16. Why?

Despite the great wave of hatred and resentment that hit her, Sofi still managed to hold herself back enough not to show any reaction other than staring at the staff while the others admired the sword.

Mentally she knew that that hatred would be of no use, a hatred that she didn't even know who it was directed at, at the weapon that could help her on the day she needed it most, at the god who only after centuries since the worst disaster that happened to her world, or there is herself for not being able to stop it from happening and still losing those she cared about most and the one she loved most in the process.

Whatever it was, she knew there would be no point dwelling on this feeling for long, especially now that she had decided to dedicate everything she had to that same enigmatic entity that had helped them before.

Like Hannah, Sofi also promised to do whatever was necessary to save Matt last night, albeit with much more skepticism and much less hope than anyone in the tavern even after seeing firsthand the fates of the nobleman and his henchmen.

Even though this god had helped them and she was grateful to him, there was always a persistent feeling of betrayal and anger that never left, it may have only been a day (not even that actually) but that didn't matter, for the villagers were over time, what had already happened was more than enough for us to become sincere worshipers and based on what had just happened now at the "altar" these worshipers were about to increase.

But this feeling never went away, after all it had started many years ago, a long time before this small village existed and even with what she had witnessed in those almost 2 days, Sofi didn't know if these feelings would ever go away.

While she contemplated her own anguish, sometimes looking at the staff, sometimes strangely at her bracelet, Sofi didn't notice that the crowd of people finally calmed down and began to demand explanations. Soon Gerard the unofficial head of the village told them.

"My friends, calm down, it wouldn't do any good for you to get excited and demand answers that we don't even know. I believe that at least some of you have already heard about what happened yesterday. But I'm sorry to say that we also have no idea what happened." He said pointing to the altar where the staff was still at his feet.

 "Whether of us, we have no idea how we could compensate for the help, we can only speculate like you. But I guarantee it!" The man said in the strongest and most authoritative tone he could manage.

"I assure everyone that he does not wish us any harm, you all saw it. The boar that we presented was accepted, as well as our thanks. Not only that, but He also sent us these weapons, even though there were only two of them, I believe we all know that even one knife can be useful in times of need. Who then can say a sword that could have been made by a God?"

Gerard may consider himself nothing more than a villager with a little more education and a slightly sharper mind than most. But it was undeniable that he had a natural talent for oratory and a magnetic charisma that made people listen to him and to some extent follow him.

"But why? Why now? Because your... "God" didn't help before. Because he didn't help when the goblins showed up, or when a group of bandits set fire to Sam's house for not paying a silver coin for the " protection." Why not when there were tornadoes, droughts or famine? Why here and not elsewhere, Mr. Gerard?!"

One of the newcomers who almost lost a leg, had a broken arm and bandages on his head came from the tavern and began to rage.

Not that he could be entirely to blame, his house, several friends and acquaintances were killed or had to endure disasters seemingly for no reason and without any kind of help, whether mortal or divine, of course including himself.

Within seconds the amazement and admiration that many had felt when the boar disappeared and the weapons appeared was replaced by anger and resentment, many began to raise their voices while others simply began to scream.

Gerard realized that things were about to take a turn for the worse if he didn't do something soon, many of the new arrivals were injured, exhausted or both.

But above all, they were angry at having to flee their homes, an anger that was suppressed by tiredness and hunger, but when it found a way to show itself, it took over their thoughts and clouded their logic, after all, what would the people of the village have? It had to do with the disasters that happened to the neighbors, it wasn't as if they ordered it would be disasters for them or that they themselves hadn't faced problems themselves.

However, the core of the problem was based on the fact that those who were actually in a worse state were the newcomers who had not received any type of help or rest. While the residents of the village had indeed faced disasters, from the newcomers' point of view it was a "smaller" disaster than theirs and the residents still had help as was just demonstrated very well with the weapons.

Because of this their anger, sadness, worry and exhaustion eventually showed and quickly approached the breaking point.

*ffffffffffiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuuuuuuuuuuu*

Until an extremely high-pitched whistle was heard. The whistle was so loud that it could be heard literally across 1/5 of the village (which was not large, excluding the fields and the "barn" the village would still be less than 30 kilometers on average), forcing the about-to-explode villagers to turn back. to a state of apparent calm.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!!!" young Dan who came limping with Ogar's help said as loudly as possible. Dan, like Gerard, had the necessary qualities to be a power with an additional, he had a strong voice and was raised in a much more prosperous village which gave him a big advantage compared to his elder.

Gerard was very friendly and "soft" with others, Dan in comparison knew when to be "soft" and when to be "hard", something Gerard had never been able to (or cared to know really) how to do.

"WE ARE HERE NOW, EATING THEIR FOOD AND RECEIVING SHELTER IN A SITUATION WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO DENY US HELP. BUT THEY STILL DID IT AND AS YOU THANK YOU. WITH A FANTASTIC SHOW OF DISREGARD AND BLAME FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT DO ANYTHING!! !" the young man screamed at the top of his lungs with his face red, both from the effort of raising his voice in his condition and from anger and shame.

Only with that did the villagers return completely or almost completely to a calmer state and review the things that had happened and indeed as Dan had said, it would not have been difficult to have denied help or chased them away, but still they decided to help and even though they had in fact facing "bigger problems without help" this does not take away the seriousness of the village's problems.

Just this simple reasoning, which in reality everyone had but had been clouded by anger and a desire to take out the feeling of injustice on someone, even if they didn't deserve it, made all the newly arrived villagers who had raised their voices or shouted nonsense. they cower in shame. But some couldn't let that feeling of anger go away so easily.

"We're not belittling what they did for us, what they're doing for us. But we can't let go of the fact that they." Said the villager with the broken arm. "Having managed to remain orderly and prosperous while we... Not"

This statement caused some to murmur without agreeing, although others, now calmer, seeing that the village chief's son was fine, thought they had overreacted.

"Prosperous huh... You know Henri, that's exactly what the travelers say, or said about us in relation to them, the difference is that thanks to this difference in prosperity it made our village develop more. What ended up attracting attention of a large group of goblins. A group of disciplined goblins who use weapons as well as any human. Do you have any idea why that is, Henri?"

The villager was silent, as was everyone in the square.

"Because the more humans, the more meat for them, but the goblins aren't so dumb that they'll run straight into the tips of spears and swords behind reinforced oak walls. That's why they've learned to adapt until they get to that point. I'm sure you and several others have heard rumors of groups of iron-armed goblins appearing more frequently and attacking travelers, but you certainly haven't paid much attention, have you?" He asked but didn't need an answer.

"I know very well that you here are not fools and you understand what I mean. We could have predicted this attack by the goblins a long time ago, not in fact we really predicted it, but we do not believe that it was possible for mere goblins to defeat us. And Why is that?" He said gesturing with his arms now without Ogar's help.

"Because we believed that our "prosperity" and "order" would be enough against the goblins that we didn't even care to know their numbers, where they would come from, or what weapons they would use. I'm not saying there was no reason for that, Over the years we have overcome any attack from goblins, bandits, wolves or other stronger beings that appear on the edges of our village.

But because of this we became complacent and let the goblins play with what we thought we knew, the result we all experienced first hand." The young man concluded with an expression of defeat.

"All we can do now is recover as quickly as possible and run even faster to try to save what we still have, whoever we still have, and for that we will need everyone we can, whether from our village or from the village." He said, slowly turning towards the stone altar and as carefully as he could kneeling in front of it. "Whatever help the heavens can send."