'He must know something,' Asher thought to himself, yet he didn't speak and simply allowed the man to speak, as he was certain the man would inevitably say something without needing to be prompted, and sometimes silence drew out truths far better than questions ever could.
"Take my advice, kid, return to the adventurer guild at whatever territory you took the mission from and declare the mission a failure," the man spoke, his voice firm yet not unkind, and he paused for a moment as though weighing his next words carefully before speaking again, "this is for your own good, kid."
Asher stayed silent for a moment, his expression unchanged, then asked, "why?" Although he already knew that people who went on this particular mission went missing too, just like the villagers themselves, he still asked, just in case the man sitting beside him offered new information or details that might connect the fragments in his mind.
