The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

"Precisely. Let's not waste any time; sit down and we can talk."

Leon nodded and sat down on the floor. There was no table in the room, so Leon sat opposite the other 4 who were also sitting on the soft rug which had been laid out.

"It's already rather late so you must be getting hungry. If you'd like, Alex can get you some food."

Leon pointed to the guard standing near the door, who was evidently named Alex. However, Isaac shook his head,

"I appreciate the offer, but we'd rather eat the food we brought with us. Villages such as your own work hard to make food – even then you have to give up most of it as a tribute. It would be rude of us if we took what little you had left while we still had our own food."

It was true that most of the sect's food was provided by the villages as a tribute, but Isaac didn't decline Leon's offer out of respect for the villagers' hard work. No, he didn't want to risk eating food in an unknown place since there was always a chance somebody could poison it.

The chances of it happening were minimal, but it was a possibility nonetheless. The other 3 all agreed with Isaac. 'Never eat food provided by others unless you trust them completely or you can't avoid doing so'; that was one of the principles the academy taught them all.

"I can tell that you are very careful people."

Leon smiled. He clearly understood why the group chose why the group chose not to eat the village food, but he didn't feel offended at all. In fact, he felt it was normal to be wary of people you didn't know – he was acting amicably, but he was also on guard against this group from the sect.

However, he understood his position. He couldn't overtly watch the group since he couldn't risk angering them – it would be bad if they even felt uncomfortable. Therefore, he told Alex to leave the room and guard the door from outside. Now he could have a private conversation with the team,

"I rushed here to meet you when I heard that you had arrived. You are doing us a great favour by coming here, so I will do my best to assist you in any way possible."

Isaac held up 3 fingers,

"We need 3 things from you right now. First, arrange lodgings for us. A single house with 2 bedrooms would be ideal. Second, get a guard to report directly to us. Their job should be to alert us immediately if the beast attacks again so we can help fight it off. Third, free up your time slot tomorrow morning. We'll have several questions to ask you and you might need introduce us to people who know more about the wild beast. As for now... just tell us what you know about the wild beast."

Leon sighed.

"That's not much, I'm afraid – only a handful of people have seen it and lived to tell the tale. All I know is that it's a black wolf. It's attacked us 3 times, with each attack coming at night. Every time it's been like a phantom, coming and going as it pleases without us being able to stop it."

"Hmm... that narrows it down, but it's still nowhere near enough to work out which beast it is."

Isaac – who read a lot – and Johan – who was very well educated – were quite knowledgeable about wild beasts. However, they didn't have enough information to work out which beast had been terrorising the village.

"It's getting rather late, so I hope you can find a temporary residence for us. We can continue this conversation tomorrow when all of us are well-rested."

"Of course. Let me just have a word with Alexander and he'll find you a place to stay. I already have one in mind near the edge of the village – that way he'll be able to find you quickly if there is another attack."

With that, Leon stood up. He stretched a little and Isaac could almost hear the creaking of his tired bones. Then he turned and left.

Isaac could hear quiet words being exchanged outside, then Alexander entered about 2 minutes later,

"Sorry to keep you waiting. A residence has been prepared for you, so please follow me."

Alex led them out of the guest house and to another location not far away. They were walking around the edge of the village right next to its defensive wall, and Isaac saw places where the wall was ramshackle or completely broken. Emergency repairs had been made on the wall, but the damage done to it was still very evident.

Isaac suddenly asked,

"When was the last attack?"

"Excuse me?"

"Don't make me repeat myself."

"Uhhh... 3 days ago, I think. Yes, it was 3 days ago. The beast attacked the wall on the other side of the village; this damage is from the second attack."

"How many days has it been since the second attack?"

"... That must've been 6 days ago."

"Then why hasn't the wall been repaired? And why did the beast attack the other side of the wall instead of this damaged part?"

"Uhm..." Alex scratched the back of his blond head, unsure of how to answer, "Not many people dared venture outside the village after the first attack, so we started running out of wood after we repaired everything from the first fight. Animals are pretty dumb, so we used what we had left to do some basic repairs here and hoped the beast would attack somewhere else. Thankfully, it did."

"But that still doesn't answer my question. A wolf beast would definitely be smart enough to attack the weak points in your defences, so why didn't it?"

"That... I don't know."

Isaac didn't say anything after that, and the team continued to follow Alex in a somewhat awkward silence. Well, it felt awkward for Alex at least.

When they finally reached the residence, Alex showed them in. The outside wasn't in great condition, but the inside was tidy and clean. It seemed that Leon had made people prepare this residence when he heard the sect would send a team over.

After showing them the house, Alex said a few words,

"The other 2 houses here have also been prepared. They're empty and have been tidied just like this one, so you can use them as well if you wish. The village head's assigned me to take care of anything you need, so just give me a shout if you want something. I'll be spending most of my time working, but my guard post is just there," Alex opened the window and pointed at a small raised area on the wall, "so it shouldn't be hard to find me. I hope you all have a peaceful night's sleep."

After that, Alex bowed and turned away. He seemed a lot more confident and comfortable speaking to the group than the other female guard had, and Isaac couldn't help but wonder whether Leon had tasked Alex to observe their house as well.

He didn't necessarily like it, but it was Leon's village, which made it his duty to keep the people in it under control. He would've done the same if he was in Leon's position, so he put his suspicions aside and simply accepted that Alex might be watching them from his spot on the wall.

Meanwhile, Eva was eating her dinner while Johan and Abbie set up their sleeping arrangements. The house was quite spacious and had a simple setup. There was the central space of the house with a kitchen and dining area, then there were 2 beds to the left and 2 beds to the right. Johan and Isaac would be sleeping on the right, while Abbie and Eva would be on the left.

Johan and Abbie finished what they were doing and came back into the central part of the house to start eating, so Isaac sat down to eat as well. There was actually a proper table and chairs in this house, so they all sat together at the table. Isaac's chair creaked as he sat down,

"We don't know any of the people here, which means we can't trust any of them. We're in an unknown place and we have to stay on guard, so I want to set up a night watch. Each of us will take turns to keep watch while the other 3 sleep: Johan will go first, Eva will go second, I'll go third and Abbie will go last."

This was another thing everybody had learnt in the academy; always stay on guard when entering a new place. This was the cultivation world: anybody could stab you in the back just to make a minor profit, so it was crucial to stay cautious at all times.

The rest of the group also knew this. Since Isaac had put himself in the least favourable third spot, nobody objected and they all agreed with his idea.

Gradually, everybody finished eating. Isaac, Eva and Abbie all went to bed, while Johan stayed at the table all by himself.

The oil lamp in the kitchen cast a thousand fleeting shadows, which flickered over his face ominously.