The group spent almost the entire day moving down the main road without stopping.
And by the time the sun began setting on the horizon, exhaustion was already weighing on all three of them.
Their legs ached after so many hours of walking, and none of them seemed to have the strength, or the will, to keep going any further.
But as if that weren’t enough, the sky clouded over again with dark clouds, and the wind began blowing with increasing force.
Everything pointed to it being only a matter of time before a storm hit them.
"We need to find shelter, and fast," Rosalía said, looking up at the sky with a furrowed brow.
"And where exactly are we supposed to go?" James asked wearily. "We haven’t seen anything but trees for hours."
Faust, who had been walking in silence up until then, stopped dead and narrowed her eyes toward the distance.
"...There," she said, pointing ahead.
Following the direction Faust indicated, both of them squinted and made out, several hundred meters away, the silhouettes of several houses.
Without wasting a moment, the three picked up their pace and, after a few minutes, finally arrived.
It was a small settlement of stone and wood houses stretching along both sides of the main road.
"Hello?" Rosalía called out, raising her voice. "We’re mercenaries, just passing through!"
No response.
"Is anyone here?" she insisted, walking toward the middle of the street.
But again, nobody answered.
The three began moving slowly down the main street, glancing at the houses around them.
"Hey, Rosalía, could this be the town from the job?" James asked.
"No," she replied, shaking her head. "The job’s in Crystal Lake, and from what they told me, that’s more of a small city, not a little village like this."
"Then what’s this place supposed to be?"
"No idea... this town doesn’t show up on any map."
Faust, meanwhile, hadn’t stopped looking in every direction, tension visible in her body.
"I don’t like this place..." she murmured quietly. "Something here isn’t right."
Then James stopped for a moment and studied the houses more closely.
"Hey, what if it was the demons?" he suggested, somewhat thoughtful. "Maybe they passed through here before us."
"I don’t think so," Faust replied, shaking her head slowly. "If it had been an attack, there’d be traces... blood, bodies, broken doors, something."
James scanned the place with his eyes and quickly realized she was right.
Everything was unsettlingly intact.
It was as if the town’s inhabitants had simply vanished into thin air, from one moment to the next, without leaving the slightest trace.
"Seems like we stumbled into a ghost town..." James said.
But right at that instant, as if the sky had been waiting for the worst possible moment, the storm broke loose all at once.
Lightning lit up the entire town, followed by thunder that boomed overhead, and within seconds the rain began pouring down hard.
"Shit!" Rosalía said, covering her head with her arm. "Inside, quick!"
Without a second thought, the three of them ran toward the nearest house, shoved the door open, and rushed in.
The house was modest, exactly what you’d expect from such a small town.
A table occupied the center of the room, the fireplace stood unlit, and a few wooden pieces of furniture completed the space.
However, James noticed immediately that something didn’t add up.
"...This is weird," he said, frowning.
"What is?" Rosalía asked.
"There’s no dust," James replied. "If these people had left a while ago, this whole place would be covered in grime... but it’s clean."
Faust, for her part, had noticed other things.
On the fireplace mantel sat a couple of lit candles, the wax still melting.
And on the table, served on several plates, were leftovers of food that were still giving off a faint wisp of steam.
Faust carefully brought her hand near one of the plates.
"The food’s still warm," she said quietly. "Whoever lived here was eating very recently... maybe just minutes before we arrived."
All three stood staring at the table in silence, growing more uneasy, turning over what could have happened.
But then Rosalía let out a heavy sigh.
"Whatever happened here, it’s not our problem," she said, taking a seat at the table. "Nobody’s going to pay us to investigate what the hell went on in this place."
And without further ado, she picked up one of the plates on the table and started eating.
"What do you think you’re doing?" Faust asked, confused.
"What does it look like? Eating," Rosalía replied with her mouth full. "It’s still warm and it’d be a sin to let it go cold."
"But that’s someone else’s food..."
"I don’t see anyone here," she replied with a shrug. "Besides, this way we don’t have to eat into our own rations, which we’re going to need badly."
"..."
But then, to the elf’s surprise, James also ended up taking a seat.
"Can’t argue with that logic," he admitted, grabbing a plate. "Besides... I’m hungry."
Faust watched them both in disbelief.
It was clear she still didn’t like the idea, but after a few seconds of hesitation, she let out a resigned sigh and ended up sitting down with them.
"For the record, I was against this..." she muttered before starting to eat.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Rosalía replied with her mouth half full.
By the time they finished eating, night had fallen completely, and the storm was still raging outside with no sign of letting up.
So they decided it was best to spend the night there and head out the next morning, once the rain stopped.
The house barely had two bedrooms, so splitting up was simple.
James took one for himself, while Rosalía and Faust would share the other.
In the end, exhaustion won out over any lingering concern, and the moment they lay down, all three fell deeply asleep.
However, at some point in the middle of the night, James felt the edge of the bed dip slightly, as if someone had just sat down beside him.
"...Huh?"