Lord Of Puppets

[1 days later after the raid on the golem dungeon.]

[Current location: Maw city – Lord’s mention.]

"Still no news?" – asked the worried territory lord.

"No sir." – replied city guard captain.

"There was no news or anything like that."

"And as for the wanted criminals? They also went silent."

"There was also no news about new monster outbreaks, which would require a special attention."

"The knights also been keeping in constant contact with adventurer guild, but overall? Everything seems peaceful."

"The only incident involving monsters were lesser ones and several adventurers’ groups are currently going around, exterminating the incidents."

"But again, nothing happened that requires any form of special attention.... Although, it seems there were some consequences from moving large number of adventurers from the surrounding territories to here, with some monsters having some chances to start messing things around.... But again, nothing major."

"However, the adventurer guild told us that it for the best if we wait from calling yet another large gathering, since they need to make sure that the other nearby territories are truly safe."

"..."

"In short, everything okay, dead silent and wait for anything to pop up." – said the lord who looked visible nervous.

(Still... Can’t exactly say I’m calm.... Heck. I still have trouble sleeping lately.) – thought the lord as he was working on his documents.

(This place is keeping to its name, being the whole "cursed territory".)

(Mess after mess....)

(...Still... Maybe with those Crow Watchers around, maybe at least trouble with dungeon will be dealt with.)

(But still.... Isn’t this way too much?!)

(I mean, wyvern, dungeon, assassins and what not!?)

(Did I ended up in the middle of some sort of extremely shady conspiracy?!)

(Heck! Everything was okay for long time!)

(So why the hell everything all at once is going nuts?!)

(When I was assigned here to in the early stages of restoration this place, the only problem was freaking monsters, but not even strong ones!)

(HELL! OTHER TERRITORIES HAD A PROBLEM WITH ELVEN BANDITS!)

"..."

(Well... Even though things got extremely chaotic recently, it started finally calming down.)

*Knock* *Knock*

"...Enter." – said the lord as moment later a guard entered the room.

"Em... Sir? There is somebody from the Crow Watchers, saying that they came here bearing an urgent news." – said the guard.

"..."

"Ah, they must had already dealt with the dungeon." – said excited lord.

(Ah... Things are truly started going great.) – thought the lord.

[Few moments later.]

"The dungeon hasn’t been dealt with and we are removing our forces." – said the soldiers who wore the armor of the Crow Watcher army.

"...W-what?" – asked the lord as his face straight up ’shattered’ upon hearing these words.

"..."

"!"

"WAIT! WHY?!" – shouted the lord as he somewhat regained his mind, instantly raising a question in panic.

"...Because we found a traces of the people that could had been possible behind the wyvern attack." – replied the black armored soldier.

"W-what?" – asked the lord, who did not expected one bit to hear that kind of answer.

"The reason why I wanted to talk you in private is to tell you about the current situation." – said the soldier.

"And you will be not allowed to speak about the details to anybody."

"Since from what we are suspecting, somebody close to you, is the traitor that led the wyvern attack here."

"Honestly speaking, the whole raid plan was real... But at the same time fake."

"Simple put, we had to lie to you, in order to protect you."

"We.... We had been doing investigation on the suspicious group of elven terrorist for the long time."

"Obviously public doesn’t know about them.... And there is good freaking reason why... Because they are hiding too well... To the point it is abnormal. No evidence or anything to present to the public... It would only introduce fear and panic... Which is maybe the enemy goal... A paranoia."

"These elves... They are definitely somebody pawns... But we don’t know whose."

"However, we recently managed to find the tracks that belonged to these elven terrorist."

"And they led here.... And sometimes later? The wyvern attack came."

"So.... We came here... Our goal was to deal with the dungeon, pretending that it was our goal all this time... While in reality we will be hunting for the elves.... And we did it, they fallen for our bait."

"And because of that, we kind of.... We needed to leave the golem infested forest alone."

"...."

"I.... I think I understand?" – replied the still scared and confused lord who tried to process the information.

"!"

"B-but wait! What about the golem forest?!" – asked the lord.

"What about the monsters there?!"

"Well...We will be leaving it... But obviously not without taking any measures." – said the soldier.

"We already contacted a specialist who will deal with golem forest."

"So, all you have to do, is to be on the defensive, until the requested reinforcements comes here and deals with the dungeon."

"Don’t worry about them. They are more than qualified to exterminate the whole golem infested forest by themselves."

"However, it will take them sometime before they arrive."

"And again, please keep most information regarding the incident a secret.... Since the chances of somebody close to you being involved in the whole wyvern incident are quiet high."

"Be it somebody with power or just average servant, please don’t trust anybody too easily."

"I.... I understand." – replied the terrified lord.

"But I NEED to say something!"

"What the hell do I tell my people!? The guards? The knights?! The adventurer guild!?"

"I can’t just throw a plain lie at them in THAT kind of situation!?"

"Yeah... That is the problem.... Em.... Tell them that we called to deal with more serious monster out break?" – said the soldier.

"Look, this is honestly the only good excuse you can give... I know this is shitty and stuff, but we are currently dealing with MUCH bigger headache compare to you... So... I’m both sorry and not." – said the soldier as he gotten up.

"With that said... I will be going now."

"Good luck." – said the soldier as he then left the room, leaving behind the lord who was sweating profusely while staring at the table.

"..."

(FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK!) - the lord screamed inside of his own head.

(SO, I’M STUCK IN SOME SORT OF FREAKING CONSPIRACY?!)

(I thought they were going to deal with one problem, but then it turns out they were chasing one that came here?!)

(What the fuck!?)

"..."

(Still... They said that they had are sending here somebody powerful enough to deal with the dungeon.... So maybe it will be over.... Right?)

(There won’t be any more random bullshit, which could give me a heart attack.... Right? RIGHT!?)

[Meanwhile: A lone village.]

"Common! Common! Catch up!" – said the running boy.

"Wait! Wait Adam!" – said another boy, as a group of children were playing around, pretending to be monsters and heroes.

"..."

*Sigh*

"So energetic." – said the elderly woman, sitting on the chair and observing the children playing.

"...Are we sure it is really safe?" – asked a male farmer.

"I mean, you heard about monster wyvern attack recently... Are we sure we can resume the work?"

"Well... They told us that the wyverns had been exterminated... And there were few soldiers moving around in the area back then, checking things out." – said the female farmer.

"So, I guess everything is alright?"

"I mean, if it wasn’t they would had went with the whole evacuation plan they had warned us about."

"I know.... But.... Fuck...." – said the male farmer.

"My.... My uncle lived in the village where the wyvern attacked.... He may had been a drunk idiot.... But he was my uncle.... You know..."

"You are not the only scared here." – said the elderly lady.

"These children are trying their best to not to cry."

"Brave."

"Yet scared."

"Honestly, they were the ones most terrified after they heard the news... Yet look at them."

"Trying to lift their spirits up and what not."

"If children who were the most scared one got over their fear are now somewhat doing okay, then how the hell you, an idiot son of mine, is still scared more than a children?" – asked elderly lady as she smacked the male farmer with her cane.

"Ow! You crazy hag! It hurts!" – said the male farmer as he quickly backed away, leaving the granny attack’s range.

"..."

"Well.... All we can do is try moving forward, no matter the times." – said female farmer as she stepped away from her husband and mother-in-law.

"Hey! Adam! Come back! It’s dinner time!" – shouted the female farmer.

"Ah! Sorry guys! Mom calling!" – said the energetic boy.

"See y-"

The young boy ran towards his mother while waving his hands towards his fiends as he was saying his goodbyes.... But just as he did... Several crossbow bolts came.... And instantly on the spot, each of the children who were just playing with each other... Just dropped down on the ground... All at once... As the woman just watched the whole scene happened right in front of her eyes.

"..."

"..."

"Eh?" – the female farmer stared down.... Looking.... At her child.

"?!"

"ADAM!" – shouted the male farmer who instantly ran towards the direction of the boy who was not responding to his father screams.

However, just as the man started running, something massive came down behind the man, alarming the male farmer as he turned around... And saw a massive cavalry golem... Which had right underneath one of its paws, a crushed body of his own mother.

"HIIIIII!" – the man out of fear tried backing away, but he ended up tripping on his own legs, making the man to fall down as the massive monster just stared at him... And raised one of their polearms, getting ready to slaughter both the farmers.

"!"

"NO!" – shouted the male farmer as he started crawling away.

"STAY AWAY!"

"STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!"

"PLEASE!"

"I BEG YOU!"

"N-"