Chapter 81 – Village of the Vanished (2/2)

The thought reminded me that it took quite a bit of effort before any of the little fluffballs would let me get anywhere near them in the beginning. They freaked out at the very sight of me at first.

”Understood Master.”

With our little discussion finished, I flattened out some of the tall grass with some casual application of wind magic and lay down into the nicely shaded clearing. Looking up at the darkening sky, I gave everyone their usual mana treats. At the very least, it helped distract me from the thoughts of those innocent villagers, even if it was only a little.

That night, once everyone but the lookouts went to sleep, I went out and got myself a loam wolf to feed off of. I couldn't really enjoy it, but not because it wasn't wasn't tasty. It wasn't, but my mind kept drifting to wondering if we were going to be too late to save the villagers or not.

Insisting on staying with the rest of the group to respect their commitment despite it taking longer before we could start the investigation felt like I was putting the cart before the horse, but it was true that they were professionals and aside from direct combat, I was a complete amateur.

Maintaining at least some level of cordial relations with everyone felt like a good way to increase our chances of making everything work out well, even if it took us longer.

Thinking about it, it had probably been close to a week since the bandits had captured the villagers even at this point. If they hadn't been sacrificed or something by this point, there was a good chance that they'd be kept alive for a few more days at least.

Since I was running out anyways, I occupied myself by making large jars of sauces while waiting for everyone else to wake up so we could get a move on.

Ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, and tomato sauce.

It was nice to be able to dedicate some time to stocking up. While they took a lot of time to make, none of these sauces were so fast that I could make them while preparing a meal.

In the hopes that despite being the most of an outsider to the group, I went the extra mile and made a second jar of barbecue sauce and used a generous portion of it with crushed loam wolf meat together with some chopped onions. Fried up in large quantities on a pan, I took some of the hard black bread stored on one of the wagons sliced them in half before toasting them and spreading heaping loads of the dripping meat.

I gave one each to each of the lookouts, and as the sky was slowly brightening up, I quickly finished up the rest of the sloppy joes and served the rest of the investigation team as they slowly woke up.

The reception was good, but for me, what was most important was that everyone's condition was as maxed out as possible. They were fully rested and moral had jumped up due to having a good meal. At least those two points were as good as it could get considering the circumstances.

The leader offered letting rest the entire night without taking any watches in exchange for making everyone's meals. I took it despite not needing to rest at night. It was always nice to have my cooking be appreciated, and keeping moral high improved the villager's chances, even if it was only a little.

The morning two days later, everyone packed their things after finishing breakfast of hornbull jerky boiled in barbecue sauce and sandwiched in black bread with lettuce and tomatoes. It was kinda a heavy meal to be had right before we made our final approach to the village where the people had gone missing, but I figured that by the time we reach there, the bulk of the food would have been digested and the extra energy would help everyone out for the long day that was likely to come.

It didn't take long before the village was in sight. The first thing I saw was the large walls that surrounded the settlement.

From a distance, there didn't seem to be any particular damage to the walls. The gates were wide open, but there wasn't any obvious damage to them either.

”There didn't seem to be much of a fight.”

One of the other adventurers voiced his opinion, confirming what I saw.

”Maybe. Watch out. The bandits might still be around, or they might have left some traps.”

My [Sense Presence] skill didn't trigger for anything outside of our group, but if there were some traps lying in wait, that skill wouldn't help me find them. I made sure to scan the ground as we continued our way towards the village.

But of all our precautions, nothing happened as we passed through the open gates.

There really wasn't any notable damage anywhere on the outside, but on the inside the story was a little different.

There were obvious signs of a struggle. All sorts of common materials were scattered around like they were thrown in a hurry. Some of the building doors were broken, as were many of the windows. The wagons scattered around all had broken wheels or axles making them completely inoperable.

But the thing that stood out the most was the silence. There wasn't the sound of anything alive here.

On the rare occasion, there was some splattering of blood, but they had completely dried up. More importantly, there weren't any bodies associated with them either.

”Spread out and search for any clues. There might be some villagers hiding around or signs of the bandits that did this. Stay in groups of at least two no matter what. We'll regroup here at the entrance at noon!”

Everyone scattered around. One group went back outside of the village while most checked the buildings or alleys.

Ignoring the group bit, I went into a quick jog and looked around.

[Sense Presence] and [Mana Perception] wasn't giving me any hits. What I saw wasn't particularly encouraging either. There was a surprisingly few number of personal possessions that were stolen. Coins, jewellery, various tools, they were all just left wherever they happened to be. It didn't feel like the sort of thing bandits would do. I really hoped that this wasn't a sign that this really was the work of cultists.

On the other hand, most of the food seemed to have been taken. Only a few things things hidden away was left.

But other than that I couldn't find anything of import inside the village.

The sun was starting to get pretty high in the sky, telling me that I had mostly used up the allotted time.

[Claret, see if you can find out anything from the spirits in the area.]

”Yes Master!”

After rubbing her cheek against mine one last time, the greater shadow spirit floated off of my shoulders and went around to search for witnesses.

As I continued my search for clues, Claret came back after a few minutes.

But the expression she had as she avoided my gaze told me everything I needed to know.

”I'm sorry Master. Nobody saw where the attackers came from or went. They just ran away the second they saw them.”

[Huh? The second they saw them?]

”Yes Master. Apparently they had scary looking auras. The way they described it sounded similar to a vampire's, but a bit different.”

[Vampire auras are that distinct huh?]

”Unless if they conceal it like you do, they are. They look pretty scary to us spirits.”

[But...you said they were different?]

”Yes. The way they described it sounded a bit different from a vampire. It didn't sound like anything I've seen before.”

[I see. I wonder what that means?]

”Everyone! Gather up!”

As I was contemplating the significance of Claret's words, the investigation leader's voice rang out and I was out of time.

I made my way back to the gates, the other members of the investigation team joining up as they appeared from whatever place they were checking out.

When everyone was together, we each made our reports regarding our findings. I withheld the information Claret had given me, as explaining how I discovered it would've been problematic, and I had no idea if any of it could even be marginally useful at this time.

It seemed though, that the other teams didn't have much better luck than I did. The most anyone was able to do was describe a few details regarding how the abduction was done.

One team that investigated the gates thought that a small initial group came and were let into the village normally before they attacked the village guards and opened the gates for the rest of the bandit group.

The other investigators seemed to be convinced of that reasoning, and I couldn't find any flaws to it either. That said, they also suggested that the bandits that did this must have been a pretty decent level to have been able to not only defeat all the guards but kept the rest of the guards occupied long enough for one of them to open the gates to let the rest of the invaders in.

The team leader gave the explanation some thought before prompting the last group to divulge what they had found.

It was the group that went to investigate the surroundings,

”Quite a lot of the captives were marched out of the village on foot, so it's hard to determine their numbers, but they did use eight wagons to carry their goods. And while they did try to erase their tracks, we were still able to determine where they went.”

There was a bunch of 'ooh's from the surrounding adventurers. Frankly, I was feeling more relieved than anything. We had managed to get a solid lead. If we just followed those tracks, it was only a matter of time before we would find their base.

”I see. The wagons were probably filled with supplies and any villagers who couldn't walk. This is bad.”

I tiled my head. I wasn't quite sure how it was such a bad thing. Those wagons would limit where the bandits could go, and since they cared enough about bringing supplies, if their base was somewhere wagons couldn't traverse, it would slow their travel down quite a lot as they'd have to carry the supplies on foot. We had wagons as well, but nothing stopped us from just leaving them in this village while we went out to find the bandit base.

”We still have some time. It seems like they took quite a lot of food, so it'll probably be a little while before they attack again.”

(Ah, I see. The sheer number of people is the real problem then. Since we didn't find any bodies, that means that the food they took with them wasn't going to last very long considering how many mouths they had to feed.)

”...Alright! We'll leave the wagons here and go on foot! Take as much food as you need for two days, and we'll head out!”

Ninetailed_Furball

Hi everyone! It's your usual furball! (/◕ヮ◕)/

Sorry for the bit of a cliffhanger, but there's no way that I could avoid it. The next few chapters will have their own fair share of cliffhangers as well, so a bit of a warning now.

That aside, the investigation has started!

And more cooking! Though only a bit.

That aside, work's sucked lately. It's so annoying when the people at the top keep cutting hours and don't consider how much of an impact it has on those of us on the ground. So many of my coworkers had called in sick this last month because everyone's been stressed out. I'm personally going to take some vacation time because of it as well, and this might end up becoming a reoccuring thing.

Good thing that writing is pretty good at relieving my stress though! Maybe I'll finally be able to get more than two chapters a week or something (#^.^#)

Umm...anyways, can't think of much else to say.

See you next time! (≧∇≦)/