Chapter 286: The Adventuring Group’s Mystery.

Chapter 286: The Adventuring Group’s Mystery.

Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [OklLuthiers Powers Lv. 4] [Terra Magic Lv. 3] [Storm Magic Lv. 2] [Sword Technique Lv. 8] [Whip Technique Lv. 7] [Crushing Technique Lv. 3] [Enhanced Enemy Sense Lv. 10] gained

Skill requirement fulfilled. [Enhanced Enemy Sense Lv. 10] evolved into [Detection Sensor Lv. 1]

Ability gained: [Ribcage]

Magic gained: [Rumbling Might] [Sylphids Cloak]

Eshreen Village.

That was the name of our destination. It took us a two days ride with a normal carriage to the east to reach it. Looking out of the carriage, I noticed that, while the village was located close to a large forest, unfortunately Estralias famous river, Gleislane, didnt flow through or close to it. Even our carriage driver informed me how isolated it was, located at the end of this road.

If I were to guess, the village probably was some kind of a lumberjack village. There were some fields for cattle and pigs to graze, but without easy access to a large source of water or a talented water mage, they wouldnt be able to maintain large farmlands. That would cripple their income, so they probably dealt with wood and furniture.

Well, this was just the opinion of a magnoble aristocrat, so it wasnt worth that much.

[You are underselling yourself, Ellaine.] Klea shook her telepathic head in exasperation.

[I am not. Any Greenveil noble, whether a young lord or lady, must learn how to manage their fief even if they arent the primary heir. Once you are married off, your partner will expect you to know fief management well. I still remember my lessons, but Ive become too rusty at this point.]

Traveling with Aurora demanded time investment in becoming stronger, and since I also worked with Saori and Haruka as our companys treasurers and merchants, I havent been able to keep up with my studies concerning land management. I could give an educated guess, but anybody who was learned could have given you a similar answer.

Wakey, wakey, you three, its time to work. As I was gazing at the landscape, Yorshka woke up Tatsuya, Kyouya, and Asaka. I had considered taking a nap as well, since Yorshka offered to keep watch, but I felt too nervous to do so.

After all, Yorshka told me I would be leading this party, not her. She was simply our guard today and I had to lead this Quest to success. Nerve-wracking, honestly.

I thought Asaka would have wanted the role as she was Tatsuyas and Kyouyas party leader, but I guess not. Well, the latter two and I have been working together for a while now, so we should be able to do this.

Party Leader

Name: Ellaine Fiero Helvas Level: 67 Job: Terra Arcanist

Name: Tatsuya Nagata Level: 55 Job: Dragoon

Name: Kyouya Ishiigami Level: 55 Job: Bulwark Knight

Name: Asaka Hanazawa Level: 50 Job: Sacred Healer

Name: Yorshka Nordor Level: 132 Job: White-Winged Dragoon

Our party strength, excluding Yorshka, was middle to low C rank according to our average level. With Kleas assimilation and Tatsuyas [Druidification], we probably were a bit stronger, so this Quest should be easy enough to do. Still, arrogance bred complacency, and the tallest equerochs fell the hardest.

After we arrived at the village, we walked up to one of the villagers and asked him about the Quest we accepted, noting we were a hunter company.

Quest? I dont know what you are talking about, but if you adventurers want to talk about it, go to the chief. She probably knows, or something. The foxian man then gave us directions to the village chiefs house.

Weird, I thought. Considering how our clients usually made such a fuss about the Quest and how it was tormenting their village, I thought the villagers would be more appreciative when we arrived. Or, at the very least, feel disappointed since the Quest had failed multiple times already. However, we were met with confusion here.

I looked at the others and they shrugged, so we decided to meet up with the chief. On our way, we looked around the village, noting how everything seemed normal. The adults were working while the children either helped them or were taking a break, frolicking around with others of their age or with the animals. Strangely, the kids helping the adults didnt look related.

If this were Carine village, the people would have greeted and welcomed me as their young lady. I wondered if this fief belonged to anybody, or if it was sold to a yeoman. Then again, this wasnt Artorias. Estralia was a republic, not a feudal kingdom. The latter situation probably was more likely than the former.

On our way, I began to notice that all the villagers we saw up until now were beastmen. I couldnt see a single human, elf, or dwarf in sight. It was such an oddity for me, as it was rare to see a community devoid of any humans in Artorias.

Carine village only had humans since we bordered the Lecartiglio duchy, and any beastman who wanted to immigrate into the Greenveil duchy would usually choose a place further away from the border. It also didnt help that we had some trouble with beastmen hunters and mercenaries in the fief once, so the villages werent appreciative of beastmen outside of Hestia and Saori.

The villages and towns we visited on our way to Gleisvale werent so racially homogenous either. There were plenty of humans and beastmen there. It made me wonder if the owner of this village was a beastmen, too. Creating a community for your own people might be the reason for this villages creation.

Jeez, why are they all staring at us like this Tatsuya mumbled under his breath, but all four of us could hear him.

He was right. All the adults were glaring at us, making us feel unwelcomed here. It was uncomfortable and I felt a desire to leave here, but I endured and pressed on.

Eventually, we made it to the house in question. And, going by the guards placed in front of it, there was no doubt that we were at the correct place.

Hmm? Asaka suddenly stopped moving for a second, drawing my attention. When I asked about it, Asaka simply stroked her hair. I dunno. Those guards and their armor look a bit similar to the ones I saw at that potion shop. You know which one.

The only store she could be talking about was the one Saori and Tasianna were investigating, the one we presumed was related to the criminal syndicate named The Resurrection. If Asakas intuition was correct, then why were those people here?

Welcome, Lady Priestess! Please, come in with your companions.

Regardless of what Asaka said, we still went and met up with the chief of the village. And, as expected, the person was a beastmen a female foxian to be exact. When we explained to her who we were and why we were here, the chief tilted her head and looked at us in confusion.

I am sorry, but I am not sure of what you are talking about. We never requested aid from the hunters guild for anything concerning a ghost, nor did we send an envoy to ask for more support. Who sent you here?

It was a great shock to everybody.

Uhm. I pulled out the commission paper and handed it over to her. Two older women. They called themselves Vivian and Phinea.

We dont have anybody with those names, she stated without even looking at us, concentrating fully on the piece of parchment. Were those two people beastmen?

They had hoods on when they came to us, but from what I saw and could smell, I dont think they were, no, Tatsuya answered for me.

Then, you were lied to. Our village only allows beastmen to live here. Humans are not allowed here outside for either trading or business; so, from the looks of it, I must ask you to leave, right now. And just like that, the chief handed us the paper back and immediately wanted us to leave.

W-Wait, hold on, please! Kyouya protested. We were sure this Quest was legitimate. They even paid the reward money in advance for us, so this cannot be false. Please, we are only here to help.

As I said, you were tricked. There is nothing going on inside our forest outside of our lumberjacks and gatherers working for our monthly payment to our landowner.

May I ask who they are? Asaka interjected.

Of course! Without any warning, the chiefs personality shifted around completely, changing from mildly hostile to friendly and bright. With a wide smile like a zealots, she began glorifying her fief owner. Lady Reajaen Resclave! Oh, our wonderful benefactor has been our guardian angel! No, she is the hero of us beastmen! Yes, she will soon rise up in the senate and become its president! And for that, we must work harder! To repay her kindness, Eshreen village must dedicate our bodies and minds to her!

W-Woah?! Resclave? Wasnt that the senator Hestia talked about and who invited her to their mansion?

O-Oh, I apologize She settled down, clearing her throat in embarrassment for her outburst. That is all. I would like to ask you to leave since our community doesnt feel very comfortable around humans, so please dont take this too personally. Even if you were lied to, you still made your way to us to help, so at the very least, we could offer you some supplies for the way home.

Oh no, dont worry about that. You dont have obligations. Asaka waved her hand. Uhm, before we leave, do you have anybody who needs healing? Ill do it for free if you cant pay back.

Oh, thank you for your offer, Lady Priestess, but I am sure none of our villagers are in need of a white grace. The alchemist manning the potion store next to my house provides us with enough potions. Recently, we also received a large supply of high-quality potions from our benefactor, so we are all healthy.

Hmm? Potions? Didnt we just sell a box full of Belzac herbs to the Resclaves? Did she just spend that much davi just to keep her villagers healthy? I-Impressive.

Belzac herbs werent cheap since they were the best medicinal herbs you could acquire from the western part of Altrust. Even if you diluted the finished product into a minor potion, it still would go for a good price amongst the nobility just because of its effectiveness.

Nobles would usually treat their serfs in case they were hurt or became ill, since the peasantry technically belonged to the fief they were born in. They were our workers and turned our land into income, while we nobles were honor-bound to protect them from anything short of a war. After all, we nobles had a duty to protect our land and peasants.

However, even Father and Mother, who were altruistic unlike other nobles, wouldnt think of spending Belzac herb potions on our people. It was overkill and a waste of money. It was more efficient to purchase more common Health potions or commission a bishop in case of an emergency like a plague.

Still, to see this in the country ruled through merchants, this Reajaen Resclave must be quite the person. A merchant would never invest this much if she didnt care about the community she created.

After the discussion with the chief, we left the village pretty quickly to avoid the villagers constant glares. I really didnt know what we humans did to make the whole village hate us so much, but it wasnt as if I could imagine it clearly. Would this happen all the time in the Lecartiglio duchy?

So, what are we doing now? Kyouya asked after we had moved far away from the village and stopped at a nearby boulder to rest.

Not like we can do anything. Asaka shrugged. Jeez, I cant believe we just got kicked out like that, and after coming all the way to help. What the fuck is wrong with those people who tricked us to come all the way over here?

I had to agree, sighing at the prospect of explaining this to the others. Two days were wasted because somebody thought it would be funny to prank us like this. I was pretty sure the two women werent even called Vivian and Phinea! We wouldnt be able to track them down at this point anymore either.

Should we just leave through the portal? Tatsuya suggested, a grimace on his face. We wasted two days of travel since we couldnt use the nexus to teleport here, nor do we have good ways to fly over here. I was really itching for a cool ghost mission, but noooooo

I guess thats Dame Yorshka?

As I was about to agree with Tatsuyas suggestion, I noticed Yorshka looking back at the village. She hadnt done a single thing since we arrived here, so I didnt give her presence much thought, but now I found her behavior a bit weird.

When I asked her what she was doing, she hummed for a second before answering it with a What do you think expression. The village certainly is interesting, right? Not the beastmen thing, but the fact they didnt have a sawmill or anything.

Huh? All four of us blurted out.

No sawmill? Kyouya looked at us with a brow raised. Wait, shes right. I didnt see a sawmill around at all, nor are there large amounts of felled trees inside the village.

Didnt she say they were a lumberjack village? Then shouldnt they be storing their logs somewhere close to a water source? I heard people stored their unworked lumber in water to prevent insects or fungus damaging them, Asaka noted.

Ive been to an actual lumber village before, I mentioned. They usually smell a mix of charcoal and old wood. These villages not only produce wood for their lords, but also charcoal to be used during winter. Large amounts of lumber have to be stored, since it was hard to make good charcoal or burn wood during the winter since they were usually moist.

I didnt smell that much charcoal or old wood, no more than most villages have, Tatsuya added, using his impressive smell by human standards to good use. If what youre saying is correct, then is it possible that their lumberyard is just deeper into the forest? That doesnt make it that strange, no?

Tatsuya gave a good point, cooling down our theory crafting, but apparently it didnt change Yorshkas expression at all. Was that not the correct answer?

When I questioned her about it, she simply shrugged. Youre the leader of this party, Ellaine. You should be the one to make the decision. We dont need to do anything here, if you think its better to go back. We dont have any obligations to stay here anymore, since the people we wanted to help dont need it.

She definitely knows something we missed. Or, had a feeling about it.

I turned around to Tatsuya and Kyouya. Both of them seemed to share my thoughts, so we then looked over to Asaka. We asked her if she could send her onnikai to scout for us, and she obliged with a deep sigh, complaining how she wanted to take a dip into our hot spring already.

After a few clouds passed us, the onnikais came back and informed Asaka of what happened. But, to her surprise, what they told her made her grimace.

Great She spat that out. The four detected some death auras deeper into the forest. They presumed they were onnikais and came back.

Change of plans.

We decided we would investigate this situation further, just to quench our own curiosity. Did those two women send us here for a reason or was it all just a joke? After all, they did pay in advance.

However, as we didnt want the villagers to find us out, as they were already quite hostile with us, we decided to go exploring during the night. We returned to the [Room] nexus by using my runes, where I was planning on updating Hestia and the others about the situation. However, the only people inside it were only Josine and Svena.

Lady Hestia went sightseeing with the empress and the wyverns while Miss Saori went to the port, Svena answered. Our hunter group is currently out working and Miss Tamae mentioned taking the chefs and waiters out to buy produce. I believe we are the only ones around now, Lady Ellaine.

I see then please inform Hestia and the others as soon as possible. Josine, could you fetch us something to eat and prepare the hotspring?

Without a question, My Lady.

We took a long break inside the nexus as we hid the runes in a safe spot, but, despite staying there until the afternoon, none of the others had returned. Without Hestia around, we couldnt teleport back to Gleisvale, so this was a predicament we couldnt solve.

Therefore, we decided to leave the rest to Josine and Svena. We returned back to the outskirts of the village and scouted around until it was pitch-black. Since neither Hestia nor Saori came to talk to us, it meant they still werent home yet. As such, it was time for us to leave.

Everybody, here. I handed everybody a black robe for them to wear. We shouldnt get caught tonight, so staying inconspicuous was for the best.

Asaka changed from her white robes and Kyouya had to take off some of his plate armor to not let the metal rattle too much. Yorshka was the only one who took off her armor completely, since it was made of silver scales. To further avoid detection, she also went back to her complete human state with [Humanize]. I then cast [Air Shield] around us and moved towards the opening the onnikais found for us.

With the night sky so dark and without a source of light, Yorshka led us forward with her [Night Vision]. It was peaceful, to say the least. I couldnt detect anything larger than a rabbit or fox with my [Detection Sensor]. Maybe the forest was empty and there were only lingering onnikai auras around?

But, after a long trek, Yorshka halted us and told us to sense what was in front of us. I sneaked up closer, as I couldnt sense anything, until Tatsuya and I stopped together. We opened our eyes wide.

[You four? Where are the others?] I asked those spirits.

[You are awake, Asaka. We protected you.] One of them spoke but I didnt answer back, prompting another to reply properly.

[The others are separated. Three to the east. The strong one is fighting like a monster-possessed against the bears. You missed when you gained a level.]

I did? Oh, yeah, I just leveled up to 51. Wow, Yorshka can fight all those bears despite all the explosions? Urgh, no, wait, where are they coming from.

I stood up, dusting myself clean before trying to grab something from my satchel, only to remember I had forgotten to ask Hestia to give me a pair of [Room] runes. I facepalmed. The other four had a copy since we were traveling so far away from the others, but I couldnt believe I procrastinate so long to ask the little princess about getting my own.

Dammit. Laziness isnt an excuse for this shit

I shook my head. What happened, happened. It would be better to find Ellaine and the boys and retreat back into the subspace instead of complaining about things right now. I could do that later on in my dairy.

I brought up my party bracelet and activated the party member location function, receiving information where the three were. As I made my way over there, fully trusting Yorshkas ability to defend herself, I noticed somebody was standing a bit further away from me.

Now sneaking, I went closer to the target, preparing my onnikai to protect me, but, for some reason, they told me to go closer to the stranger instead. That there was threat at all. I couldnt understand what they were going on about, but from my time with them, I knew they couldnt allow me to get hurt until Segawa visited her gramps.

Dammit.

I reluctantly trusted them and revealed myself from a bush, only to see a young girl in front of me, having her back turned to me. Wondering what the hell she was doing here, I frowned and moved closer. I had to tell her to get away now otherwise she might get hurt.

Hey, little girl, you need to go now! Dont you hear all that action, itll get bad, so lets move! I tapped on her shoulder, not wanting to scare her too much by grabbing her arm.

Hmm? Oh, sorry! The girl sounded excited for no reason, before jolting her body ar

Oh shi Mhmmk!

Without any warning, I shrieked only to stop myself before going too shrill. I didnt do it for no reason, though. No, not at all. The girl When the girl turned around, she showed me her true appearance.

A bitten-off eyeball hanging loosely from her socket, while a section of her jaw was rotten and had worms feasting on it like a decaying piece of meat. White and green mold could be seen covering her other eye. Outside of that, she looked mostly normal, albeit her clothing was in complete tatters, showing some of her red skin.

Improper! What is this crap?! Where are her parents and why didnt they give her something better to wear!

Miss? The girls initial smile turned into an agape mouth as she tilted her head. Are you scared of me like our capturers?

C-Capturers? I managed to eked out, but the girl completely ignored me as her eyes, or whatever remained of them, stared at the four onnikais I had.

Wow! You must be a faemancer! You are a friend of onnikais! You must be a friend of us and Goddess Ilsaphone then! Are you the one her holiness sent to meet us, Miss?

Wha Still confused about everything, I couldnt answer what she was trying to say, but before I could sort out my thoughts, she suddenly pushed me.

You need to go! The bad people are coming back! Hide! Hide!

She pushed and pushed, and my body just complied since my mind was on autopilot. As I hid in a bush, she told me she would be waiting for me. As she ran back to the spot, two of the guards from before appeared from the trees, complaining how long it took to find her after all the attacks.

Dammit, you little runt! Did all of you really have to increase the mana level around here to spawn those things?! Some of us died from all of that! One of them shouted. Our leader had to waste all those bombs to kill those bears! Honestly, I had enough of you damn zombies!

Hold on, isnt that the same armor those Resurrec

Kaslashed!

Mhmmk!

With one quick swipe, the guard used his sword to slash off the small girls legs before digging the blade deep into her head. Black slime suddenly oozed out from her legs and the two guards clicked their tongues before dragging the now lifeless body away while still attached to the weapon.

What is wrong with those people! Oh my god, she was still just a kid! How could they! Fucking monsters! Fuck them!

And without listening to the calming words of the onnikai fenrirs, I jumped right onto my feet and imbued my mace with holy powers.

[Asaka! That girl was an onnikai inhabiting a body like the successors garms!]

You bastard are about to learn what it means to wake up with a cracked skull!

A note from AbyssRaven

This is very much like a horror story, huh? Well, at least Asaka's side of the story.

If you guys want to support me, Hestia and "A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale" (or just read up to 20 advance chapters + any Patreon-only chapters) please check out my Patreon: Rawr!

For two dollars, for the cost of a coffee, you can read up to four chapters for the whole month! You will have my eternal gratitude for any support you can give me! Please.

Thank you for reading this chapter.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2022 12:59:17 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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