Chapter 22 - Rosemary Village

Jin woke up before the sun rise. He looked at the children and saw that they were still sleeping.

"I guess I'll hunt some animals for food" Jin said as he stood up and patted his clothes. He then walked away and started to looked for animals he could hunt.

After an hour Jin came back with a huge bear on his bear. He looked around and found that the children were still sleeping.

He started to chopped the bear and roasted it's meat.

He looked at the children and clapped his hands while shouting, "Wake up! The food's ready!"

The children woke up because of his loud voice. They rubbed their eyes and sat up. They saw Jin was roasting meat. Although Jin said that he will get them out here they still kind of afraid to him.

"Okay! Stop dilly dallying and eat quickly!" Jin said in a loud voice so that all of them could here him.

He observed them as they eat their food. He couldn't observed yesterday because of darkness. While observing them he saw a familiar figure in the back.

A young girl was eating quietly in the back. She have a shoulder length scarlet hair and was wearing a ragged clothes.

'E-Erza!' Jin was surprised as he focus his eyes to her. He forgot that their village was attack by Zeref's worshipper.

He then stood up and looked around.

'Simon? Where's Kagura?' He saw Simon but he didn't see Kagura. It's only been a day since the attack happened. Kagura wouldn't be able to run away immediately. She's just a child now and didn't have any magic. If he looked for her would be able to find her.

Jin took a deep breath and shouted, "Stand up! We are going now!"

The children didn't have any choice but to follow him.

Jin pointed at Ezra, "You! Come here and lead the way to your village!"

Erza nodded at him and she immediately led him to their village.

"Oi! What's your name?" Jin asked Erza.

"...Erza" Erza said in a low voice.

"I'm Jin, Jin Kakeru!" Jin turned to the children and said, "Remember it! Did you get it!"

The children nodded their heads.

...

They walked for five hours before they arrived in the Rosemary village. The village was now in ruin.

"So this is the village, huh?" Jin murmured while looking at the village.

Corpses of the villager were scattered around the village.

Jin could smell thick blood, smoke, and rust in the whole village. The smell of flesh made Jin frown. It will be bad if the children saw the dead bodies.

He looked at the children and saw them trembling before he said, "Just stay here! Don't enter the village if you're afraid!"

When he was about to enter the village he felt someone tugging his jacket. He turned his head and saw Erza with Simon.

"What do you want?" Jin asked them with a plain expression.

"I want to come along" Erza said as she tightened her gripped at his jacket.

Jin sighed before he looked at Simon and said, "And you?"

"I want to come too" Simon said while looking up at him.

"Okay" Jin nodded as he enter the village. The two followed them while looking around.

"Say who is it? That you want to find" Jin said as he checked the bodies if there's any survivor. If there's any survivor he would be glad because it would help him take care of the children.

"My sister, Kagura" Simon said as he clenched his fist into balls.

Jin looked at Erza and asked, "And you?"

"Kagura" Erza replied in a low voice.

"Okay! Looked around the village and checked if there's any survivor" Jin said to the two. Since they were looking for Kagura why not they also checked if there's any survivor.

Jin walked beside Erza and asked, "How come this Kagura is not with you? From what I see those people kidnap all of the children in this village"

"I let her escape" Erza said in a low voice. She lowered her head and added, "Also thank you for saving us"

Jin looked at her for a while before he said, "Atleast someone thank me for saving them. I save you from those guys and yet you're all scared at me. Am I that scary?"

Erza stay silent.

Knowing that Erza wouldn't say anymore he stood up and said, "Let's go and find this Kagura."

Jin called Simon and leave the village after the checked that there's no survivor.

He sighed in said in his mind, 'I couldn't even find someone to talk in these bunch of children. They didn't even buy it when I joke with them.'