27 In The Cover of Darkness

"The whole town has gone paranoid, sir. We have heard our rooftops invaded by the noise of unfamiliar suspects in the numbers of dozens, no, even a hundred! Several children have gone missing, we think that its because of these thugs prancing about at night!"

George exclaimed as he explained the situation to the Six Blades.

Gavin, Luken, and Suna all turned their heads to look at Yin.

"I mean, the kid's not that short, but he does look like a child."

"There's no denying that."

"Maybe they want a simpleton with child-like intelligence?"

That last line by Gavin made Yin stand up from where he was seated.

"H-Hang on! Does that explain what was carved into the daggers back in Cisco? D-Do those sick ruffians want to buy me and turn me into their slave?!"

"You would be very fortunate if that's all they were planning to do with you, Yin boy."

Luken interrupted him.

"Well, based on the stories that I have heard from others, you won't be turned into one of their slaves, no…"

Yin breathed a sigh of relief.

This sense of reassurance was immediately removed after what the Commander said next.

"Nah, you would probably be sold to a human harvesting operation, you know, take your organs out and sell it somewhere and stuff."

"That's pretty gruesome, thank God that they didn't get you, Yin."

Suna said with an honest and relieved smile.

Yin was now on the verge of collapsing.

"Enough, both of you!"

Gavin reprimanded both Luken and Suna.

He then fixated his attention at the owner's son, George.

"Has the government not sent out Enforcers in the area?"

Enforcers are the peace keepers of Niflheim.

They deal with trouble among the commoners and every single human residing in the country itself, whether it involves Slayers or not. It should not be a problem since they are Slayers themselves.

"N-No, they kept saying there were not any reports of missing people passed to them. We think they are just not paying any attention to Rizako because its close to Cisco, they are probably too afraid that they might enrage the underworld's biggest people."

"That is very suspicious, shouldn't they work hard on this case? Considering the Red King is out murdering government officials right in front of them!"

Gavin responded.

"So, Commander, what's the plan?"

Suna asked Luken.

"Clearly, we should not just leave these people to fend off for themselves, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"Let's wait till nighttime. Let's catch these guys ourselves."

"You know that we are not authorized to do that, right?"

Gavin said.

"I'll just send the Emperor a messenger dove or something in case we get questioned for it, don't worry about it. The safety of the people and residents of this village takes top priority."

"Yes, sir!"

After promising George and his mother that they would personally deal with the underworld goons themselves, the Six Blades went outside of the eatery and sat underneath the cover of the restaurant's roof in their terrace.

They wanted to bide their time and wait for the sun to go down, after all, these suspicious red-wearing individuals were not going to show themselves in broad daylight, that was for sure.

People came and went after dining in Stein's Restaurant.

Every single one of them was too beat to even formulate some sort of plan for later, so, they decided to sleep until nighttime.

Following an hour of snoozing, George came out of the restaurant's back door.

"What are you guys doing sleeping out here?! We have plenty of space inside!"

He woke everyone up and urged them to come inside their household.

"My mother and I are the only ones here, you guys can sleep in the living room for now, right? I normally stay there, but you guys can crash in there for now."

"T-Thank you so much, mister."

Yin showed his gratitude to the man.

"Don't mention it, boy."

As the darkness of the night slowly enveloped Rizako in its pitch-black palms, Yin had woken up first.

He looked at the window and noticed there was nobody roaming out in the streets anymore.

Much like the time he and the Serpent Summoner spent walking in Cisco at night, the people just vanished.

They were probably not taken away or kidnapped, it was an absence due to precaution.

The citizens themselves were hiding in the safety of their homes.

Scared of what lurks beyond the dark corners of the moon's reign.

He poked the Commander's face gently.

"Yo, Commander, wake up!"

"Alright, alright, Yin boy, what do you want?"

"Have you forgotten why we are here in the first place?!"

"O-Of course not! Dinner, right?"

Yin exhaled in a dismayed manner.

Gavin and Suna had woken up not long after Luken.

"We should assess the situation for now, let us first see just how many of them are there."

Everybody was on guard.

Yin was readying his gauntlets.

Suna was prepared to draw her sword.

Gavin clenched his grimoire just in case.

"Where are Dinah and George?"

Yin pointed upwards.

Luken went on to check on George and his mother upstairs.

There were two doors in this floor level, another was towards a bathroom, the other one was locked.

"That's odd."

The Commander knocked slowly.

"Dinah? George?"

His gentle knocking slowly turned frantic.

But before that, he noticed something seeping out from under the brown wooden door towards the room.

It was liquid.

Red, gooey liquid with a rusty smell.

He knew all too well what it was.

Blood.

Luken was now on full alert. He kicked the door down.

"Dinah! George!"

The other three heard his screams from up above.

"W-What do you think is happening?"

Yin asked in a state of panic.

"I don't know as well, Yin."

Suna replied.

What the Commander saw was a bloodbath.

Dinah and George's lifeless corpses were mutilated and mangled beyond recognition.

If they were not wearing the same clothes they did earlier during the day, they would have been impossible to recognize.

Blood covered the floor.

The window was forcefully opened, its glass was shattered in an effort by the assailant to get inside.

"I'm sorry."

With his footsteps still bloody, he went down and prepared to tell the bad news to the others.