Chapter 15: Friend’s Village And Armonis Once Again

In Duntia's Civil office, Oscar the acting lord along with the Reps of the different town departments and the guild master of Duntia's adventurers' guild are having a meeting about the recent developments in the town.

"Oscar: Thanks to ruler-sama. our town is recovering very quickly and right now we have an abundance of monster materials and products made out of them, but that brought forth new problems we have to solve"

"Trades Rep: Yeah"

"Military Rep: Did something happen?"

"Trades Rep: Yeah, we started selling the mentioned materials and products to merchants and peddlers"

"Research Rep: And because of that we started receiving attacks from the outside, right?"

"Trades Rep: It's as you said"

"Military Rep: What? I did not hear anything about that! Was it something like what happened in Donatis recently?"

"Trades Rep: No, not like that. We are being attacked politically using our goods and prices as an excuse"

"Research Rep: Some of the merchants that buy our goods are affiliated with the nobles that control the flow of goods and money within the kingdom, and since we don't overtax our goods under ruler-sama's orders our goods are sold at almost half the market price witch is undercutting the price they sell at"

"Trades Rep: That's why they sent their merchants to check out our goods and then not buy anything claiming that the quality is low and using the low price as evidence, and then spreading the rumors in other towns as well"

"Military Rep: I see, but isn't there anything we can do about this"

"Oscar: I called for this meeting to inform you all about what can we do"

"Military Rep: Oh? So we have a solution already?"

"Oscar: Umu, I discussed this problem with Ruler-sama and Lundel-dono the acting Lord of Donatis and the guild masters of both towns to find a solution for this problem. And the solution we came up with is to employ our own merchants and peddlers and have them sell our goods while spreading rumors that goes against the once spread by the merchants affiliated with the nobles that control the flow of goods and money within the kingdom"

"Research Rep: I see, but will not it be hard to have people from the town turn into merchants? You know that they don't have any experience at the job, right?"

"Oscar: We know, that's why we are not going to employ new merchants from the town. we are going to select merchants and peddlers that already on the job"

"Research Rep: Do you think they will agree to be affiliated with only us? Will not that make the nobles their enemy?"

"Oscar: They are not going to be affiliated with us, all we are going to do is to select who is allowed to sell our goods and who is not, all we are going to do is to interview them with a lie detector to see if they are affiliated with the nobles or not and to protect them we are going to register them at the adventurers guild as merchants affiliated with the guild thus protecting them from the nobles, and to make it more appealing to them we are going to provide them with Limited Storage Rings the same thing we all have but with limited space inside and the more trustable one is the more space he will have in his ring"

"Research Rep: I see, through the adventurers guild... but I didn't know that there was something as merchants affiliated with the adventurers guild"

"Regil: There was no such thing before, it's a new thing unique to the domain of The Divine Blacksmith we came up with recently"

"Research Rep: I see, Ruler-sama really likes using the adventurers guild a lot, and the adventurers guild is agreeing with everything he demands of them, is that because he is an SS rank adventurer and they don't want to lose him?"

"Regil: That's part of it, but the guild is using him as well you know. You know that each country has its unique relationship with the adventurers guild, right? This is just one of these things, and this time the adventurers guild received a direct compensation from him you know"

"Research Rep: What was it?"

"Regil: It was to lower the prices at his gear shops"

"Military Rep: Was the prices that expensive? I did not think that they were expensive when I went there last time"

"Regil: They are the same price as the market price but the adventurers like them a lot, but they have to travel long distances to get them since there are only two shops in the whole world, one in Elvens and here in Duntia. That's why we asked him to lower the prices, to make it more worth it to travel the long distance"

"Research Rep: They like his weapons and armor that much? Or are they of better quality?"

"Military Rep: There are the ones of better quality but those ones are too expensive and only S rank adventurers are allowed to buy them. The ones that most of the adventurers like are the normal ones that are of the same quality as the ones found everywhere, but the adventurers like them because they are consistent, for example, if you buy a sword from his shop and after some time of use the sword broke you can buy a new one from his shop of the same type and you'll find that it feels exactly the same as the one that broke, and that's hard to find in low-quality gear, that's why a lot of adventurers buy multiple sets of the same gear from his shop so when one is damaged beyond repair they can just use the other one and they will not feel the difference between them and so they don't need to waste time to get used to the new set"

"Research Rep: So that's why…. I see"

"Oscar: So what all of you think about the solution we came up with? If anyone is against it please raise your hand... so no one is against it, then let's start the interviews as soon as tomorrow morning and as for the rest of today I want all of you to work on spreading the news that we are going to conduct interviews tomorrow morning"

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Right now we are moving at a very high speed towards a certain village that is north of the Dark Forest.

Three hours ago….

After meeting with the Renzhe in the Dark Forest we went back to the campsite and waited for Shin and Loti to come back and soon enough they came back and I had them report to me about the performance of the new gear I made for them and it seems that it went well.

"Ryo: Now then it's time for the secret present I have for the both of you"

"Shin: Oh! I forgot about that!"

"Loti: The gear you made for us was so overwhelming for us that we forgot about it!"

"Ryo: Now I want you both to close your eyes and wait for a bit"

"Yes!"x2

"Ryo: ...{Gift}…"

"Shin: W-What was t-that?!"

"Loti: Wha-?!"

"Ryo: Calm down! Now tell me what did you feel?"

"Shin: I felt as if a surge of mana washed over my whole body…"

"Loti: I felt that too…."

"Ryo: I see, now I want you both to use {Check} on yourselves and see if anything changed about your skills"

"Shin: {Check}? But we already know that only Loti has a skill and I don't have any…"

"Loti: Yes, but I can't use my skill yet because that skill is the race-specific skill {Evil Eye} from my demonkin blood"

"Ryo: just do it and then you'll understand"

"{Check} …..Whaaatt?!"x2

Shin:

{Strength Enhancement: enables you to use mana to increase your physical strength}

{Steel Skin: enables you to turn your whole skin or part of it into Steel}

Loti:

{Evil Eye: not yet awakened}

{Strength Enhancement: enables you to use mana to increase your physical strength}

{Snipe: enables your long-range attacks to be 100% accurate and no matter what direction you shot at your long-range attacks will home in your target without fail}

"Shin: H-H-How?!"

"Loti: Where did these two skills come from?"

"Shin: Loti, you too?"

"Loti: Yes…."

"Ryo: These skills are my secret presents for you two, but don't start using them just yet, you need to get used to them first. I didn't give you these skills before because I wanted you two to get used to your new gear first because I thought that if I had you get used to the new gear and the new skills at the same time you'll be very overwhelmed and will not be able to do it"

"Shin: Forget about that for now! Where did these skills come from?"

"Ryo: I created them and gave them to you two"

"Loti: Created?!"

"Ryo: Ah! I forgot to tell you two about myself, do you want to know more about me?"

"Shin: If possible yes I want to know!"

"Loti: Me too! I have been asking myself 'how are you able to do all of these things ?' that's why I want to know!"

"Ryo: Alright, as you already know my name is Ryo and 15 years ago, I was born in a certain town of the kingdom to a couple of adventures but because I was born with three skills the church and the Lord of the town tried to take me from my parents by force and that led to my parents risking their lives to protect me, and to do that they headed to the Death Desert because they heard rumors about a couple S rank adventurers who hate the nobles of the Kazar Kingdom living in the other side of the Death Desert and so they tried to cross it to reach there but were attacked by S rank monsters halfway through the desert and both died protecting me but I was saved by the adventurers my parents wanted to seek help from, and they followed my mother's last wish to take care of me and raised me in the village they were living in, in that village lived humans, beastmen, demonkin, an elf and a giant in peace. And one day I learned that I can use my three skills to make a lot of things and skills were one of such things, that's why I learned blacksmithing from my foster father and magic and alchemy from my foster mother and about politics and math and many other things from my other foster mother, after that I became an adventurer at Donatis and you already know about the rest of my story"

"Shin: By a couple S rank adventurers living across the Death Desert, do you mean the Hell Blade and the Bloody Witch?��

"Ryo: Yes, Urak the Hell Blade and Annsia the Bloody Witch, you knew about them?"

"Shin: Yeah I knew, my sister used to tell me stories about them all the time, apparently she met them once in the past...wait…15… you are the same age as us?!"

"Ryo: Yeah, is there anything wrong about that?"

"Shin: No, it's just that I thought you were older than us…"

"Loti: You said that you had two foster mothers?..."

"Ryo: Yeah, the other one is an exiled noble from the Kazar Kingdom and she is the mayor of the village"

"Shin: I see, now about the next stage of training…"

"Ryo: The next stage of your training will be you getting used to the new skills by fighting in actual combat against …me"

"Shin: Against you?"

"Ryo: Yeah, we are going to fight one on one until the one fighting against me can't fight anymore and then-..."

"Shin: Why did you stop?"

"Ryo: Seth!!"

"Seth: Yes, Master did you need something?"

"Ryo: Just now I received a telepathic message from Hi the King Flare Owl I sent to scout around your village and it seems that it's going to be attacked in five days!"

"Seth: By my village you mean.."

"Ryo: Yes, the one you saved ten years ago, your friend's village. Shin Loti start preparing to leave this place we need to move now, I'll explain everything to you once we start moving"

"Yes, Sir!!"x3

Back to the present…

We had Kage run as fast as he can while pulling the carriage behind him and it took us only one full day to start seeing a big black mountain in the distance, in the western side of that mountain there is a man-made cave with an entrance that is nearly 50 meters high and there is a village that is halfway inside the cave, our destination.

After six more hours of continuous running, we reached the vicinity of the village and so I asked Kage to slow down and to start walking at horses running speed and to change his appearance to that of a Fire Wolf to avoid scaring the people of the village and at the same time, I had Seth be in the usually empty driver seat with his horns and tail out.

Once we reached 200 meters away from the village we stopped moving because we noticed some kind of movement inside the village, shortly after that armed humans and beastmen came out of the village and started walking slowly towards us and then they started surrounding us from all sides, at the same time I asked Kage to lay down on his belly and to never show hostility towards them.

"Leader like man: Who are you?- …. Wait… Sethrod, Sethrod!! Is that you?"

"Seth: Yeah, that's me. You really have become old, Wolf!"

The man named Wolf is a Golden Wolf beastman and he is the elder of this village and Seth's friend, since coming out of the village he kept his gaze on me, the one sitting cross-legged on top of the carriage while Shin and Loti are looking from behind the front window of the carriage. After coming close enough to be able to determine that I am not hostile towards any of them Wolf started looking all over the huge carriage we came in and soon enough he noticed Seth sitting on the driver's seat and called out to him.

"Wolf: Who are you calling old? Aahh?!"

"Seth: You! who else?"

"Wolf: Tsk, same as always I see. Sethrod, tell me what happened to you after that?"

"Seth: I was thrown inside a steel cage for the past ten years but I was freed by this young man over here and so I decided to serve him for the rest of his life"

"Wolf: I see, that's really so like you. Oi, you guys lower your weapons!! Those people are my friends!"

Heading his words, the people surrounding the carriage lowered their weapons and started gathering in front of the carriage.

"Wolf: So what brought you to our village? Knowing you I was sure that you would have come to visit us once you got your freedom but you would have taken at least 20 years wandering around before you do, or did something happen?"

"Seth: It's as you have guessed, we have got hold of information that the Holy Church is attacking this village, and so we rushed here to help fight them off"

"Wolf: I see, to think they would discover us…"

"Seth: That noble must have told them"

"Wolf: Yeah, I agree. I must thank The Divine Blacksmith for killing him. By the way, do you know anything about their numbers?"

"Seth: There are a hundred of them, and all of them are Holy Knights and they appear to be dragging some beastmen children behind them and they are going to arrive tomorrow at noon"

"Wolf: Damn it!! Those trash are going to use the kids as meat shields just like last time!"

"Seth: Calm down, We have a way to deal with that, don't worry"

"Wolf: You do!! Thank goddess you came, but could you tell me what are you going to do?"

"Seth: I am going to let my master fight them, that's all"

"Wolf: Your master? I can see that he is strong, but can he deal with the Holy knights while keeping the kids safe?"

"Ryo: Sorry about the late introduction, my name is Ryo, I am an SS ranked adventurer and I am known as The Divine Blacksmith, nice to meet you"

"Wolf: What?! The real thing?..."

"Ryo: Here is my guild card"

"Wolf: It's the real thing! I can't believe it!.... but is it alright to fight with the Holy Church? Will not that make things harder for you?"

"Ryo: You see, yesterday I received a letter from my acting Lord in Donatis that says that the Holy Church has branded me a heretic and so I thought if it's war that they want then war is what they will get, that's why I want you to let me fight them alone so that I can show them my real powers"

"Wolf: Branded heretic! Are they that stupid? Turning an SS rank into your enemy *Sigh~*... sorry to ask, but what are planning to do with the Holy Church after you are done here?"

"Ryo: I am going to accept every fight they try to pick with me and thus destroying them a little bit at a time till they stop picking fights with me or end up being annihilated by me"

"Wolf: Ooooou!! Hear that everyone?! The annihilation of the Holy Church is near! It's party time! Bring out the alcohol and the best foods we have! You guys too! Come on let's go inside the village and party together!"

"Seth: Yes Yes, we know already *Sigh* really this guy…"

"Ryo: Hahahaha! You have a really interesting friend, don't you?"

"Seth: He is just an idiot that's all!"

"Ryo: Hahahaha…"

"Shin: … This has gotten crazy"

"Loti: Yeah…."

===============================================

In the basement of a certain mansion in a certain town.

Two shadows were moving in the darkness of the basement and were heading towards the inner cells in the basement.

Inside one of the cells, there was an elf who is pound to the wall with chains with marks of torture all over his body, the elf noticed the movement of the suspicious individuals heading towards his cell.

"Elf: Who goes there? I know you are there!"

"???: Calm down, we are here to free you guys"

"Elf: A beastmen?! And you said you are here to free us?"

"Renzhe: We are the Renzhe, and we were tasked with freeing all the beastmen and elfs held captives by the nobles all over the Kingdom"

"Elf: I see, so you guys have started moving again. Thank you"

After that short exchange, the Renzhe started freeing the Elf and beastmen slaves from their chains and gathered them outside their cells, and then one rabbit-eared beastman man walked towards one of the two Renzhes.

"Rabbit Beastman: Could you please free the group of humans over there as well, we used to live in the same village and they tried to cover for us when the people of the Kingdom raided our village, that's why they were captured with us, please free them!"

The two Renzhes took out a strange artifact that was shaped like a straight stick and started touching the collars of the gathered beastmen and elfs one by one, and after they were done…

"Renzhe: {Overload}"

After saying that word all the collars touched earlier by the stick artifact crumpled into dust and disappeared after that, one of the two Ranzhes took out another artifact and started using it to heal the injuries of the freed slaves and used another artifact to cure them of any sicknesses if they had any. The other Renzhe looked at the rabbit beastman in the eyes and…

"Renzhe: That was our intention from the start, if there are others you know of please tell us and we will free them as well"

"Rabbit Beastman: … Thank you!"

===============================================

Right now I'm standing alone 100 meters away from the village's front gate facing the west, the direction the Holy Knights are going to arrive from.

Hi, my tamed King Flare Owl is flying high in the sky directly atop the Holy Knights, I have been using him to collect information about them and from what I could gather they are a collective force made out of Holy Knights coming from different towns and cities and are being led by the captain of the first platoon who came from the capital city.

It seems they started gathering these numbers at the same time as the guys sent by the second prince to attack Donatis, the existence of this village was reviled to the Holy Church by that noble we killed at that time before leaving the capital to join the idiot son of the previous Lord of Donatis.

But assembling this number of Holy Knights and the collection of the beastmen children slaves took them months to finish, but the main reason is that they didn't want to waste the time of their main troops at the capital for such a simple mission but regardless of that they wanted the credit to go to the main Church that's why the leader of this mission is the captain of the first platoon from the main Church and the rest of the Holy Knights are assembled from all over the Kingdom.

After ten minutes of waiting, the Holy Knights appeared from over the horizon pulling the beastmen kids behind them. I continued looking at them till they made it to ten meters away from me and the leader guy raised his hand singling for them to stop.

"Holy Knights Captain: The guy over there! Move aside! We have a mission to fulfill!"

"Ryo: I am afraid that I can't do that"

"Holy Knights Captain: What?.. wait! That crest on your chest, could it be that you are that Godless brat calling himself The Divine Blacksmith?"

"Ryo: That's right"

"Holy Knights Captain: And you are going to protect those filthy beasts in that village?"

"Ryo: Yeah"

"Holy Knights Captain: Hahahahahahaha! I see! It seems that luck is on my side! This must surely be the blessing of our glorious God! To be the one to rid the world of the filthy fool The Divine Blacksmith! I really am a lucky man, Hahahahahaha!"

"Ryo: We will see about that"

"Holy Knights Captain: We certainly will... from what I know it seems to me that you love those filthy beasts a lot, show me how are you going to fight against us who possess the perfect shield against beasts loving fools like you"

Saying that he signaled to the Holy Knights to bring the 'Shields' to the front and so each one of them started pulling on the chains they held in their hands bringing a beastmen kid in front of each one of them, they placed their hands on the kids' necks from behind and started pushing them forward forcing them to move towards me. I smiled at the kids and…

"Ryo: {Shadow Arts: Shadow Domain}"

A huge shadow appeared and covered the whole battlefield and the village behind me, the Holy Knights started looking up towards the sky looking for the thing that caused this huge shadow to appear but all they could see was a perfectly clear sky, not even a single cloud could be seen.

"Holy Knights Captain: You bastard! What did you do?"

"Ryo: {Shadow Arts: Shadow Exchange}"

Right at that moment all the chained kids disappeared leaving their chains behind, they then suddenly appeared right next to me, they seemed confused but they calmed down once they noticed what has happened.

"Ryo: next is… {Overload}…{Angel's Breath}"

Using {Overload} I turned all of the slave collars on their necks into dust, all of the Holy Knights grimaced once they saw that and the fact that they lost their meat shields was so shocking they stopped moving entirely, but once they saw me use {Angel's Breath} they all gone mad with anger and their killing intent towards me intensified. {Angel's Breath} is an advanced wide-area healing magic that only the Cardinals and Pope of the Holy Theocracy are allowed to use it, and me using it on beastmen no less have tipped them over.

"Ryo: Once more {Shadow Arts: Shadow Exchange}"

After that, I teleported the kids to the village behind me and faced the Holy Knights, all of them were looking at me with eyes full of hate and disdain, I took Scarlet in my left hand from my waist and placed my right hand on the handle and pulled Scarlet out of its Sheath.

"Ryo: Now, let's start"

===============================================

Shin's POV…

After teleporting the kids to the village the adults advised them to hide inside some of the houses till the scary fight is over, but they refused and insisted to remain here to watch the Onii-san who saved them fight, and thus right now they are lined up beside the villagers watching Sensei fight.

Me too, I am extremely interested in this fight. Yesterday Sensei said that he is going to show them his powers, that's why I want to see how strong really is he, the SS rank adventurer we call Sensei.

Up high in the sky, there is a floating metallic ball, a recording artifact we are using to record the whole fight with.

"Ryo: Now, let's start"

Saying that Sensei pulled out his sword and lowered it to his side and lightly touched the ground with it and instantly hundreds of shadows started appearing around the circumference of the huge shadow that appeared earlier, all of them were Shadow Hounds and they were all laying down as if they were called to just watch and nothing else.

With just that the Holy Knights have lost all will to fight and are shaking in fear of the hundreds of Shadow Hounds that appeared all around them, but Sensei was not done yet.

"Ryo: {Homura Bito}"

Now a hundred black skeletons wearing armor and holding weapons in their hands appeared 30 meters behind the Holy Knights and they were alarmed by them but calmed down once all of the skeletons dropped their weapons down and sat on the ground cross-legged showing that they are here to watch and nothing else.

The Holy Knights noticed that all of the Shadow Hounds and skeletons are here to watch and nothing else they regained their will to fight and faced Sensei once again.

"Holy Knights Captain: Stay firm! Those monsters are not going to fight! This bastard is underestimating us! He thinks that he can defeat us by himself and that he doesn't need the help of those monsters to achieve that! Are you going to forgive that?!"

"Oooooooooooooooouu!!"

"Holy Knights Captain: That's right! We can't forgive him for insulting our god in front of our eyes and having the gal to use the miracle of God on those filthy beasts! Kill him! God is on our side! Justice is on our side!"

"Oooooooooooooooooooooooouuu!!"

Motivated by their captain's words, the Holy Knights all started running towards Sensei weapons in hand.

"Ryo: {Kurushimi No Hono}!"

Sensei said that loudly enough for everyone to hear what him, right at the next instant reddish-black flames covered his sword and then he started running towards the Holy Knight's captain but then suddenly he changed his direction and started running towards the right side of the Holy Knights' formation, but this time his posture was lowered and he is holding his sword in front of him.

"Holy Knight: Dieee!!"

One of the Holy knights attacked Sensei head-on from the front while two others came running behind him to back him up, Sensei lightly dodged the first attack and then slashed at the three Holy knights with his flame covered sword from his lowered posture and at the next moment reddish-black flames covered their entire bodies and they started screaming.

"Knight No.1: Gyaaaaaaaaaa!!-.."

"Knight No.2: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"

"Knight No.3: Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

The moment they started screaming, Sensei jumped up and while the Knights were distracted by what happened to those three he slashed with his sword downwards as he came down at a group of them that stopped moving and were looking at the flame covered three.

"Holy Knights Captain: You guys be careful he is attacking from above!!"

"Ryo: You are late!"

Sensei's attack connected with the ground and a dome of flames was created from the impact engulfing ten of the Holy Knights. The flames didn't last long and disappeared in no time and from there the figure of Sensei running towards another group of Holy Knights could be seen, leaving behind him the ten screaming Knights as the reddish-black flames consumed them.

He is running towards a group of Holy Knights who were chanting magic since the start of the battle, from the long chant and the pure white mana ball that was growing bigger as more time passed, the spell they are chanting must be the advanced Holy magic spell {Divine Rain}. This sell needs to be cast by multiple Holy Knights at the same time to get the most of it, this spell works by creating thousands of swords made out of Holy attributee mana high in the sky and then raining them down on their annihilation targets, the strong point of this spell is that the swords will never miss their targets or hit the wrong person to the point of going through other people without harming them to reach their targets and that is one of the strong points of the Holy and Dark attributee, the ability to select whom to harm and whom to not.

And the second strong point of this spell is that the more people casting it the bigger the area of effect is, and right now there are 20 Holy Knights casting it, and their target is us, everyone in the village. I knew about this spell because everyone knew about it, the Holy Church always use this spell whenever they decide to purge villages and towns that have turned their backs to them, that's why it's one of the reasons people fear the Holy Church.

Sensei is running towards the 20 Holy Knights casting it, the Holy Knights next to them stepped forward to protect them till they finish casting and at the same time, other Holy Knights started rushing towards Sensei to surround and stop him.

"Ryo: {Flash Step}...…{Fear}!"

Suddenly Sensei disappeared and at the same time a huge amount of blood lust came from behind the Holy Knights who were running behind Sensei to surround him, and there was the figure of Sensei holding his sword over his head, once the Holy Knights looked back at him he slashed his sword down causing another dome to form burning another ten Holy Knights.

There are 77 Holy Knights that are still alive including the ones casting {Divine Rain}. All the remaining Holy Knights surrounded the ones casting {Divine Rain} to protect them from Sensei. after the dome disappeared, Sensei appeared standing there with his sword sheathed and ten Holy Knights screaming behind him in agony.

I noticed something and started looking around the battlefield to confirm what is on my mind, what I found surprised me. The Holy Knights who were screaming in pain since the start of the battle they all died, but there was something strange about them. They disappeared but their armor and weapons are intact on the ground, the reddish-black flame burned only their bodies and left their equipment intact on the ground, and looking at where the domes of reddish-black flame formed, there are no burn marks whatsoever. This means that the reddish-black flame only burned the bodies of the Holy Knights and nothing else. That reddish-black flame must be a type of Dark magic.

While I was thinking about that, the pure white ball at the center of the Holy Knights disappeared and thousands of pure white swords appeared in the sky, they finished chanting {Divine Rain}.

"Holy Knights Captain: Hahahahaha! It seems it was us who won this battle! Now die along with your beloved filthy beasts! Divine Blacksmith!"

"Ryo: {Batto: Iai Homura, Kurushimi No Hono}!"

Sensei dropped his posture down and unleashed his sword at an astonishing speed towards the sky sending countless slashes made out of the reddish-black flame towards the sky, each slash headed to one of the pure white swords as they come down on us burning them, once all the pure white swords were burned and nothing of them was left in the sky the reddish-black flames disappeared as well leaving the Holy Knights dumbfounded.

"Ryo: One more time…..{Batto: Iai Homura, Kurushimi No Hono}"

"Holy Knights Captain: STOOOOOOPPPPP!!"

Sensei returned his sword to its sheath and raised his hand up and chanted the previous attack again, but this time rather than slashes, 76 swords made out of the reddish-black flame formed up in the sky above the Holy Knights. The swords rained down on them, one sword went towards one of the Holy Knights, they tried blocking them but they just passed through their swords and armor and stuck them in their chests and all of them burned to death while screaming leaving their captain by himself.

Sensei pulled his sword out again and started walking towards the Holy Knights Captain who was kneeling on the ground in despair and stopped in front of him.

"Holy Knights Captain: It's all your fault! Your faaault!! If it weren't for you none of this would have happened! It's all your fault! Protecting those filthy beasts! Do you think you can get away with this! Turning our glorious Holy Church against you!!"

"Ryo: Idiot, don't get backward! You guys are the ones who declared war against me! Do you think you guys could get away with that?"

"Holy Knights Captain: You are nothing but a beastmen sympathizing piece of shit! Our glorious Holy Church is going to bring God's judgment down on you! And then we'll see who'll be laughing in the end!!"

"Ryo: Was that your last words?...then…"

Reddish-black flame started flowing down Sensei's sword and then he used the sword to cut the Holy Knights Captain's head off and with the same motion, he slashed behind him, and then cracks started appearing in the air were he slashed and right after that something turned into dust and disappeared. After the captain's body burned completely, Sensei sheathed his sword and started walking towards us, and at the same time, the huge shadow disappeared along with the Shadow Hounds and skeletons.

Upon reaching us the people of the village all started cheering for him, all of them are way beyond excited and I don't blame them, we have watched a battle way beyond our imagination, it was so awesome I still can't believe what I saw, especially the last attack that killed most of the Holy Knights and erased the swords of {Divine Rain}, that spell has killed a lot of people in the past, people who wanted to live in peace with beastmen, people who believed in different Gods from the ones the Holy Church's, or even people who didn't want to follow their doctrine, all of them were purged with {Divine Rain}, but right here and now Sensei, Ryo The Divine Blacksmith erased the swords made by that spell and after that, he rained down black swords on them with power that exceeds theirs.

Everyone started running towards him with Wolf-san and Seth-san in the front.

"Wolf: That was awesome! You really are SS rank! I can't believe I was able to witness such an amazing fight! My heart is beating so hard I can't stop my tail from wagging in excitement!"

"Beastmen Boy 1: Onii-chan! Thank you for saving us from those mean guys!"

"Beastmen Boy 2: When they took us from the slave merchant place I was scared of what they were going to do with us, really thank you for saving us!"

"Beastmen Girl 1: Me too! Thank you, Onii-chan!"

"Ryo: You guys were brought from a slave merchant?"

"Beastmen Girl 2: Un, those scary guys bought us from there"

"Ryo: What about your parents? Were they in that slave merchant's place?"

"Beastmen Boy 1: Yes, they were there!"

"Beastmen Girl 1: They tried to protect us but that slave merchant guy used that black collar thing to make them stop, Onii-chan! Please help my mom!"

"Beastmen Boy 2: Please Onii-chan, save mom and dad!"

Hearing that all the beastmen around us started looking at the kids with sad eyes, everyone was hoping that Sensei can do something about the kids' parents and I was the same, but when I looked at Seth-san, he was watching them with a warm smile on his face, but before I was able to ask him, Sensei raised his right-hand slightly up and snapped his fingers, the next moment a shadow fell down from the sky right in front of Sensei, looking closely, I could see a man kneeling in front of Sensei, he is wearing a black outfit with Sensei's crest on it and covering his face with a strange white mask. The man removed his mask and pulled back the hood covering his head, he was a Wolf beastman the same as Wolf-san.

"Renzhe: Young master! You called?"

"Ryo: Yeah, I want you to track down where these Holy Knights came from and figure out the location of the slave merchant they bought the beastmen children from and to free all the beastmen in there and to bring them here, after that I want you to locate the towns these Holy Knights were dispatched from and destroy them all, can you do it?"

"Renzhe: Easy"

"Ryo: Good luck then"

"Renzhe: Yes!"

The beastmen man suddenly disappeared and then six black wyverns flew over our heads heading to the direction the Holy Knights came from, at the end of their conversation the beastmen man was smiling, it was as if he was happy about the order given to him.

"Wolf: To think that you have the Renzhe working under you…"

"Shin: The Renzhe?!! You mean that Renzhe?"

"Wolf: Yes, that Renzhe. The guy just now is one of them, right?"

"Ryo: Yeah, we joined hands and right now they are scattered all around the Kingdom freeing elfs and beastmen using my name as a cover, and I am providing them with weapons and artifacts I made"

"Wolf: I see"

"Seth: Wolf, how about joining the domain of The Divine Blacksmith? doing that will provide you with protection and you can sell the medical plants you are cultivating inside the cave to the other towns and in return, you can buy the things you can't get here"

"Wolf: I absolutely would like doing that, but we will not be able to cultivate any more medical plants for the meantime, our numbers have grown way beyond the village's capacity that's why we have been enlarging the cave to build more houses and due to what happened today it seems that we will be getting even more people leaving with us, that's why I'll refrain from joining the domain of The Divine Blacksmith for now because I don't want us to be a burden to the other towns"

"Ryo: Then how about I connect this village to my hometown?"

"Wolf: Your hometown?"

"Ryo: Yes, it's a village where humans, beastmen, demonkin, elfs, and giants are living peacefully together, the same as this village but it has more races living in it, so by connecting this village to that one you'll be able to send some of your people there and at the same time you'll be able to employ the builder living in that village, a giant, to help you dig out the cave and even use the mountain as building space, that way the two villages can help build each other and once both the villages are ready, they will be connected to the rest of the towns in the domain"

"Wolf: To think that such a place exists in this Kingdom, but is connecting the two villages really possible?"

"Ryo: I can do it easily with Space-Time magic"

"Wolf: I see, can you take me to that village first? I want to check it out if possible"

"Ryo: No problem, and we can leave Seth in charge of things here till we come back"

"Seth: Leave it to me!"

��Shin: Sensei, I want to go with you!"

"Loti: Me too!"

"Ryo: Alright! The ones going are me, Wolf-san, Shin and Loti"

"Yeah"x3

"Ryo: Okay then, {Teleport}!"

The scenery in front of us changed to that of a big gate connected to a high stone wall, and the area around us changed from that of rocky plains to that of grassy plains, in front of the gate stood one elf man and once he noticed us he came running towards us.

"Nash: Ryo! Welcome home, seeing that you have come home, did something happen?"

"Ryo: Nash! Good to see that you are in good health, how were things with Lao?"

"Nash: You don't need to ask! Perfect of course!"

"Ryo: Hahaha, good"

"Nash: Is there anything I can help with?"

"Ryo: Is Old man Nos in here? Or did he go to collect materials?"

"Nash: He is in here, but he plans to go materials collecting tomorrow"

"Ryo: Good, I am going to talk to him then"

"Nash: Got it! Take care!"

We followed Sensei inside the village past the gate and what we found was a village that is full of beastmen and a lot of houses were being built by them. Once they noticed us they started running towards us leaving their work behind.

"Ryo is back!"

"Ryo nii-chan came back!"

"Ryo!!!"

"Ryo: Yeah, I'm back everyone!"

"WELCOME HOME!"

===============================================

Short Story: Who?....

"Man: Pearl-sama! Our guests were all delighted with your food! Their praises for you are not stopping at all!"

"Pearl: And? Was that all they said about the food?"

"Man: Eh! They are saying that your cooking is the best ever! And that it's the best in the whole world!"

"Pearl: That's not what I'm asking about!! Those bastards! I am going to fillet them!!"

The woman named Pearl took to knives in her hands and started running towards the exit of the kitchen she is in right now.

"Paul: Head Chef is going to rampage again! Restrain her!"

This is not the first time that Head Chef Pearl starts rampaging and starts attacking her guests, as for the reason why….. No one knows.

*NOTE: Thank you DestroyerMon for proofreading this chapter*