Green Outlaws (2)

By the way—

"I'll have to ask the brat later when I'm done with this job."

Also, he was curious as to why the Knight Order had not come to the aid of this Village even though it was obvious that there was destruction upon it.

After and before, he also heard from the locals a few days ago before leaving for Death Valley, that the mayor didn't care about the village head's proposal to send out several units of the town's knights.

Even as he thought about it, he slowly put it aside.

Because there is the most important business that he wants to finish soon. Remembers after teleporting and when he opens his eyes, a hologram board appears and gives him another mission.

______________________________

[ 'Sub-Quest' has been triggered]

—「Mission」: A tragic doom and tears have befallen this village. The user himself is expected to find and rescue one of the surviving villagers.

—「 Reward」: Removal of Trait "Coward".

—「 Fail」: Death.

_______________________________

Missions—no, Quests that led a bit towards good deeds, where O'Connor was forced to do something he found troublesome. However, he couldn't refuse, because the prizes from this Quest were very tempting. Remembering the "Coward" Trait was the most influential obstacle to his life.

In addition, if you decipher this Quest, it might be tied to fighting monsters such as goblins.

O'Connor didn't know how much EXP he had accumulated after killing goblins and Giant Bears in the past few days.

Instead of bothering to check it, it's better to wait for the system notification to tell him.

'I wonder what the reward will be after levelling up to 2. Maybe a Skill? My Talent in a past life? Or a Skill Point?'

O'Connor stroked the "Ring of Imitation" with his thumb to adjust the position of the ring, and keep it comfortable on his finger.

His blue eyes then roamed around and his hand took the dagger and stone staff from the goblin's corpse.

–Kiek…!

The surviving goblins didn't even bother waiting for their prey to defend themselves. They then nodded their head to each other and thought the same to pounce together.

On the other hand, O'Connor frowned because he didn't feel comfortable holding the weapon from the goblin's corpse.

'Tsk. Too ugly to use.'

After railing inwardly, strange words came out of his mouth.

"Status window."

________________

[Status]

—Name : O'Connor de Carpe

—Age : 16 years old

—Gender: Male

—Profession: None

—Title: Son of the Carpe Family

[Statistics]

[Strength : 6] [Agility : 9] [Vitality : 7] [Mana : 0]

—Stat points you have : 0

[ Traits and abilities ]

—Unique Ability : None

—Skill : [Eye Of Gluttony (SS)]

—Transient Skills : [Understand at a Glance(A+)] [Silk Wind(F)]

—Traits : [Calamity Grade Gluttony] [Coward] [Weak] [Sword God Memory Composition] [Mighty Mind]

_____

'It's not even enough to kill all the goblins roaming the village. What should I do?'

Overall these stats weren't even between the ranks of warriors and swordsmen it was quite far from Stage-1 and Stage-2. Given the critical situation for a human without Mana.

On top of that, O'Connor is currently hauling loads and keeping him alive. And that can be called a prerequisite for completing the mission this time.

At that time-

He spoke without looking at the boy he saved.

"Hey."

"Oh, Generous!"

"What's your name?"

"My name is Rudger, Generous!"

"Alright Rudger, now collect the Magic Stones that are on the goblin corpses. Meanwhile, I stop the goblins who are running fast."

"Ready to execute!"

O'Connor didn't know if the boy could pull it off, but working as a porter for a while was an easy task. Such a profession is only tasked with extracting materials from monster carcasses or carrying weapons to make it easier for fighters to move freely.

Where the position of two people must be divided equally. One took on offensive duties, while the other performed quite useful support duties.

'Kuh… I have to finish them off no matter what…'

Raising his weapon, O'Connor rationally straightened up, his mind racing.

'Was there a need to wait for reinforcements from the knight order? No, no… I have to find a way to survive without expecting reinforcements. Eye of Gluttony, Silk Wind, Understand at a Glance and Weak. The only things useful in battle were Mighty Mind and Sword God Memory Composition. Damn, at a time like this…'

The habit of cursing with words did not last long. Because all attention was on the goblins who were trying to close the distance.

"huff…"

One goblin struck, and then O'Connor masterfully dodged the clumsy attack. Then a second passed as another goblin slashed his dagger from behind.

O'Connor insisted on turning the dagger and aiming it behind his back.

*CLANG!

–Kiek!?

The two daggers collided with each of O'Connor's hands forced to deal with a backslash and a front strike.

The arm supporting the heavy weight suddenly trembled violently, whereas he also had to control the stone staff, Scraper axe, which was in his right hand so that thought process forced him to rack his brain to get out of this crisis situation.

"Whoops!"

Amidst the goblins and in a surrounded position, O'Connor's legs bend and then crouches down on one leg and with the other leg performs a spinning kick aimed at breaking the enemy's balance.

—kickei!!

—kuckei!

The legs of the goblins that were hit by the kicks instantly collapsed and their entire bodies fell to the ground. They writhed in pain at the feet so that the dust of the ground blew. Apart from that, some don't care and just follow their hunting instincts so that O'Connor must try to sneak out of a potentially dangerous siege.

The morning breeze is fresh to breathe, polluted by the dust of the ground due to some excessive movement of the acting factors.

O'Connor hastily took the opportunity to widen the gap as he could no longer withstand the continuous attacks from the goblins.

"huh.. Huh.. Huh.."

[You gain +EXP]

[You gain +EXP]

Even at times like this, a system notification popped up when he was slaying goblins. Despite that, it didn't make him angry and instead made him pound with joy.

During a crisis like this, it can be said to be a golden opportunity even if it has to be life-threatening.

Before long, he took a breath and ran around the fighting area, looking for any gaps in between.

On the one hand, the two goblins chasing him were half-sane and always playing tag.

O'Connor, who was aware of that, tried to send an attack by rotating his body by taking advantage of the foothold from the trees.

Gritting his teeth until the wrinkles on his forehead increased.

*PA!

The goblins, who were confused by the attraction of O'Connor jumping above them, immediately took the initiative to turn around. And before that happened, O'Connor who was behind them swung the Scraper axe with all his might and aimed for their necks in a horizontal line.

*BANG! BANG!

As they fell with their heads chopped off, O'Connor continued running because he could feel that the other goblins hurting in their legs were showing signs of being ready to fight.

And just then—

"Generous! I've collected the Magic Stones you ordered earlier!"

O'Connor involuntarily frowned and felt a pain in his ear. It was as if that sound was far more disturbing than the sound of the system that kept appearing in the air.

He slammed on the brakes and shifted his gaze to the goblin, instead of answering what the boy said.

'One two three four five. Sigh… I hope some of them produce mana stones. Please one is enough!'

In this world, mana stones were much higher in value than magic stones which were relatively easy to obtain. Even the auction judges always accept their clients who sell mana stones, whether it's more than ten stones or less than twenty stones. Considering that the price there is set at twenty-five silver coins per stone.

The reason O'Connor still insists on fighting is because of this.

To be honest, he currently lacked the funds to continue his journey to the next city which cost several silver coins to hire a vehicle that would quickly get him to his destination.

But—

'This is already my limit. I have to escape somehow.'

Thinking so, he made a decision and turned towards the Brown-haired boy, then shouted.

"Follow me!"

... ... ...

Family Mansion of the Marquis Carpe.

Maya stretched her arms as she yawned waking up from sleep.

In a short period of time. Maya hopped out of bed and headed into the maid's bathroom to freshen up. As she stepped inside, she splashed water onto her face and rubbed her hands together to feel refreshed once more. With her eyes half-closed, she hummed cheerful morning tunes, filling the space with positive energy.

After finishing from the maid's bathroom, she slowly crawled into bed to wake up her roommate who was sleeping soundly with no sign of waking up.

"Sister Lydia! Get up! It's already morning, how long are seniors going to sleep? Hey!"

With a tiny hand that was touching the shoulder of a sleeping woman and shaking it, using all the energetic power of youth.

In seconds that passed, the sleeping woman's eyelids slowly opened and she carefully looked up and slowly to the side from left to right, then found Maya who was giving her a strange look.

So she was also confused and forced herself to ask.

"W-Where is this?"

What came out was a question with a trembling tone not knowing why, but Maya tilted her head plus she wasn't curious about what happened to her senior sister, at most Maya thought that she was currently having a bad dream that made her break out in a cold sweat so that Maya could see her sweat.

"What do you mean "this"? No, more importantly, it's time for work. If Butler finds out about this, he'll be furious. Come on…!"

Her innocent eyes glistened with worry as she recalled the butler's face in the past when she was working here for the first time and was an apprentice who often got angry because she always made mistakes, especially when she was late to come in on time which caused Maya's co-workers affected too.

An illusion of Old Butler's angry face came to mind. Maya felt a chill run down her smooth back.

To the point that she hastily shook her head to erase that thought, even in this second she told Sister Lydia to change her clothes. Plus he ignored her sister's confusion, and without hesitation, he pulled her sister's hand out the door.

"Ah, wait... Don't pull it..."

Without waiting for her to finish the words. The wooden door was shut tight.

*DOOR—!

—|—

Brilliant light seeped through the vents and other light reflected as it hit the window glass filled with red, white and green.

When Maya parted ways with Sister Lydia, she took on the task of delivering a cup filled with tea to the room of her beloved My Lady, Miss Renata.

A cup of hot, warm tea gave off puffing smoke of sweet pleasure when looked at carefully, and it was on a tray which Maya held very carefully for fear that her small and weak arms would make a mistake one last time.

Walk rhythmically but pay little attention to the road. Five steps later, her feet stopped at a wooden door that towered over the height of an adult. The door is engraved with art which is called the handicraft of experts. However, the door wasn't dyed with the white or golden yellow colouring that every noble generally did.

Instead, it had retained its original colour and what was different was that the door had been refined with the utmost precision.

Maya took a breath and raised her hand then bent her index finger and knocked on the door.

*TOK. TOK. TOK.

"My Lady, may Maya come in?"

She very attentively knocked on the door and focused her ears before hearing a "Yes." a little lethargic according to Maya.

*Crack—

Slowly but gently she opened the door to Miss Renata's room, she spontaneously looked around the room every time she worked

She also observed the entire room, especially the valuables left by the Miss Renata's late mother.

'No matter how many times I walk into this room, it's still clean and smells good. Hehehe…'

Emotions of awe and curiosity fluctuated in Maya's mind when she stared at the decoration and interior of the room's plain white-bluish walls so that the itch to touch her hand disturbed her.

No matter how comfortable Maya's bedroom was, it was still far from Miss Renata's bedroom. Remember, the Carpe family's financial situation fell into a slump.

Except, Miss Renata herself who cleans and takes care of the room herself, when she is not on duty.

Coming to her senses when she jerked herself to her feet, she turned her gaze to her beautiful mistress who was sitting on the sofa and wearing white pyjamas, then noticed Miss Renata staring blankly out the open window.

"My Lady, here is your tea… please enjoy."

"Thank you, Maya. Please put it here."

Hearing Miss Renata's response, she placed the teacup on the table by the sofa. And waiting for her beautiful Master to drink the tea while hugging the silver tray to her chest.

Miss Renata slowly closed her eyes and after that, she shifted her gaze to the teacup that gave off a gentle fragrance.

As if interested, she lifted the teacup and drank it up to her throat with a happy face and eyes gently closed as if she was enjoying this luxury.

Seeing that, Maya couldn't help asking questions about the taste of the tea.

"My Lady, does that tea suit your taste?"

After the teacup and Miss Renata's lips parted, she responded with opinion, saying.

"Anything that suits my taste, unless it's poison. Huh, you know that right? If this family is still in a financial crisis so importing high-quality tea leaves is very difficult. Not that I don't care, but if you think about it to dream of enjoying luxury trivial like this, and compared to the problems our people are facing out there. Of course—I would rather work non-stop and prevent the destruction of my people. Sigh…"

Miss Renata let out a long sigh as if this would not just end. Unknowingly, Miss Renata made Maya pay attention to blue eyes as calm as the sea filled with excessive anxiety and depression.

She decided to change the subject as cold sweat ran down her back.

"Speaking of Young Master. Didn't My Lady try to find him or send a letter to come home soon?"

"No need, I trust him because he's not one to always blurt out. That person will probably come back as soon as I get home to solve the problems that happened in Bosa Village…."

As if to continue the unfinished words. Miss Renata stood up and left the sitting position on the sofa. Then she continued.

"I'm done drinking it."

"My Lady, do you want sword practice after this?"

"That's my plan for today."

When Miss Renata intended to hand over the empty teacup to Maya. A sudden feeling of uneasiness swept over herself and made the hand holding the cup lose strength.

*TIAR!

The sound of a broken glass cup filled the entire room.

The incident also shocked Maya so much that her eyes opened wide and hurriedly checked Miss Renata's condition.

"My Lady, My Lady, are you okay?! Are there any broken glass spots on your body?! Or are you suffering from some kind of illness?!"

Maya's psychological state was filled with questions bound up with excessive worries. So she kept asking questions that had the same meaning but different vocabulary.

Meanwhile, Miss Renata held her head feeling that part of it made her lose strength.

But she tried to calm the little maid who was worried about her.

"Don't worry, maybe these symptoms are caused because I haven't done Nature Approach Meditation for a long time, so it triggers various influences like this."

"But.. But... My Lady.."

"Never mind, don't cry. As time goes by these symptoms will gradually disappear. Well, there's no need to be so exaggerated like that. Got that?"

"Yes…"

The weak tone that Miss Renata just heard teased her into a bitter smile. Then she said to Maya while turning her attention to the broken cup scattered on the carpet.

"Forget about that, and please clean up this mess. Maya, be careful when cleaning and to remember, there's no need to hurt yourself if you can't do it. You can ask a butler or other senior maids for help."

"Okay, My Lady…"

Once done that takes a few minutes. Miss Renata slowly walked towards the cupboard and put on her practice clothes which were a plain white shirt and long brown pants and a leather brown belt wrapped around her waist.

Then after she finished wearing her practice clothes, she didn't forget to tie up her long purple hair and turn it into a ponytail.

Although a feeling of uneasiness enveloped Miss Renata. She persisted and hid those feelings or she was still wondering where the emotion came from.

Before she took a step out towards the door, the voice of a little girl with brown hair and obsidian eyes pierced her ears.

"My Lady, are you sure about sword training even though your body condition is a bit poor?"

Miss Renata wasn't sure about that, but she felt that the source of that feeling was not because her body had not done "Nature Approach Meditation" in a long time. Therefore, she was also in the dark.

However, thinking about it so hard is also not good for health. There's a chance that it might even make matters worse.

With that, Miss Renata said with a slight smile.

"Don't worry. Have you forgotten who I am?"

"The current Family Head, right?"

"Wrong."

"???"

Seeing Maya was confused because of her answer. Resulting in Miss Renata suppressing her urge to get out quickly.

*Crack—

The sound of the door was heard when Miss Renata opened the bedroom door. And then answered Maya's confusion.

"If you forget who I am, then remember this. That I am not human.."

"Ah."

Only one word came out of Maya's lips when she heard that answer. A one-line answer that held multiple meanings as a nostalgic feeling enveloped this little maid as if they had worked here for a long time.

She was so silent as ideas slowly appeared in her mind.

—And at the same time.

A fist rushed towards the goblin's ugly face.

*BANG!

–kiek

"ugh..."

The groans of pain in the hands were so numb. O'Connor gradually brushed his hand away to remove the adhering bloodstains.

As soon as the goblin showed no signs of dying, without hesitation, he strangled its neck to death.

His grip was so strong that the back of O'Connor's hand poked out a vein that spread like a root. Of course, it was the same state at the temples as well.

[You gain +EXP]

"Phew~ that was close."

Meanwhile, Rudger is still in his job. That is, he is still loyal to being a porter and collecting magic stones from goblin carcasses. He was also still on standby behind the fighting O'Connor.

Seeing Rudger heave a sigh of relief while wiping the sweat off his forehead. O'Connor immediately said to the Boy in a somewhat tired tone.

"Is this the way to the village head's house?"

"Of course, Generous."

"Okay… By the way, are you okay?"

"Huh? What do you mean, Generous?"

O'Connor didn't answer, but he watched from under Rudger's shaking feet.

'Lucky enough he was still able to chase after me all this time. Heh, I wonder is this what I looked like when I was a teenager?'

O'Connor shuddered slightly at the thought of his teenage self from someone else's perspective.

It was so sad to see Rudger overlapping him. As if encouraging his sympathy to encourage him.

Of course, O'Connor held him back from speaking his mind. It was a stark contrast to his current impression of being cold and unsympathetic.

If one looked internally and deduced the state of his body, the Trait "Coward" was currently rampaging and mutually repelling the Trait "Mighty Mind".

So, to suppress his cowardice. O'Connor deliberately concealed his appearance so as not to be found out if he too was feeling frightened.

While on a light trip to the village head's house and through the streets as quiet as the graves of the dead. He looked up at the sky so that the sunlight would soon rise and illuminate the world.

In these seconds, he turned past a crossroads that was littered with several traces of extinguished torches.

As far as the eye could see, O'Connor's vision captured distant buildings that still had fires burning on the roofs of the houses.

"What's that?"

O'Connor said, pointing with his chin.

"Yes, Generous. This is the house you were talking about, but…"

"What?"

"Why should we go to the village head's house? Is there something there?"

"Well."

O'Connor wore a complicated expression as he tried to answer Rudger's innocent question.

Taking some time to organize his words, he responded.

"There's a possibility there's something like a weapon or other equipment that can be used for the fight later."

"Why do you think so?"

Rudger who didn't know anything about common knowledge just tilted his head innocently. Little did he know that the village head was the most important person in their village, but he was not sure that his house had some kind of sharp object to kill with.

"Based on my guess, perhaps your village head before becoming village head, was a stripped knight or, squire, looking to spend his retirement years."

'And I'm not sure if a commoner would willingly become the village chief of this village, which is even adjacent to one of the Empire's forbidden territories, but it's a different story if it's someone with the title of "Sir" like a knight or squire carrying out a certain mission…'

O'Connor added silently.

He wasn't sure either, but it was worth trying this hypothesis before jumping to conclusions.

As Rudger listened carefully to the long narrative of his generous, he felt as if he was playing a guessing game.

"Cool…!"

'Is this the skill of a Generous? Isn't he a shaman?'

O'Connor didn't try to read the boy's mind as he took the seven steps before arriving at the house they were headed for. Instead, he silenced Rudger and lowered the volume of the sound of footsteps, using a finger to his lips, as a signal.

Seeing Rudger nod his head in a sign of compliance, O'Connor changed his expression to a serious one.

First, he crouched down and tried to put his ear to the wooden door of the village chief's house.

After a while, he counted down before intending to break down the door.

Three….

Two….

One…

*Bump!