Keiser tore a bite from the slab of meat the princess had pressed into his hands. It was still warm, smoky, the juices running down his palm, but his attention wasn't on the taste. His eyes wandered instead, scanning the cavern around them.
Families huddled together over bowls of thin stew, children clutching at worn blankets, men and women speaking in hushed tones. Their faces carried the same mixture of weariness and relief -- as though survival itself was a fragile privilege.
The princess' words lingered in his ears. The villagers believed the Forest of Sheol had cursed them, that it was stealing their people.
Keiser almost scoffed aloud. He swallowed hard, shaking his head as he chewed. "Ridiculous," he muttered, finally glancing at her.
"It's obvious why. They're outside the protective sigils of their village. They weren't cursed, just careless. No markers, no wards on the road. What did they think would happen, wandering near Sheol? beast stalk those woods. Always have."
His tone was blunt, almost dismissive, but the princess only lowered her gaze, her fingers absently tracing the hilt of the blades resting across her knees. Then she shook her head.
"They know that." Her voice was quiet, calm. Too calm. "But you didn't notice, did you? Out there… there were no beasts outside their village."
Keiser frowned, about to argue -- then stopped. A memory stirred. The chase. The utter chaos. Her quick fingers stealing from Lenko and him, dragging them all into the wilderness in a fury of shouted threats and blundering pursuit. And then--
He blinked. "How about the corvus? Those are beast."
"Yes."
The word sat heavy between them.
Corvus -- winged scavenger-beasts. Filthy, opportunistic things that lurked on the fringes of settlements, preying only on the weak, or circling over the already-dead. Keiser remembered the flurry of black wings, the harsh cries, the way they had swooped down on them. At the time, he hadn't thought twice about it.
But now…
His jaw tightened. Corvus only gather where death lingers, or where it will soon. They had no business appearing so low, so near to Hinnom. And they certainly should not have been the only threat.
"There are worse things in Sheol than those birds," he said, quieter this time. "Strong enough to shred through walls, not just wander in scavenger flocks. But…" His words trailed off as the realization settled in.
Yet that was all they had seen. No claws in the dark. No eyes glowing in the brush. No roars echoing from the treeline. Just corvus. Just scavengers.
She let out a sharp huff, as though exasperated he had only just caught up. Her eyes narrowed on him, carrying that 'finally, you understand' look.
"There's no beast around the village. Not on the road leading to Sheol."
Her gaze shifted toward the huddled figures in the cavern-- men, women, and children who should have been nothing more than whispered names among the missing. They murmured quietly among themselves, grateful but subdued. Now that they had something to eat and calm down, they look as if the weight of survival pressed too heavily on their shoulders. The princess's jaw tightened, and she flicked her eyes back to Keiser.
"Those beast that should have been tearing through the outskirts, the ones you expected us to fight on the way? They're not gone. They're stuck somewhere. They're being pushed somewhere else." She paused, each word falling heavier than the last. "And they're pouring out the other end of the wood. The road to the capital."
Keiser's brow furrowed, a protest forming on his tongue, but the princess's voice cut through the thought like a blade.
"The people of Hinnom can't leave their village. They can't just waltz into Sheol's barren lands -- nothing but monsters wait there." Her hand tightened around the chunk of meat she had been eating. "So they thought of a way. I watched them plan. I watched them do it."
Her words grew sharper, faster, as if confessing something she had carried too long.
"They lured the beasts. Distracted them. Made sure the road to Hinnom would stay clear, so their walls wouldn't drown in teeth and claws. They've done everything they could to keep their people breathing."
She placed her food down with a dull thud, gritting her teeth. Her next words were low, almost bitter.
"And the price was simple." Her eyes flicked back to the gathered crowd, then to Keiser. "The beasts had to have something to eat. On the other end."
He cast her a sidelong glance,. While her voice carrying an edge of scorn as she continues.
"What do you think they would do? They can't leave this place. The only road leads straight into Sheol, and the other paths -- the ones toward the neighboring villages -- are swarmed. Beasts starved enough to linger near the main road, circling like vultures. If the caravans stop, so do the supplies. No more grain. No more medicine. Nothing from the other villages makes it here. They'd starve long before the beast broke through their walls."
Keiser lowered what little was left of his meal -- only bone and gristle remained. His appetite was gone but he still managed to finish it. His eyes drifted then to the villagers huddled together, sharing food with the weariness of people who had lived too long on fear and desperation.
And then to Lenko.
The boy laughed as he moved among them, cutting meat for the elderly, passing water to the children. So unshaken. So familiar with them. Lenko had been on the village before -- buying supplies while he and Muzio had hidden.
Keiser's stomach twisted.
Did he notice? Did he know? Or worse… had they marked him? Had they watched him, weighed him, decided already that he too could be offered up when the beasts came prowling?
The princess's voice drew him back, sharp and deliberate.
"The people made their choice. To them, it was the worst option -- but also the best. They took the outsiders and used them as bait. That was the only way, so that the road to Hinnom stayed clear."
Keiser turned his head, frowning at her. "And you let them?"
She did not flinch. "I gave them a way to choose. That's all. A way to decide without pushing it to something far worse."
"How," he pressed, his voice low, "does that even help? Letting them choose that option, because it's the only way?"
She scoffed, lips curling in a humorless smile. "Think about it. This wasn't some clever invention of mine. It was their plan, and it worked. At first, they chose their own as bait. Their kin. Their neighbors. Then they realized they could use strangers instead. People passing through. People who wouldn't stay. Easier, cleaner, and no blood of their own."
Her head tilted slightly, eyes glinting.
"But if they discovered that their bait -- their sacrifice -- had been saved? What then? What else would they think of? They started by offering their own, Muzio. And if they could do that, if they could hand over children, elders, mothers, fathers…" Her gaze hardened as it met his.
"What else do you think they're capable of, when the next options comes?"
Keiser hummed low in his throat, a bitter sound.
"Did you at least try to stop it from happening at all? Instead of just--"
Her glare cut him short, sharp enough to silence the rest of his accusation.
"I did," she snapped. "I tried to stop outsiders from coming here in the first place. Just like I did with you two. Why do you think I tried to pickpocket? To make people like you leave and never stepped foot near Hinnom, before you could be swept into their cycle of sacrifice."
"I spread rumors, too. Made this place sound cursed, unapproachable. Dangerous enough that most travelers would think twice before setting foot anywhere near it. And still--" she gestured toward the weary crowd around them, "--they come."
Her tone shifted, the anger thinning into something harsher, resigned.
"Most are merchants. Some drag their families with them, thinking to sell wares in Hinnom where adventurers spend coin like water. You know how they are--adventurers thrive there. The monsters, the resources, the coin to be made. Subjugation quests, beast hides--opulence bought from slaughter."
"And where mercenaries thrive, families follow. Some come to visit, some to profit. And the villagers… the villagers keep quiet. To strangers, they smile and say nothing. They let them walk the road. Let them take the risk. Even mercenaries themselves sometimes post quests to guild halls in other towns, drawing more outsiders here. All those roads still leads to Hinnom., after all."
Keiser's fist clenched tight on his knee, knuckles paling. His voice was hard.
"For a year? This has been happening?"
The princess shook her head slowly.
"No. It was gradual. One step at a time. A choice here, a silence there. What began as panic became habit. Then habit became order. And in time, they solidified it into something they no longer questioned. This is how it always happens. Not in a day, not in a single decision, but in a string of compromises until... it just feels ordinary to them."
She leaned back, her expression unreadable, her voice quieter now.
"And it's not as if I could solve the beast surge on the road to Hinnom. I have no throngs of knights. Not enough mana to drive them back. So I had to think of something else. A way to save some of them. That was all I could do."
Princess Yona glanced at the patch of sky visible through the cave's opening.
"And still, it was never enough."