Everyone froze for prolonged heartbeat.
Ishiki felt myriad of gazes weighing him down with physical pressure. It felt... Suffocating. This kind of attention made one’s skin prickle and muscles tense involuntarily.
Sam’s accusation hung in the air between them, and the worst part was that it made a disturbing amount of sense.
And everyone had a sense of insecurity about Ishiki from the start, after all, he was not the original member of their group and the lone person who lived in this clearing before they arrived.
It was natural that he... too would have his insecurities about the refugees.
Of course they’d be suspicious. If their positions were reversed, Ishiki would probably suspect himself too. But he wasn’t about to roll over and accept blame for something he didn’t do.
He gritted his teeth and spat. "What proof do you have? And no—my skill has nothing to do with memory."
The other man turned back toward Ishiki and lowered himself slightly to reach eye level with shorter opponent.
"Where were you right now? When everyone was gathered for the meeting, what were you doing?"
"I was sleeping. Everyone needs sleep, do they not?"
Sam chuckled with a sound that was hollow, an performative expression designed to sway audience.
He looked at the others assembled. "Would you be willing to believe that he was just sleeping?"
Some of the players shook their heads and looked at Ishiki with suspicion. Their doubt was gnawing deeper.
Ishiki felt his jaw tighten. He forced himself to take a slow breath before speaking. "If I had the power to make people disappear and erase memories, you would already be gone."
Someone laughed among the group but immediately stopped.
Sam’s face contorted as he glared at Ishiki and gritted his teeth, opening his palm in order to summon a weapon. Ishiki did the same, ready to summon [Curved Bone] at a moments notice.
"Then come on try, you little rat." the man hissed.
Ishiki jumped forward, and so did Sam. Both of them were just mere inches away from clashing before Filch stood and suddenly appeared between them, one hand on each of their chests, shoving them apart with enough force to send Ishiki stumbling backward.
"Enough." Filch’s voice cut through the tension. "Stop acting like immature children."
The Princess was already up, but somehow Filch was even faster to respond. She took a step back and simply said. "Thank you, Filch."
He nodded once.
She turned to all the else and said in her usual cold and even tone. "The meeting is dismissed, try to stay as close to each other as possible."
She paused, as if making a hard decision. "We will depart from this clearing in a week, until then there will be daily hunts. We need to get stronger and learn how to adapt to the forest as fast as possible."
People began filtering out, returning to whatever routines they had carved out of this awful existence.
But the atmosphere had changed fundamentally. Nobody looked at their neighbors the same way anymore. Suspicion had wormed its way into every interaction, poisoning whatever fragile trust they built.
Who knew ’Who’ was behind all those disappearances?
Who knew ’Who’ would be the next to disappear from everyone’s memories?
Four people remained in the house after everyone else had gone.
Filch turned to Sam, expression somewhere between confused and concerned. "Why did you accuse him like that?"
No response.
Sam didn’t reply, he was... eerily silent and looking at the ground ever since the meeting had been over.
"Sam." Filch’s frown deepened. "Look at me and answer the question."
There was still no answer from the guy, he was just... frozen silent.
Ishiki gulped hard. Standing silently at the corner of the room, Yuki was standing some distance away from her, contemplating over the plan that she just told Ishiki and the others.
He was tensed and lost in his own thoughts too. ’Screw it... I will have to barge straight to hell in a week.’
The princess had revealed how she and all these people reached this clearing two months ago. It was... a very dire matter.
She told Ishiki that there are certain points inside the whole Crimson Canopy that are enchanted. Just like this clearing had the temple, the reason why the neither the Crimson Canopy nor the Demons and Withering Beasts made their way in.
They need to find these points and use them.
The strategy was straightforward on paper: Find the safe points. Shelter there during Crimson Night when the forest woke and hunted. Travel during Silver Night when everything went dormant. Fight through whatever Demons and Withering Beasts they encountered along the way and finally reach the bridge.
Simple.
Also completely insane.
’This is so... suicidal.’
His skin was crawling just thinking about it. The sheer distance they would have to cover, the number of things that could go wrong, the certainty that not everyone would make it to the other side...
He could not help but feel paranoid.
Ishiki was so busy in his internal war that he had lost his focus entirely from Sam and Filch standing at the center of the room.
It was only at the moment when he heard a sudden crash, that his attention was brought back to the tall guy standing alone now.
Filch was against the wall, pulling himself upright with visible effort. His spear had appeared in his hand. Behind him, the wooden wall showed a significant impact crater, splinters jutting out at odd angles.
Sam stood with his fist extended. The posture of someone who had just thrown a punch.
A punch that had sent Filch flying across the room.
’Wait... what just... happened.’
Yuki and Ishiki were absolutely stunned. The princess however regained her sense back just in time and stood up immediately. She opened her mouth to speak, but Filch was faster.
His voice cut through the confusion. "Ishiki! Get out of here!"
Before Ishiki could understand anything, Sam suddenly moved. He moved with unnatural power sending cracks through the wooden floor, as he crossed the distance in a blur, fist already accelerating toward Ishiki’s face.
Ishiki tried to dodge. His body responded a fraction of a second too slow. The wall behind him meant there was nowhere to go anyway.
The punch suddenly stopped.
Ice had encased Sam’s lower body, crystallizing in an instant and locking him in place mid-motion.
But that didn’t help the terror flooding Ishiki’s system.
Because Sam was looking right at him now. Looking right into his eyes.
Those eyes were... terrifying for some reason.
Ishiki’s heart that hadn’t calmed down ever since he woke up, started beating even faster as his eyes met the hollow eyes that stared at him with malice.
The frozen body’s mouth moved and curled into a wide grin.