The Centaurs suddenly headed towards battle in the night.
People emerged from their tents one after another to welcome back the men who had returned. I also got up and went to see what was happening. Everyone was breathing heavily, looking as if they had barely escaped with their lives. Moreover, there were clearly fewer people than when they had left.
Some people were holding their stomachs, looking dejected, and were being supported by their companions, their bodies dragged along. I approached and looked at their wounds. They were clearly not from swords, bows, or magic. A lot of blood was gushing out, and though I couldn’t tell for sure, the wounds looked as if they had been shot by bullets.
Their companions applied cloth to his wounds and carried him into the tent. I stared blankly at their retreating figures.
Could it be that there are guns in this world too… I had just assumed there weren’t. My heart naturally began to beat faster. Yola’s voice brought me back to reality.
“Where? Hey, Argna is missing! And what about the others?!”
She weaved through the people coming and going, desperately searching for Argna.
“Did he go with them?”
“He said he was going to stop them immediately after, and left. And some people still haven’t returned.”
She kept looking around, searching for the figure that should have been there. But even after the injured were carried away, his figure was nowhere to be seen.
Yola, with the commotion behind her, stood alone, staring intently towards the town.
For the time being, I helped with the treatment of the injured people. Fortunately, there were several Healers, so it seemed their lives were saved.
As dawn broke and I finally let out a sigh of relief, Yola was still looking towards the town, just as she had been the day before. I decided to ask one of the men who had gone to battle for details. I approached a man who was drawing water from the water source.
“Excuse me, could you please tell me in detail what happened?”
He furrowed his brow for a moment at my appearance but began to speak, looking annoyed.
“Uh, yeah. We went with Tad yesterday. When we got there, the humans were already waiting. They must have been watching from a distance. And then they attacked us from the town walls, but we were taken down before we could even shoot our arrows.”
The man said, shrugging his shoulders.
“It was some kind of metal tube-like weapon. I couldn’t see well because it was dark, and I was far away, but suddenly there was a bang sound, and the guys in front started falling down. At first, I thought it was magic or fireworks, but I didn’t see any fire.”
“I see. I believe there was a youth named Argna?”
He made a bitter face at the mention of a familiar name.
“Ah, Argna. He came to help when we were about to lose partway through. Some human guy on a horse started putting ropes on our companions. Argna let them escape and got captured himself.”
As he finished speaking, he picked up his bucket and started to walk away. I went and told Yola, who was still staring into the distance, about what I had learned.
She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and shed silent tears.
