Chapter 78: What a Mess

Of course, Chita was carried back by the Canyon Swift Crab.

Because of the severity of his injuries, Rhodes specifically instructed the crab to slow down a bit to avoid excessive jolting.

Chita's wounds had already been simply treated with the hemostatic medicine and bandages Rhodes carried, and a cleaned wolf pelt was draped over his waist.

Neither Rhodes nor Natsu had brought spare clothes when they went up the mountain, so this was the only way to cover him up.

The downside was that the current weather was rather hot—but luckily, it wasn't a long trip.

As soon as they entered the village, Chita naturally drew a crowd.

Chita was the best hunter in the village, and everyone had thought he was dead. Who could have imagined that he'd be brought back alive?

Rhodes recognized a familiar face in the crowd and quickly called out:

"Mr. Mastiff, is there a doctor in the village? Please lead us there; his injuries are serious."

Yes, and we caused most of them.

"Ah, yes!" Mastiff immediately found someone else to take over his watch at the gate. "This way, please!"

Someone else was already on their way to inform the village chief.

...

The doctor carefully treated Chita's injuries and asked the village chief to have him carried back home with care.

The doctor would come by every day for the next few days to help change his bandages.

As one of the most respected elders in the village, the old doctor remarked that in all his years of practice, he'd never seen such a mess of injuries.

There were animal bite wounds, sharp weapon cuts and stabs, blunt force trauma, and burns from fire…

And every single type of injury was that severe.

The most baffling thing was that Chita was somehow still alive.

The doctor wanted to ask whether Chita went up the mountain to hunt or to test out weapons.

Meanwhile, both Rhodes and Natsu, who were present, stared at the ceiling. It wasn't like they meant to be so rough, but they had to hit him hard enough to knock some sense into him.

The only reason this guy was alive was because of the physical strength and resilience he'd gained by taking over the Beast King.

On the other hand, without such a strong body, he wouldn't have survived such heavy hits…

A vicious cycle. It was just his bad luck.

When Chita woke up, it was already close to dusk.

Natsu and Rhodes were sparring in the village chief's yard.

Rhodes wanted to use more words and less action, but Natsu was not particularly skilled at explaining techniques.

So, after agreeing not to use magic, they ended up causing quite the commotion while they fought in the yard.

Happy and Worm were sitting at the entrance eating snacks and watching the show.

"Snacks are so tasty."

"Purrr~"

"But I want fish."

"Pur?"

"Aye, fish is the tastiest."

The conversation between the two cute creatures was almost impossible for others to comprehend.

At a certain point, Rhodes and Natsu stopped at the same time because they heard sounds coming from inside the house.

"Dad!" Clouti's voice, full of surprise.

"Dear, you're finally awake!" Snu's joyful voice had a hint of sobbing.

Thud! Pansell struck the floor with his cane, letting out a snort from his nose.

He was such a stubborn old man.

It was a touching reunion for a family that had almost been torn apart, and no one wanted to disturb that moment.

They waited at the entrance for quite a while until Pansell asked, "Do you remember what happened?"

Only then did Rhodes and Natsu knock on the door, entering after receiving permission.

"Magi, thank you, thank you…"

These words had already been said many times at the doctor's house, and Rhodes quickly helped the village chief sit down, telling him not to be so polite.

Natsu ruffled Clouti's hair, telling her to go stay by her father's side.

Rhodes noticed that Natsu seemed to be very good at comforting children.

"Actually, we wanted to understand Mr. Chita's experience. This matter concerns the recent beast attacks on the village, so I apologize for the intrusion at a time like this."

Rhodes kept a courteous attitude.

"Please don't say that. If it weren't for you, my foolish son might not have come back at all."

The village chief's tone was polite, but as soon as he turned to his son, his demeanor changed, "Hurry up and speak!"

"Yes, sir." After the recent ordeal, Chita didn't dare talk back to his father and started recounting his experience in detail.

"That day, after my argument with my father, I took my weapon and went up the mountain alone in anger. I found the Beast King.

"I didn't dare act rashly and waited until it was asleep before shooting it with an arrow.

"That arrow hit its back, and if it were a normal beast, it would have died quickly. But the Beast King…

"Its skin was so tough that the arrowhead barely pierced it. Not only did it fail to kill it, but it also enraged it. It immediately pounced on me…

"It broke my bow right away. I drew my hunting knife to fight it, but the knife got knocked away too.

"Then it pinned me down and tried to bite through my throat…"

Chita shuddered slightly as he spoke, still fearful of that moment.

Pansell didn't show any emotion on his face, but his hand gripped his cane tightly.

Snu and Clouti seemed to visualize the scene, holding onto each other in fear.

"Then I don't remember anything. It felt like I was dreaming.

"I dreamed I had become the Beast King. When I was thirsty, I drank from the mountain stream. When I was hungry, I hunted other beasts.

"At that time, I didn't seem to be able to think clearly. A voice kept telling me to fight, kill, destroy.

"I didn't know what to fight or destroy. Whenever I tried to think, my head hurt.

"But the voice kept shouting, so I kept thinking and kept having headaches. I don't know how many times I felt that pain before I suddenly thought of protecting the village and killing the Beast King.

"At that point, I didn't know what a village was or what a Beast King was, so I just kept searching the mountain for the Beast King.

"To kill the Beast King, whenever I saw a lone animal, I killed it. If I saw a wolf pack, I killed the strongest one…"

Natsu, Happy, and Snu's eyes glistened slightly, feeling touched.

But Pansell and Rhodes looked at Chita differently.

This man, even in his irrational state, remembered to protect the village and hunt the Beast King, showing his good intentions.

The problem was, his actions had unintended consequences.

It turned out that during those few days, all the beasts that ran down the mountain into the farmland or attacked the village were driven down by this guy!

No wonder, when Rhodes had his crabs patrolling, many of the animals were just passing by the village, looking for new places to live.

They simply couldn't survive on that mountain anymore. Whether they ended up at the village depended on whether they took the main path or a side path.

In other words, before Chita went up the mountain, the occasional beast attack was due to some animals being pushed out of their territory by the Beast King, so they came down to try their luck.

After Chita went up the mountain, the Beast King went on a killing spree, and the targeted animals had no choice but to flee downhill.

And thanks to Chita's efforts, there were an overwhelming number of animals fleeing.

"Daddy is amazing!" Clouti thought her father was incredible for hunting so many fierce animals all by himself.

"Hahaha…" Chita, pleased by his daughter's admiration, got a little carried away.

Pansell felt an itch in his hand, and the cane in his grip longed to strike something.

No, no—his benefactors were present. He couldn't be rude, and his son was still injured. He could wait until he healed.