Reaching the Village

Earlier, after Arthur and the others left. They all wore expressions of dissatisfaction as they turned their backs at Heinz and the unconscious fenrir.

"Fuck, a treasure was in front of us." Arthur mumbled, gritting his teeth with his finger.

"I know, if we could sell that fenrir's corpse and show it to the kingdom, we'd be bestowed titles by the king." Rin uttered, as her usual charming face turned into a sinister expression.

"But we can't beat that fucker Heinz; we must ask for help from the knights." Tate muttered, glancing over the others as they went deep into the forest.

"The knights? Are you an idiot, Tate? You know that we can't let the knights get involved." Arthur said angrily, with his brows sticking together.

"But we've got no choice; Tate has a point. We can't beat that monster." Rosalie said, intervening in their conversation.

"But the knights will take all the credit; we can't ask for their help." Arthur insisted, trying to convince the others to not let the knights get involved.

"What if?" Rin spoke in a whispering tone as the others glanced in her direction.

She stopped, raised her head, and said. "What if we try asking for help from the temple?"

They all stood silently while Lucas went forward and butted into their conversation.

"Yes, we can do that." he said with a malicious grin in his face.

"The templar knights will help, since Rin is a valuable priestess that they've been trying to get ahold of. But are you sure it's okay to ask them, Rin?" asked Arthur, who somehow felt uncomfortable.

"Yes, we can just act as victims, and being involved with the temple will instantly be solved once we become nobles." said Rin, who wore a cruel and sinister smile.

"But the fenrir's completely healed, right? How are we going to beat that monster alongside another monster?" Tate asked, raising his hand above his head.

"Did you really believe that it was healed?" Rin asked.

"Well, yeah. The wounds on the fenrir disappeared. But..."

"But the fenrir was still unconscious." Rin intervened.

The others looked at her with surprise.

"That means, even if it gets healed, there is still an opportunity we can slay that monster without any hassle. Healing its severe wounds worked; I agree with that. But the fenrir will still need some rest before regaining consciousness. Healing doesn't remove fatigue and suffering. There's no way that monster Heinz could cast perfect healing magic without knowledge of the Prophets." said Rin, explaining that even if the fenrir gets healed, it'll still take some time for it to regain consciousness.

"I see, there are only three prophets on this continent; I'm sure he isn't one. Haha!" Lucas said, chuckling in front of the others.

The others smiled and agreed.

"So in order to get that corpse, we must act quickly. Looking at that Heinz bastard, I'm sure he'll leave the fenrir alone and continue his journey. But we can't afford to meet him, so we'll come back exactly at sundown and kill that fenrir," said Rin, telling them their plan on achieving the greatest feat and becoming nobles.

"You sly priestess, aren't you a dangerous one." Rosalie said and grinned as they all looked excited about their upcoming scheme without Heinz knowing what was about to come.

Back to the current time, Heinz and Fenil sensed Arthur and the others, along with some templar knights.

"We got to escape, Master." Fenil said, holding Heinz's arm tightly.

The three stopped fighting after overhearing what Fenil had just said.

"Why though?" I asked with a calm expression, seeing that those humans weren't a threat to me in the first place.

"Eh? But if we stay, there'll be a fight. I can smell their bloodlust; they won't be coming here to talk. I assure you that." said Fenil, trying to convince Heinz.

"But those humans—" Just as I was speaking, the three Slavir girls grabbed my other hand and pulled me.

"Let's go, Mister Heinz!" Tia said.

I could not speak up and was dragged along with Fenil as we ran deep into the forest.

Meanwhile, Arthur and the others rode their horses at a fast pace, trying to reach the fenrir's last location.

"I can't believe he really believed us earlier, right?" said Tate.

"About the goblins?" Arthur asked, gripping the horse rope tightly.

"Yeah, if it weren't for the goblins, our mission would have been finished in an instant." Rin said, wearing an awfully fierce expression.

"But the fact that he had no ounce of information regarding his surroundings, I'm sure he's not from our kingdom. You guys think so too, right?" Lucas asked.

"He might be a demon that just got released, seeing as he has horrifying eyes." Rosalie uttered.

"Hey, don't talk about such things. It's a bad omen." said Rin, intervening in what Rosalie just said.

"Let's focus on getting the fenrir's corpse first and become nobles." Lucas said, wearing a greedy smile on his face as he rode his horse.

Heinz and Fenil were both dragged by the three slavir girls known as Miya, Mara, and Tia.

"Why are you bringing them to our village, Tia!" Miya shouted in anger while running.

"We can't leave them, Miya." Mara said.

As I and Fenil got dragged along, I could hear their argument clearly. It was so loud that even I was surprised that it didn't lure any monsters.

[Notice: Monsters are avoiding your direction.]

Eh? Why? Is it because of me?" I asked Grand through thought communication.

[No, it is because of Fenil's aura. A mythical creature is like a guardian deity that the monsters here should not be involved with.]

I see, so Fenil's considered a strong being. I'm glad she came with us."

[No, even without her, we are plentiful and strong.]

Yeah, yeah."

"Stop!" Miya yelled, standing before us.

She wore an angry expression while staring at me and Fenil.

"Miya, let's go before someone catches up to us." Mara said, slightly pulling Miya's cloak.

I just stood and did not utter a single word, looking at them as they talked it out. I know I was the main reason for this argument, and I intend to not go with them in the first place, but somehow I'm pretty curious about these slavirs.

"Miya, Sir Heinz isn't a bad guy. Only humans are!" Tia said.

I know I'm not a bad guy, but do they see humans as the definition of evil?" I wondered, listening to them.

Miya gritted her teeth and nodded. "Fine, let's go." she said, and we continued running deep within the forest while Fenil kept quiet and followed me.

Time passed, and the moon shone brightly, surrounded by flickering stars that besieged its beauty.

"Where is it? Are you kidding me? You brought us here for nothing?" A man dressed in white templar armor complained.

Rin and the others were devastated to see the empty land.

"How? It should have needed more time to recover and regain consciousness!" Rin yelled blatantly.

"Then how do you explain this? There isn't any fenrir in our sight." the templar knight said in anger.

Tate and the others immediately surveyed the surroundings, looking for traces of the fenrir.

Just then, several footprints were seen by Arthur as he poked the ground with his finger.

"It seems someone must have carried the fenrir, seeing as there are footprints here." said Arthur, who looked calm and collected.

"It must have not gone too far; let's chase it!" Tate yelled.

"Yes, let's do that." Rin said, looking intently at the templar knight with eager eyes.

The templar knight could not think after being pressured by the priestess's eagerness and followed along with their plan to follow the footprints.

Among them, which were positioned on the rear, a man dressed as a templar knight grinned mischievously.

"Yes, follow them." the mysterious man muttered in excitement.

Arthur and the others were too obsessed and focused on locating the fenrir.

Deep in the forest, I ran alongside the three Slavir girls, who were extremely exhausted as they panted heavily, while Fenil looked normal as always with her fierce display following behind me.

"We're almost there." Tia muttered, panting heavily.

I stared intently at the direction we were going, but I could not see a thing.

"I see the village!" Miya abruptly said as her pale expression turned bright.

Village? But I don't see a thing. Does their village somehow have a magic barrier that casts illusions of some sort?" I wondered, glancing straight at an empty forest filled with nothing but trees.

[Notice: A leakage of mana energy has been detected.]

I see, so there was a magic barrier that lets outsiders see nothing."

With that, after running through the forest, a sudden switch of atmosphere instantly altered reality.

It's as if I had just stepped into a warm room after walking for several days in the winter.

As I looked around, I could see houses along with magic lamps that shined as they were tied between ropes connecting throughout the place.

Voices began to be heard, and as I blinked, I saw a lot of people before me.

"We're here." Mara said after taking a deep breath.

"So this is the slavir's village." I mumbled and surveyed the place with my eyes.

But after imagining what slavirs might look like, the expectations I had disappeared after seeing what seemed to be normal humans.

Eh, are slavirs all humans, perhaps? Did my intuition get wrong? But they did say that its a group with coexisting race, combined. How can I only see humans?" I mumbled in my head.

"Master, this place..." Fenil said, holding the tip of my sleeve as she looked at the people gathered around.

And just then, a large man appeared out of nowhere; he was so huge that I had to raise my head in order to see him eye to eye.

"What have you done? Miya?" The man said as his deep voice resonated through my ears, seeping with anger.

The three girls that brought us gulped and took their eyes away in front of a huge boulder-like muscular man and began whistling as if they hadn't heard him speak.

"You three idiots!" The man yelled in anger as his voice shook the entirety of the village.

causing such a huge commotion that many were forced to gather, making us the center of attraction.

Chapter End.