"Now that you mention it, that is rather strange..."
When I finished my explanation, an elderly woman with the face of a cat muttered her thoughts.
"Indeed. The moment Lady Charme alone was taken, Ket Nya was left defenseless. Amidst this chaos would be their prime opportunity, yet there is no sign of them attacking. Could the one who abducted Lady Charme and that scout belong to different groups?"
"Thinking of it that way does offer a tentative explanation, but still..."
An older, plump cat-faced man trailed off, his eyes drifting toward the ceiling.
"Indeed. That would mean this place is being targeted by two separate human factions at the same time. Such a coincidence is hardly likely. Furthermore, if that were true, it doesn't explain why they singled out my daughter. And that isn't the only question."
"Ah, you mean that restriction you placed on Lady Charme, don't you?"
A young cat-headed man with a black bob cut asked Kiji as the thought struck him.
"Yes. I strictly ordered my daughter not to set foot outside Ket Nya for the time being. Without her permission, no one can enter this barrier. If someone could force their way through regardless, they are an enemy far beyond our power to handle."
At Kiji's words, the sound of everyone in the room swallowing hard could be heard.
"If they were that overwhelmingly powerful, they wouldn't have needed to abduct Char; they could have just broken in by force and achieved their objective. Since they didn't, it's safe to assume the purpose behind taking Char lies elsewhere."
As I spoke, Kiji, who had been brooding with his arms crossed, turned toward me.
"Gil, what are your thoughts?"
He asked with a grave expression.
"I believe whoever abducted Char and the scout are from different factions. The sheer finesse of the abduction doesn't match the scout's clumsy amateurism at all. If so, our only option right now is to repel the main force of bandits behind the scout. Searching for Char will have to wait until after that."
I said as much, but given the uncanny timing, I couldn't believe Char's kidnapping and the bandit raid were entirely unrelated either. It was just my intuition, but whoever took Char was far more dangerous and sinister than the bandits currently setting their sights on this village.
That was precisely why, in a sense, there was a silver lining. If whoever took Char wanted the village destroyed, they wouldn't have bothered with such a roundabout scheme; they would have wiped it out long ago.
Well, even if their true motive remained a mystery, it wasn't the annihilation of this settlement. At least, that was my gut feeling.
"Lord Kiji, is that truly our only choice?"
The old woman asked Kiji, an anxious look on her face.
"Yes. Perhaps this is a trial from our guardian deity, Lord Cait Sith. In any case, as long as Ket Nya is in their crosshairs, we have no other options. We simply have to do it."
Good. Kiji had skillfully rallied them under the banner of their guardian deity. The hesitation vanished from the faces of everyone present. With this, we could finally move forward.
"Lord Giji, what would you have us do?"
In response to the old woman's question on behalf of the assembly,
"I will now explain the full strategy. I need each of you to divide the tasks and carry them out."
Giji laid out the plan we had discussed beforehand to wipe out the bandits.
At that moment, my intuition regarding Char's abductor hit the mark brilliantly. Though, finding out the truth of it would not happen until several months later.