60 This Hero and The Sorrow!

Our feet dragged across the grass floor of the forest as we moved back towards the village of Mulbik. We carried heavy news with us as we walked. Unlike our prior walks together, there was no cheer this time. Tael and Kany were not exchanging banter. Erana and I were not making any small talk. We simply put one foot in front of the other as we continued onwards towards our destination.

After walking for an hour under the canopy of trees, the sky opened up to reveal the sunlight. We had finally emerged from the forest. The small shack that had belonged to Rena was there to greet us as we approached the outskirts of the village.

"Well… At least we made it back in one piece." Tael broke the silence around us. His statement seemed to open the floodgates.

"Yeah. It's best to appreciate what you have after all!" Kany gave a weak smile and nodded her head.

We approached the small shack and stopped next to the window. Erana crouched down towards the ground and placed her hand upon where one of the indentations of a footstep were.

"I'm sorry, Rena-san. We've avenged you. I hope you can find solace in that." I could hear her whisper. Erana then placed her hands together in a form of prayer for a moment before slowly rising back up off the ground. Her eyes were filled with a confident determination as she began to walk forward once more.

"Come on. We need to tell Yasri-san what happened." She declared.

"O-Okay!" I replied. Since when was Erana calling the shots?

The rest of our party quickly followed as we walked away from the small shack that was once the aspiring idols home and stepped back onto the dirt path. We had a newfound energy in our steps as we walked forward towards our destination.

It didn't take long for us to arrive at the mossy wooden home that belonged to the Linxy named Yasri. Erana approached the front door and knocked hard.

"Excuse me, Yasri-san? Are you home?" She loudly shouted towards the door.

We waited for a few moments and the door quickly opened. The cat woman named Yasri was standing in front of the door, completely naked. I was the only one that was bothered by this it seems as everyone else seemed to take this in stride.

"Ah, you have come. What has happened? Have you found the missing people?" She peered deeply into Erana's eyes as she asked this question.

"A-Ah… Um… you see…" Erana began. It seems like she's flubbing this at the last moment. I stepped forward to save face.

"I'm sorry, Yasri-san. Can we please come in and sit down again? We don't need tea, but it would be best if we inform you of what's happened." I said.

Surprised by my sudden authoritative attitude, Erana backed down and Yasri stared directly at me. I could feel her feline gaze as she peered directly into my eyes. It was as if my very soul was being looked at.

We took her up on her invitation and walked inside. Vasha the cat ran up to Kany immediately. The two seemed to like one another very much as Kany immediately picked her up to start petting her. The rest of us walked up to the sofa that we had previously sat upon and took our respective places.

"So… What have you discovered?" Yasri asked us.

Erana, Tael, and I looked at each other as if to ask "who will tell her?" Kany on the other hand was too busy petting the cat once more to be of any use. We sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment as we waited for someone to say something. When it became evident that nobody was going to say something, I decided to take the initiative.

"We've discovered quite a few things, so I'll start from the beginning." I declared as I gripped my knees. I could hear the metal of my leg armor squeak a little bit under my strength.

Yasri merely stared at me deeply. I could feel the tension of the room.

"To begin with, we have reason to believe that Rena, the girl that performed at the inn every night, is at least partially responsible for the disappearances recently."

"What? Renya-chan? Why do you say this?"

"It's a few things." Tael cut in. Yasri immediately looked at Tael with her piercing eyes and he seemed to crumble under the pressure. He immediately deferred the talking back to myself.

"T-To explain what Tael was saying, we recently found out that Rena is what is known of as a 'prodigy.'"

"A person that develops levels naturally?" Yasri interjected. I felt a slight twinge of frustration at the fact that a cat lady from the boonies knew about this while I did not.

"Yes. She had developed at least a single level in the bard class. She showed me this last night at the inn."

"Alright, but why does this matter?"

"We believe that she was using her level in bard to mind control people." I declared.

"Huh? How would that work?"

"The people that disappeared all frequented the inn. Rena performed there every night for the past month." I began to explain the reasoning.

"Well, most people frequent the inn. It's basically the only place to spend time in this village." Yasri rebutted.

"While that may be true, the correlation is there. Don't worry, there's more."

Yasri leaned back into her seat as she stared into my eyes once more.

"We had suspicions, so we went to Rena's home. From there, we needed to ask her questions, but when we arrived she wasn't home."

"That is understandable though. Her parents went missing a while ago so she must have been searching for them!" Yasri shouted.

"About that, we found her diary." Erana interjected.

"You read the poor girl's diary?" Yasri held a hand… or paw over her mouth in shock.

"I'm sorry, but we had to." I bowed my head to the floor.

I could hear Yasri grumble in response, but it seemed like she eventually accepted our actions.

I raised my head and continued on.

"We learned that Rena met someone named 'Mully' and this person was giving Rena 'invitations.'"

"Hm…" I heard Yasri let out.

"These invitations were given out to only the people at the inn apparently. We don't know what these invitations were, but these are allegedly what led to people disappearing."

"I see. So you need to find Rena-chan?"

"About that…" I began. Yasri tilted her head in response.

"We searched for Rena-san after we found this evidence against her, but we were led to a cave that held a grizzly bear inside. We killed the bear, but we found signs that Rena-san had been killed and eaten by the bear…" Erana butt in.

Silence filled the room after this. Erana doesn't seem to be good at subtlety.

"A-Are you sure…?"

"Yeah… We are. I'm sorry." Tael finally spoke up.

At this point, Kany approached the group again and set Vasha back down.

"Yeah, we knew that it was Rena because her dress from last night was found in the cave." Kany stated matter of factly.

I looked at both of our party members that seemed to be incapable of sugar coating words with a sense of frustration, but I eventually decided that it wasn't worth the time.

"I'm sorry, Yasri-san. This is what we found. None of us wanted this. If you want our evidence, you will find the diary under one of the floorboards in Rena's home." I decided to say.

"...What of the ones that are missing?" Yasri finally asked.

"We don't know where they are, but we'll find them." I quickly replied. I couldn't let all hope be lost after all.

"I see… I hope you will be able to find them. I don't want them to experience the same fates as Rena-chan…"

I could feel the sense of sorrow eek itself into the room. The dark energy filled the space that we were in. It seemed like even Vasha noticed this as she ran off suddenly.

We sat in the silence for a bit of time before Yasri suddenly stood up.

"I will need to inform Miris-san. The inn shall be silent tonyight it seems. Speaking of, you have done a lot of work today. I suppose you shall be turning in for the nyight. I hope that you are able to continyue with your efficiency tomorrow like you did today."

We all bowed our heads in respect.

"Well, I must go. We shall head to the inn from here then. Thank you, adventurers."

We stood up off the sofa and walked towards the thin wooden door as we were escorted outside.

"I'm… sorry it didn't turn out better…" Kany quietly whispered to Yasri.

"...Me too." She quietly replied.