That evening, Myatt first told his daughter Sally a few bedtime stories. After the little girl fell asleep, Myatt leaned a longsword against the headboard and placed a dagger under his pillow.
He also checked if his door was locked and hung a cup on the doorknob so that if anyone tried to open the door, he would be awakened.
After doing all this, Myatt was about to return to bed to rest, but before he had gone too far from the door, he suddenly heard footsteps coming from the corridor.
Myatt's nerves immediately tensed. He slowed his movements, carefully lay down on the floor, and tried to peek at the situation outside through the bottom crack of the door.
But besides seeing a faint yellow light and standard military boots, he couldn't even clearly see how many people there were. However, this didn't prevent him from hearing the footsteps stop next to his room.
The room next door was the residence of two accompanying priests. Why would someone be looking for them in the middle of the night? Myatt moved his body and pressed his ear against the wall, hearing the sound of a door opening from the other side.
"Who is it…?"
One of the two priests was older and a light sleeper. This small movement seemed to have woken him up, but as the question sounded, Myatt heard a burst of accelerating footsteps, followed by the old priest's muffled cries as his mouth was covered, and the dull thud of a blade entering flesh.
"Drip!"
There was the sound of some liquid dripping and sliding down the wall. Myatt's heart tightened—this was clearly the sound of blood dripping onto the ground.
His expression suddenly turned to horror. He carefully moved back from the wall, sat by the bed, protected his daughter with one hand, and gripped the longsword with the other, staring nervously at his door, terrified that someone would break in.
The movement in the corridor didn't stop. This time, Myatt could more clearly hear something being dragged, and footsteps that were heavier than when they arrived. The sound moved further and further away from his room, then abruptly stopped.
"Thump, thump, thump!"
One of the footsteps quickly returned. This time, it stopped in front of Myatt's door.
"Knock, knock, knock!"
"Doctor Myatt, are you asleep?" A very young voice came from outside the door. Myatt remembered it was the voice of Corporal Erwin, who had come to him for treatment not long ago.
Myatt initially didn't want to answer, pretending to be asleep, but the kerosene lamp in his room hadn't been extinguished, and the light leaking through the door crack must have attracted the "person" outside the door.
So Myatt forced himself not to let his voice tremble. He walked to the door and whispered, "Who is it? My daughter just fell asleep, please don't speak so loudly."
Colonel Erwin outside the door also politely lowered his voice. "I'm sorry, Doctor Myatt, I truly apologize for disturbing you. I am Colonel Erwin. I wanted to ask if you heard any strange noises. Perhaps a wild cat or something similar ran into the doctors' quarters just now."
"No, I was just telling my daughter a bedtime story, I didn't notice any animal sounds," Myatt quickly replied.
"Then I truly apologize for disturbing you. I hope I haven't woken your daughter. If you see that little cat, please tell the guards outside, and we will catch him. Good night, Doctor Myatt."
"You've worked hard."
After confirming that the people at the door had left, Myatt let out a long sigh of relief. The clothes on his back were soaked with sweat.
If what happened earlier was just Myatt's speculation, then everything that just occurred strongly indicated a problem.
Sitting by the bed, Myatt's mind was in a turmoil, unsure of the situation in the camp. Were these strange soldiers only a small portion, or was it…
Myatt, who had been in the military for nearly ten years, was now in a state of complete mental shutdown. The safe camp had very likely become the most dangerous place, and even if he escaped with his daughter, the surrounding mountains and forests were full of hidden dangers.
An emotion called despair began to creep into Myatt's heart, but when he saw his daughter's sleeping face, he forcibly suppressed this pessimistic mindset—he absolutely could not lose hope, otherwise there would truly be no way out.
Myatt took several deep breaths in a row and used basic Holy Light magic to soothe his mind, trying to calm down again.
"I must escape… not just for Sally, but also to inform the outside world about the situation here!"
He didn't know how many people in the camp had turned into monsters, but recalling the previous events and the strange commander Wesley, Myatt prepared for the worst.
"Why would these guys assassinate the priests in the middle of the night?"
What was the difference between priests and ordinary soldiers? Myatt could only think of one answer: they were protected by Holy Light and could use its power.
In other words, that influence couldn't directly corrupt priests protected by Holy Light. Perhaps this was why he and little Sally hadn't joined them?
And because he wasn't a priest in the true sense, and not as much of an eyesore as they were, he managed to escape this evening?
Myatt suddenly felt that his guess was very likely true, which meant that Sassarian, who had only joined this camp a few days ago, was probably the most likely person to still be normal!
But this also precisely indicated that he and Sally were already in danger. Perhaps by tomorrow night, or even the latter half of tonight, they would come and casually eliminate him, this "outsider."
However, the doctors' and priests' quarters were some distance from the soldiers' barracks, and Myatt had no confidence at all that he could bypass the guards at the entrance and the patrolling sentries to find that new recruit.
This made him anxious. Was he just going to sit in the room and wait for death?
"Thump thump!"
The familiar knocking made Myatt's heart skip a beat. He quickly gripped his longsword and stared intently at the window by the desk, from where the sound was coming.
Myatt swallowed, wiped the sweat from his palms, gripped the hilt of his sword tightly with both hands, and edged towards the window.
"Myatt, it's me! Sassarian!" A very low voice came from the window.
This made the doctor pause, but he did not relax his guard. If Sassarian was also one of them, or if someone was impersonating him, he and Sally would surely die.
Sassarian didn't hear any movement from inside the room. His heart stirred, and he thought of something. He lowered his voice and said, "This afternoon, at the logistics firewood cutting area, two cigars."
Myatt pondered for a moment, then decided to open the window.
Sassarian agilely climbed in. He was wearing a thin, coarse cloth tunic, and his boots were covered in mud. After entering the room, he quickly and quietly closed the window.
Looking at Myatt, who was holding a longsword and staring at him vigilantly, Sassarian gave a bitter smile, "I'm normal, not one of those monsters."
"You saw it too?" Hearing Sassarian's words, and noticing that he wasn't carrying any weapons, Myatt finally completely relaxed.
Sassarian shook his head, "I didn't see it, I smelled blood."
"I remember it's not your turn for night duty today. How did you get here?"
"It's true it's not my night duty today. I was planning to sleep—but there was a damn cat meowing outside, so I decided to go chase him away." Sassarian's expression was grave. "But as soon as I walked out of my room, I felt something was wrong."
"What is it?"
"I was too slow. Only after I walked out of the room did I realize that the entire forest was eerily silent. Where was the cat's meow? And then, I smelled a scent of blood."
Sassarian still seemed incredulous about what he had just seen. His expression and words carried clear shock. "While hiding in the bushes, I saw Erwin and them… gnawing on something."
"Ugh!" Myatt, understanding what "something" referred to, imagined the scene, and an inexplicable wave of nausea surged through him. Even as a field medic accustomed to bloody scenes, the thought of such an image still made him dry heave uncontrollably.
"I think you're right, something really is wrong with the camp. It's no longer safe here."
Sassarian had gone to great lengths to bypass Erwin and the patrolling soldiers. To avoid disturbing the gate guards, he had no choice but to climb to the window of Myatt's room and gently tap on it.
"What do we do now?" Myatt asked. After all, Sassarian surely knew more about combat and breaking out than he did.
"I don't have armor or weapons on me; escaping unarmed is impossible," Sassarian said solemnly. If he were alone, he might have a chance to sneak out, but with Myatt and his daughter, it would be impossible to avoid alerting the guards.
"I have a spare set of leather armor in my storage box. As for weapons… do you know how to use a greatsword?"
Myatt's gaze drifted to a greatsword hanging on the wall nearby. The weapon was too heavy for him; it was purely decorative in the room.
"Although I'd prefer not to use heavy weapons, it seems better than nothing right now."