Chapter 60: Where had she gone?
Apparently, by the time everyone had woken up, Hilda was gone. She didn’t leave behind a single word to anyone about where she was going, nor did she leave behind any hints that might point in that direction.
It was strange...
Nadia fell into thought, deeply puzzled.
What could’ve been the reason for Hilda’s need to randomly disappear? And without anyone?
She quickly thought back to last night.
Did this have to do with the condition she laid out last night?
’Equal exchange... contributions...’
Could Hilda have gone out on her own to hunt Predicaments?
’It sounds like something she would do...’ Nadia held her chin in thought. ’But if so, I doubt that’s all she’s planning...’
The woman had stated that by the end of this exam, she would be the one to hold a monopoly over all the eyes — even having the confidence to swear it on her Heart.
Generally, under normal circumstances, Nadia didn’t doubt this task would be much of an issue for Hilda; except that it would obviously be tedious and time-consuming.
However, there were some variables involved that made this task more difficult.
In the event that Hilda actually managed to kill every remaining Predicament in this city, there was still Ross’ and Roxy’s group that she needed to go through.
Obviously, the contributions of killing all remaining Predicaments were not small, so it was likely that Ross would hand over all the eyes his group had stored.
But that still left out Roxy’s group, which she assumed had amassed quite an amount of eyes — though, most likely not as much as Ross’ group did.
’How are you going to go about this, Hilda...’ Nadia ruminated before soon waking herself from her thoughts.
She then asked Seraphine:
"Do you know what the agenda is for today? I see people shuffling around a lot."
"Oh, that?" Seraphine glanced around them. "Ross had ordered everyone to begin fortifying the warehouse for some reason. He had also sent Elias and his group out to get more corpses. Apparently, something big is going to happen later today, and he wants to prepare for it."
"Something big...?"
"Yep. Although he hadn’t explained it yet..." Seraphine answered, making sure to be careful with her words, in case Nadia had {Truth Finder} activated.
In truth, she knew what Ross was preparing for.
In the Visual Novel, it was stated that by the end of the second day, a Poison Jar had taken place at the city square — giving birth to a Soldier Predicament, while also attracting the presence of another all the way from the borders of Calais.
And tonight, these two Soldiers would lead a split attack on the two groups with the remaining Scoundrels left over from the Poison Jar.
It was a terrifying thought, one that Seraphine didn’t want to think about, considering she was going to experience it anyway!
After all, who wanted to imagine themselves in the middle of a skirmish against terrifying fiends?!
She shivered from fear.
Fortunately, though, there was a way out — a solution for how she would go about surviving the inevitable skirmish.
She just needed to cling to Nadia’s legs.
In the story, Nadia was always given a choice of which group to join in the exam. Of course, there was an option to not join any, but that always turns out bad in the end for everyone, for one reason.
The group that Nadia joins will always be the one to survive the skirmish, while the other would completely perish in the wave of Predicaments.
It was impossible to save both with the given options.
’And despite the fact that I’m actually here... It’s impossible to save both groups,’ Seraphine wallowed inside, feeling useless.
Although she had knowledge of the future, there was nothing she could do to somehow save both groups. She was too weak to do anything major, and even if she was as powerful as Hilda, she doubted she could convince Roxy’s entire group to join up with Ross due to their falling out.
It was a difficult pill for Seraphine to swallow, knowing that something horrible was going to happen and that she could do nothing about it. But that’s how life was and will forever be.
And as long as she could figure out a way to get home before she died in this world, she was going to keep moving forward.
While Seraphine was silently solidifying her resolve, Nadia processed the girl’s words before giving a response:
"I see... I suppose I should try and help out."
Seeing Nadia was about to walk to try and provide some help, Seraphine spoke up and quickly caught her attention:
"Ah, I was actually on my way to fetch some metal rods for Callum. You wanna join me?"
Nadia tilted her head expressionlessly before nodding slightly.
"If you’ll allow me, then sure. I’ll come with you."
"Cool!"
While the two walked to where the metal rods were stored, Nadia continued to glance around, taking in the sight of everyone fervently working. It was definitely an improvement on how they were yesterday.
’Hilda must’ve done something to boost their motivation...’ She mused.
Although it was a good thing that all of them were working, there was something that still bugged her.
The stares.
Since waking up, she had been attracting subtle glances made in her direction. Though, compared to leering stares from last time, these were much easier to ignore. But she sensed something was... off about them.
She sensed nervousness in their stares.
’I guess I must’ve intimidated them last night...’ Nadia presumed.
When in reality, it was because of a rumour that had spread amongst the people; one that she was completely unaware of.
Last night, when Hilda had gone to find Nadia, Elias had decided to go about doing what Ross asked of him.
He had spread a rumour that would deter people from messing with Nadia, which ended up warping into a strange misunderstanding regarding the two’s relationship...
Because of this warped rumour, nobody wanted anything to do with Nadia, in fear that if they did something to offend her, Hilda would suddenly appear to exact punishment with the fury of a thunderstorm.
Hilda’s goal to strike fear into people had definitely worked.