Chapter 36.

Adrian sent out a couple of dozen blades flying towards his targets that were infesting what must have been a town that once sheltered thousands of people. Now they only had monsters and scavengers. Well, for the next couple seconds anyway.

Once they were dead, he double-checked for any survivors, both monsters and humans, and then used Dash to move towards the town from the wooden carrier. Despite the carrier being nearly a kilometre up in the air it scarcely took a second to reach his destination.

Adrian felt an odd sort of guilt as he harvested both the monsters and the various remnants of the town. He absorbed the rotting, half-eaten corpses and the many, many signs that this place had once held thousands of people.

The toys, broken stalls in the marketplace, ruined homes and ravaged stores reminded him once more of the damage that the humans serving Aultcray and the Church had done. To be certain, a lot of the damage had been done by monsters, but this town was nowhere near the point where the Wave had originated from, any monsters would have had to travel a fair distance to get here, and the town showed signs of having once had a decent defence. A defence that had been shattered by humans allowing the monsters free reign to destroy the town.

It was disgusting and made Adrian wonder just how apathetic Mirellia had been regarding the fate of her own people if she had allowed Aultcray to get away with this in the Light Novel with a slap on the wrist...Of course, that assumed that she was not scum and that she truly wanted peace, he would not be surprised if it turned out that she was the mastermind behind the whole scheme with Aultcray just being a pawn in her game.

As he moved around the ruins, absorbing all that caught his eye, he found himself planning out the deaths of Aultcray and the Church. A moment's contemplation made one thing clear-He needed a lot more information. Rabier had given him a few names and some context but he needed more information regarding both Melromarc and the other nations of the world. To be certain Aultcray had committed a crime that was unforgivable but his death could cause war which would probably cost more lives than the genocide the man had orchestrated or permitted. Plus, if Mirellia had a part to play in this then he could assume that she would need to die as well, probably allowing numerous successors to come into play, throwing the nation into a sort of civil war. It was an interesting if horrible, possibility. Perhaps the Sword Hero could play Kingmaker? No, Queenmaker, given that he was in a matriarchy right now.

Adrian dismissed his fantasies, he would reconsider his ideas after he obtained more information, and took one last look at the ruined town before he used Dash to return back to the carrier.

He nodded to Raphtalia who was staring up at him sleepily as the nascent sunlight began to emerge over the horizon and felt a smile emerge as she nodded back and started to say something before a yawn stopped her. Adrian sat down in a meditative position and started to move again even as Raphtalia got up and stretched a little before reaching for a bottle of water.

Adrian turned his attention from the young woman as she slowly adjusted her clothes a bit, moved out of the pile of feathers and limbs that she had been sleeping in, and turned her attention towards Rifana, Alvin and Razieh, making sure that they were all right.

He was almost sure that their current goal of reaching the hometown of the two kids was going to be fruitless. Between the monsters from the Waves, loss of most avenues of potential support and the horrific human actions...well there was almost no chance of getting away intact, the fact that Alvin and Razieh had been captured during a raid spoke volumes.

Still, it was a worthwhile goal to at least try. Even if he had already started to plan with the assumption that these kids would stay with him for at least a few more weeks.

"Good Morning Mr Adrian," said Raphtalia her voice quiet.

He nodded, "Morning," he said, drawing out a plate of food from his sword and handing it to the woman who took it with a quiet thanks.

They sat in silence as the darkness faded and the many colours of the sunrise filled the sky. It was beautiful, even more than normal thanks to his many sensory enhancements, but Raphtalia saw fit to shatter the peace that it had invoked.

"Mr Adrian," she said, hesitating for a moment, "Rifana isn't...she isn't doing well. I don't know what to do."

Adrian wanted to wince as her tone turned despondent. He did sigh, unable to help it.

"There is no easy solution Raphtalia," he said, uncertain of how to help but absolutely certain of one fact, "don't try to fix her, just make sure she knows that you're there for her and keep her healthy. Give her time and the opportunity to heal."

"Yes Mr Adrian," she said, determination colouring her tone. Raphtalia nodded firmly. She looked a lot happier with some semblance of a plan, even if it was nothing more than some trite advice, but in this case what she actually needed was a bit of assurance that Rifana could be okay.

Still, he felt a bit happy that he could help her a little. He was fairly certain that Alvin and Razieh would not be happy once they saw what was left of their town.

Adrian frowned as he double-checked the results of his observation with Telescopic vision and then turned to his party, "I'm going to harvest some monsters," he said.

Most of his party just nodded, Alvin and Razieh looked impatient but they didn't fully realize just how close they were to their hometown, and by this point, they had seen him harvest monsters dozens of times. So they had no reason to suspect that he was, in fact, planning to scout out their town.

Their intact town.

Well, intact was a strong word, even from a distance he could see numerous signs of conflict and death, and as he drew closer to the town and it entered the range of his Blindsight more details became clear.

The town was based in a valley between two reasonably large mountains, fertile soils and rivers made this valley an excellent location for farming, and Adrian had noted a large number of villages while approaching the town. All of them had been destroyed, most of them by humans and Adrian had assumed that the same would hold true for the town. Instead, from what he could see, the town had survived, barely. The Graveyard at the back of the town...well, to say that there were more corpses there then there were people would be quite accurate. A town that was built for at least 2000-3000 people had scarcely 300 and their defences were badly damaged. Two guards at the gates, no patrols, a great number of injured folks and no real food stores that he could see.

Adrian carefully darted around the town, it was nearly three hours after noon, and the forest rapidly thinned out as he approached the town, but with the lack of sentries, he managed to get a full grasp on the town with ease.

It was quite horrible. Signs of attack by monsters and humans were evident, the cattle were dead, the crop storage had been set on fire, and as far as he could tell the people were only surviving because so many of them had been killed. It puzzled him slightly as to why they couldn't just hunt for food, however. Adrian himself had found hundreds of nearby monsters...unless those monsters were too powerful for the average person and their hunters had died earlier.

All in all, this was not a place where he could leave Alvin and Razieh. Adrian was far from a Saint but he was not willing to just dump two children in a place where their only fate was likely to be a slow death if they were lucky, or a swift and brutal one, if they were not. Limited food and water, no medicine as far as he could see, horrific lack of security, especially considering that while he had not seen any raiders, they should be here and the threat of monsters.

Adrian double-checked his observations and conclusions and then used Dash to move vertically upwards before returning to his carrier. Certain that his first impression had been correct and tempted to help these people out. As he sat down after his return and greeted Isis with a smile, he turned his attention to his Sword, checking his resources and skills, and confirming his abilities.

It didn't take long to realize that he could help if he was willing to take time away from his training for the Wave. Adrian took a deep breath and tried to look at the situation objectively but he couldn't help but remember the images of the people in that town, the injured lying around in pain, the listless way most of them went about their tasks ...and the many, many corpses in shallow graves.

It didn't escape his notice that most of the survivors were children or normal people. The Slave hunters must have not been allowed to abduct them freely but the cost had been the lives of every person who had been willing to fight.

He turned towards Alvin and Razieh, "I believe that your town is up ahead," he said, "Alvin, I'd like to take you down there first. We will verify that this is the correct location and make sure that we're welcome here before the rest of us land."

The wolf demi-human boy jumped up, and looked over the edge, Adrian smiled when he ended up looking in the wrong direction, "There kid," he said, pointing.

Alvin turned immediately, as did the rest of his party, the boy's eyes widened, "That's it! Ayrith! We're back home!"

He turned back to Razieh and gave her a huge hug, the girl adjusting her talons and made sure not to hurt him before returning the gesture, tears in both their eyes. Adrian wasn't sure if he wanted to break the news of just how bad the condition of their hometown was, considering the distance they were at, it was likely that the children hadn't even noticed the damage.

Adrian turned to the rest of his party, making sure not to stare at Rifana who was looking at him apprehensively as she held on tightly to Raphtalia, "I'll be sure to retreat if things get hostile," he promised.

Raphtalia frowned, "Is that likely?" she asked, a little sceptical.

Adrian sighed, "The town is badly damaged, I assume that it was because of the Slave Hunters, who were humans. I doubt I'm going to get a very good reception here."

Isis interrupted here, "I can come with you father," she said, "We'll have more power that way."

"I can retreat with ease Isis," he said calmly, "with Alvin in my arms, Dash shall move me far outside of their range of attack within an instant. Plus, we don't want to attack them, they're just people who've probably been spooked thanks to the attack against them."

She nodded, reluctant to concede, but logical enough to do so. It was remarkable just how mature she was despite being alive for less than a week.

"They won't hurt you, Mr Adrian," reassured Alvin, "We can all go right now! I'm sure gramps and mama and papa will be really happy to see you."

"That would be the best-case scenario," he admitted, "but let us take no chances. Alvin with me, I'll land the disc close by so that you all can respond if things get problematic, I'll make sure to retreat and send out a signal, probably a Sword Beam, straight up in the sky."

At the chorus of agreements, with the conspicuous silence from Rifana, Adrian moved the carrier closer to the ground and soon enough he had Alvin in his arms and they had started to approach the village.

Adrian didn't use his Dash to simply appear inside or near the village. He couldn't imagine how much that would spook them, so he walked slowly towards the town after using Dash to cover most of the distance. Alvin was impatient but a single look quelled his excitement to manageable levels.

"I can walk by myself Mr Adrian," he said, squirming in his arms.