The only reason I hadn’t thought of that was because I was so tired. This time, I pulled out a mana potion and took it. If I drank any more water, I’d definitely throw up. After so many times chugging the waters of life in excess to keep my mana levels up, I was beginning to hate that sweet taste. Maybe I should brew it into a tea or something to give myself some variety.
Of course, Shao was correct. The woman was probably still alive. I glanced at the man who blushed, looking down.
“I’m sorry… I had just hoped. That means… that means…” His hands shook as he spoke, but having only been resurrected an hour or two ago, he just didn’t have the strength to put up any kind of fuss, and thus collapsed helplessly.
It meant that his wife had been captured by the Bandits. She hadn’t been able to kill herself or escape, and now she was likely in some Bandit camp. You didn’t have to use much of an imagination to guess what was going on in there. I had known since the beginning that it’d be impossible to save everyone, but something about the thought of leaving those women to their fate made me feel anger.
After some careful questioning, we had found out that our guess was right and the village had only been raided the previous night. That meant that they had only been kidnapped for the last twenty-four hours, and there was still hope in saving them before anything bad happened to them. Perhaps that was only wishful thinking, but it gave me a sudden surge of strength. I didn’t want to just abandon those people.
A list was quickly compiled and there were about twelve women who were seen being taken from the village. Once we were certain they weren’t among the dead, our only conclusion could be that the Bandits still had them.
“They’re here.” A man who appeared to be the elder of the village pointed at a map I had hastily drawn, which was almost on a par with ones you could find in a shop.
“You’re certain of this?”
He looked away awkwardly. “I’m a Hunter. It’s my job. One woman… I… ahem… marked her… so I always know where she is.”
His face turned red, while a few of the nearby women who overheard started giving him flat looks. It was no wonder he wanted to remain silent about it. Hunters had the ability to target a prey, but to set a woman as your target, it definitely came off bad. Stalking in this world took on a whole new meaning. Then again, I consistently found a certain fairy in my underwear, so I knew all too well how odd stalking could be. I had a feeling if I didn’t have such an open policy with the women in my life, I’d be experiencing more than a few stalkers of my own.
However, this stalker could pinpoint where the woman he liked was on the map. They weren’t particularly far from here. Although Miki and I were tired, I absolutely couldn’t stop here. We had to rescue them tonight!