Harpy Village

[later]

They arrived at Happiness Village, It was mostly normal, and peaceful, there were women working to the crops and the beehives all over fields.

Luka: It doesn't look like anything horrible is happening…

Alice: Are you blind, you idiot?

Luka: Eh…?

Alice: Do you see any men? Can you still say it isn't unusual?

Solo: You are right… There are only women and 1 or 2 children in the entire town…

Then a woman came and said.

Extra: Oh, travelers? And young people, at that. You came all the way here, but we don't really have anything to entertain a traveler with. Due to a shortage of manpower, we have a shortage of our speciality Happiness Honey, too…

Solo turned towards a boy, which no one noticed, and had an hand over his sword while looking bored.

Luka: Why do you have a shortage of manpower…?

Then, the boy Solo was looking at, was getting attacked from an harpy and started crying.

Luka: What's going on?!

After Luka said that, he turned and saw the harpy flying away with the boy in her talons, meanwhile, Solo wasn't there anymore and the harpy disappeared from the sky, and was trapped in Solo's arms.

Solo: Nope.

Harpy: Let me go! Nhhggg…

She tried to break free but Solo didn't moved of an inch, so she tried to use her talons at him, but even then she didn't do even a scratch at him.

Harpy: What are you made of?!

Then Solo touched her head with a finger and she got unconscious.

Luka: How did you do it?

Solo: It's just a little trick, just put some reiryoku inside her and she will faint, it works only with people who are really weaker than you.

Luka: Oh.

Then people surrounded them.

Extras: What happened?!/That white dressed guy beaten the Harpy!

Then the elder came too.

Elder: Winning against a monster that easily… You must be really skilled!

Solo: Who are you?

Elder: I'm the village chief's wife… Since he has been kidnapped, I am the acting village chief.

Solo: You are the temporary village chief then...I am really disappointed…

The Elder got a surprised face and got a bit angry.

Solo: You guys are just a bunch of chickens… It is just a normal little harpy, that could be beaten from anyone, and no one helped the poor kid, you just stood away…

At these words, the Elder and everyone looked at the ground in shame and stood in silence.

Elder: We can't do nothing… We are too weak… But I still have a request for you…

Solo raised an eyebrow at her words, but was surprised when she kowtowed in the ground.

Elder: With no men, this village is doomed to fade away. Please, traveler. Can you root out the harpies, and return peace to our village?

Solo: ...Why should I?

Everyone was surprised from Solo's words.

Elder: B-but… Aren't you a Hero?

Solo: The kid is a hero, but if you want to give me a title… 'I am the apex of the Hollow race, even if I have a good side, it doesn't mean that I will accept everything… And then, I am going against the deity of this world…' ...You can call me 'Devil'.

I decide myself if I want to help someone, or if I leave someone at their death, just because I am in the mood to save an innocent kid, it doesn't mean that I have an heart to help you all from your problems, I just follow the kid, then I decide if I should help.

Luka: Solo… You… I thought you were a good guy...

Solo: You are still forgetting my real nature, I don't even have an heart.

Luka closed his mouth when he remembered that Solo was still mainly an Hollow, a race that passed their lives to eat souls, and from what he said about them, he seems to be one of the most good ones.

Luka: I got it… Where is Harpy Village?

Elder: It seems like there is a settlement to the east of this village, in the forest.

Luka: Nn… I'll go.

Alice: Are you sure? You may die for real this time.

Luka: And when I tried to fight Granberia? What was I trying to do?

Alice: *Sigh*...There will be a leader with the harpies, if you defeat her, the rest will fall in chaos.

Solo: 'He's too naive...Better going to save his ass…'

Then they walked towards the east, to the harpies' settlement.

[later]

Alice stood behind while Luka was walking forward, Solo was spectating everything from the sky, but unlike before, he was a bit transparent.

This is another trick he could do, reducing the amount of reiryoku inside of his body, he could turn in a phantom-like figure, but his powers decreases of a really big margin, making him really vulnerable to surprise attacks, but even then, he was strong enough to take care of normal harpies.

He seen Luka's fight against a pair of twins and escaped without sealing them, Solo was following him until he seen a regal looking harpy flying behind Luka.

Solo: 'She already found out about him?'

Then Luka and the harpy, which was revealed to be the queen, started talking to each other, and Solo got nearer to hear what they were saying.

Luka: I want you to stop kidnapping the villagers, and return the men. If you keep this up, humans will never be able to live peacefully with monsters…

Queen Harpy: ... You have that in reverse, human boy. We are forced to do this because humans cannot live peacefully with us.

Luka: What do you mean…?

Solo: *Sigh* He's too dense

Even if Solo talked with a low voice, the Queen's ears twitched, signaling him that he was found out, but he didn't cared, he just turned back in his normal form and got out from his place.

Luka: Solo?

Solo: They will die from not being able to breed. You moron…

Luka: Eh?

Queen Harpy: Yes, it's like he said, we need men to reproduce, otherwise we will die.

Luka: ...What should I do now…?

Solo: Well, you can try to put together Harpy Village with Happiness Village, help the latter like planned before, or you can directly ask me to exterminate both of them and then we will forget about everything.

Queen Harpy: What?!

Luka: Oi, Solo, you aren't going to do anything.

Solo: Shame… It was a while that I didn't made a genocide, usually it would be a massacre of Hollows who wanted to rebel…

Luka: ...Eh?

Solo: Forget it, so, what are you going to decide?

Luka: Well, I'll try to help both, it is the job of a hero to help everyone.

Solo and the Queen Harpy smiled and Solo said.

Solo: It seems that you will not change…