The door burst open, revealing Captain Valerius flanked by four guards. His face was flushed with anger.
"Another attack," he snarled, striding into the cell. "An entire monastery—thirty-two monks, dead. Their bodies... transformed." He grabbed Kazuki by the shirt, hauling him to his feet. "What did your cult do to them? What disease is this?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kazuki protested, wincing as the captain's armored glove dug into his collarbone.
"Captain!" Reina's voice cracked like a whip. "Unhand him immediately. By order of the Archduke, this prisoner is under my authority until dawn."
Valerius didn't release Kazuki, but his grip loosened slightly. "The Archduke has left for the monastery with his personal guard. In his absence, the safety of the castle falls to me."
"And the prisoner falls to me," Reina countered, drawing herself up. Though considerably shorter than the captain, she radiated authority. "Unless you wish to explain to His Grace how you disrupted a critical magical examination that might have provided answers about these attacks?"
For a tense moment, Kazuki thought Valerius might strike her. Then, with visible restraint, the captain released him, shoving him back onto the pallet. "Dawn," Valerius growled. "Not a moment later." He stalked from the cell, his guards following.
When they were gone, Reina knelt beside Kazuki, checking his collarbone with gentle fingers. "Bruised, not broken," she assessed.
"Thank you," Kazuki said quietly. "You didn't have to defend me."
"It wasn't entirely altruistic," she replied, her hands still resting lightly on his shoulder. "The timing of these attacks is suspicious, yes, but your blood test revealed something far more significant than I can explain to someone like Valerius." She lowered her voice further. "There's more going on here than a simple cult causing disease."
"The Masked Ones—who are they exactly?" Kazuki asked.
Reina hesitated, then sat beside him on the pallet. "They appeared six months ago, after the first corruption event in the northern province. At first, they seemed like typical doomsayers, proclaiming the end times, wearing concealing robes and carved wooden masks." Her expression darkened. "But then they began to demonstrate actual power—creating diseases that transform their victims' bodies in ways that defy natural law."
"Transform how?"
"Organs rearranged. Bone structures altered. In some cases, victims developed entirely new anatomical features before death." She shuddered slightly. "As a physician, I've never seen anything like it. The magic involved is sophisticated and precise—almost surgical in its application."
The description triggered something in Kazuki's fragmented memory—laboratory notes describing cellular transformation, genetic restructuring. But the context remained frustratingly out of reach.
"The attacks have been increasing in frequency and scale," Reina continued. "First isolated farms, then small villages, now a monastery. Always the same pattern—everyone dead, their bodies transformed. No survivors, no witnesses."
"And they think I'm connected because of how I arrived?"
"The attacks have been increasing in frequency and scale," Reina continued. "First isolated farms, then small villages, now a monastery. Always the same pattern—everyone dead, their bodies transformed. No survivors, no witnesses."
"And they think I'm connected because of how I arrived?"
"That, and the timing. A message intercepted two weeks ago spoke of an 'arrival' that would help them 'complete the transformation.' Three days ago, you appeared in a flash of blue light in the middle of the Spring Festival." She offered a grim smile. "You must admit, it's suspicious."