’s a clock tower on the south side of town?”
Just as he said, a little further down the road from the main square, there was a picture of a clock tower on the south side. It was close to the police station.
“Well, if I was Knox, I’d climb the clock tower first, so let’s head that way.”
“Why? He might end up as isolated as he was in the square earlier.”
“It’s his habit. When the chips are down, he’s up high, scoping out the situation and making plans.”
Ethan spoke as if he knew Knox very well.
It made sense. He and Knox had been classmates at the Royal School. Call it bad blood, but it wouldn’t be the first time they’d been together.
“We’ll save Knox from the Clock Tower, then enter the police station, make contact with the capital, and come back here.”
Ethan said, folding the map.
“What if Mr. Knox isn’t in the clock tower?”
“Then there’s no way. We can’t go rummaging through that monster’s lair looking for him.”
Ethan replied, sounding more calm than he felt.
He wasn’t wrong about anything. But I still need to save Knox…
Knox is a doctor. That means he’s just as necessary as Ethan in this doomed world.
After a moment’s consideration, I finally nodded. Of course, I would consider going to rescue him on my own if I had to.
“Okay. Before we do that, why don’t we set up a signal, something only we can recognise?”
“The monsters won’t recognise any signal anyway, will they?”
“No, not a signal to the monsters. Let’s figure out a signal between us. Are you going to yell at the monsters, like, ‘Sir Ethan, we’re in trouble here, can you come over here for a sec?”
I made a shouting motion, and Ethan sighed, grabbing my hand in frustration.
“Be still, are you going to keep drawing attention to yourself?”
“Yeah, well, monsters are sensitive to sound, you know, so at least make a simple hand gesture.”
When I insisted, Ethan narrowed his eyes and glared at me. Then he nods, indicating that I should try.
I waited and cued him up. I extended my index and middle fingers, pointed them at Ethan, and shot them upward like a gun.
“This is the attack signal.”
Then I extended my right arm wide and drew a half-circle to my left. Like waving a flag to one side.
“This is the signal to return to the mansion.”
Ethan nodded as if it wasn’t difficult.
“Simple.”
I followed up by crossing my hands in front of my chest and drawing an X, then looked at Ethan.
“This means we’re in trouble.”
Ethan mimicked my pose, then gave me a satisfied glance.
“Are you done?”
He held out his hand to me. I nodded, taking Ethan’s hand and standing up.
“Let’s go.”
Ethan and I climbed down from the roof and stood at the front door of Happy House, each carrying an empty bag. Ethan nodded at me.
“Let’s go.”
