Distant rumors

"New newspaper! Hot news on the battlefield!"

Lately the weekly articles always mention the battlefields in the west and north.

The phenomenon of mutant monsters increased sharply, many people living in the border areas had to migrate to kingdoms to live. But for some reason, they were not allowed to immigrate inside the kingdom but had to live wandering outside. Currently the population is exploding, the royal family is having a headache to solve the problem.

Not to mention the gossip of the people in the kingdom, they rumored that the royal family was pouring treasury into the church in an uncontrolled way. Moreover, the upper class are not a few stingy people, not bothering to spend a penny to support those migrants.

But those migrants still have places they can go.

In a village deep inside the forest, Kemonomimi village, which normally only has a few villagers, is now more crowded and noisy than ever. Many migrants are welcomed by the villagers, who are provided with decent food and accommodation.

The incident started a few days ago, when Mae gathered the people in the village. After a period of recovery, she read many articles about migrants with no place to stay. When wandering around Drakenberg and asking for information from people around, I learned about the difficult situation at the border.

She also listened to a lot of gossip from the nobles, they didn't seem to care at all about those poor migrants but only worried about themselves. Mae wished that if she were still human, she would definitely speak out against her, but that would also be unrealistic. Because even if she had a human form, her status was too low, how could she compete with those nobles.

Now she can only help the migrants within her ability. When she shared this idea with the villagers, luckily everyone agreed with her.

So the whole village joined hands to prepare a lot of food and build shelter. When they saw the first group of migrants passing through the forest, they invited them into the village.

Thanks to that, the migrants began to spread rumors about a village in the forest that was willing to let them settle there. Gradually over time, the migrants no longer came to the Drakenberg, there were many rumors that they were lured into the forest by something, and there were even more false rumors that the migrants had become mutant monster.

Mae looked at the statistical information on the desk, it seemed like everything was going smoothly, besides Grayce was assisting her in handling this paperwork. Loya walked into the office with one hand holding a tea tray with snacks, and the other holding a stack of documents.

"This is a report on transported goods" - Loya

"Put them on Grayce's desk" - Mae

"Madam Mae, let me handle the rest of the work. You've been working past your lunch break" - Grayce

She rubbed her face and felt tired, perhaps because she was so focused on work that she almost forgot that she also needed to rest. Mae just remembered that she asked the two cat maids to go shopping since morning and still haven't returned.

Suddenly she had a bad feeling in her heart.

*Bang*

The door to the room suddenly opened, the person who did so was Fifi, she looked very devastated, her clothes were dirty and had a few small tears.

"Belle...Madam Mae, please save Belle!"- Fifi

_______

A few hours ago...

Belle and Fifi invited each other to go shopping in Drakenberg when they accidentally heard those rumors. Belle was so angry that her feathers were ruffled and she was about to jump out and scold those nobles, but Fifi stopped her.

"I will let those people know!" - Belle

"Stop it, we can't do anything" - Fifi

"What's wrong with them? Madam Mae had to try so hard to save those migrants, while the nobles couldn't do anything!" - Belle

"There's nothing we can say, Madam Mae doesn't care about those rumors. We always put our trust in our master, Madam Mae has helped us a lot, isn't it us?" Have we all agreed that she is suitable for the position of village chief?" - Fifi

"What you say is right. It's best to ignore it" - Belle

The two cat maids laughed at each other when suddenly a man blocked their path.

"Hello two beautiful girls, are you free to come with me to this place?"

Feeling the smell of danger from that man, Belle immediately held Fifi's hand and walked away from that man, but Fifi's other hand was held by the other man.

"Hey, I spoke softly but didn't you listen?!"

Immediately, Belle kicked him straight in the face. The man fell down in pain. The two girls immediately ran away as quickly as possible, ignoring the man screaming behind them. After a chase, they were surrounded by a group of the man's friends.

"You guys have a lot of courage to attack a human like me! The monsters still seem like a bunch of mindless savages."

"Damn it, Fifi, run away. I'll be here to hold them off" - Belle

"But..."- Fifi

"At least one person can escape so they can tell Madam Mae!"- Belle

"Belle..."- Fifi

"Run away!" - Belle shouted loudly

Fifi had no choice, she held back her tears and ran away quickly. When a man tried to capture her, he was attacked by Belle.

_______

Now Fifi is in the room being cared for by Baity. Her condition is just exhausted so she needs to rest.

After hearing the story, Mae now feels angry. A fire of indignation was brewing in her heart.

"Grayce, please take over the job here for me. I will go rescue Belle" - Mae

"I understand, Madam Mae" - Grayce

While Abys was sleeping in bed, he woke up. Seemingly sensing his master's anger, Abys immediately jumped onto Mae's neck to accompany her.

When it was night time, in a bar in an alley, where bad people were living, in a wine warehouse under the bar, Belle was tied with her hands behind her back and her mouth was gagged. Don't let her scream. After letting Fifi escape, she was controlled by the other men. They tied her up and threw her behind bars.

Luckily they hadn't done anything immoral to her, Belle collapsed on the cold ground.

She remembers when she was a child, spending a childhood wandering around to survive, when she was arrested for stealing, Fifi was the one who saved her.

The two of them were with the people in the village of Kemonomimi, until three walking mushrooms fell from the sky. They are a mother and two children. Her life changed almost instantly, from a street child she now had a home.

She thinks that this world is unfair to everyone, lucky people are born with happiness, and unlucky people have misfortune. But how silly that thought is, because her life now proves her thesis wrong.

What if Belle was sold into slavery by those men, or worse, killed? Then she is willing to accept that.

Suddenly there were a lot of loud noises from above, like fighting sounds, probably a group of drunks fighting aimlessly. But there seemed to be screams of fear as well, definitely not a normal conflict.

The noisy sound got closer and closer until the wooden door was suddenly kicked open, and a man among the people who kidnapped her was knocked unconscious. Belle tried to raise her head to look and saw a familiar mushroom figure stopping in front of the bars.

"Belle, are you okay?"- Mae

"Hmm!!!"- Belle

A man from behind swung an ax to attack Mae from behind, when Abys turned his head towards him and spit out a flame that scared him into hitting the iron bar and causing him to lose consciousness. Mae immediately used magic to strengthen her body so she could bend the two iron bars to easily open the way.

Mae ran closer and removed the scarf covering Belle's mouth, the cat maid's body was quite injured. She immediately took out a bottle of recovery medicine for Belle to drink, once the wound on her body closed. Then Mae carried her out of this place.

Coming out of the basement, Belle saw a surprising scene. All the men who kidnapped her, including the unrelated drunk men, were beaten to a pulp. She could not believe that her master could defeat such tall men so easily. such easy way. It's true that her master is strong.

Stepping out of the pub, Prim's delivery truck was waiting outside. Mae placed Belle inside and they returned to Kemonomimi village.

On the way, Belle leaned against Mae's body to feel the warmth from the walking mushroom.