As time passed, the evening glow faded away, and the sun completely sank beneath the other side of the sea, allowing the night to fall quietly.
However, just as night began to descend, one place remained brightly lit.
Which place?
It was none other than Tintagel.
"Wh-What's going on?!"
Artoria, following Riezel, climbed up a cliff and looked toward Tintagel, her voice filled with shock and panic.
It couldn't be helped.
At this moment, the village that had been perfectly fine just a short while ago was engulfed in a sea of flames. Buildings were burning as the firelight lit up the surroundings and drove away the darkness.
As a massive blaze fell upon the village, faint shouts of fighting and killing, along with intense fluctuations of magical energy, could be heard from within, creating the atmosphere of a massacre.
"Everyone!"
Seeing this scene, blood rushed to Artoria's head, and without even thinking, she tried to jump down and dash into the village.
"Stop."
Riezel reacted quickly, reaching out to grab the back of Artoria's neck, lifting her helplessly with one hand.
"What are you trying to do? Don't tell me you plan to run in there and save those villagers?"
Even after how they treated her, the first thing she thought of when she saw the village in trouble was to rush in and help?
"Are you seriously just a hopeless do-gooder or what?" Riezel asked, looking completely baffled.
"But I can't just pretend I didn't see anything!" Artoria shouted helplessly.
Riezel really wanted to ask Artoria—why not?
Was there someone kind to her in that village? Someone who lent a hand when she was in trouble?
No.
Not a single one.
Since there wasn't, why couldn't she just pretend she didn't see anything?
Even though this was what he thought in his heart, Riezel also knew that no matter what he said, Artoria would still want to rush over.
Tintagel was, after all, the place where the girl had lived for sixteen years, so even if all she had there were painful memories, seeing it turn into a sea of fire would still make her want to go.
"A trouble's coming, huh..."
Riezel shook his head and, still holding Artoria, cast teleportation magic.
In the next moment, Riezel and Artoria appeared in the sky above Tintagel. From this position, both of them could feel a wave of heat as the burning village below kept spewing thick smoke upward, surrounding them in rising clouds of black.
Besides the stench of burning and smoke, the air was also filled with a heavy scent of blood.
It was only natural.
From where Riezel and Artoria hovered, they could see that a brutal and inhumane slaughter was taking place in the village engulfed in flames.
"You useless Wind Clan fools!"
"If you guys weren't so damn weak, how the hell could that fake get away?!"
"Useless trash like you shouldn't even be in the village wasting our resources!"
A few fairies of the Fang Clan, looking like werewolves, shouted while leaping at several fairies of the Wind Clan with terrifying speed, swinging their claws at them.
*Splurt!* *Splurt!* *Splurt!*
With a sickeningly clean and sharp sound of flesh being torn apart, the Wind Clan's fairies didn't even get a chance to say a word before they were ripped in half by the brutally strong Fang Clan's fairies.
*BOOM!*
However, before the Fang Clan's fairies could even enjoy their short-lived victory, their heads were smashed to bits by several massive war hammers.
Several fairies of the Earth Clan—dwarf-like figures wielding heavy hammers in their hands—were the ones who smashed the heads of the Fang Clan's fairies.
As they bashed the heads of the Fang Clan's fairies, they cursed as well.
"What the hell are you Fang Clan even good for?"
"All brawn and no brain! What gives you the right to talk to us like you're better?!"
"You bastards are the reason that damn fake got away in the first place!"
Not satisfied even after killing them, the Earth Clan's fairies kept hammering the corpses lying on the ground, smashing them into pieces with brute strength far beyond human limits, causing blood to spray everywhere and chunks of flesh to fly through the air, making the scene incredibly gory.
Apparently, the same thing was happening in other parts of the village as well.
"Damn Earth Clan! It's because of your ugly, loud, barbaric asses that we burned through all the treasure so fast!"
"If you hadn't been whining every day about needing metals for forging, we'd still have plenty of the loot that fake brought us!"
"What about you, Wind Clan?! All you ever do is blow money in the big cities or throw dumb parties!"
"You're the real garbage burning through treasure!"
"And you Fang Clan bastards are no better—never doing anything useful, just brute labor and eating more than anyone else!"
"Fairies don't even need to eat, but you losers kept stuffing your faces just for fun! You should all just disappear!"
"You're the ones who should disappear!"
"Yeah! It's you guys!"
"You're the problem!"
"You!"
"Kill!"
"Kill them!"
"If we just kill them, the village will be so much better off!"
"Get rid of everyone in the way!"
And just like that, the fairies started slaughtering each other amid the blazing fire—their methods were shockingly brutal, showing no mercy at all.
It didn't look like they were neighbors who had lived together for years, but rather enemies locked in a life-or-death grudge match, as the air of the village filled with endless cursing, furious roars, cries of pain, and bloodcurdling screams.
"How could this happen...?"
Artoria had stopped struggling and just hung there, held by the scruff of her neck by Riezel, staring blankly at the bloodshed below like she had lost her soul.
She recognized the fairies down there, of course.
They were all villagers of Tintagel—people she used to see all the time, neighbors from the same village.
Seeing them killing each other in the fire, Artoria's heart was hit hard.
"Why is this happening?"
"Why are they doing this?"
"Everyone... stop it already..."
As Artoria kept mumbling, she started struggling again, but Riezel didn't let her down and just kept watching the village below with cold, indifferent eyes.
"See that? That's what fairies are." Riezel said emotionlessly.
In fact, this had happened in the original work as well.
Back when Artoria was regarded as the fake Child of Prophecy, the villagers, who felt she couldn't be sold for a good price and had already spent all the treasure she had brought, decided to reduce the village's population to survive the next winter.
As for how they did that, it was by turning on each other and slaughtering the 'unneeded' fairies.
Now, it looked like that scene was playing out earlier than expected.
"They thought you were fake, figured you weren't worth much so that resentment started building up inside them."
"And once you ran off, it just exploded. No holding back."
"And fairies, when they're upset, don't bottle it up—they take it out on someone else."
"What you see now is the result."
Riezel spoke with a hint of sarcasm.
"If they were humans, do you think they'd start murdering each other over something like this?"
"But fairies? They do—they don't even know what patience means."
"For fun, they can do all kinds of cruel crap without blinking, so if it's just to blow off steam, why wouldn't they hurt somebody else?"
"That's just what fairies are."
As Riezel said this, he turned his gaze elsewhere.
"Rather than thinking about this, maybe you should worry more about what's coming next."
He stretched out his hand and pointed in a direction.
Outside of Tintagel, down the road leading into the village, a group of fairies was charging this way at a speed no human could match, looking like a pack of beasts stampeding, kicking up huge clouds of dust behind them as they raced forward.
Meanwhile, the one leading them, in particular, moved at an almost indescribable speed, as even from a distance, it felt like watching him turn into a phantom, flickering in and out as he closed in.
Honestly, if someone said this figure was teleporting, people might actually believe it.
"They're—?!"
Artoria instinctively looked in the direction Riezel pointed, and what she saw froze her in place while her face instantly turned pale.
"Such speed… only fairies of the Fang Clan can pull that off..."
"Woodwose's execution squad?"
"Why now?!"
Artoria was truly feeling despair.
Wasn't the execution squad supposed to arrive tomorrow?
Why were they already here?
"So they're the so-called execution squad, huh..." Riezel said calmly as he stared at the oncoming wave of Fang Clan fairies. "Looks like they've already received the news. They must've found out the Child of Prophecy escaped, so they rushed over faster."
It went without saying that the Fang Clan newcomers charging toward Tintagel were nothing like the villagers of Tintagel. They were the elite of the Fang Clan—powerful fairies who stood out even among the already battle-hardened members of the Fang Clan.
A group like them, with strength far beyond the average fairy, could easily outrun a train if they got serious. Covering a distance meant to take a whole day in just a few hours wasn't surprising for them.
As for how they got the news so quickly, that was probably thanks to the Wind Clan's fairies in Tintagel.
Given that the fairies of the Wind Clan had extraordinary information-spreading abilities, if the fairies who suffered under Riezel's hand wanted revenge, they could've easily passed the news of the Child of Prophecy's escape to the execution squad already heading this way.
If that were the case, it would completely explain how the execution squad reacted so quickly and decided to rush here at full speed, arriving right about now.
Needless to say, the execution squad was the 'trouble' Riezel had been talking about.
'Woodwose, huh?'
Riezel's eyes, glowing with a glassy shine, lit up as he remembered the name the fairies had mentioned several times now.
'I really wanna see what that guy's capable of...'
According to the original work, Woodwose's strength was no joke—probably stronger than any opponent he had ever faced.
Now that the idea was in his head, there was no way he was just going to sit still.
In the next moment, he flew straight toward the charging execution squad without hesitation.
"Hey, what're you doing?! Riezel!"
Artoria shouted in panic as if she could read his mind.
"Wait! Calm down! Don't do anything stupid!"
Unfortunately for Artoria, Riezel wasn't about to listen to her.
Carrying the girl in his arms, Riezel flew straight out of the burning village of Tintagel, leaving all the blood and violence behind.
===
*Rumble—*
It was the sound of footsteps, like the rumble of the earth itself.
One after another, fairies of the Fang Clan charged forward like wild beasts, their speed terrifying, leaving massive clouds of dust rising behind them as they sprinted.
They looked just like the Fang Clan's fairies from Tintagel, werewolf-like in appearance, the only differences being the color of their fur and how certain parts were groomed differently from one another.
They didn't carry any weapons, nor did they wear any sort of equipment—just a simple set of light gear, making them look like a pack of wild werewolves.
However, the reason they wore only the most basic light gear wasn't because the Fang Clan lacked money, and it definitely wasn't because the Fairy Kingdom refused to supply them with military equipment.
On the contrary, they did it because they had absolute confidence in their own bodies and strength, which was exactly why they believed they didn't need any weapons or armor to dominate the battlefield.
They were, after all, the queen's execution squad, the elite of the Fang Clan, and also the military force of this country.
Right now, they were dashing toward Tintagel, unleashing a speed that far surpassed that of ordinary lifeforms as their charge stirred up strong winds, clouds of dust, and the constant rumbling of the earth.
At the front of this squad was one who stood out from the rest.
He was a fairy of the Fang Clan as well and also had the appearance of a werewolf, but he was dressed in an elegant suit, and his fur was groomed neatly, giving off the impression of a prince among wild beasts.
Even so, a beast was still a beast, so no matter how well-dressed or gentlemanly he looked, it didn't change the fact that he wasn't human.
At this moment, he ran at a speed so fast that not even the rest of the Fang Clan's fairies could catch up to him.
"Lord Woodwose!"
Suddenly, one of the Fang Clan's fairies from the execution squad called out.
"Something's not right with the village up ahead!"
Hearing the scout's report, the gentlemanly fairy running in front—Woodwose—narrowed his beast-like eyes.
"Fire? What's going on?" Woodwose muttered.
Naturally, no one had an answer for him.
Clicking his tongue in frustration, Woodwose bared his fangs for a second but quickly stopped himself, as if suddenly remembering his status.
Even though he was a fairy of the Fang Clan, Woodwose was also the queen's most loyal servant, so he had already decided he wouldn't let others see him as just some savage beast with no sense of etiquette.
For this reason, Woodwose chose to hide his beastly nature and instincts, since he wanted to act like those well-mannered high-class fairies and not be seen as someone who only had strength but an empty head.
No matter where he went, he had to stay composed, which he believed was how a loyal servant of the queen should be.
Just as he was trying to calm himself down with that thought, Woodwose's composure was shattered the very next second.
"Lord Woodwose! Something's happening!"
Such a sudden, loud, unreserved yelling from his subordinate nearly made Woodwose break character, even though he had just reminded himself to be a gentleman.
"What now?!"
Woodwose shouted, clearly annoyed.
"Up there!"
Completely unaware that his leader was getting mad, the Fang Clan's fairy pointed up at the sky.
"Something's coming!"
Upon hearing this, all the fairies looked up, and when they did, they saw a streak of light flying through the sky.
*Swish!*
Amid the faint sky-splitting sound, a figure emerged from the streaming light, but soon, while soaring forward at high speed, it halted in midair.
"Lancelot?!"
Seeing this, Woodwose couldn't help but shout, his voice filled with surprise and hostility.
It couldn't be helped.
Lancelot was the one vying with him for the title of strongest in the Fairy Kingdom—someone he saw as a thorn in his side. Even if he didn't plan to eliminate Lancelot immediately, he still wanted to trample her underfoot, mocking and tormenting her at will.
As for why Woodwose called out his rival's name like that, it was because the figure in the sky resembled the well-known sky knight of the Fairy Kingdom—the only fairy knight among them who could dominate the skies and fly freely.
However, the newcomer was clearly not Lancelot.
"No, that's not Sir Lancelot!"
A sharp-eyed Fang Clan fairy quickly spotted the truth, and at the same moment, the figure in the sky began descending.
*Thud!*
With an audible thud, the figure's feet touched the ground, blocking the path of the execution squad.
"Hey, that hurt!"
A girl was tossed from the figure's hand and landed on her butt, crying out in pain.
"Halt!"
Seeing someone block the path, especially someone who flew down from the sky like that damnable Lancelot, Woodwose instinctively grew alert and shouted to his subordinates behind him.
In an instant, all the Fang Clan's fairies who had been dashing forward at incredible speed came to a halt, letting the gust of dust behind them gradually settle.
"..."
An indescribable silence spread all around.
"Who are you?"
Woodwose glared with his wolf-like eyes at the uninvited guest blocking his way.
"Me?"
Hearing Woodwoose's question, the figure suddenly grinned.
"Just a human passing by."