Reincarnated with the Country System

Kain leaned toward Raihan, his voice low. "Do we stop this?"

Raihan looked at him, brow slightly raised. "Stop what?"

"This… the villagers calling us angels."

Raihan gave a tired shrug. "Why? Let them believe. If it gives them hope—let them call us angels."

Kain grunted. "Hope's fragile. So is belief."

"Even so," Raihan said, "it's not ours to break."

"Huh.... ok"

Kain then looked at the village elder and said.

"What about your cattle that escaped?"

The elder sighed. "More than half ran off during the night attack. But… many have returned on their own. And we've sent some strong young ones to gather the rest."

Kain nodded. "That's good. It means you won't starve. At least not right away."

"We'll survive," the elder said. "Thanks to you."

Raihan adjusted the strap on his shoulder. "Then I think it's time we move on."

The elder blinked. "You're leaving?"

"Yes," Kain said. "We need to find the origin of those things—the Ravagers. Maybe we'll find a way to get back to our own world. Maybe not. But either way… we can't stay here."

"You will walk toward that cursed place?" The elder sounded genuinely concerned. "People say it's death to go there."

Kain gave a small smirk. "We're used to death."

"And besides," Raihan added, "it's better to die fighting than wait around and die slowly."

The elder lowered his head. "Still… thank you. You've done more than we expected. You saved what's left of us."

"We already cleared the Ravagers from the village," Kain said. "And the mass burial is finished. You're safe for now. If you need shelter, you can use the camp we built just outside the forest. There's some food left—animals we hunted."

The elder nodded, though he still looked uneasy. "You've done so much… I only wish we could give more in return."

Raihan was about to wave the man off, but the elder turned back to the villagers and called out.

"Dara! Elmin! Bring what's left of the supplies!"

Few moments later — Two villagers jogged over—one carrying a small wicker basket, the other a sack stitched together from old blankets. They placed the items down gently before the soldiers.

"These are what we managed to save from the storehouse," the elder explained. "Dried fruits. Roots. A few strips of meat we smoked after the last hunt. Not much. But it will help… until you find better."

This time, Raihan took it without protest. "We'll use it well. Thank you"

Kain crouched near the supplies, checking through their contents briefly. It wasn't much—barely enough to keep all of them going for more than two days—but it was better than nothing.

A little girl, no older than seven, stepped forward from the crowd. She held out a single wildflower, dirty and half-wilted.

Elara knelt down and took it with both hands. "Thank you," she whispered.

The girl stared up at her. "Are you really from Heaven?"

Elara smiled, though it was a sad one. "Something like that."

The child hesitated, then whispered, "If you go back to the sky… tell my father I love him. He was taken when the Ravagers came."

Elara's eyes flickered. Her voice was steady, but low. "I will."

The villagers bowed their heads as the group turned to leave. Some whispered blessings. Others just watched in silence. No one cheered. This wasn't a victory—it was survival.

Then the village elder ran towards them holding out a folded piece of parchment.

"It's not much of a map," he said,

"But it shows the old roads and forest trails—before the land twisted. It might help you find your way."

Kain accepted it with a nod.

"It helps more than you know."

.....★★★

They had twenty-seven people now

Twelve from the Holy Empire—Paladins and Lightbringers, still wearing dented armor and stained tabards. And fifteen from the Bernardian Empire—Exo Knights in powered suits, and ISSD operatives with visors and rifles that shimmered in the daylight.

All were worn down, but still strong. Veterans of other world.

Kain looked over them one last time. "You all know the plan. We move north. Carefully. We're looking for a rift, a source, a trace of where the Ravagers came from. We do not engage unless necessary. And if we die—"

"We die together," Raihan finished.

There were no cheers, no shouts. Just silent nods.

Kain pulled out the parchment the elder had given him. The old map was rough—hand-drawn. He unfolded it across a flat rock.

"This is all we've got," he said.

"The elder marked the old road north."

Raihan crouched beside him, scanning the rough lines and faded script.

"Looks like it was drawn before the land turned. Might not match what we see."

"Doesn't matter," Kain said.

"It gives us a direction. The corruption's spreading from somewhere up there. We'll find the source eventually."

"We always do."

Kain took the lead.

The road north was quiet at first.

Tall trees cast long shadows across the dirt path, and strange birds—creatures none of them recognized—fluttered overhead.

The forest was colder now. The deeper they went, the more unnatural it felt. Moss grew in symmetrical patterns. Tree trunks split open like wounds. Faint static occasionally crackled in the air, just beyond hearing.

About an hour in, they passed the remnants of a wagon.

The front was half-crushed, claw marks running deep through the wood. Blood had long since dried around the wheels, turning black. A broken wheel lay discarded a few meters away, snapped like brittle bone.

Solas knelt beside the wreck. "This wasn't long ago. Maybe a week."

"There's no body," Elara said.

"Dragged off," Kain guessed. "Or eaten."

He scanned the horizon. "Keep moving. Eyes up."

The deeper they went, the more signs they found—old battlefields overgrown, shattered weapons of metal and bone, abandoned camps with empty bedrolls and strange symbols carved into the stones.

At one point, they passed a tree with something hanging from it.

At first, they thought it was a corpse. But as they neared, they saw it was a shell—an empty skin, split open and left like a warning.

"What the hell did this?" whispered one of the Exo Knights.

"No idea," Kain said. "But I don't want to meet it."

When the sun began to set, they decided to set up camp— it's under a rocky overhang beside a dry riverbed.

Raihan sat with Solas and Elara while Kain reviewed the map with the ISSD officers.

"We're about halfway," Elara said, looking north. "Based on the terrain and how the land's twisted… we're getting closer."