Due to the rumors of the church inquisitor's visit to the southern village, Cyril had to take a different path to avoid any blockage on his way home.
He kept running through the forest despite being scratched by branches, even as his legs started to tire — threatening to give in to exhaustion.
Despite that, he pushed his muscles to their limit, as his only concern was the safety of Safia.
As he was running, he accidentally stumbled on a tree root and fell headfirst to the ground with a thud.
"Oof!" He yelped.
Suddenly, Cyril heard something approaching. He pressed his ear to the ground as he heard the sound of a carriage drawing near.
"Tch, that must be one of them.. I didn't expect them to use this path," he muttered to himself.
"No matter.. I need to slow them down first."
Cyril began to frantically search for usable materials to create a simple trap to delay their arrival at the southern village — yet all he could collect were a few stones and leaves.
"I need to act fast before they get here.."
He analyzed each material, thinking about what to make with such limited resources as the churchmen were getting closer by the second.
Suddenly, an idea struck him. He remembered he had brought a rope in his pouch.
He quickly got to work and secured the rope around two trees. He pulled down a branch to use as a lever for a miniature catapult and tied the rope to the branch.
However, he now needed something to hold the stones in place so they wouldn't fall to the ground.
Fortunately, Cyril saw a bird's nest on top of a tree and climbed up to retrieve it. The nest was already empty, with only a cracked eggshell inside.
"Hopefully this doesn't break. Safia.. wait for me."
He placed the nest on the branch and put a few stones inside it to temporarily distract the incoming horse carriage.
After securing everything in place, Cyril fled the scene before the carriage arrived to avoid any unnecessary attention.
"Please work.. don't fail me now."
At the same time, the passenger inside the carriage was clueless as it drew closer to the trap.
The coachman noticed something ahead of them, but it was too late — he couldn't stop the horse in its tracks.
"Trap!" He exclaimed.
The horse stumbled on the rope as it activated the catapult mechanism, snapping the rope tied to the branch and launching the stones toward the coachman, knocking him unconscious.
Meanwhile, the passenger inside was thrown against the interior of the carriage as they held on for dear life.
One of them was completely thrown out of the carriage from the impact.
Cyril heard the sound of a loud thud from afar. Assuming the trapped succeeded, he breathed a sigh of relief and continued walking towards the southern village.
A few moments later, he finally arrived at his village. But the scene before him was already beyond control.
The other churchmen, including the inquisitor, had already arrived before him and had already started breaking down door after door to search for the girl in the prophecy.
"No.. no, no, no! Safia!" He screams in rage as he rushes towards his home.
The inquisitor has yet to touch his house, but he knows that they will arrive at any moment. He can't afford to waste a single second.
Cyril slammed open the door, seeing Safia still lying down in her sickbed.
"Safia!" He called out.
Safia's eyes fluttered open from her slumber as she turned to her side to see her brother standing at the doorframe.
"Brother..? You're back early today. Did something happen? You look awful.." Safia said weakly.
"There's no time to explain, Safia! We need to get you out—"
Before Cyril could finish his word, he was interrupted by another man with a deep voice outside his house.
"You are going nowhere, peasant."
Cyril turned towards the man who was standing in the doorframe. His heart was pounding heavily and drops of sweat rained down his forehead.
"Who are you. What do you want?" Cyril asked with a harsh tone, his other hand searched for something to use as a weapon to protect his sister from being taken away.
"I am the Imperial Inquisitor, sent by the Bishop to retrieve the girl foretold in the prophecy. And the girl behind you—" he pointed at Safia.
"—She is the sacrifice named tragedy."
—Penning a new chapter...