Fifth District, Neue Fiona Village

10:11:12 AM

4 hours and 49 minutes left before the Invasion

Hermes had finally reached the forbidden place. Checking the surroundings to make sure no one was around, he took a deep breath to gather a strength to take a step.

“Phew, this is hard. My heart pumps rapidly. Calm down, me. Calm down. This is not the time to feel fear. Darn it, this is my second time to return to this place. But seriously, there are no guards guarding this area. They’d really need to put some work in this place. Gosh, I hate this quest. Curse you, Stump G.” he said, complaining in his current state.

He cautiously walked in the street. Checking his sides and his back in vigilant, his face and body was covered by his sweat. He decided to check first the abandon building that had the same features and clues in the photo. Checking the back of the place, he found the dry grass and dirts, he saw a black sliced trouser in the surface and found a human-shaped body track.

“Seriously, am I investigating a crime scene in this place? Whatever, I finally found the place.”

Suddenly, he heard a crack of twig behind him. He then jumped over and formed a defense stance.

“Who’s there? Show yourselves!” Hermes cautiously asked, preparing to face the person. Two shadows from the rear appeared.

“Umm… uh… I’m so sorry, Big brother Aljen. We don’t intend to scare you.”

“We’re so sorry, Big bro.”

Hermes let out a sigh of big relief when it was the twins. But he got mad because the twins told him they followed him in this district.

“We’re so sorry!” the twins lowered their head in unison.

“You guys. Why the heck are you guys doing here? I’ll be dead if your father found out ‘bout this.” Hermes asked.

“We’re so sorry!” the twins lowered their head once again in unison repeatedly.

“Stop it. Please don’t cry July. Please, wipe out your sneeze, Troy. Alright, alright, I already forgive you guys. Just please… please stop making loud noise!” Hermes clicked his tongue and made his decision to abandon the investigation for now. He need to keep the twins out of the place before the mobs found them. However, the noise produced by the twins heard by one of them. He heard the footsteps of one group coming to their place. Hermes had no other options but to drag the twins further from the place and hide themselves behind the bushes.

“Sssh, keep quiet, you two. Don’t make some noise.” Hermes asked, covering the mouths of the twins. Keeping themselves in low profile, his sweat dropped rapidly as the group approached the field.

July and Troy embraced his waist tightly, making him unable to breath normally. But if he made a sound, the group of five men would find them. Hence, he just excessively endured the pain.

“Sir, we don’t find anyone here.”

“There is no one over here as well.”

“Sir, we found three feet tracks. One has a big one while the other two seems a children There are everywhere.”

Shit, I forgot about that! If they follow our feet tracks in the muds, they will easily find us here. Shit, we’re doomed!

“Follow this tracks, it will us to those people.”

“Yes sir.”

Bang!

“Hmmm?” he turned his attention to the gunshot.

“That’s sound like a gunshot, sir.”

“Maybe… another moron pulled a trigger by accident again.”

The bald one wore a sharp glass lead his men. Following the tracks they created, they were almost two meters to their position. Hermes and the twins were in trouble. However, continuous gun fighting stopped them to peek at the bush.

“What was that?” the leader asked, turning around at the location of the sounds.

“It sounds like we’re under attack by intruders.”

“What?”

Someone came in, pant on his knees.

“On your feet, soldier.”

“Sir, reporting in. The Village Chief and his men crossed the borders. One of men found them but he was killed in headshot when one of his colleagues shot him down. Our guards pulled out and decided to take revenge.”

“What? Are they nuts? That’s against the contract that we signed with them last year. Are you telling me he violated the conditions that our Mistress made for them? That’s crazy! This is a proclamation of war against us! Call our Sir Matheus, report this mess right now!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Everyone, listen up. We will going to reinforce our comrades. Tell the others to stop playing bandits now. We’re now ready to proceed in Protocol A - Invasion of Neue Village. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill. The Village Chief betrayed us. We don’t know why he crossed the borders of this district but violating the contract is the outfit part we won’t let slide… let’s move!”

When the group disappeared, Hermes and the twins came out from their spot. Removing the leaves and dirts from their clothes, Hermes became furious at what he heard.

“Seems like your father exceed my expectations.” He said, helping the twins cleaned up.

“Big brother, I heard our father is in imminent danger. We need to help them before something bad happen to him.” July asked, pulling down his sleeves.

“Oh c’mon. Stop it. We don’t even have a weapon to fight them. Do you want us to go to that place with a handicap? They will kill us all instantly by those guns. Be thankful, we almost lucky we’re saved from them. All we nee - hey, hey… hey… stop crying July.”

“I hate you!” July kicked his left knees, making him to grab the part she hit.

“Hey, wait up! Don’t run. Hey Troy, stop your sister.”

“I thought you’re a hero when you saved us both from the demon wolf. You’re just a coward!” Troy kicked his right knees, making him to fall in the ground.

“Hey, you two. Stop running to that direction. It’s dangerous.” Hermes explicitly said, trying to get up. “For crying out loud, will ya?”

Hermes followed the kids to prevent them to join in the battle. However, they disappeared on his sight. He clicked his tongue and kicked the tiny rock near him because of anger.

“Darn it. These kids are stupid. Stupid. Stupid! This is why I hate the most! They make my life miserable today.”

When he took a step, he fell in the ground surprisingly. The ground he fell had ten meters above the ground. He opened his eyes and found himself inside a tiny cell room.

“Darn it, do I have a mark in my butt to experience this kind of unforeseenable unfortunate event?” He asked, standing up his upper body.

As he removed the dust and dirts from his outfit, a beautiful voice came in through his ears.

“Who’s there?” she earnestly asked, appearing from the dark side of the room. “Who are you?”

A beautiful girl wore a maid uniform with a purple butterfly hairpin and barefooted. She had a beautiful white long ponytailed hair, smooth skin like a pure model and slender boy of a beautiful maiden.

“No way….” Hermes said, looking at the face of the girl.

Hermes concluded that the person he was meeting right now was one of the seven main heroines of the Mafioso. And her name was Zairena Camelia, same age as he was, childhood friend and the only love interest of Hermes Archnemesis.

“I’m sorry. Who might you be?” she asked, offering her right hand to help him.

“Umm… I…. my…. My name is … My name is Aljen.” he replied, accepting her assist. Her smooth hand made him to gulp while slowly stood up. Her beauty tantalized him to never let her hand go. “So… so… who might you be, Miss?”

She quietly giggled when she noticed him getting nervous around her. She asked, “May I ask first to you sir to let my hand go?”

He was surprised and returned to his senses. “Oh sure. Sure. Sorry. My bad.”

“It’s alright. By the way,” she raised her hand to him waiting to make acquaintance. He immediately grabbed it once again. ”My name is Zairena Camelia, daughter of Zamor Camelia and Elionar Camelia. Nice to meet you, Aljen. You don’t need to be too formal and afraid to someone like me. I know basic magic but I do no harm to the people like you I just meet today. Unless you’re someone with the same caliber as the Don of this village ― Hermes Archnemesis. ” Hermes was astonished while she shook his hand. He gulped when he heard about it. Behind her smile, there was a hatred when she mentioned his name.

“Nice to meet you too.” He replied, releasing his hand from her.

“Hmmm, it appears you’ve fell in the hole I digged last night. You’re lucky that you’re still alive ‘bout that.” she said, smiling at him. She then climbed up with her mud made ladder. She checked of how deep the hole he fell down.

Wow… am i lucky to fall in this miserable place, huh? Seriously, you moron. You need to fix your mindset about that. Darn it, why she’s here?

“Wait a minute, why’re you here in this place?”

“Ooh, I was captured during my lone journey to our home. I was held captive by the man named Matheus Dante, the Underboss of Verdugo family since the first day of January.”

“How unfortunate. You celebrated your New Year’s Eve alone?”

“Nope. I celebrated it together with my young master. But that night, I didn’t expect him to do something unexpected towards me.” She smiled, making Hermes curious when she mentioned the word master. “He gave me a gift I couldn’t forget and it still stuck inside my heart and mind.” She genuinely touched her lips and turned around from him when she noticed he was staring at her. “― So because of what happened in that night, I made a letter of resignation and gave it to his loyal servant, my mentor …. I couldn’t help myself but to resign and leave that place immediately. The feelings I kept from him will come out if I didn’t do that. Because I don’t know what would happen between us if I stayed with him.”

What the fuck she is telling right now? Who’s that master anyway? The protagonist? But the Arata Kingsman is currently a slave in the mining company in Alps. I don’t care about that one. All we need to do is to escape this place first. And whatever happens next, I need to make sure to save these morons and find my servant to help me out from this mess.

But ―

“Hey, Miss Zairena. Hey, hey….. Hey listen.” he asked, tapping her shoulder to get her attention.

“Y-Yes?” Miss Zairena replied, averted her eyes to Hermes.

“So that hole will help us get out of this cell, right?”

“Yes, Mr. Aljen. That’s the purpose of that hole. With the help of the mud ladder I made, we might possible escape from this place.” she replied, smiling like an angel but it was not super effective at Hermes.

“Then let’s go now. I’ll go first and then I’ll give you a hand to climb up.”

Looking at her feet, she was shoeless, covered by mud and dirt. The scratched underneath her feet looked painful. Zairena endured the pain for such a long time.

“Thank you, Mr. Aljen.” She lowered her head in curtesy.

“You’re welcome. Now, here we go.”

Hermes climbed up in the mud ladder and came outside from the hole. He then helped out Miss Zairena to climb up. They successfully escaped from the cell.

“Ouch… my right foot.” she said, holding the pain part.

Oh man, that’s terrifying wound.

Hermes pulled out his two handkerchiefs and covered her feet as a temporary bandages.

“Thank you.” She earnestly said.

As she stood up from her spot, she lose balance but Hermes saved her from falling.

“Hey, what are you doing? You need to be careful.”

There hands held so tight and there eyes stared at each other. The gust of wind gave her beautiful hair to sway like a goddess like their time had stop to make them time to be in this state. Both of them blushed, their face getting closer and closer. But Hermes recalled she was one of the heroines of the Arata Kingsman, making them to avert his eyes and stepped away from each other.

“You’re alright now.” He slowly pulled away his hands from her waist.

“T-Thank you, Mr. Aljen.”

“Y-Y-You’re welcome. N-Now, let’s go…”

Man…. that was close. My heart and mind had stop functioning when I concentrated to her eyes so much earlier. Darn it. Now my troubles are getting worse and worse than before. First Justin, second the children and the villagers, and now this girl I must save from these morons. Aaaargh! More troubles to take care by myself. Curse you, Stump G!

“Stump G. How many hours do I have before the invasion. Give me a sign.” he murmured. Suddenly, a paper hit through his face. Zairena was surprised and moved closer to him to help him. He irritably removed the paper from his face and checked the content.

It stated:

Invasion of Neue Village

4 hours and 19 minutes and 33 seconds (Time changed)

3 hours and 22 minutes and 10 seconds (Time changed)

1 hours and 11 minutes and 5 seconds left

Break a leg, Break a leg, my child

Hermes faced palm when he read the contents. He said, “Curse you, Stump G!” Now, his burden became even deeper than before and out of his calculation. Another bizarre situation had arrived.