The Runaway Warrior from Extra

Chapter 7: The Butcher of Juniperville (2)

I approached the front gate of Fraune's lord's castle and greeted the gatekeeper.

"Sir Mauser, hello!"

Though the castle was small, as a lord's residence, its main gate was always guarded by a knight.

Normally, visiting the castle wasn’t easy, even for a noble’s child like me.

Especially this time, since I needed to approach the living quarters of the lord's family.

"Greetings, Sir Sid. Are you here to see the young lady?"

"Yes. Is Rena here?"

But what if my childhood friend Rena was actually Rena Fraune, the young lady of the Fraune family?

"Of course. She asks me every day when you’ll come... I’ll contact the mansion and let you in right away."

"Thank you, Sir Mauser."

Aside from the lord’s family, I was the only one who could pass through the gate with just a simple greeting.

After all, no adult would suspect a child visiting a friend’s house.

"But Sir Sid, you have companions I haven’t seen before today."

"Greetings. I am Walter, the new butler from the Swords family, assigned to serve the young master."

"I am Mauser, captain of the gate guards. Then, we’ll be seeing each other often."

"Yes. I look forward to your guidance, Sir Mauser."

"Hmm, are you from outside the village?"

"Yes. I had a connection with the master of the household and came to serve at the mansion."

"And the maid too?"

"Yes. She is my niece and joined me here. We also brought a gift from our mistress."

"I see."

However, it was a different story for the adults with me—Walter and Emily.

Emily, worried about making a mistake, lowered her head, showing the basket, while Walter responded smoothly without a single misstep.

As expected of the former Knight of Deception. Though he had likely never worked as a butler before, he appeared every bit the experienced servant.

"But you and your niece don't look much alike."

"Well, her hair color is quite striking, so people say that often. Haha."

"Indeed. Such a vivid red is rare in Argentain."

"I was quite surprised when I first saw it myself. But, you know, sometimes it’s a matter of recessive genes or something."

"I’ve heard unusual traits can appear if there’s mixed blood... say, from a different race."

Emily had already turned pale, and a strange tension was clear even to me in Mauser and Walter’s exchange.

"Come to think of it, did I ask where your niece is from?"

"Our master did not find it a problem."

"Of course. But I must do my duty, you understand."

"Sir Mauser...?"

He was clearly probing into Emily’s origins.

"...This isn’t the kind of conversation to have in front of such esteemed company."

Walter continued to deflect, buying time.

"...I see."

Thump-thump-thump.

The sound of quick, light footsteps approached.

"Sid!"

"Rena."

"Welcome!"

Rena Fraune.

My childhood friend. And, according to Emily, the main heroine.

***

"Mauser is a 'Knight of Honesty.'"

"Really?"

"Yeah. He was a commoner, but he worked so hard that he became a knight. Isn’t that amazing?"

"...That’s impressive."

In many ways, it was. We had nearly been exposed right from the start.

Or rather, it was only natural for the Knight of Honesty to be guarding the main gate.

Though not as powerful as my "Eye of Truth," the virtue of honesty also allowed one to see through lies and deception.

Mauser must have felt an instinctive sense of unease toward Walter and Emily, which was why he kept pressing her.

"By the way, Sid. I heard you were grounded. Is it over already?"

"Uh... Yeah, I guess."

If Rena hadn’t appeared just then, Mauser might have used his authority as captain of the guards to interrogate Emily.

Lucky. Or maybe unlucky?

"You shouldn’t get grounded! That just means less time to play with me."

"Sorry...."

I wasn’t sure why I felt sorry, but Rena was always like this.

With so few people our age in Juniperville, especially among the nobility, we were bound to be close friends. It felt like, no matter when I came to my senses, Rena was always by my side.

"Wow... I get to see this hidden event scene. I’m glad I became a maid."

"Who’s that weird maid?"

"Emily. Just a weird maid. Ignore her."

"Oh! She’s the suspicious maid you told me about, right?"

"Yeah. Super suspicious, right?"

"Totally suspicious!"

Whisper, whisper.

Emily always said Rena was the main heroine—the one who would always be by my side and on my side.

Even during the raid that marked the start of the main story, when I was the only survivor, Rena would leave her family to follow me.

Yeah. It did seem like something Rena would do.

"Sid, what should we play today? Want to go to the stream with me?"

"Uh... How about hide-and-seek?"

"Hehe, Sid. Are you sure? This is my house, you know?"

"Yeah. But you have to find me, my butler, and the maid, all within the time limit."

Right now, I was trying to use Rena to find the Extra.

"Umm... That sounds really hard."

As the Knight of Deception, Walter could investigate freely, even in this heavily guarded castle.

What I needed was an alibi for Walter. I just needed a good excuse for him to be out of sight.

"Three people is too much! The castle is big, you know."

"Then?"

"So Sid has to be on my team no matter what."

If we found the culprit today...

"Because we’re best friends. Hehe."

I might have to accuse her family.

***

The game of hide-and-seek began.

"Um... Rena."

"Yeah?"

"Isn’t there no point in searching if we’re just walking around together?"

I was walking through the castle with Rena, holding her hand.

"But Sid, you don’t know the way. If you wander around alone, you might get lost."

"Then why are you holding my hand?"

"W-well, if I hold your hand like this, you won’t get lost!"

"Rena, you’re just repeating what you said earlier."

"A-anyway, this way! This way looks suspicious!"

"This is...?"

"My room!"

Sunlight filled the room. The well-organized space had a sweet honey scent, just like Rena’s hair.

"Here, Sid. Sit here."

"Okay."

"I learned a new way to brew tea. Want to try it?"

"Thanks, I’d love to."

I wanted to ask if the hide-and-seek game was already over, but I chose not to mention it.

It seemed Rena didn’t care about the game. She just wanted to spend time with me.

"Hehe. It’s just the two of us here, huh?"

"Yeah."

We leaned against the table, making ourselves comfortable.

Rena seemed to enjoy being away from the prying eyes of the adults.

"Hey, Sid."

She smiled playfully, her voice light.

"What do you think would happen if we stayed here and didn’t let them find us?"

"That sounds fun. If time runs out and we don’t show up, they might get really worried."

"Right? Then let's just stay here and talk."

"About what?"

I knew Rena well. She probably planned this from the beginning.

"Hmm... Let's talk about whatever you want. Because you look like you’ve been worried about something. Did something happen while you were grounded?"

And Rena knew me just as well.

"Hmm. Are you sure? It’s kind of a scary story..."

"Scarier than a ghost story?"

"Yeah. It's about a thing called an Extra, which is even scarier than a ghost."

"Extra...?"

This was a story no adult would believe.

Of course, they wouldn’t. One was a would-be witch, and the other was a follower of Deception whom no one was supposed to speak to.

Without my "Eye of Truth," I might not have trusted either of them.

"Yeah. One day, someone you know starts acting strange. They do things they’d never do and go places they’d never go."

"Like here in Juniperville?"

"Yeah."

"That’s scary... It’s like they’re being controlled by someone."

"That’s not all. Extras know an awful lot of things—things like what will happen in the future."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So, they try to change the future into the one they want. That’s why they act so weird."

To Rena, this was nothing more than a slightly spooky story, like a ghost tale.

If she hadn’t experienced anything similar, she would just find it interesting and move on.

"Sid, then if someone becomes an Extra... What happens to the person who was originally in that body?"

"That... I don’t know. The scary story ends there."

"Aww, that’s no fun."

If you compared the Dark Knight Baldurheim and the Extra Park Hyuntae, the latter was obviously a better person. Baldurheim was better off gone.

But the Extra who had taken over Rena’s family was the exact opposite. As you could see from Rena, they had all been good people.

But what if someone who had been kind yesterday turned into a ruthless murderer overnight?

What if an unknown being had taken over their body?

Could we expel just the Extra, like breaking a curse or exorcising a ghost?

"Ugh... I don’t even want to imagine it. Then is there a way to get rid of an Extra?"

"Huh?"

"It’s weird. With similar monsters like doppelgängers, you can avoid them if you just ask careful questions. But there’s nothing like that with Extras. It’s so unfair!"

"Yeah... It is unfair."

A weakness for Extras?

I had never considered it before. I fell into thought.

Every dragon had a reverse scale, and every hero had a lifespan.

There was no perfect being without a weakness. Such a thing did not exist in the physical world.

That was why we pursued eternal virtues, sought truth, and worshiped the transcendent. So what about Extras? They were unstable beings too.

"You’re right, Rena. We just haven’t found it yet, but there must be a weakness."

"Really? Ehehe... I knew it!"

"Yeah. You’re amazing, Rena. I never thought about that until now."

It felt like a light had turned on in my mind. I should go back and experiment with Emily later.

The Knight of Deception, Baldurheim, had crumbled before the Eye of Truth, his polar opposite.

I didn’t know who or what this Extra was yet, but once I figured it out....

Knock, knock—

"Huh? Who is it?"

A knock on the door.

The people in the castle should have known we were playing hide-and-seek, yet someone had found us precisely.

They must have followed us the whole time. Otherwise, it would’ve been hard to pinpoint our location.

"Rena, someone’s here?"

"Oh. Brother? What’s up?"

"Aren’t you going to introduce me?"

"Just a minute."

Creak. With the sound of the chair scraping, Rena stood up to open the door.

"Rena... Wait...."

I felt a strange sense of unease. "Introduce" me? This wasn’t my first visit, and I’d exchanged greetings with the Fraune family before.

Rena didn’t notice anything odd, but there was only one reason her brother would specifically seek out his sister’s friend.

Because I was the "protagonist" of this whole story.

"Nice to meet you, Sid. My name is Lucas."

The Extra had come to find me first.