(A/N: LMAO HOW'D YALL LIKE THAT CLIFFHANGER? YOU DIDN'T? TOO BAD EHEHEH!!! tbh yall are lucky I'm having so much fun with this so I have the energy to update daily ALTHOUGH THAT ENDING WAS 100% ON PURPOSE EVEN THO I COULD'VE CONTINUED MWAHAHAH (...)

Honestly the rest of the goldy pond arc is going to be a tad difficult bc its a lot of ad-libbing on my part but oH WELL. (Yeah, thanks for that. I'll make it work tho. -Anna)

ALSO THE NEW COVER YALL HAVE PROBABLY ADMIRED IS BY thefricksidontgive AND ITS AMAZING, IKR??? LIKE ITS SO PRETTY HOW DID SHE DO THATTT- (7 cups of coffee and cat video compilations to scare away my crippling depression -Anna.) anywayz moving on Anna is now a co-author of the story as she's already been helping me with ideas and editing!(You should mention anything even remotely funny was written by me. -Anna) She has access to my acc and stuff now but tbh u probably can't tell the difference between us bc we share the exact same energy. ★(,,･ε'-,,)⌒☆ (You know it~~~~ -also Anna)

ALSO 1.3K READS??? OMG HOW?? AND I LOVE ALL OF U SM. (Because   I̶'̶m̶ ̶p̶r̶a̶c̶t̶i̶c̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶I am the one carrying this masterpiece, obv. -You know who.)

Welp, now that that obnoxiously long author's note is over, mOVING ON WITH THE STORY- HAPPY READING MY CHILDREN

(Lmao good luck to all of you trying to read that with all my edits. -yeah.))

// RAY's POV //

My eyes slowly opened as I regained consciousness. The moment I remembered what occurred at the last point in my memory I sat up. Looking around quickly I saw I was alone. There was a line of houses and trimmed trees bearing fruit. Balloons hung from multiple houses and a large windmill peeked above the houses.

"What the hell?-" I murmured, pushing myself off the ground and onto my feet. "Where...am I?" All of a sudden I remembered who was with me last. "Y/N!" I shouted, looking around myself, but found the albino girl nowhere to be seen. "Sh*t!" I cussed, looking around myself frantically once more as if she'd suddenly be rounding the corner, saying something stupid again.  But she didn't seem to be anywhere nearby.

'Maybe she just woke up earlier and decided to look around...' I hoped as I began searching the eerily quiet village.

// Y/N's POV //

I shot up as soon as I awoke. "Sh*t!" I exclaimed, rubbing the back of my head angrily. "Of course the poachers would go for the two children standing stupidly close together over the one standing close to a dangerous adult! What the hell was I thinking!" I shoved my palm into the side of my head as if hoping I could smack the stupidity out of my brain.

"And now what?" I muttered. I suddenly realized that Ray was no where to be seen. And that triggered me to frantically check my belt for my weapons. "UGH F*CK!" I exclaimed, finding that all of my weapons, including the throwing knife Sonju gave me missing. "Oh sh*t" I paled, then looking frantically for Mujika's amulet. I found it, fortunately, on the inside of my jacket, per usual. I collapsed on the ground in relief. I then looked through my other pocket and thankfully found my pen safe and sound.

"Awh jeez!" I exclaimed, standing up on my feet once again. The first thing I wanted to do was locate Violet and follow Emma's actions as closely as I could from the manga, but now I had to find Ray- who was not only without a pen but also extremely scary when... well, scared.

"Where would he go..." I muttered before my eyes landed on the windmill peeking above the houses. "Killing two birds with one stone!" I sighed, deciding to go for the obvious landmark.

I arrived at the windmill and looked around frantically. "RAY!" I called, turning around the corner, and colliding with someone head-on. "Ray?" I asked, wincing as I grabbed my head, looking up. Fortunately, it was Ray himself. I saw worry visibly recede on his face as he lent me a hand to stand up.

"Where are we?" He asked first, still looking around apprehensively. I hummed.

"I'm not sure..." I blatantly lied. Then I got an idea. In the manga, Violet was watching Emma closely, so... "But it's likely got something to do with the POACHERS and the DEMONS!" I said louder than necessary. Ray gave me a 'you don't say.' and 'what are you doing?' look but I hushed him with a glance.

Sure enough, Violet came walking from behind the cover of a nearby house. "I knew it. You two know about the plants...about them." Violet stated, coming to a stop in front of us.

"Did you know she was there?-" Ray asked, but I hushed him quickly.

"Where is this place?" I asked- although for Ray's sake, not for my own. At that moment, a horrific loud, screeching, inharmonious chorus of instruments started blasting through the speakers. I winced and covered my ears.

"This isn't one of the farms. It's a secret garden... the private property of an aristocrat named Lord Baron." Violet began explaining. "You, me, all the kids here... The only reason why we're still alive is for them to hunt us." Ray gave me a look of concern for our safety and I pursed my lips in worry. Could we pull off what Emma did? No- at this point, it's not a question of 'can we', its simply a fact- we need to. "The farms don't know about this place." Violet explained further. "It's a hidden playground."

"All the kids?" Ray asked. "There's more?" He looked for Violet to confirm.

"They're all just innocent newbies. "Once a month they replace all those who've been eaten." Violet was nearing the end of her explanation when a blood-curdling scream suddenly echoed through the air.

'There it is!!' I thought, dashing in the direction it came from.

"Oi Y/N-!! Where are you going?!" Ray yelled, running after me quickly.

"Wait-!!" Violet called after the two of us.

I arrived on the scene just as expected. I'd, quite fortunately, found the ax Emma had likely grabbed leaning against a small shack on my way.

Running passed the older brother of the two children, I hurled the ax at Luce's face. "RUN!" I yelled loudly. Ray immediately saw what I was doing and helped usher the kids all into the same direction. Before I could see whether Leuvis blocked the ax I turned on my heels and dashed as fast as I could, trying to catch up with Ray and the other's.

Thanks to my speed abilities, I caught up rather quickly. After a little while of running Ray signalled for us to stop running. I took a deep breath and raised my hand for silence. The other kids attempted to quiet their heavy panting. I listened to the wind in the trees for a moment before pressing my ear to the ground. Satisfied that I heard no pursuers I stood back up.

"Idiots!" Violet yelled, smacking me upside the head. "When I thought you were making a run for it, all of a sudden... turns out you were just helping some kids you don't even know!!! Are you stupid??!" She inquired loudly.

"I-"  I began but was cut off quite quickly.

"Yes." Ray answered for me with a sigh. "But seriously, what were you thinking? You're not Emma, so what are you doing leaping into dangerous situations for the people you don't know?"

"You even had to go and get the worst of them too..." Violet spoke grimly. "That one is no laughing matter... that one with the hat..."

"Well-" I began, but Ray flat-out ignored me and talked to Violet, deciding to ask the questions that were most on his mind.

"Say, those demons- er, monsters who come to these...grounds... are they always the same ones?" He asked the purple-haired girl.

"Yes, but why?" Violet asked, her attention now directed to the raven-haired boy.

"How many?" Ray inquired further.

"Five. Not counting 'The Attendants'. " Violet responded, still confused of the reason for this conversation. I looked between them a bit offended. I can be smart too!! Stop ignoring my very existence!! I have super-Norman-genetics! Hopefully the one's that don't involve resorting to logical mass-murder and extinction based on race as a quick-fix to all my problems, though...! Hell, if that was true, then all the Karen's would've been purged from Earth long ago! On second thought, maybe logical mass-murder is a gene we need more of in the world... (For legal reasons, this is a joke -Anna)

"And humans?" Ray asked, the gears in his brain working. I began resorting to making weird faces at the two children as they conversed.

"Usually 50 or so... right now it should be about that number..." Violet continued, when the two kids looked to me all the sudden and caught me mid-weird face. They both blinked and paused for a moment before continuing to ignore me.

"...Do they come to hunt every day?" Ray continued asking. I gave up on my weird faces and just decided to listen like a n̶o̶r̶m̶a̶l̶ boring person. 

"No, once about every 3 days... But never mind that!" Violet said quickly, breaking off of her game of question-and-answer with Ray. "We don't have time to fool around!" She said quickly, looking between Ray and I. "We really should get away right now and find a place to hide. Even if they're not tracking us now, they will be soon enough. And other monsters could also spot us and come-"

Ray nodded in agreement but I looked back to the 3 other kids in worry. At this rate... that little boy was about to lose 2 of his siblings.

"Don't worry about us!" He said, clutching his arm, his pale and sweaty face betraying his words. "Go, go! We can deal with this! And thanks... thanks you three! You really put your lives on the line to save us..." He looked oh so grateful but was practically trembling in fear at the same time. It reminded me of Norman during the anime, willing to do everything in his power to help those who saved him- but at the same time, the one most afraid of dying.  "I can run just fine already! Only gotta rest for a little bit then I can go. It's okay, so...-"

"No." I stated, cutting him off cleanly.

"Wha- Y/N?!" Both Violet and Ray exclaimed. "There's no need to be reckless-!!"

"I'm not being reckless." I lied, my face serious and cold. "I have a plan."

(A/N: Sorry this chapter was a bit bland! Next chapter will be released later to day and hopefully be a bit more...entertaining?) (... rude. I try. -sleepdeprivedanime-addict2)