Vessa stepped forward before anyone else spoke.
The enchanted short knife in her hand remained in its longsword form, the edge catching what little moonlight reached the clearing. She planted her boots firmly in the leaf litter, body angled just enough to keep both Ines and the ranks of soldiers in her peripheral vision. The forest around them felt tighter than it had a moment ago, as if the trees themselves had leaned in to listen.
"What do you want?" Vessa asked, voice flat and carrying. "And who are you to stand in our way?" She asked, even though she had an inkling of who the woman might be.
Ines's smile did not change. She opened her mouth, clearly prepared to answer at her own pace, but another voice cut across the clearing first.
It was Rhuvia.
The guild master had not been able to move yet from her place beside the dead circle, but her eyes were fixed on the woman in the dark cloak. Residual mana still flickered faintly around her fingertips, a quiet reminder that the earlier bolt had not drained her completely.
"Who else would be crazy enough to stop a mission as important as this head-on? Other than the Viscountess Ines." Rhuvia said.
A soft, almost delighted laugh left Ines's throat. She tilted her head, studying Rhuvia in a way a collector might examine a newly acquired piece.
"Oh my. My reputation precedes me, it seems. Even the little guild master shipped out from the capital already knows my name. How flattering."
Rhuvia's expression did not soften.
"Of course I know about you. Your name was the first one the top brass made sure I learned before they sent me to this land. They mentioned you specifically. Told me to stay the hell away from you. So yes, it is only natural that I remembered it first."
Ines placed one hand over her chest and bowed a little, in a mockery of sincerity.
"Well then. I'm honored, I suppose. Warnings from those capital superiors of yours do carry a certain weight, I'll say."
Rhuvia did not return the courtesy. She took a single step closer, boots crunching on the scattered fragments of the destroyed arrow.
"So? What is the reason for this, Viscountess? Surely you did not drag an entire company of night-ready soldiers into these trees just to block us from saving a village that sits right under your own authority? That land, those people, all of those fall under your governance. Or are the capital maps all bullshit?"
Ines's smile lingered, but something cooler moved behind her eyes.
"Hmm. Who knows? Maybe they are."
The roundabout answer only fueled Rhuvia's rage more, but she still remained silent, not letting the woman see her rage.
Vessa's grip on her sword, however, tightened. The tip of the blade rose a fraction.
"Don't beat around the bush, Viscountess," she said. The words came out sharper than before. "First you try to get in our guild's work by sending hired people, and now this? What is the meaning of this, Viscountess? Should I presume you are against our guild branch and trying to sabotage it with petty tricks?"
Ines looked at Vessa's sword first, then at her face. "A cool sword you got there, miss vice master of the Buena Guild branch. I remember you; you were the one who apprehended my man and threatened him that day, right? Of course it was you. Who else would have the guts to get in the way of my men!"
"Yeah, if I'd known you were this crazy, resorting to blocking our way in this critical time, I guess I wouldn't have tried to provoke you. I admit, I was a little hasty back then, not knowing much about the land's lords I was sent. But that doesn't mean what you did was right. Though you have the right to rule here, you don't get to terrorize or get in people's business like that."
Ines laughed a little. "Pfff….huh? You think I'm here for that little reason, for your little threat back then? Of course not. What I'm here for far exceeds those kinds of reasons."
Rhuvia spoke, "And what might that be? What might be your justification for getting in our way now? Being deep in the forest at this hour. If you had this many soldiers at your disposal, surely you could've lent a helping hand to us, to stop this crisis."
Though Rhuvia asked the question that was on everyone's mind right now, Ines didn't answer after that. She turned back to one of her knights and was saying something in a low voice.
Vessa snapped, seeing the woman's casual way of doing things, as if she didn't even consider the strike team worthy of even being able to attack her from behind. She stood showing her back so nonchalantly, it might've seemed like Ines didn't fear anything. Making them look small in comparison to her.
"Either answer us or get out of our way, Viscountess. And don't pull that shit with an arrow again. Next time the bolt will not be aimed at the shaft."
A few of the soldiers behind Ines shifted at the tone. Armor plates whispered against each other. Ines herself only raised one hand to make them calm, as if the threat amused her more than it concerned her.
She turned around, let the silence stretch for a deliberate three heartbeats before she spoke again. When she did, her voice had lost some of its playful edge and gained a certain tone, which surprised even Vessa.
"You asked what I want, Guild masters? Fine. Let us speak plainly, since time is apparently so precious to all of you."
She gestured loosely with one hand, taking in the strike team, the dead circle, the torn path the monsters had left behind.
"Tell me something. In a world like this, cursed, half-empty, bleeding men by the year, what is the single most valuable commodity left to all of us? Gold? Land? Mana stones?"
She shook her head slowly. "No. It is Men. Living, breathing, fertile men. They are rarer than imperial coins and twice as useful. You all know that fact, yet you all still are acting as if nothing is wrong with this world, playing a perfect society, even when it is surely dying. Every household, every village, every noble house with any sense left is scrambling to secure what few remains. But none are doing it right. Bloodlines of the nobles are collapsing. Future generations are becoming stories told by grandmothers instead of realities. And yet here you are, a strike team full of capable fighters, rushing off to throw yourselves between a monster wave and a village that already has more mouths than it can comfortably feed. You are wasting your time trying to save something that is already lost; you just don't see it."
Drosha's spear point dipped a fraction as the words landed. Maya's jaw tightened, knowing Ines wasn't wrong about this matter. Even Rhuvia's expression flickered, though she recovered almost immediately.
Ines continued, unhurried.
"I am not here out of some petty desire to watch a village burn. No. I am here because opportunity rarely knocks twice, and this particular night has delivered two at once. A newly awakened great dungeon, with unprecedented wealth under it. And a group of high-value assets, a village full of men, with an opportunity to siege them all under the pretext that they all died with the dungeon break. Isn't it brilliant? Aren't I a genius? Hahahahhh…." She laughed like a madman for a while, after revealing her plan out in the open like this, as if she had no intention of letting any one of them live from here. That fact wasn't too hard to grasp for each of the members of the strike team.
Ines took one slow step closer, the soldiers behind her adjusting their formation with practiced silence, along with her.