“Remind me why we chose this mission again?” My companion, Jesse, complained for the umpteenth time.

“Stop whining. We need to start our adventuring career with something easy to get a feel for the water before diving deeper. Plus, they wouldn’t have given me any higher mission with my current level,” I spoke with a steady voice, trying to keep my cool-headedness.

Jesse just rolled his eyes and continued walking next to me on the dirt road that cut through the never-ending green plains.

I should’ve chosen a different companion.

Jesse had been my classmate in the Upright Magical Warfare Academy’s Tolleria province branch; It was arguably the worst but biggest academy for magic arts in the entirety of the empire.

I hadn’t interacted with Jesse that much during the academy days. Actually, I hadn’t made a single friendship the entirety of my stay there; I was a bit of a loner. I reasoned that when I graduated and became an officer, I would make friends.

Unfortunately, with my barely passing grades, I didn’t succeed, although I was offered a chance to join the army without going through the training camp, which I refused, of course.

The best way to get yourself killed was to become a foot soldier in this non-ending war.

Not wanting to be drafted, I chose to join the guild and become an adventurer—I also didn’t want to face my father’s wrath, with him selling a piece of the farm to fund my studies. I was currently faking being an officer, and to fake it, you needed money.

Luckily, or unluckily—I was starting to lean unluckily—Jesse had ended up in the same situation, which led us to team up.

“Not to interrupt your daydreaming, but isn’t that the promised village?”

In the distance, I could see plumes of smoke rising into the sky.

“…Weird. Isn’t it too hot for all those chimneys?” I inquired.

Jesse shrugged.

“Maybe they have factories there.”

I glanced at Jesse, hoping he wasn’t serious, which he was.

This guy… he’ll make me fail my new career before it even starts.

***

It took us until sunset to reach the outskirts of the village.

“Now, Jesse. Let’s go through the mission one last ti—”

Jesse interrupted me. “There’s an anomaly, blah, blah. Find the village head and get more info from him, blah, blah. I got this, so let’s get this shit rolling.”

Keep cool.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to refine the blabber house’s incoherent talk. “…then investigate, and deal with it if it’s within our capabilities.”

“Yeah, yeah, just like I said.”

“No, Jesse, not like you just said. We have to take this serious—”

“Could you stop bossing me around? I’m not your subordinate.”

Yeah, this is our final mission together.

The village had a low wall that couldn’t possibly stop a Mana beast. A guard was stationed at the gates. He wore simple leather armour and had a sword strapped to his side.

As we approached, I noticed he was standing upright… too upright. He looked more like a spear than a human.

“Guests, I welcome you to our humble abode!” The guard almost saluted us on the spot; he was too enthusiastic in his greeting.

Maybe they don’t get that many visitors?

Jesse seemed to like the warm meeting. He practically shoved me away and went to shake the man.

“I’m Jesse, and this here is my servant, Simon.”

The guard shook Jesse’s hand and nodded my way. I nodded back hesitantly.

“Were you expecting us by any chance?” I asked, trying to rationalise the man’s enthusiasm.

“Me? Ha! I’m no seer, but we do have a crazy guy in the village; he might pretend to be a seer if that’s what you're looking for.” The guard inched closer to Jesse before pretending to hush something into his ear.

“If you pay him, of course. Although he’s crazy, even he has to eat, right?”

HOHOHohoho

The man then went on to laugh crazily at his silly joke.

I was weirded out, even Jesse… unexpected such a result.

“Anyways, we want to enter the village, so here’s our adventuring medallions.” I took out my bronze medallion.

“No need, no need. You can get in.”

The guard moved aside, allowing Jesse and me to enter.

“That guy is weird, man,” Jesse said after we got a bit of distance between us and the gate.

“…Yeah.”

Although the sun had fully gone beyond the horizon, the village was still lively, with men and women sitting in front of their wooden homes, drinking tea, chatting, and looking at the passers-by.

Walking through its cobbled streets, we were immediately recognised as foreigners and were given warm welcomes. Women greeted us from the porches of their homes, while men came right up to us for a handshake.

Kids were abundant. They ran up to us, hugging my legs and Jesse’s.

Everyone here had a wide smile on their faces. Even stern-looking men had a wide smile, too; it looked unsuitable on them.

“Fight me!”

A kid with a wooden sword pointed its tip against Jesse’s chainmailed torso. Neither Jesse nor I had a sword; we were both fighting magicians. We used Arcane Cubes to channel our strength, not steel.

Still, Jesse humoured the child and played with him.

Channelling Mana from his core, Jesse created a green sphere that floated above his palm; he used the skill [Mana Bolt], one of the evolutions of the skill [Mana Sphere]. It was one of the three conditions to pass the academy, the other two being: evolve [Mana Bubble] to [Mana Shield]; evolve the skill [Intermediary Mana Control] to [Cubical Mana Control].

These were also the same conditions to get the [Cubical Magus] class, which I got.

 Better than the [Farmer] class.

Remembering that I had managed to dodge the [Farmer] class, which had been the go-to in our family for generations, made me forget all the bullshit I had been going through because of Jesse.

Status!

A sheet of paper that no one other than me could see popped in front of me. It was the usual plain yellow, as I hadn’t gotten myself to put in the hours needed to customise it—it needed a lot of mind visualisation.

I read it.

Species: Homosapiens.

Species-specific skills:

-Adaptation Lv. 7

-Advanced Fast Learning Lv. 3

Class: Cubical Magus Lv. 1

-Class titles (1/1): 

*Fast Caster

-Class skills (1/4): 

*Mana Sense Lv. 1

General Skill (4/10):

-Attune Mana Lv. 9

-Mana Bolt Lv. 2

-Mana Shield Lv. 4

-Cubical Mana Control Lv. 3

I’m going to evolve this class even if it kills me!

Although the [Mana Bolt] Jesse created was the size of an apple, through [Mana Sense], I could see that it was hollow; It wouldn’t harm an ant.

Looking at the kids, I noticed something off. Usually, when I showed kids a floating and shining green ball, they’d be amazed, not… smiling their heads off.

That unerved me a bit.

Maybe they’ve seen this trick before?

The kid still charged Jesse, who intentionally misaimed, making the bolt hit the ground with a low puff. The kid struck Jesse’s torso.

“Ahh! I lose!”

After getting directions on the village head’s whereabouts, we continued on our way.

Torches illuminated the central plaza; it was large for a village of this size, with even a beautiful fountain in the centre.

“This village is great, man,” Jesse said, waving in the direction of a smithy.

“Mhm,” I answered absent-mindedly. I was occupied with staring into the eyes of the marble statue of Bacalora… it stared back.

“Weird…” Jesse mummbled.

So you finally noticed that there’s something off!

“I’ve never seen a statue of a Noblesse this run-down. The pigeons’ shit is practically forming a layer on top of it.”

I face-palmed, making Jesse look at me with a quizzical look.

“What, man?”

“Stop saying man every other word.” I looked around, making sure no one was near us. “Jesse, can’t you see the situation we’re in. This… this village; it’s not normal.”

“Okay, lady.”

“You… You dumbass! I can’t believe you managed to graduate. Ah! If I only had a better talent for Mana, I wouldn’t be stuck with a fool like you!” I shouted, venting my anger and frustration at Jesse, but the man himself was smiling, not even looking at me.

“You’ve disturbed the peace, man,” Jesse said in a hushed voice, waving at someone behind me.

Following Jesse’s gaze, a group of men and women were looking at us from a distance. They had blank expressions.

I looked all around us. The plaza’s store owners and craftsmen were all outside their businesses, staring at us with a blank expression.

My heart sank.

D-did they hear me?

I was about to form a [Mana Shield] before Jesse dragged me away.

“Hahaha,” Jesse laughed nervously.

“Don’t mind my partner; he’s a bit crazy. This is the head’s home, right?”

Jesse pointed at the only stone house in the village, and a man nodded slowly.

We walked there, looking over our backs intermittently—their gazes didn’t leave us.

Reaching the door, Jesse was about to knock, but the door creaked open.

An old man, wearing butler clothes, greeted us.

“Welcome in.”

He’s not smiling.

Making one final look behind us, we entered. Inside, the place had dark wood flooring and furniture that smelled new. A piano could be heard playing somewhere inside.

“Village Head, you’re right! There’s really something wrong here!” Jesse didn’t wait for the elder to close the door before he started talking.

The man turned around and stared at us with calm eyes.

“…Ah, village head?”

I was about to say something, but the man finally spoke.

“The village head has been waiting for you. Follow me.”

The man entered a dark corridor, leading the way.

Jesse and I shared a long look before both of us reached for the Arcane Cube at our belts and started channelling Mana into it.

We couldn’t cast two spells at the same time, so since my [Mana Shield] was higher levelled than Jesse’s, I cast it while Jesse cast [Mana Bolt] and stood behind me.

A transparent bubble sprang to life around me; it was thin and had a green sheen. At the same time, a [Mana Bolt] the size of a melon appeared above Jesse’s palm.

“Did you deplete all of your Mana?” I asked.

“Yes… let’s go and get those sons of bitches.”

I nodded before we advanced through the dark corridor to the door at its end.

The door was slit open, letting a bit of torchlight seep through

As we got closer to the door, the piano sound got stronger; it was clearly coming from inside the room.

Taking a deep breath, I gathered my courage and kicked the door open.

“On the ground!” I shouted, but…

As our eyes adjusted to the change of light, we saw a young man playing the piano aggressively; he was giving us his back. Next to him was the butler, facing us with a calm expression.

Jesse and I staired at the men, dumbfounded by the situation.

“Sir Somani, your guests are here.”

The man stopped playing. He turned to look at his butler before facing us.

He had blue eyes and brown hair; combined with his soft features and young appearance, the village head looked… cute?

“Oh, hey there, gentlemen. Excuse me, I sometimes get distracted while playing the piano. Come on, have a seat.”

The head pointed at a double-person brown sofa to his right as he stood up and sat on a sofa of his own.

Jesse and I shared a look before deciding to stay next to the door.

The head looked at us with raised eyebrows.

“Don’t you want to sit, gentlemen?”

“…”

“We should have tea at least, don’t you think so?”

The head motioned for the butler with his head, who went on to pour some green tea into decorated white cups.

He hasn’t even commented on the [Mana Bolt] and [Mana Shield]…

“On a tight schedule, I see. Then I won’t be bothering you with the chit-chat. The mission is off. Oh, thank you.”

The butler gave the man his steaming cup before he headed toward us.

“Don’t!” Jesse shouted.

The butler didn’t stop moving

“I said, stop!”

Jesse released his bolt; it flew faster than the eyes could follow, tearing the air with a swish, then…

BOOM!

The explosion shook the room, creating a force wave that made shrapnel fly everywhere.

Thankfully, my shield held, protecting Jesse and me.

A second later, everything settled.

The room now looked unrecognisable from before.

The ground where the butler had been standing was charred black. Looking around, I found his legs lying against the far wall; his head, torso, and arms were missing.

Broken furniture, glass, and other stuff lay everywhere. Nothing was untouched, except…

The sofa the village was sitting on; he, too… looked perfectly fine.

Although his happy expression had turned… bland, just like the villagers outside.

“Now, now. Look at the mess you’ve made,” The village head spoke with the calmest voice possible.

“J-Jesse, run!”

We turned around and ran. Reaching the front door, I kicked it open.

Boov.

Outside, everyone was still looking at us with their calm expressions.

“T-this is crazy, man,” Jesse said, standing still as he looked at the… humans?

“Not now! Run!”

We ran, and ran, and thankfully, no one stopped us. As we ran, I noticed how the villagers’ heads moved in synchronisation, following us.

…Monsters.

We reached the kids who had played with us; they, too, looked unhinged.

Jesse stopped beside the sword-wielding kid.

“Walk up, kid!”

Jesse shook the kid, but no response.

I scanned our surroundings—everyone was staring at us, unmoving.

“Jesse, we’ve gotta move.”

“W-wake u-up~sniff~kid. Wake up…” Jesse started crying. I was about to slap him, when…

“The empire sssssshall faaaall,” The kid spoke with a grown man’s voice—his voice breaking at the end.

And that was it. Jesse kicked the kid, and we continued our escape.

Reaching the village gates, the guard let us pass with a similarly eerie expression as the rest.

We ran into the night, not looking back…