I continued to stare at the stars up until morning came. And all the while I did so, Night is sleeping soundly.

The rest of the villagers in the plaza as well slept soundly despite what's happening in the village.

At some point though, the villagers began waking up. and among those who woke up is Night. She seems confused as to why her head is resting on my lap but she didn't seem to think much of it. At least at the start. When she realized something, she began to profusely apologized to me.

Anyway.

And even after the sun had risen completely and it was beginning to turn bright, Sun still hasn't come back yet and I was slightly worried but Night eased me by explaining that there should be someone coming here to inform us if anything dangerous had happened.

Though, even with that, I still decided to check up on her in case something happens.

As Night had stated, she's perfectly fine, albeit very tired. When the village chief saw us, he thanked us repeatedly that I thought that his back might snap with all his bowing.

As for what and why the village chief is thanking us so vigorously, it's because if Sun didn't help out, there were some who would actually lose their lives because of their injuries.

And for the person in question, while she's still sleeping, Night carried Sun in her arms back to the house.

The house is still intact and there doesn't seem to be any goblins that have settled foot in here during last night's events.

As what the village chief had told us when we asked for the situation last night, the goblins were strangely relentless in their attack and that if they attack like that again, and with more numbers to boot, they'll get overwhelmed. They've also suffered 6 villagers dying and many wounded.

He even suggested us that we should leave early but Night refused for some reason.

When we're finally back at the house, I went and left to see if Chris and Leo are okay. But considering that they're the village chief's grandsons, I doubt that they were in danger last night.

Though on my way, the villagers who were outside at the moment looked as if death had visited them. Some of them had some form of injury, and a few of them even had lost a limb or two

And when I arrived at their house, I knocked on the door, like what Chris and co. did when they visited us that day, and after a couple of seconds, a large human male opened the door for me.

I found that they were with the village chief. Their faces were filled with anxiety but they were otherwise fine.

Though through my sudden visit, they were pretty surprised to see me.

"Oh, Snow, is it? What brings you here?"

"To check, if Chris and Leo are okay."

"Ah... Is that all?"

"Yes."

They were pretty dumbfounded to what I said for some reason. Do I need that big of a reason to visit?

Now, since no one has anything to say, the air had been filled with a hard to breathe air that would make one want to run away as quickly as possible. And I was about to do that myself when Chris spoke to break the silence.

"Um... Snow, are you okay?"

Hm? Did she see something I didn't know myself that would warrant him asking me that?

I took a quick glance at myself before replying.

"Yeah, I am."

"O-oh that's good."

"..."

Then silence came after. It feels like I'm being choked so wanted to get out of here now.

"Chris, Leo, what will you be doing today?"

"Grandfather said that we should stay in the house for the time being. Since the goblins have increased."

I then took a glance to the village chief and he nodded with a pained expression.

"What about Trish, and her mother?"

"We couldn't work on their case right now... It's too dangerous. As we've seen last night the number of goblins that are invading our village has increased by five folds. It might be dangerous to search even at day."

"Eh?"

Isn't this really bad?

Then that would mean that even if I managed to convince the village chief that it was actually the goblins that took Trish, they wouldn't search for her anyway because of their fear that there might be a lot of lurking goblins inside the forest...?

"But Trish is... And her mother..."

When I muttered that, Chris and Leo looked downcast with twisted expressions while the village chief looked grim as well.

"I'm sorry, Snow but I can't afford my people to be put in danger anymore after what happened last night. I have to weigh the cost and benefits in this."

"Then..."

No, it's useless. I can't search for them myself because Sun and Night would get excessively upset and worried for me. I can't have that.

And now that my only hope of saving Trish had given up himself, I can't do anything anymore.

I'm sure that Chris and Leo feel the same way as me. Or maybe even worse since they've known each other for a longer period of time than me.

"... Alright. I'll be going back now."

As I said, I went and returned back to the house that we were staying at.

I should inquire about what I should do instead to Night. Maybe she can think up of something that I can do to help find Trish.

When I opened the door, I saw Sun holding her forehead adn looking as if she's in great pain and Night bringing her some water.

Exactly what happened when I was gone?

"Oh, Snow, back already? Lilia here had gotten quite an headache for using too much mana. She should be alright in a couple of hours."

Oh. I didn't know something like that can happen. Thankfully it's not something serious.

"It's really painful, Snow... maybe if you let me cuddle you, I might just be able to recover faster~."

"Hey..."

Just like she wanted, after I removed the cloth covering me and hanged it on the piece of metal stuck on the wall, I sat on her lap and moved my body closer to her chest. But strangely, she didn't cuddle me like she said she would.

Ah, I think I noticed why. It's my face. I'm frowning all of the sudden and I didn't even do it consciously. Looks like I can't really hide it, can't I?

Night sat on another chair and moved closer to us.

"What happened, Snow?"

Night asked me as soon as they were ready to listen.

So I told them what the village chief had said before. About how they are going to discontinue the search for Trish and her mother due to the rising fear of the goblins.

After I finished laying down all of that, Night was the first one to speak.

"It's the job of the leader or chief to protect his people too, not just to lead them."

After Night, Sun came and spoke as well.

"That's right. And nobody would follow a cruel leader that would make them do something that they, and even the leader himself/herself, knows that it's dangerous."

It made sense and it's frustrating that it made sense but there's just one thing that bothers me.

"But the goblin was already increasing before... It's only that there were more of them that raided, not actually more of them there. It's still the same. Even less actually."

The one who answered was Night.

"But they didn't know that. Uh... maybe they interpreted the lack of goblins raiding yesterday and the day before as simply them saving up more goblins to raid or that they could afford to just send that many goblins. Then if so, that means that they were increasing if they managed to do that. Like goblins from other places have come in and joined their group or the next generation of goblins have already grown up."

In other words, since they saw that the goblins have waited for two days in order to pull this large attack with many more numbers, then that means that the goblins have increased somewhat through young goblins growing up or goblins from faraway places came and joined the goblins nearby.

Of course, I know that wasn't the case. They didn't wait for two days but instead, raided with increasing numbers every day. Just that, last night, there were a lot of them, many more than I expected. The sudden large increase might be attributed by the fact that I was there intercepting their raid and because I was alone and still managed to defeat them all, then they sent a much larger force than before.

If that were the case, isn't this all my fault? If it were true then If I hadn't intercepted them, then maybe they wouldn't have attacked with this many numbers than last night.

"Then what do I do now...?"

I really would like to find Trish and her mother and bring them back to the village. I have yet to see more of her embarrassed face as well.

And I'd like to do everything I can before giving up.

Though in the first place, I could just do it myself, but Sun and Night wouldn't allow that so my options are very limited, or not at all.

And my worries were just confirmed by Sun and Night.

"... Sorry Snow, I can't think of anything."

"... Me neither."

Me too as well. If I couldn't convince the village chief about the goblins being the one at fault then I can't up of anything anymore.

And even if I did, the location is still very much unknown. But I'm sure that those humans would eventually find them.

And maybe even Sun and Night might give me some leeway on the matter as well. Since they only said that I shouldn't do something reckless, if I were to come with the villagers in finding Trish, then it's certainly not that reckless since I have the villagers with me.

I could also convince them that if I'm there then they'll be more easily able to find Trish and her mother, lowering the risk of humans dying, making it less reckless.

But it's useless to think about that now since that opportunity is gone. I know myself that I'm just making stuff up to make it more convenient for me.

The early mornings went by with me sulking all the time as I stayed at the house, watching Sun write and Night tidying things.

But I did learn to accept that reality, I can't do anything at the moment. Unless a new opportunity arises, I'll just sit and wait for that to happen.

Soon, well be leaving. Night mentioned that we'll only be staying here for a week so 4 more days from now.

I just hope until then, well be able to find Trish before we leave.

Or else, I might as well just go and rescue Trish myself in the night before our departure...

Leaving that thought, for now, time moved quite quickly until it was midday and it was at that time that something amazing has happened.

We heard the villagers clamoring outside, eagerly pleased about what just happened or something. We, of course, have no idea. Maybe we got a letter from the goblins that they'll stop raiding the village and return Trish and her mother unharmed.

Absolutely impossible. But what is this amazing thing anyway for them so shout so loudly.

We decided to investigate and we saw a gathering of humans in the entrance of the village where it's been covered in splashes of blood and bits and pieces of entrails from both goblins and humans.

It smelled disgusting even after it was cleaned up, slightly but the villagers didn't seem to mind it.

And in the middle of those villagers is an amazing thing.

We've caught a few glances at this thing but we couldn't make anything out of them.

So in Night's suggestion, she'll carry me on her shoulders and asked me to describe to them what it is.

And when Night has lifted me up, I could that they're just humans.

Six humans, dressed in different kinds of clothing. Two of them, female while the rest are male.

And then there's one in particular, whose wearing metal armor with a tough looking kind of cloth underneath, called leather, has foul smelling blood.

And from the murmurs of some villagers, I came to learn what this group is called.

The subjugation force.