The Lost Goddess

"Uncle Xavier, are you going to the woods again? In the middle of the night?" a little girl asked a single man.

"Hahaha, so what, Analyn? It was my duty to guard this village while they were asleep. I have to go now and continue the work of collecting plants in the morning. It's almost midnight. Go back to your house and sleep peacefully. I promise to bring you a gift after returning from the woods."

"Well, you must promise me, Uncle Xavier!" The girl raised her right hand and stretched out her cute little finger. Xavier smiled and hooked his little finger.

After successfully being seduced with a gift, the girl ran back home after her parents waited at the door. They greeted Xavier and gave him lunch to eat while working. Then he continued walking and entered a very dark forest by himself.

Serving in the kingdom from the age of seven, Xavier decided to quit the army and chose a remote village as his residence. A village far away from the crowds and located on the edge of a very deep abyss. Their ancestors named the village "Cliffside Village". His life as a gatherer of medicinal plants managed to reduce the rare diseases that most residents once experienced. Now he gained the trust and decided to protect the village until he disappeared from the world.

Xavier doesn't guard the woods with the squad because they are stationed on the other side and he prefers to work alone. This was his principle when he was still in the army and is not suitable for cooperation. Behind his back, he carried a large empty basket that would later be filled with various plants.

His steps became inevitable when the flashlight in his hand lit up his sight and he arrived in a hut after leaving the village 300 meters away. Once there he lit several lanterns to make it easier for him to catch intruders heading for the village and do destruction. Long before Xavier settled down, the villagers often complained of many bandits seizing their property and killing them if they refused.

As a former soldier, Xavier provoked and invited the villagers to form a village security team. Only a few of them were willing to take on the task in exchange for a small amount of the residents' money. After all the lanterns were lit, Xavier's gaze kept twisting and was always on the lookout for anything suspicious even the grass that had been blown away by the wind.

Wussh...

At first, Xavier suspected the sound of grass was noisy because of the wind. But when the sound of the grass became louder and clearer, he took out a dagger sword from the pocket and raised it forward.

"Who is there?!" Xavier asked and bluffed, his voice very firm as a former soldier.

There was no sound answering his question and the sound of grass being stepped on was getting closer and a shadow-like black figure walked so fast that it dropped the body into the hut roughly. The dagger in his hand was unsheathed and almost stuck in her head when Xavier realized it turned out to be just a woman in shabby clothes that alerted him.

Since her arrival, the woman has not moved and has not said anything. Xavier was suspicious when an unknown person came and didn't say his purpose clearly.

"Excuse me, Madam. Are you okay?"

Xavier didn't hear anything and next he turned the woman around until she was on her back. Her face is so gorgeous and her body is very white and delicate, completely opposite to her clothes. Even her blonde hair wasn't tangled even though Xavier could smell the bad scent from her head. Then he justified the woman's position with a blanket as a base.

"What is a beautiful woman doing in the woods at midnight? Is she lost and separated from her friends?" Xavier muttered as he observed the woman. "Looking at the clothes, it seems that this has not been washed for more than 3 weeks and the body is very thin. How long has he not touched food? Ah, it was fortunate that his body did not suffer any injuries. You are so lucky that I found you, madam."

Mumbled at the woman's condition, Xavier was slightly relieved and now he could continue his duties while waiting for her to wake up. Since there was nothing he could do any more in the hut, decided to go around the woods for a while and reduce the light a little to avoid the fire.

Feeling her legs tickled by something, the woman finally came to her senses after seeing a bobcat gently wrestling with her paws. He accidentally kicked the bobcat into the wall hut. The bobcat hissed and pulled out its paws. But for the second time, the woman kicked the cat again and threw it out of the hut.

"Damn it. You almost ruin my skin!"

After realizing she was in a very small and fairly dark place, her eyes had time to watch around, turning his head to the right and left quickly. "Where am I and what is this place? It's so small and it makes my breathing very tight."

Then the woman opened the door and what was before her was just a dark forest and she saw no light at all. Not wanting to get lost and make a mistake, the woman decided to stay temporarily and planned to continue her journey when the sun rose. After a while of waiting in the hut, suddenly the door opened and brought the woman together with Xavier. He who had just returned from running errands was instantly surprised and delighted. Instantly the woman backed away and pressed her back against the wall, and something suspicious came.

"Oh, you're awake, huh? Just now I found you in front of the hut. Are you okay? It seems that you are lost and quite miserable."

The woman kept her mouth shut and protected herself.

It confused Xavier but he took the time to smile. "You have nothing to fear. I won't hurt you or do anything destructive. I can give you a favour if you don't mind." Xavier offered to help.

The woman suddenly obeyed his remarks and began to approach Xavier. "Are you seriously going to help me? Even if I ask you to fight the Demon Lord and the heinous demon army?"