Mia

The Wildecrest village's 2 sides were covered with mountains and 1 side was closed with a forest that was on the borders of the Neladrik kingdom. Its ground was rocky and wasn't suitable for farming either. 

That is why, villagers of the Wildecrest village mostly lived their life and earned their bread with mining jobs or wood.

And because of the unsuitable ground, all they could do to fill their belly was to buy supplies that were brought by the merchants. 

However, when the rumors spread about  the disappearances happening in the Wildecrest, most merchants didn't come again. After all, their life was more valuable than a few silver they could gain from villagers. 

As of now, the villagers of Wildecrest were living a paranoid but mostly stable life, as the disappearance of more than 50 people increased the amount of food that falls per villager. 

But this wasn't reducing the tension in the village. The villagers were restless and scared that everyday that one of them was disappearing, not to be seen again. Their worry was pretty normal. No one knew the fate of the people who disappeared and if possible they didn't want to know. 

They couldn't escape from the village either, the road to the closest village was a minimum of 2 days and it was dangerous. Bandits, some stray fiends, or directly corrupt soldiers of nobles. There were many things that could kill them or make their fate worse than death. 

So, all of their hope was on the Church of Afterlife to save them from inevitable death caused by who knows what. 

Like every other day, the villagers closed themselves to their homes and hid in fear. 

The Wildecrest village looked like a haunted village from afar, making Auriel think about how the fuck he would complete this mission. He wasn't a damn detective with a pipe in his mouth after all. 

He had already many concerns about his arm, Elise, Asher, other church members, Clint, Celeste, and other people that the original Auriel was close to or caused damage to. 

But now he needed to calm down a huge village and question the paranoid villagers one by one while roaming around to find some clues. 

Sigh… 

A sigh escaped from Auriel as he felt that he was working too much, wouldn't it be better if he just stayed in the Weaver mansion and slept for a year or 2? Unfortunately for him, his hatred towards the protagonist was bigger than his desire to sleep, so all he wanted was to increase his strength and allies, then make the protagonist's life hell. After that, he could sleep a year or 2 without any worry. 

Unconsciously gritting his teeth at the thought of the protagonist, he rode his horse into the biggest house of the village, tying the horse to somewhere and helping Elise to get down on the horse. 

Then he stopped in front of the door and knocked 2 times. 

Knock! Knock! 

"Open the door! We are from the Afterlife Church," Auriel called out, and to his surprise, he heard a small voice behind the door. 

"Meow!" 

'A cat?' Auriel thought, but his thought was interrupted as the door swung open, revealing a middle-aged man with wide eyes at the sight of Archpaladin Asher's armor adorned with the symbol of the Church of Afterlife. 

"You are the village head I assume?" Auriel asked and after getting a hopeful nod from the poor villager he pointed inside. "Let's talk inside, I have many questions to solve this problem in your village," Auriel said and without waiting for a response, he lightly pushed the man and entered inside. 

Then he took the cat that was on the floor into his arms and took a good look at it. 

The cat was docile, unaffected by Auriel's touch. With silky white fur and blue eyes, it was undeniably adorable, tempting Auriel to adopt it and make it his puppet. The cat had silky white fur with blue eyes. However, he held himself back. He wasn't here to play around with cats after all, even though he wanted so much. 

Auriel followed the middle-aged man with the white cat in his arm, who was letting out cute purring noises that melted Auriel's, lonely heart. 'I should take it with me, it is too cute for this miserable villagers...' Auriel thought and took a seat on the couch, placing the cat on his lap. Elise settled down by his side, while Asher leaned against the wall, silently observing the villager.

Auriel gazed at the middle-aged man with a serious expression and spoke. "So, what is this child's name?" he asked sincerely, gently caressing the cat's head. 

The middle aged man blinked with confusion. The church that he waited for days to rescue just asked his cat's name, instead of crucial information after all. "Pardon, I think I heard wrong sir. Did you just ask my cat's name? Hahaha…" He said and awkwardly laughed but after receiving no laugh from Auriel, he understood that what he heard was right. "Her name is Mia, sir…"

"Very well," Auriel nodded with a faint smile and put the cat onto Elise's lap. "Look after Mia, don't leave her from your sight," he said and turned his attention to the middle-aged village head. 

"So, tell me when these disappearances began, how many people disappeared until now and what was the total population of the village?" Auriel questioned directly. 

The village head's eyes welled up with tears, which he quickly wiped away. Today was the ray of hope as at last the rescue he waited for days finally arrived, and the rescue was taking his job seriously, at least a little. 

Thus, the village head told everything Auriel asked without holding back. Words flowed out from his mouth with desperation as this might be his last chance to save his village or himself.